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Great answer!

Hi there

External links in your footer won't hurt your PageRank but it will give a boost to the pages you're linking to (if they are follow). These links should also be relevant to your website, provide value to the user, and there should only be a couple of them as to not come across as a link farm.

That being said, I would be very weary of externally linking from your footer, though. The reason being is that this is on every single page of your website and potentially will take users off of your website. Even then, if they are important external links, most of the time users don't even make it to the footer, so they may never see them to begin with.

If they are important, use them with purpose and place them on and in pages where users will see them and find value. If they are not important, I wouldn't bother linking to them, let alone in the footer.

That's just my two cents, hope this helps!
P

Hi Lindsay

I'm not the most knowledgeable on Wordpress or their plugins, but based on installations / reviews, I would look into All In One Schema Rich Snippets - it looks to have what you will need there. But again, I would talk to your dev team or a member of the community who is more well versed here.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
P

Hi there

If I remember right, this was a form of letting search engines know what URL should be ranking and getting credit for content, kind of like a canonical tag.

I might be wrong here and would love to know if I am!

Hope this helps!
Patrick

Hi there

The best advice I can give here is if it doesn't feel natural or right, then it's more than likely not. Advise your client the best you can and arm yourself with as much information about the sites / the possible repercussions of taking this route as possible. At the end of the day, your job is to guide your client as best as you can and let them make an educated decision.

Last note, based on experience, Google hates link farms / link schemes. If these pages / sites have the scent of that, I'd steer clear.

Hope this helps, good luck!
P

Hey EGOL

The cable and internet comparison is actually a great way of looking at this. I'm going to borrow this for our office download as well. The potential back and forth on pricing from the consumer / publisher perspective is what I'm concerned about. Put the professional aspect of this being my job aside, the idea that people who can't afford access to even the most basic need content or information is something that I find absolutely heartbreaking should this repeal stick.

Oooh, I definitely have opinions on Ajit's videos, but that's a conversation for another time and platform.

Thanks as always for your response!
P

Hey Roberto

This is a great point about the barriers to entry for startups and new businesses. I also really like your points about most funding vs most value, that's definitely a huge consideration here and I think one that a lot of people haven't really considered (myself included) about the repercussions of this repeal.

You did great with your points - there is no right or wrong, just wanted the community insights and get the discussion going! Thanks for your thoughtful response!
P

Hey Rand

Didn't even see you posted this! Thanks for the insights, this was all great stuff, man! Sending it to our office now for a quick digest.

Thanks again,
P

Hi Lindsay

Great to hear you're on the Schema train! I wanted to pass a couple of Schema resources your way to help you get a good foundation going for your own understanding of Schema. I highly recommend Moz's resource on Schema (there are more great resources at the end of the article), as well this great resource from Kissmetrics.

Based on what you've sent over in your screenshot, it looks like Google recognizes a few types of Schema on that page and didn't find an issue or errors with the markup on that page. That's a good thing!

However, one suggestion, when I reviewed your Florida page, I saw that your team implemented WebSite schema (here). I would recommend using WebPage Schema here as this isn't a website, it's a webpage. I would also take advantage of Keywords Schema (which you can implement under WebPage Schema) on key pages for keywords / queries you're specifically targeting there. It gives Google and other search engine crawlers help in understanding what keywords / queries are most important for that page, and gives you a potentially nice boost!

Hope this helps! If you have any questions let me know or shoot me a private message!
Patrick

Hi  there

The best way to assess backlinks are to ask the following questions:

• Does this link help my website?

• Is this link relevant to my website?

• Would I trust this site (that's linking to me) if I landed on it?

• Is the website or content in which I am being linked from topically relevant to my website?

• Does it send traffic? How does the audience from that link engage my site and content?

• If you check metrics - does anything about the metrics (domain authority, page authority,Majestic, SEMRush traffic/ranking data, etc) make me feel uneasy?

• Are the links from directory templates? (example)

• Inspect URLs with blatant spam words

• Free

• Porn

• XXX

• Submit

• Directory

• Paid

• Links

• URL

• Sex

• etc.

