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Hey Erick,

So it's tricky for me to answer your question definitively, but it's worth highlighting that both Moz metrics and Majestic metrics are simply there as a guide to relative page strength. Weak pages on strong domains frequently outrank stronger pages on weaker domains if that makes sense.

Additionally, Google take many factors into account when ranking pages - not just links. As I mentioned above, from a user's perspective that page is a 'good result' for reviews; hence Google tend to rank pages like that well. As such I suspect you may struggle to outrank the page.

If I were you, I wouldn't reach out to the blogger to ask them to delete the link. The danger is that (as you said) you start a whole new firestorm and attract a bunch more links to the ROR page. I suspect it's not that link that's making a difference in any case, so even if you did get it removed, it's likely that the page will still rank.

Cheers

Hannah

Hi Erick,

First up, it may be worth you reading this to see if there's anything else you can do legally: http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2014/11/10/when-a-ripoff-report-strikes-your-business-follow-these-steps

You asked if it might be possible to get one of your own interior pages to outrank the Ripoff Report page. The answer is yes, it might be possible, but I suspect it's unlikely. Ripoff Report is a strong domain, and your own site probably isn't strong enough to knock Ripoff Report from the 1st page. Moreover, for a search query like '[brand name] reviews' Google will want to show results from a variety of sites, not just your own. I recognise this is potentially bad for your company, but from a user's perspective it's a better search experience.

If you feel like it's actively damaging your business you might consider hiring a company to help. There are a bunch of agencies who offer reputation management on the Moz recommended companies list here.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hey Anirban,

Any chance you can provide some clarification on this question?

Thanks

Hannah

Hi Landon,

You've not mentioned what specifically you want to rank for, but I think the first step is to figure out what makes sense from a business perspective

For example, where (geographically) does this business operate? You stand a much better chance of ranking for a geographically modified phrase than a generic phrase, plus any sales leads you receive will be ones you can service (as opposed to having to pass them on).

Once you've figured out what makes sense for you to try and rank for then you can make the necessary changes - see http://moz.com/learn/seo/on-page-factors

I hope this helps,

Hannah

PS the homepage slider doesn't work for me either and I'd echo the issue with load times.

Hey Lewis,

If they'd used your infographic without credit or attributed credit elsewhere then you'd absolutely be within your rights to ask for attribution. However in this instance as they've given you the appropriate credit there's nothing you can do (whether the link is no-followed or not).

Whilst clearly a followed link would be great I'd strongly advise that you don't pursue this aggressively. You've not said whether or not they routinely no-follow all outbound links on the site but this may just be their policy. Moreover you really don't want to end up upsetting or alienating what could be a great contact in the future.

This is still definitely a win

Hello there,

Answers to your questions below

1. My client's site has a .com domain where most others have .co.uk

I suspect this isn't the issue. but provided your client is only targeting the UK you might considering setting up geotargeting in Google Webmaster Tools - see: http://moz.com/community/q/geographic-target-set-up-in-google-webmaster-tool

2. Most sites on the first page have either jewellery, wholesale or both in their domain names

This is unlikely to be the issue.

3. Relevance of linking sites could be playing a part here. My client has links from wholesale sites but few from jewellery-related sites.

Attracting relevant links is never a bad idea, plus even if you don't see ranking improvements you'd hope that relevant links sent good quality traffic. I'd definitely do this if I were you

4. Within my client's link profile there are very few, if any exact anchor text links for the term 'wholesale jewellery'

I'd suggest it's unlikely that this is the issue - anchor text is not the ranking signal it once was.

5. Legacy of a penalty could be making ranking progress that much more difficult?

I think this is the most likely answer, but I don't quite agree with your phrasing. You mentioned a past penalty - given that you're ranking on the first page I suspect you're not suffering from said penalty any more. However, if you do still have a lot of 'low quality' links, then further clean up might be the way forward.

However, you'll also need to continue to build the sorts of links that Google want to reward (i.e. links which are editorially given from quality sites) in order to improve your rankings.

Incidentally, you mentioned you've disavowed a bunch of links. 3rd party tools (ahrefs, majestic, moz) aren't able to filter these out because they've no access to your disavow files

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Robin,

Just wanted to clarify - when you delete a page and googlebot tries to access that URL it returns a 404 (not found) response - i.e. those pages you're deleting are 404-ing.

I'm assuming you're asking whether or not you should return a custom 404 page (see guidance here). Creating a useful custom 404 page is a good idea as it helps visitors to your site find an appropriate alternative to the page you've deleted. This often a better solution than just displaying your homepage.

