Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi James,

A brand search is likely to throw up international pages as it is very different from a search term - this is much more specific and handled differently because you are using sub-domains rather than a folder structure. This is (almost) another separate entity in Google's eyes.

It is possible that over time Google will address this, but I am not sure there is anything more than you have already done that will make more differences.

Have you done a new fetch as Google? Are you sure HREFLANG is all working correctly? You can use this to test it.

-Andy

Rich Snippets Rich snippets—detailed information intended to help users with specific queries. For example, the snippet for a restaurant might show the average review and price range; the snippet for a recipe page might show the total preparation time, a photo, and the recipe’s review rating; and the snippet for a music album could list songs along with a link to play each song.
From this page: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en

Schema HTML tags, that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers.
From this page: http://schema.org/

Rich Snippets are Google's own wording for the snippet of information that can be given to them when using a markup from the likes of Schema.org (Microdata).

I hope that explains this a little?

-Andy

So your saying that if i use 'who is privacy on' for the new site, it shouldn't have a negative effect for that sites seo

Absolutely. I have a wide range of clients, some of who like to hide their personal details and others who don't. None have any negative effects for either. Google is more interested in how good a site is, rather than who the admin contact is.

Can I just add, if there is actual test data that I haven't seen, I would be very interested to have a look.

-Andy

Hi,

Have you had a read through the Adwords account suspension page here? It might give you a few ideas of things to try. You could also contact them and see if you can talk through your specific issues.

-Andy

My guess is because this is a dynamic rather than static page. Google doesn't do well trying to index sites that have ? modifiers. Regards, Andy

Always noindex these where you can Martin as it avoids lots of duplicate pages being created. Yoast makes this nice and easy

-Andy

Hi Mark,

Did you notice any actual drop in the SERP's while you had the keywords in last time? Or has the removal of these seen an increase? Or is everything stayed the same?

If noting has changed, I would be tempted not to add them back in again. You are right that too many keywords can cause issues (depending on where they are, keyword cannibalisation being a problem), but the re-introduction (or addition) of many keywords might also harm you if there is an algorithm update that looks at this aspect.

When linking out to a merchants website, don't do this with anchor-rich text. Do something like " Visit Merchant - www.merchantname.com" and make the URL the link.

-Andy

What more can be said - nailed by EGOL

-Andy

Have a watch of this video by Matt Cutts, where he explains that the one thing people should NOT focus on is keyword density.

Andy

noindex,follow is common for these pages. You want Google to be able to navigate their way around the links and pages, but letting tag pages in create lots of additional and unnecessary pages into the index. You never find these pages ranking in Google even when they are open.

Choose a good, logical category structure, promote your blog posts and the pages will all be found.

-Andy

What you want to be careful of it falling into the trap of keyword duplication / keyword cannibalisation. This is why it's important to ensure every page is well focussed.

To answer your question, Google only really wants to deliver one of your pages for a desired term, so it is very likely that the homepage would drop if you were to optimise the internal pages. That said, it's not always a bad thing, because someone searches for "Cheap Phone Plans" and are taken to a page just about that, can help convert more readily - as long as you do the work to the page, of course.

-Andy

I would say this is a resounding no to both questions here Dan. I have never seen anything that would suggest this and can imagine it would be full of problems for Google to try and do.

Use WHOIS privacy if you don't want anyone to see who the site belongs to, but that is as far as your concerns need go

-Andy

Hi,

It is very possible that more people are clicking on your adwords ad, as mathamatix has said. Have you noticed a drop in organic positions? Also check Google Webmaster Tools to make sure there are no manual penalties that have coincided with this. It's unlikely, but always worth covering all bases.

Just looking at your numbers though, I would guess your adwords ad is taking away from organic.

-Andy

As Chris said, Google has recently changed how long your titles can be, but rather than give you a definite number of words you can use, you now have a number of pixels. The general consensus here is that you have 512 pixels.

Screaming Frog Spider has just updated to a newer version that now includes how long your titles are in pixels, as well as words. I don't know if there are other tools that do this yet, as I haven't searched, but they do a free version that you can download and will crawl up to 500 pages of a site.

You can download it here.

-Andy

Hi Marc,

If the site has only been live for about a week, I doubt very much anything you have done to the site has caused this. It is not uncommon for Google to rank a new site highly for a few days, then you drop into a bottomless pit again. This is only while Google is assessing the site. I would doubt that you could do anything to fix that in such a short space of time.

-Andy

Hi Lewis,

As this new URL contains some of the same products/content as www.example.com/double-beds, where do we stand from an SEO/duplicate content point of view? Are we at risk of a duplicate content slap?

This is very possible. At any point if duplicate content is seen, there is a chance of it counting towards a penalty.

