Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Sharpey,

Duplicate content is an extensive SEO topic and it can be caused by lots of different scenarios.  You can have external duplicate content (multiple versions of a site and lack of redirection), internal duplicate content (indexing URL's with parameters) and everything in between.

I do not have a video for you, but the following is one of the best post I've found on this particular subject: http://goo.gl/Psz9Xr

The post is by Joost de Valk who is awesome and quite an authority in SEO.  The  post is well formatted and easy to follow.

I hope it will be helpful for you.

Cheers!

~by

Hi Alexander,

I did a quick check on several of the pages you showed on your post. Yikes! many of these are indeed broken.

404's are a big concern with user experience, when a user experience is disrupted, it reflects poorly on the website and the brand.  404 errors are the result of the following:

• A website redesign
• For ecommerce is common to see these errors if product pages that have been altered, removed, or the product was discontinued – which means the URL was altered or the page was deleted.
• Spelling errors within the page source of the link – whether internal or external

Before you decide to get these pages out of the search engines, find out if you can fix them  (i.e. a spelling error).

Here are some detailed instructions to tackle the problem:

• Go back to GWT crawl section where you found the broken pages.
• Click on the Not found tab
• You will see a graph with the current 404 error pages
• You will also see the broken URL's at the bottom of the page

Download the file as a .csv or click each specific URL to see more information.

• GTW will provide you with a window with "error details" and a “Linked from” tab.
• Click the Link from tab.
• GTW will show you the linking source to the particular 404.

_ Side Note: Another great way to find the linking source of your 404 pages is by running the Xenu program (free tool!)_

Once you find out the linking source of the 404 error then determine if the issue is caused by a misspell, or if the service/product is no longer available.

• If the error is an internal misspell, then correct it at the source level, easy!
• If the error is an external misspell or the product was deleted/moved, then politely reach out to the external site and request that they update their link appropriately to a working page.

If the service/product is no longer available then you have a few options to take care of the 404 problem.

1)      301 redirect the pages to the next best source that will be useful to your users. Maybe is the category page of the product that no longer exists. NOTE: always use 301 redirect, keep away from temporary redirects 302's. Your website runs on an Apache server so you will need to update your .htaccess file. Here is a great resource to help you get started (http://goo.gl/LCKZ7N)

2)      You can also use your robots meta directives to tell the bots to discontinue any future indexing (noindex), remove the current pages from the database cache (noarchive) AND  prevent Google from showing a snippet (description) under your Google listing (nosnippet)

3)      Request Removal: Once you update your link sources and Google re-crawls your site it will likely notice that the page has been updated/redirected, and the 404 will disappear. However, if it is a high priority or if the error remains lingering, you may submit a URL removal request in Webmaster Tools.

Kevin provided great advice regarding the robots.txt pertaining search pages.  Indexing these parameters create duplicate content problems.

Once you feel the issues have been resolved, go back to your GWT select the links that have been resolved and “Mark them as Fixed”. Marking as fixed will suggest to Google that the link is no longer broken and will virtually send a request to re-crawl the page.

Continue checking your GTW tool on a periodic basis to ensure these crawling errors have been resolved and to take care of any new ones.

Hope this information is helpful, cheers!

~by

Hi DoMiSol,

1. I've added the AdWords conversion code to the "thank you" page and I also added a Goal in
   Google Analytics whose counter is increased every time the thank you page is reached. This way I can track conversions with both AdWords and Analytics.  Is that correct?

Yes, as long as you have added the Google Analytics tracking code to the "Thank you" page so you can track that specific goal.

Should I import back in AdWords the goals from Analytics, as suggested in the AdWords account?

Linking your Analytics account with Adwords has a lot of benefits. The main reason to do so is to be able to see a more comprehensive view of your AdWords post/click activity such as:

• Bounce Rate: When someone sees only one page or triggers only one event.
• Avg. Session Duration: The average time someone stayed on your site.
• Pages/Session: The average number of pages viewed per session.
• % New Sessions: The estimated percentage of first-time sessions.
• Access to  awesome Remarketing lists from Google Analytics

In terms of tracking AdWords conversions use one or the other, not both. Do not import any goals that you are already tracking through AdWords Conversion Tracking into AdWords, this can create double-counting and duplication, which would make your conversion data misleading and hard to interpret.

==================================

2. I have another landing page with a form in the website, where I send users coming from organic search, so I set up a second goal in Analytics for the thank you page of this form.

Yes, you are simply tracking a new action from a different form.

Is this the reason why I am supposed to import in AdWords the analytics' goals, so that I could see both kind of conversions in both accounts?

_In theory yes (as explained above). But I would not import your organic goals into Adwords, there is no reason to. _To make it simple, remember this:

• AdWords tool will track ONLY your AdWords conversions.
• Analytics will track conversions from ALL your channels: Bing, Social, Email etc. As long as you have the proper tracking & tags implemented in your URL's.

=================================
3) But the most important question is: If I send both PPC/organic visitors to the same landing page is there still a way to separate PPC from Organic conversions?

Yes, as long as you have auto-tagging enabled AND Adwords conversion tracking in the pages that you want to track. Google will track your PPC data separate from your organic - Google Adwords adds a "GCLID" (Google Click Identifier) to the Destination URL. This is a globally unique tracking parameter to pass information back and forth between Google AdWords and Google Analytics, this includes UTM parameters, click to conversion and cost data for your paid campaigns.

=================================

I hope this information is helpful.

Cheers,

~Barbara

Hi there!

Unfortunately, it really is about quality vs quantity. A single killer editorial link from an authoritative domain within the body and with good anchor text is much more valuable than a dozen nav links from fairly unknown domains. It is also important to recognize that Good Link Building is hard work! It great link can take lots of researching, establishing/nurturing relationships and perseverance.

