Category: Search Engine Trends
Explore current search engine trends with fellow SEOs.
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Bot Crawling issues
Dear SeoMAN, Thanks for your answer. I just tried at google, its shows normal, I just checked google search console and webmaster tools, there is nothing serious shows. Can it be possible to try to find out what was the main cause. Is I taken the right image, is I searched exactly what you are asking about? Many thanks. 7J2WLXd
| SubhaVaastu0 -
What happens if we remove all the links to internal pages from our homepage?
Great point Chris, this is definitely worth looking into! A "lightbox pop up thingy" may give you what you want from a functionality standpoint, without having to kill those links. Also, I do believe "lightbox pop up thingy" is the technical term. I've heard others refer to them as a "modal window" or something silly like that =P
| Bryan_Loconto0 -
Fixing 404s
I'm getting into the habit of fixing them where i can - if the page is linked from anywhere and fixing/ redirecting if i can. Then i'm marking them as fixed in search console repeatedly - any pages I'm very worried about, I recrawl via the 'fetch as google' with the hope that google will recognise them as gone. On reading google documentation, it says that 404s won't necessarily harm your site and 'in most cases' should be left to 404. so basically i'm trying to use the tools available to us to read what errors might be there and fixing the ones that are worth fixing. I know what you mean about having loads of frustrating 404s - as an seo trying to find things to fix, it's an absolute nightmare. but try marking them as fixed and recrawling them if necessary? perhaps also - since your site is ecom, making a canonical campaign whereby you can canonicalise the most up-to-date product and maybe creating a custom 404 page. like "this is a 404, but here's some similar products you can browse, <a>red shirt</a>, <a>blue shirt</a> etc. hope that helps?
| Fubra0 -
Blog-posts pages are dominating in search console "Internal Links". Only home-page at top!
Hi Chris, Site is 15 years old. Redesigned and launched few months back. Pages are as old as website except some content and image changes Basically we give a summary of our features on the website pages, blog-posts elaborate much about these features. I think this internal links are more about technical SEO. Thanks
| vtmoz1 -
Confuse search engine result
Another thing that can burn you is if you're using a country code suffix. Some of them such as Tokalau allow still the registrar owner to specify a location, but that's an exceptional circumstance due to the fact that country gives those leases out in an effort to stimulate e-commerce growth. However if you put the wrong country code on a suffix, you may as well just toss the domain, I've done it before, sux.
| TucsonAZWebDesign0 -
Do the back-links go wasted when anchor text or context content doesn't match with page content?
Hi VT, Keep in mind that when page A is linking page B (either internally or externally) it is the first link to page B that shows up in the html of Page A that lends any link juice to page B. The rest don't count for anything as far as SEO. Often that link is in the menu or breadcrumbs, rather than in the page copy. That said, while it's nice to keep the anchor text to internal resources tight, the ultimate impact of that anchor text on internal resources isn't that great.
| Chris.Menke0 -
Google search console: 404 and soft 404 without any back-links. Redirect needed?
Hey vtmoz–I'd recommend you resolve the issue _at the source. _Meaning, fix the broken links at their link location (where they're being linked to). You could 301 these 404s to another location on your site, but then you'll just have a bunch of expired, internal links that 301. If these 404 links don't have backlinks, as you say, then there's no page authority to keep. You can find this in GSC (webmaster tools). LMK if you have any questions. pl1sTjF xGMGq3y
| zeehj0 -
How should the Heading Tags be used in Blogs to gain the Best results in SEO?
