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Super smart idea to be doing this. The best way to make sure this is pixel perfect is to use the Google Webmaster structured data tool: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2650907?hl=en

As a best practice for paid ads, you should definitely follow Google's stated best practice for links: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569?hl=en
This clearly states that nofollow should be used for advertising relationships. In your specific case it may be that your site isn't presenting ads in a way that would automatically be flagged but it is a big gamble for little reward to assume they won't catch this.

Your confusion is warranted though, as more links from a reputable source around relevant keywords should be something that would help them. However, if the links/keywords and site show patterns of a link scheme, then a potential penalty could be incurred - see Google's statement on this:https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en&visit_id=1-636413527986263403-257027443&rd=1

TL;DR - go with nofollow for advertising links.

We have consistently found as of writing this that across all of our clients you can expect to have about 40% of your queries hidden/not provided/(other). This part of Google's logged in chrome users that have opted to protect their data. Here is a guide on other ways to understand this search behavior: https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/6-tips-for-dealing-with-keyword-not-provided/

Also, since you still have visibility on about 60% of your data, you can assume a power law distribution of volume across the keywords you have - remove branded terms in most cases when doing this. Also, you can use your top organic landing pages traffic data to confirm this - which should also reveal conversion value that is hidden from queries.

Hey Ryan,

Welcome! In short - yes - I have seen rankings shift quickly, but time frame is important. Huge shifts overnight might just be due to the crawls updating if you just started your account. Since I can't see your account, keywords, or time frame I have attached our chart of how rankings and traffic change. You will have a sense of how this is seasonally affected.

What we have seen is the higher the search volume, the higher the MOZ rank volatility.

https://moz.com/blog/ranking-fluctuations

kNxUz

Hey Ricky,

Just to answer the straightforward questions - yes - profile links vs expert source reference are weighted differently. Though there are tons of other factors in play like the anchor text (does it show as repetitive generic spam or organic linking), the reputation of publication, and whether they made it a rel=nofollow link could hurt the reputation of the publication causing it to be less than a profile link.

Profile links can help with the exact brand name but not as much for the general search terms you're going for.

Local business SEO is tougher to be sure - make sure to check out the Moz local tool: moz.com/local   and be sure to register with Google Business to manage how you show up.

Big picture! Do all of these small actions matter, especially when you can't see the ROI on day 1 =  yes.  SEO is the ongoing act of optimization - not a one and done action. Keep in mind that you are also crushing it for awareness and reputation when you land those press hits and thought leadership placements, regardless of the SEO value. Doing the little things the right way will add up over time. Here is a solid backup of link building as a strategy: https://moz.com/blog/state-of-links

Hope that helps!

Hey ThreeDrops,

I had issues with this too when I started dealing with moving from print to web images. Here is a quick guide to help you understand the difference between pixels and DPI:  https://99designs.com/blog/tips/ppi-vs-dpi-whats-the-difference/

The quality level you need to maintain for web is basically 72dpi and if you use the right types of compression and file type you can greatly reduce those JPEGs you're probably using. Here is a quick tool to do this: https://tinypng.com/

Best of luck!

Hey K3,

Looks like you have bigger fish to fry, your host domain is throwing a 503 server error. No server = no content = no robots.txt  will be able to be found until that is resolved. Error still happening as of this post: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/https://k3syspro.com

Hey Ben,

This is a big 'it depends', but here are some things to consider:

• What is best for the user? Google will tend to favor this over time.
• Is this part of a larger regional strategy that you will be rolling out for other locations. In this case, keeping things on the primary domain would be a better idea over time if you are doing properly structured sub-folder urls
• If it is a physical location use Google Biz to register and link it properly to the main site you want
• use Schema.org to properly tag the info of the location

The regional site should naturally win out for a local search and using the main site to direct users to the regional _should _give it a bump in relevance. As long as you don't duplicate too much content on that sub-folder page it shouldn't compete. So I would go with that strategy, but then monitor MOZ and Search Console to see if it starts to cannibalize. In this case you can quickly remove your main site page from the index.

Hope that helps.

