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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

Hey everyone

I was having a discussion with a friend and colleague recently regarding the repeal of net neutrality and what it would mean for marketers and website owners. I wanted to reach out to the community and get your thoughts on what you foresee this FCC decision meaning for your efforts and if your plans have changed at all.

Obviously, there are appeals happening and any changes are said to be subtle and gradual, but I'd still like to see what is on everyone's mind at this time should the repeal stick.

Excited for the conversation!

Hi there

The only way to "get the top spots" in Google is to make sure your site abides by SEO best practices, that great content is being written, and that you are building great backlinks. If you are conducting proper keyword research for your content, then you should be able to find a healthy balance between the language your target audience uses and what keywords get a healthy amount of search volume in search engines. Use these words / phrases naturally in your content and you'll be just fine.

Remember - Google is fantastic and making connections between topics and variations. If you are able to write your content that methodically uses these keywords, and your pages are optimized, then look into your link building strategy to begin distributing your content more effectively.

Also - don't forget to be conduct ongoing audits of your website as this will help / hinder ongoing search engine performance.

Hope this all helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

1. I would check the internal links on your website to see if you accidentally typed the URL wrong. Then, I would check your backlinks (using Open Site Explorer, Majestic, or Ahrefs) to see if any websites are linking to your website with the incorrect URL (then ask them to update the link!)

2. Simply redirect them to the URL you want to be the ranking URL, update your sitemap, and submit that sitemap to Google Search Console.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Ultimately, if you're creating great content on your website and are collecting great links to the internal pages of your website, then the entire domain will be performing better overall, increasing domain authority. What you're describing here sounds like you have a few relatively optimized pages that are standing well on their own. I would not say that the other 95 pages are providing much value to the other 5.

What I would do is take a good look at your website (and do it regularly), focusing on structuring your website and optimizing your pages in a way that makes sense for the users and from a crawlability standpoint. From there, I'd begin focusing on developing strong content that's relevant to those users you are trying to target and distribute that content in a way that garners quality backlinks that point back to your website. Doing this will help not only the page, but the entire domain.

All of the resources I have provided should help! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi thereI

I do, overall, find these to be valuable links and listings because ultimately what you want is traffic to your site. You want traffic coming to your website for brand awareness and for users to take action. These listings do just that, they put you in front of audiences looking for your business or services and send traffic. From a SEO standpoint, some of these sites / links may not send ranking or linking value because they are nofollow, but I would not let that you deter you - remember, your purpose in obtaining that link is sending quality traffic to your website to take action, not praying for higher rankings. Just make sure the listings you obtain are relevant and through known entities.

As you said, it's a tedious undertaking to manually list your website in all of these local business directories, but services like Moz Local take all of the work off of you and do this automatically. You can learn more about Moz Local here and focus on other things, like building quality content and obtaining quality links.

Hope this all helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Simply put, Google's algorithm feels that both of these pages on that domain and the content that they contain are both relevant to the search the user is conducting. Google may also feel that this website holds a lot of authority in that particular industry or market, and will show multiple pages to give users more options when it comes to their search.

This isn't a bad thing - this just means that this particular website is doing a great job from an SEO standpoint for that particular keyword or query and can be used as an example in optimizing your pages / content.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

I agree with Kevin here. Relevance is key when it comes to your users (and search engines). You could take it a step further and redirect job URLs on board B to the related job URLs on board A, that way users go directly where they need to go should they have clicked a link from a third party or another site. It might take a minute to do, but the payoff is a better user experience and organic equity being transferred correctly. Here's a tutorial on how to do a redirect map.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
P

Hi there

According to Google (via this article from Search Engine Land), these links are considered unnatural and should either have a "nofollow" tag or be removed entirely. Here is a bit from that article:

Google is reminding widget makers to remove the links from their widgets are add the rel=”nofollow” attribute to the links. If they do not, Google said the “webspam team may take manual actions on unnatural links.” If you do get a manual action for this, Google said you need to remove the links or add the rel=”nofollow” before submitting a reconsideration request.

