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Honestly, I don't think anyone can respond to that because it depends on your experience, talent, and what you think is fair.

Thanks,

It appears to have no value to me. I don't know if I would necessarily disavow it, although I would't expect much negative impact because of its DA (if removed). It just depends on your link profile.

But yes, it appears to have no value for the user and spammy.

ETA: If you drop out of rankings because of this disavowing this link (I doubt you will), you can go back and remove the disavow file. I've seen sites jump right back to where they were in the rankings.

Hello, this sounds pretty urgent.

You can see the updates here - http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

Google Penguin update hit sites that have poor backlinking or spam links.

Google Panda update hit thin sites (with thin content) or any duplicate content.

Moving forward: Find the problem (could be more than one). Disavow the links. Produce relevant, high quality (not high quantity) content.

Moving a site is always a valid concern, double check your redirects (both pages and media - such as images and pdfs) and double check your on-site optimization.

Hope this helps.

Hello,

I wouldn't ever pay for links quite frankly. Search engines will continue to get more advanced and understand the world wide web better as time goes on.

I would dive deep into creativity and pursue possibly some of the following backlink options:

• reach out to universities to publish links on their websites for graduates (both undergrad and grad websites - that's possibly two links for .edu)
• I would possibly have a similar job posting on Craigslist (another valuable link) - beware of duplicate content
• Create content focused on local people getting local jobs and reach out to your local chamber of commerce or local government to see if you can garner some "attention" to these jobs. Possibly some .gov / valuable links here.
• Your content should be focused on helping people find jobs
• Your outreach should probably take most of your SEO time spent.
• Track those links! Therefore, validating your efforts.

I hope this helps.

Cole

Did you 301 redirect all the old pages to the new pages (assuming URL structure was changed)?

What were they ranking for previously? And what page was ranking?

I may would advise having a more specific keyword for the home page considering it probably has a higher Domain Authority.

Thanks,

Cole

I'm open to correction from other Mozzers but I don't think you've been hit with a penalty because of your keyword optimization.

I would consider one thing - what is best for the user?

It may look like this (targeting Website Design):

Title Tag Keyword Phrase | Brand Name - For example: Website Designer - Seattle, Washington

H1 Keyword Phrase in a question form - Website Design Made Easy (followed by content)

H2 Keyword Phrase asking where it originated, etc. - Website Design Services and Pricing (followed by content)

Basically, provide relevant content. I wouldn't worry too much here; just slightly alter it so it's not exact match all the way down the page.

As far as a penalty, you may have been recently hit with the new panda update or the penguin update.

I hope this helps. Thanks, Cole.

Another thing to do is to double check Google Analytics code on the new website, double check robots.txt on the new website, make sure the new website is being indexed (I'm assuming there are new pages), double check anything and everything.

It is common for new launches to lose traffic for a little bit then come back to a better place. It happened to me on a large media site. The traffic dropped a 30% then recovered for a gain of 15%. Not sure why. But that's what happened.

I hope you find something or hold tight!

Thanks,

Cole

I've looked at the following:

• your DA and PA of home page is at the same level if not better than your competitors.
• your website speed is fine.
• you don't have any backlinks that are spammy.
• Your on-site optimization is good
• you have good content
• your site is visually appealing so it can't be CTR and bouncing.
• you appear to have good indexation
• your robots.txt file isn't the issue

Man, I'm very curious as to what others say. How long have you owned that domain? Could it be that someone previously had it and received a penalty?

ETA:

*the site that appear to rank higher than you have part of the keyword search query in their domain name but this isn't a "be all" scenario. So that can't FULLY be it either. It doesn't explain why you don't show up on second or third page.

*I didn't see you on the second or third page of "coffee vending machines south africa." I really wonder if this site has had a penalty before.

Have you ever disavowed any backlinks in GWT before? If so, what sites?

robots.txt:

Disallow:

/wp-admin/

/wp-content/plugins/

Then, deindex them as mentioned in the first response.

You'll create a Google Places (Business) page. It will automatically creates a Google Plus page.

Update both fully with information. Now reviews will by synced to both (send them to Google Plus to leave reviews).

For duplicates, manage other Google Plus pages -> settings -> delete page. Keep the Google Plus page that is linked to Google Places.

I hope this helps!

Cole

Yeah I wonder if your domain name has been given a manual penalty.

I would do a reconsideration request now - (having done the two disavows already).

GWT will still show those links that have been disavowed. Don't let that worry you - they've still been disavowed.

I agree with Andy.

However, you could look at new visitors vs returning visitors within direct traffic. Typically returning visitors are coming back DIRECTLY to your site and new visitors (assuming they didn't see an advertisement elsewhere) aren't coming DIRECTLY to your site.

That's my best approach; if I see a large number of new visitors, (assuming not a large ad just ran), then I can assume fairly reasonably that those are long tail keyword search terms.

