Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi there

I am a bit confused - are you saying that if I have 200 pages indexed in Google, and I have a 40 clicks to my site, that the 5 is an indication of bad SERP performance? Just using your formula:

200 / 40 = 5

I guess that's an okay rule of thumb as you would ideally want every page indexed on your site to be clicked at least once if it's ranked, I just have never heard of that rule.

If you're goal (I am not saying it is) is for every page to be clicked, then yes, 1 or lower would be good because it showed every page is showing up in SERPs. I wouldn't use this as the sole basis of your indexing and SEO performance however, as this doesn't tell you if ALL pages were clicked, or if one page was clicked overall. There's so much more digging you have to do.

Check these resources out: Google Analytics Academy (Google)
Analytics Help (Google)
On-Site SEO (Moz) Moz Academy (Moz)
Local Search Ranking Factors (Moz)
A Technical SEO Guide to Crawling, Indexing, and Ranking (Paddy Moogan)
Internal Linking (Moz)

All of the above will help you way more than the equation you stated above. Again, it's a nice way of thinking about it if you want to just look at those two numbers, but you're not taking into account a LOT of elements. For instance, that number could equate to .01 but that doesn't mean a lot of pages are necessarily getting traffic or appearing in search. The resources I listed will help you better assess your search and organic performance. You'll get so much more out of it and think of things you never thought to track.

Hope this helps you! Let me know if you have any questions or comments! Good luck!

Hi there

What I would do is first review this resource from Matt Cutts on how to handle out of stock products moving forward for your inventories. This will help you handle 404s and redirects in the future.

From there, what you can do is see what URLs should not be crawled and indexed based on query strings. See which ones you should noindex, disallow, or nofollow, but you can also let Google know which parameters to ignore in Search Console. When doing all of this, I hiiiiighly recommend having a professional handle this. Reason being - you don't want to inadvertently noindex pages that should be being indexed, or have a ton of redirects happening when they don't need to be.

Let me know if this helps or doesn't fully answer your question! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi Justin

Can you share your site URL? What tools are you checking? When did they remove the links?

What I am thinking is that your tool is taking time to update. You may not see that information updated for a couple weeks to a month sometimes. It's definitely not common for tools to instantaneously reflect removed links.

Let me know, I'd like to take a peek.

Hi Alan

First - don't noindex pages to increase your authority numbers. That's not going to help. Especially if those pages do hold value. You need to give your site an honest and unbiased assessment.

I would take a look at the following:
Domain Authority
Page Authority

I would read the following to see if your content can be cleaned up or enhanced: How To Do a Content Audit - Step-by-Step

I would read this to get a good competitive analysis going:
The Illustrated SEO Competitive Analysis Workflow

I would read the following to see if you can clean up any backlink related issues:
Link Audit Guide for Effective Link Removals & Risk Mitigation

The reason being - these authority numbers are pretty holistic and not just content related. You have to look at multiple facets to increase these numbers - it takes a lot of honest research and critiques of your site to make sure these numbers increase. They aren't related to one specific aspect of your site.

I would also take a look at the on-site SEO factors to make sure you have all the foundational aspects taken care of. Here's a great technical checklist as well.

Hope these all help! There's a lot of angles to look at - good luck!

Hi there

I am not entirely sure I have ever heard that rule before - can you source that?

1. First, you have to figure out if the links are follow or nofollow. Follow meaning they pass value or nofollow meaning that more often than not, they don't. There's a common misconception that you only want follow links - this is simply not true. Even if a link is a nofollow link or not passing any equity, it's still potentially valuable from multiple standpoints. All links can provide value, by the way, it's not limited to just one link.

2. Yes, if where the backlink is pointing to is relevant to the content on your website. For instance, if the link is linking from a page about lawn mowers to a page on your site about toaster ovens, I wouldn't consider that a valuable link because it's not relevant. Does that make sense?

