Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Recently " .NYC" domains have become available for purchase to New York City based businesses.

I own and operate a New York City commercial real estate firm, nyc-officespace-leader.com. New domain would be www.metro-manhattan.nyc

Our existing domain has been in use for seven years.would there be an SEO benefit to transferring our site to .NYC domain? Or would a new domain kill our domain rank?

Thanks, Alan

Hi Reserve:

Thanks for your response.

Google is able to view this content because of links that go to and from it? So I am not protected by the no-index tag?

I am very unfamiliar with the strange tags generated by Wordpress. Do you think that such tags as the following can be removed without any detrimental effect? If the URLS for these tags are removed should there be redirects added? http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/boutique-space, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/meatpacking-district, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/restaurant-space, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/retail-space, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/store-space, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/the-plaza-district, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/times-square, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/chelsea, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/upper-east-side, http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/tag/upper-west-side

Also, should canonical tags be added to blog URLs even if they are set to no-index? For example:

http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/page/2

http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/page/3

http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/page/4

Thanks, Alan

Greetings Moz Community:

I purchased a  SEMrush subscription recently and used it to run a site audit.

The audit detected 168 duplicate content issues mostly relating to blog posts tags. I suspect these issues may be due to canonical tags not being set up correctly.

My developer claims that since these blog URLs are set to "no-index" these issues do not need to be corrected. My instinct would be to avoid any risk with potential duplicate content. To set up canonicalization correctly. In addition, even if these pages are set to "no-index" they are passing page rank. Further more I don't know why a reputable company like SEMrush would consider these errors if in fact they are not errors.

So my question is, do we need to do anything with the error pages if they are already set to "no-index"? Incidentally the site URL is www.nyc-officespace-leader.com. I am attaching a copy of the  SEMrush audit.

Thanks, Alan

BarjWaO SqVXYMy

Hi Sheena:

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond. Previously I worked with an SEO firm that had prepared a keyword matrix. So we tried to integrate those terms and perhaps have gone over board.

What do you mean by making the home page text more "brand and user" focused? We tried to eliminate promotional type add copy and cliche type language like "best", "great" etcetera. Tried to focus the content on why users would be in the real estate market for office space (search scenarios).

Do you think that approach is too remote and academic?

THANKS, Alan

Greeting MOZ Community:

I have been attempting to add certain keywords phrases to the home page text of our real estate web site (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). When I check the keyword density and look at the keyword cloud, the frequency of certain terms appear substantially higher than they should be (see attached keyword cloud and keyword density chart.  Certain terms like "office space" have a 5 or 6% frequency which seems high. Last thing we need is a Panda penalty.

When I viewed the code for the home page (see enclosed), I noticed HREF tags, SRE tags and ALT tags repeating certain keyword phrases, driving up their density.

I have attached a keyword cloud for the home page of a competitor and the use of language seems more diverse.

Does Google take the text in these various tags into account? I know the ALT tag is important for SEO, but how about the others?

Does the use of text in the tags for this page make the overall page look spammy?

Also, there are text and tags for the carousel in the home page that appear in the code for the home page. If this code were somehow concealed, would we be better off from an SEO perspective?

Thanks, Alan

pkM7CZG 1DFFMZ0

Greetings MOZ Community.

A keyword matrix was developed by my SEO firm. I am in the process of integrating  primary, secondary and terciary phrases into the text and am also sprinkling three or four other terms.

Using a keyword density tool (http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php) the results were somewhat unexpected after I optimized. So I then looked at the source code and noticed text from HREF, ALT and SRC tags that may be effecting how Google would interpret text on the page. Our home page (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) contains a slider with commercial real estate listings. Would Google index the SRC, HREF, TITLE and ALT tags in these slider items? Would this be detrimental to SEO?

