Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi, Since I love writing and I write a lot I always find myself worried about ruining for my self with Content Cannibalism. Yesterday, while looking to learn about diamonds I encountered a highly ranked website that has two pages ranking high on the first page simultaneously (4th and 5th) - I never noticed it before with Google. The term I googled was "vvs diamonds" and the two pages were: http://bit.ly/1N51HpQ and http://bit.ly/1JefWYS Two questions: 1. Does that happen often with Google (presenting two lines from the same site on first page)? 2. Would it be better practice for the writer to combine them? - creating a one more powerful page... Thanks

Hi, I am a strong follower of the Whiteboard Friday videos.
I am based in Israel so I see them my Sunday morning (currently Sunday 1:40AM est  -  UTC+02:00). It never works for me (even from different computers and different networks).
I do not know if it always maintenance time etc. but it ALWAYS gets stuck in the middle (Loading... and stops). I hope you can find a solution to this (maybe even also loading into YouTube?). Thanks

Hi. I know that MOZ's domain authority (DA) is an industry authority when it comes to evaluating the quality of a website. However, I've encountered something interesting in regards to a specific site: Digital Journal If you examine in through OSE you'd notice it has amazingly high DA - 83. But when you look at it through SEMRush you'd see that it is steadily dropping in rankings and accordingly traffic (lost 93% of traffic over the last year) which makes me believe that it got penalized. Shouldn't it be reflected on MOZ's analysis?
Is it a site I should worry that points to me? This is an addition...
I encountered also the following site: americanchronicle.com which has the DA of 61 (pretty high) and is actually down for a while now Thanks

Hi, I actually asked it a year and a half ago (with a slight variation) but didn't get any real response and things do change over time. On my eCommerce website I have the main category pages with client side filtering and sorting. As a result, the number of page views is lower than can be expected. Do you think having more page views is still a ranking factor? and if so is it more important than user experience? Thanks

Hi All, Would you recommend displaying charts and graphs as images or HTML5 (highcharts etc.)? Thanks

Based on the following article http://homebusiness.about.com/od/yourbusinesswebsite/a/google-alerts.htm in order to check if you are included you need to run site:domain.com and click the news search tab. If you are not there then... I ran the test on MOZ and got no results which surprised me. Next step according to :https://support.google.com/news/publisher/answer/40787?hl=en#ts=3179198 is to submit your site for inclusion. Should I? Will it help? P.S.
This is a followup question to the following: http://moz.com/community/q/what-makes-a-site-appear-in-google-alerts-and-does-it-mean-anything

Hi All, I recently started using Google Alerts more and more and while sites I support never appear there (not surprising) I recently noticed few very poor and low quality sites that do. This site for example appears quite a bit in its niche. So to my questions... What makes a site appear in Google Alerts? And does it mean anything? Thanks

Hi My blogs categories for the ecommerce site are by subject and are similar to the product landing pages. Example Domain.com/laptops that sells laptops Domain.com/blog/laptops that shows news and articles on laptops Within the blog posts the links of anchor laptop are to the store. What to do? Thanks

Hi, Is every post you write on your site is SERPs worthy? I'll give an example - 
We often cover industry related news items. It is written very well with personal opinions, comments and detailed explanations. Our readers find it interesting, "like" and "plus" it. However, these items will never appear in the SERPs simply because they won't be searched. Needless to say that these are not ever green pieces. If by chance it lands a subject that may be searched in the future, usually it won't appear because it means that the item was also covered by major sites like CNN, Forbes, Bloomberg etc. Is it worth out time to keep "investing" in these types of articles? Thanks

Hi, Every once in a while I have a need to add a graph / chart to my site.
Google offers a nice HTML5 chart builder and so do other web apps. The question is... Which should I use?
A pinnable and sharable image graph or Interactive html5 graph Thanks

Hi All... Just wondering if it is a new feature on Google's side (knowledge Graph)? Thanks

Hi, I just "earned" an authority figure as a follower on my company's twitter account (not a big account - 600 followers). The authority figure is the founder of a very relevant and big niche news site. Should I welcome her to my community? Is it correct putting her on the spot?
Will it offend other followers who I don't welcome? (Needless to say that I would love the opportunity to blog with them etc. - to have a relationship) Thanks

Hi, I wanted to know if finding queries (using the GWMT) that are under-performing (not maximizing their potential) either due to A. good position but low CTR
B. low to medium position and change on-page items (titles and meta description for low CTR, add content to low position) is a good strategy or risky and may harm me further (but what do I have to lose...)?

