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Roman is spot on. Links are still a big part of the game, but there are specific instances where you can rank with just content. Local SEO is a prime example. I only ever bother with citations for local SEO because I consistently rank just by focusing on content, technical/on-page SEO, and citations. For my clients with a national presence, outreach is necessary. Think healthcare and finance - smaller guys are competing with massive banks who have a ton of authority and history. Content won't win in that space alone (I wish it did). There are some real easy outreach wins early on, but once you've used up the easy stuff (like getting into directories or fixing broken backlinks) then you have to do a content inventory, find your best stuff, and promote it.  OR You have to create amazing content, then promote that and earn some backlinks. Like Roman says, the term "great content" is overused and oversold. Most people who show me their great content are often showing off mediocre content. Best of luck!

Hello! Pretty sure the issue is that this content requires a user action before being seen. Google will not crawl/index content which is not loaded until the user interacts. This post is a great resource %20Summary:%20How%20to%20Make%20Your%20Company%20Diverse%20Without%20Focusing%20on%20Diversity%20%20%20Name:%20Heather%20Huhman%20Spark%20Hire%20%20Category:%20Business%20and%20Finance%20%20%20Email:%20query-7wru@helpareporter.net%20%20%20Media%20Outlet:%20Spark%20Hire%20%20Deadline:%205:00%20PM%20EST%20-%2023%20April%20%20%20Query:%20%20%20LinkedIn's%20most%20recent%20Global%20Recruiting%20Trends%20report,%20recruiters%20say%20their%20top%20focus%20is%20on%20diversity%20and%20inclusion.%20But%20when%20it%20comes%20to%20hiring%20for%20diversity,%20there's%20a%20misunderstanding%20that%20the%20focus%20must%20be%20on%20the%20ethnicity,%20race,%20and%20sex%20of%20candidates.%20We're%20looking%20for%20insight%20into%20how%20hiring%20pros%20can%20break%20out%20of%20that%20rigid%20diversity%20box%20and%20find%20creative%20ways%20to%20hire%20diverse%20candidates%20who%20will%20positively%20impact%20various%20aspects%20of%20their%20company.%20Responses%20that%20are%20selected%20will%20be%20featured%20on%20the%20Spark%20Hire%20blog%20and%20promoted%20to%20over%2010K%20blog%20subscribers.%20%20Please%20respond%20to%20the%20following%20questions:%20%20How%20can%20focusing%20only%20on%20the%20ethnicity,%20race,%20and%20sex%20of%20candidates%20hurt%20hiring%20pros'%20efforts%20of%20hiring%20the%20best%20diverse%20candidates?%20What%20other%20candidate%20factors%20can%20hiring%20pros%20look%20into%20to%20find%20diverse%20candidates?%20Please%20share%20a%20story%20of%20a%20time%20when%20you%20or%20a%20fellow%20hiring%20pro%20narrowed%20your%20diversity%20focus%20too%20much,%20resulting%20in%20hires%20that%20weren%27t%20the%20best%20fit%20for%20the%20company.%20How%20can%20hiring%20professionals%20create%20a%20unique%20hiring%20strategy%20to%20attract%20diverse%20candidates%20who%20are%20the%20best%20fit%20for%20their%20open%20roles%20and%20company?%20%20Requirements:%20%20%20Please%20send%20your%20input%20in%20your%20initial%20response%20(don%27t%20send%20requests%20for%20interviews%20or%20article%20links).%20Include%20%22How%20to%20Make%20Your%20Company%20Diverse%20Without%20Focusing%20on%20Diversity%22%20in%20the%20subject%20line.%20Answer%20each%20question%20separately.%20Keep%20answers%20brief%20but%20informative.%20%20Include:%20%20Your%20title%20and%20qualifications%20Contact%20information,%20including%20an%20email%20Headshot%20(must%20be%20a%20link%20and%20at%20least%20200x200)%20Twitter%20handle%20%20Thank%20You.)on JS auditing/crawling%20Summary:%20How%20to%20Make%20Your%20Company%20Diverse%20Without%20Focusing%20on%20Diversity%20%20%20Name:%20Heather%20Huhman%20Spark%20Hire%20%20Category:%20Business%20and%20Finance%20%20%20Email:%20query-7wru@helpareporter.net%20%20%20Media%20Outlet:%20Spark%20Hire%20%20Deadline:%205:00%20PM%20EST%20-%2023%20April%20%20%20Query:%20%20%20LinkedIn's%20most%20recent%20Global%20Recruiting%20Trends%20report,%20recruiters%20say%20their%20top%20focus%20is%20on%20diversity%20and%20inclusion.%20But%20when%20it%20comes%20to%20hiring%20for%20diversity,%20there's%20a%20misunderstanding%20that%20the%20focus%20must%20be%20on%20the%20ethnicity,%20race,%20and%20sex%20of%20candidates.%20We're%20looking%20for%20insight%20into%20how%20hiring%20pros%20can%20break%20out%20of%20that%20rigid%20diversity%20box%20and%20find%20creative%20ways%20to%20hire%20diverse%20candidates%20who%20will%20positively%20impact%20various%20aspects%20of%20their%20company.%20Responses%20that%20are%20selected%20will%20be%20featured%20on%20the%20Spark%20Hire%20blog%20and%20promoted%20to%20over%2010K%20blog%20subscribers.%20%20Please%20respond%20to%20the%20following%20questions:%20%20How%20can%20focusing%20only%20on%20the%20ethnicity,%20race,%20and%20sex%20of%20candidates%20hurt%20hiring%20pros'%20efforts%20of%20hiring%20the%20best%20diverse%20candidates?%20What%20other%20candidate%20factors%20can%20hiring%20pros%20look%20into%20to%20find%20diverse%20candidates?%20Please%20share%20a%20story%20of%20a%20time%20when%20you%20or%20a%20fellow%20hiring%20pro%20narrowed%20your%20diversity%20focus%20too%20much,%20resulting%20in%20hires%20that%20weren%27t%20the%20best%20fit%20for%20the%20company.%20How%20can%20hiring%20professionals%20create%20a%20unique%20hiring%20strategy%20to%20attract%20diverse%20candidates%20who%20are%20the%20best%20fit%20for%20their%20open%20roles%20and%20company?%20%20Requirements:%20%20%20Please%20send%20your%20input%20in%20your%20initial%20response%20(don%27t%20send%20requests%20for%20interviews%20or%20article%20links).%20Include%20%22How%20to%20Make%20Your%20Company%20Diverse%20Without%20Focusing%20on%20Diversity%22%20in%20the%20subject%20line.%20Answer%20each%20question%20separately.%20Keep%20answers%20brief%20but%20informative.%20%20Include:%20%20Your%20title%20and%20qualifications%20Contact%20information,%20including%20an%20email%20Headshot%20(must%20be%20a%20link%20and%20at%20least%20200x200)%20Twitter%20handle%20%20Thank%20You.) and will show you how to use Chrome's 'inspect element' as a better way to see what's going on. But in general, the content needs to load before a user action takes place (even if in JS) and yes Google is getting better, but won't look at anything behind a click. Google just confirmed this at their recent I/O conference, stating that they do render JavaScript but it could be a week after they first render the normal HTML. -Dan PS - Huge apologies for the delay in answering, Moz was having technical issues with the backend of the forum, affecting the ability to reply to some questions.

