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I've seen this done on a project I worked on before.

First, we logged every query that returned 0 results with a little bit of PHP code. The code wrote to a .txt file that was easily readable.  After a month we had a significant amount of data.

The data was used to track what products were being searched for that weren't returning results. Then we used the data to decide if we should add those products or if our search wasn't returning proper results.  What we found was that many people searched for products that we did carry, but the search didn't return the proper results.  For instance, the search might not return a result if a search was for the BRAND of the item.  Though it should have, it didn't.  Also, a user might search for "widgets", but all the products were named "$brand $size widget". Because of the "s" at the end of the word our search would return 0 results, but we carried hundreds of widgets.

First we improved the search to pick up results of one character off.  Then we included any manufacturer / brands. We also had the search display results from the title of articles on our site.  This significantly improved the user experience and sales.

We then took the data left over and decided what the user was searching for and how to use that to our advantage.  Many users are too lazy to use the navigation on a website to find what they want.  If they search for "blue widgets" and 0 results display the users often assume we don't carry them - though we do.  So, this is a very good tactic to use to increase conversions.

It worked very well for us.   I hope this helps.

What he actually says is that it isn't the best use of time. He claims that there are more important factors to focus on.  But what if you've accomplished the more important factors? He then says that there are pages where it makes sense to use the nofollow. I knew someone would bring up this article. Since the release of this article,  I've disagreed with the assumptions made, based on this article, by most SEOs.

This only helps if you actually believe what Matt Cutts says is always true.  

I don't understand why you insist on cramming SEO and Kingston in the title of every single page you make.  It isn't necessary.  I would suggest stepping back from SEO mode and going into functional mode.  Ask yourself what would really make your site the best site for information on SEO and SEO services in Kingston.   Build that site. Forget about Google and keywords.  Build a variety of pages related to SEO, but not necessarily about SEO.  You can break it up with information useful to readers like how to optimize a landing page, what UX converts buyers, etc.  And for Pete's sake, don't put SEO and Kingston in EVERY title or on every page.  Get as much information as you can and make each page informative and useful.  Don't focus on SEO at all - just build the site for people.   When you're done with this and you have a functional and informational site that people like to use, you can then go back and edit it for SEO.  It looks like you're obsessed with rankings and keywords.  This is going to get in the way of your overall goal - ranking for your keywords.

That's the best advice I have for you.  Good luck!

I can lead you to water, Thomas, but I can't make you drink.  You should not be targeting the exact same keywords on your internal page as your home page.  With each sub page your keyword set should be more and more precise.  3 links deep should be pages that are very precise and they should be sniping long-tailed keywords from Google SERPs.   You don't have to worry about how link juice travels all around the internet to make your site rank well.  Don't get yourself confused with all the jargon and details of SEO.  Make your site for people first - then Google.  If you build a home page about Kingston SEO and then I go to a subpage and its about SEO in Kingston... ?? i'm confused.  Plus, Kingston SEO and SEO Kingston are really the same aren't they?  I think you should reevaluate your site structure and exactly what you're trying to accomplish.

Obviously, your goal is to rank for Kingston SEO and SEO Kingston.  That should be the focus of your home page.  A good idea for a sub page is "Why we're the best SEO Company in Kingston".  Then build a landing page around that topic and try to get that page to rank for "best seo company kingston", etc.

Can you explain why you have it set up this way?

You're discovering one of the Google algo changes the hard way, Thomas. The explanation is more than I'm willing to bang out on a keyboard.  In short, Google has shifted the value to sub pages for some keywords.  It also has to do with the keywords and if Google thinks they're broad match or specific.  Broad match USUALLY works best for the home page.  But what you consider to be broad match keywords might not be what Google considers to be broad match keywords. Google is telling you that it likes your internal page better.  Focus on your internal page to rank. You'll be surprised at the results.

Jim, this just goes to show that there's no sense in freaking out over a change in rankings based on 3 days' time.  I can't even count the number of times I've seen a site drop after link building - only to come back to the same place or a higher placement a week later.  This is typical and almost expected when I'm doing SEO.   As long as you're not doing anything blackhat your site will be just fine.  There's no way Google is going to single your tiny site out among billions of others.

In the future, give your site a minimum of 2 weeks.  I think of it like this:

I do solid SEO. No blackhat. No crap.  Because I do solid work I should be rewarded by Google and never penalized.  With that in mind, if my site starts moving around in Google I know its a GOOD thing because it means Google is reevaluating my site.  I also know that because I only do good work a reevaluation by Google is always going to show me in a favorable light.  I want to see fluctuations in my rankings. It can only mean good things for me.

Absolutely a bad idea.  You should be using that h1 tag to promote the current page only, not the same keywords over and over.

