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Hello there! There is no definite answer for your question. It does completely depends on your strategy.  So if your homepage is optimized for one keyword, then when creating backlinks with that kw point them to the home page. Otherwise, use a landing page created specually for that. REMEMBER, google does not want (even, doesnt like) us to create several pages nearly identical just for targetting different keywords that are very similar. More info: Doorway pages - Google Search Console Help and Google Defines doorway pages, John Mueller - SERT Hope it helps you. Best Luck. GR

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

Cheers Guys, Great answers here! now I come to think of it the site was already ranking high worldwide for the co.uk site. The reason for the different domains is the difffeent distributors and currencys. Definitely won’t go down this route again. Will try the canonical hack and let you know, how it goes. regards Neil

The most common thing we see with Shopify is that the categories are often a mess due to lack of planning and understanding. They call them collections, and it's the equivalent to doing tag/category cleanup on a WordPress site to help clear out low-value content. Another common complaint is that the blog forces you into a bit of annoying URL structure (ie. /blog/news but works well if the content is solid.

Hi Gareth. I think it does not matter if you're connected to google.es or google.co.uk, for this case. Think that to most people, google will ask for your location. In this case I think that what could work for you is to use local seo techniques. In this link you have an article from the MOZ blog to know how to do it. https://moz.com/blog/local-seo-checklist You can use the local seo for each city in Spain where there are more inhabitants of the United Kingdom.

Absolutely.

Hey There, The answer from Serge on this older thread pretty much tells it like it is, when it comes to sitelinks: https://moz.com/community/q/how-to-get-sitelinks-in-organic-serps

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.

Hey Matt, From my knowledge this is what I know about FB competitions: You can't ask people to share or tag: "3. Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines and friend connections must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend's Timeline to get additional entries”, and "tag your friends in this post to enter" are not permitted)." You have to acknowledge the competition is in 'no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.' I also recently read the following article which provided some interesting insights: https://www.macandernie.com.au/blog/how-to-run-a-competition-on-facebook Hope this helps

Hi Martijn, thanks for the response. From a quick glance, it looks pretty basic, but I will dig in further when I have more free time. Also, interesting CMS options as my company is finally looking to add a CMS (subdomains have been SUCH a pain technically and logistically). I'll definitely have to check out Craft.

I recently answered a similar question here.... https://moz.com/community/q/how-to-handle-annual-content-2018-2019

Hey Nathan, Thanks for reaching out to us Would you be able to write into us at help@moz.com with your business name + address so that we can investigate into this further. Looking forward to hearing from you, Eli

Hi there! Ok, it is difficult to know all the ins and outs without looking at the site, but the immediate issue is that your robots.txt setup is incorrect. robots.txt files should be one per subdomain, and cannot exist inside sub-folders: A **robots.txt **file is a file at the root of your site that indicates those parts of your site you don’t want accessed by search engine crawlers From Google's page here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6062608?hl=en You shouldn't be blocking Google from either site, and attempting to do so may be the problem with why your hreflang directives are not being detected. You should move to having a single robots.txt file located at https://www.clientname.com/robots.txt, with a link to a single sitemap index file. That sitemap index file should then link to each of your two UK & US sitemap files. You should ensure you have hreflang directives for every page. Hopefully after these changes you will see things start to get better. Good luck!

Hi there, I do a back link audit for my clients annually, just to ensure I have a good idea of what links have been created every 12 months that may be out of my control. I usually pull all the links from as many tools as I can; Open Site Explorer, Google Search Console, Cognitive SEO, Ahrefs, SEMrush etc and compile them into a Google Sheet. You'll find most of these tools will have some sort of gauge to show you the trustworthiness of each link, however I still find it's good to scan through them manually. You get a good feel for which ones are fishy after a while. From there I go through them manually, to see if there's any really worrying ones (I also highlight ones to keep an eye on). If there are ones I want removed, I will attempt to contact the webmaster to do this. If I cannot remove certain links and I believe they are harming the site (typically it would only come to this if there is a manual penalty) then I'll look to disavow those links: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en I hope this helps

Great answer. Thanks so much!!!

