Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Wow - thanks! I found a plugin for now but I will definitely save this info. I appreciate your help!

Thank you. I understand. I just need a tutorial on how to take a deleted URL and redirect it to the most relevant URL. I am a novice when it comes to HTML etc.

Alright, that is good to know. I deleted that plugin to stop the bulk redirects. I just don't know how to redirect the 404s since I already deleted them I don't know how to manipulate them.

Should I just create the category pages again? I suppose the URL would be the same right?

I deleted a bunch of category pages (renamed mostly actually and thought they'd be auto redirected like my blog posts are but they weren't) so I used a plugin that reroutes any 404 page to the homepage. Is that the best thing to do in this situation? Google Webmasters says there are about 84 404-errors and this should get rid of those right? Is there anything SEO BAD about doing it this way?

I am doing well with a category page and I just ran a report card and am having issues with self-cannibalizing. I have a signature at the bottom of each blog post that links to this category page because it is my MAIN category. So I changed the anchor text so it didn't have the exact same keyword but underneath each post, it shows all the categories that post belongs to. Usually it is at least 2. So should I change the name of the category page and then have the SEO title be for the keyword I am ranking well with? Or should I just self-cannibalize? Or should I not have all the categories show underneath each post? I was thinking that would help lower my bounce rate since it would lead them to another page that interests them.

Edit: To be clear, all these links are linking to that very category page. So linking back to itself. They are not linking to a different page with the target keyword.

Also I am worried about reducing internal linking power if the anchor text is not the keyword I am trying to rank with?

Help appreciated!

I am making some big changes to my site based on Moz's advice. How can I get google to see all of them? I submitted them to Google Webmasters. Is that the best thing to do? How long until Google updates all my pages?

Thank you. I do work hard at getting quality backlinks which helps. I just started a google plus page for my blog so hopefully that improves my rankings as well. I have read about google author but I just don't feel comfortable putting my real name and picture out there....yet. I just ran a report card for the category page that I want to boost and that gave me a few ideas.

Hello! I have a blog that is doing really well. Low bounce rate, search queries going up pretty fast, more organic traffic than my first blog. I shot up to spot 5 for my main keyword which was a thrill. But I have dropped back down. According to Google Webmasters I was at spot 11, then 12, and today 13. I worked on doing a lot of internal linking to the page that was ranking at # 5. It is a category page although I'd like my homepage to rank high for that same keyword one day. My site is less than 2 months old and I know it takes time but I am seeing so many signs of great potential. I am looking for ANY advice on how to boost my rankings for this one particular keyword. Thanks!

I am using Wordpress. I am hoping there is a plugin that makes it easy to deal with this? Any recommendations?Can I just redirect some of them to the homepage? They don't all have a new, relevant category to redirect to.

How? I suppose I should have done that instead of deleting them.

I recently revamped all my category pages to make them Google friendly. I did a lot of keyword research and ended up deleting categories and renaming categories. Now Google Webmasters is showing a ton of 404 errors. How can I get rid of them? Do I have to remove the URL one by one with Google Webmasters? Is it something that won't hurt my rankings and will go away in time?

Well I am hoping if I got there once - I can get there again! Can you explain what white links are? I am only familiar with the term follow links.

Edit

I was thrilled that my new blog catapulted up to spot # 5 on google last week for a great keyword. I worked hard on creating internal links to my category page as well as improving my content and getting a couple good external follow backlinks. But today, the report says I dropped off the top 50 list. How can I find some insight as to why this happened??

Thanks. This is the category page for all maternity and pregnancy related deals. I have sub-categories for maternity clothes and more specific items. This page has everything - clothes, pregnancy pillows, prenatal vitamins, stretch mark creme and so on and so forth.

I am trying to improve the SEO for a few key category pages on my blog. I have two ranking really well so I want to boost them and bring up some others.

Can I put two keywords in the meta title?

Example: Maternity Deals | Pregnancy Deals

Or should I just stick with one?

Thanks!

Dang, you are awesome. That helped a lot and I appreciate it. Today I am working on cleaning up my category pages and making sure everything is filed properly. I am really happy to hear that getting backlinks to a blog post in one category will pass value to the category. Thanks!

I am ranking high with a certain category page and I am reading that I need backlinks to that page. It is going to be a challenge to get a backlink to that specific category page but how about this?

Category page URL:

www.mysite.com/category/name

Backlink to this URL:

www.mysite.com/category/name/specific-blog-post (EDIT: Apparently these types of links don't exist! I went into the category page and clicked on a blog post and it just gave me the www.mysite.com/blah-blah-blah)

Will that count as a backlink to the category page? Right now I am only getting backlinks to these blog posts:

www.mysite.com/this-is-a-blog-post

Any help appreciated!

EDIT: Well I guess now my question is worthless. But if you have any input, it would be appreciated.

Great info, thanks!

Thank you. The guest blogging idea is great but will be a challenge. I haven't started with social networking yet but it is on my TO DO list.

Can you get me a little more info on power internal links? I have a signature item that goes at the bottom of every post. It encourages readers to sign up for the newsletter. Should I have a link there to the category page as well? It is my MAIN category - it basically contains all my blog posts.

VERY helpful! I had no idea about using the Google keyword tool. Thanks!

Thanks Moosa! I am going to try Keyword Spy.

Just to follow up on this - I am ranking # 5 for a category page and it's a competitive keyword. So I am not sure deindexing category pages is the best idea and I am glad I didn't do it with my second and new blog.

How do I learn my competitor's best keywords? I realize I can add more keywords to my campaign but the problem is - I am not sure I am thinking of the right keywords. I don't want to compare with the keywords I am targeting - I want to know what THEY are targeting.

