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You will get minimal, if any, SEO value by submitting your RSS feed to directories. Do not submit them to paid directories either, as Google have been penalising sites that pay for links.
The only reason to submit to directories is if they are relevant to your industry/content, and you if you will receive targeted traffic from these directories.
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Yes, there is a great article by Google on their knowledge graph. They also wrote a good article about the use of knowledge graph in search.
In terms on getting on there- I'm not too sure, I haven't seen any studies or done any experiments. It has worked for clients when setting up Google+ pages and making sure they are clear and linked to the website. It also seems to help to have good schema mark up. For example, if you are a famous person you should have a good use of person schema, have a Google+ page and also make sure your Wikipedia is up to date and clearly defined.
I tend to make the recommendation of having canonicals on paginated pages point to the view all page. The reason for this is that this page will contain all the results, so therefore there will not be any duplicates.
I also believe it is good user experience for people to have all content accessible immediately through infinite scrolling - they can then filter and order as they choose.
For yourexample I would canonical to the /all page.
This is Google's new 'frequently mentioned on the web..' feature. They have been testing it for about 8 months or so now. It is based on their knowledge graph which is their database of pretty much every existing thing - people, places, films, music etc.
To get on there you should probably have a descriptive Google+ page and have good schema mark up on your website. This will help Google understand the connection between your college and Vancouver.
For this example you should create a 'view all' page where all the content is listed in one single view. You should then point the canonical tag to the this page, so that all content is indexed.
If this is not possible, then you should use rel="prev" and rel="next" tags to show the relationship between each page when linking. Google can explain this better than me here!
There isn't much (if any) influence in having a .com or .co.uk for UK domains anymore. It used to be a ranking factor but many UK businesses use .com domains, as it is generic and well used.
.com is classed as a Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) meaning it is used around the world. You can view a list of other geotargetable domains below:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1347922
I am trying to use the Followerwonk api and I have changed the C# code from the MozscapeAPI code here for it to work as it uses the same encryption etc.
https://github.com/QueryClick/MozscapeAPI
The problem I am having is that I generate the correct link but I still get back 401 Unauthorized from Followerwonk it works fine on Mozscape API.
(I have changed the member ID and Signature)
The Link looks right and it defiantly hashes it correctly and the timestamp is set for 20 minutes in the future, Can anyone explain why this is not working.
Thanks
Hard to say how much Google rank mobile friendly website more, it depends on intent mostly. Mobile does differ based on localised results.
No, it would not be problematic. Exact match anchor text is very usual on the homepage.
An exact match to the title of the post is useful for the user because there will not be any confusion when they arrive at the blog post.
You do have an SEO opportunity when manually linking. It is a good opportunity to maximise your keyword usage in your anchor text. Try using similar terms in your link -
This should not create confusion for your user because the content is still being reflected. And it will allow to potentially rank for alternative, similar terms.
Yes, results can differ when searching on mobile compared to desktop. Ushave usually differs different intent when searching on mobile and search engines will react to this.
Google does favour responsive design. One of the key reasons for this is because the problem of having duplicate content is significantly reduced. Previously, you would have had at least two URLs - one for your mobile site and the other for your desktop version. With responsive web design, all content is held within one site with a single URL. This not only benefits the user but it also allows search engines to crawl your website much easier.
You can read more about Google's recommendation to use responsive web design below:
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details
Usually you would need to add noindex to the meta robots tag in the of your web page. Because your sitemap is an XML file and not HTML you will need to do things differently.
You can add the code below to your .htaccess file, which you can find in the ROOT folder of your server. Open the file in a plain text editor and insert the following:
Header set X-Robots-Tag "noindex"
This will stop search engines indexing your sitemap without restricting them from crawling it.
Note: Replace 'sitemap.xml' with your file name - if different.
Content that is delivered through JavaScript often has trouble being crawled by search engines. If the search engines cannot pick up your galleries then all they are seeing are empty pages (which would cause duplication). I would recommend looking into an alternative, SEO friendly provider.
How are you galleries currently set up? Do they use an iframe?
It depends on what kind of content you are producing. If it is a blog or news site with actual authors then yes you should take advantage of authorship. If it is a corporate site with no engaging, unique content then it is not recommended.
