It's generally agreed that a best practice is to noindex tag pages because they create duplicate and thin content issues and have little use in general. If you were to noindex these pages, then of course you wouldn't want or need to fill in that information.
Best posts made by UnderRugSwept
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RE: Tags - Should i add description for every tag ?
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RE: Question about Google Keyword "match type."
I may be misunderstanding you, but I think the keywords "widgets extra large" or even "widgets white extra large" would be triggered with modified broad, not phrase match.
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RE: Google Analytics
Good point. I was assuming she already had goals set up.
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RE: Adding Orphaned Pages to the Google Index
I have no hard evidence, but if it were my site, I would do option C but keep an eye on what happens, and if I noticed anything strange happening, I would implement option B. But if option C makes you nervous, I see no reason you couldn't or shouldn't noindex them right off the bat.
That's merely one person's opinion, however.
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RE: Do I need robots.txt and meta robots?
What do you mean by meta robots instructions? Are you referring to the meta tags that go on each individual page? In that case, no, you don't necessarily need them. Robots assume a page should be crawled unless told otherwise. I'd still do it for pages that you don't want indexed and/or followed because a lot of times, robots, especially Google, seem to ignore these directives.
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RE: Keyword Conundrum...
"My current strategy is to target the top 3 all on one page."
Definitely have one page for all those keywords. "Managed IT Services" and "IT Managed Services" are the same thing. Even "Managed IT Support" could be considered the same thing. Google's algorithm is smart enough to decipher synonyms.
Resource: http://helpmyseo.com/seo-tips/296-language-synonyms-and-the-google-algorithm-and-how-it-affects-your-seo.html"The problem then is the title tag: Managed IT Services | IT Managed Services | Managed IT Support"
Definitely do NOT do this. Google will see it as keyword spam/stuffing and it will hurt you, not help you. I'd recommend making the title tag "Your Company Name | One of those keyword phrases" (assuming your company name doesn't already have those phrases in the name)
Resource: http://www.pagetraffic.com/guide/keyword-repetition.php"I could build pages for all 3, but how would I incorporate them into the website since they are all synonyms. . . How would handle separate pages with synonymous content?"
The way to handle pages with to avoid them like the plague.
Resource: http://moz.com/blog/duplicate-content-in-a-post-panda-world -
RE: Switch hosting to be closer to site visitors, and 99% dropped from rankings?
One other possibility--especially if some pages are gone completely--could be that Google decided to crawl it at the exact moment it was down. Since propagation can take up to 48 hours, you're going to have some down time in some locations. If that's the case, once Google crawls it a second time, you should go back to your old positions.
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RE: Is it worth changing our blog post URL's?
I did it to two client sites and neither lost any rankings. I used the Change Permalink Helper plugin, which made the redirects seamless. The most unfortunate thing about changing URL permalinks is the fact that if you have social sharing buttons on your posts, all the counts get reset to zero.
I must add that just because I didn't lose rankings doesn't mean there's not a chance, albeit a small one, that you will.
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RE: On-Page SEO Priorities: Title's, Anchor Text or Meta data?
Your title tag is the most important out of all the things you listed. Make sure it includes you top keyword you're trying to rank for, but don't stuff any more than two keywords or phrases in there. And don't exceed 70 characters. If you find you have a lot of extra room, include your brand name.
If you're linking to internal pages from your homepage, use anchor text you want those pages to rank for--as long as it makes sense to your customers.
Meta description doesn't have much, if any, SEO value. It is what potential customers will see in the search engine results; a good description will increase your click through rate. It's been theorized that Google tracks click through rate and bounce rate and uses this information to determine relevancy of sites to tweak ranking, thus you could say the meta description indirectly affects your ranking--for better or for worse.
As far as your boss not recognizing the value of SEO, just tell him: what good will it do to build the best site the world as ever seen if no one ever sees it?
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RE: Whingers and Winners
What's a whinger? I've never head this term. How have I missed it?
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RE: Can there be to many 301 redirects
Keep in mind, though, that certain web hosts place limits of the amount you can have. if you're genuinely concerned, I'd check with your host.
