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Yep, hostname is where I would start looking as well. Also geographic segments like country and region if your site is targeting only a particular country/state/city.
And building on what Brett is saying, find a list of common nuisance bots and block them via robots.txt. That may help as well.
Given that not all websites use an "m." mobile setup, I'm thinking that app deep linking to the desktop version of a page would be A-OK.
Interestingly, even when I searched for exactly your Facebook page's name, Google wasn't finding it. Google does, however, find this page just fine. It looks like it hasn't been claimed yet. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Console-Hollawell-PC/323923971129837
I'm not sure what's going on with your existing FB page, but that is clearly where Google wants to make the association and the opportunity appears to be there.
Dynamic templates can be a great solution, so long as you're incorporating a variety of dynamic elements, not just swapping out one or two words.
I have seen some debate on whether or not to set a meta description, and I think it's really a CRO choice. Google is always going to match a search query with a relevant excerpt from the page when a meta description is not available, so if you trust Google's judgment, it can be fine to go without. I don't think that philosophy is hurting Yelp at all.
By "doorway pages" you just mean a thin, off-site landing page which quickly funnels a visitor onto your main site, correct?
If it hasn't been hit with a manual penalty, it ranks well, AND it's got links worth keeping (note the qualifier there), I'd go for the 301. But only if it can meet all three of those criteria. If it didn't, then I'd let it 404.
The links I looked at were being passed through with a 301 status code, which would be fine for SEO, but then they're passed through a 307, which is a temporary redirect akin to a 302. This Moz article notes that most major crawlers treat it the same as a 302, which implies that it's unlikely to pass any link value through to the destination site.
Sure, but do you see where I'm going with that line of thought? It's never actually about the car. It's what the car enables - in your case, cost savings, someone else is responsible for maintenance, etc. Maybe case studies, testimonials from businesses that have made the switch. I'd also be pitching stories to online business publications. Don't limit yourself to dry technical details.
Okay, so my first reaction is that the articles you're describing are probably better suited to the car rental pages themselves. That's where the conversion is going to happen, so that's where you want that long-tail, long-term content to live. Plus, since it's pretty formulaic, it's a good fit for an ecommerce page where that kind of info duplication is going to be expected.
For the blog itself, I would shoot for unique, aspirational articles. Getting a rental car isn't about the car - it's about the destination. Lists of great road-trip destinations stuffed with gorgeous stock photos. Infographics about where and when to buy gas. Tips for finding the best gas prices away from home. Go for shareability, not for SEO. Then promote the hell out of it on social.
I have a bunch of questions here that affect how I would answer this.
Google doesn't really have a preference since it's not a ranking factor. In fact, Google will often ignore your meta description entirely in favor of displaying a content snippet that it considers to be more relevant to the searcher's query.
However, you can increase your click-through rate by making it relevant to the query you're targeting. Make it descriptive and consider including a call to action to entice a searcher to click on your link. However, I disagree with another poster that click-through rate can affect rankings. It would be too easy to game the system, and search engines caught on to that trick a long, long time ago.
Basically, write unique, relevant meta descriptions for readers, not for search bots; and understand that Google will always treat your meta description as nothing more than a polite suggestion.
If you're thinking in terms of sprinkling good content in with crap content, you're already off to a bad start.
The solution here is simple: _Don't publish crap. _
Seriously, that's it. That's how you avoid a Panda slap. Shares have nothing to do with it.
Honestly, I like your example competitor's tag, and here's why:
Just look at all those beautiful keywords that look just like something someone would actually type into a search engine to find your product. It's descriptive and gets the job done pretty well. You could probably lose one of the printer names and add your brand, but I don't think it's so spammy as you think.
As I understand it, Google only counts a link the first time it encounters it on a page, so if she's linking to the About page 5x from the same page, then only the first one counts and the other four are ignored. So I'm not sure I see the point in hiding those four other links unless it was somehow accidental or she's getting some really bad advice somewhere.