The author tag is integrated into pages that the author has written, not an author page - such as an 'about me' page.
If you set the pages as noindex then nothing within that page will be indexed - including the images. It should not be picking up the header/footer and thinking that is duplicate content as search engines will often understand that they are headers and footers.
This tool would have seen huge amounts of usage since it was first announced (there are many sites in your position). I think it may be a little too early to give up on it as there has only been a few weeks since you submitted it.
I suspect Google will be implementing the results of the tool for high authority site first and then roll it out to lower authority sites. As your site is of low authority I think it may be a casing of playing the waiting game to see if the results come through. Don't give up just yet! Focus on gaining high quality links through valuable content and Google will eventually pay attention.
Those buttons will have been created by the company themselves and styled to look like a Facebook button. I'm sure they will create post to their Timeline saying something along the lines of "I want this...insert link to product".
You can do this using Open Graph. If you have no experience with it I would suggest starting here:
I would recommend using a similar URL structure as http://www.domain.ie/rentals/location/property-to-let/
When on the site you are working on you can see that there are three main solutions - sales, lettings and sharing. I would have www.yourdomain.ie/sales and then follow this with location and then property. This would be a good organised architecture.
An example URL would be:
http://www.yourdomain.ie/lettings/dublin-city/property-to-let/?min-price=500&max-price=700
You would also need to use rel="canonical" in order to prevent duplicate content issues.
Definitely try rewriting the content (this will also keep it fresh and up to date). If it is good, valuable content then it would be a shame for you to have to remove it from search engines as they could potentially drive a lot of traffic to your site.
I would think that Google does still crawl these sites (or have just blacklisted them). Therefore, they would still have a negative effect on your client's website.
I would recommend taking a look into Google's new disavow tool - you will be able remove the association with bad links.
Dr Pete recently wrote a great article on the disavow tool - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-disavow-tool-take-a-deep-breath
You should also grow your social media activity. Sites like Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Facebook and others will often have a higher authority than review sites. If you build your community up then these sites will often appear high on the results page when branded searches are performed. This will in turn push the negative reviews down.
Plus, it will help build up your online brand. Win-Win, right?
That's a great point about social media. Often, social media sites will have a much greater authority than the review sites. If you build up a strong online presence on even the basics:
Then you will be pushing the bad reviews further and further down the results. Even better than that, you will be showcasing the solid community that you have built up. People will go on these social sites and learn more about you and if you are communicating well then they will surely like you. It will give you a great competitive advantage.
Bad reviews are a common issue with SEO as the sites that host these reviews often have high authority. The only way you can really remove these from the results page is to create better, valuable content that will eventually outrank the reviews and push them further down the results page.
Is there any way you can view data from all of your Google Analytics accounts?
For example, if I wanted to view know how much mobile traffic all my sites had, could I do this? Rather than just looking at each site individually.
Thanks
Not at all. Good links from around the world will be of huge value to you.
You will end up fostering a worldwide community. Many people that read your blog and use your information will not be from New Zealand - although your core customers will be. This is often the case with online companies - your community will reach further than your core location.
That is a good recommendation but ultimately search engines will make a final decision on crawl frequency. Take a look at your 'Crawl Stats' on GWTs and this will give you an idea of how often your site is crawled.
No, do not pay for links - you will be penalised. Start a blog and create content that will help people who may use your service. Think of things like 'How mobile is effecting ecommerce' or 'How to use social media to build loyal customers'.
Once you have a blog and are creating your content then you will begin to see a quick rise in search traffic on your analytics package. Take a look at some of the keywords people are searching to find you and you will see that just having 3 is too low. You will need to constantly update your list of keywords.
There is no harm in paying people for help, as long as you find the right vendor for you. SEOmoz have a great list of recommended companies.
You will probably need to wait a little longer - it depends how often your site usually gets crawled and indexed.
However, robots.txt does not always stop search engines from indexing your pages. It will stop them crawling a page on your site but it tells them that they can still index that page. If they find links from external sites then the URL may still appear in the SERP.
This really shows the endless possibilities we all have for link building. I'd have never thought a bank like Barclays would put lots of hidden links on their website just by talking at one of their events.
Pretty amazing stuff!
Some links actually provide 'business services' that you would expect Barclays to have a relationship with but of the other links seem very suspicious - like the food websites.
