Latest Questions
Have an SEO question? Search our Q&A forum for an answer; if not found, use your Moz Pro subscription to ask our incredible community of SEOs for help!
-
Basic SEO HTML
Hello Everyone, One place I am weak is coding for SEO. I need to get better. One question I do have is can anyone explain why it's important to place css and java script files in an external file? How do you do this and how do you know if it's already being done? If it has not been done on a site is it hard to go back and do? I understand this is important from a site load time issue Thanks, Bill P.S. Can anyone recommend a resource where I can learn proper html coding for SEO? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | wparlaman0 -
Cover my tracks / two websites on the same Analytics
Hi, I've got 2 websites and I like one of them to make some links to the other one. These two sites are on the same Google Analytics account. They have been set up 3 month ago and they have some articles on them. I've heard that Google can see that those websites are related in my Analytics and use this information to give less power to the link I could make between them. What do think about it and what do you recommend me ? Shoud I closed the Analytics account ? Or down one of the website and rebuilt it whith a different domain / host / analytics ? The thing is if I delete one of the website i'll be force to republish the articles, because there are links on it, and they're part of a deal I've already made. Thank you
Reporting & Analytics | | Spleen0 -
Cross-domain duplicate content issue
Hey all, Just double-checking something. Here's the issue, briefly. One of my clients is a large law firm. The firm has a main site, and an additional site for an office in Atlanta. On the main site, there is a list of all attorneys and links to their profiles (that they wrote themselves). The Atlanta site has this as well, but lists only the attorneys located in that office. I would like to have the profiles for the Atlanta lawyers on both sites. Would rel=canonical work to avoid a dupe-content smackdown? The profiles should rank for Atlanta over the main site. This just means that G will drop the main site's profiles (for those attorneys) from their index, correct? No other weird side effects? I hope I worded all that clearly!
Technical SEO | | LCNetwork0 -
Why some results in SERP have a www. and some don't
Hello all, If this is posted twice, I didn't mean for it to be - but it looks like last time I tried to post this question it didn't post. This is my question: How come some results on Google's SERP page are shown with a "www" and some are not? Does this effect SEO at all? I am including a screen shot so you can see what I mean. The Geary Interactive result has a "www" in front of while ingenexdigital doesn't. R6GLL.png
Algorithm Updates | | digitalops0 -
Should I Remove My Articles From Article Directories?
I have been submitting articles to directories for about 3 years. With the Panda update, it seems that these directories are now obsolete. So, if there is no link value from these articles: 1) should I remove these articles (at east the better ones) and place them on my site/blog? 2) If not, would there be any benefit at pointing some bookmarks at these old links to maybe get some juice out of them?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseseo0 -
One Page - Targeting Multiple Low Searched Keywords.
Hi, First "Question" on SEOmoz, A client has requested me to have all the traffic going to the main/home page. In total its 25 Keywords and competition is pretty low, lets say "Builder In City", all the keywords are the sames except for the citys. "Builder In London" "Builder in Birmingham" Builder in Cardiff" .. and so on. Will it be ok and do-able to target 1 homepage with 25 keywords and expect decent results.
Technical SEO | | Prestige-SEO0 -
How come the results in Google vary with domains
Hello, How is everyone doing? My question is about the google search engine results page. How come some results have the www. in front of them and some don't. Also what are the SEO implications of having www. in front of your search results vs. not. Is this something to do with canonical? I have included a screen shot so you will see what I mean. One result is www.gearyi.com and the result without the www is ingenexdigital.com. R6GLL.png
Competitive Research | | digitalops0 -
Is using frameset to usurp PR from an old domain okay?
I have a competitor who leapfrogged in Google SERPs after they purchased a domain that was let let go by a related authoritative organization and used it to redirect traffic from it to their website using frameset code. Is this a legit practice? Is this blackhat SEO? Here's the entirety of the code from the retired domain: <html> <head> <title>www.competitors-website.com title> <META name="description" content="www.competitors-website.com"> <META name="keywords" content="www.competitors-website.com"> head> <frameset rows="100%,*" border="0"> <frame src="http://www.competitors-website.com" frameborder="0" /> <frame frameborder="0" noresize /> frameset> html>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Linesides0 -
Is it ok to have 'Authors' that write content for multiple sites even if in the same industry?
Hi all, I have a client that has 2 websites (different brands) in the same industry. I have encouraged them to become authors when writing content for each respective website and hook up their Google+ profile to the posts. Is this detrimental for SEO if they are writing for both sites? Or is it in fact a positive thing? Looking forward to your thoughts on this!! Thanks, Elias
Social Media | | A_Q0 -
User experience regarding dulpicate content and managing this content with google.
