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It does make sense Stephen, but this bit bothers me: The URL mappings must be used to redirect any link to a deleted page to an existent page. If I am reading that correctly then are they saying that 404's can't exist, just 302's? You don't always want to direct someone to a page, especially if it isn't applicable. In many cases, a 404 would be the right thing to do if a page is just being removed. Of course, if there is somewhere to redirect someone to, then you would do so with a 301 (permanent redirect) rather than a 302 (temporary redirect). I don't really understand their system, so might be missing something in translation. -Andy

Hi Cornelius, Are you referring to remarketing with regards Google Adwords? If so, this is what it is and where you can read more: Remarketing lets you show ads to people who have visited your website or used your mobile app before. When people leave your website without buying anything, for example, remarketing helps you reconnect with them by showing relevant ads as they browse the web, as they use mobile apps, or as they search on Google. https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2453998?hl=en-GB I would also suggest having a read here: http://www.google.co.uk/ads/innovations/remarketing.html If this isn't what you thought it was, or not what it refers to, please let me know. -Andy

Dynamic templates can be a great solution, so long as you're incorporating a variety of dynamic elements, not just swapping out one or two words. I have seen some debate on whether or not to set a meta description, and I think it's really a CRO choice. Google is always going to match a search query with a relevant excerpt from the page when a meta description is not available, so if you trust Google's judgment, it can be fine to go without. I don't think that philosophy is hurting Yelp at all.

Hi, Text > HTML ratio isn't actually a ranking factor and there is no penalty based on this. What you can do with it, is use it as an indicator on how big your pages are and identify those that might be slowing do the loading. There is no test or correlation that would suggest that reducing this text > HTML ratio will do anything for your rankings. You need to also try and get away from the thought process that SEO is just about search positions - you need to think about customer acquisitions and page usability as well. For example, if I look at your home page and you were to just add a block of text at the top, then this would reduce the effectiveness of the big messages and search availability at the top. it would push down the main search box and offer nothing of use that anyone would really want to read. So no, don't add text to the top of the page as this isn't needed. If this were just one big picture with nothing at all there, then it might be a different discussion. Are your search positions dropping at the moment, or is there a reason that this came about? I have clients whose Text > HTML ratio is 6-8% and in 1st position for very highly sought after terms. There is a lot more at play. -Andy

Aw, thanks, EGOL Whoa - looking at those SERPs, I've been a busy bee.

Hi Derek, I noticed most sites if not all in the linking domains section have a link to there own site. How do i do this? This won't help with what you are trying to do. DA (Domain Authority) will build over time as you start work on your SEO. I suggest you read their Beginners Guide to SEO as this will give you a good understanding of what you should be doing on your site. You will find that every site has Internal Links to their own pages. This is gained through Menus or Inline Links where you reference another page on your site. This is used to help Google understand which of your pages are more important and is useful when you are crafting your site structure. A big part of your SEO strategy, should be External Links. These will help further boost your DA, but there is a very definite art in doing this and I suggest you read these references before even starting. Link Building in a Post Panda World Beginners guide to Link Building Link Building: The Definitive Guide I would also have some sort of content strategy in place as this will help you establish trust with Google and get some great content written for your blog (if you are running with one). I hope this helps a little. -Andy

There's no guarantee, other than the site isn't likely to rank for Louis Vuitton. In general, Google will pick the best of the worst in any niche/vertical which has a proclivity for link spam. So that's something to consider, if such is the case. Definitely disavow anything you deem inappropriate. Make sure to mention the circumstances in a properly formatted disavow file. A couple of good resources one should keep in mind are this Google Webmaster's answer and Dr. Pete's post. You may want to buy the domain and get a simple, single, page up and running. Then connect it to Search Console/Webmaster Tools, to get a better idea of the domain's link profile. Robert Fisher's people, over at drumBeat, noticed that a lot of sites block bots associated with popular backlink reporting tools. Once you have your link list, load it up in Screaming Frog and make sure to spoof the Google bot user agent. Can you associate any sort of penalty that lines up with the time the domain went rogue? I'm sure it's probably difficult, given the nature of the case. No matter what, make sure to mention the circumstance of the links in the disavow. Still, I would imagine it's probably not difficult to get the client to rank for his name. This is probably true if the targets are something like Name Surname Political Office Location. Without the ability to dig into it further, I would say the domain probably is salvageable if you take precautions.

