Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. Latest Questions

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Log in to post

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!

  • coremediadesign


    Can someone point me to the official article explaining why meta keywords are no longer taken into account by search engines please? I know Moz has indicated that search engines ignore them, but I would like to read a bit more about it - what was the reason behind it and since when.

    Moz Pro | | coremediadesign
    0
  • TBiz


    I've been analyzing some of our competitors: essayedge.com and papercheck.com Both sites have a large number of 'total links'... about 93,000 each.  The former has about 1,200 linking root domains while the latter only has 195.  Even for 1,200 linking root domains, 93k total links seems like a ton to me. Our site has 101 linking root domains and only 299 'total links'. I'm quite new to this whole SEO game and admittedly still learning a TON.  Am I missing something here?  How do sites generate so many links?  This seems nuts to me. Thanks for any help!

    Link Building | | TBiz
    0
  • upick-162391


    I've recently came across one of my competitors who's looking to sell their domain. Now they currently rank higher than my primary site for a few keywords we are targeting. Would it be wise to buy the domain and do a name server change over to my primary domain? Would it even help boost ranks for the keywords they rank higher for? Or will the link juice be minimal? Any thoughts would be great!

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | upick-162391
    0
  • BluespaceCreative


    I am optimizing a site which uses underscores rather than hyphens as word separators (such_as_this.php vs. such-as-this.php). Most of these pages have been around since 2007, and I am hesitant to just redirect to a new page because I am worried it will cause the rankings to slip. Would you recommend changing the file names to be in hyphenated format and place 301 redirects on the pages with underscores, or stick with the existing pages? Is there anything else that would work better? Thanks!

    Algorithm Updates | | BluespaceCreative
    1
  • LMDNYC


    Here's the setup: We have a website, www.laptopmd.com, and we're ranking quite well in our geographic target area. The site is chock-full of local keywords, has the address properly marked up, html5 and schema.org compliant, near the top of the page, etc. It's all working quite well, but we're looking to expand to two more locations, and we're terrified that adding more addresses and playing with our current set-up will wreak havoc with our local search results, which we quite frankly currently rock. My question is 1)when it comes time to doing sub-pages for the new locations, should we strip the location information from the main site and put up local pages for each location in subfolders? 1a) should we use subdomains instead of subfolders to keep Google from becoming confused? Should we consider simply starting identically branded pages for the individual locations and hope that exact-match location-based urls will make up for the hit for duplicate content and will overcome the difficulty of building a brand from multiple pages? I've tried to look for examples of businesses that have tried to do what we're doing, but all the advice has been about organic search, which i already have the answer to. I haven't been able to really find a good example of a small business with multiple locations AND good rankings for each location. Should this serve as a warning to me?

    Technical SEO | | LMDNYC
    0
  • Modbargains


    Are there any benefits to linking a shortened url vs. an anchor text when I am link building?Would linking via shortened link such as tinyurl cause problems with SERPS? Also, would it be more beneficial to short link to the homepage or landing page?

    Link Building | | Modbargains
    0
  • dgruhin


    my website www.totalmanagement.com fluctuates for the search term: web based property management software I have been using SEO Moz for a few months now and have managed to get to the top 5 and jump around between 3 and 5. Does anyone have any suggestions to assist me? Long term goal is also to really target: Property Management Software But I am still very new at this. Thanks in advance for the help!

    On-Page Optimization | | dgruhin
    0
  • lwilkins


    I am managing a website for a hotel brokerage firm. The main URL is www.hotelassetsgroup.com but we started a new blog with the URL www.hotelsforsaleblog.com.  We chose the blog URL because it has the words "hotels for sale." The main website has a tab at the top titled "Blog" which links to the blog URL. I am not sure if this is helping us or not because the main URL and blog URL are both competing for the name of the business "Hotel Assets Group." The blog has very little interlinking within the same URL because it mainly links to the main website. Should we combine the two URLs together and just have the blog URL be the same like- hotelassetsgroup.com/blog or something like that?