Hi long title i know! We are moving on to magento and have chosen to allocate a specific colour to each category using corresponding tabbed navigation for user experience.All products within each of the coloured tabs then inherit the repective colour, giving the products a category identiy within the store. This layout has had a positive feedback from our "testers" As a lot of our products are seasonal and can be represented in different categories there is a significant amount of duplicate content. ATM i see our options as being: Alter the site structure so that the category is not shown in the url, therefore eliminating our duplicate products. The downside of this is that the colour co-ordination of the categories would not work at product level as its the category path that assigns the colour. create canonical links for every duplicate, can this be damaging? keep the duplicates and do nothing let google decide the most important version of a product. any guidance would be appreciated!
On-Page Optimization | | LadyApollo0 -
Google US vs Google UK
I could have posted this somewhere else, but I cannot find it. So, I have keywords that rank well in Google US and many that do well in Google UK too. I thought all of my keywords ranking well in the US would also rank well the UK. I have figured out today that it is not the case. Why would I rank in the top 3 in the US and not even show up in the top 50 in the UK? It is very strange. Thanks for your help! I am not super new to SEO or web business. I have had a very good company that has been ranking well since 2004.
International SEO | | journeybeyondtravel0 -
Is creating backlinks to Google places pages worth the time and money involved?
I have worked on a website and organically it is starting to do fine. The website itself is on the right track. Now, the places page, could use a little improvement. I did make sure it has the right categories, has all unique pictures and videos, it does have a good amount of reviews and even citations from other local directories, and even the website links to it. It does show up for some local searches but I would like it to dominate more. I've heard that if I've built links to that Google Places local page from other sources, it would rank higher and perform better. Is that true? Any other tips and tricks to make it perform better? Thank you
Technical SEO | | Boogily0 -
One Business-Multiple Services
Hello Everyone, I was looking for some strategies for doing SEO on a site that offers multiple services. Here is the example: There is one company with ONE physical address. They perform the following services: Pest Control Mold Remediation Home Inspections Waterproofing They also handle these services in several surronding cities. They want to maintain one website for branding purposes. Obviously I will create individual pages on their site for each service but was wondering how diffiuclut it will be to rank one website for these various services. Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wparlaman0 -
High AdWords Cost with Low Traffic
I'm seeing a lot of keywords with very little traffic but high, sometimes very high cost per click in AdWords. Can someone explain to me why this is common? I'm researching buying keywords. With the low traffic they seem like little value but when I see people $20 a click it seems like high converting and thus maybe worth going after. But the high cost is just not making any sense to me for many of these keywords. Thanks.
Keyword Research | | RustyF0 -
Tags or Categories: Which is best?
I seem to have duplicate issues on my website due to tags and categories having the same title. If I was to delete one of the two, which would be better to delete? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | IoanSaid0 -
Domain Crawl Question
We have our domain hosted by two providers - web.com for the root and godaddy for the subdomain. Why SEOMOZ is not picking up the total pages of the entire domain?
Technical SEO | | AppleCapitalGroup0 -
Question to SEO experts about backlink tracking
Hi, could you recommend the best tool that you use to keep track of all the backlinks you have. I'd imaging there is a good software or website which lists all your backlinks with all relevant info for each link (PR of the linking site, authority level etc) thanks in advance for sharing.
Link Building | | limens0 -
Tips for Link Building for Mobile Sites
Hi, I wondered if anyone had any tips and advice for link building for mobile sites. Many thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MarkChambers0 -
Is your content above the fold
Google released an update today that will rank pages with plenty of content above the fold higher than those that don’t.
Industry News | | AlanMosley
If you have a lot of ads above the fold then don’t expect to rank.
I see many CMS sites with very large banners across the top and content pushed down low on the page, will these pages also be hurt by the update?
The update is crawling now, you might want to check your SERP’s and see if there is much movement going on.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html0 -
On-Page URL
Hopefully I am missing something basic... I can't see how to specifically add and delete On-Page reports. It seems like running a report adds it but how to delete? Also, how does one change the URL for a report? I have re-organized some pages and can't seem the get the on-page report to keep my URL change. Here is what I tried. From the On-Page report card for a keyword I changed the URL and ran the test. Test runs ok but if I navigate back to the summary my old bad URL is still there.
