Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Chris M Cloutier on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 03/30/2014).

I started getting a pretty significant increase in traffic.

Hey guys!  About midday yesterday I started getting a pretty significant increase in traffic.(1, 000 each day for the last 2 days) Unfortunately its to an attachment page that got ranked.  

And while I`m enjoying looking at the stats and the extra subscribers, I know that the people coming to the page aren`t finding what they wanted.  

I`m sure this is killing my bounce rate.  What should I do??
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Chris M Cloutier: Hey guys!  ;About midday yesterday I started getting a pretty significant increase in traffic.(1,000 each day for the last 2 days) Unfortunately its to an attachment page that got ranked.  ;

    And while I'm enjoying looking at the stats and the extra subscribers, I know that the people coming to the page aren't finding what they wanted.  ;

    I'm sure this is killing my bounce rate.  ;What should I do?
  • Devin Peterson: What is the source of this traffic? Organic search? How bad are your UE stats?
  • Robert Ramirez: Attachment page? Like a pdf? Republish the content as a page on your website and add what the visitors would expect to find. Just be sure to 301 redirect the attachment to the new page you make. 
  • Chris M Cloutier: +Devin Peterson ; UE stats? I'm not too good with google analytics but the bounce rate is pretty high for that page.  ;I'm not sure if that's what you mean.  ;The traffic is all coming from search.  ;Mostly google but there's some yahoo, and ask too.
  • Chris M Cloutier: +Robert Ramirez ; no not a pdf, it's an image that I uploaded to WP.  ;Usually I remove the link when I add images but I forgot with this one so it created its own page.  ;Unfortunately you can't edit attachment pages in WP other than adding a caption and description.  ;At least that's all I know that you can do.

    What they're searching for is unrelated to my site, I just happened to give my image a weird name.  ;So Im not sure how I'd redirect properly.
  • Scott Cohen: Whats your site about and what is the image name that is drawing all the traffic?
  • Chris M Cloutier: You can see the image here
    mediafreshpress.com/?attachment_id=658 There's 1,000 people a day coming to this page.
  • Robert Ramirez: +Chris M Cloutier - with no correlation between the search term that is bringing you the traffic (WAvids, I believe?) and your site's subject, there's really nothing you can do but get rid of the page. I'm never one to turn away traffic, but it seems like your only choice in this instance. Remove the attachment page from the site and republish the image with a different name.
  • Scott Cohen: Bad traffic with a high return rate back to the SERP will do more harm than good. Best to take +Robert Ramirez advice.
  • Devin Peterson: Will it hurt the whole site? Or just that page... in which case it doesn't really matter...
  • Robert Ramirez: +Chris M Cloutier - there's actually an outside chance that it can hurt the whole site. Google doesn't like it when you benefit from mislabeling pages on your site. It'd be like saying you had a page about Topic A, which Google rewards with organic search traffic, but your site is actually about Topic B, which is unrelated - resulting in a poor visitor experience (which is what Google is trying to avoid).

    I imagine Google will figure out that the page is not a useful one naturally as more and more people bounce off the page, and they'll adjust the rankings naturally - but that outside chance does exist that they will look poorly on your entire site as a result. I would really recommend you get rid of the image.
  • Chris M Cloutier: Yep, that's why I asked.  ;I was really afraid of the bounce rate hurting the entire site.  ;I wasn't sure that a 404 or 301 would fix that problem.

    The image was named as an abbreviation for a community I'm a member of.  ;I never thought it would show in serps.  ;

    Hell I can't get half my other stuff to show up in search - so why would this!! LoL ;

    Do you think it would be okay to just 'noindex' the page?
  • Greg Kristan: Maybe they are bouncing because the site loads to slow or is not mobile ready? If that is the case that would be a great opportunity for you to work on and when new users come to the site they will see a much improved UI interface
  • Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 00:55:06 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/i_started_getting_a_pretty_significant_increase_in_traffic +Chris M Cloutier

    The cuetimes listed on this page are functional while the live broadcast continues and also once Youtube has finished processing the public broadcast. Processing time varies between 6-24 hours. During this period the clip is viewable in full but the cuetimes cannot be relied on.
  • Chris M Cloutier: Thanks +Edwin Jonk ;

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 03/30/2014).

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