Welcome to the Q&A Forum

As Martijn said, I can't see that DA would be affected by CTR. This is more likely affected by links and how Google perceives you as an authority site. I am sure there will be lots of other factors that play a part in this also.

-Andy

Hi Dylan,

I haven't worked much with the technical side of Shopify, so wasn't aware of this. Very prohibitive though.

I hope you can get this sorted OK.

-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 Tom,

I would not advise taking the second option. You only want to redirect when there is a situation where the 301 takes someone to a logical place (similar / same page elsewhere), rather than lots of random ones pointing to a single page.

Your first option is the logical route.

-Andy

Hi Tommy,

You can have a default page that has nothing attached to it, which sounds like what you should do here, but I am pretty sure that saying both "en-gb" and "en-us" point to the same page, would defeat the object somewhat.

-Andy

Hi Conor,

If visitors are correctly redirected to the mobile page already, you don't really need to do anything else. If there is a rule that takes someone to the mobile site (when on a mobile platform), that is pretty much all you need to do. Sticking a canonical tag in there will confuse issues.

-Andy

Hi Tommy,

You could always make use of HREFLANG, or a sitemap clusters, but the Google page here explains everything pretty clearly and would solve your issues.

It does mean additional work for you, but the best way that springs to mind that also has longevity built in.

-Andy

Hi,

If you are concerned about what might happen after correcting the manual penalty, then you could always do some ground work first and build more more positive links before beginning the disavow process, but in theory, correcting the manual penalty shouldn't see your ranks drop - I have never seen that happen myself; well, not outside a bit of readjustment time.

However, what happens if Google sees fit to change the threshold of the penalty and it affects more of your site?

I certainly wouldn't leave it, but I would look at ways to correct it.

-Andy

You are correct Mark, and this is where link networks come from.

However, I can't see any area of what you are trying to do as being a major issue but perhaps someone else who has been in just this situation would like to chip in? I personally would just go ahead and launch the new site, but as I can see a few differences in your situation and my own, perhaps a few precautions would be a good bet.

-Andy

I could have sworn I replied to this Mark. My apologies.

From what you say, this sounds like an ideal candidate for a rebrand and there is no problem with having both domains live. Neither is going to be duplicating the other so there will be no problem. As I said, I have 8 currently and Google pretty much loves them all. Unique content throughout.

How long are you thinking before retiring the old site? Will you be relying on that in the SERPs for the time being? You could always noindex the whole site if you wanted Google to stop using it but still be there for people when they land?

-Andy

Hi Dylan,

When you upload a sitemap, you get the option to state which one, and the location. If you were to upload your own and then point to it, this should be fine. Just remember to either remove the auto-generated one and never add it.

Are you able to add to the robots file? If so, you can point to your site map in there too. However, if this is already in, don't add your own otherwise Google will see two and inconsistencies will occur.

Are they unwilling to turn this off for you?

-Andy

No worries Bob. Ignore my original suggestion then.

Alan has some good suggestions for you to follow

-Andy

Hi Kylie,

i can can understand your frustration here. A have had lots of clients in the same boat. Negative SEO seems to be quite prevalent.

i would just go through the disavow process and get rid of unnatural or  problematic links. Google said they are pretty good at spotting when it's a target attack, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

-Andy

I'm assuming that this is a Wordpress site (more info would be useful) and a common issue is category pages causing problems due to them showing the same excerpts over and over. No indexing them gets around this.

if I have misread the type of issue this is, then of course, this doesn't apply. With this being posted in blogging and content, this was my assumption.

A URL to look at would I'm sure confirm more of the problem.

-Andy

It could be Bob. I always advise that category pages are noindex / follow to avoid issues.

if you are using Wordpress and Yoast, this is just a setting.

-Andy

FYI, Page Titles and H1 tags are not the same thing. This isn't the problem.

-Andy

Hi,

when the site was created, there should have been some way to change the page titles on a per page basis. Do you know how to do this at all?

its an easy fix once you get to grips with them.

