Ranking for images, not for normal search

[city17]

I've noticed that for quite a few searches I rank #1 for images, but for some reason these pages have disappeared from the normal results. The images box is shown when you search normally for the term, so you don't actually have to go into Google Images.

These pages are all product pages of older products. I use the product schema, but because these are all vintage products that are no longer sold, none of the other results use this. Maybe Google doesn't think Product schema pages are relevant for this search result? (I don't have this problem with new products, there they get shown among all the other product schema pages)

The problem is that there's a lot lower click through rate from the image box than from being rank 1-3 on a normal page. Any idea what the reason for this is? I started seeing drop in search traffic around BERT (recovered now, but more due to new content ranking probably), and this may be a cause.

 

[CCarter]

Perhaps Google has figured out they are not in stock? Or the users when they land on the site click back since the products are not in stock and that sends a clear signal to Google that ranking that page in buyer intent terms is a bad user experience.

 

[city17]

Perhaps Google has figured out they are not in stock? Or the users when they land on the site click back since the products are not in stock and that sends a clear signal to Google that ranking that page in buyer intent terms is a bad user experience.

It's not a buyer intent keyword, because those products are only sold on eBay/Craigslist etc. Most other search results are a random collection of forum posts, links to manuals, and the occasional seller of refurbished products (quite rare).

My site is a database of products so people can easily find info about them (description, links to manuals, useful articles, videos, specs), which cannot be found in one place elsewhere. The SEO title also clearly explains this, people don't click it expecting to be able to buy the product.

However, the bounce rate is quite high and people generally do not stay long on those pages, often they just quickly click on one of the links on the page (videos, manuals etc). That may send bad signals to Google..

 

[CCarter]

Google can only understand what it sees, if the bounce rate is high and since Google uses chrome data to measure website performance (pagespeed insight), it know what people are doing when it gets to those pages.

Are you anywhere in the top 100 organic results for your terms?

 

[city17]

I see. It's a bit hard to test for all the terms, because in Search Console it says I'm ranking 1-3 for those terms (why does it show image rankings for Web, when there is a separate Image category in GSC?). But looking manually, it varies. For some I don't show up in the top 100 at all. For some I do rank top of page 1, but those are more detailed and also supported by links from long articles that rank well.

Maybe it's quite simple and it's mostly the pages with few useful links on them. On those there is basically only the description and specs of the product, people quickly scan those, then go back to Google => Google thinks my page is not very useful.

This is not a disaster for those pages, because they're not monetizable anyway, but could it have a bad effect on the ranking of the rest of my site?

 

[CCarter]

they're not monetizable anyway

If they aren't making you money why are you wasting energy on them? You could be creating posts that generating you revenue, looking for new traffic sources, writing emails to your newsletter, or other things that generate actual results.

"Focus on the few and not the many" - Dan Peña​

 

[GNews]

thoughts
1) What metrics got you there? Was it backlinks?
2) The new BERT news.. perhaps other pages looked better?

If they aren't making money, i'd agree, what's the point. BUT i understand the desire to keep any traffic you have.

Inactive pages tend to shift downward after a while. As of 2020, I predict activity will be a lot more required than before, to stay relevant on google based on things i've seen.

I'd say try adding a piece of content to the site once a week with quality inbound links. See if you notice any shifts. If yes, then you know it's activity.

If that doesn't work, then I'd begin checking competitors backlinks and begin checking.