Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Moz is great for 1000's of links. However where possible each link to your site should be examined and spammy links removed.  An easy way to get uplift for clients is a link de-tox.

The moz scores are guides and on occasions I see a 7 next to a link I worked really hard to get that benefits the site.

So my view is - use moz as a guide but overall use your own intuition.  If you have not done a link de-tox for a while, no doubt a link audit is needed. If the links that Moz flags - you know are good links - then take no action. Conversely you will likely find links that Moz has not "flagged" which should be disavowed.

Hope that assists.

As long as the 1k of traffic is strongly engaging with your site, then yes it is good. Alan details the no follow attributes.

Hi

There are  three key parts to it generally.  This is very general so ask for detail on any part.  The first is technical seo, making sure your site can be found by search engines like google. Ria has mentioned that.  To that end the below technical site audit guide from moz is a gem. Lets you tick off where you are at.  A website checklist!  Two items I would immediately look at are "mobile optimization" & "home page loading speed".

https://moz.com/blog/technical-site-audit-for-2015

The second and third parts flow together in some ways - backlinks and content creation.  There is a lot of information out there about content so you will find plenty of info. On backlinks - another great link. https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links

If you feel comfortable with your site after reading both links, you have all covered - you are well on your way to optimizing your ranking.

Hope that assists.  Ask away for any clarification.

The video will switch you off social media forever - so be warned.

I see social media impact in creating links, and generally driving traffic to websites. Social media when done well with seo in mind can be beneficial.  To my knowledge that is not in dispute.  I just find it not as costs effective as content creation and technical.

Anchor text should be natural.  So if the anchor text is an exact match too often, there is a reasonable chance of a penguin penalty. Exact matching anchor text also tends to look unnatural - so it may not entice the click throughs.

So the short answer it does not matter if natural.  If not could be heading for the penguin sin bin.

Confused, what keyword are you trying to rank for?

Or is the question should the anchor text match the page headline it links to?

Make them watch this.  This video is what I show them.  Not 100% correct as social media does have seo value. But it is an absolute rip snorter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2NUayn2vP0

Hope this assists.

Benjamin is correct.  Also check https://moz.com/blog/external-linking-good-for-seo-whiteboard-friday for a video version.

External links are considered a small ranking signal by some, I think it is more important. The integral part to external links is it allows google to contextualize your site.  So a page focused on selling note books could be benefited if is linked to a website selling stationary. However if the note book page links to Air Jordan shoes - that may confuse google.  External links are not  a tenth as powerful as a relevant backlink but it is a signal worth using as it has no real cost.

I personally like external links as it gives a customer trust in your website, if you are linking to reputable authoritative sources and arming them with better information.

Hope that assists.

Qua

Have you notified google ? If not follow the steps on the below link and it should resolve.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663691?hl=en

Of for some more detail. http://www.seoblog.com/2014/06/google-indexing-deleted-pages/

Hope that assists.

To be clear are you saying content that has been expunged for 3 years google is displaying?

It happens often, as google matches a searchers intent with the relevant information. Often see a difference between branded searches and non branded searches for the same page.

Do you use Yoast?

Is the title in excess of 512 pixels?  Is the description over 156 odd characters?  There are numerous reasons it can be exacerbated.

Hope that assists.

Rezwan

Yes, it looks from your screenshot that the "cancel subscription"option has been closed off to you.  I think the only thing you can do is wait for a response from the moz crew, sorry mate.

Rezwan

You just go into account settings - and on the right  their is a cancel subscription.  You need to click that and follow through.  So it is free for 30 days but you need to cancel your subscription before the trial period is up.

It is not difficult.  I assume, you forgot to cancel the subscription before the free 30 days was up.  No huge stress just email them if you have any more problems.

No one can really give you a "definitive" answer and that is the reason why you are "sweating".

A few websites simply never recover.  On some we simply bit the bullet and rebuilt. I think it is a good sign you got so many pages back, so it sounds like it is worth waiting.  You have to rely on your intuition.  You know your website better than anyone in the world.

But most importantly it is critical you sleep well at night knowing that your site is "white hat optimized to perfection".  If it is not, then you should keep sweating until it is perfect...

Not sure if that helps, but hope it assists.

Roman

More than crawl issues, but in short yes, broken links, site loading speed, mobile optimization etc.  All the basics.  The technical seo audit by Moz is an great checklist to work through.

