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I would start with contacting the developers and ask them if they have any clue about it Daniel. Failing that, without having a good root around, it's hard to say at a glance what is going on. There certainly are a lot of more general site issues.
-Andy
If it falls as a part of the quote then yes, I would certainly add that in for them. Could be a worthwhile payoff for you - and them 
If they don't have a Webmasters account, you don't need Analytics to set it up. Just just need your own Webmasters account and add it that way.
The second scenario is exactly that. Remove the code from the website and re-verify again.
-Andy
I wouldn't advise using canonicalization from one site to another for this purpose. That is going to look odd to Google. In their eyes, why have you got two sites with the same content?
In fact, here is what Google say about doing this:
"Can rel="canonical" be used to suggest a canonical URL on a completely different domain?
There are situations where it's not easily possible to set up redirects. This could be the case when you need to migrate to a new domain name using a web server that cannot create server-side redirects. In this case, you can use the rel="canonical" link element to specify the exact URL of the domain preferred for indexing. While the rel="canonical" link element is seen as a hint and not an absolute directive, we do try to follow it where possible."
No, I am afraid this isn't something that Google would do Muhammad. You will always be taken to the top of the page.
-Andy
HI Charles,
If you run down the route of adding additional subfolders, you are very likely to be caught by the new Doorway Page algorithm. if you have pages for pages sake, then it could get messy.
Here is what Google has to say about them.
Here are questions to ask of pages that could be seen as doorway pages:
By the sounds of things, I suspect you would fall into at least one of those grey areas. if they were to be produced, you would have to be able to justify them very well with lots of supporting content that was genuinely useful.
-Andy
If you haven't already done so Curt, setup a Google+ account, setup authorship through your site and G+ and start sharing your content. You can find it is indexed with results much faster
I have had content in the SERPs in a matter of days using this method - days of the 'sandbox' are all but history.
Andy
MOZ would be able to answer this more readily for you, but because they aren't Google, they don't have every site, page or link stored. It could be days or weeks.
Just as a side note though, don't use directories as forms of link-building as more often than not, they will do nothing and if you plough through too many, you might cause yourself problems.
If it's a local directory, these can have some benefit to local results though. Each site must be taken on its own merits.
-Andy
On the same domain, yes, but what you are wanting to do may as well be a new domain as that is how Google treats subdomains.
What you need to remember is that canonicalization is used when run the risk of duplication on a site, or want to suggest to Google which page should be delivered to people searching - but it is just a suggestion.
Why would you not want to just SEO the shop site and keep it all on there? There is no reason not to have a site that has the product information and the shop in the same place. You can SEO that site and not have to worry about penalties and problems.
-Andy
Hi Chris,
There is a chance this could happen. I have seen a high bounce rate affect the whole site (probably for many different reasons). However, this was a site that then was given a manual penalty because of what they were trying to do, but it wasn't that dissimilar to yours.
-Andy
There is absolutely no harm in updating those old articles Joris. It is probably still indexed by Google and allows you to easily add in more up to date data.
There are some nice tips in this article here.
-Andy
Hi Eva,
Like Google, it can take time for your site to be accepted into the index for the first time. There are also a lot of other reasons why this could be happening, but rather than try to go through them all here, have a read of this exact question over at Bing http://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/why-is-my-site-not-in-the-index-2141dfab
Hopefully that will be of use.
-Andy
Hi,
As the analytics code runs, it asynchronously loads the analytics.js onto the page. So it doesn't actually exist in the site, if that makes sense.
Do we really need this link to be present on website?
Absoluely - well, we have no choice in the matter, not if you want to use analytics
You can read more about it here: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/
-Andy
You may find someone else who is happy to provide additional advice on how else this can be handled Francesco, but it is a little outside my comfort zone as it borders on grey-hat and I would hate to be responsible to causing you problems.
I'll drop you a quick PM over with something that may help with the re-writing though.
-Andy
That is a very open ended question and one I wouldn't even try to answer.
Tell your client that there are hundreds of factors at work with Google's algorithms and this is something that is completely out of your control. Even Google couldn't tell you the answer to that one.
If they want to know more, then tell them that each of the 200+ primary ranking signals, have their own set of criteria. I think it was 'assessing how links appear on a page', had something like 2,000+ individual signals that Google used. Now imagine that each of the 200 primary signals each have 2,000 of their own signals - this is hundreds of thousands of possibilities that Google will be looking at when ranking a site.
-Andy
What you have there is a perfect example of a doorway page and absolutely against Google TOS. Give it time and Google will do something about it.
I would strongly advise against this practice.
-Andy
Hi Rasmus,
From what I can see, this only appears to affect your blog section and blog posts? Perhaps articles too?
