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How do you mean 'is this bad' - what aspect?

It's not great that your meta description is the same on each page. It should describe the page, not be generic to the whole site.

Got to agree with Patrick - the first URL's look normal and the others look simply odd.

Remember your site is for humans as well as search engines.

Hi,

Paid positive reviews are definitely not what they want to see but it's a bit less clear about paid impartial reviews as you aren't trying to influence what to write. I'd still steer clear though and find ways to encourage genuine reviews with the money saved. Given that you may end up paying for a bad or neutral review I don't see the point.

Hi,

If there's a reason to have both sites live then instead of a 301 (which would only show the content from one site) you could use a canonical (if the content can't be updated to something different enough) and chose the main of the two sites

I would work on the assumption that it will affect the rankings on desktop too and if you have time to make your site responsive in time then I would - it covers all bases then.

Also, as mobile searches are increasing it makes sense to go responsive as soon as you can.

Hi

Check out this http://moz.com/learn/seo/internal-link

Why will it be two blogs if it's all about the same product? It may be worth looking at just one blog but tagging topics so people can find what they are after quickly

Hi,

Don't know what site you have but I get <cite>oasis-land.com </cite>at 4.

Your spot check Google results might be skewed by personalisation. Try adding &pws=0 at the end of the URL and see if results change

Sorry, Just come back to do that and seen your comment.

Hi Matt and Bridget,

Thanks for your help.

I have re-looked at the problem and spoken to one of our IT guys. Think we have collectively got to the bottom of it!

Spectrum-online seems to have two sorts of page - those with keyfax32 and those without. The ones I had checked for code had been the Keyfax pages and I hadn't known about the other type. The other type is the one with the UA-7828548-3 code e.g https://www.spectrum-online.co.uk/services/tenants/register.aspx. Our IT guy is going to see if it is possible to add the code to the other Keyfax32 pages.

The reason they appeared under the GA property with the domain set as Western Challenge was because historically, the Western Challenge domain would have had had that code on it and the Spectrum Online code (set up before I started). When Western Challenge was redirected, the Spectrum Online part was left.

I think the reason I kept getting redirected when trying to see the top pages under the UA-7828548-3 Western Challenge property is because the Western Challenge domain has a redirect on it and the domain hasn't been changed in the analytics property. I can't change it to spectrum-online.co.uk because no site is set up. As we are changing to a new system in a few months though I think I won't fiddle for now and will make sure the UA-7828548-3 code is transferred to the new system.

Hope that makes sense and thanks again.

See you at SearchLove....

Linda's answers sounds good and yes it does count as duplicate.

Hopefully they will agree to implement the tags as it shows you as the source and not them. Google doesn't always know which site something came from in the first place.

Good advice above but I'd also ask him to educate you in SEO and his plan for marketing your site. Any SEO should be able to explain what they are doing for you and why - you are after all paying for them and it shouldn't be a 'dark art'.

If they don't help you, try and educate yourself using the great resources on this site and get another SEO...

I'd 301 it if it has trust and no spam.

I'd look at doing the redirects to the most relevant pages though rather than just the home page - as you say the content is similar to what you have - it shouldn't be too hard to match up the important pages.

Hi, if you can get yours indexed first it would be seen as the original - otherwise it's difficult to tell.

I would add that if you are going to have user generated content, make sure there's a review process so it doesn't get spammed/abused.

Disability topics definitely sound like the way to go as Egol said. They help set your client up as an authority on the subject, building trust with potential clients.

The (unique) content could also be used on other sites helping get the name of your client out to a wider audience.

Not sure that fishing etc will help unless you can link those topics to what he does.

Good luck

Hi,

Are they products that will come back in stock again soon? If so I would have a page that says it is temporarily out of stock but why not sign up to newsletter that will tell you when it's back in. That way they may still buy the product from you.

I'd also add 'you may also be interested in' products on the page to see if people want to buy something else from you in the meantime.

It's helpful to use Dreamweaver with the visual and code views showing together - it helps you see what you are doing.

It would help you to learn basic HTML and there's plenty of free help online.

We use CMS now but sometimes I wish I could go back to sites editable in Dreamweaver for the ability to have more control.

Might have been ODesk https://www.odesk.com/o/jobs/browse/skill/joomla/

The 301 shouldn't be a problem but as stated it might be odd if used on advertising and then people end up on a different domain. It will help you snap up domain name so no-one else can use it though.

If you don't want a duplicate nl site in Dutch, you could keep the nl domain to a single page with Dutch content and then suggest Dutch visitors visit your main .com site. Would be worth having a contact page with address in Holland too.

If you make the nl site a re-gig of your .com site, make the content as different (and appealing to Dutch visitors) as possible.

Although many Dutch can speak English, they can't all, especially older generations so bear in mind when thinking about just serving English content.

I'd agree that it takes hard work.

Make sure your site is as good content-wise as it can be and make sure you only use ethical ways to promote it - trying to take short cuts won't pay off in the long run.

You're in the right place to learn how to make your site great - there's plenty on moz and on the site of partners Distilled.

