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If you are big as you said, you should go for the recommended list as it contains some of the finest companies in the search industry.!

I have the simplest way to think about this. If the link is pointing out to the website you trust and you think your audience will find it useful, keep it followed. However, if the links are not trustworthy, atleast put a no-follow the link.

Other then that there are Googe guidelines as you mentioned in your question. I think no following social media and wiki-pages is up to you as it will not make much of a difference in my opinion.

“Professional Service Provider”

No, but I agree to the fact that handing over your code to someone who may or may not know about SEO and SEO friendly codes is simply the worst idea ever. I think SEOs and content producer (in your example) have to learn at least that much of a code that they can fix their things by themselves instead of handing over it to someone who might make things worse for you!

Just a thought!

THIs is the common issue with all open cart sites, if you discuss this issue with the developer, he will be able to fix it… no big deal!

Longtime back Wil Reynolds discuss in one of his presentation that .EDU domains are same as any other normal domains. The reason why they become so important is that most people and reputable website easily link to .EDU or .GOV websites, which make themselves reputable with time.

But, at its core, saying that just because one domain s .EDU it will be respectable automatically, is not true.

So no matter if the URL contain .EDU extension or not, you should look into their link profile and see if the link profile is clean and valuable, you should consider getting a link from them like you would have done for .EDU website.

Just a thought!

Not only money making keywords but over emphasize on any keywords will be dangerous for your link profile. Whenever I think of anchor link, I consider one thing and that is the fact that this keyword on anchor will make sense or not.

I mean, when I am getting a link in between of the blog post (within the content) there is good chance that I can get an exact match or atleast partial match anchor text. But, in author bio, donation links, mention links, reverse image search in most cases it will be either naked URL, brand name or some text that may or may not be your targeted keyword.

My advice is to make sure that its making sense to have the kind of anchor text, if not you know what steps you should take from there.

I believe this is what you are looking for:

http://www.wpexplorer.com/delete-wordpress-admin/

If you have a developer inhouse, I am sure they will be able to do that easily.

As far as my info goes, Google can read ajax as well as iframes maybe not as good as normal content so saying that you are going to add content in iframe so that Google can’t read that, I believe Google will still be able to read the content within the iframe to an extent.

Google consider two pages as duplicate when content on the two pages are completely identical or good amount of content on both pages are exactly similar if this is the case, adding more unique content to product pages can help if only the customer reviews are identical, I personally don’t think its an issue.

Just my 2 cents.

Theoretically, if the URL is blocked  by  robots.txt it should not appear in the index results no matter if they are in the sitemap but I have seen URLs indexed that are blocked by robots.txt but are in the sitemap and have good links pointing to it. If you want to block pages that have good links pointing to them, my advice is to remove them from sitemap. #justathought.

About URLs from multiple domains, I personally create separate sitemaps for different subdomains and link to main sitemap and I see better indexing that way.

Again, these are my personal experiences and not rules so please do keep that in mind as things can be different fro them.

totally agree with EGOL.

Also, if you are an ecommerce company where products go out of stock for some time and then comes back, why 301 redirect at the first place. My idea is to add pre-booking option or may be a subscribe button for a user so that they can subscribe to get a notification when the product will be back in stock.

Btw, this will also increase your email marketing list that you can use in multiple ways. #justathought!

If the domains have identical content, you probably know what to do (I guessed from your questions’ description). As far as the links are concern, personally speaking this is a red flag to Google I mean why one website will link back to another for thousands of time? This didn’t sounds natural to me.

This usually happens when the link is in the footer or side bar and which is why the one link became multiple technically and this isn’t a good idea when it comes to Google. My advice would be to remove links and build some natural and healthy links coming from different domains and you probably will see an increase in web rankings.

Just a thought!

There is also a possibility like Google is testing the knowledge graph against a particular search result to see how people react to it. If it will be useful, Google might display it to more and more users searching for the brand name and if not they might remove the GK where its appearing at the moment.

User’s history can be one of the factor, I am not sure but one thing is definite, there is nothing you should worry about and there is no guarantee that it will be permanent against the search name or not.