Moz Pro | | Banknotes0 -
Viral page not ranking onGoogle
A user generated talk thread on our social networking site went viral yesterday and generated around 36000 extra visits. But, when we Google the key phrase in this thread our site is not even in the Top 50. Instead the pages are dominated by other (lesser) websites referring to the content and linking to the thread The page is indexed The on page SEO grade for the key phrase and variant according to SEOMoz is A Our home page has a PR of 7 and an SEO Domain Authority of 76 We are the original source of this content Other talk threads on different subjects in a similar category are ranking on page 1 of Google. What's happening?
Technical SEO | | CecilyP0 -
Help with domain configuration in international markets
We have just taken on a new client who’s core business is based in the UK. They are currently developing a market in Australia and are hoping to develop future markets over the next few years. The website is currently hosted in the UK, under a .co.uk domain, we are redeveloping the website and are wondering if we should move to the .com as the company is now catering to an international market. I was also wondering what the best way of establishing a presence in Australia, using the main website, rather than creating a new one. Thanks Fraser
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fraserhannah0 -
Apache Mod Rewrite question
Hi everybody, I need to rewrite this url using mod rewrite, but I've got stuck. http://www.diamondgeezer.com/theultimate/search/index.php?sortprice=asc&followSearch=9673&q=eternity+rings I'd like it to show this one instead: http://www.diamondgeezer.com/eternity-rings I'm no expert on this stuff, so any help would be great! Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | neooptic0 -
Seperate Pages for similar keywords from SEO standpoint
Should I create separate pages with unique URLS for very similar keywords. If the answer is yes - how do i ensure uniqueness of content? For eg. Lets say the keywords in question are:- send money to china transfer money to china money transfer to china online money transfer to china. Thanks.
Technical SEO | | himanshupatil0 -
Page hidden in SERPs
As well as unique content, we carry press releases (contracts with PR companies) Some pages don't show up in SERPs - but sometimes a few or even hundreds of other sites do. At the end of the search, google shows this: In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 109 already displayed.
Content Development | | loopyal
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included. When the search is repeated, using that link, the page often shows up in the top 10 or top 20. I believe this is a site problem, not a page problem. We are often one of the first to publish the release.0 -
Are These Types of Links Tracked
I have a client that is looking to be listed on a group of directory sites for the service that they offer. After reviewing the site I found that they have a unique way of listing their links, check out one example at http://www.lakidsguide.com/Summer_Camps.php#educational where each title is a link that goes to the client website. IF you look at the first listing for Adventure Treks the link actually goes to http://www.lakidsguide.com/linktrack.php?type=listing®ionid=33&bid=9391&listingid=10176 and then is redirected to their true website at http://adventuretreks.com/. Would this link be picked up by Google and the other engines as a link from lakidsguide.com to adventuretreks.com with the way they are directing the link to their own tracking page first? To me it seems that the engines would not see any outgoing link and therefor the listing would not give the client any benefit as far as SEO is concerned. Any input?
Link Building | | Netmark0 -
Can MadCap Flare WebHelp be made SEO Friendly?
A team member is porting over documentation from a .org wiki that will be placed on the company's root domain. The problem with MadCap is that it uses frames as well as javascript navigation. Has anyone encountered this problem before? I'm unfamiliar with the software and the project is pretty far into the pipeline at this point (I'm new at the company as well). Any advice on work-arounds or alternatives would be greatly appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AnthonyYoung1 -
How a google bot sees your site
So I have stumbled across various websites like this: http://www.smart-it-consulting.com/internet/google/googlebot-spoofer/ The concept here is to be able to view your site as a googlebot sees it. However, the results are a little puzzling. Google is reading the text on my page but not the title tags according to the results. Are websites like this accurate OR does Google not read title tags and H1 tags anymore? Also on a slighly related note. I noticed the results show the navigation bar is being read first by google, is this bad and should the navigation bar be optimized for keywords as well? If it did, it would read a bit funny and the "humans" would be confused.
Technical SEO | | StreetwiseReports0 -
Is it OK to 301 Redirect http://homepage.com to http://blog.homepage.com?
I don't have a homepage built yet, and I suspect that my blog will be my primary SEO draw in the long term, so I'd like to do a 301 redirect (for the techies, I'm doing it in Django with http.HttpResponsePermanentRedirect ) I just wanted to confirm that this wouldn't cause any problems as Google gets used to my page (it's only been up for a few days) Thanks! -matt
Web Design | | 49wetnoodles0 -
Google Adwords or Wordtracker?
