Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hey Mozzers! I'm battling a few questions about the sitemap for my ecommerce store. Could you help me out? Is it necessary to include your product attributes in the sitemap? I'm not sure why it would matter to have a sitemap that lists everything in the color cherry. Also, if the attributes were included in the sitemap, would that count as duplicate content for the same products to show up in multiple attributes? Is there any benefit to submitting the sitemaps individually? For example, submitting /product-sitemap.xml, /product_brand-sitemap.xml versus just /sitemap.xml? Any other best practices for managing my ecommerce sitemap, or great resources, would be very helpful. Thank you! a1vUz

Hey Mozzers! We're working with a client that has closed it's home theater store and moved online. Both the online store and the retail location operated under the same name, but we've now launched a new site and rebranded the name and look. When I search the old business name, it shows the Google local business as permanently deleted, and also shows deleted Yelp profile and other directory listings. The first organic result is the new site, which catches the footer that reads a trademark of (old business name). How can I clean up the citations for the previous business? Also, I'd like to have more control over the old business SERP page. My idea was to create a press release addressing the new business change in name and branding. Any other ideas? Lastly, the new business name SERP is completely bare. The second organic result is the new site, but the remaining listings are confusing and unrelated. The press release should help here. Other than that, should I build out new directories for the ecommerce site? Maybe start building profiles and participating in related forums to show traction in SERPs? Thanks for your help!

Hey Mozzers! We are currently running a Google Shopping Ad campaign and one of the suggestions we had gotten from Google was to add product markups. I hired a developer to add the product markup to the product page templates (Magento, if it matters) and I just need help to double check his work before I approve and pay the final invoice. I've attached a screenshot of the page source with the item markups. I've also dropped the page source into Structured Data Testing Tool to see if there were any warnings. No warnings or errors. So it seems as if everything looks good, but I just wonder if it's a similar approach to SEO where the product markups could be better optimized. Thanks for the expert eyes on this! ruKjc

We recently (4/1) went live with a new site for a client of ours. The client site was originally Point2 before they made the switch to a template site with Real Estate Webmasters. Now when I look into the Search Console I am getting the following Crawl Errors: 111 Server Errors (photos) 104 Soft 404s (blogs, archives, tags) 6,229 Not Found (listings) I have a few questions. The server errors I know not a lot about so I generally ignore. My main concerns are the 404s and not found. The 404s are mostly tags and blog archives which I wonder if I should leave alone or do 301s for each to /blog. For not found, these are all the previous listings from the IDX. My assumption is these will naturally fall away after some time, as the new ones have already indexed. But I wonder what I should be doing here and which will be affecting me. When we launched the new site there was a large spike in clicks ( 250% increase) which has now tapered off to an average of ~85 clicks versus ~160 at time of launch. Not sure if the Crawl Errors have any effect, I'm guessing not so much right now. I'd appreciate your insights Mozzers!

Help Mozzers! I've been struggling to find a solid content and posting (social media) strategy. This particular client has an ecommerce website within the home and garden industry. Her products include: screen magnets window hangers outdoor metal art switchplates (outlet covers) The recent content I've been posting is DIY related home decor ideas. I would love some ideas on niches or verticals I can tap into. The audience is female dominant, ages 35-65+. I'm wondering if I should stay within home decor and trying to work the products in, or there is another vertical my mind is blanking over. Thanks for the help Mozzers!

Hey Mozzers! I recently started working with a new Magento programmer for our ecommerce site. He sent me this scan/report outlining some security issues that need to be addressed. This is a new partnership so I'm not sure which issues should be a major concern, or if I should not focus on them. Would you be able to give me your opinion on the importance of the security issues? https://www.magereport.com/scan/?s=http://metallumcreations.com/

Hey Mozzers! I am receiving duplicate title tag errors from Search Console on paginated pages (blog.com/chlorine, blog.com/chlorine-2, blog.com/chlorine-3). I do not currently have a view all page. If I were to create one, would I add all the content from chlorine-2 and chlorine-3 to the blog.com/chlorine page? Then use the rel=cononical on chlorine-2 and chlorine-3 to blog.com/chlorine? If I move forward without the view all page, I could implement the next/prev HTML markups but can I do this without dev help? I am currently using the Yoast SEO plugin and do not see the option. Would I use the text editor to add the markups directly before the content? I think I have a grasp on this, but this will be my first time implementing and I want to double check first! Thanks!

Hey Mozzers! Everything nowadays is automated- social media, content calendars, etc.. I am trying to get more organized with my time so that I can make sure each client is getting a fair amount of work, but this can be tough as one person managing 20 various campaigns; it leaves little time for connecting with influencers and finding those organic connections for link building. I was recently watching an old WBF 'Building a Monthly SEO Action Plan' and it missed the mark a bit on what I was hoping for. I was wanting Rand's time and what he prioritizes; reporting, link building, content refinement... What SEO time management strategy have you found useful? How do you break down your time each month/per campaign? Thanks!!!

Hey Mozzers! It's that time of year to start thinking about gift giving. I am the worst at finding cool ideas! What have you done in the past to show your clients love and appreciation over the holidays? We are setting a budget of about $40-$50/per client. I'd love to hear your ideas..

Hey Mozzers! We are currently working on reputation management for a client that sells chicken coops. They've gotten a few nasty reviews from one of the most popular community forums. Given the high DA it will be hard work (understatement of the year) to outrank that forum thread enough to knock it off the first page of SERPs. I've been brainstorming some unique ideas for the chicken community that could bring a more positive rapport to the product. We've considered an interactive game, polls, content for chicken communities and publications. Mozzers always have such fantastic insight, I thought I'd open up the brainstorm and see if anyone has a great, unique idea to drive traffic and increase brand engagement and awareness! Thanks so much in advance for your awesome ideas!

I have been compiling metrics comparing this site (http://brightandclearpools.com) with two competitors (http://www.barracudapoolservice.com/ and http://peoria-pool-service.com). Nothing is really screaming out to me why they are outranking Bright and Clear Pools. BCP has higher page and domain authority stronger citation profiles more customer reviews more content better site/on-page optimization This is for organic rankings, keyword phrase 'pool service Peoria', I am using the Peoria geomodifier in an unpersonalized search. Although the client would be using both the keyword phrase with geomodifier 'pool service Peoria' while using a device in the Peoria area. An attachment for user metrics are in the response below. Is there something I am completely overlooking? Your feedback will be so helpful. Thank you in advance for taking the time to help me look into this!