Hi sne I think the first thing to understand these are not ranking factors in themselves, it is the content of the page which is most important. H1 and H2 for me are the two most important headers. H1 - set this above all content to help define the theme of the page to the reader. You will already have set the theme in the title tag. So make sure that the H1 either emulates the primary keyword set in there (Remember title should be Primary Keyword/phrase | Secondary Keyword/ Phrase | Company) so either use that or a synonym - i.e. something very closely related that conveys the meaning of the content. H2 - Use these to break up the main body of content into sub-sections of the main content. So for example, if your content only has 300 words because that is all you need to get the point across then you may not need any H2s. If the content extends to over 1000 words because that is what you need to make your point then consider breaking this up with H2s. The H2s will help enhance the overall SEO strength. It forces you to think of a sub-theme for that part of the content and if all sub-themes are subsets of the main theme, will enhance the overall SEO value. Don't use it as an opportunity to introduce a new them that should have its own page as you will dilute the strength of the page. Keep it all related. Get a great image in there which has the alt tag the same as the primary keyword and you are laughing! You can use H3s and H4s if necessary to head up other minor areas of content - but their use is only really as a separator which may be bolded to help the reader understand the content better. Don't be thinking that they have a specific SEO role because they don't. You could equally just bold a word in paragraph text. I hope that helps - Regards Nigel
| Nigel_Carr0 -
How to build ( Linked domains )
You can try to copy your competitors linked domains using backlink analyzer tools like the one Moz has: https://analytics.moz.com/pro/link-explorer/home Good luck!
| paupastorlopez0 -
Did google shorten meta description length? It looks like it is back to around the 150 character length
Hi again, I've seen this which I thought is interesting for the discussion: danny_sullivan_meta_description.jpg
| paupastorlopez1 -
Google: What factors contribute to rank a landing page in a specific country?
Localization of the content of the landing page (from IRL to title tag and meta description to text in the page itself. Geotargeting the landing page: if it is in a separate subfolders and the domain is a generic domain name, then you can eventually create a Google Search Console for that folder and geotargeting to the intended country in the International Targeting Page of the prope itself. An alternative to subfolser is having the landing page you want to geotarget in a subdomain and then geotargeting it as I describe above. If you want to create a landing page in a separate domain, then it would be better a country code domain name like, for instance, .es for Spain. if the landing page exists in different country versions, then it would opportune to implement the hr so to indicate to Google What landing page to show in the SERPS depending from where the searchers is searching from. Finally, links from site targeting the country the landing page is targeting too. having a hosting in the targeted country is not anymore and international seo ranking factor.
| gfiorelli10 -
Descriptive domain vs business name domain
Sounds like something left behind in your meta tags somewhere or possibly page headings (H1, H2 etc). Out of preference I would utilise a shorter domain name. Domain name will have a small impact, but it is very small, hardly detectable. I would look at it from a branding perspective, JP Shots is much more brand friendly.
| seoman100 -
How often should I update the content on my pages?
Great advice here, I'm with casey on constant updating and that's a solid article from Herb. But for me you're asking the wrong question. Sure updating content is great but you should really be testing it. So test meta descriptions, H1's and other elements using a tool (there's this great keyword tool I believe it's called MOZ lol - lots of chat about that lately - they've really made some great changes.) But in the interests of openness I also use SEM Rush and GOOGLE that's the best keyword tool out there. Just get googling and see what sorts of articles are overtaking you and model them and make better versions. Having a young kid (congrats) means you're tired and creativity is really hard when you're tired and stressed - even for very creative people. So model the articles of others and use the keyword suggestions and volumes as a guide. But always be testing and tweaking. Add just a paragraph and revisit and change up some words and phrases and keep it fresh. Use the date in the Meta Description. CTR in the SERPS is really important and If I see 2018 up there i'm going to click on it. Don't just add '2018' to everything though because google will catch you out. you actually need to add some contemporary stuff in there and it will revitalise and refresh the content. Also remember that there have been lots of changes at google lately. So your drop in traffic might be external ranking factors bumping other sites up because google can understand them better and is better able to get good user feedback from Chrome. Also be granular about it. Ask yourself of each article, "does this answer the question?" Is it up to date and is it correctly optimised using the keywords that are coming up in your research. The best SEO tool in the world is the 100 billion neurons sitting on your shoulders. Use that tool first and foremost
| Smileworks_Liverpool0 -
Anything wrong with multiple meta descriptions and multiple title tags? We have 2 by mistake
Hi there! There is no correct information about the harm that it would cause you. It is know that Google considers the best Title and the best description that matches the user intent. Try your best to correct those issues, google will treat you better. There are some theories that considers Google uses the first of those tags. Also, if those tags have the same content, there is no big issue, Google will understand that it could be a problem or something for different optiones of the page. That said, it is common to have several H1 as it could change whether in mobile, tablet or desktop, or even when selecting some options. Hope it helps. Best luck. GR
| GastonRiera0 -
Agonizing over Meta length or content seems to make no sense as Google seems to be ignoring them!
