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Try some AB or multi variate testing. It neednt cost the earth, or anything.

You can use content experiments via Analytics.

A few comments on current home page:

• The images on the home page look like ads rather than navigation. I dont think that works.
• What is it you want people to do when they get to the home page? Do a wine search? If so make the wine form search facility more prominent.
• I would include 'any' in your dropdowns. Its feasible people get to your site and dont know what winery name they want.
• Get rid of 'start over' you dont need it until they've done a a search.
• Look at your in-page analytics and see where people navigate to from the home page. That will tell you alot about what you should be featuring more on that page.

Andy

If the site has good authority/PR I wouldnt worry about it although I would look at in-page analytics to see whether people actually click the links. If its setup like this to pass link juice the above is more applicable, if not look at whether people are actually clicking the links and if they arent id suggest an alternative navigation.

"Content is king" is the old saying in SEO and whilst content 'may' actually only be a prince or duke nowadays it is still very important unless your site is especially high authority.

If you dont include the keywords or variations of them that you wish to rank for you're going to struggle to rank for them. Logically if you dont have the word 'red widget' on the page you're unlikely to rank for it. If a page is about red widgets why would it not include the keyword 'red widget'? Again if your site is high authority then this isnt so applicable - www.cadbury.co.uk used to rank 1st for 'chocolate' and it didnt even have the word on the home page. How did they do it? Lots of links creating high authority and using chocolate anchor text.

There is however a not so fine line between including keywords in the content (including meta info, link text etc) and keyword stuffing. As Des in this thread mentions and as I just referred to 'meta info' under the umbrella of 'content' - if you dont have the keywords in your page title or meta description you're much less likely to get users to click on your search result as (most of the time) your page title & meta description is what is returned as your search result.

Hi,

Thanks for your response, I actually agree with you on G+ growth. I said "possible Google pull away from non G+ social signals (in favour of rel author)".

If its a new web site best practise is not to no follow any pages you want indexed. That said internal no follows are ignored anyway nowadays. Internal link juice manipulation, like external is not a great idea.

I think radical new search result snippets, move away from anchor text, possible Google pull away from non G+ social signals (in favour of rel author) could be highlights in 2013. What are your predictions?

• Be savvy enough to re-optimize for different keywords if the originals just couldnt get to page 1
• Focus on the long tail and variations of the 'big' keywords
• Study analytics and identify opportunities
• Introduce a new directory rather than try to optimise one set of category pages for too many keywords
• Add rich snippets for considerable CTR increase in SERPS

See Matt Cutts explanation here http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NlJiLDn9-38

Personally im seeing titles change in a number of instances:

• Title might be too long (doesnt fit in SERP snippet)
• The same keyword/s used multiple times

Ive also noticed that the replacement titles, which appear to be fairly random do seem to have patterns:

• The replacement title usually appends the domain to the end i.e. Red Widgets - Widgets.com
• The replacement title seems to use a word/phrase from one of the following: breadcrumb, h1, url

Its interesting to note that a) the original title will still help rankings as normal for the keyword in the title b) theres no real explanation of what a 'better' title is i.e. do the revised titles inc CTR?

Consider this, a huge chunk of the websites out there use off the shelf templates (think Wordpress). Even Matt cuts blog is an off the shelf (if edited) template.

If you want to see ALL the page titles and meta descriptions on a competitors website Screaming Frogs SEO Spider is awesome. It can downloaded free here http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ Note for large sites you may need the paid version.

Why dont you look to hire an in-house SEO? May not be as cheap as option 'A' but if they are good will be cheaper than option 'B' plus they can add value in a wider sense - a good SEO will help improve wider inbound marketing efforts.

Dont know about theme but you NEED the Yoast SEO plugin for wordpress - it really is awesome.

Do you rely on branded keywords for which you arent the brand owner? Ive seen alot of movement for these kinds of terms recenty.

Heres a good article which may help http://www.hispanicmarketadvisors.com/blog/spanish-seo-domain-per-language-subdomains-or-language-folders

"When you do a search would you rather get the official companies or a site with a news feed or aggregation ran by a 3rd party source?"

• As I say in many cases the branded site isnt going to be your first port of call. E.g. Who buys their Wilson tennis racket from Wilson.com when you can get the same product may times cheaper elsewhere (random example, im not picking on Wilson!) and with honest reviews e.g. 'the strings on this racket are poor'?

