Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Here is more info on them:  http://www.slideshare.net/MyLocalBusinessOnline/how-to-block-semalt-crawler-and-clean-up-your-analytics

Great. Let us know what happens.

I added code to block them from accessing the site. Is my assumption correct? That they essentially click on the site, then becuase they don't actually view the site, it causes the bounce rates to skyrocket? That's what the GA shows. So, won't google at some point, downgrade the site in the SERPS due to high bounce rates? Or am I not understanding that correctly?

I just noticed this in my GA. They are dramatically increasing my bounce rates!!! Blocking now!

Sort of related: If I have 2 office locations in 2 different cities, should I list the website homepage URL on the Google Plus pages, or should I list the specific contact us page URL for the office location that is on the company website? Does it make a difference?

Thanks!

No ethical issue. The first referred me to the second. I'm helping them both compete against the 15 other firms in the area. They both are fully aware that they both are working with me. The second actually referred me to a THIRD, but he won't be ready for several months. SO, I need to figure out how to juggle the 2, and if I can't do the 3rd (google penalty), then I will decline.

Just want to know what I need to do to make Google see that these are all separate firms, and not one firm gaming the system.

Thanks for your reply!  Anyone else want to chime in?

Cheers! Have a great weekend! (i'm obviously working ;-(

Hi Moz'ers! I am creating 2 new websites for 2 different bankruptcy attorneys in the same city. I plan to use different templates BUT from the same template provider. I plan to host with the same hosting company (unless someone here advises me not to). The content will be custom, but similar, as they both practice bankruptcy law. They have different addresses, as they are different law firms.

My concern is that Google will penalize for duplicate content because they both practice the same area of law, in the same city, hosting the same, template maker the same, and both won't rank. What should I do to make sure that doesn't happen? Will it be enough that they have different business names, address, and phone numbers?

Thanks for any help!!

Hi all! An easy one for probably most of you. I have a client who wants to re-brand their business name and also match their URL to the new name. Their current domain name URL has been out there for over 5 years, and the site is performing quite well in search. Switching to a new URL will obviously be a very bad thing, but what are the options? newname.com redirect to the aged oldname.com, but when they are on the site, or when they find them in search, the oldname.com has nothing to do with the new brand.

Or should we 301 every page of the oldname.com site to the newname.com be good enough? What is recommended?

Thanks!

Hi all! I heard that Google comes down on guest blogging. I did a search here on Moz with the terms "Guest Blogging" and not much comes up, as it relates to my question.

So I'm asking: I have a website with specific content where I can implement a "team blog" (stackideas - easyblog), and have industry professionals submit a blog article (once a month on their respective industry focus), and add Google Authorship (link to/from their Google+ profile contributors section), but not allow ANY follow links back to their site. There will be about 10 different blog categories, and there will potentially be several different authors in each category who will be writing specific focused content per category.

Any potential Panda (or any other animal problems with that?

Thanks all!  BB

Great feedback! Thanks! Now I am thinking about moderating ALL comments and approve the ones that are quality, and delete the ones that aren't. The submit auto response could say "thank you for submitting your question, you will receive an email once an answer to your question is submitted. So, if their question is bad, then they won' t receive an answer (ever). So basically I filter out the bad from the good and build a high quality Q&A for future users to search through, and eliminate the "thin" and "spam" issue. So, I won't have to delete bad questions, they will never even make it on the site.

I just probably won't get much repeat activity from the users who posted bad content that never make it to the forum. But this is not intended to be an online community, it's going to just be a place for quick questions on a specific topic.

Thanks for your time in responding to me! I appreciate it!

BB

I actually come here for Rand's shirts. They're fantastic!

I agree. So far for me, the community alone is a great value! Having a place to bounce ideas off of others who give detailed, thoughtful, and respectful feedback is valuable to me (sitting alone in my home office with nobody to talk to). MOZ.com is like being able to stand up in a cubicle and ask one of your colleagues for feedback or ideas when you hit a wall. Just waiting for the virtual coffee feature...

If it is natural, and all about UX, then there is nothing to worry about, in my opinion. Sounds like you are doing a great job!

I am considering adding a Q&A section to my website and I have a few questions for you PROs!:

1. is it a good thing for SEO? Or a potential pitfall for SEO? If it is used often and users post relevant topics related to the website content, will it help the overall DA and websites SERP performance?

