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Hey Moz!
A while ago, when you switched to Moz from SEOMoz, I experienced some issues staying logged in, even after selecting the "remember me" option.
Yesterday those issues started surfacing again.
Just a heads up so someone can take a look over there.
It isn't that constant as previously, but almost.
Well, personally I would go with a 302.
The reasons are:
301: the browser "remembers" that 301, so next time the user request that page, their browser will automatically redirect as the last time it accessed the page. However, the 302, as a temporary redirect will let the browser know that it should re-request the page.
Say your website www.example.com holds an english version in the root, and then a german version in www.example.com/de. If a german user accesses the site for the first time, you do the geolocation check and redirect to german version while saving a session/cookie of the chosen version. Then if the user chooses to switch to the english version you update that cookie/session to save the one that the user chose to navigate and make a 302 redirection. Next time the user accesses, having the cookie will automatically show/redirect to the appropriate language.
Using the same example, if you did a 301, then even if the user changed the language, as the browser already has a 301-permanent redirect, he will be redirected to the "first version served".
SEOwise, if we take a quick look on Google, they use 302 to redirect users to the "appropriate" version, so I guess that should be ok as long as you use rel="alternate" to point to the other versions of your site:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
EDIT: link juice flows to the page that the link is pointing. Say a link points to www.example.com then the juice goes to www.example.com, even if that page has a redirection to the german version (when accessed from germany). Anyway, it is said that 302s also pass some pagerank.
Hope that helped.
As I understand it, a responsive design should fit any device (of course with a minimum). Links in the menu should point to the same pages. For example, a menu (within desktop) shows: page1, page2, page3 and page4. While on mobile it only shows page1 and page3, as the other 2 pages are not available for mobile devices. Then you hide those links (page2 and page4) from the menu. Page1 and Page3 should also be responsive and adjust automatically to the user's width.
You don't have to build separate page versions for mobile/tablet/desktop within a responsive design, if you do, then instead of a responsive design you will end up with a mobile version AND a desktop one.
Hi,
Yahoo directory is a paid link service, although "curated", still paid. I am sure you are not going to be penalized from a link there, however, don't expect any benefit from them other than the organic traffic they may generate. But, who uses directories nowadays?
Hey!
It seems that you already have the correct answer: "It is a punch of useless content.", "now it is better to focus on your product site or create 1 good websites rather than a network of sites".
Content without added value means useless, and therefore outranked by better sites.
Does your friend have FTP access? If he/she does, then put a 301 redirect from the one you want to rank to the other. Having a site with "www" and without is actually having 2 pages with the same content, something you can easily fix by redirecting the entire domain to the other with a 301 response.
If he/she does have FTP access, look for the .htaccess file and put the following:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !=businessname.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://businessname.com/$1 [R=301,L]
Remember to change "businessname.com" with the actual domain name.
Hope that helps!
Maximilian is right. Apparently that's the issue. Moz also respects the noindex, nofollow (I believe) and that's the reason they aren't crawling those pages either.
Most likely you will need to wait until the next refresh (once a week). Check your pro account to see the next refresh date.
Remember that Analytics is in beta and therefore some glitches are expected.
Nope, that post is completely wrong my friend. Besides being from 2011 or even earlier, the writer probably misunderstood to how Google handles external/internal links in WMT.
What is confirmed is that www.domain.com and other.domain.com ARE different domains and a penalty to other.domain.com DOES NOT affect www.domain.com. Otherwise, all blogspot, wordpress.com and others should be penalized by now.
Hmmm... is your site new? Remember that OSE may take some time to find the links.
Try using Google Webmaster Tools and go to links to your site, can you see the links there? If you can, then you are good. OSE will catch up eventually.
While checking your Website quickly, I noticed some SEO issues, for example page titles, descriptions, etc:
IE: http://ultimatecharter.com/en/fishing/details/the-office-fishing-yacht.html
Hope that helps!
The way you are thinking of going has its pros and cons.
As subdomains are treated like different domains, a penalized subdomain won't affect your root domain. But neither will be the GOOD thinks that a subdomain may get.
