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Greetings:

In April of 2014 an SEO firm ran a link removal campaign (identified spammy links and uploaded a disavow). The overall campaign was ineffective and MOZ domain rank has fallen to 24 from about 30 in the last year and traffic is 20% lower. I purchased a basic package for Link Detox and ran a report today (see enclosed) to see if toxic links could be contributing to our mediocre rankings.

As a novice I have a few questions for you regarding this the use of Link Detox:

-We scored a domain wide detox risk of 1,723. The site has referring root domains with 7113 links to our site. 121 links were classified as high audit priority. 56 as medium audit priority. 221 links were previously disavowed and we uploaded a spreadsheet containing the names of the previously disavowed links. We had LinkDetox include an analysis of no-follow links as they recommend this. Is our score really bad? If we remove the questionable links should we see some benefit in ranking?

-Some of the links we disavowed last year are still linking to our site. Is it worthwhile to include those links again in our new disavow file?

-Prior to filing a disavow we will request that Webmaster remove offending links. LinkDetox offers a package called Superhero for $469.00 that automates the process. Does this package effectively help with the entire process of writing and tracking the removal requests? Do you know of any other good alternatives?

-A feature called "Boost" is included in the LinkDetox Super Hero package. It is suppose to expedite Google's processing of the disavow file. I was told by the staff at Link Detox that with Boost Google will process the disavow within a week. Do you have any idea if this claim is valid??? It would be great if it were true.

-We never experienced any manual penalty from Google. Will uploading a disavow help us under the circumstances?

Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it!!!

Alan

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Hi Moosa:

Thanks for your response. Yes, LinkDetox seems to be the best solution for toxic link removal. I purchased the basic package today and ran a report (See enclosed)  As a novice I have a few questions for you regarding this package:

-We scored a domain wide detox risk of 1,723. The site has referring root domains with 7113 links to our site. 121 links were classified as high audit priority. 56 as medium audit priority. 221 links were previously disavowed and we uploaded a spreadsheet containing the names of the previously disavowed links. We had LinkDetox include an analysis of no-follow links as they recommend this. Is our score really bad? If we remove the questionable links should we see some benefit in ranking?

-Some of the links we disavowed last year are still linking to our site. Is it worthwhile to include those links again in our new disavow file?

-Prior to filing a disavow we will request that Webmaster remove offending links. LinkDetox offers a package called Superhero for $469.00 that automates the process. Does this package effectively help with the entire process of writing and tracking the removal requests? Do you know of any other good alternatives?

-A feature called "Boost" is included in the LinkDetox Super Hero package. It is suppose to expedite Google's processing of the disavow file. I was told by the staff at Link Detox that with Boost Google will process the disavow within a week. Do you have any idea if this claim is valid??? It would be great if it were true.

Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciate it!!!

Alan

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Is it possible to get a pretty good idea of my site's link profile by merging the link data from Google Webmaster Tools, MOZ and SEMRUSH (backlinks).  I would think that combining the linking domains from these three packages would create a pretty good profile.

Once I create a list of domains that link to my site is it possible to run them thru MOZ so as to evaluate their quality?

Last year I paid a reputable SEO firm to run a link analysis, process link removal requests and finally a disavow, only to see my domain authority decline from 33 to 24. So I am leary of the process. That being said I have reviewed the disavow file that was submitted last year and still see about a third of the low quality domains still linking to our site.

Alternatively is it worthwhile to run a link detox report. Maybe it is worth biting the bullet and spending the $175.00 dollars to run a report. Our site (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) does not have too many links so maybe I can research this manually.

Thoughts???

My sites domain authority is only 23. The home page has a page authority of 32. My site consists of about 400 pages. The topic of the site is commercial real estate (I am a real estate broker). A number of the sites we compete against have a domain authority of 30-40.

Would our overall domain authority improved if we re-wrote the content for several hundred of pages that had the lowest page authority (say 12-15)?  Is the overall domain authority derived by an average of the page authority of each page on a domain? Alternatively could we increase domain authority by setting the pages with the lowest page authority to "no index".

By the way our domain is www.nyc-officespace-leader.com

Thanks, Alan

Hi Patrick:
Google has hundreds of ranking factors. Do you know of anyone who has implemented this switch to SSL certificate witnessed a ranking/traffic improvement as a result?

Considering that traffic for this site is about 4,000 visitors per month and the domain authority is 23 and a page authority is only 32 would that make it easier and faster to recover traffic and ranking?

The site currently has about 400 pages, what if I prepare re-writes on about 100 pages of text before the domain change and then gradually add this content after the switch. Would that speed recovery?

I intend to re-write the content anyway but perhaps to do so after the new domain gets launched.

On the other hand I may keep the domain as is if this switching is too much trouble. However the URL does not match my company name and I am concerned this discordance could be harming the site long term.

Our site does not have an SSL certificate. I have read that in the process of adding one of URLs need to be redirected and that some link equity can be lost.

Implementing an SSL certificate sounds somewhat complicated and far from risk free.

Is there a tangible SEO benefit to upgrading to SSL? Will doing so help SEO in a tangible manner that justifies the cost, time and aggravation?

Thanks,

Alan

Considering the existing domain authority is only 23 do you think that that building new links for the metro-manhattan domain could be accomplished without a huge effort?

