Thanks for the link Keri. Apparently the feature has not been fully implemented as of yet.
Posts made by RyanKent
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RE: Googl travel dates
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RE: How to get a link on Twitter box in Huffington Post?
I have no experience with the Twitter Anywhere software. I simply looked at the site's source code, saw the reference to the software and looked it up. My suggestion is to check the vendor's site and ask them directly about their software and how it works.
A complete guess would be they identify top tweets based on certain criteria such as tweets with the most retweets.
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RE: Can anyone please make my day with this domain
This is EXACTLY why I see your work as such an invaluable part of the SEOmoz Q&A Keri. You rock!
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RE: Impressions vs. Clicks
When you perform the search for "rapid drug detox" what do you see? More specifically, what would compel any user to click on your search result?
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there are 3 google ads and 2 organic listings before your listing
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the results are full of other sites: 8 additional adds on the page to the right of your listing. If you consider the total list you are 1 of 21 listings on the page.
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The results above you have almost the same title so there is no reason not to click the first results. You want to offer a compelling reason to skip the #1 and 2 ranked site and click your link.
Some things to try:
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Change your title to "Rapid Drug Detox" and nothing else to see if it helps you gain the #1 ranking.
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Change your title to "Rapid Drug Detox - Top Safety Record!" or something similar and appropriate for your business. Other possibilities are "Rapid Drug Detox - Top Success Rates", "Rapid Drug Detox - 5 star rated", etc.
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Change your meta description. Your current description is ok, but try others. Since your title begins with "Rapid Drug Detox" the description does not have to as well. You can summarize and say "all narcotic detox" rather then listing them all out and add other helpful info instead.
To be clear, your current title and descriptions are not necessary bad, but you are in a competitive environment and testing is required to see what changes can be made to improve your results. Try changing once a month and measuring the results. Make sure to not start counting the change until after Google captures it.
Last point, consider some changes to your site so you can improve your rankings:
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your footer has a list of 50 states. Remove the list. It looks spammy.
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your copyright date shows 2010, update it to 2011
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your main testimonial only shares the bad part. The point of a testimonial is to share what a positive difference your company has made. Your current testimonial basically says "A week ago I was hooked on drugs" and that's it. Where is the happy ending? You need to complete it with "...and now thanks to MDS Rapid Drug Detox program I am finally free". There should be a link to a testimonials page on your site.
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Examine the #1 ranked site and notice where they provide a better appearance. They have more trust symbols such as TRUSTe and other badges, for example.
The bottom line is you want more traffic. You can improve your rankings and improve your SERP listing to get better CTR. Even when that happens, you want the best possible site so you can convert that traffic into sales.
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RE: Impressions vs. Clicks
Can you please clarify what type of impressions and clicks you are referring to? I assumed it was from AdWords. I performed a Google.com search for "rapid drug detox" and I see your organic listing as #3 but I do not see any ad for your site.
Otherwise, EGOL's suggestion is the right idea. Modify the advertisement. You have a very few words to share with the goal of causing users to click your ad. Choose those words very carefully.
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RE: How to get a link on Twitter box in Huffington Post?
The Huffington site uses a twitter javascript snippet called Twitter Anywhere. You can learn more about it here: https://dev.twitter.com/docs/anywhere/welcome
The topic in this case is a search for "Jennifer Lopez". The traffic is so insanely high that even if you appeared in the block, it is highly unlikely your tweet would be present during a crawl. The current block shows 1 tweet from 2 days ago, 1 from 1 day ago, 1 from 12 hours ago, and the rest are under 3 minutes old.
J-Lo is very hot right now and seems to be receiving over 20 tweets per minute. The block only holds a set number of tweets so they are flying in and out very fast. This page is likely indexed and reindexed very quickly so even if your tweet was captured on a crawl, it would likely be gone very fast.
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RE: Can anyone please make my day with this domain
There is no way for us to troubleshoot the problem without being there or gaining a much better understanding of the issue you are facing.
Some basic suggestions:
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check to ensure you do not have a pop-up blocker turned on
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check to ensure you do not have an ad-blocker turned on
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try a different browser (IE, Chrome, FF). If that does not work, try a different pc.
