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Hi,

This is a great article (on the Moz Blog) on how to handle expired content. It mentions pros and cons of the different methods, and though it's from 2012 I think it's still highly relevant. In particular it talks through adding 301 redirects with custom messages, so that you can explain to your visitors that the property has been sold already, and redirect them to a search page, list of nearby properties, or similar. I'd make this really clear, with a bold message of 'Property sold!' or something similar, to avoid quick bounces.

I would personally avoid 404s or 410s, as even if your resulting page is helpful, some users are likely to bounce from this page without even reading the content and realising it's helpful to them. Also, of course, it completely stops the link value of the previous page.

I'd try to get the best of all worlds, and aim for the most user-friendly 301s possible as explained above.

Hope this helps! 
Zoe

Hi Nick,

Is your website responsive, or do you have a separate mobile site?

If it's a separate mobile site, is there a difference between the content on each? If so, I'd have a look at the content and investigate whether the mobile version is more user friendly, for example.

If it's a responsive site, or if the content is the same, I'd investigate the competition. Perform a search for the keyword from a mobile device, and from a desktop device, and check if the websites which are ranking above you on desktop but not mobile have mobile-friendly websites. I've seen this affect some clients more and more, and where we have a mobile-friendly site, that site often ranks slightly better for mobile queries.

Hope this helps, if you do have more information I'd be happy to help some more! 
Zoe

Hi,

Have you added each pages' location to the Meta Title, H1 tag and within the body text of each relevant page?

Also, you could use your internal linking structure to indicate that your location pages are important. For example, ensure each has a prominent link on your homepage, a 'Locations' page and your contact page. You can also have sub-pages for each location, which all link back to the original location page. I see you say you've added postcodes- I'd also add the full addresses of each location.

Does the Solicitor's main name contain a location? This may be why it's confusing the search engines, but the above suggestions should improve this.

I hope this helps!

Zoe

Hi Thomas,

The ill-effect of duplicate content isn't always logical, but generally it follows certain rules. Firstly, it's not so much a 'punishment', as search engines' confusion: if two pages are showing the same content, how does it know which result is going to be better for the user? Google, for example, are forced to choose what they think the best result will be, and if there's duplicate content it lessens your chances of being chosen.

Google don't specifically give penalties for duplicate content, but some practices are risky, for example scraping content from websites without permission. It depends how the content has been duplicated. (See this video from Google's John Mueller)

This post on Moz also clarifies the issues around duplicate content very well.

What type of duplicate content are you worried about? Do you own both of the websites for which you're worried?

Thanks, hope this helps. 
Zoe

Hi Anubis,

I'd first compare the two URLs, and question why search engines are favouring the second URL over the first. Is it because the page has more text, better optimised titles, more links, better internal linking? Is it because the page is more user friendly and what search engines are looking to provide as the answer to the visitor's question? I'd aim to get the most relevant result to the user ranking well, regardless of what's ranking well now, because ultimately that's what search engines are trying to do.

Is it a very competitive niche? I'd also check your on-page optimisation, and the user experience of the page, and ensure there's enough text for search engines to understand the content of the page, and enough information for users.

I'll let someone else come back on the tools, as I always use Open Site Explorer.

Hope this helps! 
Zoe

Hi Brian,

I usually follow this advice from John Mueller of Google in a Google Webmaster Tools help thread:

For search, specifically for geotargeting, the server's location plays a very small role, in many cases it's irrelevant. If you use a ccTLD or a gTLD together with Webmaster Tools, then we'll mainly use the geotargeting from there, regardless of where your server is located. You definitely don't need to host your website in any specific geographic location -- use what works best for you, and give us that information via a ccTLD or Webmaster Tools.You can find out more about geotargeting at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/62399?hl=enand https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en

I think that as long as your website is fast, and usability & speed are prioritised, you won't see a negative effect. If the move causes your site to slow down at all, you might find an issue, but this could go the other way too.

Hope this helps! 
Zoe

What a great response!

Hi,

I'd say Moz' 2015 ranking factors study is great for this, particularly the correlation section. If you scroll to 'Social and Brand Features', there's a graph showing correlations between rankings and shares, broken down by social platform. I've always found this incredibly insightful and useful!

Also the latest Whiteboard Friday, and related Buzzsumo collaboration study, are slightly on a tangent but both very insightful, they investigate any correlation between social shares & backlinks, and touch on the correlations with rankings.

Edit: of course, correlation isn't causation. You might also want to mention this video from Matt Cutts, in which he explains that social signals, like shares, +1s etc, aren't directly factored into algorithms.

I hope this helps! Interested to see anything others might post here too. 
Zoe

Hi Brian,

I think your approach will definitely provide some benefit, as long as you're focusing on quality, relevant links and your blog content is related/aimed at the same audience as your website. The more relevant the blog is to your website as a whole, the better the link value would be.

I'd also work, of course, on your on-page optimisation, and answering/anticipating consumer questions with help pages which are as clear and precise as possible.