Suppose one of your service providers gets a "super-cool" backlink from an outside source, say CNN links to it. Then all that juice will only go to that provider, you, the root domain, don't get ANY benefit from it, (just like when that subdomain gets a penalty, you don't get it).
Now, the way I would go instead, is simpler, plus you can benefit for any pagerank flowing to your root domain: domain.com/provider then you simply monitor your "provider" and if you detect any black hat SEO, just penalize them yourself by having their site removed (make sure you write a good TERMS OF SERVICE to explain all the rules). So, if any provider gets a penalty, you just remove their site and a 404 code return will be enough, as links to 404s are not flowing pagerank to your site.
Hope that helps!
For starter, I think the Facebook page name change was a hit. Well done, that is the option I would choose.
As for your questions:
Nope, I think you are wrong.
That is honest link building as you will be ultimately providing better information. Just don't over do it.
If you find it to be an easy task then probably your content isn't worth linking. But if you are really providing better info, then webmasters might be pleased to link to a better source.
I can't find any link to default.aspx, but the fact that the page actually loads (even blank), shows that for some reason traffic is going there.
What I find weird, is that default.aspx doesn't have the Analytics tracking code in it, therefore GA shouldn't know that traffic is even flowing there.
Check if default.aspx has some code in it, if it actually does something, and if it doesn't, just delete the file.
Your site's URL would help...
Who wrote that robots.txt?
You shouldn't disallow the comments, or feed or almost anything.
I notice you are using wordpress, so if you just want to avoid the admin being indexed (which will isn't going to be as Google does not have access anyway), your robots.txt should look like this:
User-Agent:*
Disallow: /wp-admin/
That's it.
Nope, these are unrelated issues. The lack of meta descriptions is an error in your code.
Basically with that tag you are nofollowing ALL links in that page, however, I am guessing you only want to nofollow those that go outside your site, right?
If that's the case, remove that robots tag and then add a rel="nofollow" to the link that you want to be nofollowed. Otherwise you are not flowing any pagerank to the other pages of your site linked in that page.
You published an article in your blog and then in Ezine? the exact same post? Those tactics are long dead (duplicate content). You can now promote your content using several other methods:
just to name a few.
How new is the Website?
Does the links shows up under "Recently Discovered"?
Keep in mind that recently created backlinks take some time to come up in the backlink report. Besides, some links may never appear as OSE only crawls a portion of the web.
Keep checking back and if the links is 1 - 2 weeks old, take a look to WMT to see if it shows up there (where it actually matters), they also take a few days to refresh that report (recently discovered).
Hope that helps!
EDIT:
You should check your entire HTML code, there seems to be lots of issues there, for example:
Your site in fact lacks of lots of meta description. In the page you posted, you have the OG:DESCRIPTION tag, but not the description tag. If you are using some kind of CMS make sure you have the description tags active, the content could be the same as the one in the OG:DESCRIPTION.
Your Website is very new, has only a few backlinks. Probably you got ranked within the first 3 pages as it was something new, but as it has almost no authority, you still have lots of work to do to rank that site.
There's nothing (in the surface) that could lead to even think on a penalty. It is just too new and has no backlinks/authority.
By the way, are you accredited by BBB? If so, use the actual seal. Same for the other seals you have there. If you just added them to create confidence but actually don't "own" them, I'll suggest you get rid of them.
Using 2 SEO plugins can actually create conflicts with duplicate tags. Yoast SEO plugin does it all for you and it is highly recommended.
But about your question, disabling the plugin won't delete the configuration (I think), so you can basically re-activate it later and have everything as it was. Removing/deleting the files of the plugin most likely will remove the configuration, but you if you are using another plugin, such as yoast, you should be good. Make sure to review the entire configuration of whatever plugin you use.
Hope that helps!
Most modern browsers run javascript, and most users have Javascript enabled and running as sites today use it more and more. I would definitely remove that noscript tag and all within. It is actually not adding any value while it can cause google to recognize your site as something related to javascript.