The code for one listing (and there are 7-8 in the slider) looks like this:

|

href="http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings/305-fifth-avenue-office-suite-1340sf" title="Lease a Prestigious Fifth Avenue Office - Manhattan, New York">Class A Fifth Avenue Offices

class="blockLeft"><a< p=""></a<>

href="http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings/305-fifth-avenue-office-suite-1340sf" title="Lease a Prestigious Fifth Avenue Office - Manhattan, New York">

src="http://dr0nu3l9a17ym.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/fsrep/houses/125x100/305.jpg" alt="Lease a Prestigious Fifth Avenue Office - Manhattan, New York" width="125" height="94" />

• 1,340 Sq. Ft.

• $5,918 / month

• Fifth Avenue

• Midtown / Grand Central

• <a< p=""></a<>

  |

Could the repetition of the title text ("lease a Prestigious Fifth...") trigger a duplicate content penalty?

Should the slider content be blocked or set to no-index by some kind of a Java script?

We have worked very hard to optimize the home page so it would be a real shame if through some technical oversight we got hit by a Google Panda penalty.

Thanks, Alan

Thanks

Hi Cyrus:

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

How different must the URLs be?  Our site covers commercial real estate rentals in New York City with the focus being on office space.

The menus on the site contain categories like commercial space, with pages dedicated to office, loft, retail, showroom space, etcetera.

It would be difficult to exclude our primary product (office space) from our commercial space menu just because it is also discussed on the home page.

Is there anyway that I can objectively determine if I am crossing some kind of red line where content on one page overlaps with other pages?  Last thing I want to do is trigger a Panda update.

Thanks, Alan

Thanks for your feedback.

Perhaps the scope of this question is to wide. If that is the case, do you have any suggestions on the procedures I should follow to develop a keyword matrix?

Thanks, Alan

Greetings MOZ community!!

My real estate web site contains about 500 pages with perhaps 70 pages targeting low volume, somewhat valuable but not very competitive keywords. Three to four URLs target very competitive terms.

The following  terms are among the most valuable:

New York City office space,
New York office space,
Manhattan office space,
NYC office space

Such variants as:

Office space in New York City,
Office space in New York,
Office space in Manhattan,
Office space in NYC
ETCETERA convert really well

How would I match different terms to different URLs?

For example I have just re-written the following two critical URLs:

www.nyc-officespace-leader.com (home page)
http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/commercial-space/office-space (product page)

Would it make sense to use "Manhattan office space" and variants on the home page while excluding "New York City office space" variants? At the same time I would use "New York City office space" variants on the "office-space" product page while excluding all mention of "Manhattan office space". Is this logical and does it conform to SEO best practices?

For the "NYC office space" terms I would add them to http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/listings. This URL has almost no text but a strong potential to rent because of a high number of incoming internal links.

Is this approach sensible?

In general what measures should I take to prevent URLs from competing for the same keywords?

Also, is there a software package or tools that I can use to come up with keyword variants?

As a non SEO professional, can I create my own keyword matrix or is this really in the realm of a professional SEO consultant?

Thanks, Alan

Greetings MOZ community:

What is best practices when it comes to creating outbound links to other websites? Will adding such links improve the MOZ domain authority of my site? How many outbound links should be added to each page?

For example I run a commercial real estate web site in New York. About 20 pages are written about neighborhoods. If several outbound links are added to each neighborhood page, and these links point to pages that provide further information about that neighborhood, will my neighborhood pages where the links originates from see improved ranking (or ranking potential)?

Are these outbound links a critical SEO factor?

Thanks everyone!!
Alan

My firm (a real estate brokerage) works with an offshore Argentinian developer who is generally very reliable and efficient. We have requested that three pop-up forms be implemented. The pop-up forms  appear once visitors see a fixed number of property listings. Visitors will see form #1 after viewing three listings, form #2 after seeing another 3 listings and form #3 after another three listings. The pop-ups are in the form of a question. If the visitor clicks "Yes" the pop-up expands into a form, the visitor fills in the contact info and subsequent forms no longer appear. I have attached mock ups for  the pop-up and the expanded pop-up.

I am concerned about the 9 hours of programming time to implement these pop-ups. Is this excessive or is it reasonable? For me, it seems like this would be pretty quick and standardized to accomplish with a Wordpress plugin. But maybe with testing and other tasksI am wrong.  I would appreciate some feedback on this. I do not want to underpay or overpay my developer. But I would feel reassured knowing that they are working productively and accomplishing tasks in a reasonable amount of time.