3. I suggest you read Google's stance on link schemes, as paid links are something that they have heavily cracked down on. I would suggest that you nofollow the link pointing to your website to avoid any unintended repercussions. I would also suggest you take a look at this Whiteboard Friday post to learn more about how paid media investments can have SEO value - you just have to be smart about it!

I have to say this though - don't "link build" with the intention of boosting rankings. I know that's an odd thought but you have to remember that any link you acquire should be done with the intention of adding value to that link and the user that is arriving because of it. Stay away from heavy anchor text or site-wide backlinks as you could obtain a manual action for attempting to manipulate Google's algorithm.

I also suggest you read Moz's The Beginner's Guide to Link Building - there are a ton of great resources and tactics in there that can help you stay on the right side of the track.

Hope this all helps! Good luck!

Hi there

One thing to note:

"I want to do my business above board and this doesn't feel right."

If it doesn't feel right, it's not right, especially in SEO. That's just something to live your life by - if it doesn't feel right, don't do it.

If it were me, I would change this. Not only does this not add any value whatsoever, but I would consider this a form of cloaking, even if it is relatively the same content. To be sure, I would use the Fetch as Google tool to make sure. But even then, lose it and create a good user experience by not having that.

I just would get rid of it, and play safe with good content on your homepage.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

While an HVAC is an air conditioner, I feel you should have two landing pages - one for HVAC and the other for the genreral air conditioning repair. Reason being - you probably do general air conditioner repair and can build out content that speaks to that content:

• Here are the type of air conditioners we work on
• Here are our warranties
• Here are the work we do
• Here are the work we don't do
• Here are our experience
• Here are some testimonies
• Schedule an appointment

With the HVAC page, you can do product specific content in the same vein:

• Here are models we work on
• Here are models we don't work on
• Here are our warranties
• Here are brochures for specific HVAC models
• Here are buying guides
• etc.

With creating product specific pages, with unique content for that product, you are also able to link off from the air conditioner page. So, "Hey, we do air conditioning repair and here is all of our information for that. By the way! If you have a specific model or brand air conditioner, here is a dedicated page for that product."

By doing product specific pages, you can also see what brands/models get the most interaction and what products get the most appointment requests for maintenance. This can also help you (if you sell air conditioners) decide your warranties, set up maintenance plans for customers, discounts, and keep in touch with clients for ongoing maintenance. But most importantly - you have dedicated information for brands and products that goes into more detail about the work you do for that product, and why you're the only option for the customer.

I am being pretty grandiose here, but I believe having dedicated brand pages helps pick up search for those specific brand repair searches, especially at the local level. EGOL had a great reply to a question earlier this week that helps explain. The more relevant information, the better. Also, make sure your on-site SEO, internal linking, local seo, and information architecture is on point!

These are just my thoughts - always great info coming from other Mozzers, too - would love to hear them! Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi Cornelius

While I have never heard of this tool or used it personally, remember you have a lot of options.

Here are some great lists of tools that are recommended by well known websites/authors:
50 Tools to Jumpstart Your Content Marketing Efforts (KISSmetrics)
Content Marketing Tools: The Ultimate List (Curata)
The Best Content Marketing Tools for Efficient Marketing (Bufferapp.com)

Just giving you some other options to check out in the event your strategy changes or your audience changes your avenue in distribution.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi Justin

No problem! From what I can tell, I am not seeing anything alarming. Your backlink profile looks fine in Majestic And OSE.

I would just hang tight and let your tool update. Again, sometimes these things take time to reflect.

Feel free to shoot me a private message if you continue to have issues!

Hi there

Remove the canonical - consider having both pages ranking a good thing. I don't know why you would canonicalize your homepage to an internal page, don't do that!

Let your homepage be brandname.com and keep your internal page the brandname.com/cotton-tees - that's just a best practice and logical. Your homepage should NOT be an internal page - it should be the face of your web presence and a way to showcase all of the great internal content on the website.

I would also look into opportunities to link to that internal page off the homepage.

Hope this helps - good luck!

Hi there

I believe Yahoo! Directory closed, did it not?

Hi there

Did you read through Google's indexing resources?

