Ugh...getting organized with my SEO
-
One thing I have learned about SEO is that it takes a patient, organized and task oriented person in order to be a good SEO'r. Luckily I have these skills which I think helps me with my own personal SEO, but at the same time I have other personality traits that work against me at the same time which can distract me from staying on track.
- I am a goal oriented person - I like to create weekly, monthly and yearly goals to help keep me focused.
- I am a patient person
- I am a task oriented person - I can repeat a task over and over again even if I hate it.
- I am very organized - I am a better house keeper than my wife (which drivers her crazy)
but at the same time I have some other personality traits that work against me which counter act against my strong points.
- I can't leave a task undone and I have to complete it immediately
- I am a multi tasker - I can do 20 things at once.
The struggle I have is even though I set goals, complete them and have the patience to do them at the same time I tend to work on things and won't move on until they are done. Even though their importance may not be as pressing an other areas. For instance I will work on getting rid of Google errors (404's), fixing code issues with the site people report instead of taking the time to work on the bigger things like fixing issues which effected me from Panda and Penguin. I get stuck on these smaller tasks since I know I can complete them faster, but they never seem to end.
I would love to hear other models SEO'r use to help them organize their time management and spreading the tasks across the board and get everything done.
-
Cesar, I hear where you're coming from - I am prone to some of the same challenges.
Here's a phrase to keep in mind:
Success isn't about getting things done right, it's about getting the right things done.
The reality is there is a literally never-ending supply of the "little things" that are easier to focus on because the steps needed for them are clear and less stressful, therefore more comfortable to deal with. Except focusing only on them is the path to almost certain destruction.
It's way harder to work on the bigger stuff not just because it takes longer, but because there are far more unknowns involved, which makes it so much more uncomfortable. But working through them and figuring them out will give far greater returns in the actual advancement of your site, as you already admit.
So a suggestion: what if you blocked out a couple of hours twice a week to work only on the really big stuff. Don't allow yourself to even look at or start any little stuff during those times. If you spot something little that bugs you, jot down a note for later, but make those several hours sacred - BIG STUFF ONLY!!
The rest of the time, you can work as usual, but at least for a couple hours twice a week, the big stuff is getting attention.
One last thing. You're going to HAVE to learn to get comfortable with not finishing everything at one sitting. Much of the "big stuff" is just too big to chew through all in one go. If you have to, break a big one into specific chunks, and work a chunk all the way through, but stop thinking you have to "eat the elephant all in one sitting". Usually you just can't. As the project management experts all advise, break large tasks into smaller specific jobs. Then you won't feel as overwhelmed about starting them.
My $.02. Whattaya think?
Paul
-
Yes Greg, absolutely agreed. Linking to a page that has a 404 is a wasted linking opportunity. Not good for spiders or humans. Cesar, for your own reference, there is a great Chrome extension that crawls pages and identifies 404s. It's quite handy. Here's the info http://www.seomoz.org/blog/check-my-links-chrome-extension-a-link-builders-dream
-
Dana, I just want to chip in on Point 1..
Ignoring your 404 pages is fine. But make sure to remove all links on your website pointing to the 404 page.
When google bot crawls your pages, and finds a link to a 404 page, it doesnt care if the 404 page is optimised for users, It's still a 404 so G bot wont be happy.. With these 404's you also get duplicate content/Titles and meta descriptions as there are many of them.
In other words, be sure to removal all links pointing to 404 pages. Link Sleuth makes this easy..
Greg
-
This is a great question. I am a lot like you, except I don't get stuck on certain things that revolve around Google Webmaster Tools. Here's my advice:
1. 404's are GOOD - OK, everyone gets 404s. I work for a large e-commerce site. We have 404s everywhere. The answer? Create a custom 404 page that is consistentwith your overall branding that, in a friendly way, leads people somewhere useful.
2. Do you have a dynamic site? Then technical HTML errors abound I am sure. Learn to know which ones are ccsting you link juice (use SEOMoz's Open Site Explorer to identify duplicate content)/ Bend over backwards to resolve your duplicate content issues.
3. Depending on your platform, take duplicate meta descriptions and duplicate title tags with a grain of salt.
I have one store on the 3dcart platform right now. On this platform, it's impossible to customize meta titles and meta descriptions for .asp pages. You have no choice but to ignore errors coming from .asp pages from sites on that platform. [Never mind the fact that they are trying to sell you SEO services]
Be patient, keep studying, keep working and you'll deliver the best results possible for you client.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
SEO- Manufacturer v Distributor
In respect to a safety clothing manufacturer manage SEO on behalf of, I've noticed that product distributors own 85% of the page 1 SERPs leaving product manufacturers such as my client largely under represented for the vast majority of search queries such as 'safety boots'. Love to hear your opinion on why this is and how I can combat it? TIA!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | resolved0 -
Does a root domain get SEO power from its subdomains?