Hi, On my eCommerce site I've placed rel='publisher' only on the homepage and rel='author' on all of the article pages. Is that the way to do it? Do I need to add rel='publisher' also on the article pages besides for rel='author'? P.S
Even though I placed rel='publisher' only on the homepage, when I use Google's test tool (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets) I see my publisher ID also on product category pages (that don't have publisher nor author on them but do have regular +1 buttons). How is that? (bacuase of the +1 button)

Hi, As all that manage their social channels, I often track some of the posts and how people interacted with them. My question is quite simple: As a business page - Should I thank someone for sharing my post?
I assume it would make them feel worthy and will probably cause them to share again... However, will my page's followers see that I thanked someone (and will doing so annoys them if I now thank 10 different people)...? Who sees a comment my page puts on another person's share? Thanks

Hi, We made some drastic changes removing links (mainly resulted from one domain) and wondered when we should expect a change in the incoming links report of Google's WMT...? Thanks

Hi, I encountered the following page on Zales:
http://engagementring.theprestigediamondcollection.com/NewEngagementRing/NewEring.aspx As you scroll down more items pop up (the well known Pinterest style).
Would Google bot be able to enter the product pages? I don't assume the bot "scrolls"... Thanks

Hello and Merry Christmass Should I NOFOLLOW my "Add To Cart" buttons? My e-commerce site has hundreds of products. Content wise, there is no real value to the reader on that page (besides for some testimonials and "why here" sentences). So it is not a page you'd want / expect to find in the SERPs. Also, with hundreds of links pointing to this page it would be "stronger" than other important pages which doesn't make sense. Last but not least, if I have limited time that the bots are on my site, why keep sending them to a non important page. This is why I am leaning to nofollowing the "add to cart" buttons and looking for reinforcements. Thanks

Hi Is having on page links from top to bottom etc using keywords as anchors a good methodology? Does it help the page for those words? Thanks

Hi, I just got off the phone with TrustE and McAfee. They want approximately $1400 and $900. Needless to say these are significant amounts. Is it a must for a small business selling luxury goods (transactions above $1000). Thanks

Hi, Is there a recommended setting (or even plugin) to use when saving image files on my Wordpress blog?
Which folders etc. Thanks

For example: Can I create a page per each store with it's location including a map? Would it assist in local results?
Are there any other ways to "push" local results for a nation wide site? Random example:
For a computer store selling computers:
"buy computers NJ"
"buy computers Boston" Thanks

Hi, Is there a problem or a general recommendation about using the same gmail account for two different sites (both in Google Analytics and Webmaster tools)? Thanks

Hi, I was window shopping at Gemvara and noticed something interesting... They rank very high for long-tail phrases such as "rose gold engagement rings" and in their pagination pages for that category not only they filled canonical to the main category page (which is logic) but also they "NOINDEX NOFOLLOW" the pages... Is that recommended? Thanks

Hi, I have an eCommerce site with hundreds of product images. For management reasons files are named in length to have the product details in them.
Is there a limit for a filename length before it is considered ambiguous or spammy etc.?
(it usually ranges 50-70 chars). Thanks

Hi, Should my eCommerce site's blog have menu links to the store's category pages? (like in the store itself) The meaning is that every blog post page will have links to category pages that are not related and probably weakens the in-text relevant links. The other option is to have menu links only to the blog category pages and in-article links to the relevant store category pages (maybe add menu button "Go to Store"). Thanks

Hi, I'm looking to hear thoughts and suggestions as per sites that you consider to have great practices in the eCommerce world. Almost none of the sites do everything good so you can split your suggestions by any criteria -
the site structure
conversion funnel
Converting product pages (good design)
content creation and blog management / structure
content marketing
SEO guidelines / practices
... Thanks

Hi, What is the methodology for a nation wide e-commerce site to win local searches? If we take for example Flower Shops...
How do companies like 1800Flowers, ProFlowers compete locally for searches like "Flowers New York", "Flowers Boston" etc.? Should they create a dedicated page (or pages / articles) per area ? Thanks

Hi, Just encountered the following article on Digital Trends: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/lg-z-rumored/ This is a huge and respected site. Notice, that whenever the word "smartphone" or "smartphones" is mentioned, there is a link to Sprint. Needless to say that Sprint has nothing to do directly with the article's subject (a new LG smartphone that may be coming soon). So, is this an ordered piece? Is this legit? Does it assist Sprint with the article that is not really related? Should I pursue these type of articles (links) for my site or only HUGE companies can get away with it? Any thoughts?