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if all else fails, call someone you trust and ask them to purchase the domain.
This Q&A is likely already in search results, and not everyone is honest so you should purchase the domain asap!
PS. Edit your Q&A and remove the domain name asap. It should not have been mentioned publicly.
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RE: Redirection in two phases
You are absolutely correct. I failed to mentioned a 3rd step required for that solution:
one rule to redirect all OURLEX to NURL
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RE: Measurement of Link Value
Arguably the best tool presently available for checking links is Yahoo site explorer. OSE is very good and there are several other tools as well. There is not any tool I am aware of which is "far better" then OSE. At best, a different tool may be superior in one aspect of analysis. If anyone has a differing opinion I would love to hear it!
With respect to link value, there are numerous considerations:
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What is the DA of the site
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What is the PA / PR of the page?
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How many links are on the page?
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Where is your link on the page? Is it in content or in a footer?
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What anchor text is used? Do you have solid anchor text such as "great website design"? Or is it a simple url link?
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How likely is it that more links will be added to the page?
There are other considerations as well but the above are the top ones. Mik's suggestion of checking the cache refresh is excellent. It offers a view into the importance / PR of the page. There are so many other possible considerations such as if Google determines the link is paid, they will devalue the link. If the linking site is on the same C-block as your site, the link would also be devalued.
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RE: Unique businesses - unique domain names?
I agree with Ressler. One site is the best approach.
The sole reason you are seeking 3 domains is to gain the exact match domain benefit. Well, you wont have it because your site name isn't going to be "yoga" or "yoga chicago" which are the likely terms people would use in search. Therefore you will be depending upon the partial match domain boost which is a lot lower then EMD, and it is simply not even close to worth it. You will be sacrificing your DA and the manageability of a single site.
Response to Q1 - first, drop the idea of using hyphenated names. They appear spammy and are undesirable. If you absolutely must use a hyphen, make is a maximum of a single hyphen and understand you will probably regret even that usage. You can separate your functions which categories such as www.mystudio.com/yoga.
Q2 - Again, use a single site and you wont have this worry. You are asking how to manipulate search engines into believing your sites are not related. It wont even come close to working. You want to outsmart a 30+ billion dollar company with an entire team of highly trained professionals who have developed systems designed to prevent you from doing exactly what you are trying to do.
Q3 - same reply as Q2
Q4 - Make one site, put all your time, focus and energy building it to be the best studio site on the planet. Take the money and time you will save from building, hosting and promoting 3 sites and really make your one site fantastic. "Good" is not good enough.
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RE: How to get a link on Twitter box in Huffington Post?
I checked the site's front page and a category page and did not see the widget. Can you offer a URL to a page with the widget?
Twitter does have top tweets based on trending volume, and my guess is that's what is being displayed. I would also imagine these are national or international categories as twitter can display top tweets for a given area.
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RE: Redirection in two phases
Generally speaking, I would not recommend this two phase approach but instead completing the work in a single phase. I'll set that idea aside and presume the two-phased approach is a requirement.
the same content and URLs but the page extension will change (it could become php or just the name of the page without any extension)
I would strongly recommend using the page name without any extension. It not only looks better but it will save you work and benefit your SEO the next time you change systems.
The approach I would recommend is your 3rd option:
- Phase 1: create one rule that will redirect all the OURL to the OURLEX
- Phase 2: remove the rule I created in phase 1 and add redirect OURL to NURL
You want to redirect your site with as few rules as possible to minimize the effort, reduce errors, and minimize server overhead. Additionally, you want to redirect pages with a single redirect. It is a bad practice to allow pages to endure multiple redirects as you will lose a lot of link juice.
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RE: SEO for a eSmoking eCommerce Client ?
I am unclear on your question. What exactly is it you feel Yahoo and Google wont do related to SEO for electronic cigarettes?
A Google search of electronic cigarettes shows exactly what I would expect, numerous sites selling e-cigarettes.
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RE: Google Penalising Pages?
