301 Domain - Indexed, but not Ranking for Keywords

[arkain]

Hi Forum,

I have PR0 domain that is roughly 3 months old.

I did a 301 redirect of all the content from a PR1 domain that was a year old. With the old domain, I never had a problem getting indexed for keywords.

However, since moving to a new URL 3 months ago I have noticed that the content I publish DOES get indexed but not for the keywords the posts are targeting.

For example domain.com/big-green-apples WILL BE indexed, but not for "big green apples". Not even in the top 1000.

I understand SEO: title tags, url, meta description, keyword density etc. As I said this was never a problem before.

Is this simply a case of my domain being too new new?

Side note: It's a Wordpress blog and I have set it to have a static page for the homepage, and a page for the blog index. I noticed the site map was directing the dominan.com/blog to be crawled monthly with a low priority. Could this be contributing to the problem?

[tedster]

Hello arkain, and welcome to the forums.

So your new domain is getting indexed bu it's not ranking at all - and this is three months after the 301. That should be enough time to see something happen if everything is technically sound.

Does the new domain have any direct backlinks? Or is it depending only on the 301 transfer of link equity from the original domain?

[Planet13]

Hi there, arkin:

Just to let you know, on one of my sites, I also rank well for a couple of key words that I literally cannot find anywhere on my site.

[arkain]

Hi, thanks for the welcome. I appreciate it.

"indexed but not ranking"

Correct. Content produced under the old domain is ranking fine. For example:

olddomain.com/post-title ranked #8 for keyword

now is new NEWdomain.com/post-title, still at #8

The problem is with content published since the switch in June and July of this year. Content is Indexed, but not for the keyword, not even in the top 1000.

This was never a problem before, granted sometimes the content would be #87, but it would be indexed for what I was targeting.

direct backlinks:

I just checked this, and actually not really. Its 200 or so links: just a bunch of forum signature, blog comments, and one or two enzines. The 301 has not kicked in all the links yet. Could this, mixed with my site being new be the issue?

I also noticed my site map had set my blog index (domain.com/blog) to crawl monthly/ low priority. While the home page to be crawled daily with high priority (it is static, and does not need to be crawled daily, but the blog index should be). Could this be contributing as well?

[arkain]

Just to help anyone with a similar problem,

It just dawned on me that my site must be sand boxed. It's a classic case. Major redesign from a pr 1 to a new pr 0 domain.

Being indexed, but not ranking for keywords. It must be sand boxed.