    Link Building | | lwilkins
    0
  • Webrevolve


    I've been asked by a client to optimise a a webpage for a location i.e. London. Turns out that the location is actually a franchise of the main company. When the company launch a new franchise, so far they have simply added a new page to the main site, for example: mysite.co.uk/sub-folder/london They have so far done this for 10 or so franchises and task someone with optimising that page for their main keyword + location. I think I know the answer to this, but would like to get a back up / additional info on it in terms of ranking / seo benefits. I am going to suggest the idea of using a subdomain for each location, example: london.mysite.co.uk Would this be the correct approach. If you think yes, why? Many thanks,

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Webrevolve
    0
  • seomasterbrasil


    Hello everyone, I was studying Analytics, and checked that the time on page is calculated by the diference of the time you entered the page and when you click to go to another one. But how the time is calculated when I open several links using new tabs in different moments? Does Google counts the last tab? Just a guess... Thanks!

    Reporting & Analytics | | seomasterbrasil
    0
  • YGF


    Hi all, Hoping that one of you Guru's might be able to shed a little light for me please. we launched the online arm of our gold bullion business on the 21st of February and I signed up for an account here on the 23rd of Feb. I don't have a MozRank for my site yet and I'd love to get one. The mozbar that I installed shows o linkes from 0 root domains etc. but google webmaster can see links that are inbound to my site. My questions are: Do I have to wait the 45-60 days that I believe it might take SEOmoz to give me a rank- or is there a process that I manually kick off? Is there anything other than google webmaster that I should be looking at to try and make sure that I am on the right track; I'd hate to go 45-60 days in the wrong direction before realising there is an issue. thanks in advance, YGF

    Moz Pro | | YGF
    0
  • A_Q


    Hello all, Is anybody experiencing blanck page's in Google's 'Cached' view? I'm seeing just the page background and none of the content for a couple of my pages but when I click 'View Text Only' all of teh content is there. Strange! I'd love to hear if anyone else is experiencing the same. Perhaps this is something to do with the roll out of Google's updates last week?! Thanks,
    Elias

    Technical SEO | | A_Q
    0
  • eugenecomputergeeks


    I just created my first press release at prlog.org using the free account, which lets you have one outgoing followed link. Question:  Should I link to my press releases from my web site?  I made the mistake of doing link exchanges in the past, and worried Google would detect it as a link exchange.  It would be nice to link to the press releases on my site while still getting the benefits of having an incoming link from a site with PR 6. Is prlog.org a good site for press releases?  Is there another one you recommend that is free or inexpensive?  Is there any benefits to using multiple press release sites, with different content on each site? Thanks!!!

    Link Building | | eugenecomputergeeks
    0
  • bsofttech


    Hey everyone I have run into a problem and would greatly appreciate anyone that could weigh in on it. I have a web client that went to an outside vendor for marketing. The client asked me to help them target some keywords and since I am new to the SEO world I have proceeded by researching the best keywords for the client. I found 6 that see excellent monthly searches. I then registered the .com and or .net domain names that match these words. I then started building landing pages that make reference to the keyword and then have links to his site to get more info. My customer sent the first of these sites to the marketer and he says I am doing things all wrong. He says rather then having landing pages like this I should just point the domain names at internal pages to the website. He also says that I should not have different looks for the landing pages from the main site and that I should have the full site menu on each landing page. I wanted to here what everyone here has to say about the pros and cons of the way to do this cause the guy giving the advice to me has a lower ranking site then I do and I have only started working on getting my site ranked this year. He has atleast according to him been doing this forever. Thanks, Ron

    Web Design | | bsofttech
    0
  • kbloemendaal


    Should you ask your dealers for links back to you? For example, if you are a laminate flooring manufacturer, should you ask all your retailers to link to you? If so, how do you go about it? Emails? A form letter? Should I create a page on the site for banners and let them grab the code? Any creative ideas would help.

    Link Building | | kbloemendaal
    0
  • Naghirniac


    Anyone already use it? There is some speed benefit? http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/docs/module.html 

    Web Design | | Naghirniac
    0
  • izaiasalmeida


    Hi, I've a relative good ranking for a specific keyword in google.com (english queries (hl=en)), but searching for the same keyword in google.com.br (Brazilian Portuguese (hl=pt-BR)), my rank for that keyword is far worst. The question is: I need to do something specific to rank in google.com.br (hl=pt-BR)? I'm doing the regular link building. Creating some blogs, blogging for 10 days before droping my links, and creating link wheels the same way. The blogs I create to make links are written in Brazilian Portuguese, also, the blog that I'm trying to rank higher, is also written in Brazilian Portuguese. Sorry for the english, it's not my native language. Thanks

    International SEO | | izaiasalmeida
    0
  • PeterAlexLeigh


    Other than technorati and alltop what are the best RSS directories to use and submit feeds to?

