Questions
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Domain still not being found in search
Thanks for that Daniel, glad to see that it is actually visible! I'm about to begin my backlink campaign so will get stuck into that cheers Alex
Moz Tools | | Easigrass1 -
Will There Be Much Impact When Moving Site To New Root Folder?
Hi Alex If I understand this, you're changing the literal file folder on your server, but to the user and in the browser the URLs and folders stay the same? If so, there's no danger here. Just redirect and URLs that do change. -Dan PS (I think James, understandably, misunderstood the question - you only need to worry if URLs in the browser change.)
Web Design | | evolvingSEO0 -
What is the best way to treat URLs ending in /?s=
Hi Alex These are parameters that sit after the main URL and often include 'sort' 'page'. (They can also be created in some eCommerce pages as 'products' but these should be dealt with a mod-rewrite to show properly constructed URLs with category name and title). There are a number of ways with dealing with them: 1. Google search console - you have to be very careful messing with the rules in parameter handling but for some, this is the way. 'sort' then you can tell Google that it narrows the content on the page - you can then choose to let Googlebot decide or block the URLs - I often block them as they just create skinny and duplicate content. Pagination - 'page' you can tell Google that this paginates and then let Google decide. Look at rel/prev tag on those pages as well. Attributes - like size and colour - I generally block those as they just create skinny duplicates of main categories Others - like Catalog - it depends on what platform you use but there could be other parameters being created - I block most of them as they create useless URLs 2. Robots.txt You can use this file to block the indexing of these pages depending on the parameter by excluding them from being followed by the search bots. Once again be very careful as you don't want to accidentally block indexing of useful areas the site. https://moz.com/learn/seo/robotstxt 3. Canonicals If you are able a great way of dealing with attributes like size and colour is to canonicalize back to the non size specific URL - this is a great way of maintaining the link juice for those URLs which may otherwise be lost if you blocked them all together. You add a rel=canonical tag pointing to the non-parameter version. https://moz.com/learn/seo/canonicalization 4. As a last resort you can 301 redirect them but frankly, if you have dealt with them properly you shouldn't have to. It's also bad practice to have live 301 redirects in the internal structure of a website. Best to use the correct URL. There is more reading here: https://moz.com/community/q/which-is-the-best-way-to-handle-query-parameters https://moz.com/community/q/do-parameters-in-a-url-make-a-difference-from-an-seo-point-of-view https://moz.com/community/q/how-do-i-deindex-url-parameters Regards Nigel
Moz Tools | | Nigel_Carr0 -
Best practice for local keyword ranking in URLs
Hey Alex, I want to be sure I'm understanding this fully. Some questions: Is artificial grass the main product your business sells? If that's right, are you saying that your domain name is something like Alexs.com instead of AlexsArificialGrass.com? And if that's right, are you asking if your landing pages should look like alexs.com/country/city/artificialgrass instead of just alexs.com/country/city? Or, something else? And, finally, I'm curious about the use of a country name in your URLs. Do you have offices in more than one nation?
Local Website Optimization | | MiriamEllis0 -
Using a top level domain name and directing it to a subfolder
Hi Alex, Sounds like you've already got the nav changes under control which is great! Technically DA is based on your link profile so that won't change, though if you mean just the overall strength of the site, it will drop away from the SERPs once the 301 to the subfolder is in place. In case you haven't already thought of it too, once that redirect is in place, consider reaching out to any valuable referring domains pointing to .ae and ask if they can update the link to .com/ae since the site has moved. This is some easy low-hanging fruit and a great way to drive links directly to subpages as I'd mentioned doing earlier. You will retain most of the strength from these links using the 301 anyway but why sacrifice that 10-20% loss in strength if the referring sites are happy to update a single href?
International Issues | | ChrisAshton0 -
Help - my site is losing rank fast and I don't know what I've done!
Cian We work with a firm like yours here in the US so I won't be able to go into much detail, but your site loads quite slowly here even when cached. Also, you said you rebuilt your site recently so it begs the question did you handle the redirects correctly? On the content front, if you are dropping already make sure you create a sane strategy and that the content is new and not redone. Make sure you are answering queries, etc. BTW With new site did you change any meta descriptions? (For anyone who is going to tell me that is not a ranking factor, it is not about that.) Have you gone in and looked at traffic change (users flow) since the change? Hope that helps a bit. Robert
Keyword Research | | RobertFisher1