However, I am assuming that the long search results are not intended for the search engines? You could happily noindex,nofollow all of these and remove the issue altogether.

-Andy

Deep crawl has a very nice option to show you all external links on your sites.

You find this under 'Validation --> All External Links'.

-Andy

Well, if you don't fancy trying to become a Google news publisher (it is pretty easy to do), then there is no guaranteed way to ensure that you are going to get a spot in one of the first 3 listings, or included at all.

This is going to be based on a number of factors, such as relevance to the search query, freshness of the article, how many others have written about this before you (if any) and if you are actually seen as a reputable news source.

I have only set others up to become news sources in the past, so can't offer any additional insights to this, but happy to take a peek at one of your articles to see if I can offer further help?

-Andy

Without knowing the site structure, or seeing how the duplication occurs, it might be a little awkward, but you could set a canonical tag from 3 of the pages to 1 primary so that Google doesn't get confused about what should be returned for a search result.

You could also stipulate how landlords should title their pages and just monitor as an update happens.

-Andy

Hi Aniket,

I am planning to use rel=cannonical on the multiple pages pointing back to the new page. Will it serve the purpose?

If I understand correctly what you are looking to do, then yes, this will do the job nicely for you. Rel=canonical is often used on multiple pages to point back to one primary to help remove duplication issues in Google's eyes, but still allows you to have the pages in place.

However, if you have lots of these static pages that just exist and are no longer serving any real purpose, then consider 301ing them instead.

-Andy

You might need to give people a little more information on this Ravi. Is the site live at all yet? What system are you using? What products are you selling? Does the system come with a setup guide?

-Andy

Hi Reece,

A lot of sites do this and I think it is pretty much common place these days. All you have to remember is that the important information that you want Google to see, should be the paragraph that is shown on load.

Just remember though, that the more you hide, the less that Google is likely to see the page as an authority if all they are left with is just a single paragraph.

That said, build the page for visitors rather than search engines and make it as user friendly as you can.

-Andy

Hey Toby,

So many possibilities as to why this could be.

However, I would not use SEMrush right at this second because they recently changed their algorithm and with that, they show a lot of site pages that have low content ratios, when they actually aren't too bad.

An example... I am doing some work on a client site this week and next. 2 weeks ago, they ran a crawl and it showed just over 300 pages with low content ratio. Last week it showed over 1,400. After they spoke to them, it does indeed seem to be down to their update.

I would instead suggest trying Deepcrawl. Why? Because you are able to adjust thresholds (as shown in the attachment) that give you control over a healthy threshold rather than something that is just too sensitive. You also get a lot more useful data (IMO) so at a glance, you can see what is going on.

Outside of this, it is always difficult to try and put your finger on why someone ranks above you and if you put two identical sites side-by-side who have identical DA, then you can start by looking at the trust the site has within Google. The article at Backlinko is a very interesting read and I suggest grabbing a coffee and going through it.

If you haven't already, download ScreamingFrog because this is seen as a de-facto standard for any SEO. Something every SEO has in their toolbox.

I would also suggest reading this article by Bill Slawski on how Google may classify sites as low quality. Some great insights in there.

Let me know if there is anything else.

-Andy

BtnFV3B

maybe I should try re-establishing robots.txt and a site map and seeing if Google recrawls the old domain and picks up the 301's to the new one.

If you can do this, then it is definitely worth doing.

-Andy

Hi Mark,

You can do this with URL Profiler. it will analyse the site / pages you tell it using Google Pagespeed.

-Andy

Hi,

For the most part, Google can find their way well around dynamic pages with few problems. There are always going to be exceptions, but this tends to be when there are lots of parameters to the URL structure.

As long as it is pretty simple, you shouldn't have any problems.

-Andy

Hi,

I do mean use robots.txt to block crawlers.

What you need to do is first noindex the site in question and then after a period of time, you can disallow it via the robots.txt.

The reason you do it this way is because right now you will have pages from this site indexed in Google - these need to be removed first. You can either do this with the noindex META and wait for Google to spider the site and action all of the noindex requests, or to speed things up, noindex the page and then remove it with Webmaster Tools.

If you don't do this, you are then just blocking the site from Google ever seeing it, so you will probably find that pages remain in the index - which you don't want as this is duplicate content.

-Andy

Hi Carl,

Am I right in assuming that you have http://store.bmiresearch.com/newzealand/power & http://store.bmiresearch.com/bangladesh/power to try and satisfy results in those countries?

If you want to avoid duplication issues, you need to be implementing an international SEO strategy and make use of HFREFLANG.

Here are a few resources that I would suggest you have a read though.