Let the domain names expire?  Why? So the competition can pick them up and use them against you?  You might not agree with my methods, but to let the domain names expire would be a mistake given the current weight google gives to exact match domains.

Get a P.O. box or a "virtual office" in each city.   That's the only way I know to work around this issue.  Also, if one driver quits you can still keep the same address for Google Maps - just change the phone number.

I wouldn't see any problem with linking from each product to the other products.  Anchor text is always important.

I can't tell you what the best approach is for you.  For me, I look for domination of a niche when it comes to local search.  The above posting is how I do it, but it might not be the best method for you.  I haven't had success with simply redirecting a domain name.  I have had great success with the method I've mentioned above - linking from the keyword domain to a page on my main site with the exact keyword phrase after the keyword domain has been established in Google.  In fact, what I often see is the #1 ranking for the keyword domain (exact match keyword) and a #2 or #3 ranking for the page I link to from the keyword domain on my main site.

Hope that makes sense. lol.

I have had extensive success with this method.  The catch is that you need to make the long-tailed keyword URL a site that is actually useful to the world.  Don't just put up a 2 page website and link like crazy to your site. You need to make it useful with good content.  I'd say 10 pages minimum of quality content.  You can do this in about 3-4 days with a wordpress.  Also, don't link to your MAIN site for a few months so that google trusts your other domain.

Some will argue with this, but it has worked very well for me in some niche markets.  Also, you hold a domain name so that a competitor can't get it.  Considering the weight google puts on domain names its worth the extra effort to hold and use any domain names you can find.

Again, be careful not to turn the site into a doorway site.  Make the site useful with new articles and fresh content.

It depends on what you consider "high authority".  Usually I have little problem getting a link with a "high authority" site to index.   One trick I've found is that web admins will block indexing (with robots.txt) on pages that are allowed to link out.   So, you might think you got a great link on a high authority page, and you do, but Google will never crawl or index the link.  This is also a trick I've used with small-scale link exchanges.

Usually a facebook post and a tweet or two will get the page recrawled and get your link indexed.  It shouldn't take much if the website has a high authority.

At the very least you could edit the meta-tags and the title.   It might have to be hard-coded though depending on the CMS (if any) you're using.

I highly doubt that there's any benefit in SERPs by donating money.  However, if the site were to list the websites (in a link or otherwise) that have donated money it might give you a tiny, tiny, tiny boost.  Doubtful.

It's my understanding that adding a nofollow tag to pages that aren't of significance to users can help with page shaping and directing google to the most important links on my home page.

I have 4 links on my home page that I'm considering adding a nofollow tag to:

Privacy Policy, Legal Policy, Anti-Trust Policy, and Help-Desk

Because these links are in the footer on every page I think they're probably sucking up some useful link juice.  It's doubtful that anyone would actually search for our privacy policy or legal policy to find our site.  I'd rather the juice to spread to other pages of use.

What do you guys recommend?

What Russ is talking about here is spot on. If you're not using "micro-sites" to test and rank you're not going to be able to keep up with the other guys. How are you going to test new methods and learn if you're scared you might enter a "gray" area with google?  Technically, ANY manipulation of Google by manually building links elsewhere is "gray".  SEO, in a sense, is inherently "gray".  So, to claim that your SEO tactics are 100% white-hat is a challenging statement to defend.

So i just discovered that a site I now managae has a .com version - as well as the .org version that is the one everyone knows about!

I'm guessing this is not a good thing...

So the whole site eg www.abc.org/example has a mirror page www.abc.com/example....

What should I do about this?    Is it really bad to have 2 versions out there?

Thanks!

Hi there,

When I did a redesign a few years ago, I had it in my mind that site links in 3 or 4 columns at the bottom of the home page, and every other page, would be good for SEO.  Having links to interior pages using keywords and phrases from the home page and all that….

I think this might now be outdated thinking?  As long as there are some links from the home page to important interior pages to pass link juice that is what matters?  Google might not even looks at links in the footer?  Is this correct?

Thoughts?

Thanks so much!

Hi there,

We have a content  database as part of our site and I noticed that the way the database is loaded with new content, it means that the URL’s for these pages are really long, around 100 characters or sometimes more

http://www.xxxyy.org/knowledge-base/documents/word1-word2-word3-word4-word5-word6-word7-word8

Is there a suggted maximum character length for a URL?  Kind of like for title tag where I max out at 69…

Should I truncate the URL’s or at least reduce the numbers of words in them to something less spammy?  Does that make a difference?

Thanks!

Hello,
When I do an OSE back link analyses of some sites that are listed in some directories we are considering, for almost all the directories and companies in them, the directories are listed in the OSE report, listed as followed, and usually have decent domain rank and page rank.

