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Okay, so I think I get it. The page has a fixed amount of juice divided equally among the links. Even if I nofollow some outbound links this does not preserve more link juice for the resources page or other dofollow outbound links. The juice essentially evaporates with the nofollows? Do I have it right and is this widely agreed upon among SEOs?
Recently, in a discussion on resources pages EGOL informed me that just because I had no followed the links on my my resource page, I was still leaking link juice. He mentioned that this was a recent change in Google policy.
This was quite a surprise. I have done a couple of searches on this recent change but have not found any information. Am I simply the last one on the planet to learn this and this change is widely known and understood? If so, does that mean honest resource pages (I have two such pages) that are there to help visitors are negatively impacting the site - at least in terms of SEO? If they are leaking link juice is it comparable to a followed link or a smaller amount that has less impact?
Okay, so I have a resource page listing related websites from trade folks that I know. I added these sites as a courtesy but nofollowed them of course. Are you saying that this is harmful and these links should be converted to a reciprocal do follow and if not, removed altogether?
Here is the page if you are interested:
Great thread. I just realized my site has a site wide footer link from my developer and I had no clue! Irving stated this in an earlier post:
"if the links are nofollowed, both parties lose, PR is still leaked from the owners site and benefit is not gained for the website company"
How can this be? I thought nofollow was the very tool we used so we would not leak PR?
Hey Irving,
Thanks for these insights...I have been doing the keyword optimization on the site and perhaps that is not such a great idea. I was happy when the moz page analyzer gave me an A for the homepage but I was looking at keywords and not overall page health.
I think I need a good on-site SEO person who can systematically work through these issues and implement solutions. Naively, I thought my developer of the Magento site would bring these skills to the table but perhaps that is a very different skill set. Do you agree? If so, are there some folks you can recommend (that are reasonable and available....difficult combination I know)?
I really appreciate your time...it is kind of like therapy as I feel like I am on my own out here!
Hunter
Hey Irving,
It turned out that the Open site explorer info was erroneous.....errr. My developer spent a couple of hours trying to find something wrong.
He sink me these links to third party redirect verifications that don’t show anything like what seo moz is saying.
http://www.seologic.com/webmaster-tools/url-redirect?utf8=✓&url=www.leatherhidestore.com
http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/
Any other advice regarding the homepage not ranking for keywords? Pretty frustrating when even the moz tools are working as they should. I did disavow some of those link exchanges per your advice.
Happy Holidays!
Hey Irving,
Thanks for responding and I have forwarded the info to my developer (who also host the site). Open site explorer can lag behind so I am not sure if it is picking up something that is no longer there. I do know that my old URL is of course no longer indexed in Google so I am not sure how my new URL could redirect to it and it not throw some sort of page not found error? Do you think duplicate content could be playing a role or is that incidental to this issue? Lastly, I wouldn't know the problem with the htaccess is I was looking right at it. Can you recommend someone who would be especially capable at resolving such an issue?
Thanks again!
Hunter
I recently move my site (www.leatherhidestore.com/servlet/StoreFront) off of the ProStores platform because I could never get Google to show my homepage in SERP results - instead always selecting random product pages to rank. However, I never had this problem with Yahoo and Bing as they always defaulted to the homepage except when the category was a better match.
Fast forward and I have just launched the site (www.leatherhidestore) on Magento Community and I STILL CANNOT GET GOOGLE TO USE MY HOMEPAGE FOR SERP RESULTS although I'm getting okay SERPS for random pages.....ERRRRRR! Of course, as if to rub salt in the wound, Yahoo and Bing are behaving just perfect. Still, I must think that if my Google would recognize my homepage (where the PR is and backlinks point to) I would be doing 10x better.
I am showing duplicate page content and title problems which the developer is trying to solve but I do not know if this will fix the homepage Google issue. I feel like I must be in some sort of canonicalization death spiral. Has anybody dealt with this issue before and will mercifully share what I should do to fix it...please!
Hunter
Hi Thomas,
Yes, like many folks I do have some crappy links. Moz is a little behind as I have BBB and about 1/2 dozen high authority links not accounted for (SEO spyglass is a better assessment of link profile). More importantly, is that some of my main competitors that have less moz authority and really crappy links are sitting on top of the SERPs. I actually have lots of keywords ranking high (especially in Yahoo and Bing where the domain is perceived correctly). Even the random products and categories that are selected by google for my keywords get respectful page 2 rank but these pages have no PR or DA and I have to think that if Google recognized my homepage as the authority page I would be neck and neck with competitors that have a fraction of the quality site (and content) that I do plus they have much more polluted linking profiles. See why I am so frustrated?