To answer your questions: 1. Yes, these are all different domains (ie. southcarolina-waterbottles.biz, tennessee-waterbottles.biz) but all these domains are hosted on the same ip address. 2. Yes, all the domains basically have the same content and the same links to the same pages on my main url. The only difference on the pages is some verbage that distinguishes each by state. 3. These pages do NOT link to each other; only to my main urls. According to my SEMRUSH backlink audit, which most of these links show up on, these links have high toxicity markers, and most of them are identified by their ip network. I'm worried that Google has identified these and may be doing more than just devaluing them, which would really be the best case scenario. I think they may possibly be harming my overall rankings because of these links. It seems impossible to know. What do you think, based on the information above?

I'm with Ed. this only has an effect on the CTR. When you use a brand or product in which you put those symbols, people usually click more often on these links.

A few unordered thoughts: I don't think that the URL alone is what's causing the blog to outrank the homepage. Some causes are probably that the content is better suited towards "plastic cups", the on-page optimization is more specific towards "plastic cups", or that the blog post has more internal/external links pointing to it. Also could be a combination of any/all of these. If your main topic for the site is around plastic cups, then the homepage should probably rank for it. In which case you could 301 the blog post to the homepage, and ensure that the homepage is targeting "plastic cups" as best as possible and that the content suits that keyword well. If the main topic for the website isn't plastic cups, then I would argue that it's OK that the blog post ranks—take that and use the homepage to target something else entirely and just make sure the CTA on the blog post is appropriate. The way to let Google know your homepage is most relevant for the term: Redirect blog post to homepage. Ensure homepage has well written and helpful content around the topic. Ensure homepage targeting (title tag, h1, etc) is focused on the topic. Re-submit sitemap to Google for re-crawling and wait for a few days/possibly a week. Hope that's helpful!

Hi There! Good question. Basically, what you are embarking on here is the optimization of a local business website. The term for this is Local SEO (local search engine optimization). At the outset of your work, there is one very important concept for you to understand about how Google views local businesses like your physical therapy office: Google views local businesses as being relevant to local users. So, if you are physically located in Fort Myers, the bulk of your efforts will go towards ranking in Google's local search engine results (local packs) for users who are either physically located in Fort Myers, or for users who include the term "Fort Myers" in their search phrase. You are highly unlikely to rank in the local results for Cape Coral or any other city, regardless of what keywords you use on your website. Because of Google's historic bias towards physical location, some businesses are frustrated because they cannot rank in the local packs for any city other than their city of location. This is especially so for service area businesses, like plumbers or house painters, who travel from a single city to a variety of other cities to serve customers. But, your business is not a service area business, if your patients all come to your office in Fort Myers for treatment. Typically, your only relationship to Cape Coral or any other nearby city is that some patients may live there and come to you, but this is unlikely to be a good enough reason to mention these additional cities on your website. If you were a house painter, you could authentically create a page on your website about the houses you've painted in Cape Coral, and you could attempt to gain some organic (not local pack) rankings based on the optimization of this type of landing page. But in your case, you likely don't have anything to say about Cape Coral that would make it sensible or authentic to create such a page. Are there any exceptions to this? Can brick-and-mortar businesses ever optimize for cities beyond their city of location and can it do any good? The answer is: sometimes. If it's essential for you to build brand awareness in cities beyond your city of location, you have to determine if you can build a real relationship between your business and these satellite cities. For example, a doctor could mention his hospital privileges in Cities B,C and D. He could host a sports medicine seminar in city B, attend a conference in City C, and volunteer at a yoga weekend in City D. He could then write about his involvement in these communities and promote himself socially. He could also sponsor teams, organizations, and events in neighboring cities and earn links and mentions from these activities. So, yes, there are some cases in which a brick-and-mortar business in City A can build content and awareness around additional cities, but it should never just come down to putting a list of cities in a chunk on his homepage. This isn't good SEO, and is actually frowned on by Google. Summing up: as a local business, you'll be focusing the bulk of your efforts on your city of location in hopes of gaining local rankings for it. If you need to build brand awareness in additional cities, strategies exist where real-world relationships exist, and the goal of this work would be organic, rather than local, rankings. The alternative is to invest in PPC campaigns that target neighboring communities. Hope this helps!