-Andy

They have a pretty good FAQ, but you want to be asking questions relevant to site satisfaction and ease of use. What's the aim of the site? Can you find this product easily using just the search box? What message is your eye drawn to first?

Those sorts of things

-Andy

Would you not be able to handle the human element yourself Then look at something like Escrow.com to handle the sale? I have done this myself in the past for my clients.

-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 Bruce,

This is the first place to start your reading: http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo. One of the most comprehensive beginners guides you will find.

With your link building, read the section in the guide on this before going out to try and acquire them.

-Andy

Hi Robert,

You are going to want an escrow service of sorts, perhaps someone like Escrow.com or Agreed.com. I do recall someone saying that Sedo offer domain brokerage, but again, you would need to have a look.

I hope this gives you a few places to look at.

-Andy

A little known, and highly valuable service, called Feedback Army.

I have used them on many occasions and you can set questions for live site users to complete actions on your site and give you an answer. It is the most accurate way to get live feedback from real individuals - and they come back with some startling insights.

It's so cheap, everyone should give them a go

Edit- Let me just add, this is cheap, but far from a worthless service. Amazing value for money, but do remember it is user testing, not an in-depth report. The key to this is asking the right questions.

-Andy

Hi Andrew,

It is a little lengthy, but this is about the best resource to start with:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/146645?hl=en

Using Rich Snippets, you can show aggregated numbers or individual reviews. It takes a little setting up, but well worth it.

-Andy

Bill covered all the important points there Felicity.

-Andy

I didn't think Google still let anything like this though any more? I have tweeted Matt Cutts with this and a link to this post as I hate to see anything like that myself.

-Andy

Hi Deborah,

I would be tempted to steer clear of option 2 and do what makes sense to Google (and visitors) and set the canonical tag to the city pages. You would only get the same amount of link juice passing for a canonical as you would for a 301, but this probably wouldn't make an awful lot of difference.

Option 1 is the logical implementation.

-Andy

Hi Felicity,

Both can have an impact. What matters is how well you can achieve goals. I could probably get better results from SEO than Social Media, but only because I don't specialise in SM. Get someone who does, and the outcome could be totally different.

I guess the answer to this is where you feel you can have the most impact as both areas have the ability to achieve the desired results for you.

-Andy

Hi Neil,

What platform is he using to power his site? Or is it just a bespoke development?

I would ask him to send a copy of the .htaccess file over to you so this can be looked at and corrected. I have never seen this issue be another other other than this myself, but that doesn't mean to say there aren't other possibilities.

-Andy

Hi Mark,

Can I ask if it is the domain name that is causing problems, or the content? Unless there is a real need to rebrand, I would look to explore other possibilities before jumping into a new domain - unless a rebrand is what you really want.

Edit- I forgot to add that there is no problem having a second site in Google either. I have 8 in total, because I use a single page design, and have no issues at all.

-Andy

Hi Mat,

Absolutely. I can take many months to get back to a decent position, whereas following this route you could be back where you are in just weeks.

-Andy

Hi Mark,

There is a mix of both paid and free sites listed. Before you commit to a year, perhaps just try a month for $30 to see if it meets your needs?

Well worth a punt

-Andy

Hi Mark,

Sorry to butt in...

Have a look at Whitespark. They are great at finding niche sites for cocitation purposes and I have used them myself many times (read, monthly subscription).

Some directories are not really frowned upon because they aren't selling links, but listings. Take Yell, Thompson, etc. You will get links to your website, but not something that would benefit it in the way Google would object to.

-Andy

Hi Mark,

I block the same on my site (which is also a single page). Here is the content of my Robots.txt file.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-includes/
Disallow: /wp-content/
Sitemap: http://www.inetseo.co.uk/sitemap.xml.gz

-Andy

Hi Neil,

Had a similar question asked yesterday and the fix for that one was to noindex / follow the pages in question.