Proper link building is about good balance. This is why awesome rich content is so powerful. A single piece of well-written content can get you links from authoritative blogs as well as smaller links and/or mentions from the Social community. Now, this is a winning combination!

Cheers,

~by

Hi DoMiSol,

1. I've added the AdWords conversion code to the "thank you" page and I also added a Goal in
   Google Analytics whose counter is increased every time the thank you page is reached. This way I can track conversions with both AdWords and Analytics.  Is that correct?

Yes, as long as you have added the Google Analytics tracking code to the "Thank you" page so you can track that specific goal.

Should I import back in AdWords the goals from Analytics, as suggested in the AdWords account?

Linking your Analytics account with Adwords has a lot of benefits. The main reason to do so is to be able to see a more comprehensive view of your AdWords post/click activity such as:

• Bounce Rate: When someone sees only one page or triggers only one event.
• Avg. Session Duration: The average time someone stayed on your site.
• Pages/Session: The average number of pages viewed per session.
• % New Sessions: The estimated percentage of first-time sessions.
• Access to  awesome Remarketing lists from Google Analytics

In terms of tracking AdWords conversions use one or the other, not both. Do not import any goals that you are already tracking through AdWords Conversion Tracking into AdWords, this can create double-counting and duplication, which would make your conversion data misleading and hard to interpret.

==================================

2. I have another landing page with a form in the website, where I send users coming from organic search, so I set up a second goal in Analytics for the thank you page of this form.

Yes, you are simply tracking a new action from a different form.

Is this the reason why I am supposed to import in AdWords the analytics' goals, so that I could see both kind of conversions in both accounts?

_In theory yes (as explained above). But I would not import your organic goals into Adwords, there is no reason to. _To make it simple, remember this:

• AdWords tool will track ONLY your AdWords conversions.
• Analytics will track conversions from ALL your channels: Bing, Social, Email etc. As long as you have the proper tracking & tags implemented in your URL's.

=================================
3) But the most important question is: If I send both PPC/organic visitors to the same landing page is there still a way to separate PPC from Organic conversions?

Yes, as long as you have auto-tagging enabled AND Adwords conversion tracking in the pages that you want to track. Google will track your PPC data separate from your organic - Google Adwords adds a "GCLID" (Google Click Identifier) to the Destination URL. This is a globally unique tracking parameter to pass information back and forth between Google AdWords and Google Analytics, this includes UTM parameters, click to conversion and cost data for your paid campaigns.

=================================

I hope this information is helpful.

Cheers,

~Barbara

Hi Alexander,

I did a quick check on several of the pages you showed on your post. Yikes! many of these are indeed broken.

404's are a big concern with user experience, when a user experience is disrupted, it reflects poorly on the website and the brand.  404 errors are the result of the following:

• A website redesign
• For ecommerce is common to see these errors if product pages that have been altered, removed, or the product was discontinued – which means the URL was altered or the page was deleted.
• Spelling errors within the page source of the link – whether internal or external

Before you decide to get these pages out of the search engines, find out if you can fix them  (i.e. a spelling error).

Here are some detailed instructions to tackle the problem:

• Go back to GWT crawl section where you found the broken pages.
• Click on the Not found tab
• You will see a graph with the current 404 error pages
• You will also see the broken URL's at the bottom of the page

Download the file as a .csv or click each specific URL to see more information.

• GTW will provide you with a window with "error details" and a “Linked from” tab.
• Click the Link from tab.
• GTW will show you the linking source to the particular 404.

_ Side Note: Another great way to find the linking source of your 404 pages is by running the Xenu program (free tool!)_

Once you find out the linking source of the 404 error then determine if the issue is caused by a misspell, or if the service/product is no longer available.

• If the error is an internal misspell, then correct it at the source level, easy!
• If the error is an external misspell or the product was deleted/moved, then politely reach out to the external site and request that they update their link appropriately to a working page.

If the service/product is no longer available then you have a few options to take care of the 404 problem.

1)      301 redirect the pages to the next best source that will be useful to your users. Maybe is the category page of the product that no longer exists. NOTE: always use 301 redirect, keep away from temporary redirects 302's. Your website runs on an Apache server so you will need to update your .htaccess file. Here is a great resource to help you get started (http://goo.gl/LCKZ7N)

2)      You can also use your robots meta directives to tell the bots to discontinue any future indexing (noindex), remove the current pages from the database cache (noarchive) AND  prevent Google from showing a snippet (description) under your Google listing (nosnippet)

3)      Request Removal: Once you update your link sources and Google re-crawls your site it will likely notice that the page has been updated/redirected, and the 404 will disappear. However, if it is a high priority or if the error remains lingering, you may submit a URL removal request in Webmaster Tools.

Kevin provided great advice regarding the robots.txt pertaining search pages.  Indexing these parameters create duplicate content problems.

Once you feel the issues have been resolved, go back to your GWT select the links that have been resolved and “Mark them as Fixed”. Marking as fixed will suggest to Google that the link is no longer broken and will virtually send a request to re-crawl the page.

Continue checking your GTW tool on a periodic basis to ensure these crawling errors have been resolved and to take care of any new ones.

Hope this information is helpful, cheers!

~by

Hi Sharpey,

Duplicate content is an extensive SEO topic and it can be caused by lots of different scenarios.  You can have external duplicate content (multiple versions of a site and lack of redirection), internal duplicate content (indexing URL's with parameters) and everything in between.

I do not have a video for you, but the following is one of the best post I've found on this particular subject: http://goo.gl/Psz9Xr

The post is by Joost de Valk who is awesome and quite an authority in SEO.  The  post is well formatted and easy to follow.

I hope it will be helpful for you.

Cheers!

~by