Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Jaro,

Head into search console and use the Temporary Remove URL tool - this should work pretty quickly. The next time Google comes around to that page, they should see the NOINDEX flag and not re-index it.

-Andy

You can't use how a site looks or feels to you to get an indication of if it is safe or not...

You need to be checking, aside from the MOZ spam score, through something like SEMrush, what their traffic is like. Have they had any penalties that might be affecting them?

Use The Wayback Machine as well to check the history of the site. This can tell you if it was ever a site you would rather not be associated with or if it has been recently purchased because it has good history and links. Expired domains can surface very frequently and people will charge for gues blogging and lins etc.

You should also check who else links to the site. Are there reputable sites that link to it for a good reason?

Just a few more tips to keep an eye on.

-Andy

Hi Shalu,

If Google is adding your brand name to the end of a page title, that is probably because it is something that they suggest. As a general rule of thumb, I tend to follow this format for page titles:

• Homepage: Brand Name | Title Description
• All other pages: Title Description | Brand Name

Brand is important to Google, but might be worth having a read though their best practices on page titles here.

However, if it is more than that, then I would suggest looking at what is being changes and why this might be - it could be that what you have written isn't descriptive enough for the page and Google is trying to make it better.

-Andy

Hi Eric,

There isn't a framework as such for internal linking but a silo structure would make the most sense as Justen has already said.

It is important to know what you want to do first of all though - don't just have a site with lots of blogs and randomly add links through to other internal pages. Understand what you want to do - use something like MindMup to help you visualise what you are trying to achieve.

You can check out your Search Console account to have a look at how your site is currently linked - Under Search Traffic, choose Internal Links.

-Andy

I don't tend to agree with John really because there is absolutely no harm in doing some outreach to get links built. Outreach is an important part of any linkbuilding campaign.

As for the other part of your questions, try not to focus on the number of links, but do spend time making your page as good as possible to help make your page as attractive to link partners as possible. There is no such thing as the right number of links to not annoy Google, but if it doesn't look natural, you will end up with a slap in the form of a manual action.

Focus on your page and ask yourself "would I want to link to this?". What is it about the page that makes it such an amazingly useful linkable asset that others will want to know about.

When performing outreach, do research each site because a cold e-mail is unlikely to get you anywhere.

Have a read of these guides to help you get along.

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-link-building
http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

I hope this helps.

-Andy

Hi,

One way to do this is to decide which site is going to be the main site (site A) sat on C and copy this data over. If you are bringing in site B, then this can sit at another structure level - you will end up with this...

Site A --> Site C, main pages
Site B --> Site C, product pages

That then brings in everything from both sites to the new domain.

You then want to redirect both of the old sites to the new one, but don't redirect everything to the root. That isn't a good use of 301 mapping. You need to be mapping on a page level so that you will see...

www.sitea.com/about us -301- www.sitec.com/aboutus
www.siteb.com/newproducts/hammers -301- www.sitec.com/newproducts/hammers

There can be differences in the URL's - you don't need to stick with the same structure as the other sites if it doesn't make sense, but always map pages to something very similar.

Page level is the only way to go if you want to maintain a seamless transition for users as well.

Also, don't expect to hit a switch and do this all at once. You can do this over a period of time because to the user, they will just be redirected to the new pages. You will retain more link juice like this.

This is quite a lengthy process and I am sure I have missed the in-between bits, but this is the basis of what you want to be doing.

Others might chip in with other suggestions for you.

-Andy

Have a watch of the recent Whiteboard Friday from Marie Haynes - she tells you about many different tactics that can work.

https://moz.com/blog/what-links-comply-googles-guidelines-whiteboard-friday

I tend to advise others to steer clear of anything that goes against Google's TOS. If they catch up with it, you will get a nasty penalty.

-Andy

Hi,

There is no problem running more than 1 business from the same address. Look at all the thousands of office complexes around the World that house multiple businesses.

The only time I would be concerned would be if the same products are being offered from both, or duplication of pages.

-Andy

No, it still wouldn't change anything for me, but remember, there are no rules around this, only etiquette.

Re-tweeting her Tweets is one of the points I mentioned above

I would keep it subtle and not rush to try and gain her attention. She isn't going to unfollow you because you didn't say welcome, but I would start to engage with her.

Andy

HI Pete,

Before doing this, just ask yourself "If Google caught me doing this, could I explain the reason why"? Why are they doing it? It doesn't sound like it's to get great content out there.

I wouldn't condone anything like this because it is such an obvious attempt to try and gain favour on specific terms. Perhaps it will work for a while - perhaps they will be caught out if they were to be reported to Google... Either way, try and take a more long-term approach rather than something that is a probably going to be short-term win.

-Andy

Hi Sophie,

There are no definitive guidelines on this, but many follow a rule that there should be at least 200 words of quality copy (as a minimum) per page, but I certainly wouldn't be looking to go lower than this.

As for strategies, what is it you are trying to achieve? Higher positions in Google? Improving the readability? To gain conversions?