Yes they will be if they are from bought links, or spam directories, but if they are earn't links then they would be natural and should not incur a penalty.  It is hard work getting one or two.  We use Moz and majestic and do a link analysis.  Have you done that? How many links do you actually have with the keyword anchor text you are targeting on the specific page?

Your own blog, and own socials etc and the posts get re-published because you created such awesome content.

Hope that assists.  Tragically there is nothing short of back breaking work ahead...

As you have been hit by the latest penguin update - you should not expect improvement until the next update.  I am not sure when that is.  What is integral is disavowing all the bad links and ensuring the website is perfect. It is critical you understand what "poor" practices your website adopted and ensure that you go over board in eliminating them. That includes links with optimized anchor text on top of the spammy links.

It is not a great situation you are in, but nothing can change until the next update.

here is a reasonable article that may also help. http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2355513/youve-been-hit-by-penguin-should-you-start-over-or-try-to-recover

Hope that assists.

Roman

You still have to work on the technical. So do not stop. Also however I would suggest - specific backlink / anchor text targeting of the important keywords you are chasing.  So target articles (backlinks) where the anchor text is reflective of the keyword you are attempting to rank for.  Make sure they have a strong trust flow and see how you go. Need to get the content up to a formidable level.

Hope that assists.

If you think BOTW would drive traffic - then yes.

That said I would query the logic of both stores on one landing page.  As there are only two, and local search could be a key factor in search.  Can you create separate pages for each store, with a google map to each page?. That will give an opportunity for each store to locally rank.

Hi

Without going into a great depth and people will rightly point out everything I have missed there are three keys aspects to ranking.  The first is technical seo - see audit link https://moz.com/blog/technical-site-audit-for-2015

It sounds like you are on top of technical - but maybe a quick check. A key one is page loading speed (tools.pingdom.com)

The second is authoritative backlinks. It does sound like a site authority issue - what is your DA & PA for you home page? https://moz.com/products/api if low ie less than 15. Read https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building

Then the third you need to consider is content creation. https://moz.com/blog/how-to-build-a-content-marketing-strategy.

So three big issues - where are you with each one? Do a little audit and see where you are at may give you guidance in where to place limited resources.

Hope that assists.

Yes, congrats that link is gold. It is a follow link.  Links like that are very hard to get.  The anchor text is your website, so it will definitely assist your home page DA.

The next mozscape index is on 9 October, I expect you will see a good jump up from today.

So yes you should expect SEO help from the link. If you do not, I would undertake a technical audit of your site.  https://moz.com/blog/technical-site-audit-for-2015 track down any issues.

Hope that assists.

Ideally you lead in big and get narrower - so your suggestion www.salshoes.com/shoes/mens/day-wear would be varied as follows:-

www.salshoes.com/mens/shoes/day-wear

Also it makes sense when you read, plus it is consistent with what a searcher may type into google. That said "day-wear" is a atypical keyword to target for shoes, so perhaps casual or formal may be preferable.  The more precise you can be the more optimum for SEO ie .  www.salshoes.com/mens/shoes/canvas-shoes

Hope that assists.  Ask if have any queries.

Have you checked on WMT's?  For Impressions for those keywords and CTR? That is the starting point in my view.  If you CTR is steady and your impressions have dropped significantly you have to work out what pages you have dropped off - it may not necessarily be the main keyword.

I would start on WMT's..

You need to consider why practically we use alt text to start with.  Alt text assists  visually impaired as they tend to use screen readers in order to browse web pages. Repeating the same information is superfluous not engaging and not helpful to the visually impaired.

Alt text is also how Search engines read pictures. Image search is becoming increasingly important, so repeating the same phrase would not be overly helpful for google to know what to show to answer a searchers inquiry. In fact it could be considered a negative at some levels.

Your alt text should give context and information to each image displayed.  If your image fails to load one day... the alt text is what will be displayed in lieu.

In short each photo should have a context and hence there own description.

Hope that assists.

The most common cause of the issue is if the Title is in excess of 512 pixels. Have you checked the length of the Title on a snippet tool https://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag or http://tinyurl.com/nyt6vvt

In the event the Title is in excess of 512 pixels google often places the brand name first and then the balance of the Title or pulls something all together. Which is what you are describing.

The issue is usually solvable, it may take a bit of tweaking.  On your brand name google pulls it from my experience from the url.

Let me know about Title length first.

Hope that assists.

