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Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Mike_Davis
@Mike_Davis
Job Title: Sr. Manager Digital Marketing Strategy
Company: McKesson
Favorite Thing about SEO
It is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself
Latest posts made by Mike_Davis
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RE: Moz is officially demigod-approved!posted in Moz Pro
Many people don't realize that Keri Morgret is the demigod of content. She goes by many names, but she is best known as Morgretra Goddess of Content and Gummy Bears. Check Wikipedia if you don't believe me!
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RE: Would it be better to Start Over vs doing a Website Migration?posted in Intermediate & Advanced SEO
Please...dear God don't scrap your website (especially if you are ranking well for it). Even if the content is completely different, figure out where to redirect your legacy pages to and use 301 redirects. Just make sure that you are doing one to one redirects to maintain as much of your link equity as possible. Sorry for such a short and simple response to your long question, but this only required a simple answer. If you are offering the same products or services create a massive .htaccess file and redirect the hell out of your old site.
You owe me a Coke.
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RE: How do I get a UK website to rank in Dubai?posted in International SEO
I only know what I do when I travel out of the country. I always (without exception) go to Google.com instead of the country's version of Google that I'm visiting. I'm positive that most everyone does as well. It is just a little slice of home, just like reading English newspapers or visiting English Forums. The only exception would be for local businesses, but that doesn't pertain to you anyways. I would say that if you are ranking well for .co.uk that you should be fine if you are targeting ex-pats in Dubai.
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RE: Google as referring domainposted in Reporting & Analytics
Considering that (not provided) comprises 75% of my search queries, do you really think that Google will be transparent with this?
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RE: Google as referring domainposted in Reporting & Analytics
This is from Google:
Not all referrals from Google.com domains come through organic search or AdWords ad listings. Referrals may come from a variety of sources, including Google Groups posts, base.google.com listings, or static pages on related Google sites. Such visits are tagged as [referral] instead of [organic] or [cpc].
cited: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1011811?hl=en
I hope that helps!
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RE: Disavow - Broken linksposted in White Hat / Black Hat SEO
I think that the better tactic would be to create new content for those broken links. Unless these links are located on a very bad domain (link farm, etc.), I would just create a new page.
Be careful before you start messing with the disavow tool. The only time I would use the disavow tool is if the link is obviously bad. Like obviously obviously bad (if that makes sense). Many people assume that their ranking tanked because of some algo update and start disavowing links without really checking into it. Just be careful before using that tool and research the hell out of the link before you throw it away.
Here is a good article that gives you the Do's and Don't of using the Disavow tool.
http://www.portent.com/blog/seo/google-disavow-links-tool-best-practices.htm
Good luck!
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RE: How to See Image Metadata?posted in Intermediate & Advanced SEO
There shouldn't be any prablem with using these images at all as long as you have the rights to use those images. Hell, most the graphics used online are used without the consent of the image owners anways.
Consider all of the stock images all over the internet. If this was an issue there would be a million people freaking out about it.
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RE: Backlinks From Scraper Sites - Should I Disavow Them?posted in Link Building
If a link is not beneficial to your site and if you are worried about whether or not it will hurt you, there is no reason you shouldn't disavow that link. I would recommend that you are disavowing the entire domain rather than each link one by one. It will save you time and will prevent any further weirdness from happening on that specific domain.
Disavowing links can be tedious and annoying, but the whole concept of "better safe than sorry" comes into play here hardcore. An intern would be extremely useful in this situation.

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RE: How to find average organic traffic growth rate for ecommerce startup?posted in Conversion Rate Optimization
Trying to forecast organic growth will be extremely difficult to do. It really depends on what they have been doing as compared to what you are planning to do for them.
Have they been conducting content marketing?
Have they been heavily involved in social?
Have they been creating local citations?
Have they... etc. etc. etc.
I'm not saying that you should pull a number out of your ass, but conservatively estimating that you will be able to drive a 20% increase to their organic traffic should be easy to hit, especially if they haven't been doing a lot of what they should have been (see above). If you can't get their traffic up by 20% in a year, they should fire you anyways. Anything about that will make you look like a rock star.

Best posts made by Mike_Davis
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RE: Would it be better to Start Over vs doing a Website Migration?posted in Intermediate & Advanced SEO
Please...dear God don't scrap your website (especially if you are ranking well for it). Even if the content is completely different, figure out where to redirect your legacy pages to and use 301 redirects. Just make sure that you are doing one to one redirects to maintain as much of your link equity as possible. Sorry for such a short and simple response to your long question, but this only required a simple answer. If you are offering the same products or services create a massive .htaccess file and redirect the hell out of your old site.
You owe me a Coke.
-
RE: Moz is officially demigod-approved!posted in Moz Pro
Many people don't realize that Keri Morgret is the demigod of content. She goes by many names, but she is best known as Morgretra Goddess of Content and Gummy Bears. Check Wikipedia if you don't believe me!
-
RE: How to find average organic traffic growth rate for ecommerce startup?posted in Conversion Rate Optimization
Trying to forecast organic growth will be extremely difficult to do. It really depends on what they have been doing as compared to what you are planning to do for them.
Have they been conducting content marketing?
Have they been heavily involved in social?
Have they been creating local citations?
Have they... etc. etc. etc.
I'm not saying that you should pull a number out of your ass, but conservatively estimating that you will be able to drive a 20% increase to their organic traffic should be easy to hit, especially if they haven't been doing a lot of what they should have been (see above). If you can't get their traffic up by 20% in a year, they should fire you anyways. Anything about that will make you look like a rock star.

-
RE: Google as referring domainposted in Reporting & Analytics
This is from Google:
Not all referrals from Google.com domains come through organic search or AdWords ad listings. Referrals may come from a variety of sources, including Google Groups posts, base.google.com listings, or static pages on related Google sites. Such visits are tagged as [referral] instead of [organic] or [cpc].
cited: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1011811?hl=en
I hope that helps!
-
RE: How to See Image Metadata?posted in Intermediate & Advanced SEO
There shouldn't be any prablem with using these images at all as long as you have the rights to use those images. Hell, most the graphics used online are used without the consent of the image owners anways.
Consider all of the stock images all over the internet. If this was an issue there would be a million people freaking out about it.
-
RE: Disavow - Broken linksposted in White Hat / Black Hat SEO
I think that the better tactic would be to create new content for those broken links. Unless these links are located on a very bad domain (link farm, etc.), I would just create a new page.
Be careful before you start messing with the disavow tool. The only time I would use the disavow tool is if the link is obviously bad. Like obviously obviously bad (if that makes sense). Many people assume that their ranking tanked because of some algo update and start disavowing links without really checking into it. Just be careful before using that tool and research the hell out of the link before you throw it away.
Here is a good article that gives you the Do's and Don't of using the Disavow tool.
http://www.portent.com/blog/seo/google-disavow-links-tool-best-practices.htm
Good luck!
More than 15 years in website development and online marketing has led me here.
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