Welcome to the Q&A Forum

I think I know the answer but i need to ask anyway in case i am wrong.

The www PA is 29. Http version is PA of 21. Should I start using the WWW one? A number of years ago, they hired an agency that built a ton of links to the WWW version.

I should also point out that most of the site urls are for the http, so i would have to redirect all the other pages.

Advice?

Thanks,

Nails

GR,

Thanks for a great response. I should have mentioned that I am going to be doing a site redesign/upgrade and the old address will no longer exist. In that case, a 301 is better, right?

Thanks,

Nails

If i want to create a redirect from a page where the slug ends like this "/?i=4839&mid=1000&id=41537" to a static, more SEO friendly slug like "/contact-us/", will a standard 301 redirect suffice?

Thanks,

Nails

nvm

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

Thanks for the response!

Thanks, Kris!

Nails

Hey Mozzers,

I have a local SEO question for you. I am working with a medical professional to SEO their site.

I know that when creating city pages, you want to try and make each page as strong as you can, showcasing testimonials from people who live in those towns, for instance.

Since my client is in the medical profession, i was going to include a list of parks from that town and say something about how, "we want to encourage good health, etc."

However, i began to wonder whether i should just create one, large resource for the surrounding towns having to do with parks, dog parks, and athletic activities and link to it in the top nav.

thoughts?

Nails

Roman,

You have been very generous with your time and offer to help...I'd prefer not to publish the client website, though.

Miriam,

As always, you're such a great resource!

Thank you both,

Nails

Roman,

Thanks for your response. I guess i should have explained a little more:

1. My keyword research includes analysis of GSC search data, competitor kw analysis using SEMRush and using Moz's KWE to find the best oportunities.

2. Unfortunately, the website was created by an SEO who spammed keywords and the GSC data is a bit off and unrealitic.

3. Yes, I have found kws with local search modifiers, for instance "Physical therapy California".

Thanks for the other advice and tools...I need to look into them.

I am familiar with how to do regular keyword research, finding opportunity based on competition, search volume, etc.

For local search, do I go to all the trouble of finding hidden gems or just pick higher volume terms that have local intent. For instance: A search for "physical therapy" is a high volume term that Google thinks has local intent.

If i pick a low volume national term, that has 11-50 avg searches per month, I have lower chances...and even less chance that someone is searching locally.

What say ye?

Nails

Thank you, Martin!

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

Nails

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

Hey Mozzers,

Please Help!

My new client has a blogger who is writing a multi-part series for them and releasing one part each week. Each part is about 500 words.

I know that longer, in depth content generally provides better user signals like "dwell time" and even social shares....but i have to balance this with the fact that the client wants to publish one new post a week for SEO and to give users a reason to come back to the website.

Should i just wait a while and combine the posts, using a 301 to redirect all the small posts to the big one?

Thanks in advance,

Nails

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

I absolutely have...Now to convince the company

thanks, EGOL

Nails

Thanks, EGOL. I always appreciate your wisdom!

Nails

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

Thanks to everyone for the discussion; i really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.

Have a great day,

Nails

Hey Mozzers,

Here are some title tag facts as i see them

1. After 50-60 characters Google shortens your title.
2. You want your most compelling info in the title to be readable and not truncated, so it should be written clearly before the character limit.
3. Most important keywords should be used used as close to the start of the title as possible.

My question is: Does Google still index the words after 50-60 chars? Many SEO graders make such a big deal about length and i am wondering if they are wrong.

Thanks,

Nails

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

Nails

Chris,

You already received great info from Chris. Let me address the one point that he wasn't sure about:

• Will the backlinks of the old site show up in my new site's links via Google's search console, Open Site Explorer, etc.?

The answer is no. All that will show is your 301 from the old domain and any new links you get.

Also, you mentioned using a subdomain and i wanted to remind you that subdomains are bad for SEO: https://moz.com/blog/subdomains-vs-subfolders-rel-canonical-vs-301-how-to-structure-links-optimally-for-seo-whiteboard-friday

Nails

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

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

Dan,

Use the dropdown menu on the top right (Next to the gear symbol but under your profile pic)

Let me know if that works,

Matt

Tom,

Your use of Moz is unrelated to the drop in DA/PA.

