Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Here is more info on them:  http://www.slideshare.net/MyLocalBusinessOnline/how-to-block-semalt-crawler-and-clean-up-your-analytics

Great. Let us know what happens.

I added code to block them from accessing the site. Is my assumption correct? That they essentially click on the site, then becuase they don't actually view the site, it causes the bounce rates to skyrocket? That's what the GA shows. So, won't google at some point, downgrade the site in the SERPS due to high bounce rates? Or am I not understanding that correctly?

I just noticed this in my GA. They are dramatically increasing my bounce rates!!! Blocking now!

Sort of related: If I have 2 office locations in 2 different cities, should I list the website homepage URL on the Google Plus pages, or should I list the specific contact us page URL for the office location that is on the company website? Does it make a difference?

Thanks!

No ethical issue. The first referred me to the second. I'm helping them both compete against the 15 other firms in the area. They both are fully aware that they both are working with me. The second actually referred me to a THIRD, but he won't be ready for several months. SO, I need to figure out how to juggle the 2, and if I can't do the 3rd (google penalty), then I will decline.

Just want to know what I need to do to make Google see that these are all separate firms, and not one firm gaming the system.

Thanks for your reply!  Anyone else want to chime in?

Cheers! Have a great weekend! (i'm obviously working ;-(

Hi Moz'ers! I am creating 2 new websites for 2 different bankruptcy attorneys in the same city. I plan to use different templates BUT from the same template provider. I plan to host with the same hosting company (unless someone here advises me not to). The content will be custom, but similar, as they both practice bankruptcy law. They have different addresses, as they are different law firms.

My concern is that Google will penalize for duplicate content because they both practice the same area of law, in the same city, hosting the same, template maker the same, and both won't rank. What should I do to make sure that doesn't happen? Will it be enough that they have different business names, address, and phone numbers?

Thanks for any help!!

Hi all! An easy one for probably most of you. I have a client who wants to re-brand their business name and also match their URL to the new name. Their current domain name URL has been out there for over 5 years, and the site is performing quite well in search. Switching to a new URL will obviously be a very bad thing, but what are the options? newname.com redirect to the aged oldname.com, but when they are on the site, or when they find them in search, the oldname.com has nothing to do with the new brand.

Or should we 301 every page of the oldname.com site to the newname.com be good enough? What is recommended?

Thanks!

Hi all! I heard that Google comes down on guest blogging. I did a search here on Moz with the terms "Guest Blogging" and not much comes up, as it relates to my question.

So I'm asking: I have a website with specific content where I can implement a "team blog" (stackideas - easyblog), and have industry professionals submit a blog article (once a month on their respective industry focus), and add Google Authorship (link to/from their Google+ profile contributors section), but not allow ANY follow links back to their site. There will be about 10 different blog categories, and there will potentially be several different authors in each category who will be writing specific focused content per category.

Any potential Panda (or any other animal problems with that?

Thanks all!  BB

Great feedback! Thanks! Now I am thinking about moderating ALL comments and approve the ones that are quality, and delete the ones that aren't. The submit auto response could say "thank you for submitting your question, you will receive an email once an answer to your question is submitted. So, if their question is bad, then they won' t receive an answer (ever). So basically I filter out the bad from the good and build a high quality Q&A for future users to search through, and eliminate the "thin" and "spam" issue. So, I won't have to delete bad questions, they will never even make it on the site.

I just probably won't get much repeat activity from the users who posted bad content that never make it to the forum. But this is not intended to be an online community, it's going to just be a place for quick questions on a specific topic.

Thanks for your time in responding to me! I appreciate it!

BB

I actually come here for Rand's shirts. They're fantastic!

I agree. So far for me, the community alone is a great value! Having a place to bounce ideas off of others who give detailed, thoughtful, and respectful feedback is valuable to me (sitting alone in my home office with nobody to talk to). MOZ.com is like being able to stand up in a cubicle and ask one of your colleagues for feedback or ideas when you hit a wall. Just waiting for the virtual coffee feature...

If it is natural, and all about UX, then there is nothing to worry about, in my opinion. Sounds like you are doing a great job!

I am considering adding a Q&A section to my website and I have a few questions for you PROs!:

1. is it a good thing for SEO? Or a potential pitfall for SEO? If it is used often and users post relevant topics related to the website content, will it help the overall DA and websites SERP performance?

2. Are there inherent risks for website security when using a Q&A?

3. Are there any other questions I should be asking?

I am using Joomla! 3.0 with Stackideas Easy discuss/easy social.

Thanks for any advice!

BB

Thanks for your thoughtful response! Cheers!

Great. Thanks!

Well, I removed the suspect content, and after 2 weeks, nothing. Then I added Google Authorship to each page, and the NEXT DAY the site is back in the top positions for our target terms, and the leads are pouring in. Was it the Google Authorship? It certainly felt like it. But I thought that was not a ranking factor.

Anyway, thanks for all the support! BB

Hi all! I have a client who wants to branch out to another market (currently in Northern California and wants to open an office in Southern California), what would happen if we put up a second website that has similar content, but is exclusively for Southern California, with a different office address, and all the content geared towards Southern California market? There would be NO linking between the sites. Would that generate a penalty?

Thanks! BB

Great. Thanks Cyrus. A related question, I am developing a website that I want to make sure Google does not see that it is related in any way to the others. I'm going to host it on different server, set up G-webmaster tools and G-Analytics separate from everything else, use different email to set up. Should I also use a different computer to develop it? Is there anything else I should consider?

(also, that black helicopter over my house last night...was it Google? 

But we all have several clients. And I'm sure there are some who have several clients in the same vertical space. I wonder what are others doing to deal with this?