No to my knowledge. You will have to wait. Anyway, Google could have already download the new robots but while the reports are showing the older file. Those reports always take a while until refreshing completely.
I've never seen Google (or other engines) pay any attention to HTML comments. In fact, I've seen strong evidence that they are completely ignored. It only makes sense. People stick all kinds of things in comments for a wide variety of purposes. I can't imagine why a search engine would do anything else. And as far as Panda is concerned, Panda is aimed at the user's experience and since HTML comments are invisible to users, there's no reason they should have any effect.
Seems that your structured data is well implemented. I would give it a break and hopefully, within 2 more weeks, Google data will start to show up. It actually takes same time for Google to re-crawl your site.
Suggestion: Use G+ publisher markup.
Workaround: Use Google's Data Highlighter and it will actually crawl and index your markup faster.
Hope that helps!
As long as you don't 301 penalized pages / websites to a non-penalized site, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
However, if you are sure your current site has pages penalized instead of a link penalty (which means that incoming links are not being counted, not that your site is penalized), then you shouldn't 301 anything if you are planning to "start over".
There's been reports from people with penalized sites which moved to another domain and they were able to recover. I would only recommend such a move if you are now working only with your previous customers (existing before the penalty). But if you are still gaining search traffic and customers, then you should consider fixing the issues instead of moving.
Just my 2 cents 
Apparently, Google is indexing your main domain http://sportiqe.com with over 7,000 pages already indexed (https://www.google.com/search?q=site:sportiqe.com). Perhaps you are also seeing the previous version as you set the custom domain recently?
Looking at your site, everything looks ok, canonicals are well set, etc.
You can use robots to disallow google from even crawling those pages, while the meta noindex still allows the crawling but prevents the indexing of those pages.
If you have any sensitive data that you don't want Google to read, then go ahead and use the robots directives you wrote above. However, if you just want them deindexed I'll suggest to go with the meta noindex, as it will allow other pages (linked) to be indexed but leave that particular page out.
Yes, it does. Google penalizes links that pass pagerank and are built unnaturally, like those ones you mention. You should have the IT company set ALL those links to nofollow, that will accomplish both the company goals, avoid/remove a penalty while still providing the municipality site a way to go to the IT site.
Hope that helped.
PS: check if the IT company received a manual penalty under WMT to verify, and if they did, fix the issue adding a nofollow to ALL the links and then file a reconsideration request.
EDIT: most likely, if those are the only links you have, you received a penalty, as a devaluation happens when you actually have no control on the links, but in this case, the IT company placed the links on purpose.
No! They should use Yelp, just in the right way. Expect some bad reviews and be prepared to deal with them, fix whatever went wrong. With any business there will be good/bad reviews, just don't try to manipulate to your favor, sooner or later that can backfire (as it is happening to the lawyer, or even customers can spot those fake reviews).
Moz can't actually read the canonicals and be sure they are set right as they depend on what do you want to be indexed.
I can recall this question asked several times before, Moz support responded:
"We prefer to provide data that takes the tack of "rather be safe then sorry" and report on the issues to the highest degree of error that we have seen Google penalize a site for so it is sometimes true that they are not as strict as our tools. It isn't a bug in our system that shows these errors; it is just that we have decided to show errors that Google may consider at their strictest level of penalization."
EDIT: I am sure Magento has some extension to manage those urls and allow you to set the products url right so they don't include any of cat-a, featured, detail, etc. Like Wordpress has SEO by Yoast, there's "ultimate SEO suite" for magento.
If you are still getting an unreachable response from the fetch as google bot then your page is still unreachable to Google.
After you make any change to your DNS, wait 24 hours and try again, if the problem persists then you probably need to take a look at your code/server (it could be the robots.txt, ip whitelisting, the actual website code, etc.).
For the HTML improvements to refresh, it could take a while. If you already fixed the issues displayed, just sit tight.
As for the fetch as G bot, if you made changes, then submit the fetch to the index, it will increase the possibility if being re-indexed faster, but it gives you no guarantee.
Unfortunately I think that isn't an option.
