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Hi, Backing Joe in,  it can sometimes be more complex as can negatively spam yourself, with too much branding.

Hi

No your sweet on the redirects/301's - many sites have 95% redirects from http to https for example.  So no chains and you  are fine.

Well my view on above is that advice on a hierarchical structure is dangerous.  Our job is to always adopt a "first do no harm" approach. We have many clients - no hierarchical structure and awesome rankings.  Do we very slowly build hierarchical structures into them - yes. It makes life easier for all. But would we touch the top traffic driving pages - 100% no. It is too high a risk.  So you need to do a  proper evaluation of the site and what pages are ranking - getting clicks and what are not.  There may be sections, a low risk that can move into a hierarchical structure - start there.   But do not make a change for change sake to follow what is now good practice.

Hope that helps.

Hi

Not clear 100% on the question.  Firstly if the site is ranking well under current strategy then recommend where appropriate that continues. It sounds like every page hangs straight off the root domain?    However, if the opportunity presents to build out a hierarchical structure then we would recommend same.

The benefit of a  hierarchical structure is it builds out topical authority or makes it easier for search engines to interpret the site.  All google has done is roll the old dewy library system into the site maps.  By analogy the more books you have hanging off the History section (parent subfolder) the better the site should be seen in the context of providing answers to history.   Then it comes down to the quality of pages hanging off the subfolder and how much shared.

So in short to answer your question a hierarchical structure makes your site easier for Google to understand and builds out topical authority which long term is future proofing against voice search.

Onto the second part of the question, there is no problems with 301's per se as long as it is one hop.. so to redirect a page more than 3 times is a big negative as Google often does not crawl those pages.  Recommended practice to change the redirects from page 1 > page 4 and page 2 > page 4, page 3 > 4, etc so all old redirects point in one hop to the final destination page.

Hope that helps.

Hi

Firstly because footers can be easily used for backlinks and not usually relevant - am of the view that google gives a low weighting to backlinks from footer links.

Secondly, the right use of footer in your context is just brand. ie so  Conversal.

The overuse and what could appear as spammy use of the same anchor text will likely be dealt with by google as a penalty perhaps for the customer query only.   However that said - if you are ranking well, top 3 for the term webdesign in your country then it may be working.  That said going forward would move back to brand for further footer links.  It would only be a timing issue until you got a penalty.

On toxicity of links generally - suggest a link audit and see what you find.

Hope that helps.

Hi

It may not impact - but am not a fan of that structure, it could get complicated easy for google and for scaling.

Would recommend:-

www.gpblog.com/en-nl/

www.gpblog.com/nl-nl/

www.gpblog.com/en-uk/

Check out https://www.disneylandparis.com/nl-nl/ etc.  hopelessly slow...

Regards

Ta

One element to check is causation of why the duplicates.  Solve same as otherwise it maybe an ongoing problem.

Good luck.

Hi

ok - you have duplicate pages. So it is a duplicate content issue.  Same content same urls except for capitalisation.  Further both pages are being indexed on google.

Recommend  that as soon as possible - 301 this page https://episodealert.com/BusinessAssociate.aspx to https://episodealert.com/businessassociate.aspx

You should do this for all duplicate capitalisations across the site.

We solved one! Go get em..

Hi

It does read like you have two pages.

Can you share the url or put both into the browser         site:   and see if indexed?

Alternatively, has it been indexed and later 301'ed?

Regards

Had a quick look at semrush..

Hi

Why do you believe a penalty in April 18.  The site looks like a penalty of some sorts in the UK, in Jan/Feb 18 and the US etc. is clear.

Not clear on why April?

Regards

In summary - firstly echo effectdigital on Shopify.  It is an interesting platform sold very well by Shopify zealots - but we have had to bend too many times to Shopify platform limitations to believe it is the right answer for most.  It is awesome if your a bikini start-up with no CRM or ERP - however the moment it comes to a decent integration - it often gets ugly quickly.

On to your query - the shortened version to the answer is no-one knows.  Why? because the algorithm treats subdomains differently for different sites. https://moz.com/blog/interview-searchlove There is a good piece on subdomains v subfolders in this WBF.  In summary a good discussion on subdomains.

The click through to the subdomain should be a normal step, ie so assuming on the subdomain your landing on the relevant contextual page within the funnel to transact.   That is normal for some back ends. You are correct ideally in my view all on the root domain.

Overall if the subdomain pages are critical and you want to rank, then need to treat subdomain for SEO as a separate site.  However, if the subdomain is just the end part of the sales funnel.. then may not need to rank..

Hope that is helpful.

Regards

Hi

Each page should have a clearly defined purpose and respond to a customer query.

So if each page is unique ie plumbing toilets London, plumbing sinks London, then with great contextual relevant content that is spot on and will help the customer. ie as Each page chases local search but addresses a niche within the plumbing field.

How if both pages were to target plumbing toilets London and the content is essentially the same - that is a waste of resources for all.

So hope that helps, good luck.

Ok, it is difficult without a full set of data.

But if traffic has dropped and not rankings, then it is seasonal.  Mortgage Broker is a big term, so if that is still ranking 1 then sounds ok.

What does sound concerning, is it now sounds like you have a number of sites and they could be interlinked ie a PBN.. so have to factor same in.

It is tough to advise, but my view is if rankings have remained the same and online visibility if you are tracking - then all is good.  If rankings for mortgage broker and visibility have declined then it is a problem and site audit should be undertaken asap.

Not sure that helps,  as data sets not great, but hopefully a starting point.

Regards

Intriguing question. In short yes there is a benefit - in so far as the three-panel reviews that appear are often manip[ulated by likes. So your liking a positive review may push a negative review off the SERP.

However, should your staff write false reviews, 100% not, that would not good from an objective perspective?  In Australia it would be a disaster for staff and the business moral, effectively it is imposing your views on your staff on possibly private gmail assets and asking them to publish your views.

One reason we got out of shopify.  Gets complicated quickly.   There was a brilliant WBF on subdomains about 2 months ago - by the british dude from distilled who pops up from time to time.  Will try and find it if get time, but would check that out as a starting point.

Hi

Yes, usually to some extent, lets say targeting car insurance but want local volume.

Then track volume for "car insurance california".   Can get more specific and go city - "car insurance san diego" etc.  The volume will be far less but may be helpful.  Also if GMB is optimised may find some useful data in insights panel.

Is that what you are after?

Regards

Hi

Concur with Joe, you will need to explain if you have upper case and lower case pages.. assuming same content and same url..  as that is a pure duplicate..

Hi

On traffic decline there have been some major updates, August last year, March 12 and June 4 this year.  Do any declines or changes in rankings co-inside with those dates?  Or does the decline date within days of site changes?

Secondly, are you targetting these terms on the same page or on different pages?

Regards

Tough one, this site ranks above etc. www.shop21live.com/, facebook etc so still believe it is a brand strength issue, it could almost be part of an address for a shop in any shopping center globally...

But you rely on inside knowledge - gut instinct.

All the best.

Actually Rajesh, This can’t be answered definitively without knowing what the audiences are - it may or may not be possible to do at all depending on this.

Doesn't help, much apologies.