When I perform a search on Google.co.uk for "W11171G2" there are 36 results total returned. Understand first that because we are using such a specific and unique search query, few results are returned and we can see every one. If we change the query to "W11171G2" watch" then 1.2 billion results are returned.
Also, I don't see the page you shared in those 36 results. I see two pages from your site. #21 rank is http://www.firstclasswatches.co.uk/red-dial.html, #11 rank is http://www.firstclasswatches.co.uk/products_search.php?page=8. There are additional results but I need to click "repeat the search with omitted results included" to see them, which most people are unlikely to click.
There are two types of issues when dealing with duplicate content. Google will very often index duplicate and thin content pages, but they are algorithmically penalized in the rankings. The "main" version of the duplicate content will rank fine, and the rest will rank significantly lower.
You are correct that many of your competitors have thin content as well. You should be loving that fact, not upset by it. You can step up your site and take top rankings.
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RE: Do you get penalized for cloaking the nofollow attribute in reciprocal link?
My only goal in responding was to answer your question. I am sharing with you the information that Google, the primary search engine for the US and Europe, has shared. I am not debating my personal views on the topic, but simply sharing how Google views the issue. If the explanation I offered helps in any way, then I am glad. If you disagree with it, that is certainly your right.
There is no debate here. You are clearly cloaking, it is a violation and since it is blatant and intentional, I would suggest it is a severe violation. Your beliefs, my beliefs, your intentions, etc are all completely irrelevant and will never be considered on any level by anyone. The only time they will even be heard is after your site is penalized and you are completing the Reconsideration Request explaining why you violated Google's policies. Even then, they are unlikely to be directly responded to.
Good Luck.
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RE: Do you get penalized for cloaking the nofollow attribute in reciprocal link?
You are welcome to other opinions, but if they differ they are wrong. There are relatively few hard facts in SEO but you have clearly touched upon a basic one.
Quality guidelines - basic principles
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Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as "cloaking."
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Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
Some examples of cloaking include:
- Serving different content to search engines than to users.
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66355
If you go through with your actions, it is pure cloaking which is a highly intentional and deceptive act. Your words about your honorable intent are absolutely not valid by any reasonable means. Presenting the links as nofollow to search engines in no way contributes to cleaner, better SERPs. Even if they did, it would be like robbing a bank, giving the money away and then when you are arrested stating you were just trying to help society. You may disagree with the analogy but it is actually pretty good. As a webmaster you contribute by following the rules and guidelines, not breaking them.
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RE: Do you get penalized for cloaking the nofollow attribute in reciprocal link?
Any time you intentionally target search engines and show them different content then normal users, it is cloaking and you can be penalized for the action.
I cannot think of any reason to perform such an action unless you are trying to deceive your linking partners.
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RE: How can I reduce the number of links on a page and keep the site easy to navigate?
I believe there are just 2 links each to FB and Twitter - one at the top and one at the bottom.
I noticed in the top there are the "f" and "t" icons which each link to facebook and twitter respectively. In addition, there is the "@NantucketBrand which is a twitter link, and "Facebook instantly" which is a facebook link. It's ok to have these variations if they are helpful and visitors use them. I point them out mainly because they may not be used or there may be confusion as to how they are used compared to the normal "f" and "t' icons.
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RE: Google Penalising Pages?
I agree. I did pick up one advance warning indicator. If you highlight any text and try to use the insert/edit link button but the button wont show as active, your post will be lost when you press Post Reply. It is the only way I know to detect an issue before it actually occurs.
PS. Jamie, sorry for hijacking your Q&A here but I am hopeful we have addressed your question
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RE: Does a 'Certified Domain' help SEO?
Yes, particularly McAfee and Verisign.
This is my belief and not necessarily commonly accepted (yet) amongst the SEO community. I base this belief on a few things:
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Panda. The questions asked of Panda reviewers were of the type "Would you trust this site with your credit card information". There are studies which clearly demonstrate improved CTR based on the addition of symbols, which tells me these symbols have a positive influence on these decisions. Additionally, the inclusion of these badges are an item which Google can easily track. It is also easy for Google to separate out authentic badges from the many sites who fake it (i.e. show the trust badge image but do not offer the functionality).
