This one:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-seomoz-office-gets-a-new-do
I know it's not strictly SEO related, but it came at a really cool time in my freelance career and was awesome motivation.
Posts made by JGar-28032
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RE: What is your favorite SEOmoz blog post of all time? And why?
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RE: Move the content from mycompany.es to mycompany.com is worth it?
Nope. I would buy the .com, and if/when you're ready explore international SEO with it; but for now I would just 301 it to the domain you've had this whole time. It's the one with links to it, the original content, and the right top-level country code for your target audience.
I say this generally because the TLD isn't going to have the impact. But, I don't know anything about either domains. Was it used for a very similar business model/is it getting traffic, all that other stuff?
Simply age and domain extension aren't enough reasons, but if you're buying a running and successful site, consider how you want to use that content.
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RE: Yahoo! Directory Category Question
Hey Brandon,
I think it depends on how much more relevant that desired category would be. If it truly is a better fit, and the one the put you in isn't, then yeah, see if they will update it.
If it's good enough though, I would say leave it. The Yahoo! directory can be a decent link, and I wouldn't want to delay getting a solid listing if it isn't too terribly important.
Rather, I would take my link, and move on. Depending on the business I have some clients that actually get business because of that listing. But a lot don't, they sometimes barely get traffic. I still think it's a good listing, but don't waste too much time on it if it isn't going to actually convert.
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RE: Domain that ranked 4 has now disappeared from search results
Hey Warren,
Man, I'm really sorry to hear about the drop. I took a quick look but I'm gonna answer given what you said first.
If the content really is duplicated, that's going to be the first and loudest bell for me. The other domains that ranked are of higher authority (they have an established history, more quality links, etc.). Given the opportunity to rank a site of such high authority (which in turn offers several listing to clients, thus enhancing their browsing experience) vs. yours it's going to be tough to change their mind.
Food for thought:
The fact that the domain is so closely matched to the address could potentially look spammy. Pair that up with the duplicate content and it could appear rather nefarious to the Goog. I don't think it's that bad, but keep that in your noggin for future reference.
A long time ago the real estate industry felt a slap by Google for shotty link practices. I got a ton of real estate work back then (cleaning stuff up mostly). We often played with the idea to create mini sites for each property but simply didn't think it was the best way or working their online marketing. Large risks were among the hurdles.
Fast forward a few years and there's so much one can do to gain local exposure. That arena is really built for sites like those that are out-ranking yours (sites that have many listings, sort features, etc.). There are so many things you can do to promote individual properties on a single site that it's generally your best route.
Not knowing your business model, that's my first suggestion. Have a single site and promote the listings that way.
But if this is where you're at, then it may be as simple as getting some unique content on the site. You might read some advice to "make sure it is XX% different" but I would say scrap and write something truly unique. If it's in your budget, you can find freelance writers all over the place on the web that will get some decent content on there for you.
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RE: How important is meta content="" name="title"?
I'm totally with Nicholas on that one. Generally the <title>is the more appropriate method.</p> <p>A bunches of years ago I worked for a company that provided a closed CMS to their clients. They didn't have access to the <head> section, so this was the only way to actually get a title; but that was many years ago, at a company that had no idea. </p> <p>Just to clarify, they totally don't do that anymore. This was a really long time ago. </p></title>
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RE: Can penalties be passed via 301 redirect?
Man, please don't sue me if this doesn't work, but I say go for it.
Think about it like this. What's to stop a competitor from getting a bunch of those links, wait til a site is penalized and then redirecting it to you? Nothing. It's unlikely I think, and quite the investment but it could happen, right?
Plus, if you're getting hit because your links look shotty to Google, then wouldn't a redirect to a well-established site help to curb that perception.
I vote do it. But seriously, let me know how it goes.
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RE: Proportion of traffic from adwords vs organic search
Right off the bat I point you here:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/mission-imposserpble-establishing-clickthrough-rates
These numbers are actually pretty close to what I usually see. There are exceptions and it can be wildly different depending on the results, type of business, etc.
1% might seem low for 4th position, but I've actually seen that quite a bit. The traffic estimates by Google are usually BS. Are you looking at broad match or exact match?
Also, I know "icebreaker" is your brand, but it is a pretty vague search term. As you said, you're the first retailer. I see other results; something about a ship, etc.
I also see Amazon up there, which is a well-known brand. Sometimes it's not the fact that you're being out-ranked, but by whom you are being out-ranked. What I mean is, if you were being out-ranked by lesser-known brands, then you would probably see better CTR. But Amazon is super well-known.
All those things combined, not bad I would think.
