beginner's error - articles more popular than 'business pages'?

[bretonbikes]

I've a little site dedicated to our cycling holidays. I also write articles, usually about cycling topics. What I've found is that the cycling articles generate far more hits than the index page of the business and some even rank '1' on Google. For example I've one on steel tubing for bikes and it ranks top three for most searches around the subject and gets 4 times as many hits as the / page. This I can understand as there are far more people interested in bike frames than a cycling holiday (and perhaps less competition?). If that were all I'd not worry as these are all extra hits on the site. BUT two things bother me. The first is that the / page has a bounce rate of under 30% because people looking for a holiday then explore the options. But the articles all have bounce rates of 80%+ as people read what they want (average time on the page is several minutes) but then leave. All these articles add up so that the overall bounce rate of the site is something like 75% although the bounce rates on the 'business' pages are all well under 50%. I'm worried that Google et al will see that the site is poor because of this high bounce rate and so effect the SEO.

I'm also concerned that all these articles (over 100) will give the impression that the website is about mostly technical and not at all to do with cycling holidays as far as SEO is concerned.

Am I worrying unnecessarily and all visits are a +, or would it be better to move all these articles off the site and place them elsewhere and redirecting from the main site?

 

[floorsandingdublin]

I cant see a problem with high bounce rate organically. If you are on the 1st position, there will be many people clicking on it for no particular reason. You are probably showing for a number of keywords that you are not aware of. Most of my SEO is article posting based. I smash the market. I think the good content will always win.

 

[theteamplayer]

Thank you for the post, but you need to break it up so it's easier to read.

Most people will read the first few sentences, then give.

 

[bretonbikes]

Thank you for the post, but you need to break it up so it's easier to read.

Most people will read the first few sentences, then give.

Don't see an edit button?

 

[Elyman]

I tend to agree with other contributors and would not get too worried about penalties. I would focus more on getting your bike holiday pages at their best.
In my search you are currently 22 on Google.
Have you spent time on your Google My Business profile and particularly provided a full, focused description of the services you offer?
Have you checked that Google has indexed deeper pages? Where content changes are made have you ensured that page re-submission has been carried out via Search Console?
In the articles you mention, have you provided a strong call to action link back to the bike holiday pages?
Have you tried running one or two of the free SEO page analysis tools to see what is good and what needs addressing?
Regards
Neil

 

[bretonbikes]

I tend to agree with other contributors and would not get too worried about penalties. I would focus more on getting your bike holiday pages at their best.
In my search you are currently 22 on Google.
Have you spent time on your Google My Business profile and particularly provided a full, focused description of the services you offer?
Have you checked that Google has indexed deeper pages? Where content changes are made have you ensured that page re-submission has been carried out via Search Console?
In the articles you mention, have you provided a strong call to action link back to the bike holiday pages?
Have you tried running one or two of the free SEO page analysis tools to see what is good and what needs addressing?
Regards
Neil

Many thinks - I find I've no description on my business profile so that's one possible problem solved! The rest I've covered. Now to see if it makes a difference;-)

 

[Subhodip]

It is indeed a concern that a beginners content may get a hit while the websites he or she may have gathered information from would slowly start to fall from its ranks. If a "business page" holds a ranking and writers only open and scheme through the content, that, in turn, would only increase the bounce rate and would make the website fall from its previous rank.