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How long does it take after a link is recognised by google and appears in your webmaster search console, to have an affect on your rankings. Will it be put into the algorithm immediately, or is there a lead time?

Is anyone finding that they haven't got the results of the update yet? I have tried some competitors and they are not updated either.

One other point, try including preview descriptions for products that appear on category pages. These are an additional way of including key words on the category page that does not detract from the product. Bullet points work well, they're are clear and neat.

From experience, product page titles provide a ranking boost to the category page. They tell Google what the category is about, and are a good place to include keywords. In a category where there are loads of products, be wary of keyword stuffing.

Defunct would be a good way to describe Pagerank. Once a ranking signal but now no more. Domain Authority is a good way to measure your ability to rank. However, SEO's law of mystery means that no indicator will apply accurately in every circumstance.

There we go. Thanks for the reminder.

Ok. That explains it. I'm not familiar with Majestic. As far as DA and PA go though, you will retain your scores.

In a word; Yes, these will stay the same. However, these changes could result in a slight drop in DA, not significant though. A member of the Moz staff will be able to confirm. Probably a little dumb, but what is CF and TF, can't think.

The client can still write their content using the pronoun 'I'. Your copywriters could adjust that content using pronouns such as 'they', and then see if your client prefers the amended content.

Personally, I think readers of content written in the first person are less likely to trust and like what is being conveyed. A person or company that talks about themselves is much less credible than that person or company being talked about by someone else. Show your clients examples of first-person writing vs. third-person writing and see which they prefer. As you say, client is boss.

When working with similar products, creating completely unique content is nigh on impossible. However, you can find different ways to write descriptions. Use synonyms of words and structure sentences slightly different. It requires time but is well worth it when you start to see the results.

My biggest tip to you is to analyse competitors content. See who's performing well in the rankings and see how they've created their content. Take the best and make it better. Good luck.

It would tend to indicate that users are less engaged with your site. More visitors, but they are looking at less stuff on your site. This suggests that users aren't getting what they are looking for when they come to your pages. Perhaps it is time for a keyword rethink? If not, then assess your content. Would you find it useful? Also, look at where you are most visible and see how relevant you are to the audience that will see you there.

Thanks, I think I will go ahead with that.

I have the opportunity to have a link from a high DA, trustworthy, relevant site to a key product range that I am optimising on my website. The link will be in an article. I have one very simple question. Should I use exact-match anchor text?

Thanks for your responses. It would definitely be beneficial to users, so I may just get on and do it. It is a good quality link though, hence my consternation.

I have a link to my site from a post on an online forum. I now want to include the forum in a blog post about good industry-related e-forums. If I link to them in this article, will I lose the value from the link on the post in their forum, and could it be seen as spammy?

Thanks for the speedy response. This confirms what I thought.

When linking out to other sites, such as resources on .gov pages, should I use follow or nofollow links?

Thanks Dmitrii. I never reject nofollow links, but I don't actively seek them. Perhaps it is something I should start doing. Thanks.

In OSE, I have two spam flags, Ratio of Followed to Nofollowed Domains and Ratio of Followed to Nofollowed Subdomains.

I currently have a ratio of about 3:2 followed to nofollowed. Is this spammy? Also, what is the difference between subdomains and domains in this regard?

Good choice. You would have to start all over again if you chose to use a new domain name. You would go through a period where you are not visible at all. Also, domain age is a factor google takes into account. It looks like its as long as it is short to change your domain.

Using bold, underline and italic is fine. As long as there is a purpose, you will not be penalised. Remember the golden rule, be natural. If it is necessary to underline a keyword, then do so, but don't do it just to optimise that keyword..

Ok. Looks like I am mistaken. To be sure, only build links with your https:// urls in future. Good luck

Asking to replace links to https:// will definitely be beneficial. Some of the link juice will be lost in the 301 redirect, so without the redirect, you will receive the full benefit of the original link. Hope this helps. Links from directories are more difficult to change, some don't even support https:// url links. Otherwise, you should get on fine.

Hello All.

The recent Index update (29th January) seems to have produced quite a few shocks to Moz Pro users. Index updates always cause panic and joy every time they are released. However, I feel this is a big improvement that could be made.

In this last index, the DA for my site has remained the same. I was expecting a rise, simply because I have been doing some link building since October and was expecting the results to start showing around this time. However, the link metrics for my site looked worse this month than ever before. The index clearly didn't crawl sites and pages that it has crawled the last couple of indexes, and I noticed a few links disappeared from the metrics altogether, links that I know still exist. So I have a suggestion...

If Moz has collected link data in previous indexes, can it not preserve that data rather than starting afresh with every new index. Regular checks could be conducted on existing link data to identify expired or broken links, but to disregard them and start anew with every index seems a little odd. That way, Moz would have much more accurate and comprehensive link data which would help to avoid the DA inaccuracy, and provide users with a better measure of how their site is performing against the rest of the web.