Thank you so much for the extremely long and detailed response. Here's an example URL: https://www.bodycatalyst.com.au/technology/cryolipolysis-fat-freezing The /technology/ sub folder is new. This target page now doesn't have a link from the homepage which I suspect is a critical factor.

Hi Lucía, Moz's very own Britney Muller has created a 3-part Whiteboard Friday series about using rich snippets. I think you'd find it really helpful! If you check it out, let us know. Thanks! Christy

Hey, a fellow James is helping me out, nice!:) Thanks for the response James, and I get where you are coming from. Despite reading up on Google's algo, and being familiar with the concept of google discerning topic and not keyword(s), it can be tough to get out the superficially easier mindset of focussing on keywords! Based on your response, and supplementary reading, it looks like an article for the 'Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lighting' this year, and a new one if/when they play again next year is the best approach. I like your focus on the user, more important than Google, they may gain context/insight from article 1 even after the fact, and also, two articles give two opportunities to (hopefully) impress on google's algo that I am worthy of ranking. My additional reading also gave me some insight as to how google is becoming far more context aware. If someone searches on that topic this time next year, and google has spidered both my articles, I suspect its context engine would be clever enough to serve the more recent content, assuming that is what the searcher is after. I suppose the only things I need to watch out for is to put some seasonal context in my URL structure, and to tell Yoast to be quiet if it complains about keywords already being used when I create article 2 on the same topic:) Again, I appreciate the advice James, as you say, my next move is not a black or white situation, there are subject nuances so I'll keep this open to see if I've missed anything supplementary.....