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Security. I sincerely believe sites with McAfee and VeriSign are more secure. I have a client who actually accepted direct credit card payments without SSL on his site. Doing such is a major violation of credit card acceptance, but somehow he managed to do it (prior to hiring me) and he got nailed. Someone hit his site with malware which stole credit card information. He fixed the problem but of course the malware issue impacts rankings.
If I can ever make the time I intend to write an article on this topic as I have done quite a bit of research. In my opinion VeriSign and McAfee's value is significantly higher then other SSL certificates due to their recognition amongst users. Trustwave, GoDaddy and other providers may offer a similar service, but it is very clear to me those badges do not offer the same recognition as do Verisign and McAfee. I just worked with a client who, on my recommendation, turned down a free eCommodo SSL and purchased a Verisign badge for $266. The bottom line is if that Verisign badge yields one extra customer per year, it pays for itself. This particular client sells a $60 product which is purchased monthly and has a high profit margin.
Also McAfee and Verisign (Norton) both have an extension with millions of users each. Users of their AV software will have sites with their trust badges highlighted with their "Seal in Search" feature. Clearly this function is designed to influence CTR and each company provides numbers to show support that conclusion. As far as ranking, I can't say whether Google uses this information as a ranking factor but I know they could and perhaps even should. If I was Google, I would address users with those browser extensions installed by boosting the rankings for sites with the specific seals.
In April of next year the Verisign Seal will change it's name to Norton. If Norton does not do any advertising, this may cause a significant drop in that seal's recognition and value. It's a big unknown at this point.
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RE: Google Penalising Pages?
even more annoying is when you spend a while typing up a response, click "post reply" and then it disappears lol
Please open a ticket with the help desk (help@seomoz.org) and let Nick know about the problem! Sha suckered me...err....convinced me to do such and I have been feeding them examples for some time. They are having difficulty reproducing the issue. The more details they gather, the sooner it can be fixed. Please include your browser version information too.
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RE: How can I reduce the number of links on a page and keep the site easy to navigate?
I would again suggest reviewing your Analytics to see which links on your page actually receive clicks. Consider removing unused links. A few specifics:
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You have 3 links to your facebook and twitter each. Two links in the upper-right header area, and one in the footer. Perhaps one link to each in the header is enough?
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You offer multiple links to an external site (list-manage1.com) for your mailing list signup. Consider consolidating to a single link and offer this function internally.
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Your footer offers a separate link to Google maps for each location. I see the value of this setup IF the links are actually used. These links appear on every page of your site so if they are not being used, you may wish to remove them.
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The only other area I question is the Nautical Decor & Gifts sub-categories. There are 25 of them. If your analytics shows those categories are all being used, I would keep them. Otherwise, you may wish to consider consolidating some of them, or removing the sub-categories all together and having users click through to the main category page which then offers those sub-categories.
I can't tell for certain but it seems your main focus is clothing, and those gifts are more of an additional offerings type of thing. If that is the case, those 25 links are taking a lot of PR away from the more important areas of your site, as those links are offered on every page.
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RE: Does a 'Certified Domain' help SEO?
GoDaddy's Certified Domain option is a $5 trust badge. A trust badge is valued based on two primary factors: recognition and standards. There are no standards for this badge, anyone can get it. While many people have heard of GoDaddy, I would suggest 99% of people have no awareness of what a "certified domain" is with respect to what GoDaddy offers and the badge has no recognition value.
In short, it's crap. http://www.godaddy.com/domains/certified-domains.aspx
You pay $5 and they verify your WhoIs information. That's it.
Most quality sites which involve ecommerce offer SSL certificates such as VeriSign or McAfee. These certificates are far more recognizable and offer much higher levels of tangible "certification". I wouldn't accept GoDaddy's certification symbol for free. That's just my opinion and others may share a different view.
I have used GoDaddy before but have since switched to NameCheap. GoDaddy's customer service is ok, but they are highly sales oriented with offers (i.e. sending spam e-mails and making their site difficult to use without being overwhelmed by offers) to customers asking them to buy a wide array of completely unnecessary products and services such as this domain certification.
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RE: Google Penalising Pages?
