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Thanks Miriam. They do at least have the correct format on their G+ listings, but if it's a mismatch everywhere else, then they're a fish out of water.
It's great to read some solid resources advocating against it. I know this client is willing to do the right thing. I just needed the right pieces of information to make my recommendation stronger.
Thanks again!!!
Thanks Miriam. It definitely does output an invalid address because the city & zip don't match. Do you have any specific resources you'd recommend that I can use to back up my recommendation that this is not a good idea? Aside from the traditional you need a correct address and your NAP must be consistent? I have a feeling their argument might be "But if all my address citations match (even though it's incorrect) in the major local ecosystems, how will Google know? I'd love to be able to counter that with something more solid, or an example where someone else did something similar and their results went sour.
No. They're not an SAB. Brick and mortar.
I have never seen this before, but I recently took over a client that for all intents and purposes is considered to be in Metro A. They're just south of the border and everyone (customers, etc.) consider them in Metro A. The problem is their physical address puts them in Small Town B. For whatever reason, this client has decided that they are going to put their address as follows:
Street
Metro A, Zip Code Small Town B
They've mismatched the city and zip code in attempts to have a stronger showing in Metro A organically. I've never seen this strategy before, my gut tells me bad, bad, bad. So I'm looking for a better strategy, advice, etc.
This could be all inclusive of both Google and Bing (a la webmaster tools), or, add more specificity with two additional categories:
"Google Webmaster Tools"
"Bing Webmaster Tools"
(It was suggested I post this on the forum and see if anyone else would upvote this.)
Thanks!
Not back during the fall of 2013, but more recently there's been a change, and it's likely because of the website vendor switch.
Will the links eventually disappear from GWT? If so, do you know the timeframe?
Taking a long, Ace-Ventura-like breath here. This question is loaded.
Here we go:
My best guess is at one time the client was running an advertising program and this website may have been on that network. One of the external links points to an ad page on the client's website.
(web.archive.org confirms this is a WordPress site and that it's coverage of Bronx news could trigger an ad for my client or make it related to my client's website when it comes to demographics.)
Believe me, this externally linked domain is only a small problem in comparison with the rest of my client's issues (mainly they've changed domains, then they changed website vendors, etc., etc.), but I did want to ask about that one externally linked domain.
Whew.Thanks in advance for insights/thoughts/advice!
Agree with all the ones above. Just adding Open Site Explorer to this list too
In Webmaster Tools, when you click on the 404 and the popup window appears, what is showing in the Linked from tab?
Hi littleshobo,
Rel=author seems like it would be more beneficial to you in your personal guest-blogging than, as you had said, to attach your face to your clients' blog posts. You do want them to be attached to someone at the business. A different story might be if you are writing content that indirectly benefits the client: Say you guest blog on an external website about something you're interested in and you link to your client's blog as an example of your work. In that case, you'd want your face to be attached to that blog.
I would try to keep the client's blog attached to the client.
I am going through the same thing right now. What we are implementing is the rel=publisher tag on our clients' websites, using the clients' Google+ Profile ID. Though it's not being recognized right now by Google, we hope in the future Google will begin using it and show the dealership's logo in the rich snippets.
The other option for you is to find a person at the company who wouldn't mind their face being the face of the company, and you could "ghostwrite" for that person. You could then use the rel=author tag for that person and explain to them how they would need to add the corresponding link to his or her Google+ profile. The only issue with this is trying to find someone who would be at the company for awhile (avoid turnover) and also someone who would enjoy having their face plastered across Google. Some higher levels in the company might be okay with this.
Also, check out this link about using rel=publisher and rel=author from Mike Blumenthal's blog. http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/02/03/google-local-rel-publisher-or-relauthor-you-should-do-both/
Hope this helps!
It's definitely not a good idea. People don't like being deceived, and I imagine all of these pages have miserable bounce rates. As a user, imagine clicking on a search result thinking you're getting one company and you end up on the landing page of another. Definitely a poor user experience.
In Google's Quality Guidelines, one of the things they specifically mention is:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769?hl=en
As for this site using the competitors names in their meta keywords (outdated) and their descriptions, I don't know if Google has a specific penalty to address that specific issue (maybe others will comment on that), but I do know that Google is looking for accurate information in page titles and other areas of the page to return relative results to searchers.
Overall, it's a bad practice unless done so for legitimate reasons (you are The NY Times writing about new owners of The Washington Post).
Additionally, there's an exception here for AdWords where you can buy a competitor's name and show up for searches in the paid search results. But I'm assuming you're referencing organic search results.
Hope that helps. I know it can be frustrating to see.
When you are looking at Crawl Diagnostics, there is an option to export to CSV. When you do that you can see the referring URLs for this problem URL. That's a good place to start.
Hi Kevin,
You should re-post this same question at the Google+ Analytics Community. I've received excellent help with Analytics questions there in no time at all.
Here's the link to the Google+ Analytics community: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/114481059214254340537
Also, are you using Google Tag Manager at all? Or are any other marketers using GTM on your website? That could possibly be why you're not seeing anything on your pages if an error exists in the GTM installation itself. If yes, there's also a Google Tag Manager community here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104865292981489764063
Hi Nick,
You can try private messaging some Mozzers who have demonstrated interest in this sort of thing in previous threads.
Or, if you're feeling completely open, try posting your websites URL in your thread and any associated links to external content you've created (Does the site have a blog? Are you submitting guest blogs?)
Other than that, there are paid consulting services you could try, but there are many willing and helpful people in this Q&A forum who will always give you great advice!
Hi TimDickey,
How about Google's Keyword Planner? https://adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
Here are some additional resources with other tools too:
I recommend setting up a process doc that can be easily followed by anyone across the publishing teams. It will take some time, and also some updating as algorithms change. Make it a shared doc that everyone can comment on or ask questions on, but all the protocol for keyword research always has one main source point.
That way everyone is researching the same way and keeping your entire organization on the right track. You can also make it required training that they view specific tutorials/webinars, etc., that will better educate them.
Hope that helps! I'm sure you'll get some additional great feedback in other responses too. Best of luck!
We've tried Guest Blog It but have not had much success either. I'd recommend you try:
Either way, whichever you use, be sure you look over each opportunity carefully. This free eBook has a really good guide to check out each guest blogging opportunity (or linkback). http://www.analyticsseo.com/optimising-post-penguin-world-ebook
By the way, I'm not affiliated with any of these recommendations. Just comes from personal experience.
Good luck to you!
I know we can subscribe to Q&A's for updates, but is there any bookmarking type option within the Moz Community Q&A so I can star or favorite my questions in one area?
Often I come across really great ideas/solutions in the Q&A, and it would be wonderful to quickly access all of my favorite q's/discussions in one area for later.
Thanks mucho.
I agree with James. I also use Woothemes and their FAQs, theme docs and support sites are great. I haven't yet used their WooCommerce yet. James have you?
Noob question. I'm using Open Site Explorer to hunt down some external links for a website. In the attached image (post-pressing the filter button), it says I have 889 external links, but after I've downloaded the CSV, I only get 695 links.
Why the difference in number? And if I'm doing something wrong, how do I make sure I'm getting the full amount of external links to my client's website?
Thanks!