Just a thought!

From descriptions, if you are talking about Meta descriptions, than I would second the advice given by Rebeeca. Meta description does have a value when it comes to increasing CRT for your website but from the SEO standpoint, I don’t see it as a major ranking factor.

Again, as it plays an important role in increase CTR, I will never recommend you copying or writing low quality descriptions. So, idea is to go slow but go quality so that you can win more potential users to click on your website.

From the SEO prospective, I am dead sure that there is low to no ranking benefits with well-crafted meta descriptions.

Just a thought!

As far as the dropdown menus are crawl-able and Google can see what content is available in those menus I don’t think there is an issue.

The only reason why I will go for first option is because, it will work great on mobile and other devices. With old style menu, there will be UX issue on mobile specially.

Just a thought!

There are few tips that people discuss over and over again and in my opinion they are obsolete and does not work anymore.

Keyword Density: The idea of using exact keyword in the body tag certain time is something that tools like Yoast and Moz still recommend but in my opinion they aren’t important any more.

I mean Google is smart, they know what the page is talking about regardless of the fact that you are using exact match key phrase or not. For example if your exact match keyword is “excitement” and in the body you use synonyms probably Google will still find out what you are talking about and rank you accordingly.

Exact Match Domain: Again, a boring idea. I mean they maybe a small effect of having a keyword based domain name but saying that this will help you beat your competitors or that will take you to the first page of Google is nothing but a crazy talk.

These are the two ideas that I think people should stop talking about and focus more on creating something that their actual persona want.

Adding my 2 cents.

You have site A and other location centric websites B, C, D and more.. (100+). From my understanding, adding a link in the footer (followed) to all the location based website will give Google a red flag. This is because Footer links are generally side-wide.. and adding 100+ side-wide links to a main website does seems like a problem to me!

If I were you, I would have added the link on one page (instead of site-wide) to location based websites. The links should contain either diversified anchor text or may be branded one.

Just a thought but I would love to hear others opinion on this one!

If the target is to get the URLs out of the search engine index than there are the few solutions can work for you:

1. The one your mentioned: I think it’s bad to add 1000+ URLs in robots.txt file its make sense for your business.
2. Adding meta no-index tag to the pages (if pages physically exist).

Also in order to quickly remove them from the index you can update robots.txt file and then go to GWC and use remove URL feature.

Just a thought!

spot on Eric!

There can be lots of reasons why GWC data is different from what you see in the Google SERPs. This could be personalization that causing this problem. I mean your results can be different based on your search history and it can be different for Google based on what data center they use.

Also, If you are trusting GWC data and this is your only source of collecting information, you probably need to change this. In my experience GWC’s data is a bit delayed and not really accurate in real time. If you want to know your rankings you can use 3^rd part tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs.com Positions Explorer to see what keywords you are ranking on and what your exact positions are.

Just a thought!

I will agree with Eric on the maximum number of URLs you can add in one sitemap. Than you can add another sitemap and connect together. My idea is to create separate sitemap for blog, static content, main pages and ads.

In my opinion, its ok to keep the URL in the xml site maps as far as the expired ad’s URL.

Just a thought!

If one is creating content that is addressing to the target audience and answer their questions, clearing their confusing it’s a good content, and we have several great examples of it. Let’s say if someone is new to the SEO, Moz’s beginners guide to SEO will answer all their questions and clearing all the possible confusions that a person will have in his head with regards to SEO.

To me, 10X content is something that not only answers the questions or clearing the confusions but also nurtures the reader to go a step further. For instance, if someone is looking for live chat software… the content that shows you the list of tools to choose from (with pros and cons of each tool) is a good content… it’s answering the question.

But, 10X content is when you move further and tell them wherever software you use, this is how you should be using it to get the maximum out of it. This way you are not only answering the question but you are also educating them further…this according to me is a 10X content.