Thanks Steve.
My reply bothers me because I can't get the spaces between the sentences to stick. I even tried on a different pc and the dang thing doesn't like spaces. Oh well.
I thought your reply was spot on and I thought to help out a bit with some specifics.
The "something special" was comprised of a few things, each of which I value highly:
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a personal congratulations from Rand
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a phone call with Rand where he certainly went out of his way to make me feel special
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an as of yet unknown surprise package which should arrive any day. I am hoping for a dart board with Roger's image so I can use it whenever the Q&A gets glitchy or a piece of software doesn't function correctly.
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and a complimentary pass to either MozCon2012 or one of the Distilled Conferences. Since I live in California and I love Seattle I chose the MozCon2012 option. I am very excited about taking this trip next year.
Cheers!
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RE: Google Penalising Pages?
Hi Jamie.
I agree with Steve's assessment. The issue you are experiencing is common amongst ecommerce sites. You offer a lot of links, a ton of duplicate content and the unique content on the page is very thin.
I picked a random product page on your site: http://www.firstclasswatches.co.uk/police-sphere-12778msu61-p-8083.html. I performed a Google.co.uk search for "police sphere X" and your site shows as the 35th result.
When I view the page there are a relatively few number of unique words on the page. The unique sentences I do find seem like they either come from a product feed and are therefore duplicated on hundreds of other websites, or they seem canned as if they are used throughout the site with the current page's product name substituted in the phrase.
Example 1 - "Buy with confidence
This Police Sphere X 12778MSU/61 comes with the full official Police guarantee against manufacturing defects. As a reputable high street jewellers you can buy from First Class Watches with confidence. We are an official UK authorised dealer for every watch listed on this website."
Example 2 - "Authorised Dealer
This Police Sphere X 12778MSU/61 is an authentic, never worn item, supplied to us directly from Police. It is supplied with the official UK Police box, instructions and Police guarantee, exactly as if it were purchased from a high street jewellers. As a high street jewellers you can buy from First Class Watches with confidence. We are an official UK authorised dealer for every watch listed on this website."
The two examples above are the main pieces of "unique" content on the page. If you were to count every word on the page, what percent of the page is exactly the same on every other page of your site? Count your navigation, footer, sidebar and everything. The main content on your pages comes from a 4-tab block: Why Us, Buy with Confidence, Return Policy, Delivery. That content is identical on each page with the exception of substituting the current brand name.
I like many aspects of your site. Your products appear to be high quality and genuine. You offer a magnifying glass which provides detailed closeups of your products. You have established social engagement, a telephone number, your physical address, etc which helps with authenticity. But frankly, your site appears like you can add another 10k products tomorrow through a product feed and not blink an eye. There is absolutely no warmth, no customization, no sense of quality within the content. It is just another e-commerce site carrying products. This type of site was designed to be penalized by Panda.
Some suggestions:
- More images. You offer 1 main image which is fine. People love images. How about unique images of a model wearing the watch in various settings enjoying life.
- More reviews. While you can't force anyone to leave a review, there are many things you can do to encourage it. You can send e-mails to customers who purchased after 30 days requesting a review, as an example.
- More specifics about the exact watch you are showcasing. Was it used in a movie? Do any stars or famous people wear that watch? Does it look like a watch others wear in a fashion magazine?
- Redesign the pages to where the navigation, sidebar and footer present the links which are truly helpful to your users. Examine your Analytics to determine which links are not used. You may be surprised. The content on your page should stand out, not compete for attention against the rest of the page.
- Your "Similar Products" and "Recently Viewed Products" are both examples of potentially helpful blocks and should be retained.
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RE: How can I reduce the number of links on a page and keep the site easy to navigate?
If you are willing to share a link to your site, we can offer a more specific evaluation. Otherwise we are offering vague generalities which may or may not apply to your situation.
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RE: Making a site back link checker proof
There is nothing you can do to stop it.
In order for the link to have value, you need search engines to have visibility to the link. If search engines can see the link, the world can see it.
What you can do is ensure the content on your site is of the highest quality which your competitors will have a difficult time matching, and earning links based on your site's quality. You can also raise the level of quality surrounding your site's products or services and earn links accordingly.