They don't do the same thing. Google Places is for maps listings (often referred to as local listings). Google Plus is a social platform.

If you have reviews on your old Google Plus page, I would see about possibly moving them over. Why? So they show up under your Places account to be rated (get 5 reviews and you become rated). Getting rated gets you the stars which means you're awesome, right?

I would reach out to Google via "Contact Us." It may take several days for Google to get back with you. I'm not 100% sure if reviews are transferrable. If not, then ask what Google recommends.

I hope this helps.

Hi,

If you're changing the Page Title to represent an accurate keyword for that page (or what that page is about), then I would suggest actually changing the URL (or in this case allowing the URL) to represent that targeted keyword.

For example, I have a page about an alzheimer's game for people diagnosed with alzheimer's. My page title will be "Fun Alzheimer's Game for Loving Family Members with Alzheimer's." My URL may be "fun-alzheimers-game-for-family-members.  (something along those lines - I am creating something here that may not be accurate of course).

So you would want your URL and Title Tag to be not necessarily be exactly the same (although plenty of mine are) but very, very similar to tell search engines what this page is about.

Keep in mind that if you do change the URL (from changing the Title Tag), to do a 301 redirect. That is to tell search engines that the old URL now is this new URL.

I hope this helps.

Cole

I'd be interested to know this as well. As far as local SEO, see my other posts on your other question.

Thanks and look forward to seeing responses

You can still do Google Places for Business and build reviews.

Often times the parent company will give you a subdomain, I'd try that. Or they have a page within the website dedicated to that location. There's several options here. I'd communicate to the parent company.

As far as link building, ideally you would want to send links to the subdomain (assuming they will give you one).

Thanks Erica!

Sounds like I want to move forward with Moz Local for most of our customers.

Awesome feedback.

Would the user benefit from the forum? If yes, then I would proceed with the forum (create no follows for all comments).

Google cares about the user. Thus, if the forum benefits the user, then yes.

It appears you're keeping in mind the user and I applaud you. It could be example.com/forum (with sub categories following forum to clearly indicate this is a FORUM). We aren't trying to manipulate (create no follows as mentioned above).

I think this would be good for your site, assuming you have good engagement.

Hi,

We seem to be running into each other on the Moz Community forum quite often. According to the attached image, 76% of your organic traffic is Not Provided.

What is Not Provided? Google has chosen not to reveal those keywords (which come from people logged into their Google account). This happened a couple years ago or so.

What can we do about all of that lost data?

Apply a workaround filter (as mentioned above) for everything that is "Not Provided" to now be "np - /page-a", so that we can see what PAGES users are going to via organic search. If we know the PAGES, then we can determine the keywords.

As far as applying the filter, don't even worry about the technical know-how. It's just a copy and paste into filters under admin navigation.

I hope this is clear

Cole

That's really unfortunate that you can't get access to the landing page to determine keywords / content.

But yeah, I'd go with Google Places for Business and fill out all the information and get 5 reviews to become rated with the goal of being at the top of Local Search Results. In my experience, you'll have to ask 20-25 people that you have done business with to get 5 reviews.

Good luck!

Thanks so much to all who responded.

Robert, your post was very insightful in how I approach businesses.

Hi,

I believe Alick300 may be misunderstanding what Matt Cutts is communicating. Cutts is communicating different domains in different countries in this circumstance.

Thanks,

Cole

Good news for you - this can all be cleared up simply.

Not Provided is Google saying we are not showing you the keyword data (from organic). There is a filter for a workaround. You'll never know the "exact keywords from organic" that are Not Provided. However, you can filter that data to tell you what pages they're going to. And if you know the page they're going to, it's highly likely that you know the target keyword for that page. So your Not Provided data could actually be those targeted keywords you mentioned.

The filter:

Filter type: custom - Advanced

Field A -> Extract A: Set to Campaign Term: (.not provided.)

Field B -> Extract B: Set to Request URL: (.*)

Output to -> Constructor: Set to Campagin Term: np - $B1

Check field A, field B, and override output field. (leave case sensitive unchecked).

Basically, this filter says "for not provided" - tell me the URL that users are going to. And from there, you can do some digging and determine what keywords are working. Also, this will affect future data, not past data.

I hope this helps.

Cole

Hello Alan,

Within Google Analytics, you can create a goal based on how long a user spends on the specific page. I think this is your best bet - I haven't heard of a plugin to assign a conversion when filling out the form.

Hope this helps.

What if the email address is @agency.com? Then, physical email addresses can't be turned over.

Best alternative would be to transfer ownership in G+ dashboard? Would this alternative simply be by adding another manager and that new manager delete old agency manager? Or is there a place to actually change ownership? I can't seem to locate the change of ownership if it does exist.

ETA: I found it. You add someone as a manager then you wait 1 day, then add them as the owner.