I'm not sure what is powering your blog, but if it is Wordpress, or similar, then there is a setting where you can title your blog - this is normally your blog name and tends to get filled in when setting up and then forgotten. This problem then arises when you title a page and even though you haven't added the blog name in, it will be added automatically.
Does that make sense?
-Andy
Can I just add that Google have confirmed that they don't use bounce rate when figuring your search positions, so as long as you are just looking at this from a usability study, then that is great. I just didn't want you worrying this might impact results.
Will clicking the home button on an iPhone / iPad be classed as a bounce? I highly doubt it.
-Andy
If you just want to congratulate them Adam, then yes, the sensible thing to do is add a nofollow to the link. The alternative would be to form the link as their URL or say at the end "Click here to visit their site". Something that isn't a money keyphrase or that isn't looked upon as an obvious attempt at trying to provide a spammy link.
-Andy
This is what scares me about some 'SEO's'...
"An SEO has advised we redirect all pages to the homepage, but won't that mess up the link profile?"
Terrible advice!
I hope you have all sorted out now James.
-Andy
Hi Marco,
It all depends on what you were tracking as phrases before, and now after you have made the changes. If you were tracking for the phrase "Red Sneakers" and changed the title to "Blue Sneakers" then you would expect to see a drop with your original phrase. Have you updated your tracking to compensate for the changes?
-Andy
Hi Matthew,
I would start with a simple one, and fix the Title tag. At the moment, it says "Gerald Miller Super Lawyer: Minneapolis DWI Lawyer & Attorney". I would change this to something like "Minneapolis DWI Lawyer & Attorney | Gerald Miller". I would drop the 'super lawyer' in favor of something like "professional". That said, if people search for the phrase "Super Lawyer", then you need to re-think this.
I would also drop the Meta Keywords as Google doesn't use them at all, and worst case, they could be seen as an attempt at keyword spam. In fact, if you have these when doing a page analysis through the MOZ page grader, these come up as a negative SEO point.
Something to get you started
-Andy
Just thinking about this, it might be worth looking at the page encoding as it could be a lack or UTF-8 declaration.
Do you have the full URL with that code in it?
...this one is definitely making me grey!
I feel your pain there 
-Andy
No, it doesn't need to be unique when doing this. Google understand that a product doesn't change, just because the location does, and is how they suggest avoiding duplication issues in these circumstances.
-Andy
Hi,
If you would deem all internal pages to be of equal importance, then yes, there is no harm in this. The homepage is always set at 1.0 though.
That said, everyone always has a view of their internal pages and which they class as pass-though to get to something more important, so do keep this in mind when deciding.
-Andy
I have a few of the new TLD's and love the fact you can get something that really says what you do, but you still have to be quick. I have a live site at www.seoconsultant.guru, and got very lucky with www.changing.careers
They give some real change to the more standard .com's etc.
-Andy
Hi Matt,
Can you not remove the redirect temporarily while you sort the change of address over?
-Andy
As Karl is doing, this is what HREFLANG was made for. Something of a saving grace for many sites with this same problem.
-Andy
They are all fine to leave in there Chris. If you wish to upload the file to the root of the server instead of having the verify in there, that is perfectly acceptable.
Edit-- I should probably change the Meta Author though. What you have there might be seen as a bit of a bad practice by Google.
-Andy
Hi Becky,
You aren't likely to be penalised for this, but the benefit you can derive from ALT text will be lessened. If the picture is of a floor fan, and the ALT tag says this, there is no problem.
However, I would be saying something like "Metal Blizzard Floor Fan 12" 55W with tilt". It will help because you have more of a chance of it turning up in image searches = more traffic.
-Andy
I'm pretty sure it was February, when Yandex announced that they will no longer be using links as an SEO ranking factor. This was expected to hit March this year sometime - I am guessing this will be what has happened.
-Andy
Numbers, number, numbers.
Simply put, no. You can rank an article 1st page for a highly sought after term, if it says something that is going to perfectly answer a question. It isn't the length of the text, but the content therein.
One example always given, is "i F***ing Love Science". They don't need to write 2000-word articles in order to rank well. Strength is partly in numbers here. They can rank short articles that contain a video with seemingly little work, but Google knows just how accurately it will answer a question.
As Egol also mentioned, there is also lots of studies into the use of the correct keywords, supporting content, and then look at EAT (Expertise, Authority & Trust) and YMYL (Your Money, Your Life) and simply put, are your trustworthy enough to believe what is said, and are you enough of an expert to be making statements about the subject.
I am loving content marketing at the moment as there is a lot going on, and seeing some fantastic wins!
-Andy
Hi Kat,
I would be looking to bring everything into one site. What they are doing isn't really good for user experience, and as you said, they are competing against themselves.
It shouldn't be too difficult to do and 301 the local sites to the relevant areas within the main site.
-Andy
I had heard it was 733, and that final one is the secret!
