Welcome to the Q&A Forum

HI Daniel,

In theory 301 redirecting should pass the link juice directly to your new URL, but if the URL has never been indexed by Google, those 301's may take a period of time to get indexed and reflect. This is really a subject matter, I have heard 301's and site redirects working very quickly (like same day), and other times it has been a couple months. I "feel" like this has a lot to do with the sites original traffic and Google crawl rate. For example when SEOMoz became Moz, they were re-ranking relatively quickly. While sites I have worked on have in fact take several weeks to return to the SERPs.

What that really means is it can take awhile for Google to re-evaluate your new URL's, likely on their next index pass of your site.

It is also very important to note that just because your "old url" ranked in the top 3 does not mean the new URL will rank in the top 3. Google will  re-evaluate the new url and place it in the appropriate spot. It does of course consider the link juice that your old URL had, but that does not necessarily mean it will rank the same. There are a lot of factors that go into the way page ranks.

I hope this makes sense and helps,

Don

Hi Jon,

It looks like it is because that "tag" is being explicitly blocked by your Robots.txt file.

REF: http://www.balihaiphoto.com/robots.txt

See Rule(s)

Disallow:/?tag=
Disallow:/&tag=

Removing those rules should allow Moz access.

Hope this helps,

Don

Also a quick point, if you still have your Google search console setup for HTTP, even though you use HTTPS now, I'd suggest looking at what is being reported as indexed in there. That maybe the missing link.

Cordialement,

Don

So I'm not seeing anything blocking crawling on your site which is good. But I did notice that you have at one time used URL types "http" and "https" which leads me to believe you may have recently switched to HTTPS. In such case you should know that it may take Google sometime to adjust. On a technical level, https and http are 2 different domains.

It is highly likely that Google has index the HTTP version of some of these pages which is why your index count maybe lower then normal for the HTTPS version.

I do see you properly 301 redirected these pages and your sitemaps are reflecting the https as well, if again this was a recent change it just looks like its going to take a bit of time for Google to catch up.

This is worth a quick look, https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6073543?hl=en (scroll to the bottom) and see the section "Migrating from HTTP to HTTPS".

I sent you additional info in PM.

Hope this helps,

Don

Hi,

There are several reasons.

If you have recently changed your url structure. IE (went from using www to not, or https or not, or trailing / or not). In these cases Google could have indexed the pages already under the "other" version.

Google could be having a crawling error, like in a robots.txt or lack there of. Improper canonical tags, blocked access, improper redirects, or a manual penalty.

If you would like to post a link (or pm me) I will take a look and see if I can spot a potential problem for you.

Here are a couple links on Google that should help:
Why Pages Drop From Index
Overview Pages Not Being Crawled

Hope this helps,

Don

Hi Snowflake,

You can use the OSE (Open Site Explorer) here on Moz to check the links they found. You can download that report to CSV to easily sort and see if you have a possible negative campaign running against you.

You could also use, Majestic, or SEMRush. to find more links. Just note there is no tool, free or paid that is going to be able to get all the links pointing to your site.

If you don't find a lot of spam links to your site, chances are there isn't somebody trying to target you with a negative campaign.

Hope it helps,

I've seen many people with SNI related issues. I am hoping Moz finds a way to work with it soon.

Hi Jacob,

What the others have said is correct, but let me put some perspective on it.

Why is it that when you didn't know what you were doing your pages ranked better then it does after you gained a little knowledge and made some tweaks? Its because what you likely had was well written info and ideas from the heart. Google is very well equipped at understanding sites that are not perfectly optimized in the SEO department. Sure they won't rank as well as a site that has perfect SEO and well written, but they are likely to rank better then a site that only has one of those things.

Why? This is because Google's goal, and I say this very often, is to return the best site for a query to a user. A site that is well written and interesting with no real attempt at SEO is probably better then a site that has made adjustments to what they want to say in an attempt to impress a search engine. SEO is search engine optimization, not search engine trickery. You should ALWAYS air on the side of caution when making any changes to what you really want to say in hopes that Google will think more of you. Its like picking on the fat kid at school trying to impress the popular guy. It may appear like an easy way to do it, but you only make yourself look bad in the process.

That isn't to say SEO is bad, quite the opposite. By optimizing your site you are putting your best face on the site for the search engine, but that shouldn't come at the expense of your users, who are in fact the most important part.

I hope that makes sense and helps you understand what is going on,

Don

Hi James,

For page load, network, speed test I have used Pingdom.com in the past. They recently went more pay to use but it is a nice set of tools for basic test. There is still some free stuff you can use at tools.pingdom.com

For a quick SEO pass. Man I love ScreamingFrog! You can quickly identify header errors, long titles, descriptions, lack of h1 tags and so much more. When I do general quick audits for trouble shooting problems posted on this board, its my go to.

Hope this helps,

Don

HI Nitin,

Doing a follow up here. So you are worried about a particular section of a page is going to be considered duplicate? If so, then that is of no worry, it is normal for many pages to have the same information when it pertains to the overall intent of the page. What is looked at is the page in whole not a section of it.

If that is not what you mean please give me an example so I can help identify options.

Thanks,

Don

Hi Nitin,

This is a common issue among Ecommerce sites. The solution is to be creative! I gave an example of how I would go about it,  a month ago over on this question. But I also like to analyze how other successful sites overcame the problem.

Take a very similar product like a portable CD player and then head over to Amazon and see how the differentiate them.

Coby Portable CD Player
Memorex Portable CD Player

For all intents and purposes these 2 cd players are pretty much the same, about the same price, includes the same items, and performs the same functions. But each page is unique. Amazon has achieved this by including, what others bought, a small product description, manufacturer description, product shipping details, technical details, questions and answers, similar products, and customer reviews. Many of those features are important for buyers but also lend their selves to self generating content.