Also, try watching the regular Whiteboard Fridays https://moz.com/blog/category/whiteboard-friday

Good luck

I would say tags are useful to readers to help them find more of your content on the same topic.

Unlike Chris, I have clicked on them but people use the web and websites in different ways.

If it's useful to readers then do it.

Useful tool I found recently: http://httpstatus.nl/ - showed a few redirect chains on our site

Hi,

If the dev site can't be crawled (which is generally the idea), it doesn't matter what you call the URL's on the test site.

If the URL's on the old site are good, keep the same names for the new one to avoid the need for 301's. If the URL's could be better though, change them but 301 the old pages to the relevant new ones.

Hope that helps

These are tools I have used before but I'm not sure I trust the data much because I have compared what they say to sites I have actual Google Analytics data for and they don't match.

Try http://myblogguest.com/

I don't think they rank better but it isn't just used for blogging. You can make decent website but if you know how to code and are happy doing it then probably stick to it.

Wordpress is easy though and you can write a custom theme.

Hi,

That should be enough to stop the search engines crawling and indexing the test site.

Remember to take it off when you go live though.

This may help: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-auto-post-to-facebook-or-twitter-from-google-wi-1352124886

Not tried it though as I prefer to post to each independently so that the content is tailored.

Totally agree with Egol.

If the content is inaccurate it could really harm the client if it is supposed to be written by them.

I would definitely get them to approve anything written in their name but also, before writing it, ask them what key points or facts they would expect it to include so that it guides your research and writing.

Obviously it's easier to write about subjects you know, but if you have a genuine interest in a new subject it makes it easier to learn about and write about.

Good luck.

Ideally you don't want a redirect chain. It's best to redirect the old page to the new, missing out the middle one.

Redirect the middle page to the new too.

Hope that helps

If you have Google Analytics (or similar) take a look at where the traffic is coming from and compare it to any historical data if you have it.

It could be something happened online like better rankings or a buzz about you on social media as Don said a link in a forum or it could be something offline like a newspaper or magazine article on you or even a mention on TV. Check referrers in Analytics.

If you have been at any trade shows that could also have driven traffic. Check 'city' report in Analytics.

If it's possible you may also be able to implement a 'where did you hear about us' question at some point - either when people come to buy something or as an after sales thing. That would help for future.

All good news for you though as you said but it's better to know why it happened so you can do more of it.

Hope that helps

I'm not sure there's a penalty for using 2 lots of code but there's no need to as Paddy says.

The only time I have used two lots of code is when a third party has set up Analytics and can't or won't hand Admin rights over so the two codes were used so that the website owner could start to collects their own data without losing the historical third party stats.

Guessing it's AVG Secure Search but may be wrong

Might be worth checking that if they say they are going to link to you that they actually do so and that they leave it up. Hopefully if they are decent enough sites they wouldn't do that though...

As others have said, definitely only link with decent sites and only if it would make sense from a human point of view to do so.

Might be worth checking in GA to see if the site then refers you good traffic. It may help you decide which ones to link with in the future.

I wouldn't go mad with exchanges though.

Hi,

I think your H1 idea is fine.

For the meta descriptions I'd write a new one for each page and make it so that it compels searchers to click your page. That may or may not be the first few words on your page. If the words do not capture interest you may lose a searcher to another search result. The meta description is important for click through.

As you identified, just a product name or half a sentence will not serve you well.

I would set up a new view so that you still have the original view collecting all data.

Apart from that, I agree with advice above.

No. Add to the end of the search results URL after the results have been returned

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=land+in+the+cayman+islands&oq=land+in+the+cayman+islands&aqs=chrome.0.57j0l3j62l2.865j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&pws=0

This may be useful http://moz.com/blog/face-off-4-ways-to-de-personalize-google

I agree with Andy - it's not all about the domain authority and one day their sites may gain in DA anyway.

Just don't go for any spam links.

This might be useful to you http://www.hobo-web.co.uk/webmaster-guidelines/

He's a she! And yes that's what I meant

Why the thumbs down when I said the same as Kate?:

"Ensure you have it on your site first"

Even if Google can't detect poor English now, it will be working towards it.

Surely your money is better spent elsewhere. Invest in the long term.

If the articles they are writing for you are low quality, you can bet the sites they are able to get them on are low too.

Keep away from them and work on quality. Nothing is quick and easy and that's how it should be. If people could so easily buy their way to the top, the search results wouldn't be worth using.

Great tool Paddy - now bookmarked.

I agree with vzPRO - avoid the mass follow/unfollow tactic and write great tweets that get people to follow naturally.

Firstly, don't pay for them or do a mass 'follow the unfollow'.

Try great content, tweeting pictures, helping people out, joining conversations etc - the growth will be slower but a better quality of follower.

If your content is good, it will get re-tweeted.

Try mentioning others in tweets. If you are saying something good, chances are they will RT and your tweet will then be seen by their followers, some of who may then follow you.

Obvious one is to add your profile name on email footers etc and to link to your profile on any other social media profiles.

Take a look at top tweeters to see what sort of thing they are saying - you may be able to learn from it.

Good luck