Ive just this minuted posted a discussion about Google hurting aggregators on this very forum http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-google-making-life-harder-for-aggregators.

I think you may be seeing ranking drop for a branded term as I believe Google is working on reducing sites optimised for branded terms when they arent the brand owner.

Theres been a bunch of updates recently which have hurt aggregators:

• Reducing the number of search results to 7 for branded search queries

• The DMCA update which penalises those with trademark related takedown requests against them.

• At least 2 'domain diversity' updates, the most recent last week, which seeks to reduce the ability of sites to dominate SERPS e.g. a site which may have 2 search results on page 1 now may have 1.

Plus Its commonly believed that Google favours big brands over smaller brands e.g. Marriott over examplehotelaggregator.com.

Is this a deliberate ploy against aggregators in favour of brands i.e. does Google believe a brand site is a better search result than an aggregator?

A brand site returned above an aggregator for a branded term may be seen by Google as a better fit, a better search result that should be higher. But is that true? Consumers like to see unbiased reviews and lowest prices and that isnt always available at the brand site.

Thoughts please.

i personally wouldnt entertain subfolder/aftersubfolder/aftersubfolder but look at how you may be able to do something like /subfolder-productx-examplez. Dont bury the pages too far in your url structure.

Bear in mind theres been alot of recent Google algo changes, your rankings may have changed because of something other than page titles.

BTW - I say that especially applies to the travel industry - ive seen alot of flux for aggregators of late.

I do think a navigation restructure is the way to do it and a way to better focus your link juice. No following certain links no longer works for internal site links - Google see's through that now.

Instead of your categories nav including a/or multiple sub cat nav links (im guessing thats how it currently works) on every page, inc the sub cat links on the main cat pages not as part of the main cat nav e.g. dont inc red widget, blue widget, green widget under the main 'widget' navigation, instead add links to red, blue, green widget on the main widget page. Hope that makes sense.

The Google 'Pirate' (no official name) seems to have gone largely undiscussed since it was launched last - Fri 10th August http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/an-update-to-our-search-algorithms.html. The idea of it is to ensure those 'Pirating' content or abusing trademarks e.g. fake ugg boot sites and file sharing sites do not appear higher in the search results than the genuine websites. Google is using DMCA take down requests for labeling sites as Pirate and demote their rankings,

Im amazed not even seomoz has covered the subject yet as far as I can see, yet it is a hugely important new update, albeit affecting a relatively small number of sites now, and in some cases (at least one I know first hand) seemingly without justification (the example I know is not a file sharing, fake goods, trademark abusive site at all.)

Google updating its search algorithm based on DMCA take down requests seems a bit strong - these are takedown requests, not legal proof that a site is infringing a trademark. A real weapon for negative SEO?

Anyone else had experience of the pirate update or know much more about it? Outside Danny Sullivan I dont see many SEO folk covering it.

Heres my own insights into it and what ive learned about what (only innocently) affected sites should do to appeal http://www.andy-maclean.net/the-google-pirate-dmca-guidance/

Use the google category and google product type in your adwords product extensions for best chance of getting product/image ads showing in search results. Make sure your campaigns/product types in Adwords are matched to your product feed.

Use the google category and google product type in your adwords product extensions for best chance of getting product/image ads showing in search results. Make sure your campaigns/product types in Adwords are matched to your product feed.

Hi,

The 3rd time I googled it I got this http://screencast.com/t/Y6PERH67F29M

Maybe one way would be to start another 'discussion' i.e. forum thread on a high authority domain site (probably not SEOMOZ!) to oust that particular 'discussion' search result. Notice the markup on the search result: 20 posts - 2 authors - 11 Oct 2010? Look for another forum that uses the mark up - a more recent forum page would be more trusted for their potential consumers.

People searching for the company name are likely just looking for the website link and probably wont look too far down the page - what about doing some link building/social shares for the pages that rank in 3rd & 4th place? A quick check shows me that those pages only have 0-2 external links pointing to them, so should be quite easy to move them up and the negative one down potentially.

Also I see no ppc ad for that term from the Palicomp. Why not add one and inc your great customer service in the content - its likely to be cheap cpc's and you could push the negative search result further down the page if Google shows that ad and the one from pcspecialist.co.uk.