Ideally, I think 10X content has nothing to do with the length of content. I don’t really have to give the examples of “ultimate guides” that offer nothing new to the audience. On the other hand, Rand’s post is kinda example of 10X content that actually motivate people to get out of the long-form short-form content formula…

In my opinion, length of the content has nothing to do with 10X content. As far as you are answering your audience’s question, clearing their confusions and nurturing them to think and act further you are creating 10X content and you should be proud of it.

I may be wrong but this is what I think about 10X content.

Spot on!

"If you see them giving great advice for free, imagine what you will get when you pay them"

Quite a few plugins do the same thing you are talking about. Yoast SEO is a big name when it comes to everything SEO related but there are others as well.

My idea is to read the comments and reviews about the plugin before you actually install it on your website. If the reviews and star ratings are bad, probably its not worth it.

Just a thought!

The two round interview idea is great but in my personal opinion, it will work better for an agency. I have worked for years in different In-house companies and from the experience, I am telling you that success of in-house is depends upon multiple factors.

If you are hiring a single person to handle your complete SEO, than you are looking for a guy who can understand the ins and out of your business, can write about it, do competitor analysis, outreach, build links and build reports and present it to the CEO.

Unlike agency where they have a set culture relevant for SEO and digital marketing, In-house culture is more business orientated where the guy will be sitting around non-SEO people.

What I mean to say here is that when you search for in-house guy you should look for a person who know their game well plus they understand your business and have management skills unlike agency where all they need is a good writer and they give them on-the-job training.

Just a thought!

I am one of those who believe Data and Storytelling both have their own powers and if you are using both you should know how much will be too much for the audience.

I mean (let’s take the EGOL’s example here) if you are addressing to the donors obviously good storytelling will rock but data carefully included with storytelling will only help. Similarly, if you are talking to accountants the numbers and data will work more but if carefully crafted storytelling will attach to it, it will only offer benefits.

And obviously promotion. Without it you will be a loose no matter how great your story is or how good your numbers and data are.

Just a thought!

I will say sub-directory but my reasons are different;

I think Google now consider sub-domain as part of the main domain. Here is the Google Webmaster Central blog that will give you more insight on that topic: https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/08/reorganizing-internal-vs-external.html

The reason why I will consider sub directories as more powerful is because it makes more sense to user and also I think internal link juice flow better when the link is moving from main to sub directory instead of sub domain.

Also, if you ask experts within the industry they will also recommend you that.

But, above all, double check about how your audience will react to it. If the audience is more comfortable with sub domain, you probably should choose that option.

Just a thought!

I will say sub-directory but my reasons are different;

I think Google now consider sub-domain as part of the main domain. Here is the Google Webmaster Central blog that will give you more insight on that topic: https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/08/reorganizing-internal-vs-external.html

The reason why I will consider sub directories as more powerful is because it makes more sense to user and also I think internal link juice flow better when the link is moving from main to sub directory instead of sub domain.

Also, if you ask experts within the industry they will also recommend you that.

But, above all, double check about how your audience will react to it. If the audience is more comfortable with sub domain, you probably should choose that option.

Just a thought!

nailed it!

I believe you really need someone who can do the site audit and tells you what areas of the website need more improvement. I run a screaming frog on your website and I can say that the migration was pretty much done right.

Obviously when you migrate and 301 pages from only to new domain, not all the juice pass to the new domain so loss of link juice can be one of the reason why you lost rankings for any of the key phrases.

You said you were ranking on 9 and 10 and recently moved to 8 and while I was checking your ranking on SEMRush.com it says “7” so seems like you are on your way back to your old position.

Here are the few things I would suggestion you should do.

1. Hire a consultant to do the detailed audit and answer the important questions raised by Matt and few more important questions.
2. As 301ing the pages result in a loss of a link juice to new pages so I will recommend building few good links pointing back to the different pages of the website.
3. Also, update blog more often and see if you can engage target audience on your blog via social media and other relevant sources.
4. Also make sure your site speed, page load time, server connectivity and uptime is up to the mart as this can be a reason.

Hope this helps.

There can be multiple reasons why this could have happened but before I start, I personally do not trust the data by search console and the main reason is because its delayed but I don’t think it can’t be that wrong that it will challenge the data provided in Google Analytics.