I would also try doing a quick "site:yourdomain.com" and see how many pages Google pulls up - that's a more accurate representation of what's indexed from your site. This is reflected in the resource above:

"Sometimes the data we show in Index Status is not fully reflected in Google Search results." I suggest reading through the resource and also performing that search. Google indexing your sitemap is a waiting game, you're on the watch, just be patient!

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi Christian

I would consider this a time to revitalize your business and the industry:

• What old content can you revamp?

• What social platforms can you start exploring?

• Explore new ways to distribute your content (Search Engine Journal)

• Does any content need to be consolidate or removed? (Try this resource)

• Check your on-site SEO

• Check your Local SEO

• Explore new uses for your service or products

• What other opportunities do your service or business have?

• Are there any new directions you can test out?

• Try surveying the audience you do have

• What do they want out of your product or service?

• Moz has a good resource from 2010 that has some good pointers

• Focus on areas that you are succeeding  (Content-Gap SEO: A Potentially Untapped Opportunity)

Hope these help a bit! Let me know if you need any more help! Good luck!

Hi there

If you bought out the other business, I would consider redirecting their site to yours. There's a post from Rand called Should I Rebrand and Redirect My Site? Should I Consolidate Multiple Sites/Brands? that can help you evaluate such moves. There's also a great migration guide that can help you through the process of moving the site.

This is heavily dependent on the other brand's authority and industry reputation, so you would have to consider that. You'd obviously have to evaluate such a move. You'd also have to do backlink clean up for their site and update their citations and backlinks to point to your site.

If you decide to stick with the two sites and one location, this shouldn't be an issue. According to Google:

Two or more brands at the same location

If your business location combines two or more brands, do not combine the brand names into a single page. Instead, pick one brand’s name for the page. If the brands operate independently, you may use a separate page for each brand at this location.

Not Acceptable: "KFC / Taco Bell" or "Dunkin' Donuts / Baskin Robbins"
Acceptable: "Taco Bell", "KFC", "Dunkin’ Donuts", "Baskin Robbins"
If your business sells another business brand’s product(s) or service(s), use only the name of the business, excluding the name of the brand being sold, which cannot have a page for this location.

Not Acceptable: "Staples / UPS", "America’s Tire / Firestone"
Acceptable: "Staples", "America’s Tire"
However, if the business location is an authorized and fully dedicated seller of the branded product or service (sometimes known as a "franchisee"), you may use the underlying brand name when creating the page.

Acceptable: "TCC Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer", "U-Haul Neighborhood Dealer" As long as you stick to the best practices above, you should be fine. If it doesn't feel right, simply don't do it, but make sure you read the resources from Google to understand what they expect.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

One of the best ways to track your positions is to pay attention to your Average Position in Google Webmaster Tools. Reason being, with Google Personalized Search, the rankings you see while doing a search are going to be completely different than the search I would do. You can learn more about personalized search from this Whiteboard Friday. What Google Webmaster Tools does here is takes keywords and queries across multiple factors (location, device, browsing/search history, etc), and returns an average position for your site.

You can also look into Moz Keyword Tracking and SEMRush.

Before you change things, check the resources you have to see if in fact you are really losing positions, or if it's just a fluctuation.

A couple of suggestions I do have for you:
Product Schema.org
Check your sitemap and make sure it's properly submitted to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools I would also check your URL structures and canonical tags Check your information architecture
Lastly, check this KISSmetrics ecommerce SEO resource and this one for Search Engine Land Hope this all helps! Good luck!

Hi there

If it were me - leave the promotion indexed because you want that promotion to be promoted and people are always looking for deals. Also, take a look at the Customer Journey from Google to see where opportunities lie in getting that promotion page and circulating - you could be missing some big opportunities.

I would also (from the promotions page) have a "Learn more about this product" sort of button so that the users that do land on that page can get more information - especially if you have more content about the product. Some customers will land there not ready to buy, but will be looking for information - get the the information they need and quickly.

