Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Graeme

Are you saying you want to add URLs manually or automatically? If automatic, then http://www.xml-sitemaps.com but manually then no I don't sorry.

Peter

Hi

To answer your last question first, yes, Google can generally understand different words joined together, but hyphenated is better for human readability.

Regarding your domain name choice, it really depends what keywords you are using in the domain as to what will work the best and what may or may not appear spammy. The spammy feel, if there is one, will really be to do with how people read the domain - and also maybe how long-winded a long domain name can be to type in.

Re Google, I'm not sure you are going to get much advantage from an SEO perspective by using multiple keywords in your domain, especially in the move towards semantic search, but as I say, it really depends on what those keywords are.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hello Matei

I don't what you mean by "auto"? Please can you explain.

Peter

Hi Rajat,

I don't think you need to be concerned about the these links all going to the same landing page. Essentially, it is a navigation button that points people to a page. The same thing, albeit not as an image typically, is true of an item on a menu, e.g. to an About Us page. That menu link will appear on every page as it is part of the main menu system for the site. Your subscription button is really no different in terms of helping users get to where they need to go to.

Peter

Hi Rajat

In terms of your site having 1000+ images in reality it is just one. In my view, if your pages are 2000+ words long then the re-use of the subscribe button shouldn't be a problem. All I would say on that is does that button need to appear on every page or just some types of pages? Only use it where needed.

Yes you could add a nofollow link but again ask yourself why the button is there. Is it there just as a call to action for users or does the page it directs to have more related information and therefore more value to Google to index and provide extended information. If just a call to action then probably best to make the links nofollow and just have follow links on one page.

On the legal disclaimer, I say keep it as text. If the repeated content is small then it isn't an issue.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Bill

Yes, those two pages are competing with each other, but then so are all the other results on that page. The fact that those two pages are yours makes no difference. By removing one of them won't push the other up. Instead it would allow another result to come in its place.

So, yes, be glad you have two results turning up on the first page. Now see what you can do to push them both up a peg or two higher.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi, I am not familiar with Yoast SEO, but it's not what Google is doing as Google is just indexing the pages it finds on your website. As I said, it is to do with both of those pages using rel="canonical" code that points to themselves. I suspect that is the same with other pages. Follow one of the suggestions I have already given and you should be able to resolve this.

I don't know what you mean that your Google+ is not showing in the results for some of the Keywords you rank for this already. The Google+ profile listed as the rel="author" of your Jerry Billett page links to a profile that has a total of 2 posts. It's not going to rank for anything.

Peter

Hi Catherine

I am really sorry to hear this and it's obviously been very distressing to yourself and your family.

If you go to the user's profile page there is a little down arrow underneath their picture which allows you to Report/Block them and then gives you a range of options to say why. That may be a start and hopefully Google will be able to respond to you.

But if you think the approach was possibly a criminal offence I would also take it up with your local police

I hope that helps - a little.

Peter

OK, I think I understand now.

Essentially, you have two URLs that answer the same query of "Jerry Billett". In that case Google makes a decision on which page they think best answers the user's query.

Looking at the two pages, I would be inclined to agree that the non-tagged page does, but for some reason Google doesn't. If it's important for you that the other page is the one that surfaces in search then you have some options:

Remove the tag page from your URLs and set up a 301 redirect to the non-tagged page. That will mean that the existing link in Google's index will straight away link through to the non tag page and once they have updated their index, so their link will be updated.

Alternatively, change the rel="canonical" code you have in your tag page to point to the non tag page. At the moment it is pointing to itself. This is what Google's support page says on using rel="canonical":

Adding this link and attribute lets site owners identify sets of identical content and suggest to Google: "Of all these pages with identical content, this page is the most useful. Please prioritize it in search results."

Source: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139394?hl=en

Whilst the two pages are not identical (hence my scoring through the word 'identical' in the extract, by using rel="canonical" to point to the non tage page you are suggesting to Google that the non tag page is the most useful and asking them to prioritise it in their search results.

I hope that helps,
Peter

PS. I don't know if it is just me, but I don't think the audio that automatically plays on your site when you visit a page will help people to stay on your site. I think it's a bit bewildering as it is not clear where it is coming from and you don't know how to turn it off which may prompt people to quickly click away. If they do, that will negatively affect your SEO. I understand the desire to promote the free 60 day course, but I think you would be much better to give people the option to hear the audio play by allowing them to click a button to choose to play it (e.g. "Listen to our free offer to turn you into a marketing rock star") rather than feeding it to them automatically. I think you could find your conversion rate would go up. Sorry to mention this, but I know you want to make your site work better for you so I thought it better to share what I think could help you with that too.

You're welcome David.

Peter

Hi Csaba

No you cannot pause your account but you can cancel and restart. In that case Moz archives your data and brings out of cold storage so to speak when you resubscribe.

You can see someone asked the same question a little while back: http://moz.com/community/q/can-i-pause-my-monthly-subscription

Peter

Hi David

I'm not sure there is a way to give visibility to your blog fast unless it is remarkable and, for example, you get PR through the media picking up on it.

Apart from being fortunate to get the above, I would give one word for my recommendation: Google+, but, with a big caveat..

