Latest Questions
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Unsolved Struggling to recouple backlinks that lead to 404 after a redesign launch
We had a site redesign launch a few months ago. Due to other priorities / a lot of things going on, there were a decent amount of URLs that 404ed. We implemented a drupal module search404 to redirect all of these to the homepage or a search results page that pulls search terms from the 404 page. Our goal is to recoup SEO value since we saw a notable dip in domain authority and amount of links after launch. We know a catch-all automated solution like this isn't ideal because it's better to 301 each page to its most relevant live page. For example, if CNN.com links to our Texas location, it's better to 301 to our new texas page than a homepage or search page. The problem is that since we implemented this catch all search404 module, it seems like tools like Moz Pro and Screaming Frog are not picking up the backlinks from external sites that 404 since they were "fixed" by the search404 module. Any ideas on solutions? We're trying to avoid tedious or risky solutions like undoing the module, which may bring back the 404s but cause some UX and SEO issues so we can run a SF crawl. Or going through every link in our link profile manually to check.
Link Explorer | | wchou0 -
Safety Data Sheet PDFs are Showing Higher in Search Results than Product Pages
I have a client who just launched an updated website that has WooCommerce added to it. The website also has a page of Safety Data Sheets that are PDFs that contain information about some of the products. When we do a Google search for many of the products the Safety Data Sheets show up first in the search results instead of the product pages. Has anyone had this happen and know how to solve the issue?
Technical SEO | | teamodea0 -
Old Blogs
We have several blogs on our site for a range of products we no longer stock. Would you set up a redirect for these - and how long would you keep it in place?
Technical SEO | | Caroline_Ardmoor0 -
Redirects Advice
We have many redirects in place - and sometimes 2 in a chain. Is there a recommended time you should have a redirect in place?
Technical SEO | | Caroline_Ardmoor0 -
Searchability Strategy
We recently had a technical SEO audit carried out and it highlighted how many clicks it took to get to many of our pages (more than 4)). Does anyone have advice on how to create a structure for our pages to avoid this or recommend any articles I can read?
Technical SEO | | Caroline_Ardmoor0 -
Website is not getting indexed
Hi,
Content Development | | Aman0022
Hope you all are doing great!
I have created a dog blog a few weeks back which talks about all things about dogs (http://pawspulse.com/). I am publishing couple of articles everyday which are more than 5k words long with proper keyword research but still Google is not indexing my content. My content is systematically categorized in proper categories related to dog guides, nutrition, accessories, dog breeds etc.
Can anyone help me how to get the website index faster fully. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks0 -
How to handle pre-existing backlinks on new site.
Hi - We built a new site on a URL that had previously been used. We are noticing a lot of spammy backlinks pointing to our current site and ending up on a 404 page. Any recommendations on how to handle this?
Link Building | | JJKM551 -
Unsolved 301 Redirect chain http>https>https:/www
Dear community, I have the same issue with redirecting chain from http - https and then to https:// www.____
On-Page Optimization | | Damian_Ed 0
In one of the previous opened discussions the solution given was: you'd update the server level rule to point directly to the end URL form.
Re: 301 Redirect chain Are there any tutorials or resources available to help me properly implement this solution and resolve this issue? Tags: 301 Redirects, HTTPS, WWW, Server Level Rule, Redirect Chain Any tutorials how to do it properly to resolve this issue ?0 -
Unsolved Large discrepancy in number of links using compare links tool
Hi there, I’m trying to understand the large discrepancy in number of links among websites. For instance, I am comparing landing pages among two different colleges. One college has over 7 million links, while the other has only 72,000 links. Meanwhile, these colleges are fairly comparable in terms of population and prestige. Could anyone help me understand why this metric is wide ranging, and how a college could have so many links? Specifically looking at total links, internal links, external links, and linking domains.
Link Explorer | | HanoverianHE0 -
Unsolved Make Moz reindex the pages for keywords
Hi Moz says we're 18th for a phrase but that's for the page /himonsia-generators because that was the highest ranking page. If you search now for "heavy range generators" we're jumping between 10-12th position but it's for the page /products/generators - which is correct. How can I make Moz "Reindex" the pages?