Good luck,

Andy

Maybe they were paying attention, spooky timing! http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-directory-submission-danger

If you use a MAC - SERank is great

If you use a PC - Web CEO

If I understand you right heres a few things id do:

• http://www.newtravelsite.com/hotels/bristol/stgeorgeshotel/ isnt a great url protocol as you have 3 sub folders in there i.e. /hotels / bristol / stgeorgeshotel. It would be better as something like /hotels-bristol-st-georges-hotel. Also not the spacing between the hotel name, works better for seo and will help clickthrough rate in search results.
• Optimise the Bristol hotel page for Bristol hotel phrases. Optimise the hotel specific pages for hotel specific phrases, clickthrough rate and conversion rate should be good that way. You could also mix it up a bit on the hotel specific pages e.g. if you have a hotel near the docklands, inc it in your page title/h1 etc e.g. XYZ Hotel near Bristol Docklands. That way you're actually optimising for hotel name + hotel near Bristol Docklands (which should be pretty easy to rank for).
• Inc user reviews on the hotel pages and use rich snippets for the reviews, review count, pricing - this will then show up in your search results and give you a huge lift in clickthrough rate (ive seen 30%+ on the last site I did it for). Aside from that reviews are pretty vital in the hotel decision process. Obviously if the sites new this is a bit tricky though.

Andy

Interesting SEOmoz lists notable directories here http://www.seomoz.org/directories inc the ones you mention. You'd hope they'd be safe being right here on SEOmoz!

My opinion though is that directories mostly count for little though wont hurt you unless they make up 'too big' a portion of your links. The way Google is going and has been for some time - any link that is easy to get i.e. via directories, blogrolls etc are likely to not be worth much or anything and in excess will hurt not help you.

Definitely not the sub domain. Assuming you're adding content to help rank well for additional phrases and to improve your sites authority this is best done using subfolders i.e. store.com/answers. You'll get more link juice to those pages keeping them on the root domain. Also any links you get to these new pages benefit the whole root domain i.e. store.com, which isnt the case with links to a sub domain.

Hi Thanks for the reply.

The reason for the new pages for the old products is 2 fold really. 1) the sub domains dont rank as well as they could simply because they are sub domains, they get little link juice externally or internally and there is internal opposition (fear) to moving them to the root domain. The root domain is high authority, ranks well and so showcasing the products on the root domain is a great option. 2) People can use the product and use different search terms to find the product than is currently represented by the products on the sub domain e.g. a hotel in london home page can be optimised for hotel/accommodation keywords, it would also be useful to be found for 'short breaks in london' so you may chose to create a short breaks page. Same product, 2 different approaches and content required. (not actual example).

Ill take the 2p and spend it, im in the UK also.

I am developing a new set of pages for a series of products which exist on separate sub domains linked to the root domain. The product pages on the sub domains have rich snippets; review count, review score etc. The new pages im building out are for the same products though on the root domain and with different content. Im not comfortable marking those pages up with rich snippets too given they will have the same review counts, scores etc though would like to if its viable? Any thoughts/opinions?

Thanks,

Andy

A service like pr web is very good for well written and targeted releases. It's ability to target specific journalists and niches can mean you get decent secondary coverage on niche sites e.g the last pr I wrote got covered by a local news site. Links on many pr sites themselves are worth next to nothing as google must have them on their panda/penguin radar.

You're welcome!

You have to add the filter for 'only external' links. See here http://screencast.com/t/L4b7J4PA

The Penguin update as described by Google is to hit 'over optimized' sites. Creating duplicate pages with minimal word changes for the purpose of SEO is exactly the kind of thing that Penguin is for - so no, its not an easy opportunity, its not an opportunity at all.

Its hard to know for sure without spending considerable time looking at the background.

If you havent already id advise looking at your Google Webmaster Tools (if you have it set up) for issues and errors and also your SEOMOZ campaign (if you have it set up) for issues and errors. Very often these can give you big clues.

Also - did you change anything major on the site recently e.g. content management system, robots text file etc?

Are you getting your content from elsewhere i.e are your posts sourced from other sites?

No is the short answer. Having almost identical pages  with only minimal differences (for the purposes of SEO) is exactly the kind of spammy thing the recent Penguin & Panda updates are clamping down on. If you dont have stores in california, new york etc Google doesnt want to rank you for those terms.

