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Agree with Andy and Donford.
I've seen it take as long as 8 months. It really depends on how long it takes for Google to reindex your site and every other page that previously pointed (backlinked) to you. It also assumes, as Andy-Halliday has pointed out, you've done your redirects correctly.
Don't give up. Don't change it back. Be patient. The only thing you can do is earn more and better links and that's not really recovering faster, it's augmenting your existing authority.
Hi William,
I took a quick look at your GMB Listing. It doesn't display your address.
When I plug your business name and zip into the Moz Local Check Listing tool, your business comes up with an address (34th street) that is different from that listed on your website (49th street). The 34th street address is used on a significant number of the data aggregator sites as well as sites like Brownbook, Mapquest, Yahoo Local, Yelp and Yellow Pages.
That's undoubtedly at least part of the problem. You need to fix your address so it is consistent in all places.
Hmm.
Will you have a folder for your blog? Something like http://www.domain.ext/blog/<topic-or-category>/articles/<article-name>? I think I found your site (wednet) and it looks like you already have a blog and a few other important pages in the root directory. </article-name></topic-or-category>
I would NOT park the articles themselves in the root domain. While you want a flat(ish) architecture, you don't want it to be completely level; you want your most important "money" pages in the root directory. If you have 15-20 categories and 3-15 articles per category, you'd have between 45 and 300 posts in the root directory and that's too flat.
If it were me, I'd go with http://www.domain.ext/blog/<article-name>. (Notice I removed "/<topic-or-category>/articles" from the example you provided.) You can use Wordpress to set up topic-or-category pages e.g. http://www.domain.ext/blog/<topic-or-category>/<article-name>, but these should be noindexed. They're there only to make it quick and easy for your audience to find what they're looking for. </article-name></topic-or-category></topic-or-category></article-name>
At some point you may want to start indexing your category pages. There has been lots of discussion about that on this Q&A. It's a personal choice and it can result in increased traffic and conversions BUT you should make an effort to customize category pages so they are absolutely unique before you decide to do that.
Great question. Great discussion.
Matt Cutts very specifically said "if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop" (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/). He didn't say "stop guest blogging altogether". Two different things.
Lizzie Borden murdered her parents with an axe. That doesn't mean axes should be outlawed for chopping wood. (Sorry, but it gets my point across.) As others above and elsewhere have pointed out, there are and remain very good reasons to guest blog. If you continue to provide value to your intended audience without trying to draw too much attention to yourself, you'll be fine. I know that's subjective, but EGOL gave concrete examples of what NOT to do.
Hi there Wendy,
Wordpress allows you to specify a default permalink structure that will allow you to avoid inclusion of "/year/month/title".
In the left-hand menu select Settings > Permalinks. Choose the last option (custom) and append "/blog/%postname%/" after your domain name.
Hi KempRuge,
I, like others, have been using an excel spreadsheet. But you're looking for a shared tool, I recommend taking a look at the following articles that I previously bookmarked for when the need arises:
I'd also consider something as basic as Trello, a simple, portable project management tool that would enable shared tracking of the various phases of content development similar to what EGOL has described.
Hi Joe,
Not sure how you detected this problem. Was it on Moz Open Site Explorer? If that's the case, then Gaston has provided an answer. Especially if those 900 links were coming from very few sources, it's credible that Moz may not have picked them up in the last build of its backlink index.
If you detected it using another tool, or even with Moz, I'd use a few other sources to confirm whether you have a problem or not. Take a look at Search Console, MajesticSEO, and/or aHrefs. They will show you how many links you have. The last two will show you patterns of acquisition and loss. Most sites gain and lose links over time. You'd want to look for an abrupt change in pattern.
If that doesn't answer your question, let us know and we can pursue other possibilities.
According to Matt Cutts, "... there are really only two viable options. You can either have unique metatag descriptions, or you can choose not to put any metatag description at all. Definitely don’t have duplicate metatag descriptions."
Often the best approach for e-commerce sites is to leave meta descriptions blank. Google will dynamically create them using text it derives from your page content, often highlighting the user's own search terms. I say that b/c: (a) it's a huge effort to come up with unique meta descriptions for thousands of products; (b) allowing Google to create them better ensures searchers will see their own search terms fed back to them in search results; and (c) thereby increases click thru rates.
Hi Tom3_15,
Should I create a new view in analytics? No. There's no need and you want to easily compare before and after.
