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Hi Sheldon, question again: I read the Google's official guide of the rel=alternate hreflang=x tag, Google says that if your page's navigation, sidebars are translated, or you want to target on specific region which use similar language, you can use this tag. But for me, I just have 4-5 fully translated pages, not just translate navigation or sidebar, should I use this tag?

You have two different materials and two different shapes.  Each of those materials should have different characteristics and each of those shapes should have different characteristics. If I owned this site I might create four pages.... Round Wooden Widgets - Size 1 to 9 Square Wooden Widgets - Size 1 to 9 Round Brass Widgets - Size 1 to 9 Square Brass Widgets - Size 1 to 9 Each of these pages would have substantive content.  For example: why brass round widgets are the best for certain people, the best for certain uses and how they compare with the wooden and the square.   These four pages would have very substantive informative content and offer the featured widgets for sale.  Maybe I would have informative content in the right column and images with purchase buttons in the left. I would attack with pages that are: informative, unique, substantive, well illustrated and transactional.    Do this well and I think you will kick some ass. If you put the most popular sizes in the title tag that will give them nearly as much relevance as separate pages and the substantive content will compete well against sellers who have one size on skimpy content pages. Defeat your competitors' content and get your keywords into kickass title tags.

Hi John, No it's very far from a text spinner it's a fantastic way to get fresh relevant content onto the site and know that the words will relate to each other and work with new Google's algorithm as well. I'm glad I could be of help. Good luck with your site and I'm certain it will be great. all the best, Tom

Like Alan, I have my doubts about whether the canonical tag is the best bet here. If the download/order page are down the click path from the product info page, I think it's ok to META NOINDEX,FOLLOW those pages (they have little or no search value). I generally wouldn't noindex and canonical a page - it's a mixed signal, and if things go wrong, you won't know why.

Thanks!

ok Thanks for your answer!

Hi Thanks for that yep your righ,t explains it completely  , we use module on Magento called SEOsuite which generates  the sitemap for you so will have a look into that. Thanks for your help

Thanks Alan!

ok thanks!

Unfortunately I can't speak for Google. Those pages all return 200 responses so they are valid. As I said, they are caused by the improperly formed link in conjunction with the server dynamically creating those pages. Thanks, Joel.

The short answer is: No. They're not coming back, in the sense that anything has changed or that they carry any more weight than they did last year. All signs point to their continued decline. Google has publicly stated that it carries no positive ranking value. Technically, Alan is correct - evidence suggest that Yahoo/Bing used Meta keywords as a ranking signal more recently than Google. Most of that evidence is 2+ years old, though, and I've seen no compelling reasons to think that it will tip the balance in any competitive situation on Bing. Even that 2009 article basically says: "Sure, use it, but don't expect much", IMO. Here's the other problem - Meta keywords has been used as a negative ranking signal, and probably still is to some degree. In other words, you might not gain much or anything from using it, but if you spam it, you could get devalued. My gut feeling is that the negative signal is much, much stronger than the positive one, and even Google may still use it as a negative signal. I'm certain that Yahoo/Bing has used it as a negative signal (not sure if they still do). I tend to agree that the competitive fears are overblown. Any decent site's keyword targets should be pretty clear - otherwise, it's not a very well SEO'd site. Personally, if you want to use them, use them - but keep them short, sweet, and relevant. Once you do, get on with your life.

Matthias I would also recommend to combine photos/pictures/images into one page. You can still target those words, just work the synonyms into the one page. It's much better to combine their authority into one, and not dilute their effectiveness. Without seeing your site, I would guess that for "free printing" your homepage would ideally be the one that should return for that search. If other pages are return I'd make sure to focus their topic enough so it's "free printing ..... " of something and let the homepage rank for just "free printing" -Dan

thanks Kyle!

thanks

Thanks for your advice!

Unlike the title tag, including keywords in your H1 will not improve your rankings in the SERPs any more than placing keyword anywhere high up in the code will. That said, including a keyword in your H1 is great for usability, which can increase conversions. When a user clicks on a search result (which includes keywords in the title tag), it is reassuring to click-through to a page with the same keywords prominently displayed. Marking up your HTML with header tags is also very important for communicating the organization of your page to screen readers, which are used by the vision-impaired to browse the web.

thanks!

Is it possible not to be in the first 20 or 30 positions in the SERPs after executing onpage SEO actions (keyword optimization,  metatags, ....) even for keywords for which there's not "too much" competition? Yes that is definitely possible especially if the on-page SEO has been done recently.  It takes time for Google to re-crawl the pages and credit your site.   Don't forget that SEO doesn't stop with on-page SEO.  Off page is just as important. Is there a way of visualize the pages indexed by the google bot? (the pages especifically, not the number)  in order to discard indexing problems? Yes.  In your browser use the site: to search for your site. ie.   site:www.example.com (make sure there is no spaces between the site: and the website url)

thanks Bryan!