No google cannot pick up your voice (or not that we know about!).  Here is a great link to have a look at.

https://moz.com/blog/building-a-video-seo-strategy

I think the answer you looking for though is transcription of your video.

If you look at each WBF - Moz transcribe the video and it is beneath the video. google will crawl the written content and that facilitates best seo practices. iframes are nasty for google to crawl so video is a tough one.

This is still one of my favourite WBF's and it deals with video.  Have a look, I am sure it will set you on the right path.

https://moz.com/blog/panda-optimization-whiteboard-friday

Hope that assists.

Some basic scraping maybe common, but they have gone out of there way to backlink to you...

Have you checked there metrics on open site explore...?  Checked whois?

Sohail

I am not happy.  Good question to ask.  If it works - do not touch it.  The first principal in SEO is do no harm.

I would consider terminating them... poor advice leading into the most important time for sales for you for the year. They sound like a web developer not an seo consultant.

Sorry I am a bit grumpy... but do not like it.  Your intuition is spot on.

I am honest I am still a little puzzled. But if what you are describing is what is happening.  Something very strange is going on. I have not heard of it before.

A totally different domain, that you did not build is linking to your site with the exact copy of a page that it is linked to. If that is the case, your site is being specifically targeted. Someone has to have gone out of there way to copy your site and then re-build it on a different domain.

This is what I would do:-

I would contacting google asap.

Can you find who owns the site on whois?

Check the wayback machine to find out what the site was previously

User open site explorer to track the nature of the links on the other domain. .

And wow... that is unbelievable if it is correct...

Pleasure - now go smash them..

That console part provides clickable links.  So that goes back to my original question.  Can you click through to the domain and see a mimic copy of your site? Or is it simply showing you a link that clicks to nothing?

Ali

So I assume the keyword is Blouse - name of Product Jessica

Women's Blouses | Jessica Blouse | Brandname

H1

Fashion Blouses

It is a little unusual to have the name of the product in womans fashion in the title - unless it is a big brand like G-Star etc. But that is up to you. An alternate might be

Blouses | Peasant, black casual | Brand name

H1

Womans fashion Blouses

Then leave jessica for the description of the product?  There are 1000 ways to skin a cat, you have to decide which way to go. I prefer the latter.

Hope that assists.

.

Salavador

You can use survey monkey they have plenty of templates.

But the best thing to do to get started (which is what I do) - is ask a couple of friends (my female friends always give me better answers) - simply say to them, I will give you a voucher or dinner, can you review my site, and be blunt and harsh. Tell them to make 5 dots points of things they think should be fixed.

As soon as they have brought them to your attention, you will know they are right! and you have lots of work to do...

Often we get caught up in the technical looking at moz metrics and forget about the customer.  It is normal - I do it.  Worrying about competitors.  If a customer has a good site experience they will find you another customer! and it did not cost you anything...

Where in google search console are they reported?

Also to be clear, nothing has happened to your site.  ie traffic has not changed. However you have found "strange" links in search console?  Which do not click through to anything?

Or as I am still not clear - have you found another domain, that mimics your site that you can actually see?

Salvador

I can't answer that question as it would only be a guess.  But many ecommerce sites / ie florist sites, have pages for different suburbs, towns and then there is all the different products. The logo on each page... it goes on.

It is simply too hard to guess.  The best think to do is focus on the customer experience - of your customer. Learn from your competitor - but focus on your customer. They are the most important.

When did you last do a customer survey? on your clients user experience on your site?  I am guessing, but spend some time on your user experience.

I am a little confused.

Are you saying that an exact copy of a unique page you have created on your website is on another domain name (which you know nothing about) and then that site is linked to your site, ie via a backlink?

Internal links are very important.  Often you can change internal links, and all other aspects being equal obtain an improvement in rankings. The article by Bruce Clay, is old but is still contemporary in outlook.

http://www.bruceclay.com/seo/silo.htm

So in answer to your question - internal linking is very important, from a linking perspective but also a customer perspective - as it usually facilitates a good user experience.  Internal linking also confirms to google what your site is about, as related pages link up. So a page on CTR has a clickable link to SEO & SEM definitions etc. etc.

On a factor in ranking - absolutely however on why 15th instead of first. I would not jump to conclusions do a site audit.

https://moz.com/blog/technical-site-audit-for-2015

See what the site audit reveals and move on from there.

Hope that assists.

The answer is the keyword first.

