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I would personally, but not for any SEO benefits or trying to hide anything to Google. Just because I can and stops people snooping.

-Andy

Hi Luke,

If you are looking to test with JS etc, then I can highly recommend you install the Web Developer chrome app - a very nice addition to a load of useful features.

Get it here

-Andy

Well that is mentioned on the page 3 times, so Google is clearly liking it for some reason. As to why, that is something of a mystery.

-Andy

Hi Nikolaj,

... if it is, in fact, a problem?

Well, if you are noticing poor rankings for these pages in Google, then I think the answer to this is yes.

Is it just MOZ telling you that you are stuffing, or have you had a warning or suggestion in Search Console from Google? Or just poorer rankings?

I honestly think I would need to see the page in order to really have a look at what is going on and how it might be perceived, but it sounds like it could be a problem.

... we can change it so it's not listed with Champagne on all the products, but I believe it would make the usability suffer

By the sounds of it, I am not sure this is the case. If people know they are on a page about champagne, then I am not sure that removing this word from so many listing, would, in fact, cause you a problem.

-Andy

Hi,

Are you using Yoast for your SEO? I would have a look at the Post Types and Taxonomies in the Titles and Meta's section as you can set rules for noindexing, if you wish. This would certainly allow you to have the attachment pages but noindex them.

Alternatively, install / make use of the gallery functions on Wordpress. Not knowing your site, I don't know if this would work for you though.

-Andy

Hi Nikolaj,

Thank you for sharing the page.

I do see why this might be a concern and if I were doing this, I would change the text at the top first - 11 occurrences in this small text area is far too much and will be seen by Google as such.

Then there are the listings, and this is where it gets a little more tricky because I don't believe you need to remove everything here - but I would do something with each Champagne title. If I take that first bottle as an example:

Champagne - Brut Origine - Halve

There is no need to have Champagne here - go to the page for that bottle and it doesn't say this. It would be much easier to read if you remove Champagne from each of these headings as the word just gets in the way - you already know you are looking at Champagne, so no need to keep putting it.

Then you have:

Fra Champagne Henri Mondi - again, there is no need to have Champagne here because it is just Henri Mondis, not Champagne Henri Mondi.

Do this with each listing and your page will be much healthier, have a lower word count and with that, much less keyword stuffing.

You were absolutely right to check on this.

-Andy

Gary has pretty much hit the nail on the head. What you are proposing doesn't sound like it would cause any issues. Google are smart enough to know that sometimes there is a crossover of content. It might be a different story if every page was the same, but as I always advise in these situations, use a little common sense and think:

• Does the content add something beneficial?
• Why is the page being produced?
• Can what is being proposed, enhanced so it it not copied verbatim?

Make sure the page is well produced, questions clear and answers concise.

-Andy

Google have said that they will announce big updates, but for the most part, they update about twice a day so there is always something happening.

It does look like something has been going on recently through - but nothing confirmed.

Cheers,

Andy

It's always a tricky one when changes have been made and reverted Joel. There is an element of waiting for things to settle down again, while a part of you wants to carry on and make more improvements - but this can work against you.

It 'looks' like Google is trying to figure out where you should be, but I don't think it is anything more sinister than that. It's certainly not a penalty at work as they give you a hit and rarely see movement like this.

I would monitor the stats for another couple of weeks and then see where you stand. If it levels out, you at least know where you need to be heading and what changes to make next.

-Andy

Try not to focus too much on getting an exact phrase in if it doesn't fit well. I would much rather read 'Barcelona, a beautiful city' than something that takes it out of context or reduces the quality of the read.

By all means, build some of the content to get a couple of exact phrases in, but don't just shoehorn them in - make it sound as natural as possible.

-Andy

I think a lot with this is going to come down to what is powering the forums.

That said, looking at one of your pages: http://violintutorpro.com/topic/shoulder-rest-search/, it has a friendly URL & the page Title is what you would expect it to be. Also, the page is indexed.

The page isn't set to noindex and I don't see anything else that would concern me. From here, it's going to be about building up trust and, ideally, links as well.

-Andy

Hi,

No, there is no issue in what you are doing. It has long been understood that what you are doing is a good solution for just these sorts of circumstances.

As long as it is clear you aren't trying to pass link equity across just for SEO benefits, it sounds like a good solution.