There have been some recent changes that Rand addresses in this thread: https://moz.com/community/q/is-everybody-seeing-da-pa-drops-after-last-moz-api-update#reply_359883

For an overall explanation of fluctuations, try this link: https://moz.com/community/q/da-pa-fluctuations-how-to-interpret-apply-understand-these-ml-based-scores

Have a great day,

Matt

Gavo,

You can set up a specific pixel to track that sort of conversion/goal completion. However, Facebook is going to charge you to show the ad, bring the traffic to you...whether you convert is up to you, your compelling copy and value proposition.

Make sense?

Matt

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

Byron,

I am not sure, but i think if the link is in an image, the alt text becomes the "text."

Matt

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

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

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

As always, Patrick has a great, technically sound answer. I just thought I’d chime in with 2 of my favorite metaphors in relation to ranking a new website:

I love the description of SEO and ranking being like pushing a car...it take a lot of effort to get it moving but it eventually takes less effort to keep it rolling.  And...If you have technical and content quality and good user signals, the rising tide of keywords will continue to lift the ship (website overall ranking).

Matt

thanks, EGOL.

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

Oleg,

Thanks for your response. I hadn't considered that Moz had gotten it wrong.

I just checked Majestic and everything looks fine.

Thanks for taking the time to respond,

Matt

Mozzers,

http:itsgr82bme.com

Old domain homepage had a DA of 24 and a PA of 36

Currently redirected to http://thekidstime.com

Homepage shows a DA of 6 and a PA of 1.

That is a significant loss of authority. I thought a 301 is supposed to be better than that. What gives?

What are the next steps, asking the old backlinks to update their links?

Thanks for your help,

Matt

Bob,

It sounds like you are doing a good job so far. How about link building? I don't have much experience with ecommerce, so i am not sure how that would go.

Besides SEO, a balanced approach involving social, advertising, and email marketing should help bring the traffic and let people know about your new site...And if the content is really great, you should start climbing the ranks.

I know...i make it sound easier than it actually is.

Good luck,

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

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

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

Mozzers,

I wrote the following blog post about Microsoft’s current offer to receive $100 free in bing ads.

http://www.cildermansolutions.com/blog/free-bing-ads-coupon-for-2017-get-100-in-free-advertising-credits

I noticed that the bounce rate on the post is higher than i was expecting; I am wondering if this is because I put the eligibility rules for collecting the ads coupon in the 2nd paragraph...and people are just seeing that right away and bouncing.

I obviously don’t want to lie or trick readers, but i am wondering if the community has any idea/suggestions.

Thanks,

Matt

You are referring to what is called a service area business (SAB). Here a useful link for you: https://moz.com/blog/intro-local-seo-service-area-businesses

Also, you should check out this great list of local citations that allow you to hide your address:  http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2013/04/22/private-local-citations-where-can-you-list-your-business-but-hide-your-address/

Matt

I noticed a few months ago, that type of traffic was not just showing up under referral but also under organic in GA. As far as i am concerned, just another problem plaguing GA/GWMT.

Matt

Sounds like you are experiencing "Referral Spam". Have you checked the sources in Google Analytics? It is essentially a spammy way of advertising domains and services.

Here are a few links to help you understand and fix the issue:

1. https://moz.com/blog/how-to-stop-spam-bots-from-ruining-your-analytics-referral-data
2. If you have GA: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1034842?hl=en

Good Luck,

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

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

If you are dealing with people who are passionate and opinionated, quoting to them from something you read on an internet forum is not going to help much.

Here comes Rand to the rescue with 8 Old School SEO Practices That are no Longer Effective.

https://moz.com/blog/8-old-school-seo-practices-not-effective-whiteboard-friday

Hopefully, after watching that, they will be better informed and more convinced.

Matt

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