Welcome to the Q&A Forum

This might help: http://moz.com/blog/to-catch-a-spammer-uncovering-negative-seo

You might like to take a look at this: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/27/interflora-disappears-from-google / http://searchengineland.com/interflora-gets-google-rankings-back-150366

Hi, I'm altering title tags in a well established site (many of which are duplicates) and was wondering whether there's a risk associated with adjusting them all in one go? Should I just make gradual changes instead in case I flag anything?

Many thanks Nathan - that's good to know!

Hi Tuzzell - most of the URLs relate to jpgs (or pngs) like this http://www.XXXXXXX/images/buildingtypes/cornerpic.jpg

(I use screaming frog - yay ;-))

I know quite a few SEOs who would use 410s rather than 404s when cutting and running from bad links pointing at internal pages...

Hello Mozzers! I've just been trawling through a website and noticed all of the images had their own URLs.

There's a bespoke CMS and that's how it works with images...

So out of 1447 urls, 1314 are images.

Firstly, is this an issue / problem from an SEO perspective. If it is, how should I deal with it? Thanks in advance, Luke

Thanks v much for your useful feedback inc that brilliant conversation - all makes more sense now

Perhaps a focus on online PR, with the clients doing some of the legwork to drive ideas and initiatives? (PR Power by Amanda Barry-Hirst is a great book for small businesses).

Hi Mozzers! I've just been viewing a website with a flat URL structure - the site has a definite structure - with various sections - and yet the URL structure doesn't reflect this...

The developer tells me this is purely for SEO purposes! Would be interested in your thoughts...

This is a very useful resource indeed: http://moz.com/blog/web-site-migration-guide-tips-for-seos - there are a few gems here too, inc useful pointers from Google: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/business/smallbusiness/newark-nut-company-buys-a-perfect-domain-name-yet-sales-suffer.html and http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/debating-the-right-way-to-change-a-domain-name-and-brand-a-nut-retailer/?_r=0

Thanks Michael - you're dead right in your approach there - amazed how many have got it so wrong by writing for Googlebot and not the actual site users. Found this interesting re: internal links - plenty of discussion on the issue but definitely a lack of clarity: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-internal-links-anchor-text-16864.html

Hello all - I am looking at a website with 8 heavily keyword optimized site-wide links in the footer. Yes, there are only 8 but it looks a bit spammy and I'm tempted to remove them. I imagine there's some possibility of a Google penalty too? What would your advice be? Thanks, Luke

Thanks for your helpful answers - appreciated

Hi I was wondering how to check canonicalization when it's not working properly - I am getting redirect from http://www to www but not from non www version to www version of URL) - so, how do I check the type of redirect in place already in the URL? Is there a tool for testing this? Thanks, Luke

Thanks Martijn - have done all I can to block Google indexing now - Web developer was under the impression he had done what was needed but SEO mindset always makes me delve deeper! Glad I did!

Hello Mozzers! I'm working on a holiday accommodation website and there's an accessibility statement at the bottom of each of the (50 odd) accommodation types on offer. This only comes up on the page (the text extends on the same page as the accommodation type) when you click the button (although it's there in the HTML at all times!).

My other concern is might this "hidden until button pressed" semi-hidden text be seen as potentially manipulative by Googlebot, although it isn't!

Thanks Schwaab - good suggestions there!

Hello - my developer has just put a test site up on Google which duplicates my existing site (main url is www.mydomain.com and he's put it up on www.mydomain.com/test/ "...I’ve added /test/ to the disallowed urls in robots.txt" is how he put it.

So all the site URLs are content replicated and live on Google with /test/ added so he can block them in robots. In all other ways the test site duplicates all content, etc (until I get around to making some tweaks next week, that is).

Is this a bad idea or should I be OK. Last thing I want is a duplicate content or some other Google penalty just because I'm tweaking an existing website! Thanks in advance, Luke

Hello, I'm working with a hotel that wishes to establish an online presence in China - they're putting the emphasis on digital marketing, so I'm seeking a Chinese SEO specialist to work with on microsite and optimization.