Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Andrew,

If you can send me the domain I'll have a look at the DNS and see if there's anything that looks unusual. Drop me a message on here, or email me on david@bringdigital.co.uk

Cheers

David

Hi Andrew,

This can be solved, you have a couple of options:

• Do you have Google Analytics accounts for these subdomains? If so you could register search console via GA and remove the subdomains from there

• Even if you don't have web hosting for these subdomains, as long as you have control over the main domain you can still take control of these subdomains. Is the core domain still under your control? If so you can register for search console via the 'domain name provider' option.

Thanks,

David

Yep - attached. I've redacted the title as it showed the client's name but would be good to see whether you think this is properly optimised?

lTsMcoJ

Does anyone have any experience with SVG image files and on-page SEO?

A client is using them and it seems they use the title tag in the same way a regular image (JPG/PNG) would use an image ALT tag. I'm concerned that search engines will see the multiple title tags on the page and that this will cause SEO issues.

Regular crawlers like Moz flag it as a second title tag, however it's outside the header and in a SVG wrap so the crawlers really should understand that this is a SVG title rather than a second page title. But is this the case?

If anyone has experience with this, I'd love to hear about it.

We have a client that has received 100+ organic visits for the keyword 'airport transfers', yet the site does not rank in the top 100 search results for this keyword. We have checked that it is not untagged PPC traffic. Truly baffling. Can anybody help?

Hi Sarah,

I wouldn't recommend using iframes to deliver the product descriptions. From my experience, sites with small-scale duplicate content issues will consistently perform better than sites with little to no content (which your site ultimately would be if content was delivered via iframe)

There are a few variables that effect things, most importantly the volume of the duplicate content. If it's 8 pages, then I wouldn't consider this a high-risk problem. The solution would be to add as much valuable additional content as you can to these pages, whilst keeping the core (descriptions) content in place.

If I've misunderstood and the scale is much bigger, it may be worth considering an alternative solution. Rather than using alternate content delivery methods, I'd recommend putting your focus on adding additional unique content. Once of the simplest ways of doing this is encouraging (or manually adding) user generated reviews of the two similar products. This way your customers can compare apples with apples in regards to the descriptions, but there's plenty of unique and helpful information on the page too.

I hope that helps

Cheers

Hi Moz community. Wonder if you could help us out with a baffling Analytics issue.

Are there any reasons why the _setDomainName() function in Google Analytics wouldn't track across subdomains correctly? We have been seeing visits to a subdomain come up as referral traffic, even after implementing the right tracking code.

Would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this. Thanks in advance.

That's how I got started many moons ago.

You're welcome Kristy, I'll have my fingers crossed that you see a nice jump up next month

Anything I can ever help with just give me a shout on here, or tweet me @mrdavidingram

David

Hi Gareth,

I've sent you a private message with some more details of link building services.

In regards to finding relevant websites, it's just a case of thinking outside the box. My primary work is for a kitchen appliance retailer, which is a generally boring topic, however we've build great relationships (and links!) by matching our products to industries such as interior design, eco/green sites, money saving sites etc etc

I've not worked with a client yet who's industry we can't match to an active online community, it just takes a bit of creative thinking.

If you want to let me know some more details of your site or industry I'll come up with some communities you can get in to.

Cheers

David

Hi Gareth,

The one thing to be wary of with direct link selling companies is that the patterns left on their networks or members sites usually leave a footprint. There have been some pretty cases this year of link networks being completely removed by Google, for example:

http://www.potpiegirl.com/2012/03/the-sky-is-falling/

http://www.buildmyrank.com/news/its-been-a-great-run

Text link ads isn't a network per se, they act as a broken to introduce sites looking to sell links with Webmasters willing to buy them. It's all done through their own software, and they take a cut of a fee. There are two issues that I have personally with these sites:

1. As above, they leave a footprint. For one, when I land on a site I know a text-link-ads.com ad block when I see one, and if I can spot it then you can be pretty confident that Google can find a way to spot it too.

2. When a site is willing to sell text links to the highest bidder, you suddenly find yourself in very spammy company. Do you want a link to your site sat between a link to a casino and a link to a Viagra store? You're putting yourself in bad company.

Actually, as a third point; I often find the kind of sites that are willing to trade links are the kind that are willing to partake in shady SEO practices across the board. You don't want to be relying on links from a site that could get slapped by Google any minute.

I'm not condemning these services, as I know they can work. The problem is they are not really a viable medium/long term strategy, as you're really dancing with the devil. If you want a quick boost, then fill your boots, but if you are concerned about protecting the brand and reputation of your company (or your clients), then I would recommend going down a cleaner root.

The 'white hat' answer to this issue is to hire a professional link builder to go out and obtain you some 'natural' links - by this I mean editorial links on genuine websites that have been earned through outreach and relationships. It might sound like a slower solution, but this isn't necessarily the case as good quality link builders can make the process scalable.

This is a much safer option, protects you from being penalised by Google, and puts you in a much safer neighbourhood than dealing with link dealers.