-Andy

In the interest of best practice, this is still something I would do. Remember that a rel=canonical is only a suggestion to Google. Even though they say they will do their best to follow the recommendation, this isn't a guarantee like a 301.

I would pay attention to the page title as well because even if someone doesn't arrive at a page via Google, presumably they can browse to it? If they do, they will want to look at the browser tab and see something in there.

It isn't a question I have been asked before, so never tested it - gut feeling is telling me to do the work I'm afraid.

-Andy

Try not to focus too much on this, but are you planning on the keyword for a page title or something similar?

If it is just part of the content, as long as it explains what you are talking about, then you are all good.

If it is for a page title, then it needs to be something you want to rank for and that also explains the page well.

-Andy

I wouldn't say it's necessarily normal, but it certainly isn't uncommon. I do see this sort of thing quite a lot, and oddly enough, I see it most on internal pages.

Is there on-going work happening on the site? Are changes being made frequently? Have you also tried other tracking apps, as I do know that some are not quite as accurate as others and report differently.

-Andy

I have yet to see Google index every page of a site. They tend not to index pages that they don't think meet the criteria, so unless it was something like 90% weren't being indexed, I wouldn't worry about it. There are so many reasons that Google won't index a page.

You will also find that over time, if Google attributes more trust to the site, that more pages will be indexed.

Of course, you can do things to improve your changes, such as making sure Google can crawl all pages, check to see there are no bottlenecks anywhere and the big one - make sure your content is amazing. As long as the site is the best it can be, over time the number of indexed pages will increase.

Remember - the sitemap is not a guarantee that pages will be indexed. It just helps Google crawl your site.

-Andy

Do you mean from a penalty point of view?

Google can still crawl and see what is on a page with a noindex flag, but it just won't index it. It doesn't guarantee that duplicate content won't still be an issue for you. This is one of those areas when it comes to Panda that people try. Some just noindex pages and have success with them, others need to remove them altogether.

-Andy

You can prevent Google from crawling the site through the robots.txt rather than the .htaccess Will.

-Andy

Hi Aron,

I think I have misunderstood your question. Apologies for that.

It sounds like a bit of tweaking is required for the menu. Is the site built in Wordpress? I have encountered this as well and I had to set the menu links to custom URL's and then add some code to the .htaccess file as well.

Are you able to give an example of the URL after you click a link? If should (I assume) scroll down to that part of the page instead? PM me here if you wish and I will be happy to take a look.

-Andy

Can you PM me the URL Aron? I could do with seeing exactly what is going on.

-Andy

Hi Marcel,

Please have a look at this similar post here. You will find lots of useful information.

http://moz.com/community/q/moving-main-site-from-http-to-https-seeking-quick-items-to-consider

****Does this change impact organic search results since the URL changes? ****

In theory, it should be a positive move. Last year Google advised this was to be a new positive ranking signal.

Is a simple 301 on the highest level enough to keep all of our positions with every page?

I would advise you do this through htaccess. The code below should work fine for you. However, add it and then do your testing.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

Are there any other possible issues we might think about before deciding?

Check how internal images are referenced and don't continue to point to http. The same goes with external resources like Google Fonts.

-Andy

I'm surprised to see a site like that these days - especially with Google being so hot on best practice matters.

Imagine you are one of Google manual site inspectors - what would you think if you saw that? I am pretty sure it wouldn't be anything good.

**...when really it just looks like cloaking. **

That's exactly what it is. No good can come from trying to hide page content in this manner.

There is nothing on this page / site that would inspire trust, and if you have no trust, you have no business. Scroll down the page and there is a huge white space.

Think user experience.

It sounds to me like you might have already made your mind up on this and just want clarification, so I hope you decide to move away from this and create an exiting site that is going to help bring conversions.

-Andy

Hi,

2. Disavow links and domain. Does disavowing a domain = all the links from the same domain are disavow?

Yes, I would be disavowing at a domain level (not even subdomain) with a view to blocking everything you find.

How have you been gathering link data? Webmaster Tools? Ahrefs? Majestic? OSE?

Ideally you need to create one master list of everything you can find and start from there. It isn't going to be a quick fix though because if you have been caught by Penguin, you wont get out of any penalty until it is re-run again. All you can do is prepare for when that run happens.

If you haven't yet been caught by Penguin, then you would be saving yourself a lot of worry by getting this resolved before the next refresh happens.