Getting people to engage with your blog content through social media, and in particular Google+ starts when you engage with their content. Just turning up on to Google+ and posting your blog will not work. Instead, seek out communities that would fit the target market you want to reach, and join them. But again, don't push your own content to start with. Instead get to know the people there and allow them to get to know and trust you. They you will have earned the right to share what you have to say.

In truth, unless you are fortunate as I said above, I don't think there is a quick way to get your blog content out fast. As good as your content may be, your best route to success will be to put give time to doing so - which sometimes requires putting into some hard miles to get there.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Dustin

You don't say what you have been doing to raise domain authority for these sites. I assume you are referring to Moz's Domain Authority metric.

Moz states: "Domain Authority is Moz's calculated metric for how well a given domain is likely to rank in Google's search results. It is based off data from the Mozscape web index and includes link counts, MozRank and MozTrust scores, and dozens of other factors. It uses a machine learning model to predictively find an algorithm that best correlates with rankings across thousands of search results that we predict against."

Whilst links to your sites will have an effect in raising domain authority providing the linking sites themselves are trusted, the single most important factor in improving the authority of a domain in my opinion is to build quality content on the domain site itself.

With search changing then the measurement of a domain's authority is also likely to change. As Moz states in the first sentence above: _"Domain Authority is Moz's calculated metric for how well a given domain is likely to rank in Google's search results." _ By increasing the quality of content on a site by creating content that answers the intent of people's searches it will mean that pages on that domain are more likely to rank well in Google's search results.

I am not saying offsite optimisation is no longer important but growing the authority of a domain has to start with what you do on the domain's site.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Kade

I think it depends on the two words really. There was an example the other day of a company called ConvertMedia that didn't rank in the search results for Convert Media for the reason that the intent of a search like that is to find answers to how to convert media. So in that case the one word brand name worked against them, but the very fact of having a one word name identified them as that brand.

The brand name of my business however is two words: Cracking Media. If however you search for CrackingMedia we still turn up top in the search results, but it does ask do you mean "Cracking Media".

In terms of what your SEO friend has said I am not sure that gives you a conclusion, but I hope the thoughts above may help.

Peter

Hi, if possible I would change the **product-320 **to something more human and search engine understandable.

I would suggest something like: www.example.com/casual-shoes/plimsolls where plimsolls is product-320.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Bob

Looking at the page on your site, my first thought is that there is far too much text and information at this initial stage of your conversation with your potential customer for them to be able to process.

I would look at breaking down the page into a series of simpler bullet points outlining what you provide and avoid going into lots of detail.

Whilst I appreciate your motive for doing this will be the desire to be transparent with your potential customer, I think in many cases, they will neither understand or be concerned with how you are going to do their SEO (including the details of how many hours you will be spending), but will be more concerned with the benefits you will provide them with and the outcomes of your work for them.

I'm not sure that is what you want to hear and others may disagree with my thoughts, but I hope my thoughts are helpful.

All the best to you. Peter

Hi Kim

Moz's On-page grader tool is used to give you an understanding of how well optimised the page is for SEO. As you will have seen, it covers a range of different tests checking each one against the keyword you have told the tool you are optimising that page for, and gives it a score A to F based on how well optimised it is for the technical on-page SEO factors.

However, a grade A score does not give you any guarantees of how well that page ranks on Google. What it means is that most if not all things on page that are set up correctly for SEO. How highly a page ranks in Google is based on over 200 elements some of which are covered by the on-page grader but many won't be such as off-page ranking factors including back links, social etc. Consider the on-page grader as one of the tools in your SEO toolkit.

In terms of worse pages than yours that rank higher, it can be confusing and frustrating, but there is no simple answer. However, I recommend looking at doing a competitor analysis for the keyword to compare your page with what competing pages are doing. Look at the keyword difficulty tool to do this: https://moz.com/researchtools/keyword-difficulty.

You may also find this Whiteboard Friday by Rand Fishkin useful: Why You Might Be Losing Rankings to Pages with Fewer Links, Worse Targeting, and Poor Content.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Linck

I think it is extremely unlikely that doing this would have killed your rankings in two days.

It's more likely a coincidence with something else that has happened. Think through anything you have done in the last 2-3 weeks that could have had an impact, check your Webmaster Tools Reports and make sure Google are not reporting any issues.

Peter

Hi Sarah

I would always be concerned at hearing a company dissing another company in a public event. I have never used Wordtracker personally, but with a long track record as it has I wouldn't dismiss it. Also, in the latest search environment I think information giving you insight and context would probably be quite useful.

What examples did the company who hosted the event give that their tool was better?

The problem with any keyword research tool for search now, the data is not going to be as rich as it was. Also, with personalised search how do you measure what is 'normal'? Bing will give you search data yes, and most tools I think use that data. So if you keep in mind that the numbers are not the same as you will get with Google they will at least give you an idea of the higher volume keywords in proportion to those that are likely to be less. By using that data alongside other metrics and competitive analysis, you have a better chance than having none.

If there is a silver bullet tool out there I would be delighted to know about it.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Mike

I think this is unlikely just because they have an exact match domain.

The domain you have given as an example is nearly 5 years old so it is likely they have had their site working for them for some time. There are a decent number of pages on the site with information all based around the same subject and they have a registered address in Birmingham AL.

There's likely to be other factors at work too, but as I said, having an EMD won't be the main factor.

I hope that helps,
Peter