Thanks,

First, ask why they're doing this. If they're attemtping to rank for multiple locations. Change the content enough to be localized.

Second, if it's truly just duplicate content for no real purpose, then 301 redirect the domains to the domain with a higher "domain authority."

Find domain authority at opensiteexplorer.com.

Yeah this is a good scenario for those with larger budgets using "broad phrase" match keywords. By larger budgets, I mean those that can afford to spend for clicks that may not be "relevant" traffic. This can be a good metric for generating content ideas that people search for.

Cole

I agree with Andy on this one.

Something else to think about is people want to talk to a decision maker. Well, an agency is not the decision maker at the company. At times when this is relevant, it helps to have a @mycompanydomain.com email address as to be taken seriously.

Thanks,

Hello,

It may be helpful to hire two separate companies - one focused on small business SEO and the other focused on small business web design. I've seen people in my local town do this and it turns out well.

I work for a US small company that caters to small business owners in both web design and SEO. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have here.

Thanks,

Cole

Hey Moz,

I am working with a client on more advanced SEO tactics. This client has a reputable domain authority of 67 and 50,000+ backlinks.

We're wanting to continue SEO efforts and stay on top of any bad backlinks that may arise.

Would it be worth asking websites (below 20 domain authority) to remove our links? Then, use the disavow tool if they do not respond.

Is this a common SEO practice for continued advanced efforts? Also, what would your domain authority benchmark be? I used 20 just as an example.

Thanks so much for your help.

Cole

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the feedback. That was one potential point I was making.

Am still curious if duplicate content would be considered "fresh" within a website. Good point of the duplicate content overriding the benefit of fresh content.

Thanks,

Cole

Link Exchanges have become a thing of the past as far as a direct link exchange (put your link here and I'll put your link here) and could harm your website. Here is another Q&A Forum asking if link exchanges are good or not and another one that may be helpful.

To be safe and utilize link exchanges in a white hat, clean, relevant way, I believe mutually agreeing to linking to certain articles can be considered safe. Creating another article linking to your article (or blog) is what I mean or editing an existing article to add value. I don't think just having a random link in the footer or some place else on the website provides value is what I'm saying.

You may know all of this, but someone will come along questions link exchanges and provide insight anyways. As well, I think it can establish a ground for this conversation of seeing relevant, high QUALITY content.

I will take a look at your content and private message you if that's okay.

Thanks,

Cole

Hey Nick,

I hope my post is insightful, not demeaning.

You appear to have a specific (really low) CPA in mind while wanting 50 (high amount) leads a day. Without knowing your industry or target keywords, it's hard to comment on volume (leads) and CPA.

However, If you can generate 50 leads a day with certain keywords in PPC campaigns, then other people can too. If other people can, it drives up the price of your CPA. Thus, a low CPA and high number of leads is typically not reasonable.

I applaud you for tracking CPA and desiring a lot of leads. If you want 50 leads, assuming a 1% Click Through Rate and a 2% conversion on the clicks, you would need 2,500 clicks PER DAY and 250,000 impressions PER DAY. These are rough, industry standards but I hope this is insightful for what you're asking.

PS, Google doesn't call people trying to sale them. I second what Bruce said.

Thanks,

Alex, you sir are a man among boys.

Thanks!!

Hey Ruben,

I've done some work for a couple title companies. If you Google "title lawyers lafayette la" or "title attorneys lafayette la," we rank #1. HOWEVER, our client has not seen a big jump of incoming customers from the website. In addition, we have recently added on local SEO (Google Places for business).

I've seen local SEO (Google Places for business) have tremendous success with a local criminal lawyer in town.

Conclusion: Local SEO may be more valuable than attempting to rank #1 on Google, but it is important to remember that your Local SEO (Google Places) is affected by your organic SEO as one of many factors.

I suggest: Having A+ on-site optimization (URL's, Title, Meta Description, Content with focused keywords, h1-h3 headers, image alt tags). And pursuing Local SEO via Google Places. Make sure to fill out all of the information within the account and I hope you achieve first page of Google Maps on SERPs.

Other marketing efforts: We have seen success from doing Facebook Ads targeting the real estate companies in town (custom audiences would be great too). We have also seen good success in Remarketing. Considering the title industry is a top-of-mind game.

Good luck!

I would add helpful articles / resources.

This could be the following: blog posts (weekly), infographics, videos, and pictures.

Think about adding content that would be helpful to users looking for content AROUND your industry. Therefore, you begin establishing your business as a resource. I would take that content and internally link to a product / service page.

This guide is AWESOME for everyone (not just beginners): http://moz.com/blog/the-noob-guide-to-link-building

I hope this helps,

Cole

I think this can be a straight forward answer.

is the website spammy or provide no value (just a list of websites for example)?

If so, disavow. But I don't think this is a big problem. If you're cleaning it up, clean up those that are spammy, not just 404s or non existent domains.

I hope this helps.

Cole