Hope this helps! 
Zoe

Hi Gary,

I understand your frustration. There's little industry regulation, and so many methods of SEO being used by different companies, it's hard to choose. I'd ask the following questions, or look for the following information in your search:

• Has the company worked on local SEO before, or do they specialise in it?  If I'm assuming correctly that you're aiming to rank locally in Baltimore, you're best to find a company with knowledge and experience specifically in Local search marketing, as there are many specific techniques which will help your rankings.
• Will they focus on 'white hat' techniques? Generally, assuming you're aiming to build your business for the long term, it's best to use a company which will not cut corners. You want to make sure your company aims to retain SEO clients for the long term.
• Are they going to carry out thorough keyword research? All good SEO companies will be able to explain their keyword research process a little, and this should involve several hours' work, at least, for your specific situation.
• Are they going to include on-page optimisation, a thorough SEO audit, and technical recommendations/changes? There are many companies which will focus only on backlinks for a cheap fee, and in my experience these companies are riskier to hire. It's generally much more beneficial, and future-proof, to hire a company which will dedicate some time to usability and on-page optimisation.
• Ask to see examples of websites the company has worked on. Ask specifically what work they've carried out. Take a look at the pages- does the text read well, does it sound like they've tried to repeat keywords over too many times? Can they show you evidence of successful work they've done before?

Search marketing definitely does cost money, but it also can be one of the best returns on marketing investment. I've worked with so many companies who have had 'bad' SEO in the past, and I really don't like seeing it when carrying out new client audits and work, so it's great that you're spending time finding the right company! This post also talks through quite well the considerations when hiring an SEO.

Please feel free to ask any more questions if you have them, I'm happy to help advise you further!

Thank you, and good luck. 
Zoe

Hi Jamie,

This kind of duplicate content is quite common across the internet, especially on E-commerce sites (manufacturer descriptions) and reseller websites.

Generally if you can't re-word the course outlines, I would focus on ensuring that your page, despite having the duplicate content, still provides the best possible answer to an interested visitor's questions. Re-write the overview to be as informative as possible, and maybe write your own descriptions of each section of the course outlines, if this is feasible. Include visual aids, images, diagrams, charts, any additional information you can which will help the user understand.

Usability is key, so remember the search engines' ultimate aim, to provide the best possible answer to the searcher's query, and make your pages as useful as they can be. If the courses are regulated or provided by a body, link to their website from your pages too, and see if that body has a 'providers' page, or somewhere within their website you can get a link from, if you haven't already.

Hope this helps! 
Zoe

Hi,

Firstly I'd check that Google can index your website. Have you added your site to Google Webmaster Tools? I'd start there and check for any crawl issues, especially your robots.txt file and any no-indexing of pages.

Secondly, if your website is brand new, I'd add your website to Dmoz & some relevant good quality sites like Yelp, Yell, Yellowpages, Google Plus (where relevant). Make sure the details you add to each match exactly with the details on your website. It will take some time for your site to appear in Google's index- sometimes a few days, sometimes a week or so- you can check by typing site:yourdomainname.com into a Google search to find the pages.

If your website is not new & has been indexed by Google before, I'd investigate whether you have a penalty. This post on penalties from white.net is really useful!

Hope this helps, 
Zoe

Hi,

I'm not sure I quite understand what you're trying to ask, do you mean you have lots of keywords (i.e. 'buy red shoes') which have links, and you'd like to create some no-follow links with different anchor text to improve the ratio of commercial links?

If so, I'd suggest that you should first assess your existing links, and remove/no-follow/disavow any which are on poor quality domains, or have very little value. These are probably providing very little benefit anyway, and are your biggest risk. Aim to remove or disavow anything that looks particularly unnatural (for example, keyword-only footer links). After that, if the problem exists still with only good links from valued domains, rather than trying to earn no-follow links, which suggest the author does not trust you (especially in comments), I'd concentrate on earning good quality links. I'd definitely not recommend the comment approach, as this is a big risk for spam penalties, probably bigger than your original problem.

I hope this helps! 
Zoe

Hi,

I'd say yes- even 6 times might be too much if your page text isn't that long. I'd reduce the amount of times you say that keyword, ensure you have synonyms, and above all, make the text user-friendly and readable. Make sure that the page answers the user's questions as quickly as possible, you use header tags and paragraphs, and break it up with some images/other useful information.

Remember that the quantity of keywords and keyword density are less and less important, as long as you have the keyword in the title, H1 and 2-3 times throughout the body content (a few more as relevant if the text is quite long). The Moz beginner guide to SEO discusses common myths, and one of them is keyword density- it's very insightful, I'd recommend reading it!

Hope this helps, 
Zoe

Hi,

You've already had some great suggestions! I'd also consider Google Adwords text ads, if you're looking to get traffic to your website quickly, as these can bring traffic right away. You can then work on optimisation to make the campaign more budget-effective.

Thanks, 
Zoe

Hi,

How are you checking the rankings? Through looking at the SERP, or through a tool like Moz? If it's just been changed today, I'd say this is probably coincidence, depending on what you've changed it to. Google doesn't update meta data in real time, and so you'll probably not see a change for a couple of hours-up to a week, depending on how often Google re-indexes your site.