But concurrently when working on your title tag, you should also consider your H1.  Create synergy so google can easily determine what search inquiry you answer. Additionally your URL structure.

Make is simple for google to understand what the purpose of each page is. Here is a good link to have a quick scan of.

https://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag

Let me know if you have any more queries.

Bob

I love two sites .. ... airbnb is my favorite site..

https://www.airbnb.com.au/

The second, for layout and ideas is:-

http://www.squarespace.com

Hope that assists. ps do not like squarespace as a platform and not on airbnb.... !

Option A for mind. Also hummingbird allows a bit more lateral, so if it is for young and hip perhaps...

http://www.shopname.com.au/hers/heels

I think meta descriptions are important.

They are your first chance to display a call to action to a customer and to get them to click through to your site.  Hence a poorly written one, truncated etc. is probably not as enticing as one within the 160 characters - that does not truncate.

We have acted for several clients where we have optimized the MD and improved the CTR by .08% (ie less than 1%) but that has amounted to over 20,000 additional clicks on their site a year.

Also I loved Rand's WBF which indirectly addresses the issue, but correlates with my view, though probably not as strong that dwell time is a significant factor on ranking.

https://moz.com/blog/impact-of-queries-and-clicks-on-googles-rankings-whiteboard-friday

On your questions directly:-

Will it hurt your SEO? - Yes, two possible reasons

1/ you keyword stuff it.

2/ no-one clicks through because you have a bad MD

On truncation - there are exceptions, but google generally does not if you fit within there pixel/character limit.

My view - draft and implement your MD's properly...

Hope that assists.

The Mozscape index is updated circa every 2 months.  The next update is on 9 October 2015, so check on the 10th and see what impact your new links have had.See the below link,

https://moz.com/products/api/updates

Additionally it often takes a couple of updates for all additional links to be included in the index. Sounds like you are on the right track, it just takes a bit of time for everyone else to catch up..

Hope that assists.

Lisa

It is a personal decision.  There is no right or wrong answer.

Big companies - sometimes buy them and do not use them in any shape nor form, but keep from competitors. Smaller companies usually don't as it is a costs issue.

My experience is most competitors do not understand their own digital channel let alone, snapping up similar names of competitors...

I echo Andy above.

On the domains I would run them all through "open site explorer" &/or "majestic" to ensure you are not giving up anything of any value.

I would also be careful if they have no value, and are 301'ed to your main site, that could look spammy to google. So if you do choose to hold them, even though they have no value, so held for brand protection sake, do not 301 them unless it could be a traffic referral domain.

Hope that assists.

Andy, glad I read that post - a great one. Thanks.

I think each post should be considered on its merits.

Some posts become topical 12 months after you have written them. A good post, if it has relevance today is worth re-publishing.  So in my view do not be hamstrung by rules, if you think the post is relevant today... then re-publish.. Often we see a greater number of hits on re-posts especially for emerging sites. Similarweb is a classic for re-publishing old blogs.. and turning readers off. Moz however is the essence of perfection, as being mature they never do... if so only updated to upskill us..

Hope that assists.

Kashif

I suggest you may be missing a key point we were trying to make, apologies if I am being blunt.

Topical relevance is integral to long term sustained ranking success. So forget DA & PA for a second. If your keyword is Travel Insurance then a 90 DA & 1 PA link from a Travel Company is an awesome link, especially with some great anchor text.  5 gold stars.

However a link from a company selling pool tables with a DA 20 PA 24 is not usually overly helpful.

So look for not only the DA & PA look for relevance to your website, anchor text... etc. there are alot more factors than just DA & PA. Play with majestic or open site explorer a little more. All good.

Hope that assists.

It is not as simple as that.  Trust flow, and the nature of the citation is also v important. Is the link relevant? If you had to choose one, perhaps DA but I find that a high DA and low PA, usually means it is not a site worth considering.

The questions should be does the site, help drive traffic? is it relevant... etc.

Hope that assists.

No, it is not worth doing.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93713?hl=en

Regards

I will assume that for all other matters your site is equal or superior.  ie you have undertaken a technical audit https://moz.com/blog/technical-site-audit-for-2015. All good. Also would be ideal to know the DA & PA of the respective sites.

That said the key to success, (as the boys have indicated it is achievable) would be building great content, where the links to your site are your actual brand name (not your url).  Also your link building strategy revolves around the brand name and not the url.

Could be a starting point, a strong and deliberate anchor text strategy.

Hope that assists.