Q and A: Why isn't Google displaying our product page for related searches?

Dear Kalena...

A client of mine has a site with many different pistol holsters. He was ranked with a certain holster (galco holster), and when you click the site, it takes us to the home page and not the sub page where that particular brand is at. Is this normal? I would give you the link but he is buried deep in Google, page 41 or so, but shouldn't it bring up that subpage or are they only posting the main page?

I have always thought the subpage would be categorized as per the keywords on that page.

Let me know if I am dumb or if they changed it or if it is just a freak of nature :)

Thanks,
Chris

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Chris

Google displays whatever page/s on a site it believes is the most relevant match for the search query. Although it sounds logical that a page dedicated to a particular product or brand should be automatically displayed by Google for related searches, it doesn't always work this way.

This is because Google uses a complex algorithm made up of over 100 factors to determine which page is the most relevant match. Important factors include the density on a page for the search query in question, the number of links pointing to that page with anchor text containing the search query and the reputation of those linking sites. My guess is that your client's home page probably mentions "Galco holster" and has less text on it than the page dedicated to "Galco holsters" so the density would seem higher, plus the home page would have more incoming links from trusted sites than the sub-page does.

You can learn more about how Google collects and ranks pages in this article by Matt Cutts.

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