This may be naive because I do not know the technical side to index updates. Any thoughts, advice, suggestions etc would be appreciated.

Having your content duplicated on other sites is never going to be too healthy, and is likely affecting your ranking. High DA sites like amazon and ebay will be regularly crawled meaning your content will be recognised more on those sites.

Good solution would be to write different descriptions for use on sites other than your own. Time consuming but worth it in the long run.

Hello. Is the index update still on course to be released on Friday?

Have you paid for links or used an SEO agency recently? If so, this could be a likely cause. Never pay for links and only use an SEO agency that is reputable and honest, otherwise, scenarios like the one you have mentioned do occur. There are sadly some rogues out there that will do most things for a bit of cash.

Also, I would remove the links in question. If you can't, at least disavow them. Good luck!

The only instance I can think of is where the search request is extremely niche or refined, in this case a search term could be 'pasco county personal injury lawyer'. Could possibly rank if the searcher is from pasco county and searches for an injury lawyer.

Also, the link on the page refers to a content-rich page that is relevant to the page you point out. Google may rank the page based on what is on the linked to page as it is the only indicator, aside from the title, of what the page is about.

Thanks Ria and Patrick...thumbs up for you both. Definitely seems worth doing. Hadn't thought of it from a fresh content perspective. Totally relate to not buying a product without looking at reviews first, good ratings are very powerful.

Hello all.

Currently, I am seriously considering including a customer reviews panel on the product pages of my ecommerce site. Does anyone have any previous experience, bad or good. Also, what sort of affect do positive/negative reviews have on search engine rankings.

Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

In theory, they should have no impact. However, I do think that seeing the ad and then seeing the link in the organic results as well makes a searcher feel more compelled to click. My traffic increase coincided with Adwords budget increase too. I'd been doing some SEO work before though and I'd like to think it was more that. Will be interesting to see how others have got on.

Sounds like your on-page optimisation is good. However, your site lacks content. There is very little information on it at all. Add some more text body to your homepage and you will almost certainly rise in the rankings. Create some pages with information for your site visitors. A few more back links won't go amiss either. Good luck!

Three brief points:

1. Identify the keywords you want to rank for and get them in titles, text body, etc. Avoid stuffing. When browsing your site, I struggle to see any keywords that I might use if I wanted to search for a product like yours.
2. Increase the amount of content on your website. As it stands, your website contains too little content. What's there looks good and appealing to read, however, not only does the searcher want more, but so does google. If you have a content rich site that is fresh and updated, google will begin to like you a lot more.
3. Get started on a bit of offsite optimisation. I notice you have quite a low domain authority and few external backlinks. Start getting yourself listed on directories that are relevant to you, is a great way to start. Do a bit of research on backlink building.

Neat looking site, though. Best of luck and I trust this helps.

All new domains start with a new DA and PA. You will need to wait for the content to be recognised by google again. Reverting back to the old domain would help, and google isn't awfully keen on 301's, but if you want to establish a new brand then you will maybe have to just stick with it. Start buliding some links to your new domain. That will give it a decent leg up and will help google to recognise your new domain quicker.

Google takes into account that the two sites are related. Receiving a link to your site is receiving a vote in Google's eyes. Hence, if the two sites are related, the vote holds less weight than a link from a separate domain. Think of it like a baker voting for their own bread at a cooking competition. The judge (in this case Google) will take the relationship into account.

So yes, it does make a significant difference. I think less juice is passed, but I am unsure on this, Google may have some other way of discounting the link. None the less, the link still holds value. Hope this helps.

It certainly displays what they do. It isn't key word stuffing either. Personally, I would prefer it to look like...

Voucher Codes | Cash-back | Discount Codes - [Website Name]

Just personal preference. Does yours need the store name as well?

When building links, what would you say is more valuable in boosting your google rankings when you, for example, are currently on pages 2 and 3 for keywords, have a DA of 18, and have a few relevant links from niche directories etc...?

1 irrelevant linking root domain with a DA of 80 **or **8 relevant linking root domains with a DA of 10 each.

There is no right answer (I think :-)), but I would like to see how different people view relevancy, and quantity vs. quality.

Also, would you answer differently for a site that is well established (DA= 30-40) with a number of both relevant, irrelevant, high DA, and low DA linking domains.

Discuss please

If you've got bad links to your site, then the priority is to get rid of those. Its usually pretty clear if a link is bad, use an online link checker if you want to be doubly sure. Still go on and build some good links though, getting rid of the bad links by no means guarantees you a return to top spot.

Good post Dmitrii. This recent article on YouMoz covers off 301 redirects nicely...

https://moz.com/ugc/accidental-seo-tests-how-301-redirects-are-likely-impacting-your-brand.

Hope it helps

Oh well. Guess it's worth the wait!