Gross - that is the worst feeling to see that kind of drop for a client. I would need a look at your GA data for landing pages/keywords from Search Consule to accurately diagnose. But, here are some solid threads to chase:

• Google Knowledge Graph - We saw this when Google added graph answers for medical terms for one of our clients. Action: do the search incognito to see if Google Graph screwed you.
• GA tracking broken - make sure there isn't anything odd with your filters, check an unfiltered account. I have seen interns accidentally filter out a part of site or subdomain.
• Relaunch issues around 404 pages.
• Use MOZ to track your top traffic keywords. Falling off of SERP 1 / Page 1 can cause this kind of drop
• Seasonality - make sure you are looking at year-over-year, if the keywords are seasonal it could be normal. IE Christmas traffic is going to drop in Jan...

Hope that helps, feel free to post some more data and I can take a look. GL!

Well, I have a few ways that are non-MOZ, so hopefully, I don't get dinged on points

• Screaming Frog - crawl their site to get a full anatomy and understand how their architecture is built around keywords
• iSpionage.com - great way to understand keywords they pay and play for
• Similarweb.com - gives an idea of traffic composition
• AdWords Keyword planner - you can toss in a website URL and it will give you keyword suggestions. That will give you buckets of keywords they may be using - don't just do their homepage though!

Once you have a list of keywords you can use MOZ to build your content and measure against your competition. GL!

Hey K3,

Looks like you have bigger fish to fry, your host domain is throwing a 503 server error. No server = no content = no robots.txt  will be able to be found until that is resolved. Error still happening as of this post: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/https://k3syspro.com

Big topic!

Great that you are thinking intentionally about this now, rather than jumping on here asking why your organic traffic has flatlined post launch. I have attached an internal doc we have that gives a checklist of things to do a consider to mitigate disaster.

Big picture, MOZ is great for keeping an eye on the keywords that drive traffic and see where you are losing ground post launch. More details in the attachment. GL!

Hey Ben,

This is a big 'it depends', but here are some things to consider:

• What is best for the user? Google will tend to favor this over time.
• Is this part of a larger regional strategy that you will be rolling out for other locations. In this case, keeping things on the primary domain would be a better idea over time if you are doing properly structured sub-folder urls
• If it is a physical location use Google Biz to register and link it properly to the main site you want
• use Schema.org to properly tag the info of the location

The regional site should naturally win out for a local search and using the main site to direct users to the regional _should _give it a bump in relevance. As long as you don't duplicate too much content on that sub-folder page it shouldn't compete. So I would go with that strategy, but then monitor MOZ and Search Console to see if it starts to cannibalize. In this case you can quickly remove your main site page from the index.

Hope that helps.

Hey Ryan,

Welcome! In short - yes - I have seen rankings shift quickly, but time frame is important. Huge shifts overnight might just be due to the crawls updating if you just started your account. Since I can't see your account, keywords, or time frame I have attached our chart of how rankings and traffic change. You will have a sense of how this is seasonally affected.

What we have seen is the higher the search volume, the higher the MOZ rank volatility.

https://moz.com/blog/ranking-fluctuations

kNxUz

Hey ThreeDrops,

I had issues with this too when I started dealing with moving from print to web images. Here is a quick guide to help you understand the difference between pixels and DPI:  https://99designs.com/blog/tips/ppi-vs-dpi-whats-the-difference/

The quality level you need to maintain for web is basically 72dpi and if you use the right types of compression and file type you can greatly reduce those JPEGs you're probably using. Here is a quick tool to do this: https://tinypng.com/

Best of luck!

As a best practice for paid ads, you should definitely follow Google's stated best practice for links: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569?hl=en
This clearly states that nofollow should be used for advertising relationships. In your specific case it may be that your site isn't presenting ads in a way that would automatically be flagged but it is a big gamble for little reward to assume they won't catch this.

Your confusion is warranted though, as more links from a reputable source around relevant keywords should be something that would help them. However, if the links/keywords and site show patterns of a link scheme, then a potential penalty could be incurred - see Google's statement on this:https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en&visit_id=1-636413527986263403-257027443&rd=1

TL;DR - go with nofollow for advertising links.