Category: Intermediate & Advanced SEO
Looking to level up your SEO techniques? Chat through more advanced approaches.
-
Local SEO Plus Performance Based Pay Per Call Multiple Phone Numbers
Hi GreenHornet, Yes, the use of call tracking numbers in Local has long been a problem, because it can ruin the clarity of your all important NAP (name, address, phone number) signals. Here is one of David Mihm's early posts on this topic, from 2009: http://searchengineland.com/be-wary-of-call-tracking-numbers-in-local-search-26895 A couple of years later, and also on Search Engine Land, Chris Silver Smith wrote this post regarding call tracking 'solutions' that could be categorized as cloaking: http://searchengineland.com/for-local-seo-lack-of-call-tracking-solution-spawns-cloaking-70198 I'll excerpt from Chris' post here, regarding options: " Avoid call tracking numbers for your website and for any online directories or online yellow pages which are being actively indexed by Google and other local search engines. Using them in banner ads, in PPC ads, and on landing pages which are set up to not be indexed is fine, so they can be used for paid search advertising with zero local SEO impact. If you have used call tracking numbers in the past or are using them now, discontinue it. You’ll need to periodically audit local information sites to see if your listing info with the tracking number continues to appear on websites online, and carefully update/remove the tracking numbers from them. If you think you’ve been penalized for using call tracking numbers from a provider who added cloaking software to your site, remove the offending code and submit a reinclusion request to Google explaining what happened. As part of your standard phone script at your business, consider asking callers directly where they found your listing. Have employees who answer the phone write down responses for you to see later. This remains an excellent and free way of polling to see how effective different channels are performing. If you are in some sort of unavoidable situation where you must get some phone tracking information, implement the tracking numbers for a brief period of time without using any sort of cloaking code. I would suggest only using tracking numbers for two or three months, maximum, and that should be sufficient to get a rough idea of how effective a particular channel is performing — then, return to using your regular phone number and audit to fix any places where the tracking number continues to appear." Also in 2011, Greg Sterling covered Telmetrics' introduction of a call tracking solution that doesn't use call tracking numbers, but to be honest, I never saw this idea covered by anyone else and can't say how heavily it was adopted or how well it works: http://searchengineland.com/telmetrics-introduces-call-tracking-without-tracking-numbers-93450 In 2012, the only thing I've really come across is part of an interview at SEOBook of Jake Puhl and Adam Zilko: http://www.seobook.com/interview-local-marketing-experts-jake-puhl-adam-zilko Here's the relevant text: "Call Tracking Recommendations (Or Not?) Back to Topics Eric: Yeah, we do see that a lot, especially with people who are trying to do campaigns with different phone number tracking, where they put different phone numbers in yellow and all these different places. Do you have anything? Do you use a specific type of call tracking application? Adam: No, we completely recommend against it, absolutely 100% against it. Any time you have any variations with your map, your name, your phone number, like Jake said, you're going to weigh down your citations, weigh down your listing, weigh down your trust with Google and that's been a big thing. We've seen, even without any other sort of off page efforts, just by cleaning up your citations across the web, we've seen a significant increase in rankings, many, many times because of that. Every now and again, you come across, say, a seven pack with dentists, you see one that maybe doesn't have a website, in a very competitive market. Typically, it's because his citations are so dialed in, he's been in one place for 30 years and the only data out there is exactly the same, so there's a lot of trust with the map. The same kind of rules apply. We completely recommend that you never use a tracking number, and if you have to use one on your site, you put it in the form of an image file, and we'll even go as far as to make the all tag on it their actual phone number. There's just no room for any confusion at all." I've not seen this discussed any more recently than this, and the consensus of opinion pretty much remains the same as it has for the past 3 years since this subject was first spotlighted. To wit: Call tracking numbers are bad for local campaigns, and if you absolutely have to use them, you need to make an effort to hide them, as discussed in some of the above articles. I suggest that you read through everything I've linked to above so that you can make an informed decision about this. Hope these resources help!
| MiriamEllis0 -
What makes a Flash video player SEO friendly?