• Check for multiple domains and URLs on the same IPs

• This can usually show link farms or spam

While this is somewhat high level and general, it's the process I go through when I analyze a backlink, and it hasn't set me wrong yet.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
P

Hi there

Here are some great articles to check out:
10 Questions to Ask When Hiring an SEO Consultant (Entrepreneur)
SEO Company Checklist: How to Hire the Right Vendor (Inc)
The Recommended List (Moz)

One thing I will say out of the gate - any company that says "first page of Google", ignore them. Any company that has strategies solely based on link building, ignore them. If something sounds TOO good to be true, it is. You'll get gut feelings talk to SEO companies - you can tell when someone has your best interest at heart and asks the right questions.

I would recommend as well that you take a look at the Learn section of Moz to educate yourself a bit as well. This way, you can hear red flags on basics and understand fundamentals in the industry.

Based on a very, very quick skim of the attached document, I would be questioning the Custom Backlink section. Here's a great article from Forbes on what not to do from a link building perspective. Also, Webmaster Tools shouldn't be "optional" - it's a must. Here's how to set those up from Google and Bing.

Hope this all helps a bit - good luck!

Hi Felicia

Try ScreamingFrog - they crawl the entire site (you can configure how you want it to crawl your site) and have ways of creating a XML Sitemap for you.

The tool goes above and beyond those two areas as well and can do so much. I suggest you check it out! Good luck!

Hi there

If everything you say is true - highly doubtful. But run through the technical checklist one more time in case there is a noindex tag or an issue with your robots.txt.

You have to be doing some pretty shady content and link building tactics in order to trip Google penalty signals. I would go through any links you have to see if there are spammy efforts there (resource below)

However, to be sure, login to your Webmaster Tools account and check your manual action notifications.

If nothing there, I would look at the following materials:
How To Do a Content Audit - Step-by-Step (Moz)
How to Conduct a Link Audit (SEW)
Link Audit Guide for Effective Link Removals & Risk Mitigation (Moz)
How to Perform the Ultimate Local SEO Audit (Moz)
The Illustrated SEO Competitive Analysis Workflow (Moz - I put this here for ideas, not copycat tactics)
Conducting Market Research Before Investing in Tactical Execution (Moz)

I would also look and see if there are any opportunities to amplify your content or if there are any advertising opportunities that can help get your name out there and help you relationship build with potential partners.

Lastly, while tedious, I highly recommend persona development - reason being, going through the exercise is necessary and you learn more than ever about who your audience is; there may be content or ideas that you are missing out on.

Like I said, if you are up to par with the checklist and you have value on your website, go through the above resources as they can help you build your brand and get more traction going. It's an uphill battle, but one worth fighting when all is said and done.

Hope this all helps! Good luck!

Hi there

To answer your first question, yes. Posting content to your website and on your blog will definitely help boost rankings and visibility for your main site, especially with relevant topics, distribution, and internal linking. Here are some ideas...

• Do some research

• What information is missing in your industry?

• What are users actively searching for?

• Where are they currently participating in conversation?

• What language do they use in search and those discussions?

• How do they digest their content?

• Here's a quick resource on content gap analysis from Edge Multimedia

• Take advantage of great tools like Open Site Explorer and SEMRush to get a handle on your competition and what's working / not working for them

• Build out content on the site based on your research

• Mind your obvious onsite SEO fundamentals (titles / meta descriptions / schema / content length and language / etc.) (resource)

• Lay your site architecture out in an easy to use / understand fashion (Information Architecture for SEO)

• Repurpose content through video / images / guides / e-books / how-tos / etc

• Take advantage of internal site search functionality

• What are users searching for on your site?

• Distribute that content through social platforms / industry blogs / email marketing

• You can try social paid advertising (based on target audience)

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Pinterest

• LinkedIn

• Also look into posting on Linked with a tagged URL giving credit to the original post on site

• Reddit

• Stumbleupon

• BuzzFeed

• You can also try sevices like Outbrain or Taboola. Lastly, check out this post from Curata - HUGE list of opportunities.

• Participate in the discussions that are happening in your industry

• Social

• You could take advantage of features like Twitter's Advanced Search and start fielding questions

• News sites

• Industry forums

• Q&As

Where you share content will heavily depend on your audience and where they are. If you're a medical business and sharing content through hair styling mediums, you're not going to have much luck. Know your audience, know what they want, write the content, and distribute/share properly. Get involved!

