Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hamid

No you have not been penalized. Sander is correct you simply need to work on your SEO & branding.  Effectively all you have done is a couple of backlinks and a link to yourself http://esta-compare.org/

There is so much out there to do - to get some domain authority.  There are also many articles and links to same. I suggest you start with:-

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/growing-popularity-and-links

The second one I attach is a favorite (non-link) - is a video which makes it a little easier and very well stated on what matters.

https://moz.com/blog/panda-optimization-whiteboard-friday

All the best.

I believe (surprisingly) google on this one. The factors they have for trustworthiness already in place, backlinks, social media mentions etc. etc. already have a sites "trustworthiness covered".  I think the shops certification at present might be a bridge to far.. as I am not sure it adds great value. It is absolutely tiny in the grand scheme.

However I always believe good SEO is adopting obvious paths for the google bot. ie google will always ensure the bot - can crawl google inventions...  google+, google maps etc. and there SEO value can be exponential ie like google + (for something that is actually close to useless).

So my view not a ranking factor, that said worth doing, not a priority - because it is a nice logo you get on your site and maybe sometime down the track google will uplift it to be a factor like they did with HTTPS. Be one step ahead of the game..

Michael

Interesting question.  No I have not heard of it for Adwords specifically, but I checked a few sites we monitor for Adwords and the privacy policy sits at the footer of each page regardless. I would guess and say it certainly can't hurt, but I cannot see it as a significant QS factor. Adwords really cares about money and in my experience CTR is the overwhelming factor on QS. I have had Ads move from position 6 to the top 3, purely on the Ad content (better CTA) when the actual landing page is substantively uncrawlable...

That said the privacy policy is a ranking factor in google's algorithm - absolutely in organic - that has been canvassed in plenty of articles.  http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors - see item 72.

So perhaps the anecdotal evidence is the inter mesh of organic with Adwords.

I am not 100% clear on the question. Forgive me if I do not answer directly. Moz has a great guide to keyword-research.

https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research

Plus this link excellent.  http://backlinko.com/the-definitive-guide-to-keyword-research and, may assist on small volume:

https://moz.com/blog/keywords-to-concepts

It seems as you are querying which tools to use to find keyword traffic. The best tool I find is semrush.com and combine that with Ubersuggest.  Thereafter it is up to you to determine your strategy it maybe the case in highly competitive SERP's to chase long tailed keywords.  There is lot of information on this subject so maybe start with the above links and then ask away.

There has been many thesis's written on this subject. A great start is google webmaster:-

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.il/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html The next stop would be Matt Cutts himself on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ets7nHOV1Yo - or if like me start with the video first!

If you ensure compliance with google recommendations - duplication will not be an issue.

Any queries let me know.

Kevin

From an SEO perspective Patrick and Alick are correct. It makes nominal if not no difference.

However from a CTR perspective the pipe is 97/100 times superior to the hyphen. Further you only generally have 512 pixels in the title before it truncates. ie if the title extends to over 513 pixels - often google reverses the title and places the brand first.

So every pixel matters and the pipe takes less space. Hence given the high impact of the title on SEO - and every character matters, to me it makes the pipe a winner on a few fronts.

Using your example:-

Emergency Electrician | Windsor - BrandName = 399 pixels

Emergency Electrician | Windsor | BrandName = 397 pixels

My conclusion is always use the pipe unless you are prepared to experiment and try and break a strong general rule. Plus you may be able to squeeze that extra letter in, or introduce proper Capitalization so it has a higher CTR.

Let me know if any queries on the above.

This WBF provides the perfect answer to your question. Plus it is captivating..

https://moz.com/blog/why-good-unique-content-needs-to-die-whiteboard-friday

Martijn is correct.  I would recommend a subdomain as the last resort. It sounds like the pics have great SEO value. I would also recommend your client watch this WBF.  It covers many aspects including touching on video.

https://moz.com/blog/panda-optimization-whiteboard-friday

Robert,

Unless it is on your dashboard for the boss as a measurement tool, then I would not be concerned.

Sounds like you are doing great work. I cannot provide an explanation - except to say the DA is a useful tool in the tool box but the ultimate measurement that matters is rankings - and you seem to have that covered. If anything happens negatively on rankings I would dig deeper but at this stage I would recommend monitoring... but not much more.

Before we go further - have you noticed any dip in page rankings, have you lost any positions? For sought after keywords.

I am just writing down thoughts as in many ways it is a open question.

The one component that seems to be absent is social media. Are the blogs being published on twitter, google + facebook etc.? Are the blogs posts topical, educational "the 10 nastiest things we find in your carpet?" etc.  Do the customers connect with the blogs.

Given the high bounce rate that means a lack of a strong connection with a customer...  a survey - just a simply one of what your customer is missing may uncover some gems - and a path to deepen that connection.

When all else fails ask the customer?  Do a site survey.

Site speed is an absolute killer - a study I saw a year ago (cant recall where) states every second over 2 second for page loading you drop 7% of customers.  That adds up. Also it is a significant ranking factor.

If I have one priority when I fix a site it is loading speed & usually a tidy up of title, H1's - H4's. Perhaps conduct a site audit - pretend looking at for the first time - be super critical.