Moz Pro | | RichardAskew0 -
Google ranking content for phrases that don't exist on-page
I am experiencing an issue with negative keywords, but the “negative” keyword in question isn’t truly negative and is required within the content – the problem is that Google is ranking pages for inaccurate phrases that don’t exist on the page. To explain, this product page (as one of many examples) - https://www.scamblermusic.com/albums/royalty-free-rock-music/ - is optimised for “Royalty free rock music” and it gets a Moz grade of 100. “Royalty free” is the most accurate description of the music (I optimised for “royalty free” instead of “royalty-free” (including a hyphen) because of improved search volume), and there is just one reference to the term “copyrighted” towards the foot of the page – this term is relevant because I need to make the point that the music is licensed, not sold, and the licensee pays for the right to use the music but does not own it (as it remains copyrighted). It turns out however that I appear to need to treat “copyrighted” almost as a negative term because Google isn’t accurately ranking the content. Despite excellent optimisation for “Royalty free rock music” and only one single reference of “copyrighted” within the copy, I am seeing this page (and other album genres) wrongly rank for the following search terms: “free rock music”
On-Page Optimization | | JCN-SBWD
“Copyright free rock music"
“Uncopyrighted rock music”
“Non copyrighted rock music” I understand that pages might rank for “free rock music” because it is part of the “Royalty free rock music” optimisation, what I can’t get my head around is why the page (and similar product pages) are ranking for “Copyright free”, “Uncopyrighted music” and “Non copyrighted music”. “Uncopyrighted” and “Non copyrighted” don’t exist anywhere within the copy or source code – why would Google consider it helpful to rank a page for a search term that doesn’t exist as a complete phrase within the content? By the same logic the page should also wrongly rank for “Skylark rock music” or “Pretzel rock music” as the words “Skylark” and “Pretzel” also feature just once within the content and therefore should generate completely inaccurate results too. To me this demonstrates just how poor Google is when it comes to understanding relevant content and optimization - it's taking part of an optimized term and combining it with just one other single-use word and then inappropriately ranking the page for that completely made up phrase. It’s one thing to misinterpret one reference of the term “copyrighted” and something else entirely to rank a page for completely made up terms such as “Uncopyrighted” and “Non copyrighted”. It almost makes me think that I’ve got a better chance of accurately ranking content if I buy a goat, shove a cigar up its backside, and sacrifice it in the name of the great god Google! Any advice (about wrongly attributed negative keywords, not goat sacrifice ) would be most welcome.0 -
Is it worth buying an entry on Wikipedia-type sites?
Recently I've come across a few websites offering (for a fee) to research, write and publish an entry on the likes of Wikipedia, Citizendium or Wikitia - I thought this might be helpful when it comes to marketing and link building for a brand or individual. Purchasing guest blog posts is a standard way to obtain a high domain authority in-context backlink, but I wondered if purchasing an entry on one of these human edited encyclopedias would be as effective, better or not worth the money? It costs quite a bit more than guest posting and blog outreach, but on the other hand they are authoritative websites that also include backlinks. Any thoughts would be most welcome.
SEO Tactics | | JCN-SBWD0 -
What would be Best Content Starategy For My Dental Website?
Greetings to all Moz Fellows! Our organization specializes in digital dentistry, and we aim to establish a thriving blog focused on this subject to attract a wide range of clients from all across the United States. We would greatly appreciate any advice on the most effective strategies for achieving this goal.
Content Development | | SEOBrandBoca
@MOZ-LUCY1230 -
Missing H1 headings
Hi,
On-Page Optimization | | Colin12
I have an enquiry in relation to missing H1 headings. I am getting a number of these errors reported for collection pages where I am using a full width banner image at the top of the page with no visible description underneath. In these circumstances is it advisable to somehow include a H1 heading or can I ignore it? https://osullivanspharmacy.ie/collections/deep-heat0 -
Footer backlink for/to Web Design Agency
I read some old (10+ years) information on whether footer backlinks from the websites that design agencies build are seen as spammy and potentially cause a negative effect. We have over 150 websites that we have built over the last few years, all with sitewide footer backlinks back to our homepage (designed and managed by COMPANY NAME). Semrush flags some of the links as potential spammy links. What are the current thoughts on this type of footer backlink? Are we better to have 1 dofollow backlink and the rest of the website nofollow from each domain?