I started a second website recently and it is doing very well. I am on the first page for a competitive keyword - spot 5 according to Moz. It is actually a category page that is ranking so well which is a surprise to me as I have read many times that I should deindex category pages due to duplicate content!

My questions:

1. How do I get backlinks to a CATEGORY page?! I have been able to get backlinks to certain posts because my website is a deal blog and other deal blogs give me credit for popular deals by linking to my post.

2. How can I maintain this high ranking? Of course I want in spot 3 but this website isn't even 2 months old so I know I should be patient. At this point, I just want to stay on the first page. What is the best way to do that? I am about to fill out the SEO stuff for the category page which I haven't done yet.Thanks!

Interesting, thanks for the info.

So none of the backlinks I have gotten in the last month (when I started working for them) are showing up outside of Just Discovered. But I know these are good links because the websites who are linking to me are really popular and have a domain authority of up to 72. I don't control them all of course.

So when are they going to count? The only ones showing in "inbound links" are very old. And there are only 9 from only 2 domains. I have 50 external follow links in Just Discovered. Google Webmasters has picked up on a lot of them already.

Thanks!

Thank you! I just realized I hadn't actually changed my title tag for my home page so I just did. (Conflict between Thesis and Wordpress SEO plugin) I will leave it at that for awhile and hopefully it helps.

Thanks for your help!

Thanks for the articles. I am reading them.

Just a few quick questions if you don't mind:

1. So the title of my article should be different than my meta title? Using the same format as I do for my home page?

2. I use the format below for my home page mega title. I am using 3 keywords though, is that a big no no?

"Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name"

3. How do I test out different keywords and how can I figure out which ones give me the best results?

Thanks. For my articles, I do use the Wordpress SEO plugin to get it SEO optimized. I use the google keyword tool.

But I am talking about for my home page - my domain name. I am still learning the lingo, sorry. How many words can I put in the title tag? I have my website name and then right now I have a couple of keywords. But they didn't seem to do much for me and it's been a month. I am just trying to figure out how to write the best title tag for my home page.

I am having a hard time figuring out what the best META title tag is for my site. I have a deal blog that focuses on Amazon deals but I also write articles, top ten lists, etc. It is baby and mom related. Is there a tutorial for this? Should I just experiment and watch my organic search results? TIA!

I have been working hard to get follow backlinks but they have all been in the Just Discovered part of Open Site Explorer for a long time. So they don't count in my stats for Domain Authority and such. When do they move OUT of Just Discovered?

Thanks!

Well they don't need to see my blog post to learn about the deal. The deal blog I gave the tip to will give all the info. They just give me credit at the very bottom. I won't get a lot of clicks but the backlink is what I want.

Big deal blogs post 20-30 deals a day. They do label things expired if it expires that same day. But otherwise it is just a given that the deals expire and redirecting pages and labeling everything as expired would just take way too long. And no one does that and I figure I should learn from what the best do.

Good to know! Cause I've been doing it wrong then!

THANKS!

I am working hard to get backlinks from other blogs by submitting deal tips. I am a deal blog so I am wondering - is it better to get a backlink to a specific post that will expire because it is a time sensitive deal or sale? Or is it better to get a backlink to my homepage? I focus on the best blog with PR of 7 and DA of 72 as well as others that are high up there.

In case I am not being clear, which backlink is better?

A. www.mysite.com

B. www.mysite.com/awesome-sale-of-the-day

Sometimes I won't have a choice but just wondering what I should focus on or if it even matters. Thanks!

I do see the links in a google search.

Oh interesting....thanks!

Do you have a source to share?

I have been working hard at getting quality backlinks but I had a lot of keywords slip in rankings this week. This may because I have been extremely busy for a week and haven't added a lot of content to my site. But I thought the backlinks would be helping. How long does it take backlinks to start boosting your site and what results should I see? I am focusing on getting backlinks from a site with a PR of 7. The others have a PR of 4-5. They are the BEST sites in my niche.

Yes I use Yoast.

Webdeveloper? Hee hee. Yeah that is me.

I use Wordpress and Thesis. I am not sure how to access my page HTML. I will try and figure it out, thanks.

Some of my report cards say I have too many canonical URL tags. However, there is no information no how to delete one. Can someone give me a link or explain? Thanks.

It's a good site.

Squidoo nofollows links.

I have received two follow links from a website with a domain authority of 64 because I contributed to 2 blog posts. Will it help my site to get more back links from this same website or should I focus my efforts elsewhere?

Sorry what do you mean by branded? I am new to this.

The anchor text was my website's name.

I rank better with bing and yahoo but I don't get many CLICKS.

I have no idea why I went up so much last week because I hadn't done much. I thought maybe because I got two quality backlinks on related blog with a PR of 5. But then why would they drop this week?

It is just frustrating not knowing!

Last week, I had 14 keywords go up and less than 5 go down. I was so thrilled!

Except this week, I had 10 go up and 14 go down!

How can I figure out what is going on? I am up and down 30+ spots with Google. I'd really like to stay up. My site is pretty new, just a few months. I am still fiddling around with settings trying to follow all the advice I read. (robot meta tags, title tag)

I didn't change any content in the last week. Does SEOmoz analyze the ranking data?

Ok I did click noindex tag pages in my metarobots tags. I have to figure out how to use my robots.txt file. Thanks again!

Wow - thanks for all that info. I appreciate it. One quick question - can I forget tags altogether - and noindex them? I don't feel any need to use them on my site.

Thanks. Just wanted confirmation.