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RE: Making a site back link checker proof
You can block "good" bots. For example, OSE uses the linkscape crawler with rogerbot which can be blocked. For bad bots, the process becomes a lot harder. You can take steps to prevent them from crawling your site, and they can take steps to bypass your steps. It really depends on what your end goals are and how much time and resources you are willing to commit to this project.
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RE: How can I reduce the number of links on a page and keep the site easy to navigate?
How important is the "too many on page links" factor to SEO?
The "too many links" warning is set to alert you on any page with over 100 links. The importance of this warning depends on your site and SEO goals.
There are two general guidelines I would suggest for evaluating your site:
1. Review your site's analytics reports to determine which links are not used. If users are not using the links, you should highly consider removing the link, or at least making some change to the link which would help users find it. Maybe you increase the font size, change the color or move the location.
2. Understand links control the flow of PR throughout your site. You want to use links to help direct visitors to pages which are more useful for users, or perhaps more profitable for you. You do not want necessarily want to provide a link to every area of your site on each page. The links should be helpful and relevant.
Let's say you have a used car site. You do not want to provide a link to every conceivable category possibility from your home page. If you did you would have hundreds of categories representing every manufacturer, every make, every model, every year, every vehicle type (SUV, pickup truck, economy car, sports car, etc.). It's far too much.
Determine a logical breakdown and keep your links to a minimum. You want to make things easy for users. Putting 200+ links on a page makes it very difficult for users to find what they really want.
One method of reducing links is to not offer all the sub-categories, especially when they drop down to 3rd and 4th tier choices. Another method of reducing links is to combine pages. Perhaps you offer links to "About Us", "Contact Us", "Privacy Policy", etc. You could consider combining several pages into one and thereby reducing your links.
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RE: Link building plan
About half of your plan is great, and the other half...not so much.
If your plan is to create one article a month, it should produce a world-class article. Take a look at some of the SEOmoz articles produced by Rand, Cyrus and DrPete. Very clear information, well thought out which provide actionable and relevant information. You can't fit these articles into any of the measurements you proposed such as "300-500 words", "8-10 word headlines", "2-3 links", etc. These are not thoughts which you should have when writing the article. Those thoughts will box you or your writer in and lower the quality of the content.
With respect to your suggestion of looking for hot topics in your niche, yes that is a great idea.
It may be hard to actively participate in 10-20 blogs unless you have a very narrow niche and you are scanning the blogs, not reading them. For example if your site focuses weight loss, maybe you will read blogs on health, fitness, etc. and then only respond to the weight loss articles in which case I can see you being actively involved in 10+ blogs. If you take this approach be sure to remember your focus is to become a sincerely helpful member of the community. Most of your comments should focus the author, the topic, the community and not involve a link back to your site. When it is really relevant, share a link.
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RE: Looking for quality, cheap web design company recommendations
Which is why I was hoping some awesome community members might share a company they worked with and can recommend. I definitely do not want to go in blind on any level
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RE: Looking for quality, cheap web design company recommendations
Thanks for the advice Alan.
I should clarify by "cheap" I try to be very fair too. Web development work in the US is quite expensive due to a variety of factors such as cost of living, taxes, legal system, etc. I recognize many countries such as the ones you mention have some very good programmers who work for low wages. I would ideally like to work with a company or team that has experience building sites and hopefully the relationship can be a win for all involved.
My clients win because they are having quality websites built for significantly less.
The developers win because they have a new source of sales.
My company wins because we are able to create a win for clients and have developers we can work with and overcome a common challenge in the SEO industry whereby the SEO requests changes and the developer pushes back on various levels.
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Looking for quality, cheap web design company recommendations
Does anyone have any recommendations of a very cheap web design company from India or other countries where the work is also high quality?
I can project manage the development and provide a set of web standards such as to use valid code, no meta keyword tags, no flash, etc etc. I am looking for companies I can trust to perform the actual work.
The web is full of companies but examples of quality work with WordPress, Joomla and particular ecommerce platforms is very thin or non-existent. If you can share any companies which you have personal experience with, I would appreciate it.