2. Are there inherent risks for website security when using a Q&A?

3. Are there any other questions I should be asking?

I am using Joomla! 3.0 with Stackideas Easy discuss/easy social.

Thanks for any advice!

BB

Thanks for your thoughtful response! Cheers!

Great. Thanks!

Well, I removed the suspect content, and after 2 weeks, nothing. Then I added Google Authorship to each page, and the NEXT DAY the site is back in the top positions for our target terms, and the leads are pouring in. Was it the Google Authorship? It certainly felt like it. But I thought that was not a ranking factor.

Anyway, thanks for all the support! BB

Hi all! I have a client who wants to branch out to another market (currently in Northern California and wants to open an office in Southern California), what would happen if we put up a second website that has similar content, but is exclusively for Southern California, with a different office address, and all the content geared towards Southern California market? There would be NO linking between the sites. Would that generate a penalty?

Thanks! BB

Great. Thanks Cyrus. A related question, I am developing a website that I want to make sure Google does not see that it is related in any way to the others. I'm going to host it on different server, set up G-webmaster tools and G-Analytics separate from everything else, use different email to set up. Should I also use a different computer to develop it? Is there anything else I should consider?

(also, that black helicopter over my house last night...was it Google? 

But we all have several clients. And I'm sure there are some who have several clients in the same vertical space. I wonder what are others doing to deal with this?

Thanks for your response. So, if I have 10 chiropractor clients, all in different cities, with different custom content (but related because they are chiropractors), you think Google will penalize them all? Is there a way around this? I am not putting up many sites to saturate a market, these are separate clients I am trying to rank in their markets.

Thanks for your insights!

I just found this http://moz.com/blog/how-google-knows-what-sites-you-control-and-why-it-matters-whiteboard-friday . FYI.

I hope this makes sense. I am creating a site that will have normal drop down menu structure that will be about 3 levels deep: site.com/category/topic/sub-topic . I also want to add content that will be set up under a hidden menu, but with a sidebar module (placed on the relevant pages that are set up under the drop down) with links to other custom pages that will be relevant to the drop menu pages, but i'm hoping that the flat structure pages will show better for search: site.com/content-page

The reason I am asking is because I have seen a competitor do this for a personal injury law firm and they show everywhere (throughout California) for vanity search -"city car accident lawyer". When you go to the site, they have a personal injury drop down that is 3 layers deep, but when you click down the layers, and look at the URL, they are all "flat" site.com/car-accident-lawyer, not site.com/personal-injury/accidents/car-accident-lawyer.

Is having a hidden menu a problem? Is this strategy problematic in any way?

Hope that makes sense. Thank you for any direction.

BB

Hi! Yes, similar subject matter, no interlinking. All different business addresses.

New site, new URL, lots of custom content. Load it all or "trickle" it over time? Would it make a difference in terms of ranking the site?

Interested in your thoughts. Thanks!

BBuck!

Hi all! I am considering having several others write content for a new website and authorship link each to/from G+ profiles. Any idea of how that will Impact page/website ranking? I would think it would give more credibility to each page, and the website as a whole. No?

Hi All, as most know, directories are taking over the SERPS as of late, and my question is: What "tells" Google that it is a directory? What does Google look for that gets these directories showing? I understand the big ones probably have back-room deals with Google, but I am seeing some smaller ones showing. Any ideas?

If you have several clients, and they are all on the same server, and also under ONE Google Analytics account, will that negatively impact with Google? They all have different content and addresses, some have the same template, but with different images.

Thank you! But what about unpublising? Is that the same thing as removing, in the eyes of Google?I want to remove ALL pages under the "Scrap Laws" menu, because I think that is where the issue is. But I don't want to delete totally and have to recreate them all later.  Thnaks again!

Thanks Marie! I'm getting the feeling it's the content. Quick question:  Could I just unpublish the content and then test over time, OR do I need to completely delete the questionable content from the site? Does Google see it if it is unpublished and still penalize?

Kevin, any insight into where to start with respect to the 747 missing URL's?? What causes that? How to fix?  Thanks!!

haha! Ok! Thanks Kevin!

Also, I just noticed this (see image). 747 missing URL's!?