Link Building | | MultiAdE1 -
Are there ways to avoid false positive "soft 404s" by Google
Sometimes I get alerts from Google Search Console that it has detected soft 404s on different websites, and since I take great care to never have true soft 404s, they are always false positives. Today I got one on a website that has pages promoting some events. The language on the page for one event that has sold out says that "tickets are no longer available" which seems to have tripped up Google into thinking the page is a soft 404. It's kind of incredible to me that in the current era we're in, with things like chatGPT that Google doesn't seem to understand natural language. But that has me thinking, are there some strategies or best practices we can use in how we write copy on the page so Google doesn't flag it as soft 404? It seems like anything that could tell a user that an item isn't available could trip it up into thinking it is a 404. In the case of my page, it's actually important information we need to tell the public that an event has sold out, but to use their interest in that event to promote other events. so I don't want the page deindexed or not to rank well!
Technical SEO | | IrvCo_Interactive0 -
Unsolved Keyword Research for SWISS company
lets say I am currently doing research for Health: Therapeutic massages - alternative medicine but the research has to be conducted in German as it is for a Swiss website. I am currently filling in the matrix as provided by Moz Essentials course, would it be better to first research these semantic/funnel tops in english and then translate into german and finding keywords (+ creating the keyword lists) based upon the GERMAN language? What would anyone recommend?
Keyword Explorer | | margitdanila1230 -
Site Name as displayed in serp is a completely random company in an entirely different industry!
Hello! I am looking at a site that has its site name displayed incorrectly in the SERPS. The site name is showing as a company from the airline industry while the site in question provides hypnotherapy services. This issue is on every page except the homepage. I have checked source code and the structured data. Local business structured data with the correct company name - I can't find anything at all in the source code that refers to this random airline! Thank you for reading this and for any ideas or suggestions! Here is a screenshot that illustrates the issueUntitled.jpg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sean.e0 -
Anyone come accross a completely random site name displayed in the SERPs?
Hello SEO friends, I am looking at a site that has a completely random site name displayed in the serps. The site in question is a hypnotherapy service and the site name is displaying as a commercial cargo airline! See the screen shot. Any ideas? There is 'local business' structured data on the site and it IS showing the correct business name. Is this a hack? Negative SEO attack? Random Google stuff up? Help! Very confused! Thank you for any advice! Sean!Untitled.jpg
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sean.e0 -
Unsolved Question about a Screaming Frog crawling issue
Hello, I have a very peculiar question about an issue I'm having when working on a website. It's a WordPress site and I'm using a generic plug in for title and meta updates. When I go to crawl the site through screaming frog, however, there seems to be a hard coded title tag that I can't find anywhere and the plug in updates don't get crawled. If anyone has any suggestions, thatd be great. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | KyleSennikoff0 -
To hyphenate or not to hyphenate?
Quick question: does Google differentiate between terms that correctly include a hyphen (such as "royalty-free") and those that are incorrect ("royalty free")? I ask because the correct term "royalty-free"(with a hyphen) receives far less monthly traffic for the same term without the hyphen (according to Moz): Term | Estimated traffic
On-Page Optimization | | JCN-SBWD
"royalty free music" | 11.5-30.3K
"royalty-free music" | 501-850 If Moz views the terms separately then I'd guess that Google does too, in which case the best thing to do for SEO (and increased site traffic) would be to wrongly use "royalty free" without the hyphen. Is that correct?0 -
Making the change to GA4?
We have a few clients we routinely do SEO work for, and we have campaigns set up for them here. However, with the change to GA4, how is that going to impact those campaigns? How do we make that switch? Where do we go for that? And how do we set up future campaigns for GA4? Right now it looks like the only option is still for UA, but the switch happens in less than three months, which is a little unnerving.
