Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Here’s my suggestions:

1. Utilise Keyword Explorer to show them that there’s search volume for their products and services. This will show clients that it’s worthwhile investing in SEO.

2. Utilise the new Link Explorer to show that they need to continually build up high quality, relevant backlinks.

3. The on-page grader to show target pages aren’t up to scratch

4. You could even do a quick crawl and run the audit tool however you need to take each issue into context before mentioning anything to a client. This tool will help you convey their technical SEO health.

Personally for me, it’s that keyword report which is the most valuable to start with in the pitching stage as it really shows if an investment is feasible on their part.

When possible I also try and show where they are compared to competitors too.

Thats my two cents, hope it helps!

Cheers,

Casey

I remember seeing this on SEO Roundtable a few days ago: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-403-status-codes-25674.html

In what instances would you want to use a 403 and not 404?

I feel your pain! It's highly frustrating when you spend time crafting a great meta description and then Google decides to use its own! Especially now that you can play around with up to 320 characters in that space!

From my knowledge, there is very little you can do. As Ed pointed out, you may want to review those lines of content from the block of text Google is currently pulling.

Other than that the best advice I can give you is to try different descriptions.

Goodluck!

It sounds like you're on the right track to me.

With regards to business listings, I have found regularly adding posts to GMB listings quite helpful. While it's not a 'ranking factor', there have been a few case studies done which suggest they can be helpful. E.g. https://searchengineland.com/google-posts-impact-ranking-case-study-285668

Since they take about 5-10 minutes to do, it definitely doesn't hurt!

And then yes if you can create more localised blog content that could help too

Thanks for your response Nigel. I guess at the end of the day we all need to do what's best for our clients. I don't agree there is 1 right way for SEO, you need to experiment and be open to trying different things. Obviously, things which stick to Google guidelines.

What may work for one client, won't necessarily work for another. Which is completely fine with me, if this works for me and not you - well so be it.

For the example above, the search intent for 'buy wine online' is what we want to target rather than a generic, term like 'white wine'. While optimising for this may bring more traffic, it probably won't bring the targeted traffic we seek. I'd prefer 10 hits a day with a 50% conversion rate than 100 hits a day with a 1% conversion rate.

Your points are very valid and I appreciate the challenging discussion.

Also in your list of optimisation techniques, don't forget image alt text either While only a small ranking factor, it still counts and can be very helpful for showing up in image searches.

Hi Nigel,

I don't think a private message or deleting any of my responses is needed.

As my first statement said, keyword research is a must before any further action is taken by Onlineorders.

The Moz community is about sharing ideas and knowledge. I am simply sharing my experiences. Yes it's a different industry and a different country, which is why keyword research must be done by Onlineorders first.

With regards to my experiences, I am actually tracking a website which has 'buy wine online' in the title tag. See the search analytics from Google Search Console attached and the Google Analytics stats backs this up (just imagine if I can get higher rankings for this term!). It works for me, for this website and this particular industry. So it may work for others too.

I am not sure where Onlineorders is based, but looking in my market and going off the Moz keyword tool, there's decent search volume around 'buy flowers online' too. SEMrush reports 320 average searches a month in Australia. However when looking at Google autocomplete/suggested searches it more leans towards using 'online' moreso than 'buy online'. So it's definitely worth investigating whether it may be a feasible course of action.

I am not trying to ruffle any feathers, just sharing ideas. Anyone in this industry should know that you've got to experiment and read a lot of differing opinions to then work out what's the right course of action to take.

All the best,
Casey

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Hi Nigel,

I am not trying to drag this on, however, my points are coming from personal experience.

I agree, that everything needs to start with keyword research for this - it's undeniable.

However, perhaps the market here in Australia is quite different as I know for the wine industry here in Aussie there are a lot of searches around 'buy wine online' - see screenshot.

I have optimised a site for such keywords and are getting great results.

Every case is different, so perhaps we can agree to disagree

Moral of the story: keyword research is a must.

Cheers,
Casey

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Completely agree with the above two answers. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole if I was you!

Hey Luke,

You can also use the Moz Keyword Explorer tool. Simply go into Keyword Suggestions and then filter by questions (see screen grab).

I also use Google's autocompleted and suggested related searches quite a lot for this type of research.