You will probably be better with "noindexing" all those duplicated pages or even have the site restructured to avoid the category name in the product url.
Having a canonical basically tells the engine to index only that one, so if you did the /cat-a/abc for the SEO perspective, you are actually not getting that much of a benefit, as /cat-b/abc won't be indexed.
I really don't know which columns in the CSV, but you can see those pages in the campaigns page.
Anyway, if the content is slightly different, you could consider using noindex on those pages that could generate conflicts. For example, that happens quite often on a blog, duplicate content reports on tag/category pages, in those cases it would be considered a good practice to noindex tag pages.
Just my 2 cents
The tag rel="dofollow" doesn't exist...
If you do a 301 redirect then the juice isn't lost. You lose a bit in the process but not all. Just as it was a regular link in the middle between the link clicked and your Website.
For your viewing pleasure:
How about a rewrite rule?
To redirect products, you can use something like this:
OSCommerce URL: http://www.domain.com/your-product-name-p-123.html
Magento url (assuming product names are the same when importing the products): http://www.domain.com/your-product-name.html
.htaccess:
RewriteRule ^(.*)-p-(.*)\.html$ $1.html [L]
However, I would actually use a redirect, you loose some link juice, but it's minimum (with something like this):
RewriteRule ^(.*)-p-(.*)\.html$ $1.html [R=301,L]
Hope that helps!
Well, I've removed the keyword tag from all my Websites about 2 years ago. Mainly because Google said they don't use it anymore. However, Bing said that they could still use the meta to figure out what is the page about. Still we haven't see change in terms of rankings.
I personally won't use that meta again, just to remove some clutter from the page. With all today's metas (authorship, OGs, twitter cards, etc.) you are just adding more "garbage" that actually doesn't do anything.
No you are not.
EMD penalties are for the ones that abuse that. ie: have several EMD pointing to the same site; have the entire site flooded with the keyword, etc.
Hey Miles,
The both are for different uses and may or may not be used in the same page depending on your situation.
If the content in the CA and COM versions is the same, then you should add a rel canonical + rel alternate, the rel alternate pointing to itself and the other version of it, and the canonical pointing to the one you consider definitive.
If the content isn't the same, then the rel canonical isn't needed (but suggested, pointing to itself in each lang/alternate), only the alternate should be in place.
You can read more on Dr. Pete's post here: http://moz.com/blog/rel-confused-answers-to-your-rel-canonical-questions
Hope that helps!
They should be no-follow even on those sites that may pick the news up. Like the question says, the response from Google to the reconsideration request mentions links that were on syndicating sites, not on the actual PRWeb site.
And the statement I mentioned was a quote from PRWeb, and it says and I quote "all outgoing syndication" meaning that even those outside PRWeb site are being no-followed.
Agree.
It's time to stop thinking about link building and start with link earning. That actually is the ONLY way to get natural backlinks.
Forcing you to "create" content just for the purpose of a link will surely make the content irrelevant, and therefore loosing the " link earning" part.
Write/create/post what can really be interesting to your audience, and when you feel the need to.
Yes. Links from PRWeb are considered unnatural if not no-followed. You must nofollow all the links in your releases, and in case other sites pickup your PRs, just make sure those links are no followed.
PRWeb claimed they made several changes to comply with Google guidelines, but given the amount of people that use their services only for the SEO effect, it would be hard to believe that they actually force the nofollow to all their releases and the sites that syndicates them.
From PRWeb:
"As far as changes in links and backlinking these changes come from google and apply to all press release distribution. We have been proactive in these changes and marking all outgoing syndication as ‘no-follow’ in accordance with Googles new rules."
I don't think is a glitch, you just started the campaign Moz never crawled your site before so it actually doesn't have any information yet. Give it a day, I think the first crawl is run after you start the campaign. However, OSE info could take a while to update. You should check your crawl diagnostics instead if the site is too new.
For how long have you been experiencing this? Does the Moz crawl runs normally reaching all pages?
If your answers are: More than 1 month and yes, then it probably is a Moz glitch and you should contact support: http://moz.com/help/pro