Specs provided by my developer below:

| 1- We have to implement the popup (based on approved mockup)
2- We need to implement the form to be included into each popups (3) and validate proper data
3- we need complete the logic for cookies's status.
4- Cross-devise testing for those popups.

This way not allow that you update the content, we need set a field in data base or think how can do this if you want.  |

I look forward to your feedback. THANKS, Alan

XRZUaEi bBdqsAq

Could anyone suggest a reasonably priced service for setting up an Adwords campaign?

My monthly advertising budget is no more than $2,000 and the objective to target Google Adwords and Yahoo/Bing.

There are companies providing this service but they seem to require fees of $750 to $1,000 per month for their services for a six month commitment and a mimimum advertising spend of $5,000 per month.

Certain tools like Wordstream are available for around $300 per month, but I am not sure how much value they add, if in fact they facilitate the process.

Also, I am not sure if advertising spend is completely wasted unless I create special landing pages just for PPC.

My category, commercial real estate in New York City is very competitive with keywords ranging form $5-$15.00 click.

I would greatly appreciate some advice regarding PPC.

Thanks, Alan

My company operates a commercial real estate web site in New York City.  We are competing against brands that can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on marketing and SEO. I am an independent without employees.

I am trying to replace generic home page text  (my web site is ww.nyc-officespace-leader.com) with more engaging language that will differentiate the site.

In terms of SEO best practices, what constraints exist on home page text? Must it discuss the brand in a general way? Must it specifically describe the interior pages of a site?

For new home page text, I wanted to take a  practical approach and provide visitors with a checklist that would be useful for their search. The check list would be in the form 500-800 words or very practical advice, specific items they should be aware of before commencing a real estate search. No other site is taking this approach and it could save tenants  time and grief. I am attaching a very rough mock up of the new text (forgive the grammar, really needs to be edited!).

Is there any thing wrong with this approach? I may have stumbled on a good idea, however maybe nobody has taken this route because it is inappropriate for a home page.

I would very much appreciate any comments or guidance anyone may have.

Best, Alan Rosinsky

0d76Iv2

Thanks.

Curious about your reasoning. If the new text is useful and incorporates the right keywords what is the down side of replacing the existing content?

In terms of brand I can't very well compete against companies that are spending a million dollars a year on SEO and have a staff of 25.

Offering some very practical advice in a general sort of way on the home page may be a way to differentiate myself as no one else is taking that approach.

I would think if the new text is useful rather than generic it would increase engagement. However I am a real estate broker, not an SEO expert so I can't say.

Any thoughts???

Thanks, Alan

Hi Chris:

My firm is competing against many large companies with very developed brands such as www.42floors.com, www.mrofficespace.com and www.propertyshark.com.

As a one man band it is a challenge to compete.

I am trying to differentiate myself by creating a brief "My Office Space Checklist" on the home page. Offering visitors practical advice; a series of pointers on Manhattan commercial real estate that will give the visitor a flavor of what the interior pages contain. I am hoping to make the information useful enough that visitors will want to read it. No one else is taking this approach so I am hoping it will generate interest, improve ranking and differentiate me.

Attached is a very rough draft, only conceptual, needs, lots and lots of work.

Do you think this could be effective?

Thanks, Alan

9k9hJgL

We operate a commercial real estate web site (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) in New York City. Our home page text is about 500 words. Currently the home page text is of a promotional nature and not very engaging.

We are attempting to write a check list for companies that are seeking to lease commercial space and make the text very useful, practical and engaging. However we are having difficulty covering all the bases with less than 1,000 words. If the home page text has 1,000-1,300 words is that detrimental from an SEO point of view? On the plus side I would think this would allow us to include several secondary keyword terms and to add plurals and variations of the two or three top phrases.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks, Alan Rosinsky

Good idea, however according to Google Webmaster Tools under Google Index>Index Status the number of indexed pages has been dropping. It is down by 120 which is about half the 250 which we have set to "no-index, follow" on August 20th. I suspect it may be down a bit more as the results on Webmaster Tools may lag a bit.