There are less than 100 domains linking to the existing URL.

Thanks, Alan

My site has a spam score of 2/17. How bad is this?

Domain authority is 23 and page authority is 32. The domain is www.nyc-officespace-leader.com.

In total, according to MOZ, there are 38 inbound links. Spam scores for the inbound links are as follows:

1 (8)
1 (6)
2 (5)
2 (4)
3 (3)
16 (2)
4 (1)
8 (0)

The number in the parentheses represents spam score.

Does it make sense to get some of these links removed? Is it necessary for me to remove links from all sites with a spam score of 5,6,7,8?

If we remove these lower quality links will Domain Authority and Page Authority improve?

Thanks, Alan

Thanks for your response. I understand that DA and PA will not be transferred seamlessly. However the existing  domain authority is 23 and a page authority is 32. Considering these numbers are relatively low, does it make it easier to recover them if I redirect the site to a new domain?

Note the existing domain has been around for several years and has a  domain authority of 7 and a page authority of 23.

Thanks, Alan

I have listed my domain in several Ask the Community requests. These have resulted in links from the Ask the Community posts showing up in MOZ site explorer. So actual links have been detected.

Are these links harmful to my link profile? The content is not at all related to commercial real estate which is the subject of our website.

Thanks, Alan

Is it possible to migrate to a new domain name without negatively impacting SEO?

Our existing domain name (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) is a bit spammy. It has been used for almost 10 years. We would like to migrate it to www.metro-manhattan.com. The metro-manhattan domain has been registered about 5 years and it redirects to the nyc-officespace-leader.com domain.

The nyc-officespace-leader.com has a domain authority of 23 and a page authority of 32. The metro-manhattan domain has a domain authority of 7 and a page authority of 23.

Is it possible to make this transition without losing domain authority and page rank? I would think that having two domains might loo spammy to Google and this change would be a positive in the long term. We do understand that the redirects for each page would need to be done carefully.

Thanks, Alan

Hi Matt:

The error is for "Pages with duplicate title tags".

Since these two pages are so similar I believe it has something to do with a canonicalization error.

THANKS!!!! Alan

Thanks for your comment!!! But the error is for a duplicate page rather than duplicate tags. SO I am wondering an advise me as to how to set up canonical tags in Wordpress to eliminate this error.

The error looks like this:

Pages with duplicate title tags	Pages
<a id="zip_0-anchor" class="zippedsection_title"></a>Office Space @ 601 West 26 Street - Starrett Lehigh Building/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan/page/3/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan

Google Webmaster Tools under HTML improvements is showing duplicate meta descriptions for 2 similar pages. The 2 pages are for building address. The URL has several pages because there are multiple property listings for this building. The URLs in question are:

www.metro-manhattan.com/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan/page/3

www.metro-manhattan.com/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan

How do I correct this error using canonical tags? Do I enter the URL of the 1^st page under “Canonical URL”  under “Advanced” to show Google that these pages are one and the same? If so, do I enter the entire URL into this field (www.metro-manhattan.com /601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan) or an abbreviated version (/601-west-26th-street-starrett-lehigh-building-contains-executive-office-space-manhattan)?

Please see attached images.

Thanks!!

Alan

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Can MOZ perform pretty much the same functions as SEMRUSH or is it worth keeping and paying for both SEO tracking tools?  Can MOZ perform pretty much the same keyword tracking functions making SEMRUSH redundant?

Thanks, Alan

Good Idea!!

Speed is the following:

Internet Explorer: 1.04

Safari: 2.57
Amazon Silk: 3.35
Firefox: 4.61

About 80% of the traffic is for I.E. , Safari and Amazon.

It seems speed is pretty good for most pages. However the home page load time is particularly slow. Maybe it has something to do with the carousel containing listings. But at the same time the Page Speed Score is 91 for the home page. So I don't know if this is detrimental for ranking.

Thanks, Alan

Thanks.

Yes, test like Pingdom show that the data downloads quickly. However Google show an average page load time of 5-8 seconds for the home page. So I don't know if from Google's perspective the page is considered fast or slow. As a result I don't know whether it is worth investing resources to improve speed. The home page is of particular concern because it ranks for competitive keywords.

Maybe displaying listings on the home page carousel is a bad idea as may increase page load time.

Alan

Greetings MOZ Community:

In Google Analytics under "Site Speed" under "Behavior" our home page has a page speed rank of 91 which I assume is pretty fast. However the "Average Page Load Time" is varies between 5 and 8 seconds, which seems very slow. My developers have made major efforts to optimize the home page URL (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) for speed.  The page has a carousel which I assume may be slowing it down. Is the download speed of this page detrimental to SEO? Or is the favorable Page Speed Score good enough.

I am particularly concerned because the most competitive phrases are ranked on the home page. As it stands I am having a lot of difficulty ranking in the top ten for these pages. My concern is that the slow download speed of the home page could be holding back ranking of these terms. If necessary I can always redesign the home page and remove the carousel or reduce the number of listings in the carousel to speed it up.

Is this worth investing effort in or is the speed good enough?

Thanks, Alan

MOZ has not published competitive link metrics sinceOctober 28th.

Does any one know when we can expect to see them published?

Thanks, 
Alan