I'm also interested that your audience doesn't go on sites and read content - is that true? Do you have proof of it? Could it be that you're not distributing your content in the right area? I'd look at your referral traffic and social traffic and see where your pitfalls are in analytics. Are they taking the next logical step in your content? Are they taking actions you want them to take? Are they bouncing off your site? If you can answer those, you can start to see what you need to improve on!

But never give up on getting people to your site - it's your brand and your internet home - make it inviting and provide incentive for users to engage and act on content!

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

It really depends on the site linking to you, how relevant it is, and when your site/their site gets crawled.

Keep in mind, however, that there are so many more factors that go into ranking than simply getting links. I would start looking into opportunities to raise your Domain Authority and make sure your on-site SEO is on point.

I would also make sure that you take a look at Moz's numerous guides and Academy - there are a ton of great resources and tips that can help you go above and beyond just the world of link building.

Start taking a look at the guides / resources above and begin prioritizing the opportunities you feel can best move the needle on your website. The work is never done!

Hope you're well! Good luck!

Hi there

Thanks! Currently, this page is returning a 200 status code, meaning that it's OK.

You need to change this status code to a 404 status code in order for it to return a 404 to crawlers.

I see your site is running on Apache - here's a resource on how to return a 404.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

I took this from another Q+A thread that I answered. While it's about starting a blog, I do believe that it rings true for what you're attempting to do...

• Create the blog on your site

• Do some research

• What information is missing in your industry?

• What are users actively searching for?

• Where are they currently participating in conversation?

• What language do they use in search and those discussions?

• How do they digest their content?

• Here's a quick resource on content gap analysis from Edge Multimedia

• Take advantage of great tools like Open Site Explorer and SEMRush to get a handle on your competition and what's working / not working for them

• Build out content on the site based on your research

• Mind your obvious onsite SEO fundamentals (titles / meta descriptions / schema / content length and language / etc.) (resource)

• Lay your site architecture out in an easy to use / understand fashion (Information Architecture for SEO)

• Repurpose content through video / images / guides / e-books / how-tos / etc

• Take advantage of internal site search functionality

• What are users searching for on your site?

• Distribute that content through social platforms / industry blogs / email marketing

• Participate in the discussions that are happening in your industry

• Social

• You could take advantage of features like Twitter's Advanced Search and start fielding questions

• News sites

• Industry forums

• Q&As

• You can also read these resources about headlines and CTR

• 5 Tips to Improve Your Headline Click-through Rate

• A Scientific Guide to Writing Great Headlines on Twitter, Facebook, and Your Blog

Now, while I believe this is less science than it is just knowing more about your audience, there are some good points.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hey Charles

I would recommend reading the following resources:
On-Page Factors (Moz)
Meta Descriptions (Moz)
YouTube Ranking Factors (Moz)
SearchMetrics Ranking Factors Study 2014 (Moz & SearchMetrics)
Google My Business (Google)
Verify a local business on Google (Google)

Reason being, you're kind of asking broad and loaded questions (and that's totally fine!), and you're going to get so much more out of the above information than getting direction on one off questions. All of the above have great information and will help you moving forward. If you have any questions or comments, let me know! Good luck!

Hi there

I would start with:

• Running an audit
• Run a technical site audit
• Check traffic against Google's algorithms
• Running a backlink audit
• Running a content audit
• Check ranking history over time
• Run a competitor analysis

From there, you should be able to prioritize your work pretty easily and see where the easiest wins are. You'll also begin to see the landscape from the content standpoint and be able to help out in developing an editorial calendar as well.

You should also check out Moz's blog for some great categorized content that can help immensely. I would also make sure you get a routine going from a weekly, monthly, quarterly, 6 month, and yearly standpoint so you have a system in place.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

Short of changing the name of the business and domain, this is unfortunately the way it goes and may have to stay what it is. You can't change word associations or negative connotations of what people use words for.

I would echo Logan's comments of qualifying traffic through titles and meta descriptions. But what I would also do is make sure that your content marketing, site structure / URLs, business listings, etc., are all very explicit in the relevant and related topics that your client is trying to rank for. I would also take a look at competitors to see what keywords they are ranking for and where they are getting backlinks from so that search engines over time will see your client is specific to an industry or topic that is NOT adult natured.

Does this make sense? What I am getting at is making sure you are more and more explicit to search engines that your client's site is related to an industry / topic that is not adult natured.

Let me know if this makes sense or if you have any more questions! Good luck!
Patrick