The real beauty of this route (in my opinion), is that you get higher quality links and it actually works out a fair bit cheaper too.

I wrote an answer earlier in regards to what to look for when outsourcing your link building:

http://www.seomoz.org/q/reputable-link-building-company

And of course, if you want me to show you the kind of links that can be built, drop me a message

Good luck,

David

Hi Kristy,

The first thing to say is that Domain Authority is a third party metric, so unless you have seen a drop in your traffic then there should be no need for immediate alarm. Although DA correlates with successful rankings, there is still no guarantee that a change in DA will effect your rankings in any way.

The solution for your issue might be quite simple. In last months update the number of links in the index was around 50% smaller than the previous update. This meant that a lot of links that where contributing towards your DA score are no longer in SeoMoz's index, and can therefore not contribute towards your DA score.

In no way does this mean that these links are no longer in Google, as the Google index and the Mozscape index are two entirely separate entities and are in no way connected.

After this month's update, it has been noted that the index is even smaller than last month (albeit by a much smaller margin). If you read the Q&A entries following last month’s update you'll see lots of people asking the same question, and it was confirmed that the drop in DA was due to the smaller index.

I expect we'll see the same over the next week.

Personally, I saw my clients DA drop by an average of 3-4 points.

If your drop in score correlates with this pattern, then you have nothing to worry about at all. Especially if your traffic hasn't been effected.

Here are the details of the smaller update from last month:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/july-mozscape-update

And here are this month’s details:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/august-mozscape-update

If your drop in score doesn't coincide with this, then it most likely means that you've lost one/some links that were contributing to your overall Domain Authority score. You can get to the bottom of this by using the historical link date in Majestic to figure out what links where lost, and when.

If this is the case then you can either try and rebuild the lost links, or create some new ones. Or ideally, both!

Best of luck.

David

Hi,

By definition, the alt tag is there to give a description of the image for users who aren't able to view it (visually impaired users, or visitors with restricted browsers or speeds).

In regards to the search engines, it's an opportunity for you to tell them about the content of an image which the crawlers simply can't see. This gives you two opportunities; firstly to let the search engines know that the media content of your page is relevant for a search query. Secondly, images with a full description will stand a much better chance of ranking in image search, which can be a rich traffic source for you.

For both circumstances, the alt tag should be descriptive and a genuine reflection of the content of the image. A alt description of 'buy now' doesn't add any value to either your visitors or your SEO efforts, as it tells them very little.

I would recommend using an alt tag along the lines of 'buy button for the Blue Widget 2143'.

This gives visitors a full description of the image, as well as helping the search engines know that your site is relevant for the Blue Widget 2143.

This would also solve your issue of duplicate alt descriptions that are adding no value to your site. If you followed the format of 'buy button for the <product name="">' it would give you unique descriptions that genuinely benefit your SEO campaign.</product>

I definitely wouldn't recommend blocking the alt tags, this would be totally shunning a serious on-page ranking factor.

Thanks,

David

Hi Jon,

I do freelance link building for a dozen UK companies, as well as the white label link building for several digital agencies. Naturally, I'd recommend myself, however if you are shopping around the market then here are some points that I think it's essential to check prior to outsourcing any link building.

• Firstly, the company should be willing to disclose exactly how they go about obtaining the links, including showing examples of outreach and results. If they aren't willing to disclose this, then I would stay clear (would you really trust someone to represent your business without telling you how they intend on doing it)

• Also, as simple as it sounds, ask to see some example links they have built. I have found that a few outsourced link builders who preach the white hat quality links spiel, but then send you a list of footer links they've added to their own blog network. Again, if they are not willing to provide examples then I would avoid.

• Find out what metrics they use to determine a quality link. A worrying number of link builders still base link value solely on the score showing in the PageRank toolbar, which can deliver mixed results at best. Make sure they are using metrics you trust, or ask them to provide a few examples of sites they would target for your business, with an explanation as to why.

• Find out exactly who will be doing the link building. Many companies outsource their link building, so if you're arranging a contract with an incredibly knowledgeable and pleasant SEO, don't make the assumption that it will be them doing the link building for you. If it will be someone else in the company (or a sub-contractor) building the links, ask to see specific examples of their work.

• When you're agreeing on a contract, be very specific about what you expect in terms of quality and quantity of links. Ideally, pick a specific minimum number at a specific minimum quality (for example; they will build 15 links a calendar month at a minimum Domain Authority of 45)

• Ask them to take a look at your backlink profile and recommend the type of links you need, and the kind of sources they should be from. This will give you a great insight into their knowledge and philosophy of link building, and will hopefully give you some great ideas too.

This might all sound a lot to ask from a company, but remember they are going to be representing you and your brand, and to many Webmasters and Bloggers they will become the face of your business. You want to show the same level of thoroughness as if you were making a full time hire, and any link building company worth their salt will understand why and be happy to co-operate.