-Andy

No probs Patrick. Sometimes it's unavoidable and would depend a lot more on the overall quality / trust of the site in general. When you say devalued, in this case the duplicate content would likely just be ignored - is this what you mean?

That's not to say that everyone should go out and duplicate chunks of content - continue to focus heavily on making the content as good as it can possibly be.

-Andy

Hi Jay,

Do you have any dates that you can refer to in Analytics that show drop that might coincide with a penalty / algorithm update?

-Andy

Hi,

Have you checked to see if these pages are linked internally or externally from anywhere else? This could be causing issues for Google, but shouldn't.

When did you last request the URL's were removed? And did you check back to see that the notice said they had been removed?

-Andy

If the pages don't fall within the international element of the site, or aren't covered by HREFLANG, then look at the pages that are being caught as duplication. Are they required pages? Are they there just as filler content / doorway pages? Could the pages be noindexed? Is there an opportunity to set a canonical for them to avoid duplication?

-Andy

Well, you could decimate most of the site and fix many issues, but would this be enough to pull it back for you?

Of those that would remain, would you consider them to be more authoritative posts? Would they stand up in the face of Panda without issue?

-Andy

Link building for any site is a huge subject - certainly not something you can cover here.

However, your best links are going to come from amazing content / linkable assets. If you have something that your niche are going to enjoy reading, then you will find links will happen.

If you are happy performing outreach, you can speed this process up and let key influencers know what you have, but tread carefully... If you just started to Tweet someone you have never spoken to before and asked for links, it can be taken badly and you can ruin your chances for the future.

Here are a few resources to read:

-- MOZ beginners guide to link building -- Backlinkto -- Point Blank SEO -- Post Penguin Link Building (Disclaimer... This is my site)

Hopefully you will get some good pointers from there.

-Andy

Hi Yiannis,

I tend to add these in as an advisory to my clients because for the most part, and unless I see something specific, the results have absolutely no effect on SEO. If they wish to act on them, it is for their developers to handle.

I don't argue my corner really - never had to. I just tell them like it is - the site is rendering fine in everything and with no issues, so fix errors if you have the time and resources.

As I said, unless I spot something that is an actual problem, then it tends to just get bypassed.

-Andy

Hi Dave,

You aren't really missing anything as one point you make here...

How do we therefore have 1 page that talks about all kinds of great stuff about the "Rugged smartphone" but one that also targets rugged handheld, rugged android device etc etc?

You have kind of answered your own question here. Of course, your Page Title has a limited number of words available to you, so you need to focus heavily on the page content itself. You want to talk about rugged phones, that is fine - mention in detail, Android devices, iPhones, link out to reputable sources as citations, build supporting content and any of your own insights.

Use these other keywords in the page, but don't overuse them as that will land you in trouble.

There is no secret really, just a good dollop of research and writing - if you target the phrase 'Rugged Handset' you will find Google can return your page even though this isn't mentioned in the title. G is very good at matching searches with intent and will pick up on what you talk about.

-Andy

Hi Rosemary,

Is Google penalizing my client for this?

Does it look like there is any penalty going on?

What you need to do is add a rel=alternate from the desktop location pages to the mobile versions and a rel=canonical from the mobile page back to the desktop version. This should remedy all duplication issues and send Google the correct signals at the same time.

What Google says...

1. On the desktop page, add a special link rel=”alternate” tag pointing to the corresponding mobile URL. This helps Googlebot discover the location of your site’s mobile pages.
2. On the mobile page, add a link rel=”canonical” tag pointing to the corresponding desktop URL.

You can read the information you need that matches your separate page format here on Google.

This should fix all issues.

-Andy

The best thing you could do Dave is decide on what you want to write, but don't focus on keywords too heavily otherwise it could sound very odd. Look at the subject as a whole and delve in.

Here are a few articles that will give you some ideas...

• Moz
• Kiss Metrics
• Quick Sprout

Just keep in mind that you are writing for your audience, not Google. Research your subject heavily as this will help make the work more accurate.

With regards the keywords, you will need to do some keyword research and add in supporting content. For example, if you are talking about Cats, you would talk about different breeds, life span, history, etc.

-Andy

Hi,

Have you had a look at installing Wordpress under Windows? There are also alternatives to Wordpress if you wish to look at these.

I'm not aware of a workaround otherwise - it isn't something I have ever had to do, but someone else might chip in with ideas.