Do you want to share an example article here, or PM me a link over? Without seeing one, I don't know what you do an don't have in there. For example something as simple as a correct / acceptable news layout, cited sources to back the article up, etc.
-Andy
Hi Lukas,
If you have a bit of informative text that is the same throughout the site, don't worry about it - as long as you have enough unique content to balance it out.
For example - if you have 2000 words on a page and 100 of these are the same on each page, it really isn't a problem.
Remember that Google doesn't have an internal duplicate penalty, but you will get hit for thin / useless content. As long as this isn't the case, you're golden.
-Andy
...im beginning to get the feeling that these links from within duplicate content although from high ranking sites are not having an effect
You are probably quite right. It doesn't sound like editorial content and the fact it is duplicated over a number of sites, only lessens any benefits you might be getting.
Without knowing what the sites are, it's difficult to give you a true judgement on what (if anything) they are doing or have the capability of doing, even after a re-written profile.
I would be looking for additional opportunities where linkbuilding is concerned. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, springs to mind - or even 10 baskets!
Look at the links that are coming back. They are from within content that you have written and not really something that was 'gained'. How are your competitors gaining links?
-Andy
Hi,
As Dirk said, you have a lot of http & https issues so you should fix these with a bit of .htaccess code, as below.
`RewriteEngine On` RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]
You also have some non-www to www issues. You can fix these in .htaccess at the same time...
`RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.` RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]
<code class="htaccess" title="in your .htaccess file">You should find this fixes a lot of your issues. Also check in your Wordpress general settings that the site is set to www.cheaptubes.com for both instances.
Let me know how you get on with these.
-Andy</code>
No need to build a second site for this purpose, and could actually end up working against you.
Create custom landing pages for each location and secure Google My Business Locations.
-Andy
Hi Gerhard,
From what you have said, this was just an initial jump that many sites see when first being indexed by Google. It is then very common for them to drop out of the SERPs again.
Sometimes referred to as the Google Dance, this has frustrated site owners for some time now.
Just carry on with the positive SEO work and I'm sure you will see it rise again
-Andy
Hi,
Ranking for an A in the page grader is the very tip of a huge iceberg.
You will need to acquire links, create amazing content, become a social diva, pay attention to site UX (Usability) and test pages with the likes of Crazy Egg to make sure that people are using your pages as you would expect.
A lot of SEO is not ranking your pages - it's about creating a user friendly site that is fast and that answers questions quickly and without fuss.
Have a read of the MOZ Beginners Guide to SEO - You will learn everything you need to get started in here.
-Andy
Hi Robert,
Do you have any external tracking setup that would confirm this for you? I'm always very cautious with always trusting results from my own desktop and like to have these verified.
-Andy
It's not so much the writing of spammy markup Richard - it's the incorrect use of it. You wouldn't use Markup to help classify a page full of businesses in a specific location in this manner. This goes against the uses that are suggested as they are not specific items.
It's a little difficult to imagine the exact setup of the site and pages without seeing them, but I would be hard pushed to say this would be a recommended technique as it goes against the uses that Google suggests.
-Andy
It's possible Gerhard, but unlikely. My money is on the initial ranking boost that many new sites see.
-Andy
Ahh I see what you mean now.
I tend not to look at text like this as something for SEO benefits, but use them for usability purposes. It is not shown until after a hover event has happened, and although it is a neat way of it being shown, it doesn't do much for the page until you hover over it.
I would look at this in the same light as tabbed content. You aren't purposefully hiding it or trying to be cloak and dagger with it, but it is only ever going to be a snippet of information, so don't rely on this sort of thing for SEO purposes.
-Andy
Hey Dan,
Glad I read to the end as I was about to suggest looking at this. A client of mine was also hit very recently with something similar and it was rogue code that was carried over from one version to another.
Glad all is sorted
-Andy
Hi,
** I myself agree that some content is poor and thin and there is a problem of plagiarism also**
This is a biggie - Page quality is a huge thing for Google and you must ensure that pages someone lands on, have a reason to exist, and answer the question they asked correctly.
If you know there are spammy links, just how spammy? Are they damaging? Do they link with money-phrases? Has there been any penalty on the site at any time? All these should be looked at (and more) when assessing a backlink profile.
If you know there are links that are so poor that they could be damaging, either ask for them to be removed, or disavow them.
-Andy
Hi Marina,
The trouble is, Markup isn't meant to be used in this manner. It is for a single item or single entity. If you had a page dedicated just to one business or chain, then it's a little different. Someone might be able to suggest a way around this but I am not aware of a way to Markup a page in the manner you are looking for.
Have a read of these examples over at Google.
-Andy
Hi,
It will eventually drop out if it is returning a 404 or you could always use the page removal tool in Webmaster Tools?
-Andy