I just can't explain why the pages views per visitor has not increased if the bounce rate is down. If the bounce rate has decreased from about 69% in August to 63% in September which means that 37% of visitors are staying on the site instead of 31% which is significant improvement (about 18%). I would think this would translate into more page views per visitor. But it has not. Pages views per session was 2.38 in August and 2.18 in September. This seems impossible.

Thanks, Alan

Greetings:

I run a real estate web site in New York City with about 650 pages out of which 330 are property listing pages. About 250 of those listing pages contain less than 150 words of content.

In late August I set about 250 of the listing pages that generated the least traffic (generally corresponding to those with the least content) to "no-index, follow". Now Google has removed those pages from their index.

The overall bounce rate for the site has been reduced from about 69% to about 64% since the removal of these low quality listing pages.

However the click thru rate has not improved and is stuck at about 2.2 pages per visitor.

Shouldn't the click thru rate improve if the bounce rate goes own? Am I missing something?

Also, is a lower bounce rate something that Google will take into account when calculating rank?

Thanks, Alan

Hi Bruce:

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

The link building thing is a bit challenging. I can add content, post social media, work with developers on the user interface, but the technical aspect of link building is beyond me.

If I post good content on the site and on social media will this take care of itself? If not, do you think I can outsource this to a service, or is that asking for trouble?

An SEO firm removed many links, now ranking and traffic are really poor. I suspect that the removal of links has caused this.

Best, Alan

Thanks for your most interesting response!!!

From what you are saying the greatest payoff will be in developing new content on an ongoing basis.

A few questions:

-I also have hundreds of product pages in the form of buildings and listings containing  50 and 300 words. Many of them don't have text links to other pages.  You think I am best off just editing/adding a paragraph or so and inserting text links to other pages on the site? From your post I am unclear if you are adding the links in some sort of automated way. In any case, sounds less traumatic than a total re-write.

-Are you using posts on social media (Google+, Facebook, Twitter) to exclusively promote your site or are you engaging in any link building?

From what you are saying (as well as other opinions) I guess I need to stop thinking of gaming the system and more in terms of creating very useful content.

Alan

YES, IT IS A LOT OF MONEY. $12,000 for reports, maybe $4,000 for wireframes and designs and another $11,000 for coding modifications.

I used to own a website that was struggling to maintain rank but generating enough leads to earn a good living. Now I can go feed the pigeons in Central Park. After this immense effort, following every suggestions, buying report after report, ranking is down, traffic is down, lead generation is non existent.

I would be generous if I described this so called SEO company  as charlatans, imposters and clowns. When the real drop occurred after their Voodoo last spring, and I had the temerity to complain, they could only respond that I had not spent enough money and that there had been a recent Penguin update (the drop in traffic was a gradual slope occurring since they started their "magic" and did not correspond with the May 20th algorithym update. But I guess I have no recourse against these criminals. They got the maximum advertising budget out of me, collapsed my business and can now move onto their next victim.

Now, back to my original question, how I build links to worthy content? The number of sites linking to us is so low that if that number can be increased somewhat perhaps it will have a tangible effect.

Thanks, Alan

Hi Bruce:

Also, I have found that pages that I have re-written, that provide quite useful information do not attract links (such as http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/how-long-does-leasing-process-take).

How can I go about attracting links for such pages?

Is it far to say that since the site has so few links, that attracting a few quality links should have a noticeable effect on Domain Rank?

Thanks, Alan

Hi Frank:

Thanks so much for your help!!! There is nothing tougher than writing copy that converts.

Based on your suggestions I have adjusted both forms, trying to keep them as brief as possible. Do you think this is an improvement?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FORM #1

Don’t waste your time searching listings. (watch icon)

Receive a hand curated list of properties prepared by one of our experts.

Yes            No

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FORM #2

Did you know we can provide you with access to off-market listings?

Learn about these exceptional, hidden gems before they are gone!

Tell me now about off market listings.                   Yes            No

Hi Bruce:

Thanks for the response. Our bounce rate has held steady in the 68-72% range in the last year. So has the click thru rate, ranging between 2.59 and 2.31 per visit.