Additionally, those that embed these widgets on their site should “add a rel=”nofollow” attribute on those unnatural links or remove the links entirely from the widget,” Google said later on in their blog post.

I would review different link building strategies and techniques such as those from this guide from Moz. You'll find through this guide and competitive research (with tools like Open Site Explorer, Majestic, and Ahrefs) that there are a ton of great link opportunities that go beyond these embed links.

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

Good luck!
P

Hi Leslie

Google actually provides an awesome resource right here to help. I heavily suggest reviewing it with your team.

I would also check out these great guides from Moz called Web Site Migration Guide and Recovering Your Organic Search Traffic from a Web Site Migration Gone Wrong. The latter is more post launch but it will help you think of things before you launch and also help you notice things going wrong after.

All of the above are great resources and will help get you on the right path. I would also suggest not forgetting our friends at Bing - while they may not be a huge portion of your organic traffic, every little bit helps.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have further questions or concerns - good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Piggybacking a bit on Logan's response here - while not a ranking factor, I would make sure that if you do utilize meta descriptions (which I recommend), make sure you're enticing searcher's to click through and using it as a "first point of sale". If you have a great meta description that not only speaks to the content but also speak to the searcher's intent. Doing so will do wonders.

Hope this helps as well! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Yes it does help, definitely, I was just answering the "is it detrimental" question. You can also take advantage of breadcrumb Schema which helps also!

Hope this helps!
Patrick

Hi there

No, this is not detrimental, but consider your users and what would be most beneficial to them. Just make sure from a site structure aspect, the site architecture makes sense and is easy to understand for crawlers.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

According to a study recently conducted by Ahrefs:

"...we’ve shown that almost 95% of newly published pages don’t get to the Top10 within a year.

And most of the “lucky” ones, which do manage to get there, do it in about 2–6 months."

To be one of the "lucky" ones, I would focus on developing a SEO friendly website and notify Google / Bing when the site is launched. Make sure you claim proper listings and Google My Business / Bing Places for Business if need be. Make sure you're leveraging a natural and organic link building strategy as your site grows.

The ranking results may not be immediate, but if you follow SEO and Google guidelines, you'll be on the quickest and honest path possible.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

If these URLs are out of date and have changed to a new URL, I would simply create a URL map and 301 redirect those old pages to their new URLs. From there, I would make sure internal links and sitemaps are up to date. That should alleviate this issue for you!

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

If you have ScreamingFrog you can run a crawl on the websites in question to see what they have. Although that could take some time if you do a site one by one.

Otherwise, you can do a manual "site:example.com inurl:news", "site:example.com inurl:blog", "site:example.com blog", or "site:example.com news". Either way, this will take some time as I'm not sure there is a tool specifically for this type of task.

Might I suggest using tools like Majestic, BuzzSumo, or SEMRush to find a website's top ranked or linked to pages. You can quickly filter through to blog or news articles and see what content is working best for particular sections of sites. From there you can prioritize your efforts and work accordingly.

Hope this helps a bit! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Whatever the general public knows you by, use that as your brand. Reason being - it's brand repetition and more than likely what users will search you by if doing a branded search.

Whatever keyword you use, make sure that the keyword appears naturally and organically throughout your content. Do not stuff keywords just so you can rank for that keyword. Search engines (and users) pick up on this very easily, so any keywords or phrases you use, make sure they are relevant to the content you have on the page. Otherwise, you're doing more harm than good.

Here are two resources for title optimization and onpage keyword optimization. Both of these work in tandem, so make sure you're leveraging them properly!

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there!

Just follow the steps in this FAQ from Facebook. That should get you where you need to go!

Hope this helps - if not, let me know! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

I really like ScreamingFrog but I also really like Search Console and Moz Pro. The reason being, I like having different sets of data because they are all different. I also like seeing if pages are being linked to randomly from other sources other than my own website which Search Console does a great job (and so does Majestic or Ahrefs). Different sources find different things so it's nice to get other opinions on what you might have out there floating around.

