Hi,

Yes, it is in Google interests to show different and relevant sites to users.

You said, "2 websites for the same company (very different domains) - both sites are targeting the same primary keyword phrase, however, the user journey should incorporate both websites, and therefore the sites are very heavily cross linked - so we can easily pass a user from one site to another."

I am assuming the by very different domains, you mean different site address because two sites on two different topics can't be heavily interlinked. In this case, I would recommend to have a single website that is performing well in the search engine and merge the other one in it. As you said that users journey should incorporate both the websites, this means they are closely linked. In this case, it would be better to have a single website that suffice users' needs.

Regards

Hi,

• Don't fall for PR. Google has stopped updating it.
• As you said that the result is a local one, they really don't need much of backlinks to rank in local results.

Please provide url of the website, Google domain, your browser name. Check it once again by clearing the cache of your web browser.

Regards

Hi Garrettkite,

There are 2 things that I would answer:

• Firstly, don't use underscore (_) in the url. Instead, use hyphens (-). E.g. domain1.com/inner-page.aspx
• Secondly, whether to have a longer url or shorter version is totally your call. It is better to have a flat structure as much as possible. Never go for very long urls e.g. domain1.com/directory1/directory2/this-is-the-inner-page.aspx. On the other hand, focus on the structure of the website from user's point of view. Is it intuitive? Can a user reach to the inner page easily? But in some cases you may have to use longer urls which is again conditional.

Till date I have successfully worked on more than 100 sites by following the above standards.

Regards

Hi Peter,

It's better to have separate pages for blue widgets, red widgets etc. As far as backlinks are concerned, ask yourself - if I click this link and land on a page that doesn't answer my question, would it be a good user experience? There is no need to maintain any sort of proportion/distribution of links between the Home page and inner pages. Often, you may not get a chance to link the inner page. In that case you may vary the anchor text.

-Shailendra

Hi,

So the news is that Google has started giving more importance to sites with HTTPS i.e. it is now a new ranking signal. It says that as of now it affects fewer than 1% of  global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high quality content but it may decide to strengthen it as they would like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.

In that case, what should we do? Switching from http:// to https:// means change in urls and low traffic. How to cope with it? Do we have to implement 'n' number of redirects?

Regards,

Hi,

I use the following method for keyword research:

1. Create a long raw list of keywords.
2. Use Google AdWords Keyword tool to find monthly searches.
3. Find raw competition.
4. Find direct competition (via allinanchor: search operator)
5. Calculate KEI (Keyword Effectiveness Index)
6. Calculate KOI (Keyword Opportunity Index)

Is there any other (better) way to execute the keyword research? Or is finalizing/selecting the keywords only on the basis of monthly searches sufficient? In short, how to select the best keywords from a long list?

Thanks & Regards

Hello,

I have changed the font size and require feedback as in what do you all think about the older size and the new size:

http://103.9.12.244/index.aspx - New size

http://www.optiproerp.com/ - Old size

Regards

If your motive is to support the main site with backlinks, I suggest you take it off. Google even penalized this arrangement in 2009 I suppose.

Regards

As you said blogs setup for different geo locations. Would it serve purpose if you redirect all of them to a single website/blog? I mean they must been for varied geographic targets.

I case you are contemplating to discontinue all of them and redirect them to one so that you can focus all your efforts at a single place then it can be a good idea but make sure you redirect (map) specific pages/posts to the corresponding new pages. Simply redirecting all the domains to a single domain will not help much. You should keep in mind the user comfort as well.

Regards

HI,

We are planning to launch sites specific to target market (geographic location) but the products and services are similar in all those markets as we sell software.So here's the scenario:

1. Our target markets are all English speaking countries i.e. Britain, USA and India
2. We don't have the option of using ccTLD like .co.uk, co.in etc.
3. How should we handle the content? Because product, its features, industries it caters to and our services are common irrespective of market.
4. Whether we go with sub-directory or sub-domain, the content will be in English. So how should we craft the content?
5. Is writing the unique content for the same product thrice the only option?

Regards

Thanks Robert! I had similar things in my mind but I was not sure. Your reply made everything clear.

Thanks Referral Candy! The link you shared is really good.

Regards

Answer to Q1 - Write for the readers/users and not search engines. Keywords are important but use it when required. Avoid keyword stuffing. Write the content, read it as a user and then ask yourself - Does it offers what the page promises to? You can use keywords in the alt tags of the images and internal links. But excessive usage is strict NO.

Answer to Q2 - Using multiple

tags for SEO purposes is actually a misuse. h1, h2, h3 etc. tags should be used to define the content structure i.e. headings of the page. h1 - main heading, h2 - sub headings etc. Again, keyword stuffing them is a violation.

Answer to Q3 - I guess MOZ has its own index.

Answer to Q4 - MOZ's guidelines are for our education. Obviously, the guidelines and tutorials are good and helpful but it is your effort that counts. MOZ can tell you what to do but how you do it is your responsibility.

Regards

Thanks for the prompt reply Robert! We have the social media icons across the pages of the website along with the corresponding social media pages and YouTube channels. Other than this, what else can we do?

Because ERP software does not appeal to mass market and within ERP domain we are serving only process manufacturers like Food, beverage, pharma etc. It's like niche within niche.

We can start interacting with our existing clients via social media channels, this is one thing we can do but how to market our products and services on social media channels in a manner that can even attract the attention of totally irrelevant and unrelated people. I want people to view our campaigns and make it viral and create a perception that even an ERP company can create engaging campaigns across the channels. As of now, my target is brand building and not conversion.

Regards

If you are talking about user profile pages, it is your call.

If you are talking about links that users post in profile pages, use as signatures or use in threads, make sure to mark them nofollow.

Regards

No, don't remove the links coming from good authoritative sites.

For rest of the links, download links to your site report in Google Webmaster Tools and check if those low quality sites are in there. Start by removing the links that are in the report. You can disavow the links as well but you should be very careful in doing so. Sometimes, people get extra cautious and disavow good backlinks.

Regards

Use meta="noindex" tag for the user profile pages. It is more effective.

Regards

Exactly! You are on the right path. Google states that you should submit the proof of your manual removal work along with the reconsideration request. It will help them understand that you are serious and are working for it and will also expedite the process.

Regards

My experience tells me that using hyphens (-) in domain names doesn't go well with the users. Even a single hyphen in the domain name is quite frustrating. Think as a user - would you like to type a lengthy domain name with multiple hyphens? Users might perceive it as a spammy domain.

It is better to use short domain names that are easy to remember. If you have run out of options and a long name is the only choice then avoid hyphens (-). Moreover, having a domain name same as the business name or kind of work is just one of the factors.

Regards

Hello Andy,

If you are gonna write the content for online users/reader, you would get the answer yourself. When you write a quality piece, you think of your users and not the search engines. If you make the users happy, search engines will be happy as well.

As far as targeting a single phrase or multiple phrase is concerned, if two terms are totally different altogether then having separate pages is a better idea and that is categorization. E.g. A site selling mobiles can have different categories based on brands and then further categorization based on OS.

To sum up, it is your call. If you think that all the 2 phrases should be on the same page as they offer real value when read together then you can put them in a single page. On the other hand, if they are inter-connected and quality content can be crafted for each of them then individual pages with good internal linking can be done.

Regards

Check you robots file. Are there entries to block the crawling? If you can give the url then it would be helpful/

Regards