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Hi Sida,

take the URL of the post and open Google and type cache:URL you will then see if Google has cached the post and link.

Don't forget, if you keep posting to the same website the benefit will be minimal in terms of SEO because it is going to be from the same IP. However, if you are writing informational posts that will be useful for the readers then that's ok.

Hi Rahul,

Your meta needs to have a call to action in it as well as containing your main keyword for that page. In my experience, I would suggest having your call to action first and then a reason why they would want to visit your website.

For example, "Contact us today for your free IT assessment from a company with nearly 30 years experience".

Removing all links is definitely not the way to go but many people are still unsure what constitutes to a good and bad link. That company have gone about it the wrong way though!

Hi Maureen,

I always get this upon setup of a new client. I think the main thing is to manage their expectations because many people outside of the digital industry are either unaware of the potential of SEO or think it can do more than it can! Find out what marketing objectives they have and then see where SEO can help.

For example, if they are aiming to increase brand awareness (which most companies want) then look at increasing the number of keywords they rank for. You can set traffic targets if they have a history you can compare with, look at their rankings they had when they reached those targets, see where you think you will be able to get them and base your objectives on that.

Totally agree with Jeremy on the "under sell, over achieve" thought though.

Hi pert,

I would recommend you 301 each URL to a relevant one on the new website rather than just redirect all to the homepage. As well as being the best way to do it from an SEO point of view, it is also the best for users as they will still go to a relevant page. Also if anyone has links to the old website they will be sent to a relevant page.

Look at "spanish lessons" and "learn spanish" as these keywords may supply you with more traffic. They would be harder to rank for of course but over the long term would give you a more constant level of traffic.

Hi Douglas,

Have you used the keyword tool to find the exact match figures? They may be industry standard terms but if the search volume is low then there may be less traffic than you think.

By highly, do you mean in positions 1-3? If so then it would point to the fact that there is little traffic to be gained and you would be best moving on to another keyword. if you are lower than that, it may be that the websites above you are very good at converting visits into sales.

Thanks EGOL, very much appreciate your time. I think I'll have to do a little more research with my clients then because it will obviously mean more budget to be allocated.

Hi all,

I am pondering whether or not to try the new model of paying for the shopping results. I was just wondering what results people had seen and your ideas/thoughts on it.

First, I think you're lucky that you only have 60 links outstanding, we recently took a client that had over 5000 bad links!!

If you have emailed or tried to contact the remaining websites then I'd say its time to turn to the disavow tool. Be really careful though when using it because you have to be 100% sure that these are bad links before disavowing them. Once you have submitted the disavow file (which can take a week or 2 to filter through to Google) you will get a message in Webmaster Tools to tell you they have received it.

I'd say at this point, resubmit  for reconsideration. If you have evidence that you tried to contact these websites then include that in your request because Google wants to see that you have made an effort to get them removed first.

If the links are as bad as you say then they are probably doing more bad than good so don't worry about the link juice they are passing.

I'd usually say redirect it to a category page (zip code or city) straight away but from a users point of view it may not be the best thing to do. Maybe leave the page up with a sold sign and then have a "you may also like" section underneath so they know the house is gone but there are some other options, probably the best for UX. After a few weeks, I'd then 301 it to a category page.

There is no harm that it can do to your SEO but, in my opinion, dark text on light background is just easier on the eye. What is your bounce rate like? If it's quite high (50%+) then it may be worth looking at.

Hi Jackson,

It would be better if there was just one uniform URL for the product but for some websites that have thousands of products it is just too big a development cost so they get around it by using the canonical tag, this is perfectly fine and there aren't any issues from an SEO perspective. So if you can, I'd change it so that there is one URL per product but there is nothing wrong with using the canonical tag

Hi Brandon,

Google has been talking about citations and there is some talk that they can recognise a brand even if it doesn't actually link. I'd contact the website and ask for an actual link though because this would be more beneficial.

Have you got some examples?

It isn't a bad thing but it depends what the anchor text is that has been used really. I take it you mean external backlinks and not internal?

It will be yeah and you will have duplicate content and titles issues as well so you need to fix it ASAP.

Brilliant, that's good news. Good luck with everything

Hi Caroline,

In this instance, you need to 301 redirect the /index.html version back to the .com version. That would be best practise.

I'd say a product page (if it is very similar to the product that is no longer available). If you have something like "You May Also Like" on the products this would be useful to have. Only my opinion though and there is no right or wrong answer.

have you seen this for all keywords? If so then it is definitely a penalty but if you are seeing the dramatic drop in rankings for just the keywords that have been heavily built to then these links have probably been devalued by google and you need to start a clean-up of the backlink profile very quickly!!