You could bulletpoint the information on these smaller pages so people can quickly read and assess benefits. But in my opinion, I am not seeing a reason to canonicalize these or noindex them. Unless I am misunderstanding - if that's the case, please let me know!

Hope this helps a bit - good luck!

Hi there

To me, the movies with lawyers in them idea is fun, but is that really something your users are going to want to read? You want to develop content based on research and what your users are searching for.

When you say PPC type blogs, what do you mean? Do you mean paid links? I would be extremely careful about that and make sure you adhere to Google's guidelines.

Hope this helps - good luck!

Hi Gianluca

My apologies here. I can see where my answer lacked when failing to bring up there not being a hreflang tag for the /nl/. My suggestion was to review the hreflang tag resources given, but I failed to mention that putting that hreflang tag in place would be a help to the site.

I understand my error, I appreciate you bringing it up and calling me on it. It won't happen again. Not taken personally at all - I appreciate you doing so, it helps me be more clear moving forward.

Patrick

Hi there

Remove it - that makes no sense. This is your homepage, so you want to have link equity and search equity moving through the site. Also, on internal pages that have link and search equity, you'll want that equity to flow through the logo, because it goes to the homepage. You're cutting off equity moving through the site.

That's why I think you should remove "nofollow" on the logo.

Let me know if this helps. Good luck!

Hi Stephen

Along with the awesome advice above, I would also check the Fetch as Google tool in your Search Console, so you can see what Google sees. I would also make sure you didn't receive any JS/CSS notifications as well.

After all of that, I would pick your high value keywords/queries and run them through the SERP Analysis Report so you can start seeing what directions you're going to have to head in order to increase your rankings.

Please do go through the links that Umar provided as they will help you build a solid foundation moving forward.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

You should be fine as long as you don't have 30 locations with the same structure, but I would work on your cleaning up your URL over optimization - maybe have an Areas We Serve page with office location information in different cities.

I would check out this local SEO resource from Moz and Service Area Business from Google.

You should also look into Whitespark and Moz Local as these will help you in categorized local citations and listings, especially if you have different offices in different cities.

As long as the content is different (not just changing the city names in the content) then it shouldn't be an issue, but I would work on your local SEO and condensing information where possible.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

Usually, H2s and H3s are reserved for your content structure and prioritization of importance in the content on the page, not in your top navigation.

As your content (should) starts with an H1, this semantically will mess your header structure up because you have an H1 below H2s and H3s that live in your top navigation.

If you like the way that those menu fonts and sizes look, I would suggest looking into CSS Font styling - therefore you can set up how you want your font to look in the menu and have a proper header structure on your page content. This will be better for your On-Site SEO.

Hope this helps - let me know if you have any questions or comments! Good luck!

Hi there

Here is Google's resource on link schemes - I suggest you read it.

I would also suggest (based on Google's resource here) that you make this link nofollow.

Since this is a sponsorshipesque link and you're a local business (if you're not, don't do this), then make sure you take the proper steps.

Where would this link live exactly? Content? Sidebar? Ad?

Let me know - thanks so much!

Hi there

I think the content you have listed above would be better suited for a static "Renting vs Buying a Car"-esque page. You can continually update this with new best practices and standards, as well as tips and advice for users looking for this information and apply it. You can also spin this content into infographics, video, how to guides, and email material, thus keeping it fresh and useful for other channels if needed.

Point being - this isn't information you need to be repeating. I would keep specific models posts specific to the models themselves and instead link to the page with this information if the users want it. That way, you have one static page trying to capture that traffic, internal links pointing to it, and also remove issues with duplicate content.

Let me know if this makes sense. Hope this helps - good luck!

Hi there

I would consider this duplicate content. What I would do is take the content on the page and make it unique to the location you're trying to service.

Every location and user from that location is unique. How can you benefit these users? Why are your offers better?

There are a lot of opportunities to create unique content here, I suggest you start!