Hi, I don't get it...
I've encountered the following infographic that seemed to do well: http://www.brilliance.com/4cs-of-diamonds-infograph As you can see, the page has thousands of social shares from Tweets to Facebook and obviously Pinterest. However, when I placed this page on Open Site Explorer (click to view) I see only 9 external links and page authority of 28/100. And this seems to me like a successful infographic. Any explanations? Thanks

Hi, I have an e-commerce site that sells laptops. My main landing pages and category pages are as follows:
"Toshiba Laptops", "Samsung Laptops", etc. We also run a WP blog with industry news.
The posts are divided into categories which are basically as our landing pages.
The posts themselves usually link to the appropriate e-commerce landing page.
For example: a post about a new Samsung Laptop which is categorized in the blog under "Samsung Laptops" will naturally link somewhere inside to the "samsung laptops" ecommerce landing page. Is that good or do the categories on the blog cannibalize my more important e-commerce section landing pages? Thanks

Hi, I was looking at Gemvara.com which is supposed to be a really great e-commerce site (including SEO wise) and I noticed it changes url as you customize the ring (see product page example). Do they really change the URL? (I don't see page refresh) Is it recommended to do so? (for e-commerce sites whenever you change shirt color, customize a computer etc.) Thanks

Hi, I'm building a new e-commerce site and I'm conflicting about what to do in my category pages. If we take for example a computer store.
I have a category of laptops and inside there are filters by brand (Samsung, HP, etc.). I have two options - either having the brand choice open a new dedicated page - 
i.e. Samsung-Laptops.aspx or simply do a JQuery filter which gives a better and faster user experience (immediate, animated and with no refresh). **Which should I use? (or does it depend on the keyword it might target)? **
Samsung laptops / dell laptops / hp laptops -  are a great keyword on there own! By the way, splitting Laptops.aspx to many sub category physical pages might also help by providing the site with many actual pages dealing with laptops altogether.

Hi All, As I was surfing the net, I recently encountered a beautiful and well known site - indochino.com An e-commerce site that sells custom made suits and shirts.
They do not have a brick and mortar store, just the site and built an amazing reputation in about two years (maybe less). The question is....
HOW do they rank high in competitive niches like suits with practically no texts in the website? 
Is it "ONLY" because of the amazing UI and Links?
(I thought texts is the king...) There is no blog or any other visible content area besides for the product pages and a couple of explanatory sections which are also with not that much texts... Thanks!

Hi All, In continuous to Rand's latest WBF where he compared content with link building. I specifically loved the circle he draw in regards to the steps of content marketing. The question is about the first step. I run an e-commerce site for mid to high end luxury jewelry.
It is quite new so we cannot drill down our own stats. The question is, How do I find out who my audience is? I understand that it all starts here... Thanks!

Hi, Recently I started seeing more and more anchor text with design variations within them. A noticeable example can be seen in the Distilled top menu.
As you can see there is a part which is in small letters and a part with different fonts. Meaning that there is either an internal span / div / font / italic / etc. or some other attribute within the link (splitting the anchor text). Is it a problem?
Keep in mind that it will be used in the top menu on the most important links. Thanks

Hi, It seems that the MOZ New response to Question emails are getting my mailbox stuck (using outlook). This does not happen with any other email including your other reports and emails. Maybe its only me but it happens to me on two active questions I have with you (2 different new response emails I got). Thanks

Hi, I've noticed that on many pages Google shows on the SERPS titles that he chose for me and not necessarily the ones coded in the Title tag (usually small difference like adding suffix etc.). Why is that? Thanks

Hi, We are moving to a new domain because our rankings drastically dropped and we want to "start over". For example - If my company is called Joes Computers and the domain was JoesComputers.com and the new domain which will hold our e-commerce website will be completely different for example - BestComputers.com - which do I brand? Which do I put as suffix in all titles?
COOL TITLE FOR PRODUCTS | Best Computers
or 
COOL TITLE FOR PRODUCTS | Joes Computers Which name do I take for social profiles? Company or Domain?
(We currently have for the company since it was the same). Please note that our company name is already a little bit known... and therefore inside the website it will be labeled in Logos etc. We would also state "Best Computers by Joes Computers" (as if it is a sub brand or daughter company). Thanks,

Hi All, When I started my site (an eCommerce site) I copied (or tried) a lot of things from the best eCommerce sites I thought were out there. Sites like Zappos, ZALES, Overstock, BlueNile etc. I got hit pretty hard with latest algo changes and I posted my question at Google Webmaster Help forum I received answers from Gurus that we are keyword stuffing etc. (mainly with internal links to product pages but other issues as well). My answer was a link to Zappos and other sites showing that what we do is nothing compared to them. I also showed dozens of SEO "errors" like using H1 tag 10 times per page, not using canonicals and many other issues. The Guru's answer was "LOL" - who am I to compare myself to Zappos. So the question is... Can we take them for example or are they first simply because they are the biggest?

