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I recommend the manufacturer creates two separate descriptions - one for themselves, and one for their distributors. Requires more work, but I think is a nice solution to this problem.

John's right, but you need to work out what the search intent for each term is - and presumably pick the one that more closely matches your goals - this video is worth a watch: https://moz.com/blog/google-may-use-your-behavior-to-impact-search-rankings-whiteboard-friday

I would redirect if you can as there may be duplicate content issues if you simply republish without them...

I would also check that your content hasn't been copied by any external sites as well as we neglected this and lost rankings as Google thought we'd nicked the content when we redeveloped our websites. It all worked out OK in the end, we did the DMCA request, and sent letters to the people who copied us asking for removal but it was a pain in the proverbial - and entirely unnecessary if we'd have done this before we switched to a new site hierarchy.

It depends on too many variables to give an accurate answer.

The only way to know for sure is to test. Set a reasonable test budget and run the campaigns.

Thank you!

Hi,

I'm looking into setting up an affiliate programme (as an advertiser). The company offers commercial mortgages for a UK market only. I was wondering if you had any experience with any UK affiliate platforms and had any recommendations?

I want to test the water with a platform first as we don't really know whether it will work for us or not.

We're looking at it for lead generation. Potentially offering payment on a completed mortgage or a lower payment per lead. I think it may be worthwhile offering both options. I'll have to work out the model, but we can make it work nicely for the publisher, I think.

Thanks,

Amelia

We do this on a monthly basis with another company (a former employee who moved to a different company, there's synergy in what both companies offer). So far (and we've been doing it for just over a year) we haven't had any problems with doing this.

We also do guest blogging without reciprocal relationship.

I think it works so long as there are clear, demonstrable reasons for doing so - like I say we do this with a company that is not in direct competition with us but does have synergy with what we offer so we're able to provide expertise in our area for their visitors and vice versa. I think it adds value for our visitors and theirs.

Hope this helps

EGOL - you always have something brilliant to say. I salute you!

Toby - you could pay a fortune for advice like EGOL has just given you for free, I really hope you take it on board.

Oh absolutely. I never take any data as being 100% accurate. I was just surprised by the huge difference in both places - I thought they would be the same and I wonder why Google doesn't just pull webmaster tools data into analytics (which is what I assumed they were doing)...

Curiouser, and curiouser!

Thanks for answering

Google 'tests' landing pages quite a lot actually. I'd have a poke around in your analytics programme and see what the bounce rate, time on site, pages per visit for each landing page. If the homepage is performing better in these areas than your landing pages then that may be why this is happening. Also look in your webmaster tools at organic CTR - if the homepage has a higher CTR then Google is assuming it's more relevant for the query.

My hunch is that this is the issue - once you've got the comparison data you can look at ways of making your landing pages better for user engagement.

Good luck,

Amelia

Hi,

I just wanted to dispel a few myths going on here...

1. ALT tags are NOT to 'Tell Google' what the image is about, they are there for people who use screen readers to enrich their use of the internet.
2. Screen readers can be set up to read out alt tags, file names or title attributes - depending on the user's preference and presumably on the site they are looking at
3. Google can and does read image file names: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32567/A-Marketer-s-Guide-to-Optimizing-Images-for-Google-Search.aspx

If you pick relevant images for your pages then you probably will be able to get keywords into both the alt tag and the file name. I don't think this is spammy! It's accurate.

What would be spammy, and this has already been covered by Issac, is if you repeat the same alt text on the same page - vary it! - 'Blue lego bricks' etc. I personally would avoid saying stuff like 'cheap', 'buy' etc UNLESS the image has that text within it (say a picture of lego with a headline within the image saying 'cheap lego') in which case you are doing exactly what the alt tag is there for - enabling screen reader users to experience as similar experience to us sighted folk as possible.

Sorry for the rant, but it annoys me that something that is meant to help people who are (to my mind) at a disadvantage is abused for SEO purposes!

Best wishes,

Amelia

**EDIT: I am well aware that Google and other search engines use alt tags for rankings. What I wanted the OP to be mindful of is that alt tags were not invented 'to tell google what an image is about'. And to point out their value and use for people using screen readers. Most people do not fully understand how blind users navigate the inter-webs, me included. I just think if I can do something to make it easier for them then I will. If you'd prefer to write alt tags purely for the search engines, that is entirely your prerogative! **

Try using a service like Session Cam (http://www.sessioncam.com/)

It records users as they use your website and will help give you the answers to your conversion issues, fairly quickly. Otherwise you could spend months testing stuff without any real idea as to how people actually use your website.

