@RichardNM I believe that's only available on a per page basis in the On-Page Optimization

Two things to think about with SSL.

1. Google looks at is a trust signal.  It shows you are actively trying to protect the users that come to the site.  Google had an article on this in 2014.  https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

2. How users perceive the site.  I personally take less advice from sites with no SSL.  Mostly because, to me, it's a sign they aren't up to date.  But also, it can deter certain people from making purchases and subscribing to your list without it.

There is "technically" a slowing down of the site with SSL, but with proper installation and configuration it's not much. There is encrypting/decrypting overhead when the site uses SSL.  The word "slower" doesn't mean snails pace.  It is usually a few milliseconds difference if configured correctly.

Simply adding an SSL cert isn't enough. It is technically a site change and you'll need to do some things to inform Google that the site has change.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing the upgrade to HTTPS during a time the site doesn't have much traffic.  It can take a few weeks to implement correctly in the SERPs. You can read more about it here. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6033049?hl=en

I don't work for Moz but Moz Pro refunds are considered on a case-by-case basis, please email help@moz.com from your account email and provide the last 4 digits and the name on the card that was charged. We'll be able to review your account and respond within 24 hours.

I personally always like to think "Is this link useful" before answering a question.  If a link is the copy of a page and helps the user go to the top of the article, then it may be beneficial.  But in theory, "internal links" which in a way this is, are useful to help define site structure of a site.  A page linking to itself generally won't be useful to either the reader or the search engine.  That isn't to say that it won't provide some ranking value.  I haven't done much testing with pointing a link to the page that it's on vs a different page on the domain.  My guess, is that if it does have any factor, it's incredibly small.  The link should be useful to the reader in that it helps them find out more information in regards to what they are reading.  The link should also be useful to the search engine in that it helps define the structure of the overall website. Those are pretty much my go to rules for links on my site.  If it doesn't help, it doesn't go on my page.

The purpose of Search Quality Evaluators (SQE) is to ensure that the desired results of algorithm updates are being met.  They do not have a direct impact on your site.  A low rating by a SQE will not directly affect your site.

What you may notice is that if your site is not meeting the guidelines and other sites from that search aren't either, your site may be affected by future algorithm updates to filter those types of results out.  But it won't be on a per site basis and will generally affect a particular type of search and not others.  Meaning that if you scored low on one type of result but high on another, the high one wouldn't necessarily be affected by the lower rating.  Again, that's because it's not on a site basis, but a search basis.

I should mention for people reading this who aren't familiar with YMYL or EAT, that those stand for "Your Money or Your Life" and "Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness" respectively.

These are guidelines use by a SQEs to ensure certain types of sites meet higher standards.

YMYL is covered in the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines in Part 1: Section 2.3

EAT is covered in the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines in Part 1: Section 3.2

http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.dk/da/da/insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf

I like to use Keyword Explorer for YouTube research the same as I would for SERP  keyword research.  The difference is I look at the keywords differently.  I try to think of the "user intent" and how it would differ from a web search vs a video search per se.

As an example, let's take the keyword "NBA sneakers".  (I know nothing about sneakers but it's the first thing that came to mind)

User intent for organic search might default to "buy nba sneakers" as the dominate interpretation.  For the most part when people do a Google search for "nba sneakers" they will probably be looking to purchase sneakers and the results will generally be "stores" in the top results.

When someone is on YouTube, the default might be to compare or get more information about the different popular sneakers that are out right now.  Generally it's people looking for a visual vs actually purchasing. (not that they won't want to purchase soon)

Keyword Explorer will help you find questions and keywords around the topic you are researching, you'll need to decide what the intent of those keywords are based on user intent.

You can read more about user intent here --> https://moz.com/blog/a-guide-to-setting-up-your-very-own-search-intent-projects

and here is some information about building an intent-based keyword list here --> https://moz.com/blog/the-basics-of-building-an-intent-based-keyword-list

https://moz.com/blog/the-basics-of-building-an-intent-based-keyword-list

I think you are already seeing that Google is treating these two as the same.  I've had this issue with a legal blog and a lawyers main website.  We took the blog from it's own domain and put it under the main lawyer website.  We did see a dip in traffic for about two months but it quickly recovered and we ended up with more traffic as the overall site seemed to be more authoritative under one roof.

During this merge, I would also check for "thin content" and/or content that is no longer relevant and/or getting traffic.  We tend to use the opportunity as a sort of spring cleaning of the site.  But, since your sites are pretty identical, a good thorough examination of all the content on both would be beneficial.  Make sure you map the "old" site and keep a sitemap just in case something goes wrong.  We used a Google Sheet/ Excel to map domains so in the event something went wrong with the the 301's, we had the opportunity to correct everything.

I know there are risks with moving the domain, but I think the positives outweigh them by a long shot.

I'm sure I didn't quit follow everything you mentioned on here but honestly a subdirectory (aka abcco.com/gears) would be what I would do. They are already pointing the domain to a subdomain, can they change it to a subdirectory? That directory could utilize the domain authority of abcco.com and when people go there it could look different than the main abcco.com brand or have a little of the ABC co brand to give gears some credibility but be unique enough to be it's own thing.

If you have to use a unique domain name you'd need to do some research on the gears they sell and keywords surrounding.  I tend to look for domains with some brandability behind them (not sure brandability is a word).

GetGears.com or something like that.

Hope that helps.

You should be able to head over to https://moz.com/subscriptions (while signed in) and see the option there.

If you need any help with the tools before you cancel let us know and we'll help.  Moz is a great resource.

A is simply an inline formatting tag and has no real meaning so it will be fine as far as SEO goes.