Here are some of the possibilities:

1. Check your analytics IP data (ignore traffic from…) There is a possibility that Analytics is ignoring some of the data as instructed whereas webmaster console is looking into every detail.
2. Very nice point by Matt. Maybe analytics data is not available on every page on the website and Search Console is tracking that traffic as well.

Also, make sure that you are looking in to the full traffic data in analytics and not just the search traffic only as search console will be tracking the data from search, referral, paid and more.

I believe a quick audit should point where the problem is!

Hope this helps!

I am not very good with facebook Ads but as a user if I will look at your banner, I probably will not convert and like your page. Why not share some information that is valuable to your targeted audience and instead of boosting page why not boost post that contains some valuable information. I am not saying you will be able to get tons and tons of like but atleast the results will be better than 2 a day.

Just a thought!

I am not sure what video I was listening to but it was a SMX for sure and there was the same topic. As far as Google representative answer is concern, they try to get this information from the website, they think is more trusted.

I don’t think there is much you can do about it but if you can get more authority links to that page and your content is pretty much design in such a way that it’s a perfect fit for Google Answer Box, I am sure Google will pick you up instead of your competitors.

Personally, I think there is no defined process for it, I mean after all the work, Google might not change the result so all you can do is to try and see if it works or not for you!

Hope this helps!

I believe you are looking for this document: https://docs.shopify.com/manual/settings/general/google-analytics
as it covers almost everything you are looking for!

Although Google didn’t really like Paid links but the method you explained sounds like a link against a donation with is a pretty decent activities to many within the industry.

This post by SEO Book tells you a little more about it: http://www.seobook.com/archives/001455.shtml

I personally do use this idea based on client’s link profile. I believe if your link profile is supported by other good links as well these links are only going to help instead of hurting you in most cases.

Just a Thought!

my best advice for you is to go through Moz's Beginners guide to SEO and ask questions in QnA if you didn't understand anything and you will get the basics of everything and then you can move ahead step by step.

Hope this helps!

This is exactly what I was thinking! Thanks for the clarification Matt.

I actually have tons of goals set for 2016, I will update a post regarding that on my blog tomorrow (I am sure not many will be interested in that but it’s a good performance tracking indicator for me). But above all the most important thing I have to do in 2016 is action.

There are so many things I know I can do but obviously people will only believe when they see you doing that. So, this year I will talk to people with my actions.

I am not sure who advised you this but if you ask me this is not something I will ever recommend. This activity that you mentioned is known as link exchanging or link trading and this is not the tactics that Google like the most (if not considered this as SPAM).

If you are ranking well locally for one area and you want to rank for surrounding areas, why not create different pages for those surrounding areas and let audience and Google know that you offer services on surrounded locations.

When each surrounded location will have one dedicated page, it will be easy for Google to consider those pages for that particular area.

If the area is competitive, you might have to build some quality links back to those pages but link exchange is not one of those tactics I would recommend. I write this post about link building tactics one should use a while ago, but I guess it’s relevant here, if you want to know how you should be building links.

Nailed it!

I have worked for the health care hospital based in Florida while I was working for one agency and as far as my experience goes the basic game is pretty much the same. Get your business pages right, keep NAP consistent on all embassies and more.

The only advantage I took was by working with their PR agency. Their PR agency successfully established their brand name displayed on almost all local magazines. I just help the PR team to get the link from their magazines that looks natural (obviously for that I had to build a blog that contain the linkable content).

Links from quality places increase DA and overall authority of the website, right local SEO help me rank for most of the keywords with location pages.

Hope this helps!

Obviously I cannot say exactly but If I would be at your place, I would dig into what kin d of update it was. If its penguin or Panda update then try to look in to your content and links and see if they are fine. Also work on building some good quality links as well.

Recently, my rankings tanked like anything (I have some site speed issues) so I thought this drop was because of that but today I looked in to rankings again and saw that the rankings are back to normal.

I am not sure but maybe you should wait for a day or two to see if it comes back to normal.