I'm not affiliated with them, I am a customer who happens to think it's an incredibly useful tool. I'm sure there are others out there that do a similar thing so have a hunt around.

Good luck,

Amelia

John's right, but you need to work out what the search intent for each term is - and presumably pick the one that more closely matches your goals - this video is worth a watch: https://moz.com/blog/google-may-use-your-behavior-to-impact-search-rankings-whiteboard-friday

I believe that local results are included, as are image results and any other SERP-type result. Hope that makes sense - the previous poster has explained it pretty well so I shan't go over what he/she already said.

Hi,

This may prove interesting reading : http://searchengineland.com/google-research-even-if-you-rank-1-organically-you-can-double-your-clicks-with-paid-search-116713

All the best,

Amelia

As always, EGOL has some great insights and I agree with them...

Onsite usage metrics are also used in the algo. I'm not entirely sure exactly what Google uses, but I imagine it's something like bounce rate (though not bounce rate as they've said they don't use it... but they lie too so they might do!...), time on site, pages per visit - that kind of thing. The stuff that tells you if people are engaging with your website.

They also use organic CTR (though again, I don't think this is ever explicitly stated by them) - if your CTR is high then they will reward you (though a high CTR with bad usage metrics would not on its own help you - rather hinder I think).

This is why pi$$ poor sites often end up in high positions - people like them. Doesn't always make sense, but if the site you mention provides something people want, they aren't going to CARE whether it's been 'SEO'd' or not - and really Google doesn't either. If visitor behaviour indicates that people are getting value from visiting that site then Google is not going to move it from its high position - until you provide something that people like more and importantly onsite behaviour indicates the same.

Hope this helps

_Google knows that Tenerife is a geographic location in the Canary Islands.  This website has the word Tenerife on it many times.  It has pages with Tenerife in the title, in the URL. _

Egol is just explaining why their page shows up for 'Tenerife' searches.

I have no idea if you're targeting tourists, but I expect you are, this means you're effectively targeting two types of customer - those that plan ahead and those than plan 'on the fly'.

So if I wanted an escort for my trip to Tenerife (LOL, no, I don't... happily married lady!) I might search for one before I leave the UK to get it all organised ahead of time. So I would search 'Escorts in Tenerife' (and maybe localise even further to find one close to where I was staying)...

Or, I may be lonely on one night when I get to Tenerife, and do a search to find an escort from Tenerife.

These two scenarios might show different results - the person searching from Tenerife would get localised results, whereas the person searching from the UK is relying on 'Tenerife' being included on the website to appear in the SERPs.

I hope this makes sense!

I think Egol has a lot of great information to share, and I've often found his /her responses to questions in this forum to be very useful and informative. That last comment though was a little harsh, but the point is: _if you feel the current situation is hard to overcome, then imagine how bad it would be if they did know what they are doing!!! _This is how I read it anyway. Perhaps it's just a case of what my colleague calls ‘the impersonal interaction impertinence imperative’ - sounds like something from the hitch hikers guide, doesn't it! But basically means sometimes written, impersonal communications, can be misinterpreted. I often send stuff that sounds harsher than it's meant to be because I forget that sarcasm and suchlike are not easy to interpret in written form!

I'm glad you found my answer helpful

Pixel, you're much more helpful than me!

Hi,

I think your first option is the best. This is why I think so:

• I like short URLs - they look nicer and are less likely to be miss-typed
• The word 'search' is not one of your keywords, so unnescessary in the url
• You're right that using 'top' could be a 'bit spammy' - Also, if people's search behaviour changes and they stop searching for 'Top ...' then you may come to regret putting all your eggs in that basket (as it were). I personally wouldn't take the risk.

If you do change the URLs, make sure you do proper 301 redirects from page to page (e.g. old Brirmingham Restaurant page should forward to the new version of it, NOT just the homepage). Also, submit your xml via WMT, and with any super-important pages you can use the Fetch as Google tool which allows you to submit the page to Google's index.

Good luck with your site overhaul!

Amelia