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi Cory

There are great services that you can list your client's businesses on to get reviews. Consider the following:

• Google My Business
• Angie's List
• Thumbtack
• Home Advisor
• Five Star Rated

These are trusted review sites that people use. I would have your clients ask their customer base after their services (in person and via email) to leave a review. Here's a couple of great tip resources on how to ask for reviews and also sources to get reviews from your customers - I highly suggest reading it!

Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Hope this helps!
Patrick

Hi there Justin

Everything looks fine from here - there are a couple URLs that need to be updated in your sitemap as they are redirecting.

Google takes time to index, so give this a little more time. You could ask Google to recrawl your URLs but that's very unnecessary at the moment; just something to note.

I would make sure your internal links are all good to go and "follow" so that crawlers can at least find URLs that way.

I did a quick site: search on Google, so far you have 58 pages indexed. You should be okay.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

1. Here are a couple of resources: Moz and HotDesign 2. Pure Spam: What Are Google Penalties & What to Do to Recover from Search Engine Watch and this Q+A thread from Moz
3. I would go through your subdomains - find the ones that are blatant spam or thin with content and remove them. I would then make sure that they are blocked in your robots.txt.
4. I would say because Wordpress is the top used CMS in the world and a lot of reputable websites use it.

I would really work on the spam features for your product - looking for IPs that continually create websites, thin content, cloaking, off topic websites, link farms, etc. It's your duty as a CMS to watch how your users use the product. Not only will it keep your product's reputation clean, it will also show that you are taking steps to run a product with integrity.

Hope this all helps - good luck!

Hi there

Of course! But do a bit of manual research. For instance, ask yourself...

• 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?

• 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

As long as your bases are covered, there are no issues with be listed in directories that are relevant to your site. Here are some great resources for startup SEO:
SEO Checklist For Startup Websites (SEL)
Startup SEO: How to Get the Ball Rolling on a Limited Budget (Huffington Post)
14 Steps To Successful SEO For Startups (TechCrunch)
SEO for Startups & New Businesses: An 11 Step Plan (SEW)

I would also pay attention to some of the articles and tips that GrowthHackers.com posts - some really neat stuff happens there and gives you a TON of great ideas to try out.

Hope this all helps! Good luck!

I updated my first answer to point out my error - thanks again!

Hi there

As long as you use proper hreflang and language tags you should be fine. Even though they are both English sites, you should still distinguish these as alternates for different regions.

I would also look into creating separate Webmaster Tools profiles for both sites and country targeting them. Same with Bing Webmaster Tools.

Lastly, take advantage of Whitespark to build citations for each website for their areas/regions of service.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

Personally, I like 1.

Reason being - you are already telling crawlers and users based on the URL structure that you are looking at corporate credit cards, so adding the second "credit cards" is unnecessary in my opinion.

You also want to be careful because if you over optimize your URLs by putting the same keywords in over and over, you could trip spam filters.

This is just my thought. Number 1 in my opinion works fine because you're hitting all of the important aspects -> this is the domain -> these are our products -> here are our credit card products -> specifically corporate/business.

Hope this helps - good luck!

Hi there

If you need to update your disavow file, you're going to do number 2.

Here's a great resource on disavow files from Moz. It says the following:

"Disavow tip: When you upload a new disavow file, you are COMPLETELY REWRITING your old file. If your old file has 300 domains in it and you want to add 30 new domains, your new file will have 330 domains in it." Take the time to read through it - there is a ton of great information and will help you immensely.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

Craig makes a great point here - always have second sets of data to reference when it comes to backlinks and site performance. Crawlers from one vendor can only do so much, and other vendors sometimes pick up what others are not.

Majestic and ahrefs are great, but also pay attention to Google Search Console, as those are the links that Google is seeing. If you want to give yourself an extra advantage, check out Kerboo - it scores your backlinks and also has a ton of great features to help you assess and maintain your profile.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

^ Read Marie's article - it's fantastic!