I know right out of the gate it maybe difficult to put that much attention to a very inexpensive item, but the key here is to spend the time on the backend creating the features that will have a long term reward. You may not be able to go full Amazon compete mode right away, but taking some steps towards that end will have long term rewards.

When I was dealing with this same issue on our eCommerce site trying to differentiate a Nitrile Size 001 oring and a Neoprene Size 001 oring from each other, I spent about a month and half developing content blocks for material, size, primary uses, material qualities, and measurement cross references. Since then the only thing I have had to do is update prices with the market.

I hope this makes sense and helps,

Don

Hi,

You may also want to check the domain variations. http://penn-criminallawyers.com/ and http://www.penn-criminallawyers.com/

If you look at the www version you will see a spam score of 4/10. You'll need to make sure you set the filter to "this root domain"

It could be that at some point the website used the www but have since switched to no www. There are some inconsistency like that with the tool. Technically "www" and "no www" are 2 different domains, in practicality we use them interchangeably.

Hope this helps,

Don

Hi Netkernz_ag,

It is just good practice to have those types of pages available. While I wouldn't say it is an absolute requirement, it should be something you do for your users. The page you pointed to is a general checklist of things to do, and not to do for your users. Creating a Site Index maybe a bit dated, but I still tend to do them as they are fairly easy to create. (example).

Hope this helps,
Don

Hi Trevor,

In general no you don't lose link juice for reciprocal linking. Why? because the original practice of evaluating the value of a website factored in how many other domains were linking to it. While that is still true today many other things also factor into the ranking now. Had this not been true you would have never seen the rise of "link rings" and "link pools", and ultimately Google penalizing these sites with Panda and Penguin.

The key here is as it always should be, does X site deserve a link from you? Which means, does putting that link on your site give your users any additional value? If the answer is yes, then by all means link to it. On the other side of the coin, that website should have asked the same question about your site, does their users gain any benefit by them linking to you? You should hope the answer is yes.

If both sites benefit from the mutual link, there shouldn't be any problem. If however, as John Cross suggested it becomes a pattern, then you can suffer a penalty.

I hope that helps,

Don

You should also evaluate who at your company has access to passwords. Did you hire any part of this site out?

People who have access to the site could knowingly our unknowingly be the problem.

Hello,

The one thing popular CMS sites have in common is they are primary targets. This is especially true to open source or free systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Oscommerce, this is because the hackers are available to download and review the source code. In addition to this, many people contribute to these projects which provides additional opportunities for security holes.

There are whole websites out there that share techniques to hack these high profile CMS, complete with scripts and how to guides. Its unfortunate, but some people "enjoy" other people's pain.

The one thing you must do when you choose a CMS like this is to continue to upgrade versions and stay on top of the latest security vulnerabilities and fixes. If you hired your build out, you should factor in a continual support package because you will always need to upgrade and patch.

My suggestions is to visit your sites help forums, chances are there are some answers there for you. There are many precautionary things I could suggest but the primary thing you need to do take your site offline, identify the security hole, restore from a backup and patch it.

Good luck,

Don

I noticed MozPoint rank was pretty close to the aggregated rank for everybody in the Top 50 list. But when you look at all 4291 users there is some big differences. I think maybe in June I'll do just a top 1000 or have a minimum point requirement.

HI Stephen,

As somebody who has worked with eCommerce sites with lots of products I can appreciate where you're at and what you've gone through to get there. My next step would be to fill up the site with content that sets you apart from competitors. Really easy advise to give, hard to implement.

What I like to do is take my favorite online shop and compare what I have against them. My goal is figure out what I could do that they aren't doing, or how in general I could compete with them. For me my favorite online shop for just about everything is Amazon (yours maybe different) , then I say why would somebody buy from me instead of Amazon. Since Amazon is my personal favorite site, it removes the bias I may have towards my own shop.

Can I offer better prices or value? Can I offer items they don't sell? Can I offer better support? Can I offer faster or cheaper delivery? Can I show better content? Better reviews? Can I offer a better shopping experience?

With these questions, most sites I come to the conclusion is Amazon has set the bar so high, it is very difficult to compete even if I have a huge budget. In your case, Amazon may have many of the items you sell, so you have to get creative on how you market them and make sure your content is on par with theirs. That means add reviews, add your own personal description of items, your own images, customer images, and make sure you are where your customers are (social media).

I can't tell anybody how to run a business, but I can say that being creative when your up against such big money is the best way to make a name for yourself.

Good luck,

Don

Hi Stephen,

My general advice is yes, finish your page optimization before link building and here is why.

When you start your link building process it is likely that you'll be reaching out to other sites to ask for links or to submit pages. Those sites that you want links from, are likely going to review what they are linking to, as such they are going to grade your site in one way or another. You want to put your best face on those pages. Sites are more likely to link to you if you look good and have the content to warrant a link.

Hope that makes sense, and helps,

Don

Hi Jerome,

I actually thought I responded to this from the office, but I must not have hit submit.

If the goal of these new domains is simply to provide ease of use to the consumer, I suggest you use parameters instead.

Example of using parameters: Recommended if goal is to help users by showing local currency.

yoursite.com is the default (USD)
yorsite.com?cur=EUR  (EURO)
yoursite.com?cur=GBP (Pounds)

You would then set up canonical tag on your pages that could accept this parameter to point to the default (point to itself). This would prevent any duplicate problems.

Sub directories make more sense if you're going to localize the domain for specific regions. Like language, currency and locations. Since you're using the same language, and likely not setting up servers / locations in those areas, I feel your best bet would be to use parameters. Most eCommerce Suits offer this in one way or another, and its not particularly hard to code if you are not using a CMS.

My thoughts,

Don