Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi there - I am planning out an SEO migration but this thought just occured to me:

If the links into a site's previous URL went to the non-canonical version of the domain name - e.g.

to: https://theguardian.com/uk and not the correct version of that URL, which is: https://www.theguardian.com/uk

Then, if I do a redirect simply from the correct canonical version of the domain: 
https://www.theguardian.com/uk - rather than the versions of the domain that are being pointed to by backlinks - e.g. https://theguardian.com/uk - then the migration will not be carrying across all the linkjuice from the previous site.

So how would you suggest dealing with this issue?

Hi all,

I'm looking at how to handle backlinks on a site, and am seeking a tool into which I can manually paste backlinks - is there a good backlink audit tool that offers this functionality?

Please let me know! Thanks in advance, Luke

Hi Steve and thanks for the feedback - it would definitely be interesting to check - I can't imagine this is a huge issue on uncomplicated sites without thousands of pages, but who knows... testing is needed.  All the best, Luke

I often see commentators mentioning out of balance site structures/IA but what does this actually mean in SEO terms?

For example, Yoast advises: "If one category grows much larger than others, your site’s pyramid could be thrown off balance." Neil Patel advises "Try to balance the amount of subcategories within each category. Basically, try to keep it approximately even. If one main category has fourteen subcategories, while another main category has only three subcategories, this could become a little unbalanced."

Does this have any direct influence on SEO (crawlability, etc.) or is this more a UX issue? I look forward to receiving your feedback.

Many thanks Miriam - I will have a good read of that

thanks Dmitrii - It always seems to make things simpler if devs sticks to my guidance on JS - ensuring all links (inc menus) and all static text is visible whether JS is switched on or off - sadly, the often miss this bit!

When I am working on a new website I usually spec that the main navigation should work whether JS is on, or off.

I always assumed everyone did that - until today - spent a couple of hours analysing menus on websites and noticed many didn't function when JS was disabled - particularly the menus designed for mobile devices.

Any thoughts on this from fellow Mozzers would be welcome.

I have noticed that some e-commerce sites don't worry aout their store working when JS is switched off - yet some do - are there any SEO implications of losing faceted navigation/filtering functionality when JS is disabled

I tried M&S - didn't work - but Tesco did - when JS is disabled.

Hi - I am seeking an onsite search engine that is SEO friendly - which do you recommend?

And has anyone tried doofinder.com - that specific search engine - if you have, is it well aligned/attuned to the SEO aspects of your site?

Thanks as ever, Luke

Many thanks for your helpful suggestion

Robert's advice is good - however you may want to reference this if you experience larger scale attacks in the future - http://moz.com/blog/to-catch-a-spammer-uncovering-negative-seo  PS. I have never managed to get a porn site to remove a link, so I tend to resort to disavow...

RE: "In order to maximize the direct traffic to a domain, it is advised that webmasters should only buy a domain if the .com version is available. "

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain

• I am working for a client who's had a domain live for 5 years or so without a .com version of the domain (just .co.uk) - the domain is also hyphenated (which doesn't look like a great idea).

So, just wondering what research has been done into probs caused by lack of .com domain and by using hyphenated domain. I'm trying to figure out whether it would be worth advising client to switch to a new domain.

Your thoughts would be welcome

From my point of view, private is very useful when you're tangling with a little yet specific issue and you want to ping across a website URL privately. Perhaps you could simply specify the nature of private (so users expect a quick 'steer' on a specific issue rather than consultancy-level responses to broad questions) instead of doing away with the service.

The 'private' offering was the main reason I joined SEOMoz in the first place.

Thanks Casey - really useful

It's a difficult one. I mean, my site (a restaurant/bar) gets a large proportion of its traffic from relevant directories. Actually, 40% of the backlinks to my site are from (mainly) relevant directories. Will it incur penalty? Well, most links to the site are non-directory backlinks, so I think you have to maintain a mix.

I've just been playing with one of my own new sites. Level of social media engagement appears to make the difference between a top of first page ranking and second page ranking re: a competitive keyphrase I'm tracking. I am going to widen my testing to additional keyphrases in due course.

Btw, you might find this interesting: http://moz.com/blog/ranking-factors-2013

Hi, I'm just moving a business listing from Google Places to Google+

I have a couple of problems. (1) The verification postcard has turned up with the wrong address on it (different to the address on Google Places!) - can I alter this once I've verified Google+ page or would I need to go through postcard verification again?

(2) I see the categories in Google+ are far less flexible (and appropriate) for the business I work for, so I'm thinking that may cause problems. Has anybody else experienced this same problem?

Thanks in advance for your help

I've been a PR for over a decade and never once have I used a PR newswire. I find the personal and targeted approach far better. Research your target journalist. Write a bespoke news release. Speak to the journalist. That's the best way to achieve coverage in the most influential media outlets.

Hi Mozzers, I have a question...

I'm planning to add a blog summary/twitter feed throughout my website (onto every main content page) and then started worrying about duplicate content.

What is best practice here?

Let me know - thanks, Luke

PS. I sat down and re: blog feed... thought that perhaps it would help if I fed different blog posts through to different pages (which I could then edit so I could add<a></a> text different from that in blog). Not sure about twitter.

One issue that keeps arising at the mo is the mixing of paid and unpaid content by bloggers. Keep an eye on that. I always ask bloggers whether they take sponsored posts. If they do, I check whether their sponsored posts carry nofollow tags on backlinks, which they should. If sponsored posts carry follow backlinks rather than nofollow backlinks, I go elsewhere.