Depending on why you're deleting these pages you might elect to 301 redirect any outdated URLs to the current version of the content (rather than just letting these pages 404) - more on this later.

You also asked if these 404s can cause you problems. Obviously 404s can cause problems for users - if they can't find the content they're looking for, chances are they may elect to leave your site and go somewhere else to find whatever they need.

From an SEO perspective, allowing pages you no longer wish to be indexed 404 is fine. However, when you delete a page you should also ensure that you remove the page from your sitemap and also remove any links to the page across your site. However you should be careful with letting some pages 404. Rand wrote a post way back in 2009  essentially he highlights that if a page has good links from external sources, and/or, is receiving substantive traffic and/or has an obvious URL visitors or linking sites intended to reach then you should 301 redirect to an appropriate page.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there,

Automating title tags and meta descriptions as you've described above shouldn't cause you any problems.The meta keywords tag is redundant (Google don't use it) so I wouldn't bother populating it.

You might like to review these resources for further guidance on title tags and meta descriptions before you go ahead and implement.

Regarding your second question about content, I'd strongly recommend that you don't automate as described above. Having the same content (but just changing the location) is likely to be considered duplicate content by the search engines. I'd strongly recommend that you write unique copy for each page.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there

Whilst these links are followed (or at least some of them are - it depends on how you're sharing your content) my view would be that they aren't particularly valuable in terms of improving your rankings.

This is for a couple of reasons:

1. It's too easy to manipulate. If these links really 'counted' all you'd need to do is post hundreds (or thousands, or millions) of times to dominate the SERPs. This is not the sort of activity that Google wishes to reward.

2. These are links from specific properties (which Google own). Whilst these links are followed, you've no clue how their handled by the algorithm. Despite being followed, they may not actually be 'counted'. Moreover it's really easy for Google to switch this off i.e. - they could very easily decide to make all of these links no-follow.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Bob,

That sort of idea could work really well for you too. I'd suggest reaching out to experts in your niche and asking them for their Small Business Marketing in 2014 Predictions (it's that time of year, right?).

Resource-style content also seems to work well in the small business space. I've been working with my client Simply Business for a number of years now, creating guides around various topics which have been pretty successful:

• http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/guide-to-social-media-success/
• http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/productivity/email-guide/
• http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/google-adwords/
• http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/wordpress-for-small-businesses/
• http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/google-analytics-guide/
• http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/twitter-for-small-businesses/
• http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/googleplus-for-small-businesses/

You might also find some ideas here: http://moz.com/blog/companies-in-boring-niches-creating-great-content

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Here at Distilled I think it's fair to say we've also adopted a TAGFEE approach.

I think it's really good to keep in mind when building relationships with clients and I know our Exec team (Will, Duncan, Tom and Rob) also work hard to make sure that Distilled are a 'TAGFEE' company (we often talk internally about making Distilled 'the best place for the best people to work').

Outside the office? Well I think a TAGFEE human being is the kind of person I'd like to know and I'm guessing most would agree

Hi Keith,

In my experience Google mainly crawls from the US.

You're quite right, GeoIP redirection can cause major issues with indexation - as if you're redirecting everything from the US to the .com googlebot can't see the .co.uk site.

As such, I'm not a fan. Rather than implementing a hard redirect I prefer Amazon's approach. If you visit the amazon.com site from a UK IP you get a javascript overlay that invites you to visit the .co.uk version of the site instead - they let the user decide which site to view rather than actually redirecting them.

This is a nice solution as it ensures that the search bots can crawl both versions of the site, and rankings aren't endangered.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there,

I'd definitely encourage you to think about how you might go about getting some higher quality links to add in to the mix.

Guest posting (as Donnie suggested) would definitely be something that I'd encourage you to engage in, plus I really like your ideas for getting links from government / universities etc.

Something similar could also be applied if you were providing services for companies with websites.

Other opportunities might include:

Press release opportunities (either local or national).

• Do you have an interesting story to tell about a particular project you are working on? Are people in your company doing something for charity? Obviously it will need to be a genuinely good story in order to get coverage - but local press are often easier to engage with than national.

'Linkbait' Content

• Can you create some content to garner links? Perhaps something environment-related around window recycling or decreased heating bills? Or something around home improvement?

Competitions

• Could you run a competition to give something away? Doesn't necessarily have to be a full set of windows

Sponsorship

• Are there any local events that you could sponsor? This sort of thing can often result in both links from event websites, plus links from local press / other sites which cover the event.