Our site consists of the following types of pages

-330 Listing pages. 200 are set to no-index, follow. Only about 50 have more than 300 words. 
-150 Building pages. About 140 have about 250-300 words. 
-35 Blog pages. Only four entries written this year. 
-Another 60-75 static pages (neighborhood, types of space, about us, services).

How much of this do we need to rewrite to get an improvement in Domain Authority? Obviously re-writing hundreds of pages is a huge task.

Also, once these pages are promoted do we need to promote them to get links? Or will those links develop naturally if the content is of high quality?

Am I correct in assuming that a site with a Domain Authority of 21 is not going to have the potential to rank well? Being that the Domain Authority is pretty bad, how difficult would it be to get it back to say 30-33?

Thanks, Alan

My commercial real estate web site has about the worst conversion form ever designed (http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/visitor-details). The form appears whenever a visitor does a property search. If they do not release their phone number and email address they don't get results. The form only gets completed 25% of the time and often the contact details are wrong. The visitors either exit the site at that page or go to the listing or neighborhood pages to view listings without doing a filtered search.

In an attempt to increase conversions we are softening the form and not making completion mandatory. After entering an inquiry the visitor will be shown three property listings before the form pops up, The idea being that once they have seen product they will be more inclined to release contact info. Also, the form will appear once they have viewed three listings anywhere on the site, not just for search results.  Unlike the existing conversion form (http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/visitor-details) we are trying to keep the text very concise. The new form will be Java script rather than a URL.

Can anyone  offer some ideas on how to make the text of these new forms more enticing? The forms are listed below. We will probably show the first one after the visitor views 3 listings and the variation of it after the visitor views another 3 listings.

** FORM #1**

Quit wasting time searching for listings. (watch icon)

Call me to discuss available space.                       Yes            No

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  FORM #2

Don’t search for listings, we will do it for you. We have off market listings that no one knows about.

Contact us now about off market listings.                   Yes            No

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks, Alan

My Domain Authority has tumbled in the last six months from 28 to 21.

Search traffic has dropped from about 4,500 per month to 3,000 per month with most of the drop being in the more competitive terms. Lead generation is off by about 70%.

This is after spending $12,000 on "optimization" with a MOZ recommended SEO firm and spending another $17,000 implementing their suggestions.

My real estate brokerage firm has completed some press worthy deals in the last month. If I can get these deals mentioned in a reputable newspaper like The New York Times (or other real estate publications like NY Observer, Real Estate Weekly) will this help domain authority?

If my domain authority is this low, how difficult is it to move it higher?

Before reaching out to these publications, should I create a blog post about these transactions on my website?

Any suggestions as to how I can improve domain authority? My URL is www.nyc-officespace-leader.com.

I should add that my SEO firm had about 30 toxic links removed and filed a disavow for about another 80 links. MOZ is only showing about 25 domains linking to our site. I suspect not enough to get us to rank.

Thanks, Alan

Hi Dennis:

The pages that display these search results are set to no-index, no-follow. They do not get indexed by Google in search results, just somehow register as about 200 links in internal links in Google Webmaster Tools.

How would I get these removed as links if they are no getting indexed by Google as pages? If I did get them removed is there a way of getting these links from being re-indexed?

I have attached an image of what these internal links look like in Google Webmaster Tools.

Thanks, Alan

EjzuzEK

I see your point. However, It would be useful to see what potential customers are seeking even if we don't reach out to them directly as that could be sensitive. I

But I do wonder is some sort of plugin exists to capture this information.

Thanks, Alan

Greeting MOZ Community:

Our site is hosted on a virtual private server. Apparently there are dozens of other web sites hosted on the same server. The performance is usually pretty fast, with the site downloading in 1-3 seconds. However, a few times per month, the performance slows down, to say 5-6 seconds. Please see the attached image.

I suspect this may have something to do with the other web sites on the server.

Currently we pay about $60/month. A dedicated server would cost about $120/month. Would site performance be more consistent on a dedicated server? Could we enjoy potential SEO benefits by having our own server, i.e. could we rank slightly higher if the speed was more consistent and the performance slightly faster?