Best of luck with your search, and let me know if you'd like to see any of my work

David

Hi Dan,

Not necessarily, there are plenty of occassions when hiding content is valid. and actually adds value to the user especially with the rise in popularity of jQuery (some of the coolest transition effects rely on the display:none mark-up).

The real question is why you are wanting to hide your H1 tag? If there is a valid reason then you're not going to have any issues, however if you are hiding a keyword stuffed title for the sole benefit of SEO, then you could come into trouble.

For example, I know some sites use images for H1 titles so they can get the design quality they simply can't achieve with CSS, however they also include a written title to back it up. Technically verging away from the rules, but it's not going to see your site penalised.

The thing to remember is that a small thing like this isn't going to get you struck out of Google's indexed. If you follow their best practices but the occasion arises when it's necessary to bend the rules a little with a trick like this they are not going to outcast your site. It would only be a problem if it was part of a larger set of tactics that were violating Google's guidelines, and it was clear you are out to manipulate the search results.

So in summary:

• If the trick benefits your visitors, then don't worry
• If it is solely for SEO benefit, then make sure everything else is whiter than white
• If it is part of a larger campaign to hide things from users but not Googlebot, then stay well clear

Thanks,

David

Hi,

In regards to the geo-targeting, have a read of this case study. To me it's the definitive guide to the issue as it goes through most of the options available, and offers a pretty solid solution:

http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/territory-sensitive-international-seo-a-case-study

And if you are worrying about the white/black aspects of using these tactics, here is a great guide from Rand on acceptable cloaking techniques:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/white-hat-cloaking-it-exists-its-permitted-its-useful

And finally a great 'Geo-targetting FAQ' piece from Tom Critchlow:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/geolocation-international-seo-faq

In regards to the other locations ranking that you don't think have been crawled, this is probably down to the number/strength of the links pointing at this sections. Google have stated in various Webmaster videos that a page doesn't neccessarily need to be crawled to be indexed (weird huh?), Google just needs to know it exists.

If there were plenty of links point at a page, Google would still believe it's an authoritative/relevant result even if it hasn't crawled the page content itself. It can use other signals such as anchor text to determine the relevancy for a given search term.

Here is an example video from Matt Cutts where he discusses the issue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBdEwpRQRD0

Best of luck

David

Hi Liam,

There is always a natural delay between crawling and indexing, and it's rarely instantaneous. Although I can see why you'd want a news site to be getting indexed pretty quickly.

The one thing that stands out is from the example is the <changefreq>tag, which you've got set on 'never'. This is essentially for archived pages, and tells crawlers that it's low importance (even though you've given it high priority). Even if you're not intending to change the article, I'd still recommend giving it a change frequency of 1 month so you're inviting the crawlers to come and check it more often. Saying that, this doesn't mean that if you set the frequency to hourly that the crawlers would come back every hour, as they'd soon figure out that nothings changing.</changefreq>

Really I'd have your home and catergory pages on daily, the articles on monthly, and the static pages on monthly or yearly.

In terms of getting them indexed quicker after the crawl, this is just a case of establishing trust and importance from the search engines. They need to know that you have news content that requires a quicker indexed. You can gain this trust by providing regular, high quality pages. When their crawlers pick up that there are new pages going live daily you will see the index get quicker.

Depending what CMS you are using, it is also worth getting a script or plugin that pings the search engines with an updated site map every time a new page or post is added. I've done this through Wordpress and articles get indexed within 4 hours. Again though, it didn't start this way and it only got this quick once I was putting up 4 posts a week like clockwork.

Good luck.

Cheers

David

Hi Paul,

For the effort you would have to go through to get these links removed, you would be much better spending the time building new links that will boost your site whilst counteracting any links you think are damaging you.

Unless the number is in the thousands, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Go out and acquire some fresh, branded, links that will balance out your profile.

That said, if you are determined to have them removed, it will be a long hard slog with no guarantee that Google would play ball. There are a few ways to contact them, they would probably suggest using their product forums. However, if you want a quicker repsonse find some Googlers on G+ and fire them a message. A good chunk of their bonus is based on the success of G+, so they are all desperate to make it work. If you find the right Googler from the products team you might be able to get some answers.

Cheers

David

Hi Tony,

In that case you definitely wouldn't want to be using a translation plugin, as you want to have permanent static pages that can be indexed by the search engines.

If you want to geo-target specific countries with the multi-language content, then personally I would  suggest using mirror sites on localised TLD's.

However if you wanted to keep everything on the same site to leverage the domain authority, then I would suggest sub-folders rather than subdomains so yoursite.com, yoursite.com/es etc etc

Cheers

David

Hi Andrew,

This can be solved, you have a couple of options:

• Do you have Google Analytics accounts for these subdomains? If so you could register search console via GA and remove the subdomains from there

• Even if you don't have web hosting for these subdomains, as long as you have control over the main domain you can still take control of these subdomains. Is the core domain still under your control? If so you can register for search console via the 'domain name provider' option.

Thanks,

David