So this means that the link from the directory is obviously being picked up by OSE and it’s listed as a followable link. My question is just because the link is picked up by OSE does that mean that the search engines value it too?  Or could Google see the link ok but throw it out of the equation, presumably because it does not “like” the directory?

Hope this makes sense
Thanks!

Hi there,

We have some keywords that are ranked so far apart on the search engines its puzzling.

For example we have keywords ranked at say 10, 9, 7 etc  on Google, not in top 50 on Bing or Yahoo.  Stuff like that.

Surely the algorithms can’t be that far apart?  Is this indeed normal?  Does anyone have the same issues?

Thanks

3 things :

1. Does Google factor in overall site traffic in rankings?  So for 2 sites, all other things being pretty much equal, the one with higher traffic will be listed higher?

2. Does this logically imply that sites with lower traffic overall face an uphill struggle to be ranked highly???

3. As an extension to this, would it be true to say that by increasing site traffic, say with Google Adwords or other online or offiline or whatever advertising, that might help get higher SEO rankings???

Thanks so much for your responses.  This forum is great!

yes, thanks, I mean the traffic from specific links. e.g. How important is the traffic that flows down the links, or is the link itself all you need to worry about - even if there is Zero traffic from the link

So we know that links from highly ranked websites, pages with high DA, PR etc, matter.  What about the traffic on these links?  Do Google and others look at the traffic on the links and factor that into the algorithm?  What do people think about this?

Just wondering about this as don’t see it talked about much….Thanks

Thanks, the pages I am looking at seem to be new pages on a site, with no links into them, hence have a really low PA.  But the DA is really large for the site....so wondering how good and valuable these links are...

Does anyone know if it is still worth it  getting a link from a page on a site with a really low Page Authority  - say a news page on a site that has an SEO Moz tool bar PA of  just 1 or 2, but the domain of the site has a high DA like say 83

Is this worth getting??

Thanks

Incidentally  - the page I am trying to rank for is still appearing for another key word phrase - it’s just for the main keyword phrase that it has disappeared out of Google!  But for another related key phrase the page is at number 2!

I've had the same thing – an important keyword for an important page, that was getting up to around 30-35 place in google and I thought would go higher - all of a sudden, baam - off the charts and can't even find it listed at all!  Nowhere to be seen, not even in top 100 when I do a private browser search.

All other pages on the site have been steady, and / or inching up.

I did 301 some broken links from various pages I found in open site explorer to this page around this time, so might that have caused it??  Only about 20 or so, and the links were all related somewhat to the page, so I thought doing that would be the best thing - but now I think  I might have messed up...

Should I do a re-consideration request to Google - can you do this for just 1 page?    As I say, all other pages seem fine.

Alan, why woudl too many inbound links targeting the phrase in question be a problem?  I thought inbound links with the anchor text you are targetting is what you should be doing?  Thanks!

I have found a bunch of around maybe 20-30 directories that we seem not to be in, and that seem like they might be worth it from what I am reading…

My question is  - is it a problem to submit to this number of directories all at once – i.e. within the same week or 2?

Or should I think about spreading the submissions around a month or 2?

Just worried that Google etc might through a flag with a bunch of submissions all at once…

Thanks

Thoughts on ScrubTheWeb.com and SearchSight.com ?

would directories like these be a good idea?  We are a b to b company...

Thanks!

Hi there,

I just started using the pro tool 6 weeks or so ago.   I have done all the on page optimization I can and am starting to think more about building links to my site.

What I want to know is how important are directories as part of this link building program?

Should I treat doing an audit of what directories we are in, identifying what ones we should be in, and actually signing up for these ones as an important and vital part of the link building program?

So basically how important are directories?  We are a b 2 b business if that helps.I am kind of assuming directories are (still) important and that we should spend some time on this, but just wanted to get some expert thoughts on directories, approach to use etc etc.     I reckon it should be easier than other link building, as we can at least pay a fee and get in the directory, so it’s less a case of someone doing us a favor as other links sometimes seem to  be….

If a site has a bunch of 404’s that are basically old URL’s that no longer work and point to pages or documents that don’t exist anymore -  Can someone clarify if it’s a problem when fixing a bunch of these 404’s to point them all to the home page?

so if there is not really anywhere else that is applicable for the old broken URL, is it really a problem to 301 old pages to the site home page?

I have read some different things on this recently on some different sites, so I just wondered what the latest thinking on this was….thanks...

What are the characteristics of a Google penalty - i.e. how do you know by looking at the rankings for your keywords?

Do all keywords that you had previously ranked for fall from say top 5 to nowhere?

Do you disappear from SERP for a branded keyword?

Or something else??

Basically how do you know if you have been penalized?