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What do you mean by "it's not 2 years old"? Is being under 2 years old a factor?

Thanks! Yes, it's Google. We actually are ranking better on Bing and Yahoo now!

Looked at Google Webmaster and it shows a steep drop on 5-21. (image attached)

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Thanks, Kevin. I haven't made any changes in months, and do not do any crazy linking schemes. Competitors seem to be at the same places on the page. We are the only one hit by this.

Hi All! I have a 9-11~ my website www.popscrap.com has been showing strong (top 2) for about 2 years now for many of the search terms we are targeting (scrap software; scrap medal software; recycling software; etc.), and I just noticed today that we are nowhere. What do you suggest for troubleshooting this to find the cause and fix?

Thanks!

Will blocking the Wayback Machine (archive.org) by adding the code they give have any impact on Google crawl and indexing/SEO?

Anyone know?

Thanks!

~Brett

Monkey wrenches always welcome! Thanks! I'll look further...

Thank you Marcus!  Great info! Just what I was looking for.

Thank you, Peter!

Anyone know how to optimize for local when client has a regus office? I heard it doesn't work so well because the offices are temporary and so many have used the same exact address over and over. True? Any way around it?

Thanks!!

Thanks for responding! There is also the issue of these paid search campaigns with their own tracking phone number conflicting with the actual business number. Doesn't that cause problems with local search if Google sees all these citations with different phone numbers but same address?

Also, back to my question: if I get my client to cancel with these people, what  happens?? Obviously the PPC stops, but what about the citations they made in directories? Do they auto remove all? Or do they just sit out there with incorrect info? Anybody know?

Hi all! I have a new client that I did a website for. After a month, looking at the analytics, it shows that while the site visits from reach local is more than the organic google,  the reachlocal traffic is bouncing, causing the overall website bounce rate to skyrocket. Organic bounce rate is 47.62% and the reachlocal is at 84.25% driving the overall bounce rate to 68!   Duration of the reachlocal traffic is at :56 vs 3:41 for organic. (SEE ATTACHED IMAGE)

I'm guessing this all means that the reachlocal traffic is obviously not quality, so does that mean they are targeting non-relevant keywords? I don't have any experience dealing with reachlocal. Should I recommend my client to drop it? And if so, how to stop that traffic from coming to the site?

I'm sure this is an easy one for you pros!

Thanks!

~BB

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Hi ZIhe, I'm a little over a year late, but in case you are still watching, I'm thinking you need more local keywords on page and in title's? If you are ranking for universal, but not local (organic), then that might be the issue?

Just a thought. Cheers!

~BB

With respect to local search, Google is providing the most relevant search results relative to location. SO, when considering optimizing for local vs organic, wouldn’t the correct answer be that it depends on the type of business? For example, in a moderately sized metro area like Concord, California, a sandwich shop should weigh heavily in favor of doing everything they can to rank locally because Google will serve up the most local results when people are looking for a sandwich shop (in the immediate area). A law firm, however, certainly wants clients who are close to their office, BUT they can also take clients throughout the city. So if they are optimized for local search, at the expense of organic, wouldn’t they be losing out all of the other prospective clients who search outside of the “local” (immediate) area that Google deems close to the law office? Very few will drive across Concord to get a sandwich (unless it’s Togo’s….I LOVE Togo’s! ;-), but many will make the drive for an attorney if they feel that attorney is the best fit for their complex legal matter.

I have been holding off doing local search optimization for this reason for my law firm clients. They rank very strong for vanity searches, while the “7 pack” are underneath, competing with each other all bundled together. Plus, as I suspect and hopefully someone can confirm, as with the example above, my clients show strong wherever the searcher’s location is throughout Concord, and the others (7 pack) show in the immediate proximity of where the inquiry was made. Is that a fair /correct statement?

Hi all! I just noticed over the last week that directories have taken over the first page of Google for vanity/local searches. My client has shown strong for over a year, and all of a sudden got pushed to the second page and all of these directories have been pushed forward. My client is a law firm, so the directories are findlaw.com, lawyers.com, justia.com, avvo.com, elocallawyers.com, yellowpages.com, primebuyersreport.com, yelp.com. There is only ONE law firm website listed on page 1. It used to be only a couple directories and mostly law firms.

I bet you smart people know what happened!