Reporting & Analytics | | buckii_modernoffice0 -
Unsolved Duplicate Content
We have multiple collections being flagged as duplicate content - but I can't find where these duplications are coming from? The duplicate content has no introductory text, and no meta description. Please see examples:- This is the correct collection page:-
Technical SEO | | Caroline_Ardmoor
https://www.ardmoor.co.uk/collections/deerhunter This is the incorrect collection page:-
https://www.ardmoor.co.uk/collections/vendors How do I stop this incorrect page from showing?0 -
What is this SERP feature called? Organic ads...?
What are these called (screenshot attached)? They are organic product listings in the body of the SERP that look just like paid ads, but are placed below paid ads. I would like to read up on how to optimize for them, but am having trouble finding information.Capture.PNG
Technical SEO | | LivDetrick0 -
Unsolved How long does Moz's data go back for?
I have a client for just over a year now. I've been using Moz all that time.
Moz Tools | | reachseo
Do you know if it will give me data from the very start? Or will it just give me the previous 12 months? Thanks for reading, I appreciate your expertise0 -
520 Error from crawl report with Cloudflare
I am getting a lot of 520 Server Error in crawl reports. I see this is related to Cloudflare. We know 520 is Cloudflare so maybe the Moz team can change this from "unknown" to "Cloudflare 520". Perhaps the Moz team can update the "how to fix" section in the reporting, if they have some possible suggestions on how to avoid seeing these in the report of if there is a real issue that needs to be addressed. At this point I don't know. There must be a solution that Moz can provide like a setting in Cloudflare that will permit the Rogerbot if Cloudflare is blocking it because it does not like its behavior or something. It could be that Rogerbot is crawling my site on a bad day or at a time when we were deploying a massive site change. If I know when my site will be down can I pause Rogerbot? I found this https://developers.cloudflare.com/support/troubleshooting/general-troubleshooting/troubleshooting-crawl-errors/
Technical SEO | | awilliams_kingston0 -
Visibility Score Against Top Search Competitors
Top Search Competitors
Competitive Research | | PhoebeK
The competitors that compete for the same keywords as this domain, ranked by visibility. Other websites that compete with this domain for the same keywords, ranked by visibility. Visibility (What does the visibility rating mean on this report)?
For example: If you have a visibility of 8.33 on this report and your competitor has a rating of 6.21 or 4.64, is your visibility better than theirs?0 -
Big Ranking fluctuations
Hi all, 👉 we need your help/expertise. For a longer period of time we (https://bluebillywig.com) experience huge increases and decreases on a day/week ly basis for our keywords. We are moving from positions in the top 3 to positions in the top 50. The site has been fully screened for technical issues, indexation problems and we have also checked the positions of competitors (where we do not see the fluctuations). Example keywords where we see the issue: Gepersonaliseerde video Video content protection. See screenshots example bbw.png BBW-example.png If somebody has any suggestions, let us know.
SEO Tactics | | Watvindthidde
Thank you so much for your time and advice.1 -
Unsolved how to add my known backlinks manually to moz
hello
Moz Local | | icogems
i have cryptocurrency website and i found backlinks listed in my google webmasters dashboard, but those backlinks dont show in my moz dashboard even after 45 days. so my question is can i add those backlinks to moz, just to check my website real da score thanks,0 -
So many spam links that I haven't created are reflected in my domain
Around 500+ spam links got reflected in my domain. I actually haven't created them. Also, the links are not opening. These links affected my spam score. How can I remove them and reduce my spam score?
Link Building | | OrangeDigital160 -
Solved How I can update my new campaign in Moz?
I am facing a problem when I solve any issue in my running campaign.
Moz Tools | | ClippingOutsources
Is there any option to see once I fix the issue and my campaign shows it instantly or how I can see that my exiting issue after I fix it? Can any one suggest me, please?0 -
Unsolved Mobile Rankings for me and competitors disappear in Moz but still ranking.