So in summary - fix the loading page speed and do some customer research or ask your client to do a customer survey... also everything sounds a little bland.. you need to aim to twice as good as the best... are you doing that?

Intriguing love these problems.

The above two answers likely have it covered - on the off chance have you checked their referring domains - could they have bought a domain that ranked for those keywords and then done a 301 re-direct. Somehow the devaluation for relevance has been missed by google.

Astrid

Do not pay them. I have dealt with several of these companies on behalf of clients.  In Australia they lock you into a 12 month contract.  The fact is at law they have an obligation to provide a product fit for service - and they are not doing that. In fact from reading the blog only it seems they could be doing long term harm typical type operators.

Send them an email along the lines

"As you are appreciate various promises were made to increase site rankings using white hat practices.

Can you please detail exactly what you have done for the money paid to date. No further payments will be made and this contract ceases immediately if not done forthwith.

I have had several SEO experts review the website and the site now has a number of spammy bad links pointed at it.  This is considered black hat practices and is rejected as a sub-standard practice by google webmaster.

I await for your response. If I do not get a detailed report within 7 days I will assume that the contract is repudiated.

I reserve my legal rights in relation to the damage occasioned to the business in relation to the spammy links"

Fight hard... these guys make our lives very hard..

On your comment on generic advice as I am not 100% familiar with your brand strategy accordingly I do not like to give "hard advice".  There are too many variables.

That said I will do the best with what provided.

In short there are zero SEO tactical advantages to separating content from brand. Perhaps if the content site is a trick to get someone thinking that the branded site is independent and then refer to your branded domain - about the only time I would consider or recommend it.  Is that the case?  Hence there are almost zero advantages to setting up a separate site. Site maintenance is hard work, and the doubling of SEO efforts foolhardy.  Why have two houses if you only live in one? Unless of course you are rich and it is of no consequence.

If I was advising you I would suggest it is not even worth considering. The domain authority for https://www.esl.co.uk is 25 - which is weak for a specialized site.  In short you are not rich enough to afford the second house, the main domain is a straw house at present. If the domain authority was 60+ I might be with you. First thing I worry about is susceptibility to competition.

Given such a low domain authority for the prime domain I would be working hard in improving my link profile and domain authority. Every marketing dollar matters. Focus on building https://www.esl.co.uk into a dominant power - at present however a strong competitor coming into your space would have a powerful impact on search - as it would be easy to outrank. That said great looking site, well optimized from my quick look - needs some strong linking work.

Hopefully not to blunt and a little clearer but happy to answer.

Had a very quick look.  There is plenty to do.  I have not looked from a technical side - Moz should do that for you, highlight deficiencies. I would suggest a keyword review.  ie you are not on the first page in the US according to Semrush for your prime keyword phrases - volunteer thailand etc.  So I would undertake a keyword analysis identify what you want - if that is it.

Best starting point is this blog post from Moz. https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research

Also is Thailand as a volunteer destination this year as popular as it was a few years ago?  Anyway you should focus on improving your ranking regardless.

So without doing much more work, as the keyword research is an internal - cant really assist - i would review you Title and H1 tags.  Not sure I would start with affordable for your title & use the word experience. "Volunteering in Thailand" - maybe the optimum way but as said. There are 1000 things you could do, but in short i would start with keyword research in your instance, assume moz has crawled your site and you are addressing those issues.

Then build a strategy from there.

Good luck let me know if can assist further.

If

It really is your SEO strategy in what methodology to adopt ie what do your customers search for with ie inches or ".  If you are unfamiliar with your searchers intent there are some great keyword tools you can use. I am favorable to semrush.com but there are many out there.

That said because it is such a niche field and every click matters I would try and rank for both.

All the best.

Rocio

It has been talked about for a while. I am not sure google can entirely I assume a pivot seems more in order see attached article. Appears consistent with the one you linked through to.

http://www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/24146/are-the-curtains-closing-on-google

I like google+ because of it high impact on SEO for not much extra work, and many companies do not use it. A little trick disappearing.

Keszi above is spot on. Likely have to wait for the next penguin update.

That said your title is the below:-

Artificial Grass - Fake Grass - Artificial Grass Suppliers  - ArtificialGrass4u.co.uk

Artificial x 4 - as artificial is the synonym for fake. That is robust SEO I am not sure if google would go as far as keyword stuffing. You may consider the title being a bit more customer friendly. That may assist as well.

ie Artificial grass | Synthetic Grass suppliers | Artificialgrass4u

Not much help, but good luck.

Lina

I would look at it glass half full. I cant take a photo - so it costs me or clients 1,000's if not 10,000 for photography.  You clearly can - so cost effective and you can control what goes onto your site.  You are in a great position. Upsell original photography...

I also think though it is a factor it is not high ranking factor (yet!).

I also found a great WBF for you.    https://moz.com/blog/panda-optimization-whiteboard-friday  - states the position better than me!

good luck, photography is a great talent to have.

Yes, that is already happening.

Most assume that even though "google reverse image" is "public" behind the scenes it forms part of the google algorithm. Google wants originality...  and it seems only natural to use google reverse image as an indicator.

If it is one photo on a few sites i would not get too excited, but if it is on alot of sites and is not difficult to change - I would suggest you do.

test your image on google reverse image... always a good start.