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RE: How can I see what my web site looks like from a different country?
I highly recommend any site with geo targeting to also permit manual selection. Geo targeting is not perfect and it is a very frustrating user experience to be caught on the wrong version of a site. There are many examples where this occurs.
Use geo targeting only one time on the initial visit. Then allow users to choose their country in case they are not happy with the automatic selection. This process will create a better user experience and allow you to perform testing as you desire.
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RE: Are different IP addresses enough for sites with similar content?
Frankly, it sounds like what you are asking is "how can I trick the search engines into not realizing these two sites are related". I am sorry if that is blunt, but it seems to be accurate. Google is exceptional smart and has tons of data to use to detect manipulation. A few examples:
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who owns the domain? If at any time the same entity purchased or was listed as an owner of the domain, it is reasonable to think Google is aware of this information and no matter what action you take the sites may be considered related.
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do the sites use the same code? Even if you change logos and text, if the same base code is used for both sites, it is likely Google can recognize unique aspects of the code and relate the sites
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you mentioned similar content. Google is also quite capable of recognizing various forms of revising the same content
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are these separate servers with the same host? If so, it is likely they have the same C-block in which case the sites can be related in that manner.
There are many other means by which Google could establish a relation between sites: same Google WMT accounts, sites accessed by the same IPs, same backlinks, the list is quite long.
If the purpose of varying the IP address is to hide the relationship from Google, I would suggest not even worrying about it. You are pursuing black hat methods and to pull it off would require extensive experience and resources.
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RE: What is my site missing for improved ranking - Pls Help
1. Please redirect all non-www traffic to it's www equivalent.
2. Please redirect the http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk/index.html page to the / page.
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RE: What is my site missing for improved ranking - Pls Help
The best solution by far is the .htaccess solution. The canonical tag still leaves you open to others using and linking to the wrong page.
As far as your host, if they are a "real" hosting company, they will have the knowledge to change the htaccess file and probably have done so for hundreds if not many thousands of sites. If they cannot make this change quickly and easily, I would consider changing hosts. Any quality host offers 24/7 telephone or at least ticket support. If I requested this change for any client of mine it would be made in 24 hours at worst, and often much faster.
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RE: What is my site missing for improved ranking - Pls Help
My preference would be to ask your host to make that change. Most small sites use managed hosting, and almost every web host is willing to make that change for their customers.
If you make the change yourself and the slightest mistake is made, your website can be taken offline, your SEO compromised or your web security compromised. Additionally, the order of statements within the .htaccess file can alter the results.
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RE: Site 'filtered' by Google in early July.... and still filtered!
I am exceptionally pleased to hear this result.
You are absolutely correct to not get too excited yet. I would suggest you continue with your current plan for now. If after 10+ days passed your rankings remain, then you have likely resolved the problem and should just exercise caution in re-adding the additional pages.
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RE: Sharethis vs addthis
The nofollow attribute generally would only be applied to an external link if the target was either unknown or not trusted. I would not nofollow any social sharing links.
With respect to adding additional outbound links, as a best practice you always want to minimize links on a page. Social sharing links offer a tremendous amount of value and are welcome on any page of mine.
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RE: Can you spot the reasons for our site dropping in rankings so significantly?
A few items I noticed:
1. Your home page has over 300 links. Ideally you should have under 100 but at least keep it under 150.
2. In the center section you have a "B&Bs By Category" block. I am using FF7 and the top three columns are cut off so the last 3 links in each column cannot be seen. I am unsure if this issue exists in all browsers but this could be taken as hidden links and cause you to incur a penalty. Users cannot see all the links.
3. Your home page title is too long and will get cut off. I would suggest just using your site name and save the rest for your meta description.
4. Going back to the links on the page, it is not simply the number of links but how they are presented. The page is basically a big collection of links. It doesn't present a good user experience.
5. The page itself is actually difficult to read. As you look through the various blocks such as "B&B Articles", you offer teasers of 8 different articles and most do not even complete the first sentence before being cut off with ...