Thanks, Alan

6D7kK61

Greetings MOZ Community:

Visitors frequently start to enter contact information in the forms on our website, but then chicken out and don't hit the submit button. I noticed this watching the recordings of visitor web site visits using Mouse Flow.

Is there a Wordpress Plugin that would allow us to capture data entered in forms, where the visitor does not finally hit the "submit" button? Obviously this would be very, very valuable as this scenario occurs in one out of three or four instances.

Thanks!!!
Alan

Greetings MOZ Community:

When visitors enter real estate search parameters in our commercial real estate web site, the parameters are somehow getting indexed as internal links in Google Webmaster Tools. About half are 700 internal links are derived from these dynamic URLs.

It seems to me that these dynamic alphanumeric URL links would dilute the value of the remaining static links.

Are the dynamic URLs a major issue? Are they high priority to remove?

The dynamic URLs look like this:

/listings/search?fsrepw-search-neighborhood%5B%5D=m_0&fsrepw-search-sq-ft%5B%5D=1&fsrepw-search-price-range%5B%5D=4&fsrepw-search-type-of-space%5B%5D=0&fsrepw-search-lease-type=1

These URLs do not show up when a  SITE: URL search is done on Google!

Hi Moosa:

Actually we were hit by Penguin in April 2012, and then by Panda 4.0 (for thin content) in late May of this year.

Regarding the Penguin issue, we identified bad links, requested removal and filed a disavow with Google listing the domains that refused to remove links. We are also re-writing as much content as possible. In terms of creating links, I have been instructed that the best way to do so is to create high quality onsite content that others will link to. So I am hoping we are on the right track.

But getting back to my original question, I don't know why the home page has been punished disproportionately.

Thanks, Alan

Interesting question.

The "Home" was removed from the top menu in June. Now the logo on the upper left of the header on every page still links to the home page. But is this sufficient? Did we kill valuable links by removing the "Home" item in the top menu?

The body text in the hundreds of pages does not have may links. Would it be useful to add text links on those pages back to the home page?

Thanks, Alan

Thanks, Searchbuzz!!!

That is interesting!!

We have focused updating the user interface and have done so about 6 times this year. As a result we have reduced the amount of new content (blog posts, updates of static pages).

So if I now focus on upgrading and adding content, this should result in a bounce up??

Thanks,
Alan

Hi SilverDoor:

Thanks for your feedback!!

In April an SEO firm requested removal of links from 120 low quality domains. Some voluntarily removed links and we filed a disavow with Google for the rest.

We have not looked at internal link structure. In fact the site does not use many text links.

Would it make sense to create text links when relevant from other URLs and point them to home page?

Content on the home page could be improved and I intend to rewrite it.

In your experience, what is the normal percentage of new organic inquiries that the home page should generate? 5%, 10%??? That will at least provide some guideline on what is normal.

Thanks,

Alan

Greetings MOZ Community:

My firm operates www.nyc-officespace-leader.com, a commercial real estate brokerage in New York City.

Prior to the first Penguin update in April 2012, our home page used to receive about 10% or 600 of total organic visits. After the first Penguin was launched by Google organic traffic to the home dropped to maybe 5% or 200 visits per month.

Since May of this year, it appears we have been penalized by Penguin 4.0 and are attempting to recover. Now our home page only generates about 140 organic visits per month, or less than 4% of organic traffic.

Our home enjoyed  good conversion rate, so this drop in traffic is a real loss.

Does this very low level of traffic to the home page indicate something abnormal? Dropping from 10% to less than 4% is a major decline. Should we take specific steps regarding the home page like enhancing the content?

Thanks, Alan

Hi Daniel:

You are correct other factors are probably contributing to the drop. The 175 extra URLs are  a contributing factor.  Our site contains 310 property listing pages of which 250 have a few sentences. It appears we were penalized by Panda 4.0 in May, which apparently targets thin content.

