I would not deindex anything. The search rankings are the bread and butter. The question is how do you leverage current traffic and use it to boost personal injury.

I would start by curating new content that  aligns with the criminal justice content. Then take the criminal justice content and redirect it to your new content.

If you deindex, traffic will drop considerably and it will be like starting from scratch. If you redirect you may be able to pass link juice to your new pages while rankings start to increase for personal injury.

Hi Bek,

You surely would not have to add meta descriptions to all 700, however i would look at the posts that get the most traffic and are still relevant and find ways to improve the technical seo to these posts. You may also try to update non-performing posts with meta descriptions and technical seo if you feel they are important to the brand.

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

Yeah exactly,

But with headings and such you could probably test and tweak. Run it with hyphen see how traffic is then change to no hyphen see if it drops or increases. It really is going to be based on the specifics of the hyphenated word and may require some testing. Can you run an a/b title test on your blog?

My experience is that most of the time the hyphen does not matter so much, but i tend to leave them out in the main technical seo.

Thanks,

Hi SallieJ,

The problem with hyphens is not how google sees them but search intent.

Most people are not going to add the hyphen in when searching. One of the main focus points of seo is answering the search intent of the user. so if the user is not likely to use a hyphen then maybe you should not use a hyphen in the main technical seo points of your content. However, I do not think this should apply to the body of your content on page. This refers more to content descriptions or page titles. Proper use of grammar can be used for what is seen on page.

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

There should be some sort of contract.

You are sharing your private information with the agency and vice versa. Also the contract will govern what services the agency provides and what you can expect from their services. If they write content for your site, the contract will govern who owns that contract.

It is my opinion that you may want to get out of this deal before you are in to deep. They are already shady with a backlinks report. This is only my opinion.

Thanks,

Don

Hello,

You can use moz's link explorer to reveal the back links https://analytics.moz.com/pro/link-explorer/home

If they are good quality they usually show up in the index but not always. Another area you can check is google search console.

I do not think it is common practice to give a backlinks report upon request. They may not want to reveal their sources. But this information should not be private to a client. The contract should govern any information that is shared.

Thanks,

Don

Hello,

I have personally found sliders to be ineffective, not bad for seo but bad for the user experience. If you have 8 seconds to capture a users attention the first time they come to a website why hide all the information on consecutive sliders. Most people never see the second or third slider. So to increase conversions why not sell then above the fold with one good piece of information.

That's just my two cents,

Don Silvernail

If you are comfortable using your home address that is what would do. In fact that is what i do and i am in the same business as you

Thanks,

I would advise against a virtual office as it is against google guidelines https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en

What type of business are you? Are you a service area business or do people see you at your office. My business is run out of my home as well. I use my home address for my business on google. So that is the physical location for me. You cannot have a po box or remote location to get a business verifies so you will need to set it up as a service area business. There has been some studies to suggest that google is bias to these type of business listings. However, I handle a couple custom home builders websites and this has not been an issue.

I have also set up custom local landing pages for these businesses to help them rank in towns that they want to be found in. Maybe you could do the same.

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

What you need to consider is search intent. Can you inform or educate the potential customers with bullet points? Do the bullet points answer all questions. If not then use full sentences. Shortened page may see a dip in SEO if the content no longer answers the users search intent. Be very careful when changing content or shortening content. Make sure you express all the reasons why the searcher landed on the page to begin within the shortened content. Are you shortening to remove fluff?

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

There is no set word count that will help rank. It is the quality and depth of the content you are providing. Keep the searches intent in mind when developing content. Be engaging and educational, answering the searchers query. i have pages on my website that rank with as little as 300 words and as much as a1000. so as you see its not the word count. its the quality.

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

WordPress does not use templates it uses themes. These themes can be customized as necessary including best SEO practices for your brand.

There can be many issues for your SEO when switching themes, however they may not be realized until you adventure into the theme. For instance custom post types that might be available in one theme may not be available in another affecting possible urls causing 404 errors or any number of issues.

If you use Yoast for WordPress SEO plugin you can customize your SEO titles and descriptions. This should stay current between themes. A rule of thumb, stay away from themes that have a lot of bloat. Many themes found on theme forest are designed to cover a multitude of businesses and niches causing bloat. Bloat causes site slow down and can hamper SEO rankings. Choose a theme that is light and does not have as many bells and whistles. If you need these things you can always ad on later with plugins.

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

Hi genevieveagar,

So, have your designer make the H2 text smaller. this is a simple css edit or use tiny mce which will give more control over text size. You should be using H2 for main ideas and the keywords in the H2 can help you rank. H3 should be used within the H2 or for less important headings.

Your WordPress default font sizes should not keep you from using your headings properly. It is a very simple fix.

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

Hi Sandra,

So, this is a tough question because there is no other content on the page. If i was in your shoes i would use an H2 for the sub categories, especially if they are keyword based. This would show that the sub headings are important. Don't forget to use the alt tags for the images on these sub heading pages as well.

Dogara,

Install the Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin. Then manually create descriptions and titles for your pages.

The duplicate content issue is most likely caused by disorganized categories or tags. Every time you categorize a post or tag content WordPress creates a new Archive page. This can create duplicate content on many pages of your site.

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

Roman,

Yoast is an SEO guidance plugin for WordPress. This is only good info if the op has a WordPress website!

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

Hi Tara,

The best way would be to 301 redirect the old urls to the new urls. So if your url is https://sitename/category/product and you want to change it to https://sitename/product then you must 301 redirect https://sitename/category/product ----> https://sitename/product so you do not loose link juice or receive an enormous amount of 404s.

Thanks,

Don Silvernail

Hi Twisme,

You do not want google to think of your image title as a site title. It is not documented how google treats svgs and their properties. my recommendation would be to use the old fashion way <img src="file.svg" alt="youralttaghere">

Thanks,

Don Silvernail