Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Agreed

Tony, whether or not you decide to index these categories you won't be losing any strength on the already indexed pages. The non-indexed pages already have juice flowing to them - you just can't see them in the SERP

I'd remove them gradually and then remove them out of the SERP via Webmaster Tools. Ensure you remove all links to those deleted page or else you'll keep getting 404's cropping up

Yes you're right... Without knowing exactly what the pages are used for it's hard to come up with a solution. Check the backlinks to those dup pages; if there is any 'no index, follow' the pages - if not nofollow them.

I would recommend you use 'noindex, nofollow' as if they are complete duplicates and are of no use to users then no-one, including search engines needs to see them.

Use the canonical tag when you have very similar content on a page that is used by users E.G. different colours of the same product.

DD

edit - Jonathon's link to that blog explains everything you need to know in more detail

If they are marked up as 'noindex, follow' then you'll already have the juice passed to those pages - they just aren't indexed.

Also, check this -> http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/37635/does-the-meta-noindex-follow-tag-really-pass-external-link-value-to-the-rest-of-my-domain

@elephantseo Would that not just point every product page to one URL if using one template?

Could you not add the canonical tag exactly the same way as you would add a unique Title or Description (that's if you have the ability for that)?

You'd have to have a database entry and when one of the particular pages loads you'd pull the desired canonical tag from the database for that 'page'.

EDIT - If you create a seperate template for each type of product then go with the template canonical URL

Hey, I believe your tracking your rank by just typing in the search term?

Have you tried using any ranking software where you could compare the 2 figures your getting?

Also see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqKrRFEjI5Q

DD

I'd say you'd be fine but it depends on how many towns there are which essentially means links. What type of site is it and how many towns are listed?

DD

If you check half way down the page it answers exactly what you're after.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/02/specify-your-canonical.html

In short, it's fine

DD

..if you can't be bothered finding it:

"Can I use a relative path to specify the canonical, such as ?
Yes, relative paths are recognized as expected with the tag. Also, if you include a <base> link in your document, relative paths will resolve according to the base URL."

William,

These are automatic and you can see if you've got them in your WMT under sitelinks. In here you can also delete the ones you don't need etc.

If you're website is relevant enough for a particular subject you should be able to eventually get all variants of your top category pages showing up.

If you're using adwords you can also attach sitelinks to your ads too.

Adwords keyword tool

SEM Rush (free up to a point)

When using adwords KW tool make sure you look at exact and broad match (the option is in the left hand menu bar). Search for your local results ie. your country and check out what your competition are ranking for too.

I'd start with your main keyword then work down through long-tail keywords that you'd want to target.

e.g. wedding invitations = top keyword

but 'purple wedding invitations' or 'butterfly wedding invitations' may be popular too.

DD

Shashank,

Google and most other search engines only display a max of between 65/70 characters in the SERP. You've got that much space to get your keyword in there and maybe a call to action (although you can further target this in your description where you get a max of 155 charcters before the cut off).

You've also got to ask yourself if you put a 150 character title tag how it will benefit your site, if at all

Also, don't forget that the title/description are used to improve CTR too (and not just for rankings) so having a spammy looking Title with 3 keywords put in the displayed character length with no consideration for human readability will have a negative affect on your CTR.

On the generating curiosity have you looked at including QR codes etc on promotional material. It always makes me curios when there is no explanation of what it is for so usually I end up scanning it. Not too sure it will directly affect SEO but I'm just throwing ideas out there!

I currently have some already listed but I also use:

• Facebook Share plugin
• Google Analytics plugin (although Analytics360 is one I have been considering due to the fact you can view some detail within WP admin)

DD

Just a heads up - your test URL doesn't seem to be working (at least not for me). If you could post a new URL we can have a look at the code. What exactly isn't working - the whole thing or...?

DD