Just a thought!

If there are relevant products available in the market or people are searching for keywords that are somehow relevant to your product. My idea is to include them in the bucket see what possibly will convert, shorten your list and try to run the PPC test to see which one of them are actually going to convert and work on it accordingly.

If it’s a really new product and you see that there is no related keywords that actually allow people to come to the page and convert in that case (IMHO) you should try awareness campaign. This might be a little lengthy process but if your product hit off you will be able to sale your product on awareness campaign and if people really like your product the organic ripple effect can take you to the next level.

Hope this helps!

I think Keri come up with list of very important questions. I mean just because an SEO agency is providing amazing results with ecommerce website never mean they will be able to provide the same results for a SaaS website.

Think you need to tell more about your website, niche, and your targets, goals that you are planning for this year, how much you are ready to invest and more.

My advice is to choose an agency that have previously worked within your niche and have decent results.

How to find the right SEO consultant for your company I write this a while back and I am sure this will help you get started.

Hope this helps!

I personally think this is not really a big problem. The problem arrives what your page is accessible via both http and https.

Plus, the ranking plus for https is so minor that you might not even notice every time.

Just a thought!

I love how Peter actually brings this point as I recently faced this problem with one of my client. Here is what I would have done if I would be at your place.

If the content you are trying to rank is not good enough, after all the effort all you will get is more traffic with higher bounce rate which I am sure you do not want at the end of the day. One thing you need to make sure that the content you are planning to create is more powerful or the one that you already have is good enough for your target audience.

If you are fine with the content you currently have, stick with that and move as Peter suggest but if you think that the content you are planning is more powerful, I would suggest creating a new page and redirect the current page to the new URL. This way you will skip self-cannibalization plus the audience will get new and more powerful content than the one you were previously targeting.

Now you have the new content ready with old one redirecting to the new URL, it’s time for you to properly optimize your page, get some links and get it rank on your targeted key phrase.

Hope this helps!

Talking from the experience e-commerce for a big website is one hell of a deal and if it’s a competitive market you need to deal with lots of stuff. You have to deal with everything from Meta details to UI, UX, schema and more.

http://www.inc.com/jayson-demers/17-essential-seo-strategies-for-e-commerce-sites.html

This post covers the initial game plan but there is always more to it.

Hope this helps!

There are always pros and cons for it!

Pros are that you will get a chance to target certain type of audience on one particular website. This means you will be able to create more targeted content around the specific type of audience instead of writing web copy keeping multiple audiences in mind.

You can easily target more powerful keywords that tar related to specific niche which is otherwise difficult on a website that convers multiple niches.

As the websites will be more targeted, it will be easier for you to complete within search engine from competitors and rank on the first page for targeted key phrases.

Cons have a list too! It’s not easy to come up with multiple sites as multiple sites means more and more content specific for every niche which can shoot your initial expense like anything.

Multiple websites means multiple SEO campaigns this can again put a huge dent on your initial marketing budget. If there will be one website, there will be one SEO campaign which can lead you towards the conversion in the longer run.

If it’s a local business, you cannot add multiple websites for one business page (I guess) and you cannot create multiple business pages as probably your physical location is the same.

I think the best idea is to see how your audience will react if you come up with multiple websites as compare for having one website for all services. Also what is more beneficial for your brand name. Once you have the answer you can take decisions accordingly.

Hope this helps!

This sound like a completely fine idea from the search engine optimization stands point. I mean Google can’t ban you for selling the same product on two different websites J

Good Luck with that!

If I would be at your place, I would have looked in to the Google Analytics data (although good amount of data is hidden but still it can help you give it a clue) and would have seen how many people are coming from near me keywords and what are the top services most people are searching for.

Ranking for extra keyword is never bad but should you invest your time on it or not is a big question.

Once I will have the GA data of top 5 services that most people are searching for according to the available data I would have tested the near me keywords in a PPC to see impression vs. click ratio of my targeted audience.

If amount of data I received would be interesting, I would have invested my time and if the traffic is not good enough I would have focused on other important areas.

Hope this helps!