Welcome to the Q&A Forum

From what I have seen and read, the keyword in the domain name is less important these days. I would use the already established site that is topically relevant. Here's a good WBF that might help: https://youtu.be/8r4Z3PizZ9g

Are you ranking for branded search ( the name of the company) at all? I know, they chose such an over-used name, it makes your marketing/seo job harder.

Just based off a quick look...you have a DA of 1...so, you need a lot more backlinks to rank.

I am actually wondering if the site is even being indexed by Google, since i can't find it all all...even when searching the homepage address.

my quick take,

Matt

Becky

I would argue that it is important. How important, relative to other SEO tasks is the question. I certainly can't answer it for you but your questions and dilemma remind me of a SEMRush article i just read where SEO "Experts" were disagreeing about this very topic:  https://www.semrush.com/blog/real-time-website-analysis-topscorer-semrushchat/  The debate starts about 25% of the way into the article.

Good luck,

Matt

Kirupa,

As far as i am concerned, EGOL always has the best advice.

The only thing i would add is to recommend that somewhat controversial idea of running a PPC campaign to help your rankings increase. If your product, UX, etc. truly are better than the competition, but you have no traffic to prove that...Pay for traffic and let the user signals (assuming they are good) help you climb the SERPs.

What do you think EGOL?

Matt

Mozzers,

I have a client who's brand style guide dictates that they write in all lowercase letters. Do you think this will hurt rankings?

Nails

I use the SEO quake chrome plugin to check meta tags...and a lot of other things. I can't say how accurate it is, though.

Matt

In theory, what you are planning is not a bad idea, but perhaps you time would be better spent removing "cruft" or underperforming pages. I think those will get you more bang for your SEO buck.

Here are a few resources to check out and see if you agree with me:

https://moz.com/blog/most-effective-way-to-improve-sitewide-quality-and-rankings

https://moz.com/webinars/what-why-how-pruning-website-seo

https://moz.com/blog/clean-site-cruft-before-it-causes-ranking-problems-whiteboard-friday

Hope that helps,

Matt

You need to setup Google Search Console and tie it in to Google Analytics.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en

good luck,

Nails

Joseph,

It is important for you to consider some of these questions...and the answers will help us advise you:

Can you tell us what type of product you are selling?

Do those franchisee pages represent physical locations? What type of trust or authority do the franchisee pages have?

Matt

Sorry, Chris...not sure where i got that from

Nails

Thank you, Martin!

We will have to see what i can convince them to do

Nails

Ruchy,

The best way to practice what you have learned is to create your own website and SEO it. Be careful of some free website's/hosts like the free address from Weebly; i don't believe they get indexed.

Matt

Luke,

I feel like you are jumping the gun, here. Is your site ranking poorly that might suggest a penalty?

You said there are a huge amount of links. How many? What is the context/ location of the links? Do the linking sites have high spam scores?

I wouldn't rush but consider those questions before proceeding.

Matt

Toby,

Do you have Google Search Console set up?

If so, you can easily request reindexing under the Crawl menu using the "Fetch as Google" function.

If you don't have search console, you can find it here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en

And here are directions from Google on how to set it up. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6001104?hl=en

Good luck,

Matt

nvm

OUT,

It may be due to some changes on Google's end:

https://www.semrush.com/blog/recent-google-changes-seo-tactics-that-move-the-needle-in-2017-semrushchat/

What do you think?

Matt

Nathan,

You will be changing to a "service area business." Here are the directions for setting it up.

https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038163?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

Beyond that, you may have to contact support.

Matt

Rob and Sarah,

I would like to point out a few things:

1. Try Majestic's backlink checker. It more comprehensive than Moz's.

2. Don't forget that Google Algo isn't that simple. There are a ton of factors that could be influencing it: Maybe the website has great user signals like CTR, dwell time, etc. Do they have a great social presence that has provided visitors?

Anyway, i am speaking in generalities and we would need more specifics to help further...like both your web addresses

Nails

Rand covered this in a WBF from a few years ago:

The only way to get true volume data is to run an adwords campaign and see for yourself.

https://moz.com/blog/estimate-total-volume-value-of-keywords-in-niche-whiteboard-friday

Good Luck,

Matt

Ok, i understand what you are saying, now. You may still wanna try contacting support. I had an issue that they helped me resolve relatively quickly.

Good Luck,

Matt