To reverse the penalty we intend to take the following steps:

-Set all listing pages with thin content pages to "No-Index, Follow"
-Somehow remove the 175 URLs that have magically appeared in June. Either set as "no-index, follow", "no-index, no-follow" canonicalize or somehow delete use robot text. My concern is that these 175 extra URLs could be construed as thin content and could be aggravating the Panda penalty.
-Enhance content on 30-40 critical pages.

Does this seem reasonable?

Thanks, Alan

It appears that Google Webmaster Tools is listing about 120 blog archives URLs in Google Index>Index Status that should not be listed. Our site map contains 650 pages, but Google shows 860.

Pages like:

<colgroup><col width="464"></colgroup>
| http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/category/manhattan-office-space |

With Titles Like:

<colgroup><col width="454"></colgroup>
| Manhattan Office Space Archives - Metro Manhattan Office Space |

Are listed when in the Rogerbot crawl report for the site.

How can we remove such pages from Google Webmaster Tools, Index Status? Our site map shows about 650 pages, yet Google show these extra pages. We would prefer that they not be indexed.

Note that these pages do not appear when we run  a site:www.nyc-officespace-leader.com search.

The site has suffered a drop in ranking since May and we feel it prudent to keep Google from indexing useless URLs. Before May 650 pages showed on the Webmaster Tools Index status, and suddenly in early June when we upgraded the site the index grew by about 175 pages. I suspect the 120 blog archives URLs may have something to do with it. How can we get them removed?

Can we set them to "No-Index", or should the robot text be used to remove them? Or can some type of removal request be made to Google?

My developers have been struggling with this issue since early June. The bloat on the site is about 175 URLs not on the site map. Is there any go to authority on this issue (it is apparently rather complicated) that can provide a definitive answer?

Thanks!!
Alan

Hi Don:

This is most helpful, thanks!!! I will have my developers remove this :2082 page as soon as possible.

My site does not use an SSL certificate that I know of. Should it be? No transactions are processed on the site.

Would it be an SEO plus to incorporate an SSL certificate?

Thanks, Alan

Greetings MOZ Community:

When a site:domain search is run on Google, a very strange URL appears in the search results. The URL is http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com:2082/

The page displays a "the site's security certificate is not trusted." This only appears for one URL out of 400.

Could this indicate a wider problem with the server's configuration? Is this something that needs to be corrected, and if so how? Our ranking has dropped a lot in the last few months.

Thanks,
Alan

Greetings MOZ community:

If I have a site with about 200 thin content pages that I want Google to remove from their index, should I set them to "No Index, No Follow" or to "No Index, Follow"?

My SEO firm has advised me to set them to "No Index, Follow" but on a recent MOZ help forum post someone suggested "No Index, No Follow". The MOZ poster said that telling Google the content was should not be indexed but the links should be followed was inconstant and could get me into trouble. This make a lot of sense.

What is proper form?

As background, I think I have recently been hit with a Panda 4.0 penalty for thin content. I have several hundred URLs with less than 50 words and want them de-indexed. My site is a commercial real estate site and the listings apparently have too little content.

Thanks, Alan

Hi Alan:

That is very clear, thanks!!

For pages with thin content, why the "no-follow" in addition to the "no-index"? My SEO firm was also of the opinion that the thin content pages be "no-indexed" however they did not suggest a "no-follow" also.

So I think I will work on improving site speed, enhancing content and no-indexing (and no following?) thin pages. If that does not induce an improvement I guess I will have to consider alternatives.

Thanks,
Alan

Hi Alan:

About maybe 220 pages of the 305 listings have thin content. Meaning less than 100 words.

Is that likely to have triggered a Panda 4.0 penalty in late May? If I add content to those pages of no-index them could that reverse the penalty if it exists.  Also my building pages contain 200-250 words. Is that considered "thin"? They are less geared towards the needs of tenants leasing space and contain historical information. I intend to enhance them and display listings on them. Do you think that could help?

Do you think the site speed could be a major factor impacting performance on my site? If so, I can invest in improving speed.

Thanks, Alan

Hi Alan:

Interesting tools, URIValet.com, I never heard of it before.