• MOZ - Learn International SEO
• MOZ - International SEO Checklist
• Google - Using HREFLANG

However, don't worry if after this is done that they are picked up as duplication because that will just be MOZ notifying you of the pages rather than actually saying it's an issue.

I hope these help

-Andy

To be fair, Google have never said they don't want to see just blog comments, so right now, people are making use of this and if you find blogs in your niche, form a good comment and a sensible link, then you can still benefit.

However, what will happen further down the line is anyone's guess. Google have said they want to see links back to sites that deserve to be there, so as a long term strategy, this is surely one that won't stand up to the test of time.

The best thing to do is write great content and publish it on your own blog and then seed this out to others in your industry and hopefully they will find it that good, that they will want to link back to it again.

Andy

I would guess a few that would be hard work would be...

Sex
Porn
Homepage
Google
Click Here
Viagra

Some of the highest paying Adsense keywords can be seen here

Regards,

Andy

I am completely with Daniel here - IP's can trigger this. I know you say you don't think this is IP related, but there are many other instances of this happening. Why Google might favour some over others is anyones guess, but this is where I would place my bets.

Hi Chris,

You are correct in thinking that commas can be problematic. I tend to get around this by creating a short phrase that doesn't require any and then either use a pipe " | " or hypen " - " to separate this before my company name.

Try not to focus too much on what the competition are doing and stick to good-old best practice. You don't want a spammy sounding title and instead something that creates a short phrase. For example, you don't really want something that would say "Link Building, Linkbuilding, Linkbuilding Services, Linkbuilding Professionals". Instead, create something like "Link building services and co-citation creation - iNet SEO Ltd".

The more you can make it read like a short sentence, the better.

-Andy

Just disallow in Robots. No need to do anything else.

-Andy

Hi Mike,

I think I understand what you are saying and there is no problem with doing this, and it is in fact a recommended practice.

If the page has changed, there is no harm in changing the URL, site focus, Title, Description etc, and have it as a new page. A 301 from /business to /enterprise would be the best way to handle this.

-Andy

Hi Tom,

The links you refer to are in the Blogroll of the site - something common with Wordpress based sites and generally serve no good purpose.

If they are all like this, you have no idea how they came to be there, and serve no purpose, then the best thing to do (in the event of lack of action when contacting them) is to disavow the sites through Google Webmaster Tools. This will ensure you have nothing more to do with the sites in question and Google will know you want nothing to do with them either.

How they came to be there is anyone's guess, but sounds like they need to be removed.

Are you familiar with disavowing and how it works?

-Andy

--Edit. Updated for typos

Never an easy question and I have no doubt you will be scratching your head a little after everyone has contributed because each SEO has a different way of charging, different rates and different strategies.

The only things I can tell you that will be (should be) the top of the lists for any SEO are, in no order:

• Content
• Authorship / Rich Snippets
• Links
• Page Quality

These are all based on some of the latest algorithm updates that Google is targeting heavily.

As for what to spend - how long is the proverbial piece of string? $99 might be a really good price if you are getting loads of really great work completed, but in reality, how much manual work will be done for this price?

At £250, that is a low-end daily rate with £750 being something towards the top end of daily rates (top being around £900 per day).

Try and get examples of past work and get a detailed breakdown of all of the manual work that is to be carried out. Steer clear of anyone who tells you they will build links to directories or do article marketing or that uses tools to complete important tasks.

Hope that helps a little.

Andy

**any suggestions? **

Yes, don't use them for link building. Create wonderful content on your own site, make it very link-worthy and then start plugging reputable sites in your niche to see if you can get them to reference you.

Article marketing as it used to be no longer works.

-Andy

Hi Michael,

Unless it is very clearly explained, a menu link to another external site, is considered pretty bad form. When someone clicks on your menu, they expect to then stay on your site, not be taken off somewhere else.

I am unsure if this would be a direct cause for any decline in ranking, but it is certainly something that needs to be taken care of.

There are so many reasons for a little decline in the SERPs though. Anything from others doing SEO (so knocking you down) to a change to an algorithm. If it is only subtle, I wouldn't think it is a penalty though.

-Andy

Hi,

Internal linking can be a fantastic way to build internal page authority and to give more emphasis to particular pages.

In a simple way, here is how it works...

-- Create amazing article related to the page you are trying to rank for
-- High up in the copy, create a target anchor text that leads to the page you are trying to boost. Make the anchor text the same / very similar to your desired phrase - but make sure it makes sense.

Have a read of this article over at eConsultancy. This goes through it in a lot more detail and will show you exactly what you need to be doing.

I personally have had some astounding successes with this. The article you create should be better than the norm though. You want something that will get shared socially and hopefully, result in some backlinks too.

-Andy

Hi,

Always awkward to speculate on issues like this because there could be a problem we aren't aware of because we can't see it.