Hi Ed. Well second time I have responded to this! MOZ had a little 'hiccup' and lost the entire response Ill try remember! ahhh now it wont allow me to post a large response. so its in 3 parts...(1 of 3)Thanks for your insight I really appreciate it! Yes, as you said I do kill it for ski rental delivery queenstown/wanaka related searches but I am the only offering for this service and its not searched often. My most valuable keywords that I put most effort into are 'ski hire queenstown' and ski hire wanaka'. This puts me in the mix with my competition and I need to use the Meta and Title to 'sell' my point of difference (delivery and fitting) and generate a good CTR. Positions 1-3 for these searches on both google.co.nz and google.com.au would be ideal. I believe our site is far superior than our competitons and ranking it after 8 years in the game should not be too hard (BTW we are ranking pretty well esp. Local)In fact I have just spent a month updating our NAPs across the web to match and reflect our 2 physical trading locations in Wanaka and Queenstown. So the site is split in 2 locations already as you suggested. You will see this if you try to book or look at rates. ...contd
| judsta0 -
Where can I find a list of CTRs by search engine position, beyond the top 20?
I have extensively looked for this too to try and correct for inaccurate estimations of mine and competitions traffic in SEM Rush. If you're ranking like 25 for a 100,000 volume keyword SEM Rush attaches a value to that where in fact I expect there is no value much past page two. I'd say they only go as low as 0.1% CTR because to go any lower is worthless from an ROI and financial perspective. I wouldn't imagine it changes much either. Just keeps on going at around 0.1 until page ten or whatever. The only real interesting insight I saw was that halfway down page two can be a better position than the top of page two. So those keyword's just teetering on page one are a real focus for my SEO efforts. Have you tried getting in touch with Advanced Webranking. They certainly will have more data but wanted the graph to be readable so just went to position 20.
| Smileworks_Liverpool0 -
Page content is not very similar but topic is same: Will Google considers the rel canonical tags?
Google's really clear that they expect canonicalised pages to be "essentially identical" in content - for example, the same list of products, but sorted differently by price, size etc. In the situation you're describing, the content is far too different to be considered an equivalent page and so the canonical tags will almost certainly be ignored (which is what search engines do with canonical tags that aren't used correctly) Canonicalisation is very literal about the actual content on the page - it doesn't consider similar contexts, only actual words and content. As such, it probably wouldn't' be worth the time to add the tags to pages where it was going to be ignored anyway. But no, they've never indicated there's any penalty beyond simply ignoring inappropriate usage. Hope that helps? Paul
| ThompsonPaul0 -
Is Shopify good for SEO?
Flagged this response and website. Self-promoting response. spam.
| BBT-Digital1 -
Google asking questions in SERPs
Interesting. This is the first one I've seen, and it's much more obscure than the Olympics. I'm guessing they use this one to choose what YouTube video to show in one of their info boxes at the top or on the right Although on second thought I would expect them to already know which video, and probably which song, is the most popular. I wonder why they're asking then.
| 4RS_John1 -
Any disadvantages of employing additional images which open in new window? Will it impact bounce rate and rankings?
Can't speak to the new window issue, sorry. However, I'm not sure you want to do that in the first place. The described flow (or lack of it) did alarm me from a usability angle. Surely its better to pop these large images up in a light box, so the user is least inconvenienced? There's some really neat lightbox JavaScript out there, e.g. https://noelboss.github.io/featherlight/ or http://www.digitalia.be/software/slimbox2/ Additionally resizing your images can have a great impact, but don't forget to optmise them with something like https://tinypng.com/. Do multiple passes on that to squeeze extra percentages out - just drag the download link back to the optimisation window till you only get a couple of % saving (or you wreck your image . If your workflow includes lots of new images regularly, consider a server side automated version, or Photoshop plugin to include it in image creation workflow. Also if the brand/style guide allows consider going black and white or your preview images, or blurring them slightly - all little tricks to get image sizes really small. Also cache those images!
| AndyMozster0