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Don't you just love SEO sometimes Robert?!

It is very frustrating when you think you have done everything right, but don't see the results you are expecting. Obviously, I don't know the full details of the keyword and the page you are trying to rank it on, but I don't think I have ever had what you have described having done what you have described.

Recently I have seen some odd bouncing around in SERP rankings, nothing very dramatic but bigger bounces then I would expect and negative ones at that when I would have expected positives. My only thought is I wonder, with the shake up in search by Google and the growing move to semantic search and away from a boolean keyword-based algorithm, whether this is the cause of such volatility of which we can expect to see more.

You mention 'keyword'. I know 'keyword' tends to be synonymous with what is more accurately a keyword phrase, but is the keyword you are trying to rank for just one word or a multi-word phrase? If one word, then I would expect to see a big swing in ranking results because in many/most cases how can you draw a semantic understanding of the searcher's intent through one word. I don't think it's linear, and although this is a generalisation, I think the longer your keyword phrase the less volatility.

I don't think the above is really an answer for you, but I hope it helps maybe in some way.

Peter

Hi, you need to fix this by using the rel="canonical" in the Head section of pages so that where there are duplicates they all point to one of them as the original.

You can see more information here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139394?hl=en

In Joomla and other Content Management Systems, duplicate pages can sometimes be an issue because of the way search engine friendly URLs are created. With these systems you can generally find an extension / plugin to help resolve the issue. For Joomla there doesn't seems to be much on offer in their Extensions Directory, but you can see them here: http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/site-management/seo-a-metadata/url-canonicalization-

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi, the occasional server error won't affect your site in SERPs, but persistent issues over a shorter period of time are likely to. With this you would also be likely to see those errors reported in Google Webmaster Tools.

Essentially, if the search engines cannot index a site then they don't have anything to include in SERPs.

I hope that helps,
Peter

You could split them up based on where they are needed but that would become complicated. The advantage of splitting CSS on a large site is really to better organise the functionality of the CSS, e.g. system.css.

Peter

I don't really think it's possible to calculate. A multiplier for one keyword will be different to another. I don't the nk there is an average figure that anyone could calculate with any degree.

Peter

It really depends on how big your site is and how complex your CSS. On a small site or if it has minimal CSS one is perfectly adequate. On a larger site with lots of pages and CSS it makes sense to break down the the CSS around their function.Peter

Hi, don't forget that search results in Google these days are personalised so what you see someone else will see differently. I am seeing it 10th, but then I am in the UK. Moz's rank checker which provides (as much as possible) de-personalised results, shows it as 5th.

The reason is the site probably ranks higher is likely to be in some part due to the Title tag "Bail Bonds Redondo Beach" as Redondo Beach is in Los Angeles.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Jason

Well I have run a few checks and I must admit I cannot explain why your site is not ranking in the top 50 SERPs for some of the key phrases you are targeting. Some of the content is a bit thin in places but, I have checked quite a few pages I would have thought you should be in the top 50 for as a minimum and you are not.

So, like you I am scratching my head a little. I presume you have a Google Webmaster Tools account for this site. Is there anything reported in there that would indicate an issue?

Peter

Hi Jason

Are you able to give more information? What do you mean specifically by your "site not progressing at all"?

A lot has changed with Google over the last year. If you started with a new site, then that site needs to build up its authority. When you say you have focussed on producing good content and social that is good. But it's important to check if you have optimised that content correctly, is it customer-focused and targeted at the questions and information your target market are asking and looking for. With social are those you are engaging with sharing it through likes, tweets/retweets, +1s etc? Have you checked your site against competitors? How do they compare?

There's a lot of things to look at and check so with what you have said I can only give you ideas about where the issues may lay, but it's likely to be an issue with one or more of the above.

Peter

You're welcome. Peter

Hi, my thoughts on this page is that for me I don't read it as a blog post as it's promotional and not really informational.

You are right to look to write high quality, helpful and useful content. To do that you need to ask what questions would potential customers in your target market being asking.

You are right when you say in the page you linked to "Storage challenges are common to everyone from businesses to consumers.", so consider what hints and tips and good information can you give to help people with those storage challenges.

You cannot just say buy our storage bins, but you could post something like "101 Cool Ways to use a Dividable Grid Container" or maybe share helpful information on the best way to store important documents and the advantages of using a proper container than a cardboard box.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Ivan

You say "what I have been doing up to now..." which suggests you have already been doing this. What success have you seen on bloggers being willing to tweet to their followers your offer? If you have already offered this to quite a few bloggers, then you should already have some indication on (a) the percentages of bloggers who are willing to tweet for you and (b) the take up rate from their tweets.

I would be interested to hear if it is proving successful for you.

My strategy if wanting to offer these free audits is to build a list of contacts myself through my own outreach in social media. It's not a quick strategy but something you need to build and grow over time. Go on to the social media channels and engage with people, listen and try to answer their questions, share with your own followers any good things they are sharing. Then, as people build up more trust and authority in the places you are engaging people will begin to respond to you more and be more willing to share the good things you put out.

I hope that helps,
Peter

To be honest Michael I have just been using the method I described above to logout before logging back in again.

I remember reading another Q&A thread where it was reported and someone from Moz responded but maybe they are not aware it is still an issue for some users.

So to hopefully get this resolved I have just sent a support ticket to Moz. It feels like there is a session cookie being stored that isn't being cleared properly and that maybe why moz.com/logout works, but hopefully they will get on to it and get it sorted.

Meantime use the moz.com/logout cure as that always works for me.

I hope that helps, Peter

Hi, if by media files you mean audio media files then save them as mp3 format. Depending on what they are you can normally save speech at around 64kpbs whereas with music do for a minimum 128kbps.

Peter

Hi Michael

What happens if you put moz.com/logout into your address bar (needs to be lowercase) and hit enter. Does that clear the issue?

This problem has been ongoing for a while but I find doing the above does reset and allows me to then login successfully.

Peter

Hi Pete

I would think the web company would have corrected the problem by adding rel="canonical" code to point to the correct page where duplicates occurred. The only thing I can think of is maybe the code has accidentally been removed.

You really need to check the source code of some of the reported duplicates to check to see if the canonical code is there.

Peter

Hi Ron

It looks OK. However, you might find http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ more useful though with details of how to use it here: http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/static/about-browser-size.html

Google said it was going to be retired in June last year but it's still going, probably because people do find it useful.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Hi Sarah

I would always be concerned at hearing a company dissing another company in a public event. I have never used Wordtracker personally, but with a long track record as it has I wouldn't dismiss it. Also, in the latest search environment I think information giving you insight and context would probably be quite useful.

What examples did the company who hosted the event give that their tool was better?

The problem with any keyword research tool for search now, the data is not going to be as rich as it was. Also, with personalised search how do you measure what is 'normal'? Bing will give you search data yes, and most tools I think use that data. So if you keep in mind that the numbers are not the same as you will get with Google they will at least give you an idea of the higher volume keywords in proportion to those that are likely to be less. By using that data alongside other metrics and competitive analysis, you have a better chance than having none.

If there is a silver bullet tool out there I would be delighted to know about it.

I hope that helps,
Peter

Yes, it would show up in your analytics as an active user but the fact that the query returns no results means it's not been indexed. All good.

Peter

Hi Rajat,

No what I mean is put the following query into the search box

site:<yourdomainname>/<yourstagingfolder></yourstagingfolder></yourdomainname>

where yourdomainname is your domain name (e.g. mysite.com) and yourstagingfolder is your staging folder (e.g. staging), so ike this:

site:mysite.com/staging

Peter