However, as Moosa said, I would also give it a little time as these things are often just part of the 'Google Dance' while it is decided what to do with the site and new content. Your Robots.txt file certainly isn't going to be the issue here.

If you wish to share the site and URL's, then we can take more of a look.

-Andy

Hi Akhilesh,

What you want to be doing is looking at Linkable Assets - these can be images, graphics, tools, research studies, articles, and indeed anything else that would be considered link-worthy. They are a reason someone will want to link through to your website. This sometimes means getting creative with your thinking.

• What does your site offer and is it different / better than other competitors?
• Where are your competitors getting their links from?
• Do you write blog posts?
• Are you active on Social Media?
• What makes you stand out - if nothing, then create something that does.

It can take a bit of work to get there, but once you have some ideas under your belt and you get into the flow, you will want to get sharing this and perhaps even look at doing some outreach to other sites who would be interested in mentioning you.

-Andy

I would start by getting myself onto a new host for starters! But as Barry said, don't worry about PR as this means absolutely nothing in terms of where you get found in the SERPs.

There will be a million and one reason why this might be, but I always start with any e-commerce site by looking at the content. For this example, I looked at the following page:

http://www.grandcrayon.ca/hlr26411-hilroy-coil-scrapbook-26411.html

There isn't a lot of content on there, but if you look at the description "Studio scrapbook features durable manila paper pages and oversized coil binding for easy viewing without tearing." in Google, there are another 23 sites using this as well.

Another example page has this description "Jumbo straight straws are designed for use with cups that hold up to 32 oz. Straws are translucent and individually wrapped to keep them sanitary." and in Google, this shows another 19 sites using it.

So, as a first take away, look at writing some unique content, although I appreciate this could be a big job.

Looking at your site in Open Site Explorer, you are lacking on some good links, so I would be looking to expand on this as well. If you don't have much in terms of site power, internal pages will suffer.

As I was on your site, I noticed it is quite slow, and after testing this, it isn't great (although I have seen a lot worse). Google doesn't like slow sites and it is bad for usability too. When testing in Page Speed Insights, it does give you some suggestions.

Do your internal pages not feature in Google anywhere?

-Andy

If you want to write great content today, then you need to not worry too much about one key phrase, but look for additional synonyms to fit into your content. However, don't just add these in - build them into your content and write more if required.

Take the word "clothing". Additional words (synonyms) that could also be used that related to clothing are "dress, clothe, garb, tog, garment, apparel". Try and fit these in somewhere to give your content some depth and variety.

Synonyms of man (men) could be male, gent, gentleman, youth, boy - I am sure there are loads more.

Just remember that there are billions of other pages of content out there - you need to be trying to make yours stand out from others as much as you can.

-Andy

Hi Becky,

What you need to be careful of, is over optimising with ALT tags. This can lead to issues, but what you suggest is correct. John Mueller from Google had this to say about ALT tags...

"alt attribute should be used to describe the image. So if you have an image of a big blue pineapple chair you should use the alt tag that best describes it, which is alt=”big blue pineapple chair.”** title attribute** should be used when the image is a hyperlink to a specific page. The title attribute should contain information about what will happen when you click on the image. For example, if the image will get larger, it should read something like, title=”View a larger version of the big blue pineapple chair image.”

If the image someone can click on is the rear view of a cupboard, then say this in the ALT tag. However, it is worthwhile remembering that you need to be descriptive with these.

Here is a great article on the subject.

-Andy

Hi Andrew,

You need to be editing your .htaccess file to forward from one to another if Wordpress isn't getting it right.

In the Wordpress General Settings, just make sure that both URL's are set to your preferred version (www or non-www) and if this doesn't work, a bit of .htaccess code will cure it for you.

Add this to your .htaccess if required:

<code>RewriteEngineOn RewriteBase/ RewriteCond%{HTTP_HOST}^www\.(.*)$ [NC] RewriteRule^(.*)$ http://%1/$1 [R=301,L]

-Andy</code>

No more needed than EGOL's answer

Hi,

No, you only need to have one lot of sitemaps. All major search engines work off the same protocol standard, so you don't need to worry about this.

-Andy

Hi,

No, I wouldn't do this as a link building strategy.

Link building needs to be thought about carefully and just putting badges on sites is unlikely to do anything because they will probably end up at the bottom of a page - and that kind of link generally gets ignored by Google.

Sorry, not a good one to go after.

-Andy

Hi Chris,

There are so many possibilities to what is causing this that is could be impossible to cover all points here.

For example, how old is your site - how old are your competitors sites? Which site carries the most trust in the eyes of Google? Who has the most unique and useful content? Have you ever ranked well but now might have a penalty?

-Andy