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For a client we are discussing international SEO options. I have pushed against CCTLD because they do not have the resources to manage multiple sites.

Instead we want to go the subfolder route: .com/uk/  My question is whether we can properly create a subfolder version that only includes a handful of pages rather than the whole site - so 5-10 pages vs 4k. Is that possible? I'd love your thoughts. International SEO is not my strong suit.

Also - if the subfolder for .com/uk/ content is almost entirely the same as the us-based .com is that a problem?

Thanks!

Thanks!

Hi Tom -

Thanks so much for your insight - and the tools you've recommended. I also experienced a hacked site in the past where new URLs were created on the client site for nike shoes and what not.

I will disavow for now, but agree - I need to add a crawl with the intention of uncovering those spam URLs in my technical audit process moving forward.

I detected the "attack" simply by monitoring backlinks via Ahrefs. I will disavow using same tool.

Again - your insight is appreciated!

Hi Joe -

Thanks for the insight. I agree that disavow is the best course forward, even if Google is devaluing them. A manual penalty is what I'm worried about. How do you directly let the Web Spam team know? I can monitor and continue to disavow, but this could continue to go on indefinitely.

I'm pretty sure one of my client's sites has been targeted by malicious black hat link building tactics employed by a competitor site. Over the last few weeks we've gotten 100s of super low quality spammy backlinks. No one has been doing link building, so the only thing I can think of is that competitor entered our URL into some spammy backlink building sites.

Has anyone else experienced this?

It's the real estate industry, so I wouldn't be surprised considering how competitive it is, but I'd love to hear your experiences.

Thanks James. I only wish the client would use a different ecommerce platform, but they are committed to Webjaguar for now.

Hey All. I have a client whose ecommerce site is build in Webjaguar. Does anyone have experience with this platform. It appears to be loaded with technical SEO challenges (duplicate content, weird URLs, etc). Interestingly, when I Google "webjaguar SEO challenges" and things like that....nothing comes up. Suspicious, methinks. I appreciate any thoughts from SEO folks. Thanks!

Thanks, Logan. So do you think there is any value in having the top inbound links (highest domain authority) change their links to the https version of the site?

I know when you redesign your on website, you loose about 15% internally due to the 301 redirects (see moz article: https://moz.com/blog/accidental-seo-tests-how-301-redirects-are-likely-impacting-your-brand), but I'm wondering if that also applies to value of inbound links when you redirect your http://www.sitename.com to https://www.sitename.com.

I appreciate your help!

Hi Umar -

This is good advice, and consistent with my thinking. The educational site is ranking very well and we're in the process of giving it a facelift - new design, etc. It is not a .edu - it is essentially a large blog site that discusses a specific area of homeopathy.

The content produced for the educational site will not be thin. I also plan on introducing more outbound links to other authoritative sites that are not the commercial site to diversify the link profile.

Much appreciated!

Hello All -

I'm working on a content strategy for a large natural products company. In general it's difficult for articles about the natural products industry written written on commercial company sites to show up in the SERP. Most of the results come from large educational sites and blogs with no obvious affiliation (or products for sale).

This company also owns an educational site - one that would be much easier to get content on the first page of the SERP for. The 2 sites are hosted on the same server.

My question is - does this website relationship look fishy? Is it a grey area to create content for the educational site - content where the purpose is #1 education, but #2 - to promote products from the main site and send traffic to the main site. I do think it's important to note that the main company site does not actual sell any products there (products are sold on Amazon and on shelves in stores).

I appreciate your thoughts!

Amelia -

I appreciate your response, but we're already doing all that you've suggested. I am wanting more information on the nitty gritty details.

Hello All -

I would like to create a guide for my team of rules for internal links and I could use some help. My understanding is that Google only counts the first link to a page, so any crafted keyword text links within the content do not count if the page in question is linked to from the main navigation. Is this correct? For example, if the menu or drop down menu in main site nav (which exists on all pages of the site) includes a link to a particular section that will be the only one that ever counts since the menu is on every page?

Example: let's say a website selling cat toys includes a drop down menu on the homepage with links to "holiday cat toys". Does this mean that no other text links in content on the site will support that page from an SEO perspective since the link is in the main nav and will always be the first one counted?

In the past we have added text links in the content on the homepage to important pages on the site. It seems to work, though now I'm questing these tactics based on the first link rule. I would appreciate some advice, clarification, thoughts, etc.  Thanks!