PPC would be a better solution for those kinds of terms if they can get past the minimum search threshold.

Optimising product pages for types of hammers e.g. claw hammers is the way to go.

In the Google Places listing the 'categories' are mega important but under-used. If they arent using all 5 available categories they are missing out on serious traffic.

Most hotels will just have 'hotels' or 'self catering' (i forget the exact default options). Use ALL the categories to rank for more terms. If they need traffic pronto add 'spring break', 'mothers day' 'weekend break' 'last minute break' categories - you get the idea. This is an awesome trick I use for a holiday cottage client e.g. I use 'christmas break' 'easter break' 'dog friendly' and other out of the box terms as categories to keep pace with seasonal demand.

Note: Google will not always listings for ALL category entries, you'll have to try it and see.

Theres a 1000 bullet points that could follow but heres a few important ones:

• Stop keyword stuffing in your content e.g. here http://www.tickettrail.com/performer/madonna-tickets.aspx. You've overdone 'madonna tickets' to say the least.

• You have no h1 on the performer pages.

• There is little content, you need to write more descriptively and for the user not search engines.

• Be more focussed on the keywords, you're right theres lots of ticket sites. You are a long way from competing with them for terms like 'madonna tickets'. Things like 'tickets for madonna paris' you have more chance of ranking for and its more targeted.

• Your url structure could be improved e.g. http://www.tickettrail.com/tickets/stadio-giuseppe-meazza/06_14_2012_800_pm/madonna-tickets.aspx is 4 sub folders deep - which could make those pages appear really unimportant, something like /maddonna-tickets-rome-14th-june would be better.

• These pages could also attract really targeted visitors if for example you optimised it for 'madonna tickets rome 14th june'.

• You've got some weird stuff going on in your code. Look at line 25 in your source code for the madonna tickets page!

Make sure in your rss feeds you have your link/anchor text back to your site. That anyone copying your feeds is inadvertently giving you a link to the original source.

Google Webmaster tools will tell you aggregate rank data by keyword per page including search impressions. This gives you a great way to know which keyword SEO opportunities there are.

You're welcome, if that was the solution please mark as answered.

Its one of 2 things id suggest:

This is most likely your issue: bear in mind Google Webmaster Tools data is not real time - it doesnt show the last few days worth of data so it will look like your impressions are always 0 for the previous 2 days, if you are looking today, this would coincide with the Penguin launch and explain your concern!

If its not that then its like this: Its a glitch - you cant have 0 impressions and not see a decline in traffic!

Presumably you are looking at the search engine optimisation report in analytics that is imported from Google Webmaster Tools? Its possible your Google Webmaster Tools account is no longer hooked up to your analytics account.

You said you set up targeting for the UK so why are you concerned that it doesnt rank on Google.lk?

If you want to geo-target a website for a particular countries search results you'll find lots of good blog posts about how to do it right here on SEOMOZ. Aside from that heres a few pointers:

• You really need the country specific TLD or at worst a country neutral one e.g. .net. If you want to target the uk then you will do much better having a co.uk TLD. If you DO have a co.uk TLD this is the main reason why you dont rank in Google.lk.

• Ensure the website content is written in the language of the country you want to target.

• Try and attract links from country specific tlds e.g. if you want to target google.lk search results try and get links from .lk websites e.g. website.lk

Hi,

Does the rel=next, rel=prev markup help you out with this problem? See http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/pagination-with-relnext-and-relprev.html

Ive used it a couple of times to help stop pages been seen as dupe content where those pages are duplicate (meta, main content, images etc) except for example reviews, or comments e.g. /product_x   /product_x_review_page1   /product_x_review_page2   /product_x_review_page_3

Andy

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Hi, ive pm'd you an example.

Thanks,

Andy

I have 2 clients that have apparently random examples of the 'show map of' link in Google search results. The maps/addresses are accurate and for airports.

They are both aggregators, they service the airports e.g. lax airport shuttle (not actual example) BUT DO NOT have Google Place listings for these pages either manually OR auto populated from Google, DO NOT have the map or address info on the pages that are returned in the search results with the map link.

Does anyone know how this is the case? Its great that this happens for them but id like to know how/why so I can replicate across all their appropriate pages. My understanding was that for this to happen you HAD to have Google Place pages for the appropriate pages (which they cant do as they are aggregators).

Thanks in advance,

Andy