I reviewed site speed on Google Analytics and its seems that intermittently download speeds seem very slow. According to "Site Speed Timings" (see attached) there has been a  drop in download speed.

Is download speed a potentially more significant problem than the unknown 175 URLs?

Also, the listing do not appear elsewhere on the web. But many of them have light content. The call to action at the end of the listing is somewhat repetitive. I plan on either no-indexing listings with less than 100 words or adding to the content. The total number of listing URLs is 310. There are also 150 short building write ups URLs (like: http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/metropolitan-life-tower). These don't have more than 150 content. Could they be contributing to the issue?

Is the load time for the URLs on this site so slow that it could be affecting ranking?

Thanks,
Alan

snoMp6I jg7svdc

Hi Alan:

Your hypothesis regarding the URL structure is interesting. But in this case two the URLs represent buildings and the one with "/listings/" represents a listings. SO that seems ok.

Now you mention the possibility that there may be URLs that do not appear in the site map and are getting indexed by Google. That there is a site map issue with the site. How could I determine this?

Could the additional 175 URLs that have appeared in the last two months contribute to a drop in ranking?

I am complete stumped on thus issue and have been harassing the MOZ community for two months. If you could help get the bottom of this I would be most grateful.

Thanks, Alan

Greetings MOZ Community:

I operate a real estate web site in New York (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) that I suspect has been hit by Panda 4.0.  I believe a problem is thin content on product pages, which in my case are 350 listing pages.

However I am also looking at how title and description tags are formatted for these 350 pages to ensure this is not a factor in the ranking drop.

The title descriptions are written like this: <title></span><span class="webkit-html-tag">Flatiron loft for rent | West 21st Street | 1441SF $6604/month</span><span class="webkit-html-tag"></title>

Is this sufficiently diverse? Will constantly repeating various street names,  square footages and prices work against me? Will Google in a sense consider this thin or repetitive content? It does provide the visitor with key information.

The descriptions meta tags are written along these lines: description" content="One of the most desirable full floor sublets in Midtown South. Recent build out, pristine condition, panoramic views, tech chic, spectacular. Top location." /><meta< span=""></meta<>

From an SEO perspective are these critical tags written the way they should be?

Thanks everyone!! Alan

Greeting MOZ Community:

I operate a real estate web site in New York City (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). Of the 600 pages, about 350 of the URLs are product pages, written about specific listings. The content on these pages is quite short, sometimes only 20 words.

My ranking has dropped very much since mid-May, around the time of the new Panda update. I suspect it has something to do with the very short product pages, the 350 listing pages.

What is the best way to deal with these pages so as to recover ranking. I am considering these options:

1. Setting them to "no-index". But I am concerned that removing product pages is sending the wrong message to Google.

2. Enhancing the content and making certain that each page has at least 150-200 words. Re-writing 350 listings would be a real project, but if necessary to recover I will bite the bullet.

What is the best way to address this issue? I am very surprised that Google does not understand that product URLs can be very brief and yet have useful content. Information about a potential office rental that lists location, size, price per square foot is valuable to the visitor but can be very brief. Especially listings that change frequently. So I am surprised by the penalty.

Would I be better off not having separate URLs for the listings, and for instance adding them as posts within building pages? Is having separate URLs for product pages with minimal content a bad idea from an SEO perspective?

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can recover from this latest Panda penalty?

Thanks, Alan

Hi Keri:

OK. I will keep that in mind moving forward. I did not realize the duplication.

If a question does not get answered are users allowed to repost?

Thanks,

Alan

Hi Alan:

Thanks for your response. Actually the 1st and 3rd URL are for buildings rather than listings, so they are actually formatted correctly.  All listings contain "/listings/".  So I think, but I am not an expert, that the URL structure is OK.

Thanks,
Alan

Thanks for your response.

I am very suspicious that something is amiss. The number of URLs in MOZ's crawl of our site is about 850, almost exactly the same as is on the crawl of our site. This 850 includes no index pages.

Is it normal for Google to show the total number of pages, even if they are no-index in The Webmaster Tools Index?

I would upload the Excel file of the MOZ crawl but I don't know how to do so.

Thanks,

Alan