-Andy

Google uses the IP of the server hosting the site as one way of delivering that content to the correct target areas. So in short, yes, this is a problem and one that you need to resolve.

It is an SEO tactic that is used if you are country specific and want to target other locations.

Regards,

Andy

To be fair, Google have never said they don't want to see just blog comments, so right now, people are making use of this and if you find blogs in your niche, form a good comment and a sensible link, then you can still benefit.

However, what will happen further down the line is anyone's guess. Google have said they want to see links back to sites that deserve to be there, so as a long term strategy, this is surely one that won't stand up to the test of time.

The best thing to do is write great content and publish it on your own blog and then seed this out to others in your industry and hopefully they will find it that good, that they will want to link back to it again.

Andy

Hi,

Have you had a read through the Adwords account suspension page here? It might give you a few ideas of things to try. You could also contact them and see if you can talk through your specific issues.

-Andy

Hi,

First of all, it isn't imperative to have any keywords in a URL to appear 1st, or indeed, anywhere in the URL. There are circumstances it will help, but it isn't imperative. How well your site matches the content of the pages is going to be key for you. Google is always going to be looking for a site that is going to be seen as an authority on the subject.

To answer your question, if you just buy a domain and then forward it, the domain that is just forwarded will not appear in Google at all. The only time there will be a forward, is when someone types the domain in exactly.

it sounds like they have a good domain that is old and will have lots of history attached to it. I would start to look at penalties, what has happened at specific dates and see if you can come up with a correlation. There is always a reason, and there is no reason why they cannot rank again.

-Andy

Hi Marina,

Approach this with caution. Google is penalising sites that abuse / over optimise their schema markups. What you are suggesting sounds like you could cause your site harm:

Review and rating markup should be used to provide review and/or rating information about a specific item, not about a category or a list of items. For example, "hotels in Madrid", "summer dresses", or "cake recipes" are not specific items. See also our structured data policies for multiple entities on the same page. Read more here

Tread very carefully and I would advise testing with a small control group first of all if you want to do this. Remember that Google is targeting spammy use of markup, so just don't fall into this category. You are wanting to markup other locations that are not directly related to yourself.

My gut feeling is don't do this if you think what you have planned falls into this e.g "business in LA" or "restaurants in London".

-Andy

Hi Tom,

Internal linking is hugely powerful when done correctly. I would most certainly look at this as a way to guide Google to key pages, but it doesn't mean that every page must have a link to another internal page, as this can also work against you.

Basically the HP is also targeting these same keywords and I was wondering if this is affecting our rankings overall

Yes, this can cause issues. I would never suggest that any two pages duplicates, not just the homepage.

It can help to also get links to inner pages as this allows page rank to be topped up from a different point.

But be careful how keywords are used throughout the site. Pull all pages into a spreadsheet along with the page title so ou can see how this is used and if there are any that are very similar and if others need changing to be more targeted.

Have a read of this from Rand too...
https://moz.com/blog/keyword-targeting-density-and-cannibalization-whiteboard-friday

-Andy

Just about every site when starting out gets an initial boost - I have seen this dozens of times. You appear quite highly ranked for a while and then suddenly drop.

This is nothing more than Google putting the site where it really belongs. I wouldn't worry about it at all, but this is quite common. If you think about it, Google placing a site first page in just a few short months is pretty much unheard of.

I can't imagine that the addition of links at this early stage would be responsible for the drop as the site is still young.

Just keep concentrating on good (non reciprocal) links from trusted sites and keep the content flowing.

Regards,

Andy

Hi Tom,

The links you refer to are in the Blogroll of the site - something common with Wordpress based sites and generally serve no good purpose.

If they are all like this, you have no idea how they came to be there, and serve no purpose, then the best thing to do (in the event of lack of action when contacting them) is to disavow the sites through Google Webmaster Tools. This will ensure you have nothing more to do with the sites in question and Google will know you want nothing to do with them either.

How they came to be there is anyone's guess, but sounds like they need to be removed.

Are you familiar with disavowing and how it works?

-Andy

--Edit. Updated for typos

Just one piece of advise is very hard to give, because there are so many aspects to look at. It really isn't as simple as "do this to win".

Read the link that Dirk has given you, but also have a look at these resources.

• Information from analysing 1-million articles
• How to get more shares to your content
• How long should a blog post be

You need to make sure your content is something more than those others out there. There is no point in writing an article that is 500 words on the economics of a country, and then wonder why it wont rank if it carries nothing more than any other article.

That said, there are many situations where short content can be just as popular. For example, if you had found a cure for Alzheimers, then I am sure that would be shared and ranked very high and very quickly without it needed to be thousands of words. Links would flow to it and shares would be through the roof! It's all about being fresh, being different or offering something more that hasn't been said before, or if it has, then enhanced upon that so that people have a reason to read and share it.

Just keep in mind, you never want to write for Google - keep it 100% user-orientated, and you should do well.

-Andy