Hi there

I recommend checking the following:
Internal Links - you may have some links pointing to these pages. ScreamingFrog is a great tool for this.
Sitemap - you may have some errors in your sitemap.
Backlink audit - see if potentially these links are coming from other sites.
Canonical tags - maybe a page has a broken or wrong canonical tag.
Parameters - this will help you tell Google how to handle URLs with parameters.

Run through these resources and see if these help alleviate the problem. Let me know! Good luck!

Hi there

If you have a Search Console account for the old domain, you can get links there. OSE should provide links as well.

Majestic has a fantastic database for old links, too.

Another thing I would do, run through this migration guide and see if you covered all of your bases when you moved your site.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

It doesn't matter - I include the current page just in case and to always help search engines understand the architecture. It always felt odd to me if I didn't include it because I am just giving a "partial" structure in my mind by NOT including the current page.

My vote - include it. Like Google says you can either add it or leave it, so it's not going to hurt you either way!

Hope this helps! good luck!

Hi Marston

This would be easier with examples - is that possible to provide? I would love to help but your description is a bit confusing.

Off the top of my head, I would suggest you read into Google's resources on categorizing your parameters, canonical tags, and possibly pagination. These are pretty indepth and may help you find the answers you are looking for. I would also see what you are able to do about your title tags because that is a big on-site SEO ranking factor and you want to make sure those are as unique as possible.

But again, if you could provide an example, that would be a huge help!

Let me know - thanks so much!

Hi there

They told you you don't need to file a reconsideration request? Did they remove the penalty or not? If they didn't, yes, you need to file another reconsideration request - it's not a one and done deal.

It sounds like you are doing everything right - you should also check out these resources from Moz:
Ultimate Guide to Google Penalty Removal (Moz)
Your Start-to-Finish Guide to Using Google's Disavow Tool (Moz)

If you want to send your website via PM, please feel free, I'd like to take a look. But these things do take time, but I can't understand why your SEO company would tell you you don't need to file another reconsideration request - Google wants to know you are doing to remedy your issues.

Make sure you get links from Google Webmaster Tools and Majestic as well, as OSE only gives you one angle of links.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi Andy

I have never seen this before! Thanks for sharing!

Patrick

Hi there

I'd take a look at this resource. There is some markup for interest rate examples there that I would check out. Remember that the benefit of Schema implementation helps search engines understand the content that lives on your website and return better results. They also reward sites that utilize Schema. If anything, more markup is better because it shows you're putting in the effort and when searches/rich & table snippets begin to appear for interest rates, you'll be one of the first to start appearing. I'd do it and reap the benefits!

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

I like the set up you are looking at - especially if your content is unique and your on-site SEO is unique as well.

I would take a look at Rand's Information Architecture for SEO - Whiteboard Friday as well.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

I would take a look at this KISSmetrics post on eCommerce SEO; it provides a ton of valuable tips and opportunities for you to take advantage of.

I would also look into building a sitemap as it appears you don't have one at the moment. I would then make sure it is uploaded to Google and Bing Webmaster Tools.

By the way, your Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, Disclaimer, Payment Methods, and Shipping & Returns pages are noindexed. I would index these pages and build them out a bit more - Google and users take notice of this trust signals for rankings and action, respectively. I suggest you take advantage of it.

I would also work on your on-site SEO to spice your title and content. Some of these titles are a bit too close for comfort to me and almost look spammy.

These are just my opinions! Hope they help! Good luck!

Hi there

Out of the gate - look for internal linking opportunities from that page. Make sure they are relevant and assist in enhancing the article itself. You could link to other articles in the same topic area, or put at the bottom "Other Articles We Recommend". Do not go overboard, do not overoptimize anchor text. Make sure it's a natural mention and link.

What this will do is help spread equity to other internal pages and may give them a little boost as well.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

Owler is your site yes? If that's the case, you're fine, and this even has SEO benefit hosting on a subdomain. I would definitely make sure you develop a image sitemap and submit to Google and Bing. Before anything, make sure your images are optimized, being as detailed as possible with all of the above. This should definitely help!

Let me know if you have any questions or comments - good luck!
Patrick