Hi, I'm trying to create an SEO report for my client however their mobile rankings have completely disappeared for Google Mobile rankings. Competitors rankings have disappeared as well. Could this be a Moz configuration issue?
Moz Pro | | baddjuju0 -
Unsolved Issue with former site redirect
Hello, After 2 months of starting a new service with a new domain name and a rather flat curve, I decided to invest in auditing tools. To my surprise, when analyzing links with 'Link Explorer', I got the following warning : "You entered the URL crapahute.com which redirects to www.krapahute.com. Click here to analyze www.krapahute.com instead."... So I understand I bought a domain name that was previously in use, 8 years ago. And logically, when they moved from crapahute.com to krapahute.com, the former site owners set a (probably 401) redirect between their former name and their new one. Probably that in the last 8 years they dropped crapahute.com since I was able to buy the domain name last year. I can't understand the warning I'm receiving. since I thought this redirect would become inactive when they dropped the domain name. On the contrary, if I analyze the backlinks to krapahute.com I can indeed see : crapahute.com [no anchor text] 3 2 0 --
Link Explorer | | x_all
redirect More Info
Date first seen - Date lost - Link target
2016-09-05 - N/A - www.krapahute.com So my question is : where is this warning coming from ? I performed some nslookup and dig on my domain and their's just to find out that every thing seems to look normal. Meanwhile, if I type "crapahute" in Google (and most other search engines), my site arrives in 12th page (!), and if I type "crapahute.com", the site "krapahute.com" appears first. Thank you for those reading up to that point ! Any hint on what could cause this ? Should I change of domain name ? Thank you !0 -
What is the safest way to redirect for best SEO benefits?
What is the safest way to redirect for best SEO benefits? Example: loodgieter-aanhuis.nl -> loodgieters-ambacht.nl Does someone have any technical information on how to (root) redirect for best SEO practices?
On-Page Optimization | | hans-keeren0 -
GA 4 Question
What differences are you typically seeing in Google Analytics 4 compared to UA? For one site I have, UA says there were 2,342 new users. GA4 says there were 1,899 new users for the same time period. Does that seem like a normal amount of difference between the two platforms?
Reporting & Analytics | | emilycarimus1 -
Unsolved How should I update the grouping of keywords in a google ads account
hi, I have a google adwords account running for a while in a fairly competitive market in a major city so there is only one geo location with many suburbs or council areas as popular searched. I have keywords that are 2-4 words long and very similar. I have had one keyword in its own campaign, several in one campaign and a location campaign. The location campaign has several adgroups for specific suburbs. My question is that the most popular search terms are similar but in different campaigns and I am wondering if this is not the best way. for example I have these keywords in separate campaigns as exact match and phrase match
Paid Search Marketing | | salliWW
rubbish removal
rubbish removal near me
rubbish removal Washington But the way google uses exact match seems to be changing and I am concerned these would be best in one adgroup. Also these keywords trigger similar phrases, for example, waste removal. Is it best to put them in one campaign with one ad group or one campaign with separate adgroups, or leave as is. As competition has increased I need to bid for top of page now and need to keep budget rises as little as possible..0 -
Is it allowed to buy an old website with external links en redirect it to your own site??
Hello, We noticed at MOZ that one of our competitor's websites has increased the number of external backlinks from 5k to 25k within a month. Upon investigating the links, we found that the competitor had acquired an old, unknown website with completely different content and external links in that month. The competitor then redirected that purchased website to their own website, instantly gaining 20k external links. This seems to be against Google's guidelines as it is an extremely unnatural way of link building and should be penalized by search engines. However, the website's Domain Authority (DA) has increased by 10 points in that month, and its rankings have greatly improved on Google. So it appears that acquiring an old website with many external links unrelated to your own website is highly profitable. We try to obtain links honestly, but we cannot reach 25k links naturally. Is there any way to report these practices to Google? Does anyone know how to do this?