Hopefully, someday we may see some of the data voice assistants gather to help us further!

Cheers,
Casey

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Hi there!

I remember seeing this Whiteboard Friday by Rand which may provide some food for thought: https://moz.com/blog/why-pages-rank-poorly

While your pages aren't ranking overly 'poorly' it may spark some ideas.

As you mentioned looking into building up the backlinks to these pages both internally and externally is a good strategy. Hopefully the above may give you some new avenues to look at.

Cheers,
Casey

I see your point Nigel. In regards to what I meant, I would see a good title tag (depending on keyword research of course) as something like:

Buy Blue Flowers Online - Bespoke Bouquets | Flower Palace

Or like you mentioned Nigel, adding in a price/USP would be ideal.

But split testing is key. When I am changing title tags on key landing pages, I will add an annotation in Google Analytics so I can review the impact.

Goodluck!

I'd suggest doing some keyword research to see.

I know a few industries where there is quite a lot of search volume around the 'buy online' keywords and we have optimised accordingly to try and get those transactional intent searches.

Therefore for the title tag I'd try and put that 'buy online' keyword at the front and brand name at the back of the tag. Hopefully, by that stage, there's still some room in the middle to add a unique point of difference or highlight to make the tag stand out more.

Either way, if you're a florist selling blue flowers then the second title tag you mentioned explains that very clearly, which Google likes to see. The first title tag could very well be for an educational piece on different blue flowers or something of the like.

I hope this helps

Have you tried consolidating the tags as much as possible?

Custom variables may help to do this: https://support.google.com/tagmanager/topic/7683268?visit_id=0-636607210631473682-3757403381&rd=1

From what I know, if you can avoid multiple containers it’s better. However I’d recommend checking out this for more info: https://developers.google.com/tag-manager/devguide?hl=en#multiple-containers

I hope that helps

Hi there!

I think it is always wise to keep an eye on your backlinks so you know exactly what's going on there. I schedule a backlink audit for all my clients at least every 12 months. During this audit, I will highlight links to keep an eye on.

If there are links which are really worrying me, I will try and get these removed manually. Using the disavow tool should be the last resort. And it should only be used if you well and truly believe the links are causing issues for your website.

I believe I have heard someone mention before that Google really only wants you to use the tool if you have a manual action showing in your Google Search Console account.

Since you noticed the links, have you seen an impact on your traffic stats and keyword rankings? If not I would just keep an eye on them and focus on quality content and user engagement as you mentioned.

I would also recommend reading Google's support page on the disavow tool before you take any steps that way: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en

I hope this helps

Cheers,
Casey

I second Siteliner, it's a good tool to help reduce duplicate and common content

No problem, happy to help

If you are on WordPress, then I'd highly recommend Yoast's premium plugin as you can set up 410s via the plugin (see screen shot attached) - it's super handy! If you're not using Yoast premium, then it is probably best to chat to your web developer.

I hope that helps!

Cheers,
Casey

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Hi there!

If the pictures aren't going to be reloaded (so you can 301 redirect the old URL to the new URL) then in my opinion it would be best to make sure you set a 410 HTTP header (aka a content deleted header) for all those URLs.

The 410 header would be better suited (from what you have said above) as it's more specific. When it comes to Google and 410s, Google will understand you have removed the URL on purpose and if the URLs are indexed, then it should removed them.

I hope that helps!

Cheers,
Casey

Hi Dexter,

Very interesting one indeed! If it was me I’d look to run the site through Screaming Frog and also do a Google site:yourdomain.com search to ensure none of these fake URLs are being indexed.

If they aren’t indexed then you should be pretty safe According to this: https://www.seroundtable.com/404s-google-quality-signal-23568.html

Alongside the custom 404 page mentioned above, perhaps you could consider creating an automatic rule that redirects any broken links direct to the homepage?

Hopefilly these ideas provide some further food for thought

Cheers,

Casey

Hi there!

I would recommend contacting the GMB support team via Twitter - they are highly responsive and fix things very quickly

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Casey

Hi James,

I always prefer shorter over longer URLs. They look a lot cleaner which I believe Google likes. However saying that, I don't think there is a preference over one or the other as long as your website structure is SEO friendly.

What are the pros to the longer URL for you?

Cheers,
Casey