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RE: Dealing with duplicate content
It seems as though combining the sites is your best option. If that is your long term goal, then spending countless time writing new content for one of them seems like a waste, especially if their rankings aren't suffering. However, that could change overnight, so I'd suggest to try to find a way to put combining them higher on your priority list. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but that is what I'd do if I were in your situation. I know you say it's not in your budget, but what's your budget going to look like if your site gets hit by the next Panda?
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RE: Comparing competitor folder path
If you're talking about the SEOmoz Competitive Domain Analysis, I think that only allows root domains.
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RE: On-Page SEO Priorities: Title's, Anchor Text or Meta data?
Well, a couple more simple things you can implement are:
Make sure your target keywords appear on the page a few times, but don't overdo it! I cannot stress that enough. Only use them as much as what would sound natural to a human reading it.
Give your page at least a couple of paragraphs of quality, helpful content. My personal minimum I strive for is 300-400 words--that is just what has worked for me.
Make sure all images have relevant alt tags (your web person will know what that means; If not, you have a bigger issue than being new to SEO)
Don't put too many links on the page. i.e. If you have 200 products, don't link to every single one of them from the homepage; break them into categories and sub -pages.
Use a free service like http://pingdom.com/ to check the load time of your homepage. It will offer suggestions for improvement.
Set up 301 redirects to avoid duplicate content penalties. http://www.ragepank.com/articles/3/preventing-duplicate-content/
(OK, that one's not as easy)Submit a sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools
I hope you succeed in your endeavors!
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RE: On-Page SEO Priorities: Title's, Anchor Text or Meta data?
I just thought of something else. This is slightly less critical but try to keep the file size of your page under 1mb. Some say 50kb but I think that's a little extreme in the age of broadband. The site I market is 1.1mb and loads in only 1.18 seconds. But do try to stay under 1mb because of mobile phones which are slower. (Unless you have a mobile version of your site, like I do)
Also, make sure all of your code validates. http://validator.w3.org/
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RE: Redirect ruined domain to new domain without passing link juice
Why don't you try domain forwarding? That may be your only option as there is growing evidence that Google passes links from 302 redirects as well. You can find the domain forwarding option in the control panel where the domain name is hosted. Instead of doing a redirect, the change will take place with the DNS.
Here's some info: http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/422/forwarding-or-masking-your-domain-name
Make sure you choose forwarding without masking.
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RE: To enter keyword meta tags or to not enter keyword meta tags?
It's really a matter of preference. The strongest argument for using them is that other search engines use them. The strongest argument against it is the fact that your competitors can look at them and see exactly what terms you're trying to rank for.
I don't even think yahoo or Bing take them into account anymore. I don't even know which engines do use them. i guess I'd say it's better not to use them.
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RE: Link buying: finding sites based on criteria
Oh dear, please spend the day on SEOmoz; read a bunch of blog posts and community comments; then come back later and let us know if you still wanna buy links.
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RE: Moving content between two separate domains...
Hi Melanie,
I'm not sure from your question how much previous knowledge you have about site migrations and 301 redirects, so forgive me if I'm either being too basic or too advanced.
I would do things in the following order and all on the same day.
- Publish the content from site two onto site one.
- Set up 301 redirects from site two to site one.
- Remove the content from site two.
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RE: Duplicate content with a trailing slash /
Yes, that can be seen as duplicate content. Not only those but also
www.example.com/file//index.html
are all the same but can be seen as different.
My preference is to set the redirect to www.example.com/file
However, with blog-based sites, many prefer to leave the trailing slash in there.
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RE: SEOMoz Ranking section only showing my Homepage
It depends on whether or not your other pages are in the top 50 for any of those terms. It's as simple as that. Have you checked?
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RE: Case sensitive url's
How long ago did you do all this? Everything you did if correct; however, it can take Google a couple months to straighten everything out.
You can always remove the bad URLs from Google's index via Webmaster Tools.
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RE: Can Your Site Get Penalized For Keyword Stuffing On An 'Untarged' Keyword?
Yup, makes sense now. And try not to focus too much on an actual percentage when it comes to keyword frequency. Google never set a standard; that is just some experienced SEO's best educated estimation.