Just my two cents! Hope this helps!
Patrick

Hi there

There was a great answer from Sha Menz in this Moz Q+A here. Hope this helps!

Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

First things first, review the great SEO resources from Moz, this is precisely why they are there. There are a TON of great resources in there from link building to international SEO, and more. If you need professional help from there, take a look at Moz's recommended partners or ask more specific questions in the forum.

Sorry if this is broad but your question can go about 10,000 different ways and requires research.

Hope the resources above help! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Consider this a good sign that Google is once again finding value in your website and webpages, but the work isn't done. SEO is a continual effort (as you know), having a proper SEO strategy in place is the only way to ensure that you'll flourish in the SERPs. Continue to audit your website, provide great content, and a stellar user experience, and everything will continue to fall into place.

That being said, and this is MOST important, remember what got you the penalty in the first place. Conciously avoid those tactics and efforts, instead focusing on Google's best practices and making your site the absolute best it can be for your users.

It sounds like you're on the right track and search engines are noticing - keep pressing on! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

I would not be redirecting your homepage to a keyword page. What I would do is put on-page SEO efforts into the /keyword page so that users that are searching for that keyword can land on the proper page. The homepage, I would focus on branded and who your business is / what you do content. Link off to internal pages like your /keyword page and others, they will thrive off the organic equity your homepage builds. Not to mention, most of your branded mentions / listings are going to go to your homepage.

Traffic for a homepage is usually reserved for branded and high level topical keywords revolving around what your business does, so redirecting it loses that piece of your SEO strategy. I would really and strongly focus on doing this. Reason being, most of your traffic is going to come through your homepage. If you eliminate that branded and traffic equity, it could be detrimental to your user experience / brand equity.

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding, it sounds like a waste of efforts and a shortcut in SEO efforts that could backfire. Search engines are smart. Play the game correctly and all will end right.

Hope this helps - good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

It sounds like you might have a rogue page (if this isn't correct, can you post the domain and the URL in question?)

I would check your sitemap XML and also your internal links to make sure their aren't URLs listed that shouldn't be or being linked to that shouldn't be. Sometimes Moz will show you where they are finding links to these pages. This will help you track down these links and update.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

If the PDF's URLs are changing, then yes you should redirect the old URLs to the new URLs. Even more so than a search engine perspective, if users have bookmarked or saved the link to your content, they need to be redirected. My vote - include them, be on the safe side. Also make sure internal links and the sitemap XML is updated to include the new URLs.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Moz actually created a fantastic migration guide that will give you a step by step process to properly move your website to it's new domain. I highly suggest reading it, as it goes into great detail and also includes a resources / tools list to help you and your team properly track performance. You can read all of that here.

Just wanted to let you know that this guide exists! I'm sure great answers are to follow! Hope this helps in the meantime, good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

That's awesome! Congrats doing the heavy legwork of getting your KW research done. I would refer you to the following resources:

• On-Page Optimization for Keywords
• Information Architecture for SEO
• A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page SEO

These resources will help you prioritize your keywords, structure your website in an organized fashion based on categories, and also help you construct optimized pages using your keywords, ensuring you're following SEO best practices. I highly recommended reviewing the top and also the SEO learning center. Most of the information someone would post here you can easily digest in these resources and you'll be learning on your own!

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

There's a difference between domain and page authority, as you may already know:

Domain Authority is a score (on a 100-point scale) developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. Use Domain Authority when comparing one site to another or tracking the “strength” of your website over time. We calculate this metric by combining all of our other link metrics—linking root domains, number of total links, MozRank, MozTrust, etc.—into a single score.

Page Authority is a score (on a 100-point scale) developed by Moz that predicts how well a specific page will rank on search engines. It is based off data from the Mozscape web index and includes link counts, MozRank, MozTrust, and dozens of other factors.

The difference?

Whereas Page Authority measures the predictive ranking strength of a single page, Domain Authority measures the strength of entire domains or subdomains. The same is true for metrics such as MozRank and MozTrust.