From a Panda perspective of a user looking at a quality webpage, the presentation is not good. There is far too much being crammed onto the page. Several of the link blocks should be removed entirely. The blocks which share content such as "Featured B&Bs" and "B&B Special Offers should either contain fewer entries and/or be widened to 1/2 a page rather then 1/3 of a page.
The above is my feedback and would require a significant redesign of the home page. My suggestion would be to try it with A/B testing.
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RE: What is my site missing for improved ranking - Pls Help
The feedback I previously shared in your prior Q&A still applies.
I see your site presently ranked as the 14th result in Google.co.uk for "chartered accountants swansea".
You have a small site with 17 pages. The recommended approach would be to have your home page rank for your brand name "Harris Bassett" and an internal page to be created which specifically targets the keyword you wish to rank for "Chartered Accountants Swansea".
The process would be as follows:
1. Create a page titled "Chartered Accountants Swansea"
2. Use a H1 tag on the page "Chartered Accountant Swansea"
3. The content on the page should be specifically designed to support the page's topic.
4. There should not be other pages on your site discussing this topic or, if they do, then use anchor text to link back to the main page for the topic.
5. Earn links from other sites to the page using anchor text.
Your site has a variety of issues which I believe I shared with you previously when you presented this same issue.
1. Your home page is presently available under at least 4 unique URLs
http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk/index.html
http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk/
http://harrisbassett.co.uk/index.html
You need to fix this problem for your site on your ranking will suffer. Choose one version of your URL you like and 301 redirect the other versions to the desired URL.
2. Presently your home page title is "Chartered Accountants Swansea | Harris Bassett Swansea". You also have another page on your site, http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk/accountant-swansea.html. The page title is "Harris Bassett | Swansea Accountant". While it is a different phrase, there are strong similarities, especially for such a small site.
The problem is raised because you use the term "chartered" on the latter page, and you do not use any link to refer back to your home page.
3. Your home page is also diluted by focusing multiple terms. The page is further diluted by discussing multiple topics not related to "Chartered Accountants Swansea" such as Taxation, Outsourcing, Financing and Grants.
I know you are looking at your site and comparing it to some other sites with the feeling you should rank better. You are right, you should rank better but that wont happen until you fix the issues with your site. The rankings as they stand seem perfectly valid to me. Yes, you mentioned a few of the 200+ factors which determine a page's rankings where your site performs better, but the above items should be addressed so you can cash in on those metrics.
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RE: False Negative Warnings with Crawl Diagnostic Test
If you trust the target site, follow the link. If you don't trust the target site, nofollow all the links.
If you feel the footer links will actually be seen and used, keep them. If they are not likely to be seen or use, I would suggest removing them.
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RE: Is it hurting my seo ranking if robots.txt is forbidden?
In general, I do not use robots.txt. It is a better practice to use "noindex" for the pages you do not wish to have indexed.
If I had a 10k page site with 50 marketing pages, I would either want to index the entire site, or question why the other 99% of the site exists if it does not help market the products. There are numerous challenges your scenario prevents. If you block 99% of your site with robots.txt or the noindex meta tag, you are severely disrupting the flow of PR throughout your site. Also you are either blocking content which should be indexed, or you are wasting time and resources creating junk pages on your site.
If the content truly should not be indexed, it likely should be moved to another site. I would need a lot more details about the site, it's purpose and the pages involved. Whatever the proper solution, it is not likely going to be using robots.txt to block 99% of the site.
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RE: Is it hurting my seo ranking if robots.txt is forbidden?
Sebes is correct. To add a bit more, it is not necessary to provide a robots.txt file. Actually, it is preferable in most cases not to use the file but it is necessary if you do not have direct control over the code used in every page of your site. For example, if you have a CMS or Ecommerce based site you may not have likely do not have control over many pages on your site which are automatically generated through the software. In these cases the only way you can control how crawlers will treat your site's pages is either to pay for custom modifications to your site's code or to use a robots.txt file.
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RE: Why is open site explorer not showing the top links that if found previously.
Paul, what are you seeing (or not seeing) to lead you to that conclusion?
To the best of my understanding, Linkscape data processing was completed and updated yesterday and OSE was updated yesterday as well.