-Andy

Hi Liam,

To enforce a no trailing slash policy sitewide, you need to do this in the .htaccess file. You do this by adding the following:

**`RewriteCond%{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-d RewriteRule^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]`**

If you wanted to enforce a trailing slash policy, you would instead add this.

RewriteCond%{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-f RewriteRule^(.*[^/])$ /$1/[L,R=301]

-Andy

OK so first because some are indexed, if you block access, they will never be removed.

What you will need to do is add a noindex tag to the pages but don't block access to them so that Google can honour the noindex. Remove the pages via Search Console and once you have confirmed these are all removed from the index, you will be good to then block access via robots.txt.

As CleverPhD said, ideally you don't want pages in the index that can't be crawled, but it isn't likely to cause a penalty of any sort (I have a client with about 70-80 blocked - long story - no issues in 12 months) if you are stuck because of Megento - Perhaps research to see how others have got around this?

-Andy

For this type of link, yes, that can be a little risky as it's a full page redirect (probably seen as a 301) rather than a textual link.

If it does turn out to be nofollowed (I would need to see the link to confirm) then it's a little different as link juice doesn't flow and that then satisfies Google, but I would err on the side of caution. Unless there is a good reason to pay for a premium link (more traffic, etc), then I wouldn't really bother.

-Andy

No worries Dan

-Andy

Hi,

Is this terrible SEO wise?

Not really - it just means that Google can see that there is a page they can't access so are informing you of this. There is no negative penalty that is going to come from this. If there were old pages that are now 404's then it would be a different story.

I just want to be sure of something - were the pages previously open to Google? Are they currently indexed?

-Andy

Hi Peter,

First of all, I would ensure the page is noindexed as this will prevent issues. As long as the page is followed (don't set nofollow) then page rank will flow from this. All noindex does is prevent Google from showing the page. However, this will only benefit other pages linked from there as you will get pass-through page rank - Google isn't going to rank a noindexed page or one that is just duplication.

Is there a way I can build quality links to it that benefit my overall websites DA

So to answer your question, yes.

Alternatively, try and get people to link to your homepage?

-Andy

Hi,

I can't see any reason why Google would object to this. Mobile and desktop sites are often very different and have different elements showing - in fact, I can't think of many where they are identical in terms of showing everything.

My own site hides elements from Google via mobile (option via the theme) and I make good use of this as you don't want a huge page on mobile - it's about quick conversions and getting the point across on a much smaller screen.

-Andy

Hi,

Have you noindexed & nofollowed the site and pages? I would also suggest you block all crawlers by disallowing access in the robots.txt file.

Do you know if this has all been done?

-Andy

Hi Todd,

Just to check, is the site setup in terms of Google listing / local? Have you used any Structured Data on the site? Are you pulling in reviews from the likes of Yelp?

I doubt that something running on a subdomain is going to be the cause of your issues, but without delving into it, I can't be sure.

What sort of search terms are you trying to improve the rankings for?

-Andy

I would ask on the Squarespace forums then rather than here - you are more likely to find others who have had these same issues and if there is anything more up to date, you will find out.

-Andy

Interesting tool I haven't seen before

-Andy

Hi Kathiravan,

Google's view on this is never to hide important information if it is something that you or your visitors rely on.

Lets say that you have 100 words that explain everything a potential buyer would need and then hid a further 300 words, but available after a click, then Google would assume that what is hidden isn't as important. With what you have on the attached image, I would question if you have given enough information there.

I like to look at this as what is best for the prospective buyer and give them as much as they need. Keep the important information high up the page and then depending on what else you need to include, you can decide if hiding it behind a tab keeps the page clearer, or can you add the full content below the fold as a scroll?

There are many factors with eCommerce sites - it's a much bigger discussion.

-Andy

Have you thought about using Cloudflare? From what I can understand, it can help block malicious traffic.

There is no telling exactly what Google is objecting to - if the site keeps dropping, this could be a major issue.

-Andy

That sounds very likely Matt. As we know, Google is doing a lot more with local results now. We now have to contend with 4 ads and then a local pack. Wait until we get the ads in the local pack as well!

With it only being fairly minimal drops, I think you would have to also take into account that it might not be what you are doing, but what other sites have done. If any other sites have done a big push, it might just have pushed you down a little. Always a difficult call that one though, but I do see it a lot.

-Andy

No problem at all.

Pop back if you have other questions

-Andy