I have been using Google Adwords tool for keyword research until today when I signed up for 7 day trial of Wordtracker. To my astonishment the results were different with a huge margin for most of my keywords. Which of these should I trust more? Do you suggest any other tool which is better than these both and is free or affordable?
Keyword Research | | KS__0 -
Organic Search dropped 50% Wednesday and has not recovered
I've included two charts below. 1. Our organic search results for the last year and, 2. Results for the last 6 weeks. We were up to about 350 visits per day in June 2011. In late june we added affiliate links to our site and took a hit down to about 120 a day. At the end of august we moved the affiliate links behind a login. Only registered users saw them. And we started moving back up. Last week January 8-14 we were averaging about 550 per day. Then this Wednesday we dropped to 287. Thursday 268. And today is under 100. We have not updated our website at all. No changes. Does anyone have any idea what might have caused this plunge. Has anyone else seen their traffic drop in half. Thanks for your help. dash_month.jpg dash_year.jpg
Algorithm Updates | | openspan0 -
How to handle this specific duplicate title issue
Part of my website is a directory of companies. Some of the companies have mane locations in the same city. For these listings titles and url's are like this: 1. Company ABC - Miami, FL http://www.website.com/florida/miami/company-abc-10001 2. Company ABC - Miami, FL http://www.website.com/florida/miami/company-abc-10002 What is the best way to fix this problem? Thank you
Technical SEO | | Boxes0 -
Discrepancy in Competitive Link Analysis?
I currently have a campaign set-up that monitors a few competitors compared to our site. When I look at the Root Domain Metrics I see that Company A has 2,053 total external links, and Company B has 1,632 total external links. I wanted to view these links in more detail so I ran Advanced Inbound Links reports. The reports returned 432 results for Company A and 693 results for Company B. Shouldn't these numbers match up with each other, or am I missing something? Also, I noticed that in the Inbound Links analysis for my competitors there are a number of results listed that are not actually inbound links, but are internal links from there own site. Is there a reason these are appearing? I am having problems because I am trying to use this campaign to show the improvements in our site vs our competitors. However, OSE shows dramatically fewer total external links for our site (about 260 vs 3200 in Webmaster Tools) and I cannot tell if the competitor data is accurate? Thanks
Competitive Research | | zazo0 -
Sudden Change In Indexed Pages
Every week I check the number of pages indexed by google using the "site:" function. I have set up a permanent redirect from all the non-www pages to www pages. When I used to run the function for the: non-www pages (i.e site:mysite.com), would have 12K results www pages (i.e site:www.mysite.com) would have about 36K The past few days, this has reversed! I get 12K for www pages, and 36K for non-www pages. Things I have changed: I have added canonical URL links in the header, all have www in the URL. My questions: Is this cause for concern? Can anyone explain this to me?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseseo0 -
How long until Social Spam achieves the same notoriety/problem as Link Spam used to be
What are people's thoughts on whether or not social spam will become a major problem soon, just like forum profile/blog comment spam, etc, and what do you think the search engines will do about companies that are blatantly gaming the social signals game I.E. since social proof seems to be google's answer to combating anchor text manipulation and content farms, what do you think will be google's answer to combating the rampant social spam that will surely overtake us.
Social Media | | ilyaelbert0 -
Do you get credit for an external link that points to a page that's being blocked by robots.txt
Hi folks, No one, including me seems to actually know what happens!? To repeat: If site A links to /home.html on site B and site B blocks /home.html in Robots.txt, does site B get credit for that link? Does the link pass PageRank? Will Google still crawl through it? Does the domain get some juice, but not the page? I know there's other ways of doing this properly, but it is interesting no?
Technical SEO | | DaveSottimano0 -
Why is this Facebook Page outranking mine?
www.facebook.com/pages/Dudu-oSun-Black-Soap/75386099509 Term: Dudu Osun My site is currently ranking 5 and 6 - is typically top 3. I've seen a Facebook page jump up in first before and then disappear. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks, Mark
On-Page Optimization | | DenverKelly0 -
Google Plus Algorithim take into account your circle of friends?
I understand that Google will now display search results from your google plus page if it is relevant or if it is from a friend. But my question is if there is weight based on the amount of friends you have or the relevancy of your friends. For example if you search for the term 'wine' if I have 5,000 friends and many of them are wine and food critics just because of that will my google plus page show up or maybe if I just mention wine would I have a higher chance of showing up than a person who is more relevant on their plus page but has less friends or rather less relevant friends? Thanks!
Social Media | | SEOEnthusiast0
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.