I am thinking along the lines of the Google Quality Rater instructions.  I think that Miriam is thinking of that too. These things are the new SEO.

That is a long URL, but I don't think shortening it will help in terms of SEO. Google is generally good at understanding the structure of your site without the structure of URLs. They are also good at determining the topic without the use of the URL. In my experience, the work from changing the URL is more than it would help. If you find a reason to change the URL structure in the future that is very necessary (new CMS as an example), update the structure then. Until then, unless you are getting feedback from your users that it is annoying them, I'd leave them as is.

Hi Leana, Thanks for the question. If you're not updating or maintaining the small shop subdomain anymore, it would make sense to move all of those products/content over to the main domain and then 301 redirect all of the old pages to the appropriate new ones on the main domain. This feels like the best long-term approach given that you will be focusing your efforts on the main shop. This can carry some risk though - migrating URLs and content can confuse search engines and you can sometimes see a temporary drop in traffic even if the migration is perfect. I'd suggest testing the move first and move over a few products from the subdomain to the main domain, make sure you're comfortable with the process and then do more after that if it all goes well. This should help consolidate everything (including link signals) into the main domain and help long term. I hope that helps! Paddy

Hi Myron123, Thanks for your question! Did you see Gaston's thoughtful response? If it helped answer your question, please mark it as a "Good Answer." If not, please give us a detailed update so we can help. Thanks! Christy

Hi Kingalan I can understand you not wishing to fill your home page with spurious content but you need something to tell the user what the website is all about. It's OK adding a great title but that is only a maximum of 70 characters, depending on the width of the letters. So you really can't convey the full meaning of the page with so few words. (The user rarely sees the title anyway) Similarly, the description only allows 315 characters but is not used as a ranking factor, so that is not considered as home page content. (And is rarely seen by the user) The alt text on the images on the page will be read as part of the content so I would recommend one major feature image with a strong key phrase for the alt. (Wordpress calls this the 'focus keyword' but I would simply call it your 'primary keyword' or phrase). Other images can use semantically related keywords and phrases. My advice is to write around 300+ words of contextually rich content designed to be read by the website visitor whether you believe it will be read or not. This is headed by an H1 which echoes the title using semantically connected keywords. I'd consider this to be the minimum to convey the meaning of the page and be able to use keyword rich content to rank it for the satisfaction of user intent. If you need more than 300 words then separate into blocks with H2 headers. The important thing to remember is to make the writing compelling and relevant - people do read homepage content, so rather than thinking how few words you can write, think about 'what can I write that is great for the user and shows Google the theme of the page' I hope that helps, Regards Nigel

Thanks, Tawny is a pleasure to contribute to this community

Hello Nigel, Thank you for your feedback, I agree it is thought to beat tripadvisor but I am confident you can with good content. I will try and see if I manage too. Cheers,

1. You can use any version you want as the x-default, it is merely the version that will be shown if none of the other languages are relevant. 2. Yes 3. I'm guessing you forgot to change the url, so here's the correct structure: Hope this helps you!

You could do that or keep the core domain for Australia as the.com and then add youstore.com/uk/ youstore.com/us/ Then as you say have IP detection to flick them over to the correct version. Like Fitflop.com They have the .com for the US and then it flicks depending where you are. If you change the .com to .com/au you would need to install a lot of redirects which isn't necessary. Regards Nigel

I find the bounce rate can vary greatly on what type of page it is. If it's a landing page for a nice bit of hero content, 90% is a lot and it's possible there's something blocking users from achieving what they were hoping to do on your page. But if you're looking specifically at blog/article content you do tend to see pages that are ranking well with bounce rates between 70-90%. A lot of the time this means there's nothing wrong with the page, the user has just gone "Hey great, this page has answered my question" and left. You might be able to gauge whether this is the case by looking at time spent on page - if people are reading your content this should show it and it's a ranking factor in itself, so as long as your page is answering people's queries and they're taking the time to read it, you might find it stays in its current position. Here's a simple, but often forgotten tip for lowering down bounce rates: make sure you're actually giving the user somewhere to go after visiting your page. If there's another relevant piece of content on your site that might help broaden their understanding of the topic or what seems like the next logical step in the 'user journey', make sure it gets a link on the page somewhere that it's likely to be seen, whether it's at the end of the page or in its own CTA that stands out. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the response. I was hoping that there might be a commonly used strategy for tackling this kind of problem but I think deep down I knew I'd end up just having to try it and see what happens. I'll just have to give it a go and see if I get the response I'm looking for and go from there. Thanks again!