Thanks

So for the past 3 or 4 weeks or so I’ve been making some on page tweaks for keywords that we should rank for, implementing all the keyword recommendations, and  getting “A’s” in the report card for page optimization in the Pro tool, and also doing things like fixing a bunch of 404’s that I found ….so I thought I was doing a bang up job…

My rankings for some keywords were generally trending (slowly) in the right direction, but this morning I see that 2 important keywords that I had been working hard on, and which had trended from around 40 to in the high 20’s in rankings, has now dropped out of top 50 altogether….

I’m a little dispirited, and now wondering if I did something wrong?  Any thoughts or recommendations?   Is it normal just to drop out of top 50 when you were in the 20's or 30's?

Thanks!

Anyone  know if its important that the target keyword is used AT THE START of the meta description, or is it enough that it is anywhere in the description...?

I have a few big ones that are at the end of the description and I was wondering if I should move them up to the front...

Thanks!

Hi All,

So once you use OSE Tool to point you in the right direction of sites that might be able to give you links, what are the best practices for then reaching out to the website?  I get that you need to give value in your request for a link and offer something of value – but what else to think about??

Ie Call them, email them, email who?  Follow up with phone call??? Do you just use the standard contact form on their website?  Presumably you need to track all this, just do it in a spreadsheet?

What do you say in the email?  Do you offer them a link (if you can?)

I guess it’s a thing that sounds easy enough – go get a link – but I would imagine that people who have done this enough with some success can maybe share some of the things that particularly worked or did not work…

At the moment it just seems a daunting  / time consuming task  - even thinking of getting an intern to help do all this – pros and cons to that as well???

Thanks for your time!

So I have spend around a month or so with on page optimization on 25 -30 or so pages and keywords/phrases, with some half decent results…still hoping there is more to come…

I reckon now it’s time to look at getting more inbound links with Open site Explorer… Every time I look at it though I get a bit of a head ache…!

Can anyone say or point me in the right direction how I should really start using Open site Explorer ?  (I have the PRO tool)

Thanks, sorry its such a simple question!

Has anyone typed in a phrase in Google and seen their listing on the SERP, but the page title on the Google SERP  is not what the CMS is set to ?

Ie the page title in the SERP is not what is expected?  Something related to the company, but not what is set on the CMS…

Very odd – has anyone seen something like this before?  What could be causing it?  Is there a way to change it?

Notice more sites have an "in the News" section on the home page, or something similar like press releases...

Apart from providing users fresh content, is there an SEO value to this?  What is the explanation for this?

Have a feeling the answer is obvious but just not too sure

Thanks a lot.

Once you do an optimise / make some (hopefully positive!) changes to pages re keywords etc - how long does it take for you to move up the rankings  - if indeed you do actually  move up...

I made some changes last week and see some slight movement this monday - can I expect more of a movement over a period of a few weeks?  Or does it take longer?

Maybe tricky question to answer  but hopefully you know what I mean...

Hi there,

I have chosen a keyword for a bunch of my top pages based on relevance, traffic, competition etc, and am tracking in the Tool - so far so good.

The issue I am having is with picking a keyword or phrase for the home page - all the suitable keywords I seem to have been allocated to 1 particular sub pages - basically product pages...

Anyone come across this issue?  Basically any keyword or phrase that I think might be suitable for the home page, I find a more precise page beneath the home page....

Help gratefully accepted!

I asked this before, but did not really get an answer, so checking again. Really grateful for any help...

My question is:

Based on the PRO crawl Diagnostics – if we don’t make a  recommended change on say 1 rather obscure page, does that just affect the SEO on that one page only, or does it potentially affect the SEO on all (more important) pages of the site? e.g. home page etc

E.g. If we get a “Too many on page links” for a certain page that we don’t really want to rank for – does not fixing that particlaur page really affect the SEO for the site as a whole?  Or just that 1 page (that I don't really care too much about)

Hope someone is able to answer, thanks so much...

Or should you just stick to 1 page, 1 keyword all the time?

If you do 2, are there any things you should watch out for?

Thanks

For those familiar with this in Drupal - is this worth doing?

It seems to be a setting that affects the priority of a URL compared to others on the site.  It's set to a default of 0.5 but you can increase up to 1.0 I think.

Anyone know about this?

thanks

Right, but my question is more if you have 1000 pages, and don't make a change to page 900, does that affect the SEO of that 1 page only, or potentially the top pages such as home page etc

Based on the PRO crawl Diagnostics – if we don’t make a change on 1 page, does that just affect the SEO on that one page, or does it affect the SEO on all pages of the site?

E.g. If we get a “Too many on page links” for a certain page that we don’t really want to rank for – does not fixing that particlaur page affect the site as a whole?

Hope I explained this ok..