Speaking at local events

- Similar benefits to sponsorship (see above).

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Keith,

If I were you I'd stick with the .com - I've not seen any evidence to suggest that using a .co.uk makes any difference to UK rankings. I don't think you'll see any major issues with CTR either.

I'm assuming that you're not having any US v UK  issues right now E.G. - you're ranking better in the US than the UK, receiving more US than UK traffic etc. However if this is the case you could implement geo-targeting via webmaster tools, claim a Places listing (if you haven't already) etc to send some more signals about where you're located.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Sara,

Where you host really isn't considered a major ranking factor - there are many UK sites which are hosted in the US and they don't have issues with ranking.

I'm assuming you're not suffering with poor loading speeds - if you are - go ahead and change your hosting but I wouldn't worry too much about whether that's UK or US

You've not said whether your domain is a .co.uk or a generic (e.g. a .com / .net etc). If you do have a generic domain I'd recommend that you geo-target via Google Webmaster Tools - see http://www.seo-chicks.com/1463/geotargeting-on-the-same-domain-using-xml-sitemaps.html

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Dan - great shout on using a proper translator rather than Google translate

Hi Neil,

Ranking for a person's name in the US with a 'name.co.uk' is possible - for example I think if you do a search for 'Jane Copland' in the US you'll see janecopland.co.uk ranking 1st.

Do you know how well or otherwise the site is ranking in the US right now?

Essentially the ability to rank will likely be impacted by how common or otherwise the person's name is and how strong their site is.

In terms of actions from you I wouldn't be inclined to change hosting as that's unlikely to have an impact on it's own - however if as you say you're looking to change the hosting in any case then moving it the US probably wouldn't hurt. I'd also encourage you to build links to this domain to strengthen the site.

I guess I'm saying it's not necessarily impossible, but in an ideal world you'd get some sort of generic domain (.com / .net etc).

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Philip,

The short answer is yes - it can do. As Google crawl from the US, if they're redirecting US traffic it may mean that their site doesn't get crawled. If Google can't crawl... well, you get the picture.

As such this sort of redirect isn't something I'd readily recommend. That said, as long as Google can still crawl the 'live' version of their site they should be ok.

Nevertheless, typically in a case like this I'd recommend either:

1. Redirecting to some sort of international choice page (where all links are crawl-able). Cheap Flights do this pretty well - for example if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP - they push you to this page: http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/

or

2. Using IP detection to show a javascript overlay with appropriate messaging - in this case I'd probably display a message to international visitors which said something like -

"It looks like you're visiting from (XX country). Unfortunately we're not able to ship to you just yet, however our (XX country) site is being developed right now. Click here and we'll email you once our new store opens."

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hello there,

I'd suggest that employing redirects is unlikely to result in the .com.au site ranking instead of the .co.uk version - essentially all you're doing is pushing any Australian visitors who come to you over to the Australian version of the site.

In order to try get the appropriate versions of the site ranking you might try implementing rel-alternate-hreflang annotations in your sitemaps - see http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2620865

I'd also recommend including things like local bricks and mortar addresses, local telephone numbers, displaying local currency etc to help the search engines understand which locations you're trying to target.

I hope this helps,

Hannah

Hi Matthew,

The hreflang tag which SEOBrent mentioned below may help here - if your content is duplicate.

In terms of implementation you need to place the tag on all versions of the page -

So on http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever you'd need:

http://yourdomain.com/uk/page-whatever; /> http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever/>

And on http://yourdomain.com/uk/page-whatever - you'd need:

http://yourdomain.com/us/page-whatever; /> https://plus.google.com/u/0/115984868678744352358/posts/9zA3a96XahN

Please also note, you need to pick one canonical version - I've picked the US as I've assumed you get more US traffic - obviously if you get more UK traffic then that should probably be the canonical version. See here - http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=5299f52953459957&hl=en&fid=5299f529534599570004b9a18f1d46fe

Re your GEO-IP redirect - this isn't an approach I favour - as Google normally crawl from a US IP it can cause indexation problems. As such I prefer something like cheapflights.com implement - if you visit cheapflights.com from a UK IP you are pushed to this international choice page - http://www.cheapflights.com/workers/profile-select.aspx?sref=CFUK&redirect=GeoIP&geoip=GB&cfref=CFUS&spt=Home&rp=/

This allows user to select the appropriate site, and allows both versions to be crawled.

I hope this helps,

Hannah