Hi there! I'd appreciate your help with the following case: a) Current 10-year-old website (community) on root domain "example.com" (250,000 incoming quality-backlinks) will move to the new subdomain "newsub.example.com" (301 redirects to the new subdomain for all current subfolders) b) A new website (shop) will launch on the root domain "example.com" Question: Will the new website on "example.com" get SEO power from the old website on "newsub.example.com"? SEO power = linkjuice/authority/trust/history/etc. from the 250,000 backlinks. What I'm trying to achieve: Maintain the built-up SEO power for the root domain "example.com" Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! P.S. Plenty has been written about subdomains inheriting from their root domains (so please don't share input on the subdomain vs. subfolder debate). But I can't find satisfactory info about the other way around (root domains inheriting from their subdomains), e.g. if wikia.com gets SEO power from its subdomains superman.wikia.com, starwars.wikia.com, etc.)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ebebeb0 -
Brightcove SEO Best Practices?
My company has decided to go with Brightcove as a video platform so we can better monetize all of the video content we create and better customize the experience as well. We have a pretty decent YouTube presence, and I won't let them stop using that because it would totally alienate us from part of our audience. So I was hoping someone could help me with the following: Are we able to keep videos hosted on YouTube as well as Brightcove without any risk of duplicate content? If we use the Brightcove player to embed videos in our on-site content, are we hindering potential organic search visibility? On the embeds, it's looking like it's using an iframe in our content (https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/sativa-indica-and-hybrid-whats-the-difference-between-cannabis-ty) - We're using a Brightcove WP plugin for the embed, but I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on a better way to implement/if this is even an issue at all. Are there any other general best practices/insights anyone has working with this platform? I found this article on their site, but I was wondering if there was anything else I should consider. Thank you in advance for any insights/answers!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | davidkaralisjr0 -
Subdomains + SEO
Hi everyone, So a little background - my company launched a new website (http://www.everyaction.com). The homepage is currently hosted on an amazon s3 bucket while the blog and landing pages are hosted within Hubspot. My question is - is that going to end up hurting our SEO in the long run? I've seen a much slower uptick in search engine traffic than I'm used to seeing when launching new sites and I'm wondering if that's because people are sharing the blog.everyaction.com url on social (which then wouldn't benefit just everyaction.com?) Anyways, a little help on what I should be considering when it comes to subdomains would be very helpful. Thanks, Devon
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EveryActionHQ0 -
Magento SEO firm
I'm looking for an SEO company that has substantial experience with the Magento shopping cart system. I've gone thru MOZ.com's Recommended List but I'm unsure of who specializes in Magento. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | UncleXYZ0 -
SEO issues with Magento
Hi Everyone, We use Magento CMS for our site and we are having a frustrating time resolving our SEO issues. The site was very poorly managed in years past and in the past year I have redesigned and cleaned up many things. However we are recently having trouble with indexing and keyword ranking. Issue #1: Our main keyword ranking has dropped quite a bit while our other less important keywords have steadily risen. I suspect a very strict robots.txt implemented back in early January may have been the culprit. We have since been modifying it with out much luck. Many of our pages are still blocked. 12/05/12 : ranked 12th 1/09/13: ranked 19th 1/16/13: ranked 35th Now: out of top 50 (52nd) Issue #2: Not a single image is being indexed. We are 0 for 582 according to Webmaster tools. Not sure why... Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated as I have great determination and interest in learning the correct way to fix/do this. Site: www.scojo.com Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | t_parrish0 -
Can Javascript be SEO friendly?
Is some Javascript SEO friendly? I know that Google Webmaster Guidelines states you should avoid the use of Javascript, (http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35769), but does any one know if Google can read some Javascript or generally not?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0 -
Competitor using shady SEO tactics but still ranks at the top in Organic listings
A competitor of my client has been ranking consistently in the top 2 spots in the organic listings on Google for years. They have the advantage of keywords in the URL but no matter what we do we just can't bump them out of the top position. Recently we discovered that they have 7 or so .org sites set up claiming to be run by volunteers and their opinions are un-biased that "highly recommend" products from the main site's company. Is this against Google's policies? I've submitted a spam report to Google but of course haven't heard anything back from them. Our AdWords rep told us that the policy team doesn't respond directly to claims because of privacy reasons? Anyone know any other way to report things like this to Google? We got dropped from the rankings for 3 months due to malicious code (spammy links) injected into all the pages on our site but these people sit steadily at the top. I don't get it.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pidot0