Would I be right in thinking that the directions page doesn't matter if it isn't indexed? You want to make sure it is followed though.

-Andy

Hi Mat,

there is absolutely no need to ditch the current site. A disavow of those bad links will set them back on track again. I have done this for clients with 20 times this number of bad links, and seen complete penalty reversal.

Was it an algorithmic or manual penalty that they had?

-Andy

Hi Mark,

I haven't actually done this myself, but I have clients who have. You could always try something like this to build the list for you: http://blockacountry.com/

This might also be worth having a read over http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1299746/how-to-allow-access-only-within-country

I don't know of anything specifically for Adwords though.

-Andy

Hi Mandy,

If I am understanding what you want to achieve, you could always try Screaming Frog Spider. When you do a crawl, it will show you all of the pages, and then you can click on a page to see links that lead from that page.

Also, you have an option of an advanced report that will show you all of the OutLinks from a site. Very useful tool.

-Andy

Without really being involved, it is very hard to try and figure this out exactly.

For now, I wouldn't worry unless you start to see problems, such as a drop in the number of pages actually indexed, drop in traffic or searches where you appear.

-Andy

Those preferences are local to whoever is doing the searching.

Targeting Turkey with an English site, i don't thing would be a very wise idea though.

Have you thought about creating a site for this purpose? Buy a .com domain, host it in the US or UK and then SEO it for this audience?

-Andy

For your own market, yes, this really shouldn't be an issue. To go into a global market for it, this could be something much more complicated.

So give you an example, if I search for "Bedroom Furniture" for example, I am only going to see UK results. More generic searches, I may start seeing .com results, but I can't think of an occasion where I would see another country specific TLD.

-Andy

Hi,

There is absolutely no reason why you can't target a page for an English phrase. That said, are you looking to target an English market, or just appear in Turkey for that phrase?

-Andy

You can get problems with duplicate content from all over the web, but a disavow would have absolutely no impact on this. That is to distance you from external links that you don't wish to be associated with.

As this is a something related to the MOZ products, I can't give you an answer on that I'm afraid.

Have you made no actual changes to the site that could account for this? If you can, re-categorise this post to include Product Support.

-Andy

Egol has this summed up perfectly!

-Andy

Hi,

First of all, disavowing will have nothing to do with the number of duplication warnings you get. This can only affect inbound links and even then, you won't see any drop in these through Webmaster Tools.

What are you using to see the duplicate pages?

-Andy

Hi Mark,

There are so many ways to try and achieve the same results, but in the past I have had good success by creating a page based on the key location (London), creating a title something like "Plumber in London and covering surrounding counties".

Make sure you have your address and telephone number on the page, then create a section that explains you also cover the following places "Brentford (TW8), Bromley (BR1 to BR8), Catford (SE6), Chiswick (W4) and Tottenham (N17).

I would then be looking to create cocitations and gain links from local sites / directories that offer the ability to do this.

I hope that gives you a little to work on.

-Andy

Hey Dylan,

You now have 512 pixels to play with for your page title. This equates to around 60 characters, depending on the characters used and how wide they are.

Screaming Frog Spider offer a free download that will allow you see how many pixels your titles are.

to answer your other question, yes, that is overly spammy. I always like to follow the simple rule of

<important keywords=""><expansion words="" phrase="">|<brand></brand></expansion></important>

-Andy

Hi Mark,

Local SEO is a pretty big subject, and I would highly recommend you have a read of this post over at eConsultancy to gain some valuable information.

MOZ also have what is probably the best local search resource I have seen here. You will find info there from over 30 SEO professionals and is probably where I would start.

Edit- Sorry, I should also say that I wouldn't personally handle local SEO in that way, as my own feelings are that this has been done to death, and is what everyone tries.

-Andy

No problem at all

-Andy

Hi,

Just to answer your question, you will still see links in webmaster tools, even after a disavow. They are still shown as inbound links, but Google essentially adds their own invisible nofollow tag.

-Andy