Should I also create a new https property in Google search console and set it as the preferred domain? Yes
If so, should I keep the old sitemap for my http_ property while updating the sitemap to https only for the https property? _Keep the old sitemap for your http property. Add the new sitemap (with https URLs) to the new (https) property.
Thirdly, should I create a new property as well as new sitemaps in Bing webmaster? Yes
Finally, after doing a crawl on our http_ domain which has a 301 to https, the crawl stopped after the redirect, is this a result of using a free crawling tool or will bots not be able to crawl my site after this redirect? _I don't know why your crawl stopped after the redirect. I use screaming frog and it continues to crawl after the 301 so it might, as you suggest, be a function or shortcoming of the particular tool you're using. BOTs should be able to continue to crawl your site after the redirect. Google certainly can.
I agree w. EGOL. While I've seen instances of more than one blog on a site, it tends to work well when you're tackling large volume of content spanning a broad and deep mix of topics aimed at different audiences. Looks like it might be over-kill in your situation.
Hi Dave,
I think the sequencing of words in the URL is less important than the sequencing of words in the title tag. That said, if I were you I'd look up "keyword+location" and "location+keyword" in Google Planner and make my choice based on what I learn there. Which version gets the most searches? Which is harder to rank for? And which looks like it might have the better commercial value?
The length of the URL is going to be the same either way, so err on the side of the sequencing that best fits your overall ranking objectives.
You have two options, completely rewrite or update.
If you completely rewrite the old post, then retire and redirect it. If you update the existing post, include content at the top of the post that explains what you've done, when you did it, and why. Republish.
Don't just copy and paste the old blog post, edit it slightly, and publish as a new one. You'll end up competing with yourself for rankings and confusing your audience.
Hi Jennita.
This statement - "In our mind it simply means that the original poster got the answer they needed." - makes me wonder if you might have missed a key point Dana was trying to make, that being shouldn't the original poster be the one who decides if they "got the answer they needed" or not? Perhaps you got that totally and I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I think her point is an excellent one and that's why I'm circling back on it again... just to be sure.
This is good to know Trevor; thanks for sharing. I think it would be great of you guys published some guidelines for how to use the thumbs-up / thumbs-down feature, and just to encourage more folks using it. I'm sometimes amazed at the great stuff I learn from comments and wonder why I'm the only one that seems to appreciate it.
PS - I checked to see what guidelines are published before stating this. Your "answering questions" help link is broken.
You both (EGOL and DANA TAN) raise good points of consideration. I'm glad this topic came up b/c I have myself been frustrated when my question gets marked "answered" when I feel it has not. I like her proposal.
EGOL, I suspect your first two observations are accurate - that people "mark a question as "answered" when they get a response that they "like" instead of the response that they "need" and that "the best answer sometimes gets thumbed down because it requires work." A suggestion would be that they simply get tagged "closed" with no judgment as to whether the answer was good or bad, answered the intent of the query or not. That might also help when people do a subsequent search for a topic and find conflicting answers. That's happened to me, and to EGOL's point (rules and best practices change over time), I understand why. But seeing the question marked as "answered" just adds to the confusion, especially if you're new.
I think your suggestion about making "active" the default view is a good one.
I also want to say that I love it when Moz chimes in and marks an answer as a good one or endorses it. Really encourages participation and provides helpful information to all readers.
Can you clarify a few other questions that come to mind? Do you still only want original content and what is the expected turn-around from submission to decision. Days? Weeks? Months? I
Obviously if folks can share canonicalized content they've already published on their own blog, there'd be a HUGE incentive to submit. I ask about timing to align expectations and to help folks decide if it's worthwhile submitting posts that are time sensitive.
Are there any other changes to the submission / approval process that I have not thought to ask about?
Thanks!
Dr. Pete, I don't think you sound defensive at all. It's good to share all perspectives. And EGOL, as usual, is very open with his thinking.
Clearly it's a balancing act and there is no miracle cure. I suggest that we could ask the original poster to indicate if they're satisfied with the answer(s) provided and state that the question will be marked closed when we hear back from them OR in X days, which ever comes first.
Of course there's many ways to skin a cat and you've probably considered that, or a similar suggestion and quite a few others. If nothing else, this discussion clearly demonstrates Moz TAGFEE in action!
As you can see from Egol's response, you need to take a big picture approach to optimization. There aren't any quick fixes anymore, especially in competitive markets.
Rather than focusing on article submissions or social media backlinks (which sound like you're emphasizing link growth first), take a step back and come up with a strategy that's going to work long-term for your website, industry and specific target market. There are a ton of good resources on the site to help you do that. This query surfaces helpful Q&A and articles from the last year alone. I suggest you start there.