Wohoo, a response that really touches on everything.. I wish I could give you more thumbs up. Thanks Matt. I did not mean to be so hard on Jordan or you but that never answered my question. I don't have a manual penalty yet but I really dont want to be slapped with one, so I"ve been tip toeing and almost not trying to get noticed by Google. LOL. A 70% chance of getting a penalty can be really scary for someone who dropped a full-time job for a website. Neil dropped a nice post about it yesterday http://www.quicksprout.com/2015/08/05/the-step-by-step-guide-to-fixing-any-google-penalty/. Ive read the links you sent me and will try concentrate on the broader picture. Thanks Matt

Hey John, Yes it's becoming a common practice as it looks good. The problem with the infinitive scrolling is the use of Java Script. As we all know, Google does not read java script really well so it only reads your top section of page and ignore the scrolling area. For the best practice, it's suggested to use pagination with scrolling. There is also a plugin available that take care of this issue but I haven't used it yet. It's called "infinite ajax scroll". Check out these resources for clearer understanding and implications: https://econsultancy.com/blog/63394-infinite-scroll-its-impact-on-seo-and-how-to-fix-it/ http://www.sitepoint.com/seo-friendly-infinite-scroll/ http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/05/21/how-to-create-an-seo-friendly-infinite-scrolling-page/ Hope this helps! Umar

Thank you, Jasmine.  That is a good point about CTR varying from one site to another.  A person might be able to look at the site and know if visitors will be able to see the ads. Some sites run ads, but they really don't want to run ads, so they have them down at the bottom of the page or in a corner where few see them.

I'm afraid there's no easy answer. The security side is beyond the scope of Q&A (it's just too dependent on your platform/host/etc.), but locking that down is definitely the biggest and first step. Obviously, though, you can't stop third-party sites from getting hacked. Disavow can be done at the domain level. There are some oddities, like Wordpress.com (where sub-domains act more like stand-alone domains), but for most sites, if most links are malicious, lock down the entire incoming domain. Make sure your core links are clean. If you have a solid base of links, and you're not dealing with a lot of quality issues, it's tough for these kinds of hacked links to cause as much harm. Google knows this happens. Unfortunately, if your core link profile is a mess or week, then it's a lot easier to take damage. So, this is a battle on two fronts - stop the attack and, at the same time, clean up your core link profile and strengthen it as best you can. There are a lot of link removal tools now, but honestly, they're a starting point. You need to dig in and evaluate what they give you, so that you're not taking out links that are potentially good. Right now, this is a labor-intensive process, I'm afraid.

I agree.  And that is the reason why it is better to spend your time improving your website than worrying  about a site above you that is impossible to understand.   It's possible that they earned those rankings.  It's possible that Google has incorrectly ranked them (which most often happens in low competition SERPs such as the ones here).

Hi Steve Yes, it sounds like if you're looking at pages showing in search for only one query they may be ranking interchangeably, or simultaneously. Have you manually performed searches in Google (de-personalized etc) to see if you have multiple pages showing, or if they are switching? Also - do you track daily rankings for these keywords? That's another way to see what's ranking there - rank trackers like Authority Labs will show you all URLs ranking for a query. Would there be any other reason two different users might get a different page? Location, language? How specific is the search query vs. how targeted/focused are your pages? Or is there overlap in content? It really depends on the types of pages and content as far as determining your next step. Normally, we do see secondary pages occasionally ranking for one query, but your percentages sound high (unless you are getting two results a page).

Knowing only what I do, I would think that yes, if they're proliferating what are effectively duplicates of their main corporate site, they'd end up with issues surrounding duplicate content. I'd suggest reading up on the effects of duplicate content here: https://moz.com/learn/seo/duplicate-content. That page is pretty focused on duplicate content on a single domain, but it'll still give you an idea. With so much cross-domain duplicate content you'd face similar issues, though I wonder if some spam flags would be raised, too (I'm honestly not sure). Of course, it's possible that all those duplicate domains canonical back to the original, or some other fix. But in general I'd expect there to be trouble.

sorry bit confused now since title tags are meta tags ?

There are alot of lists out there. There is no correct answer to your question as every website has its own unique seo issues. So each website likely needs a different focus and a different tool. That said for ideas: https://moz.com/blog/100-free-seo-tools www.website-tools.net - this just lists them. The fundamentals for us are: Moz, Semrush, Similarweb & Blackdot & the tools pingdom/webpagetest for page speed. Though it depends on each seo adventure you are about to embark on.  If starting, I would have moz (plus read each blog daily) and semrush.  I have nothing to do with moz but it is the most wide ranging informative seo platform globally - when you add up all its parts. Hope that assists.