    Link Building | | PeterAlexLeigh
    0
  • peterwhitewebdesign


    Hi,
    I have the opportunity to build a new website and use a domain name that is older than 5 years or buy a new domain name. The aged domain name is a .net and includes a keyword.
    The new domain would include the same keyword as well as the U.S. state abbreviation. Which one would you use and why? Thanks for your help!

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | peterwhitewebdesign
    0
  • Naghirniac


    A little bit confused with the new stuff. The web 2.0 webpages are so much better? What changes?

    Web Design | | Naghirniac
    0
  • Kotkov


    What is the right way to completely block seo robots from my adword landing pages? Robots.txt does not work really good for that, as far I know. Adding metatags noindex nofollow on the other side will block adwords robot as well. right? Thank you very much, Serge

    On-Page Optimization | | Kotkov
    0
  • Naghirniac


    For the SEO perspective, there is a limit for the number of 301 redirection inside the htaccess file?

    Web Design | | Naghirniac
    0
  • authoritysitebuilder


    I have just had my site updated and we have put index.php at the end of all the urls. Not long after the sites rankings dropped. Checking the backlinks, they all go to (example)  http://www.website.com  and not http://www.website.com/index.php. So could this change have effected rankings even though it redirects to the new url?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | authoritysitebuilder
    0
  • VertiStudio


    Hello, I have on a main page over 50 images. The first page i want to optimize it for MAINKW (let's say). Now, if i use in the alt tags "MAINKW KW1", "MAINKW KW2", "MAINKW KW3" ... "MAINKW KW50" then Google may say that i stuff the MAINKW in that page? Those images are reprezentative for main Categories and i have direct links to them from the main page with the anchors KW1, KW2...KW50.

    On-Page Optimization | | VertiStudio
    0
  • david305


    howdy, do curse words on your content article hurt SEO in any way or form? and if so is there a "list" of registered curse keywords that should be avoided?

    On-Page Optimization | | david305
    0
  • gamblingau


    Had someone offering to place a link on their site for a monthly fee, claiming their site is PR8 - I checked the PR and it seems to be real, with no 301 redirect, but by looking at the site and their presence in google results, I highly doubt their PR is legitimate, but cannot find out how they faked it, and whether having a link on their site will have a negative effect on my site. Their domain is articledomination(dot)info Can anyone shed some lights into this ?

    White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | gamblingau
    0
  • Prime85


    My site is : http://goo.gl/JgK1e My main keyword is : Plastic Bins i have been going back and forth between page 1 and 2 for this keyword and i was wondering if any of you could provide any guidance as to why i can't get on the top of page 1, and stay there... My site has been around for a while, we believe we have a great user experience, all unique, fresh content, and the lowest prices... I must be missing out on something major if I cannot get a steady page 1 ranking... Any thoughts? Thanks in advance...

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Prime85
    0
  • mywebshop


    Hello there ! Everything is in the subject of this post but here is the context : we are a web agency and we, among others, build websites for our clients (most of them are shops). Until now, we put a link in their footer, like "developped by MyWebShop". But we don't know if it is bad or not. With only one website we can have like hundred of backlinks at once, but is it good for SEO or not ? Will Google penalize us thinking that is blackhat practices ? Is it better to put our link in the "legal notices" or "disclaimer" part of the websites ? What is the best practice for a lasting SEO ? I hope you understand my question, Thnak you in advance !

    White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | mywebshop
    0
  • Amosnet


    I have recently switched my images to a CDN (MaxCDN) and all of the images within my post are now get loaded directly from the CDN. Will this affect my Google ranking? Do Google care if the image is hosted physicaly on the domain?

    On-Page Optimization | | Amosnet
    0

Got a burning SEO question?

Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


Start my free trial


Browse Questions

Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.