I honestly believe that Google probably knows what users are doing on your website with or without GA, and that GA is just a way for them to show it to you.
So, if I'm understanding this correctly, you're posting spun content? Are you spinning someone else's content or are you spinning your own content?
Separately from that, social media has no real direct impact on SEO, and duplication through shares across social is kind of the whole point of social, so I wouldn't worry about that hurting anything. Nor would I seriously pursue it as an SEO tactic. The value of social to SEO is that it amplifies your content's reach, and more eyeballs on your content translates to more potential for attracting natural links. But the shares themselves do nothing to help SEO right now. In the future, maybe.
(b - a) / a
So in your case:
a = 90,914
b = 127,931
(127,931 - 90,914) / 90,914 = 0.40716501
Rendered as a percent, it's a 40.72% increase.
If you're doing % change on a number of pages, export the GA data to Excel, apply the formula there. I do this all the time with our merchant pages, and it's great for spotting trends if your business is even remotely seasonal.
However, if you're just doing single calculations on the fly and don't want to memorize the formula, there are tons of percent change calculators online. Most of them are boneheaded SEO, which is why I'm linking to the SERP and not to any particular calculator, but the numbers they spit out are sound.
Are you wanting these videos to drive traffic to your site? If so, then YouTube is not going to be the answer as it's pretty terrible as a traffic driver. I would host on site if at all possible. Maybe throw them up on YouTube because why not, but more for brand awareness than for SEO.
In addition to all of the above from Miriam and David, I am wondering if it makes sense for you to have traffic from Arizona, Utah, England and Sweden. Like, is your business something that tourists would be interested in? If so, then yes, it makes total sense to get links from those places. On the other hand, if your business is only of interest to locals, then it might not make much sense to chase links so far removed from your service area.
My approach to Google is often more philosophical than technical, and I'd expect Google may be more trusting of links originating closer to the business. Even if they aren't currently favoring local links algorithmically, it's what I would expect their goal to be since local authority would be a trump card in the real world. If you asked someone in Madrid and someone from New York where to find the best dry cleaner in Manhattan, whose opinion would you trust more? Even if the guy in Madrid actually was a dry cleaner but otherwise had no ties to Manhattan? Why wouldn't Google be trying to think the same way?
I agree with Umar that BIGSCHOOL's overall authority is probably getting in the way. Is there any way to get a dofollow link from their course page to yours to help reinforce the linkage? Funneling a little extra juice your way certainly wouldn't hurt and it makes sense contextually.
John Mueller said awhile back that if you're hiding content behind a "Read More" then Google may downgrade the importance of that content. Because if it really was essential text, then you wouldn't be hiding it in a collapsible div, right? Basically, don't abuse it and you should be okay, but it's not a 100% safe thing and the content in those divs may not be indexed.
FYI, Deb is an American clothing retailer, and they sell dresses. So even if it's not a brand in Australia, it is still a brand that sells the thing that you're trying to rank for. I can see where Google might find it semantically confusing.
Agree 100%. I've interviewed several candidates lately who have completed an SEO program at a local, well respected, not-for-profit school and it became pretty clear as I spoke to them that I've got a lot of work to do to fix the misinformation.
On the other hand, I was really excited about a candidate who had a degree in Political Science, though he ultimately took a different job. I've been very pleased with the work I've seen from a co-worker with a degree in journalism. I find that a liberal arts education in general, but especially when the degree requires a combination of writing skill and critical thinking, sets people up pretty well for SEO work. I'm always surprised by how much SEO these candidates already know without realizing it - it's just that no one has ever organized everything for them or given it a name. Once they have that light bulb moment, they pick it up very quickly.
Personally, I've got a BA in Rhetoric and an MBA in International Business, and I find these to be invaluable for what I do. I know how to write, I understand how people use language, and b-school gave me a whole new perspective on what KPIs really matter and how my role fits into our business model.