Kyle, My apologies for not being articulate. I was exhausted. I am speaking more of how a flash player can prevent indexing rather than a flash video. Using a video sitemap, I can get any video on any site to index IF I expose the url to the actual video file. However, Google documentation allows for situation where you can't expose the url to the video file, and allows you to use a player location to a specific video. In their sitemap documentation, Google uses this example: http://www.example.com/videoplayer.swf?video=123 I have created the most basic of players to test this theory. With no success. There is a unique video per url. Yet Google will not index it even with a video sitemap I like to know how things fundamentally work. So here is a live example: [http://assets.newsinc.com/players/sitemap/player.swf?vid=23639213](http://www.videopulse.com/index.php/Hendricks-Stops-Awkward-Interview--23833388)[](http://www.videopulse.com/index.php/Hendricks-Stops-Awkward-Interview--23833388) This will not index. If I have proper sitemap then I am wondering if it has something to do with the player itself. ```
| braines0 -
Is it possible to lose rank because my site's IP changed?
Okay, just heard back from 3DCart. The old IP and new IP are both USA. That being the case, I don't think that had anything to do with my ranking drop. Hopefully it's just a natural fluctuation. Thanks Adam!
| danatanseo0 -
Non-home page ranking higher, very odd
I feel your pain! Although, sometimes cleaning up an outdated site can be the most rewarding because there is so much upward potential. Good luck!
| danatanseo0 -
301 Redirect how to get those juices flowing
Hi Kyle Submitted a site map originally, Google can see and has indexed all the current pages and visits regularly, however non of the authority has been pushed over yet, not even all the PR.. Just must be super unlucky
| kellymandingo0 -
Hide H1 tags on pages. Don't chuckle-Need assistance.
I knew the answer just not the one I want. LOL Looks like I will be making a few changes, thanks. If anyone else has input please let me know. Ballanrk
| ballanrk0 -
Why is SEO Moz only crawling my homepage?
Sanket is correct; drop a line to our help team and we'll get it figured out. Here's a post from the help team about why sometimes only one page gets crawled: https://seomoz.zendesk.com/entries/409821-why-isn-t-my-site-being-crawled-you-re-not-crawling-all-my-pages
| KeriMorgret0 -
E-commerce Adding New Content - Blog vs New Page
Thanks Kate - I originally created the seperate blog so that it could develop into a brand of its own. But now the main ecomm site is getting stale and it is the revenue generator. We have articles and static pages on the site, but I am curious if going with a blog on the site would provide any additional benefits as opposed to continuing to add articles as static pages. We are on an x-cart platform - would you go with a Wordpress add on? Thanks, SAM
| SammyT0 -
Geo-targeting Content Based On IP address?
Check out this discussion first: http://www.seomoz.org/q/geo-targeting-by-ip-address There's nothing wrong with dynamic targeting, if it's done right: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/keyword-level-demographics <-- That post is about persona-targeting Be aware that for many sites' geo-targeted content is not on the homepage per se, but a landing page built for that purpose. That doesn't mean it's the only way to go, but that's where you'll find more examples. It's probably best to do some multivariate testing before going all in on it... If client's doing this to improve user experience, there's nothing wrong with it, but yes it could have unexpected effects on your results in local search.
| BrianCrouch0 -
Should i remove sitemap from the mainsite at a webshop (footer link) and only submit .XML in Webmaster tools?
Hi Mickel - The answer is both. Keep your html sitemap, and keep the link in the footer as is. Crawlers will look at these but they are generally more for human visits. Then create your xml sitemap (www.url.com/sitemap.xml) and verify it in Google Webmaster Tools. Hope this helps!
| JaredMumford0 -
Duplicate Content Error because of passed through variables
you need to fix it. it's likely not drawing a penalty or anything severe, but cleaning up will certainly help concentrate your pagerank and rid of any dilution and confusion. you should treat each page to a canonical tag referencing the non parametered url. you can also use google webmaster tools to tell google to ignore the top= parameter, but the canonical tag is your best option.
| Fatwallet0