Domain authority takes in account the entire domain link backlink profile, it's the essentially the sum of all it's pages (links and all). Page authority is strictly that page by itself (links and all). To increase your page authority, you should make sure you are following SEO best practices and your backlink profile is topically relevant and authoritative. This is a hard metric to improve at the page level, but this is the most direct way to effect this metric. I would suggest doing a backlink audit and building a backlink strategy that focuses on relevancy.

I hope this answer your questions, let me know if it doesnt! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Totally agree with Logan here. I would also make sure that you update your sitemap XMLs to include the new subdomain URLs, and also make sure your internal links are updated as well. If you are able to update high value links to the old subdomain to the new subdomain, that would be hugely beneficial as well.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

I would redirect the page to it's new URL because if this page ranked for any keywords or queries, the new page can stand to gain that visibility. I would also do it from a user experience standpoint. If a customer or user bookmarked that page, then they will be able to be redirected to the correct URL. So, my two cents, go ahead and redirect, especially if it's a few pages, and also make sure your internal links / sitemap XML are updated to the new URL.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Honestly, you don't have to update these. Google said it's not worth it. If your migration and redirects from http to https are set up properly, you should be all good.

Hope this helps, let me know if it doesn't, good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Usually this information is pulled from specific sets of microdata and information that Google collects through the web and cross references. You can learn more about how Google creates these carousels and other rich snippets through this resource here. If you're a business, I would highly suggest including yourself in Google My Business and make sure that information about your business on your website and across your listings / citations is up to date and correct!

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

Hi there

Right now, you're telling crawlers to not crawl your entire site, so the sitemap XML would be included in that. Are you wanting your site to be crawled completely? Simply change the robots.txt to this...

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Here is another great resource from SEOBook to check out!

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

While I'm not personally aware of detailed benchmark data (although I'm sure it's our there and someone will get you where you need to go), Google does offer a high level tool that can give you some break downs of interactions based on data they have (which is alot). Here's the tool called The Customer Journey to Online Purchase - you're able to say the size of your business, the industry, and also the country.

Hopefully this helps a bit in your quest! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Great answer above from Andy. My clients and I both use LinkedIn and Medium and have yet to see an issue. I have found it to be a great method of distributing content and gaining a wider audience while building my personal brand. Two things I'd like to throw in to easy worries...

First, I always include a link at the bottom of the content that says:

**This post was originally written and posted on MarcelDigital.com **- with a link to the post on Marcel Digital's website.

Second, another technique that I like is how Neil Patel posts on LinkedIn. He posts a good chunk of the article, BUT if you want to read the whole thing, you have to click a link about half way through the article that says "[click to continue reading...]". That way you're doing two things - giving credit to your website for the post and also driving traffic to your website.

Let me know if this makes sense or if you have any questions - good luck!
Patrick

Hi Kevin

Usually in these scenarios, you're at Google's mercy. What I mean by this is appearing in an answer box for a Google search is entirely up to them and how relevant / strong they feel your content is in answering particular queries. It also depends on how competitive that query is and who you are competing against. If you have updated your content according, taken advantage of Schema or structured data opportunities, and are following Google's guidelines, then you just have to be patient, much like any other optimizations you make to a page.

I would also recommend taking advantage of link building opportunities to pages you wish to appear in search to help signal to Google and other search engines that this content is authoritative and relevant.

Hopefully this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

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

There should be a "Claim this business" button in orange on the listing you're wishing to update. Otherwise, you may have to track down your login information to update.

Also, here's also a step by step resource on how to edit your YellowPages listing via creating a new profile.

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

Hi there

If you're guest blog posting to give your audience relevant and topical content, then guest blog posts will not be an issue. Just again make sure that it's not a tactic strictly to gain or influence link signals. Danny Sullivan actually wrote a great post on the issue back in 2014 which you can reference here.

Just make sure that you and your partners are on the same page that your guest blog posts should be topically relevant and provide real solutions. Make sure links reference data points or solutions sourced for your posts.

If you keep on the path of "is this information or link necessary?", then all should be well.

Let me know if you have any questions! Good luck!
Patrick