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I would perform an 80/20 analysis and see if these pages are driving any traffic to your website. If they aren't performing well, I would delete them and redirect them to similar pages or back to the homepage.
I agree with Bernadette about checking Open Site Explorer. You want to makes sure you are not going to be giving up any valuable backlinks that these pages might have generated.
Hmm, that is very odd and I'm sure extremely frustrating.
I would use Google Search Console to look at the pages seeing the biggest decrease and see if your ranked position has drastically changed. I would assume either you were hit with an algorithm update or competitors have really upped their efforts which would have impacted your rankings.
Sorry I don't have a more definitive answer, but I hope that helps!
Search Engine Land has a blog that features the 10 most overlooked steps when changing a domain: http://searchengineland.com/changing-domain-names-2016-10-easily-overlooked-steps-can-save-seo-248484
I would definitely check that out. But here is the TL;DR version:
Also, don't forget that domain age plays a role in your domain authority and rankings!
Hi EPPD!
Google officially announced in 2009 that meta keywords was not a factor in ranking at all. I also believe that the description isn-t a ranking factor—the reason you need to focus on the description is to ensure that it has a strong hook that accurately reflects the content of the page to entice the searcher to click on the link.
I see the other great responses to your question but wanted to provide some more info as well!
Whether you’re familiar with anchor text or not, if you’ve spent any time on the Internet, you’ve seen it a million times. Anchor text is the keyword or keyword phrase that serves as the link to another web page or web site. Anchor text is typically highlighted like this: anchor text (if you click this example, another window will open up that contains our other blog http://bluecorona.wordpress.com).
Anchor text is important because it gives web site visitors (and search engines) a hint about the web page or web site they are about to visit (if they click the link). This is why you DON’T want to use common calls to action like, “click here” or “our website.” Instead, you want to use keyword rich anchor text. If you’re having a contest to give away a free website makeover for the HVAC industry, make free HVAC website the anchor text! If thousands of web sites link to your site using the anchor text ‘leading residential furnace installers‘ there’s a good chance that you’re in the residential HVAC business and you install furnaces!
I agree with Andy.
This shouldn't be harmful to your website or your organic rankings. But, it will be extremely difficult to stop other websites from linking to you.
I would monitor your backlinks on a regular basis to see if anything seems very abnormal.
I agree with Pixus and ronitoberoi. Content is key.
The only constant (besides change) is the drive to bring well-ranking and high-quality content closer together. Short-term ranking advantages can be derived from what might uncharitably be called “tricks,” but because these are tricks, you can bet that Google will target them eventually. At best, this strategy means wasted time and money. At worst, it means a manual penalty that can have dramatic effects on both rankings and revenue.
By creating GREAT content, and getting high authority backlinks to this content you should hopefully see your rankings improve.
Hi Salman,
Like Oleg said, the clickthrough rate would be low and rankings wouldn't be optimal by shoving all those keywords in.
If I were you, I would start off the title tag with:
Acer 355 LCD Laptop Repair |
And then figure out which of the other keywords are the most important to you or use Moz's keyword explorer tool to see which you have the best opportunity to rank for.
Hi Alexa!
In order to solve problem one, I would choose which domain you want to use (it would be a great idea to use Moz's Open Site Explorer tool to see the domain authority of each of these URLs), and redirect the other URL to the preferred domain. If you don't want to redirect the one website, you could leave both sites up and running just like it is and use the robots.txt file to stop the search engines from indexing one of the domains.
Let me know if you need anymore help!
As long as you have a a sitemap XML included, I would not worry about having a sitemap page displayed on the actual website. It won't necessarily help you, but not having one won't hurt your results.
Any content below the fold will still be read. Are you trying to hide it but still get the SEO value? If that's the case, I would create a collapsible tab to keep the content on the page but hidden. If you want it to be visible, leave it as is and don't worry about Google not reading it—it will be read.
Thank you for sharing this video! Very insightful for all the Moz Q&A users.
Hi Luke! When using this tool (https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/) we aim to have our clients above 80 for both mobile and desktop.
Hi gygnyc! Have you purchased a paid Moz Local account? If not, I would go ahead and do that and you will be able to provide Moz with the correct URL for your Facebook page. Sometimes it takes a little while for Moz local to pick up on the listing -- even if you provided them with the exact URL. I would give it some time, continue to monitor it, and then if it still does not pick up the Facebook listing I would reach out directly to the support team. Hope this helps!
Hi Surreyroofcare! Sometimes it takes a little while for Moz local to pick up on the listing -- even if you provided them with the exact URL. I would give it some time, continue to monitor it, and then if it still does not pick up the Facebook listing I would reach out directly to the support team. Hope this helps!
This quote is from Moz's domain setup guide:
"Since search engines keep different metrics for domains than they do subdomains, it is recommended that webmasters place link-worthy content like blogs in subfolders rather than subdomains. (i.e. www.example.com/blog/ rather than blog.example.com) The notable exceptions to this are language-specific websites. (i.e., en.example.com for the English version of the website)."
I think that quote is pretty compelling towards the idea of subdirectories. But I think the value of subfolders versus directories certainly makes sense especially from a linking, age, and juice perspective. Ultimately, it comes down to you and what you want for the website.
Hi Mark!
In regards to your question about keyword stuffing, I agree with Chris. Stick with what other leaders in the industry are doing. Google should also be able to see that this is a particular product name, and should be able to differentiate that you are describing a name vs. stuffing keywords within the content with the intention of trying to rank.
All I can really say is to use your best judgement. Track, test, tweak, repeat until you get into a rhythm that seems to work best! Hope this helps.
Hi Jason!
I agree 100% with what Miriam and Ben have said.
I would go through all your listings and take out the geo-modifiers if that is not actually part of the legal company name. This could be causing confusion for Google and negatively impacting your rankings—not something you want to do!
However, if Google has not caught on to this (if the company's name does not actually include the geos), and you change these, it could impact how you rank for local search results. By having the city in the company name, you increase your chances of showing up in the local pack.
This is a situation where you will need to track, test, tweak, repeat until you find the right process for your particular situation! Hope this helps.
Hi GlobeCar!
I found this Moz blog post that should provide some insight: https://moz.com/blog/301-redirection-rules-for-seo
I hope this helps - let me know if I can be of anymore assistance. Thank you!
Hi Bill! I agree that those features would be very helpful for users. I also think it would be beneficial to be able to use the Keyword Explorer tool to look at volume/opportunity/etc. in specific geographic locations.