Hi, INTRO We were hit pretty bad - first with unnatural links warning and then (we assume) by penguin. We removed a lot of links and disavowed the removed along with all others we couldn't.
The manual penalization was revoked but the site is still down. I understand that Penguin and Unnatural links are not the same.
I assume that while our removal and fixes were enough for the manual penalty to be removed the penguin algorithm still disapproves us. Also, I am not expecting to be where we were but we know our current locations don't make sense (several pages seem to be de-indexed). AND THE QUESTION... SINCE ALL HAS FAILED, we consider removing the main landing pages (which were the target for link-building) and build new ones with new URLs. In the old ones placing 404 and not 301. This means that all the spammy links that were built will point to non-existing pages (404)
(besides for those that point to the homepage...) Do you think it will resolve the problem? Or since the spammy links still point to our domain we are still in a problem? (even if to 404 pages). The way we see it, it is the last resort prior to dropping the domain! Thanks

Hi All, In order to avoid duplication errors we've decided to redirect old categories (merge some categories).
In the past we have been very generous with the number of categories we assigned each post. One category needs to be redirected back to blog home (removed completely) while a couple others should be merged. Afterwords we will re-categorize some of the old posts. What is the proper way to do so?
We are not technical, Is there a plugin that can assist? Thanks

Hi All, I know (or think I know) that one of the easiest ways to gain followers for my brand on G plus is to add people to our company's circles. Naturally, they often add you back. However, what does it mean to people who watch my brand (my G Plus page), the fact that I'm following thousands of people? Should I do it? How does it reflect on us?
Is there a better way to gain followers (specifically for G Plus)? P.S
We obviously have the badge on site but we hardly gain followers that way. Thanks

Hi All, I have a main category page, a landing page, that does not appear in the SERPS at all (even if I serach for a whole sentence from it). This page once ranked high. What may cause such a punishment for a specific page? Thanks

Hi All, One of my sites was under Unnatural Links Manual Penalization. Its been over two months since it was revoked and we see no changes at all. In fact, we still have couple of pages (important landing pages) that are still de-indexed (I checked it by searching in quotes a whole sentence within the page and got no results). Does it mean that even though the site's penalization was revoked it is not completely over yet and I just need to be patient or is there something else hovering over the website? Thanks

Hi All, The fun thing about our industry is that unlike poker - most cards are open. While trying to learn what the big guys are doing I chose to focus on www.Zappos.com - one of the largest sports wear (especially shoes). I looked how they categories, interlink and on their product pages. I have a question about duplication in an age where it is SO important.
If you look in their running sneakers category you'd see that they show the same item (in different color) as two separate items - how are these pages no considered duplication? It gets even worse - If you look inside a shoe page (a product page) in the tab "About the Brand" you'd learn that all shoes from Nike (just an example) the about the brand is exactly the same. This is about 90% of the page for hundreds of Nike shoes pages - and goes the same for all other brands. How come they are ranked so high and not penalized in the era of Panda?
Is it as always - big brands get away with anything and everything? Here are two example shoe pages:
Nike Dart 10 (a)
Nike Dart 10 (b) Thanks!

Hi All, On one hand, if I follow them they are happy and receive a notice that they are being followed and will probably be more agile to plus my writings. On the other, it is unreasonable for me to follow everyone... and I think that as a brand I should watch very carefully who I follow. Thanks

Hi All, I've encountered a site that has PR3 on most important pages (and less on others but no more on any)  and DA according to MOZ in the low 40's however it is first on everything on his niche (many keywords). How is it possible? Since it is possible, what is the importance of these metrics anyhow? Thanks

Hi All, There are many situations where I encounter the need (or the wish) to update existing content. Here are few reasons: Some update turned up on the subject that does not justify a new posy / article but rather just adding two lines. The article was simply poorly written yet the page has PR as it is a good subject and is online for quite some time (alternatively I can create a new and improved article and 301 the old one to the new). Improving titles and sub titles of old existing articles. I would love to hear your thoughts on each of the reasons... Thanks

Is embedded content "really" on my page? There are many addons nowadays that are used by embedded code and they bring the texts after the page is loaded. For example - embedded surveys. Are these read by the Google bot or do they in fact act like iframes and are not physically on my page? Thanks