Even though they're well know brands, the Innocent drinks and Eat Natural links should not really be in a 'Business services' section. It's very unlikely that a visitor would see these links so it must be purely for SEO reasons - even though these websites have a much lower authority than Barclays (I doubt it is for their benefit).
Not quite sure how a site like http://www.kiboshpiperepair.com/ have got on there either! It is very very interesting
Completely. Its a great investment to own the .com version as well - you never know if the client wants to expand in the future. It also insures you against people buying (and using) the .com version.
Hope this has helped you.
If the content will be duplicated then yes, you should 301 redirect to the preferred domain.
It really does depend on which domain you think best for the client. If they are a local, UK only company then it may be worth while using the .co.uk version as this will aid local searches and helps brand them as a UK company. However, .com is considered to have more 'power' - although this is becoming less important in ranking factors.
Which version currently ranks on Google when you perform a branded search? .co.uk or .com? And which version has the most backlinks? This will help in your decision.
Google Analytics - You will need to set the tracking code to "Multiple top-level domains". This can be done by going to Admin >> Tracking Code >> Multiple top-level domains.
Google Webmaster Tools - I am not too sure that you can combine two separate top-level domains. I may be wrong though?
That is a good start but it is important to not just jump into these channels without thinking about the audience - this checklist may sound good for SEO but it is may not be the best for your potential audience.
Explore their communities - for example, if you were targetting SEOs then you would hang out on SEOmoz, share content on inbound.org, comment on searchengineland.com, tweet the industry leaders on Twitter etc. By joining your niche communities you will build up connections and awareness which will help you gain links at a later date.
Before you publish content I would suggest joining in the conversation. That way, when you begin publishing your content you will have a basic following to be able to market to.
There is no secret but to be honest most people on here are very open and willing to share their expertise. I hope this question gains more of a discussion!
What kind of industry is your content targeting? Or is this a general checklist that can be applied to any industry?
Google claim that they do not use click through rates or bounce rates as ranking metrics. Also, no Google Analytics data is used in the ranking algorithm. Matt Cutts confirmed this in this YouTube video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLmO1GE4GvI
Faster than your competitors!!
I'd say 2 to 3 seconds is 'acceptable' but for SEO you really need to look at your SERP competitors to see how fast they're performing - then aim for faster!
I use Pingdom - http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/ - as it gives you a great deal of insights and grades your page so you can see how well it performs against others.
If you want to block the /mobile folder from being crawled you would need to set up a robots.txt file and input this text:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /mobile
Personally, I would use the rel=canonical tag and tell search engines that the preferred version of the page would be the non-mobile version. You can learn more about rel=canonical here...
They provide a calendar here - https://seomoz.zendesk.com/entries/345964-linkscape-update-schedule - The last update was earlier this month - 6th July
The aim is to update it every 4 weeks but this cannot be guaranteed. The next update is due on 3rd August 2012.
I always try to use the rel=canonical tag wherever possible - however, it is only a suggestion to the search engines. They can decide not to use your suggestion.
301 redirects should really only be used when the page has permanently moved or dramatically changed (by this I mean the layout, design etc.) - domainA.com/content to domainB.org/content. By using a 301 redirect you will lose 5 to 10% of link juice and you will also lose any social shares received.
I remember a member of the SEOmoz team explaining that it was an issue with their system and both Great Britain and United Kingdom yield identical results. It is just two names for one Google.
I think they are looking into this further.
That's correct - having both www.site.com and just site.com causes duplication issues.
You do not need to have redirects in place to solve this though - you can use a rel=canonical tag in order to specify which 'version' you wish search engines to use.
Here are a few posts that should help you:
Google's Explanation -
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394
SEOmoz Best Practices -
http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/canonicalization
John Doherty's blog post - "Should I use a Rel=Canonical or 301 Redirect?" -
You will be losing around 5-10% of your link juice by using 301 redirects. 301 redirects really should be used for when content has been moved and not for aesthetically enhancing your URLs. You need to think whether of not it is worth losing up to 10% of link juice to just remove capital letters - is there not another solution?
Hope this helps!
If it is your own original content and more 'valuable' to the end user than the article content then I would put it above the fold.
If it is not then I would keep it below the fold.
This is really useful! Thanks for share.