To answer your question though, it really all depends on the brand. I work with a group that is very well-known right now. And their brand terms bring more traffic than any other type of terms.
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RE: Can penalties be passed via 301 redirect?
It's always so hard to get a straight answer on this. There isn't much in the way of an official one from Google (of course), and I've experienced what I think to be both results (penalty passed, and penalty not passed).
Personally, I think it has a lot to do with the penalty, etc.
More importantly though, why do you think it has been penalized. You mention that it hasn't completely lost visibility, but you've lost rankings. There are many things that can cause that.
First, I would check this vid to get a grasp on your situation:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-oh-i-got-a-penalty
If you still think you have a penalty it can be a bit tricky. Like I said, I constantly hear debates on this, and have anecdotedly seen both results. It's tough to test really.
I would take a step back and put the SEO goggles down. Ask yourself "How do I genuinely fix this situation?" Not the penalty itself, but the cause of the penalty. If you think a 301 is your best hope, then go for it.
As for actually redirecting the penalty, I don't think that's going to happen...unless you did something really naughty. Rather I think people 301 without fixing the underlying issues, and when they get penalized they assume that it was transferred via the redirect.
I'm pretty interested though. Let us know what happens/what you decide to do.
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RE: Google Places - Shared Office Space
OK cool. So we know that the address isn't specifically the problem.
When I say over-accommodate, I mean that sometimes I get clients who aren't even close to the city center. In those cases, we have to build substantially more citations, etc. to compete.
So let's look at those aspects. I can't believe I didn't ask you about reviews. Those are pretty important. Does your client have more, fewer, on-par reviews? Tab up the negative reviews vs. positive. Do you respond to any negatives?
I did a lawyer not long ago and I remember Google pulling judysbook reviews. And sometimes from NOLO. But I think Google doesn't pull from other sources like they used to (sorry Yelp). See if you have any links to more reviews. You might not actually see the reviews, but there will be a link for "reviews from around the web" or similar. If you see that there are listings to third-party reviews that your client doesn't have, get those. Hell, even if your competition doesn't have them, I would still head to Judy's Book and nolo and get listed, and try to solicit reviews as much as you can.
The reviews on the Google Places page are going to be more prominent/important, but those still have an impact.
I would keep the address as you have it. At this point it's more important to keep it as consistent as possible than to try and change it now.
While you're at it, where are you on the GPlace Page itself? Have videos and images? All that stuff? Don't stop when it says "100% complete" fill up the image and videos spots the best you can.
Alright, let me know about the reviews and completeness. I would try to get the "basics" as out of the way as possible.
I wrote (however ugly it may be) an eBook on this exact thing. Get all the foundation stuff under control first then poke at the detailed issues. I may be sending you on a goose chase for a second though as it sounds like you have this part under wraps. Just in case: http://seo-factor.com/ranking-in-google-places/
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RE: Traffic dropping after blog was added...
It's a little tough without looking at all the details, but here are my thoughts/suggestions.
Missing Old Pages - This may be happening because of a new design/CMS. I see this a lot when clients go for a new, WordPress site. It's a great idea, but they neglect to implement 301 redirects for all those old pages that had rankings, etc.
Check your 404 errors/Google Webmaster Crawl errors. You might find a bunch of pages that are being linked to, were updated with a new URL structure and now result in an error. You might find that setting up the 301s does the trick (give it a couple weeks once you're done).
Check for keyword cannibalization - See if the keywords you were targeting on those "main" pages are also being targeted on those blog posts. Might need to clean that up a little; ensure that each page has unique info/focus/titles, etc.
It is possible that the links to those posts is spreading your link juice a little too thinly, but I wouldn't jump to that conclusion just yet. I only say it because a year is a long time, and you could have tons of posts that are drawing from that link juice.
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RE: Google Places - Shared Office Space
Hey David,
Man, you certainly have your ducks in a row. I have a couple questions for you to consider. It's kinda weird dealing with Google Places as so much is so inconsistent sometimes. It can be so many little things that impact rankings.
How old are your citations? If you have competition that had tons of citations for a long time, and your client recently got theirs; it won't matter how many you have for just a bit. There's going to be a small element of waiting. Give it a month, see what happens.
How does you client's location relate to the competition? If they are all closer to the city center, and your client is much farther, that's usually the culprit. Then, you're going to have to over-accommodate a bit (which it actually sounds like you're doing, so good on ya).
Generally speaking, the shared space shouldn't hold you back. I say shouldn't because by design Google should be showing "locations at this address" depending on your search. If you have sufficient citations to confirm your address, address on the site, etc. then you should be ok. You can test it though.