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RE: SEOMoz Ranking section only showing my Homepage
Not necessarily. Remember, Page Rank is about pages, not websites. If those inner pages have little or no authority links pointing to them, the only factor that would give them a boost (besides good onpage SEO) is if your homepage is of high authority and it links to all those pages , thereby passing along some if its page rank. Still, this only helps just so much; therefore, it's not all that surprising they aren't ranking.
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RE: Moving site between hosts over short time scale
There is always a slight risk. The biggest risk lies in the possibility of Google choosing to crawl the site while it's being propagated or during the inevitable down time. This could cause some pages to have different IP addresses--from your new host and old host.
As far as how Google chooses to judge the fact that your IP changed three times in a one month period, I don't know what it thinks of that, but I know if definitely takes note.
All that being said, the odds are good that you'll be perfectly fine.
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RE: How unique should a meta description be?
"If there is one different word in each description, that is presumably enough to stop them being seen as duplicates?"
Yes, if there's only one character different, they won't be seen as duplicates, at least by machines/bots.
"Also, I was intrigued that you said "Google doesn't officially use meta descriptions" - is there some doubt over this? I thought they'd confirmed it themselves?"
It's just that Google doesn't reveal exactly what they use in their algorithm to determine ranking, so its up to us to figure it out as best we can with observation and experimentation. Sometimes they will confirm or deny using a specific factor, but it's still up to the individual to choose to take that at face value or not.
"I think the choice I have to make is, is it better to have 100% unique descriptions that are too short (keyword only, as at present), or much less unique ones that are 130+ characters. I guess the latter wins."
Probably the latter, but in the case of meta descriptions, I would make that decision based to what is best for the user/customer rather than what we'd speculate Google would want.
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RE: Can Google see all the pages that an seomoz crawl picks up?
Here's the real question: Do you WANT Google to see all these pages, or is SEOmoz crawling unnecessary pages?
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RE: Bought domains to some of my best keywords. What should I do?
My short answer would be to redirect the exact match domains to your current site. You don't want to try to do SEO on multiple sites; you want to focus your effort on building your brand/image, and increasing authority of your main site.
Also, in regard to exact match domains, I'd strongly suggesting taking a look at this SEOmoz blog post: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/are-exact-match-domains-in-decline
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RE: Appropriate domain name
I think when people say Google no longer cares about keywords in the domain that that's total crap. One of my sites is #1 for the exact keyword I want, and I do no SEO for it whatsoever. It's only a PR2 and the on-page is a total mess. I never do anything to market or promote it. The sites below it are much better sites, and clearly do a lot of SEO work and link-building. Yet, my site remains #1 and has been for the past five years, all because it's an exact-match keyword, and NOT long-tail.
As far as hyphens in the domain goes, I've heard somewhere that's not the best practice, but I'm sorry to say I can't remember where and can't back that up. Maybe someone else will chime in.
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RE: What's the best way to switch a campaign from sub-domain tracking to root domain tracking?
I'm thinking there's got to be a way. Many people set up their entire sites with dozens of root domains. The real issue is whether that has to be done at the initial setup or not. Don't forget you can also email [email protected]
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RE: AdWords Device-Level Bid Adjustments for Tablet not working for me
Yeah, expanded text ads are out. I jumped on those the very same day.
Anyway, good to see I'm not the only one with the problem and that Wordstream probably jumped the gun.
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RE: Header tags - big H1s after small H2s
I mix up the order of my heading tags as well and have fabulous search engine rankings. I wouldn't worry. Heading tags may be a factor in ranking, but they're such a teeny piece of the pie.
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RE: What's the best way to switch a campaign from sub-domain tracking to root domain tracking?
Do you have a free campaign slot? You could start an additional one just for the mobile site. But if there is a possible way for it to be added to an existing campaign, I'd like to know the answer to this as well.
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RE: SEOMoz Software
It's the trade-off you get. Those other companies may be faster, but they're not as accurate. SEOmoz may be the most accurate, but as a result, it's the slowest.
About a year ago, I signed up for trials of all the main companies that offer this kind of service, not knowing much about any of them. It only took me about a week of trying them all out to know hands down that SEOmoz was the winner.
Look ahead a year from now. By then SEOmoz will have gotten it together and will likely be the best in almost every way, including the ways they're lacking in now. Those other companies will more than likely be in a similar place as they are currently.