This is more likely to be caused by something else, from the sound of it!

Hope this helps, 
Zoe

Hi Micromano,

I'd say that having one big website, rather than four smaller ones, is what I'd recommend also, combined with a really sound and solid website structure. Whilst authorship is less of a focus, I wouldn't remove any work you've done on that, as there've been mentions from Google staff that this may come back in the future. Re: branding, I'd say that it's incredibly important- if a company has a really strong 'About Us' page, which details experience and history and really demonstrates that your company is real and trustworthy, this will help both rankings and user trust (leading to greater conversion rates).

In response to your two questions about parent pages, I'd say the URL is less important. What's important is that you use the parent pages to build your site's architecture in terms of links. So, the homepage of your website should have clear, bold links to the 4 areas you cover, and your website's navigation should ideally be structured with 4 links, and maybe drop-down menus for the sub-pages of each area? If search engines can infer the structure of your site just by following your links, this will help (and will help users too!)

You should also make sure each of the 4 'area' pages is filled with rich information, and is structured as a landing page with general information, and links to the most important sub-pages.

In summary, site architecture is a lot more important than just the URLs of the site, I'd recommend you use good internal linking structures to indicate that your site is structured in this way.

Hope this helps! 
Zoe

Hi James,

I'm not sure this approach will work, as Google is getting better and better at reading Javascript links. In this post from Search Engine Land, Adam Audette researched Javascript links, and found that all tested links were found and followed by Google.

Do you have a very large number of links? I'd try using heat-map data tools (for example MouseFlow) to work out what your visitors are actually clicking on on your site, and whether you could narrow down the number of links that way, keeping user experience as your key factor.

Hope this helps, good luck!

Hi,

Thanks for your reply, that should help too, and opening hours for each business if they're not already there. Do you also have each location set up with its own location page on Google Plus? Having great citations across the rest of the web, with consistency for each location, should help too.

Good luck! 
Zoe

Hi,

I'm not aware of any tools which can automate this, but I can share my usual process with you. When I'm approaching a new E-Commerce store's keyword research, I'll usually create a prioritised list of the top pages on site, based on the client's goals, and current top page data. Ideally each product page will have the target keyword in the title- though this isn't always the case- so I'd go through based on popularity of products, and best margins, to ensure the keywords are good, and the descriptions are unique and optimised. Are the products already generating sales, or are they sold elsewhere? Could you get a list of the best sellers from other platforms?

I'll usually make a prioritised list of pages in Excel, usually starting with the homepage, then categories, then sub categories and products, to write optimised descriptions & meta data. It can be a huge job- I have one client with over 20,000 products and nearly 3,000 categories for example- but I haven't found a way to really automate this process yet!

Definitely keen to hear how other SEOs respond to this, it's a very interesting question. 
Hope this helps, 
Zoe

Hi Nicholas,

I'd avoid any automated programmes like this- did they explain how it works? Does it just pull the first line of your page text or product description or something similar to be your meta description? Lots of software can do this, but it's not necessarily the best way- your meta descriptions should be compelling for users who see them in search, and they don't directly impact your ranking anyway. Your meta titles can also be generated automatically, most CMS systems will do this for you automatically unless you override the description, or you'll be able to change your settings or add a module/plugin to do this (e.g. so that a product title is the meta title, followed by your brand name). What is your website built on? E.g. Wordpress, Magento, PrestaShop?

I wouldn't trust this company though, as you'll be able to make such improvements yourself, and worst case scenario they might hurt your rankings.

Hope this helps! 
Zoe

Hi Gary,

If you're happy to teach yourself, I'd say go for it! It does take time to learn and there's a lot to it, but it's very rewarding. I'd start with the resources available for free on Moz, and get a good head start (especially the Beginner's guide to SEO). Then perhaps you could get someone to give you an SEO audit, with prioritised recommendations, and implement them yourself?

Hope this helps, 
Zoe

Hi,

Backlinks certainly help, if there's no links at all to your site that could be a reason, but it's hard to say without looking deeper.

Are your internal pages all linked to each other? Does your website have a structured navigation system? This is also really necessary to ensure Google will index your whole site, not just a couple of pages.

Zoe

Hi,

It's my understanding that using responsive design/content, and dynamically serving content, does not cause a risk for any cloaking penalties. These are all recommended ways, along with a separate mobile site, to serve content to users (see this Google Webmaster article) The most important thing is that smartphone users see all content which Google's Smartphone Googlebot will see, and that desktop users see all content which the desktop Googlebot will see (as there are different Googlebots for this).

Here's a video from Matt Cutts, explaining that as long as the hiding is done for user experience rather than search engine deception, it's ok: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-hiding-content-17136.html

Hi Dan,

Moz just announced today some changes to the on-page optimisation reports, here, this should answer your questions about the change in grading!

Thanks, 
Zoe

Hi Gavo,

I agree with Moosa; work on other pages around the website, and also your website itself. Aim to get your website at number 1, with sitelinks, and then your other related business pages- I'd also add Google Plus to the suggestions, as this one tends to be able to rank quite quickly on Google, and also any other relevant channels.

Good luck! 
Zoe