Look at a few of the other businesses with the same address and search for their keywords (just like a....GASP...common user...yuck). See how they perform compared to their competition. It's a lot of digging, but if you see that there are places at that address that do indeed perform, then you know that it should be ok.
If you only see one listing that performs, and all the others do not, then you might have some issues. But from the way you describe it, you're already "performing" on some level, so I think you should be ok.
Let me know if my thoughts so far aren't it. I wanna hear more.
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RE: Do links hold there value after 12 months?
Hey Andrew,
In fact, the more a link has aged, the better. It's a sign of stability to have a wide range of dated links pointing to your site. It shows that your site is continuously and consistently sought after by others (people referencing your material, etc.).
It is still important that you continue to build links though, as you don't only want to have old links. If you haven't gotten any new links to your site in a long time, it can be a sign that your site may have gone stagnant.
So, the old links are good, but keep building them.
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RE: Tags in wordpress -Important?
Hey Pedro,
This really depends on what you want to do with your site, and how you want to deliver the content to your readers.
The tags are generally used to help people find articles that interest them (by searching or clicking the tags, etc.) so they are an important usability feature for a lot of blogs. But they can create a bit of duplicate content if they are allowed to run rampant.
Because you can place tags with more/less specificity, you can give a much better description to each post. So if your site is about "SEO" you may have a post that goes into the "beginning SEO" category. But the post is about title tags. So you would give that post the tags of "title tags, meta tags, on-page seo" etc. depending on how your site is organized.
So you see how they allow you to place just a bit more info so you can tell your visitors what the post is all about.
The reason you hear about them so much in the SEO arena is due to their ability to grossly inflate the number of your pages on your site with content that is duplicated elsewhere.
If you have that same post and tagged the way I described, you now have the same/very similar content on the archive pages for each of the tags you assigned to it. This is usually handled by either blocking the search engines from indexing those pages, or creating canonical pages appropriately.
There's a really good plugin to make this a non-issue by Joost de Valk, but before you download and start setting it up, you might want to also read his WP SEO article.
The Article:
http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/
The Plugin:
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RE: Google Places......
Hey Lawrence,
It may not be a problem at all, at least not by design. Google began merging organic information with Google Places a while back. If you notice that the title of the Place page on the results page is the same as that of your website page that ranked, this happened.
And when that happens, short of a few cases I have right now it always takes place of the organic listing. Meaning that you only get the one.
In some cases this is ok, as the Google Places page is taking the top spot of the results page. I've also noticed an increased conversion rate depending on the service.
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RE: Duplicate titles but redirecting anyway (without redirects set up!!!)
It can depend on your server, but usually this is normal (at least by design). When you make URL/structure changes in WP, it automatically creates 301 redirects. So if you change the permalink, or category info for a page, it should update all "old" links to redirect to the new way.
Keep in mind that this is by design, and not always the most accurate. I've had a few clients with weird permissions and it didn't work. Keep watch over your GWT for 404s.
GWT can take some time to update. When you're looking at the errors, check the date of the last time Google noticed the problem. Check them manually. If everything appear to be fine then you're likely good to go.
Check in a week or so, and if things are still amiss, then something went wrong.
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RE: Does having a file type on the end of a url affect rankings (example www.fourcolormagnets.com/business-cards.php VS www.fourcolormagnets.com/business-cards)????
I can tell you from experience that it doesn't matter. In fact, Matt Cutts suggested (quite some time ago, mind you) to keep the extensions. I almost never keep the extensions myself, and have not been given a reason to think it matters.
Here's the vid from Matt Cutts:
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RE: I have a question about converting a flash site to word press
I'm with Brandon. I would try to match the URLs/pages where I could. But other than that if you're coming from a heavy Flash site you're likely to be doing a great service just by uploading the new site. Where you can't match the pages, make sure you implement 301 redirects to the new, similar content.
You can good list of your current pages/URLs, as well as meta information with the Screaming Frog Spyder:
http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/
This way you can plan out your redirect/rewrite/conversion strategy before you have to implement it.
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RE: Google Webmaster tools vs SeoMOZ Crawl Diagnostics
I always make sure to manually check stuff on a regular basis as well as use tools. Tools are great, but like Steve said this is always going to be the case with software, especially in an industry as unregulated as ours.
Try to use the tools as a means of directing your attention to items that need it; rather than trusting them implicitly and using them as a checklist.
And again, Steve is correct in that Google's Webmaster Tools (as great as it is) can be a little dated. They will sometimes show errors that have been cleaned for a while. And keep in mind that seomoz tools are created within the context of SEO interests (Google will just show technical errors, SEO tools will show those, plus other warnings based on experience on things that will impact your rankings).