Hunter
Hi Thomas,
Yes the URL with the servlet was required by Prostores, my old platform, so when we moved over to Magento I was able to have my dedicated domain name. A 301 was put into place for the www.leatherhidestore.com/servlet/StoreFront but since the move was just done on 11/5 I am wondering if Google is still sorting this all out? This servlet URL is no longer indexed by Google and leatherhidestore.com also directs to www.leatherhidestore which is my preferred domain. I know the use of rel=canonical will help but what specifically might be going on that would lead Google to choose things like my FAQ page or randon products instead of my homepage? All my competitors have their hompage ranking so it cannot be the nature of the products. This is even more vexing since I have a solid backlink profile that nearly all points to my homepage? It does not make sense.
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for responding. I think there must be some mistake as I do have a sitemap page that is being submitted to Google daily (I double checked in webmaster tools). Of course, I cannot speak to the effectiveness of the site map structure. I will take a look at the private message. Since the site map is being published does that change the source of the problem?
Thanks,
Hunter
My homepage (www.LeatherHideStore.com) will not rank for my keywords in Google - with Google mostly pulling product pages and some categories for serp results. In contrast, my homepage consistently shows for Yahoo and Bing with exceptions where a category is a better match for the keyword. In other words, it is working exactly as it should in Yahoo and Bing.
After a year of this frustration I just upgraded to a new site on Magento Community and surprise, the same problem! The SEO moz analyzer has flagged significant duplicate content issues which I think is at the heart of my problem. I have asked my developer to address these but let's just say that customer service is not his forte. I am even starting to doubt he knows what to do although the site appears is well done.
Given that it is a brand new site and duplicate content in Magento is to be expected (from what I have now read), I am deeply discouraged that my developer did not or could not plan for this so here I am again!
Can anyone give me guidance on what to do? I have read a lot about canonicalization and it seems complicated especially if you have 1000 duplicate page titles. I have seen that there are some extensions (i.e. Ultimate SEO Suite by aheadWorks) for Magento that claim to be able to solve duplicate content problems but I am really just grasping at straws and do not have the confidence or skills to implement this on my own.
Can anyone please help?
Thanks!
Hunter
Hi,
Yes, perhaps I am being overly critical of Rand's remarks. However, the site I am referring to is a legitimate mid size company. I do not know if they simply entrusted their seo efforts to someone who has promised quick rewards at a budget price? However, they have been camped out at all the top spots for 4-6 months now. Perhaps Google's zoo will one day catch up with them (and their ilk) but it is cold comfort to a small family business owner like myself whose finances don't guarantee that we will be around for long haul white hat efforts pay off. Maybe the message should be a little more nuanced....a little grey is okay but just don't over do it.
Rand is unquestionably much smarter than I however his pronouncements concerning the link building don't seem to hold true for some sectors of the online marketplace. We sell upholstery leather and one of our main competitor runs the table with the most important search terms and has a total garbage backlink profile. I don't know if there is some onsite magic they are working but they don't use brand name anchor text, links are not relevant to their products and most of their links are from high DA blogs, craps posts to .edu forums and no follow.
The point is, maybe black hat is out but a lot of what I see being rewarded out there suggests grey hat is alive and well.
Good point. Just ran it through W3 and everything was spic and span clean..1.0 Strict compliance! The site is Leather Hide Store if you want to see but again, maybe a question for team moz.
Hunter
Hi Corey,
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I actually only have upholstery leather mentioned on the page 3x and the moz on-page optimization report said I needed a fourth. Titling the alt img upholstery leather was perfect b/c it is an accurate description of the image and (I thought) would be recognized as the 4th mention of the keyword on the page. My question (or problem) is why is the moz on-page optimizer not reading it? I am glad to here the the googlebots will recognize the keyword even when enclosed by other text. One thought just occurred to me and that is the images are hyperlinked...could that influence it? Maybe a question best posed to the moz team?
Thanks,
Hunter
Can bots see the keyword among other words in aIt image tags? For example, if the keyword is upholstery leather and the image tag says "our upholstery leather collection" will the keyword be recognized? Another example is buy leather. I have a image tag on a slide that reads "free samples before you buy leather" but an on-page analysis in moz does not show an alt tag title for buy leather? Same problem with an moz on-page analysis of the term upholstery leather.
Thanks!
Hunter