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Silkstream,

Are you sure that those pages actually have real penalties or is it algo changes?

Also, when you search your keyword phrases... what sorts of results show up in the SERPs? Does the local 7-pack show up?  If so, then your Google+ Local listing would most likely be what would get you to rank for those 'local' terms.

Do you have physical offices in each of the towns represented by the 'category+town' pages ... along with corresponding G+ Local pages for each?  If not, you may have difficulty ranking for many towns not close to the epicenter of your actual business address.

Hi Jess,

That doesn't seem to be my exact issue.  I was just wondering about an overall, permanent algo change affecting 'site:' search.

Though we have not received any GWT notices, I'm trying to figure out if Google may be penalizing / lowering the ranking order / omitting ... for whatever reason... some pages we've previously targeted with link building.  Because when I do a site: search, I'd expect to see the more authoritative pages of a website closer to the top of the first page of SERPS.

Russ

I was wondering if anyone has noticed changes in how Google returns 'site:' searches over the past few years or months.

I remember being able to do a search such as "site:example.com" and Google would return a list of webpages where the order may have shown the higher page rank pages (due to link building, etc) first and/or parent category pages higher up in the list of the first page (if relevant) first (as they could have higher PR naturally, anyways).

It seems that these days I can hardly find quality / target pages that have higher page rank on the first page of Google's site: search results. Is this just me... or has Google perhaps purposely scrambled the SERPS somewhat for site: searches to not give away their page ranking secrets?

Any update on 301's passing penalt to a new domain?

Any update on this?

Unfortunately I don't have experience with that.

As per the info you sent via PM... this has managed to be taken care of via GMM (google map maker) at least for now.

Some GMM pros marked the 'other' 2 listings as duplicate of the first, official listing.

I see that the editors/reviewers first changed the addresses of the offending POIs (point of interest) to match the original listing... and also added extra phone numbers into the original listing (to help show Google that it is all the same business.)

Search again... and you'll most likely find that the dealership only has one G+ Local Page appearing.

More info: https://plus.google.com/113059806113646417939/posts/eHbxfnMwWbL

If you like my answer... please mark this accordingly.

Yes, the owner can delete messages, but perhaps you might be able to find something in the indexation history graph or other place.

if you are using tagging (like in WordPress), I'd recommend blocking the tag pages from appearing in your sitemap and from being index by the search engines. It will just look like duplicate content.

Then, in your template, remove the link (or add a nofollow) from that tag that goes to the tag category view so that the keyword doesn't cannibalize your targeting away from the page you are trying to rank for that keyword.

This way, you can use tags as much as you want, and they will add text to your posts, but they won't mess with your indexing and won't create duplicate content issues.

Scott

I would recommend using opensiteexplorer.org to find out what type of links the site has coming towards it (you might have already done this). Also, do you have access to the domain owner's Google Webmaster Tools account? perhaps you could poke around there first if they will allow you access.

Scott

You could add a noindex if you think the privacy and disclaimer pages, etc, are not bringing any SEO value. Nofollow would block search engines from even spidering them. But a noindex would just stop it from showing up as an entrance/landing page in the SERPs.

I wouldn't say that it helps "retain link juice", but it might help you to show the search engines what your most important pages are.

An alternative would be to perhaps only link to some of those pages from your home page and not from every single page. Are there any pages that you think would be appropriate NOT to link to all those pages? If so, perhaps you can write a conditional statement in your code to only show those links on some pages and not others.

Scott O.

There is a chance to get some value from footer links, but there is danger too. I would recommend only adding the "Site Created By ___" on the home page, and not on the sub pages. If there are too many site-wide links coming to your site, it might trigger something in the search engine's algo.

Regarding structure, I'd say, make sure to vary your anchor text from site to site. Use your company name sometimes, use partial-match anchor text another, etc. Mix up the title tag too. Try to make it as unique as you can across each site.

Scott O.

You could go to the "Rankings" tab and export the rankings as a .CSV file. Then, you'll have a list of keywords that you can import into another campaign.

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I would suggest adding keywords before and/or after the company when linking. For example, if the company name is "Milwaukee Roofing LLC", you could make the anchor text "visit the Milwaukee Roofing LLC website"... perhaps this will give enough variety and make the link profile feel more natural.

Scott O.

References:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/click-here-seo http://www.seomoz.org/blog/beyond-exact-match-anchor-text-to-next-generation-link-signals-whiteboard-friday http://www.seomoz.org/blog/anchor-text-distribution-avoiding-over-optimization

Please see this thread: http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-there-any-way-to-move-keywords-from-one-campaign-to-another where I answer that question.

Feel free to mark this question as "answered" if you think it addresses your needs.

Scott O.

I think a press page would be a good addition. It wouldn't harm your rankings to link out to quality news sites. You could summarize each mention/link with your own paragraph of text to give the links context.

Scott O.

My question is:

Is SEOMoz's SERP Rank Tracking in compliance with Google Adwords API Terms of Service?

Background:

The reason I ask is because Raven Tools is now removing their SERP Reporting tool because it uses scraped Google position data.

So, it looks like SEO's will either have to find a new rank tracking tool or find new ways to traffic the effects that rankings have on a website traffic volumes.

For instance, there is a way to get the position a search results was in Google when it was clicked. We could create a secondary profile in Google Analytics for each client and use a custom filter to record the position that the keywords was in when the search result was clicked ( http://www.seomoz.org/blog/show-keyword-position-using-filters-and-advanced-segments )

Or perhaps we'll have to use Google Webmaster Tools' SEO Report to get data somehow ( http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1308626 )

What are your thoughts on this? As you know, ranking data is still a great way to show clients if they are gaining or losing visibility in the search engines. It helps SEO's to report how effective their efforts have been.

Because other ranking software companies uses Adwords API data to show the keyword search volume and advertiser competition of a keyword, they can not or eventually will not be able to use scraped ranking data any more.

But, if another rank tracking tool out there doesn't need to be in compliance with the Adwords API TOS because they don't use that API to show search volume and advertiser competition, they can still technically provide their ranking data and not be violating any TOS, right?

I'm just trying to understand the best way to continue reporting impact of organic keyword rankings on a website.

Does the SEOMoz SERP Tracker comply with Adwords API? Is there another rank tracking tool out there that already is using Average Position data from the GWT SEO Report tool? Should we all just stop reporting rankings to clients altogether?

Scott

First, a question for you. Why are you checking if javascript is enabled?

Scott O.

I would suggest at least adding those variables in your Google Webmaster Tools account to help Google understand which query strings have an impact on changing content on a page versus the variables that are only associated with affiliates.

In GWT, go to "Configuration" in the left menu, then "URL Parameters"

Scott

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Did ReachLocal put a robots.txt disallow or a meta noindex on that site?

If not, best bet would be to ask them to do so. It is possible that without that directive, their new site could be starting to rank organically.

I'd recommend adding a campaign in your SEOmoz account to start rank tracking their new site to see if it is indeed ranking for your desired keywords or not.

Scott O.

P.S. If you enjoyed my response, please consider marking it as a "Good Answer".