Then, come back here with more questions. The more specific you can be, the better the answers you'll get. There are a lot of people who are willing to share their lessons learned and past experiences here.
Good luck!
A similar question was asked a while ago and here's what Moz Staffer Keri Morgret had to say.
"Here's some information from Google itself:
http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861
Words that are commonly used, like 'the,' 'a,' and 'for,' are usually ignored (these are called stop words). But there are even exceptions to this exception. The search
So you can see that there is no definitive list of "stop words"; the answer is contextual. Try your proposed title tag with and without the "stop word". If it has the same meaning both ways, you can safely omit it. If you think it will invoke a better response from viewers or clarifies some subtle distinction and you can fit it in within the known pixel constraints, then consider adding it.
It is also believed (but not confirmed) that Google does not publish star ratings on home pages.
https://mza.bundledseo.com/community/q/schema-markup-star-ratings
.... "and then build the second site's authority up from there".
He'd be far better off putting that effort and expense into building up his main site's authority. Show him an example of a close or direct competitor who has accrued valuable links (and thereby authority) by researching, publishing and promoting some high-value content.
Agree,
Use your own client's data to support this theory.
Build a case for what seems like common sense to the rest of us.
If your client is like the one Lee describes (fuel, with fluctuating prices), then you should at least provide something helpful like "We don't list prices because they fluctuate daily. Please refer to X to gauge industry pricing."
You can also use Google Search Console to ask Google to temporarily remove the page from its index. As Linda said, it should eventually drop off the index on its own, but this can help speed it up.
Go to Search Console > Google Index > Remove URLs.
I'd also make sure I wasn't continuing to link internally to the page.
I imagine they have a variety of ways. If they're like most social media channels, they'd probably look at things like:
Can Moz weigh in on this please? There is a lot of really good discussion on this particular topic across multiple threads but no clear direction. What does Moz recommend and why? The why is important and here's why.
If I have a client with an established blog that uses the blog.domain versus domain/blog structure, should I be recommending they migrate to a different structure?
Hey NYWA,
It's hard to tell based on the information provided. I suggest you experiment a bit with the keywords and locations you're trying to rank for.
For example, if you're trying to rank for "Southampton automotive repair services" and there's very little competition, then there's probably no need to try to rank separate pages for engine repair, heating and AC, brakes and rotors and so on. Just optimize for "Southampton automotive repair services" and be sure to include keywords when describing the different services offered in your page copy. If, on the other hand, there is a lot of competition and they have gone all-out to optimize pages for each of these distinct services, then you'd be best to do the same, only better.
Make sense?
The meta keywords tag has no positive ranking value. Some folks believe they "do no harm" so fill them in just in case. I think if you read thru past Q&As on this topic, you'll find that a majority of the knowledgeable folks in this community believe it's not worth the effort of populating meta keyword tags unless you want to play games with the competition and distract them with meaningless or conflicting keywords.
If your website auto generates keyword tags, just leave them blank.
A well architected and engaging website, SEO and social media are all intertwined. Each one helps the other. How much depends on your objectives. Alexandra Tachalova's post demonstrates how social media can impact exposure, links, and engagement.
Can you expand on your question a bit more? I don't understand.
Just adding to what Dmitrii said...
Rand offered an explanation in August on this Q&A - https://mza.bundledseo.com/community/q/august-3rd-mozscape-index-update-our-largest-index-but-nearly-a-monthly-late.
Like Dmitrii, while I can understand why the delays are happening, I hate learning after the fact that the update is delayed. I've concluded that every two months is the new normal, at least for now, and am setting my own and client expectations accordingly.
This was fun. I was glad to see some of the names I watch closely pop to the top.
Will Don earn extra Mozpoints for having earned at "pin to the top"? He should 
I've seen a lot of rankings flux (up and down) over the last week. You can also see that reflected in the Mozcast. MozCast is a weather report showing turbulence in the Google algorithm over past 30 days. The hotter and stormier the weather, the more Google's rankings changed. It's been 90 degrees or hotter all week.
I wouldn't react. Just wait for the dust to settle.
Not to be a smart ass or anything, but it sounds like you answered your own question JP.
There is no right or wrong answer to "are meta descriptions really necessary". Often times it is best to let Google self-generate the meta description so it matches the intent of the user query. Especially when, as it sounds like in your case, you're talking about an ecommerce site with maybe (?) a lot of product pages and long-tail keyword queries your pages could be eligible to rank for. In my mind, the real question is whether you'd be better off spending your time creating great content, or trying to craft unique meta description tags for product pages that are already "generating a better CTR than if I were to plug something in there myself."