Competitive Research | | Femamedia0 -
Totally inaccurate keyword count show on page grader
I've just published a detailed (3000+ words) blog post on AI music and what it means for musicians and artists. It is optimised for the term "AI music" and you can see it here: https://www.scamblermusic.com/ai-music-the-pros-and-cons-explained-by-ai/ When I search the source code of the blog post for "AI music" I see 19 references: code.png When I search the text in the browser window for "AI music" I see 12 references, yet when I run the Moz page grader to check my optimisation Moz downgrades the rating because it's counting 69 keywords: Moz.png I can't work out what Moz is seeing that I am not. Am I missing something really obvious, or is Moz just screwing up (something I haven't seen before with word count)?
On-Page Optimization | | JCN-SBWD0 -
Unsolved IP Address Indexed on Google along with Domain
My website is showing/indexed on Google search results twice, with IP address and domain name
Other SEO Tools | | mupetra
I'm using AWS LightSail
I don't know how to fix this, beside I'm afraid this duplicate can harm my website0 -
My website is constantly decreasing
For few weeks ago my website is constantly decreasing in search position. I lost keywords and is gooooing down.
Technical SEO | | Dan_Tala
Although it is well rated on several on page and off page seo verification software that I have tried.
I checked Google search console and Analytics and found no major problems. However… from one day to another it keeps going down.
I also checked what the main competitors are doing and they are not doing well, at all.
The main competitor actually has a creepy website. Totally devoid of onpage or offpage SEO but with an enormous number of backlinks. And of a very bad quality, which should disqualify it, still…
Few weeks ago I changed something.
In the pages I had H1, 4xH2, no H3 and an H4 without content.
An unnatural H tag structure.
Now I have H1, H2, H3, 3xH4, with the coherent information.
Theoretically, Google should have been “happy” or I’m missing something. I use a SAAS platform.
I just found out that they made changes to the keywords (tags).
I am selling toner cartridges for printers.
So…
The tags are printer models and generate a url in which they have the products.
Ex. https://www.sertit.ro/cartus-imprimanta-cilindru-color-hp-laserjet-pro-m-177fw goes to the products for that printer model.
The question is… should I make tag canonical?
Is it possible for products to loose so much in Google search?0 -
Appending a code at the end of a URL
Hi All, Some real estate/ news companies have a code appended to the end of a URL https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-ormiston-141747584 https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/childcare-centre-could-face-prosecution-for-leaving-child-on-hot-bus-20230320-p5ctqs.html Can I ask if there's any negative SEO implications for doing this? Cheers Dave
Technical SEO | | Redooo0 -
Unsolved What should I do with WordPress Blog homepage
Hi, I have a large WordPress blog with thousands of posts. By default, the blog homepage contains the excerpt of each posts. As there are so many posts, the homepage is paginated(Totally 1341 pages) I use siteliner to check and find a lot of duplicate contents on the blog homepage. So, what should I do with it? Should I noindex the homepage and all the paginated pages accordingly? Thank you
On-Page Optimization | | ccw0 -
Unsolved Duplicate Contents in Order Pages of Multiple Products
Hi, I have a website containing 30 software products. Each product has an order page. The problem is that the layout and content of these 30 order pages are very similar, except for the product name, for example: https://www.datanumen.com/access-repair-order/
On-Page Optimization | | ccw
https://www.datanumen.com/outlook-repair-order/
https://www.datanumen.com/word-repair-order/ Siteliner has reports these pages as duplicate contents. I am thinking of noindex these pages. However, in such a case, if a user search for "DataNumen Outlook Repair order page", then he will not be able to see the order page of our product, which drives the revenue go away. So, how to deal with such a case? Thank you.1 -
Unsolved Please refund my money
Why Moz doesn’t refund my money? I am not intend to use it as I forgot to canceled trial version only delayed 10 hours.
Product Support | | TanyaAAAS0 -
Keyword & negative keyword overlap
So I just read your blog on quality score and after reading the negative keyword section I'm a little confused and I need clarification. In that paragraph you mentioned about not overlapping your negative keywords with your active keywords and you used an example of dog food and dog bed. So my question is, if you put the word dog bed into the negative keyword list isn't the word dog the over lap word? Would you ad not show because the word dog is in the active keyword list?
Paid Search Marketing | | Vallerinspects0
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