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Thank you a lot. Those are some superb ideas! We will be sure to implement.

My idea was to either put a canonical to the categories for homepage (so the category 1 would have a canonical to homepage) or to move all of the category one ads to homepage (speed would suffer) and remove category 1 at all.

Our main keyword is ranking at the moment as 15th for the homepage, (Keyword + region name). The keyword is not so hard in the country im ranking it. But the question is still the same. Should I link back to homepage using the exact match anchor im trying to rank, and what to do with this category 1 which is the same target keyword. I think it might compete with homepage in the future. **If im not linking back to homepage with the keyword, how can google rank me strong is my question? **

Hi Not a html issue. I gather you are talking about your brand site links. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/47334?hl=en Until recently you could demote site links and see what appeared next. http://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-removes-sitelinks-demotion-feature-261002 I have not followed it closely recently, however, hope the two articles are helpful. Regards

Instead of adding a bunch of no value links to your home page, which might be seen as black hat by Google, could you no-index the extra pages? It's not as if the page has any authority to distribute.

Hi, im a little lost on what you mean but a 404 is essentially a none page it doesn't exists so it would need nor have a canonical unless perhaps to its self if you have a fixed 404 page. you may 301 a url that was a 404 page to a 200 page but then it wouldnt be a 404 so its a bit of a paradox!

Thanks, helps a lot.

Start by getting things in order in Google Search Console. You should add both non-www. and www. properties to your site. When both are verified you can set your preference (in this case, non.www.) Otherwise, "If you don't specify a preferred domain, we may treat the www and non-www versions of the domain as separate references to separate pages" and risk issues down the line with duplicate content. See here for details about setting your preferred domain: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/44231 If, as I read your follow-up post, you're saying all of your links point to the www. version of your site then this could be the source of your problems. You need to organise your domains within Google Search Console. Then determine where all of the inbound links and authority are headed and set your preferences within GSC accordingly. You can use 301 directs when things have settled down but don't rush and make mistakes as a result. You can work through GSC documentation here, then follow the appropriate action for your scenario. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34592?hl=en I hope that helps and good luck!

James, I think you are totally incorrect. You can not remove the training splash from your homepage. And all the canonical tags should also include that I'm pretty sure. (I mean here the homepage canonical)

Before you get in a muddle as your self this: Are the giving value? If they are service a purpose and their is a variation that does the same and users are finding them helpful why not! If they are just PPC landing pages with variations yes a canonical maybe helpful.  Mostly it will come do to how much value do they give to your user? Obviously there is an expectation and if they're are literally the same but (e.g.) with a different colour font then ignore this question! There is a lot of duplicate content on the internet so it's not the worst problem to have, i hope that i've at least helped give a bit of relief!  All the best.

Hello, Maybe someone has an idea? So my main site now is website.com and if i would make my main (homepage) website.com/keyword. Would that have an effect? What risks are there?

The safest and quickest option would be the 301 redirect. For the cases when that can't be done, there is the canonical option. And of course,  make sure that index.php is out of the sitemap. Hope it helps. GR.

Hi AdvertisingCloud - Thanks for your question. It's definitely one that gets asked pretty often. Honestly, you should do what is right for the user. Do you have multiple of the keyword (eg widgets) and not just one (eg widget)? If so, use the multiple because it's what the user who is looking for multiples will want to see. If the latter, use the singular. If you're really concerned about losing rankings, build more good links. That'll help out across the board with your rankings. Hope that helps! John

If you want to rank for local you should try to implement schemas at your website. Another option is to make a research of your competition. So if you are in the second position why don't you are making a research about the first place? backlinks / anchor text / referring sites. Instead of trying to optimize everything, I always try to optimize those factor that will help to beat the competitor next to me on the top.

Hello, has anyone got an idea then? We get follow link we put rel=nofollow - is it better hat follow vs follow or for google, it still looks like exchange?