It's a judgment call.
Just look at Google webmaster tools to be sure there are no external incoming links. Then go ahead and move it.
Appreciate the update. Thank you!
Fraid not, but I did find this article from October 2013 helpful. (I have no relationship with the site owners. Just found the site when I was looking into options myself.) It compares the reach and benefits of different alternatives.
This article compares the costs, pros and cons of most of the options mentioned above. It's ws published just this month, so it it's current.
Lastly, someone on Moz asked in October last year " if anyone had experience or recommendations between either Taboola or Outbrain (or a better service I haven't heard of yet)". Here are the responses.
That should help!
Hi Wseabrook,
I like this article by Hubspot that suggests ways to design a persona-centric website. http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/32434/How-to-Design-a-Persona-Centric-Website-Experience.aspx.
For example, one suggestion is to give visitors the opportunity to self-select who they are so they can be routed to custom content on the website. The example given was an earlier version of Hubspot that displayed "I am a business owner" and "I am a marketer" on the home page. I did a Google search for "I am a website owner" and found lots of examples of sites using that tactic effectively to partition their content and effectively demonstrate an understanding of their audience. Here are a couple of examples:
You could use the same tactic to find other examples of self-selection as well as the other options suggested in the article.
Happy hunting!
I don't think you can use Screaming Frog for that. It will certainly give you a ton of information about a single website, but it doesn't allow you to scrape Google search results and derive meta data for the top X results. Unless I'm missing something....
Depends on whether you're doing organic SEO, local SEO or both.
From an organic perspective, I agree with EGOL and Dennis above, there are pros and cons to going either way. I think most would agree a single site is better because of the ability to consolidate your efforts into building a single brand and site equity.
From a local perspective, the same argument holds. You also need to bear in mind Google's requirements to not mislead people into thinking there are two businesses when there is only one. To have two approved local listings, you'd have to have two separate legal entities, with two separate and distinct business addresses, and two separate websites and local phone numbers.
Thank you Keri. Such a speedy response!
And NOW it makes sense. So happy to have that resolved.
You should go with one theme. Parts of the site that are controlled by the theme remain static, no matter what content you're working on whether it's a page or blog post. Those things include the header and footer. I don't see how you could have multiple conflicting versions of those files in a single installation. Those files are important to SEO.
If I were you, I'd customize the existing theme(s) to include the features/functions you're currently lacking rather than try to integrate two different themes and multiple plugins (never mind the additional maintenance Unikey mentioned). I'm assuming you're using an SEO plugin but even if that's not the case, you probably have others that you will want to continue to work seamlessly.
Someone else might have experience with this. I don't, meaning I've never tried to optimize a site that uses two simultaneously installed themes. Hopefully they'll chime in if they have a different opinion. I'll be interested to hear.
Hi Eric.
Just to be clear, is the attribution a must have or will the canonical tag suffice? If it's necessary, is there specific wording to be used?
Donna
Nothing's wrong. That's the way it should be.
Google guidelines are to link your home page to the publisher signifying ownership of the site. POSTs point to individual authors. Here's some background in case you're interested - http://moz.com/ugc/google-plus-authorship-one-critical-thing-you-need-to-know.
Beautiful! Thanks. I'll check it out. Didn't find anything when I did a search so you've possibly saved me a lot of time. I'll let you know.
I discovered a new issue today.
If you're migrating from a site that uses special characters in their URLs (like bigfolio), you can't create individual page-to-page redirects. Squarespace doesn't allow special characters in their redirect syntax and there's no way to create a custom .htaccess file to work around that limitation.
**Does it help to include a town name in your title tag when KW planner shows no evidence that anyone is searching for it? **
I agree with Patrick_G and RangeMarketing that yes it does. The KW planner tool doesn't necessarily give you comprehensive results. Rand Fishkin published a post in February 2012 that showed evidence that Google chooses to hide some of it's keyword information unless you specifically ask for it. If your goal is to rank organically for a keyword + town then yes, you should use your town name in the title tag on your most important pages.
Does Google deliver local results based on location names in title tag if the query didn't mention it?
Google looks for and delivers local (vs organic) results when the search query maps to a local business category for which it has results. If you include a town name in your title tag it will help boost your local search result ranking, but you have to be an indexed local business to begin with and it sounds like you're just talking about organic listings.