Don't think of the word count as metric.  Think about your users (I know that's becoming cliche now).  Does a 200 word post help them with something or at least useful.  I don't know of many that are.  Sometimes that sort of short winded post may be better off on Google+, FB or Twitter.

Neil Patel wrote a really good article a year ago this time about the more words the merrier.  Over 2,000 words in a post seemed to rank it.  http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/12/20/the-science-behind-long-copy-how-more-content-increases-rankings-and-conversions/

Also John Doherty wrote on the MozBlog about the types of posts that get links and he did some analysis to back it up.

http://moz.com/blog/what-kind-of-content-gets-links-in-2012?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+seomoz+%28SEOmoz+Daily+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

There is a version of moz that allows for white label Reports but not the ability to allow someone to log in and rummage through the data.  You can create special reports for them and have them sent automatically.

To upgrade your account to the white label ability, you can go to your subscription tab and upgrade there.  If you just want to create reports that are customized, you can go to your campaign and select create report.

Just understand that the $99 version allows you to create reports but not white label them.  Only the $199 and up packages allow you to fully white label.

Your first thought is correct.  You should use them to show hierarchy of content.

Directly from Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (page 20)

http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

"Heading tags (not to be confused with the HTML tag or HTTP
headers) are used to present structure on the page to users. There are
six sizes of heading tags, beginning with

, the most important, and

ending with

, the least important (1).

Since heading tags typically make text contained in them larger than
normal text on the page, this is a visual cue to users that this text
is important and could help them understand something about
the type of content underneath the heading text. Multiple heading
sizes used in order create a hierarchical structure for your content,
making it easier for users to navigate through your document."

There isn't a limit to any of the header tags as far as I know.  You are correct that most of us suggest that you only use one H1 tag.  I generally don't put a limit on a page of the number of H2, etc tags I use.  Remember, you are building your pages for your users and not for Google.  Use your header tags to help people navigate information on your page.

Two things to think about with SSL.

1. Google looks at is a trust signal.  It shows you are actively trying to protect the users that come to the site.  Google had an article on this in 2014.  https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

2. How users perceive the site.  I personally take less advice from sites with no SSL.  Mostly because, to me, it's a sign they aren't up to date.  But also, it can deter certain people from making purchases and subscribing to your list without it.

There is "technically" a slowing down of the site with SSL, but with proper installation and configuration it's not much. There is encrypting/decrypting overhead when the site uses SSL.  The word "slower" doesn't mean snails pace.  It is usually a few milliseconds difference if configured correctly.

Simply adding an SSL cert isn't enough. It is technically a site change and you'll need to do some things to inform Google that the site has change.  I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing the upgrade to HTTPS during a time the site doesn't have much traffic.  It can take a few weeks to implement correctly in the SERPs. You can read more about it here. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6033049?hl=en

Short Answer:  Set a canonical url on the pages to the root domain version and noindex the subdomain pages.

What this does is avoid the duplicate content problem.  Generally, those subdomain pages won't rank anyway because the same information is on the "main" site.  You can still build links to those subdomain pages and do a strong internal link structure to help the "main" site rankings.

The only negative to this is that the pages in your subdomain won't rank.  That's not necessarily a bad thing but just know they won't.  But, if the pages are truly duplicate content, they won't rank anyway.

These are really good.  I'm going to dive into them tonight.

On top of moving the subdomains (there are 3) we've also built a new site on a new platform and moving all those pages from there too.   They had page IDs vs Search Engine Friendly urls.  They've been online since 2002 so there has been a TON of work that has gone into it and I just want to make sure I can make the move as smooth as possible.

Thanks again for your help and I'll keep you posted.

I think you are already seeing that Google is treating these two as the same.  I've had this issue with a legal blog and a lawyers main website.  We took the blog from it's own domain and put it under the main lawyer website.  We did see a dip in traffic for about two months but it quickly recovered and we ended up with more traffic as the overall site seemed to be more authoritative under one roof.

During this merge, I would also check for "thin content" and/or content that is no longer relevant and/or getting traffic.  We tend to use the opportunity as a sort of spring cleaning of the site.  But, since your sites are pretty identical, a good thorough examination of all the content on both would be beneficial.  Make sure you map the "old" site and keep a sitemap just in case something goes wrong.  We used a Google Sheet/ Excel to map domains so in the event something went wrong with the the 301's, we had the opportunity to correct everything.

I know there are risks with moving the domain, but I think the positives outweigh them by a long shot.

I have to disagree with William Lau.

I think that blog commenting has changed a bit.  It think it is still relevant.  I prefer the term Comment Marketing and Link Earning because that is my goal, to market my site and earn links.  Here is how I do it now.

I find blogs that are relevant to my industry and of people who I really want to have link to me (authority figures).  I follow their blogs and comment regularly on them.  My goal is to build up enough trust and awareness of what I am all about.  I have two goals here.  1) if my comments are good then people will want to learn more about me and click on my profile/link to go to my site (not so much for SEO purposes but for site traffice) ( I don't care if I'm number one if no one goes to my site.  Traffic is important to me.  Even better, relevant traffic.) and 2) I want to be able to eventually earn the right to become a guest blogger or have that person read about me and link to my site because of it's good content.

I think the idea of posting a comment for the sake of posting a comment is pointless.  SEO is changing (for the better) and SEO now should stand for Search EXPERIENCE Optimization and not Search Engine Optimization.  Comment Marketing is relevant if you use it to help build traffic and not to earn "traditional SEO links".

You should be able to head over to https://moz.com/subscriptions (while signed in) and see the option there.

If you need any help with the tools before you cancel let us know and we'll help.  Moz is a great resource.

I don't work for Moz but Moz Pro refunds are considered on a case-by-case basis, please email help@moz.com from your account email and provide the last 4 digits and the name on the card that was charged. We'll be able to review your account and respond within 24 hours.