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We just talk about this today here:
https://moz.com/community/q/default-robots-txt-in-wordpress-should-i-change-it
And here are Yoast configuration settings:
https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/meta-robots-wordpress-plugin/
https://yoast.com/prevent-site-being-indexed/
Since WordPress robots.txt is "virtual" file you need to create new file in root folder of site (usually this is same WP folder) and create that file. This is only where you need to edit it.
Yes - 301 to destination could be the problem. Can you do test w/o redirects putting end URL into rel=alternate?
Also you must check correct linking from Android to web:
https://developers.google.com/app-indexing/android/app
In ideal linking both must be linked vice versa. Probably one of linking now is broken as far as we see.
As long as you return 404 this is good. But the question is "why search results in CMS are indexed?". And answer of this is "Joomla". I will keep them as 404.
But there are other 404 pages there:
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/download.php?f=tombolis-article.pdf <- http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/download.php?f=tombolis-article.pdf
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/download.php?f=ethicare-dental-ad-april-2009.pdf <- http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/download.php?f=ethicare-dental-ad-april-2009.pdf
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/download.php?f=ethicare-dental-ad-may-2008.pdf <- http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/a-one-stop-shop-for-oral-health-needs/
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/download.php?f=how-i-did-it.pdf <- http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/how-i-did-it/
Few domains that didn't exist anymore:
file:///Z:/Clients/Current%20Clients/Ethicare%20Dental/Articles/JULY%20ARTICLES/Is%20the%20new%20best%20toothpaste%20in%20the%20world%20all%20its%20cracked%20up%20to%20be.docx <- http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/is-the-new-worlds-best-toothpaste-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/
http://www.hypnotherapydunstable.co.uk/img/dentist.jpg <- http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/taking-the-fear-out-of-a-trip-to-the-dentists-chair
Few 301 that i would skip:
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/orthodontist -> http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/orthodontist/
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/hygienist -> http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/hygienist/
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/finance -> http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/finance-and-guarantee/
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/zoom-tooth-whitening -> http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/tooth-whitening/
there are much more i just show 3-4 examples.
And few more small issues. This is result of direct crawl now on site. If there was link as:
http://www.ethicaredental.co.uk/blah-blah
that i can't see it now anymore and it return 404 now. I would 410 it to prevent deleting them over and over from SearchConsole.
User-agent: *
Disallow:
But using Yoast - categories, tags, most of archives and other generated pages are disabled for indexing.
No. Because HTML text will be same and altered with JS.
And bots using HTML text for indexing and ranking.
Same here. This is when you put "share bar" on top somewhere in pages. And repeating "share" many times is also causing this.
Probably solution is to put share as side bar or in bottom and definitely minimize texts as "share" or "facebook" in text of articles.
There are few bugs:
1. You have 2 items for same language. 2 pages are for EN and 2 for DE. You should have only one item per language. This mean 1 page for EN and 1 page for DE.
2. You need x-default item. X-default item should be for worldwide users - so will be EN for your case. Please note - you must have x-default and EN.
So here is example how it should be in your case:
And this snippet should be placed on all that 3 pages.
I hope that this helps. If you have other questions first read Moz articles about hreflang:
https://moz.com/learn/seo/hreflang-tag
https://moz.com/blog/hreflang-behaviour-insights
https://moz.com/blog/open-source-library-tool-check-hreflang
https://moz.com/blog/using-the-correct-hreflang-tag-a-new-generator-tool
And read some Google information about it:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/189077?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2620865?hl=en
So - hreflang are trick but isn't something impossible.
There is bug on rel=alternate. It should be as:
only.
Anyway - get this URL and try in your SearchConsole to "Fetch and Render" probably this will help you fixing your web error.
TL;DR - NO.
There are few ways for translation and they're described there:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en
You also must implement hreflang and link sites each other.
Tuff situation. Why? Browser didn't sent # and everything behind it to the server.
So if you trying to get url as http://www.example.com/#!my-super-duper-url
Browser will sent to the server request for http://www.example.com/ and server will process it. But full url that browser want is also included #! fragment. This mean that you can't make .htaccess redirect, nor some server side redirects for the moment.
So same hurt also all bot and crawlers (Including Moz Roger!). And there was solution:
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/ajax-crawling/docs/specification?hl=en
but later this solution was deprecated:
https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.bg/2015/10/deprecating-our-ajax-crawling-scheme.html
And this make things complicated. For now they still support old solution so will be OK for bots. Probably for some users that comes from bookmarks, emails and/or other traffic sources can have hard times. Because will be redirected to "homepage". So maybe combination of both methods (JS redirector + your actual method) can save the day for humans and bots.
Same here - normal traffic till mid Dec. Then drop for Xmas and NY. And this is normal for holidays. Then up in beginning of Jan, from 24-25 drop little bit (back to normal traffic).
So there is also change called "core update":
https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
http://mozcast.com/
Yes, it's possible. I have example that on same host i host few sites that can rank on same keywords in SERP.
But you should watch for some spam sites on same IP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsSwqo16C8s
there is example 26k vs. 1.
Update:
So few sites can rank. But when you try to rank much more then you can trigger some algorithmic filter (i can't find hangout where this is explained) because ranking engine will start to demote you. Since you have time to invest in few sites you should focus on single site. It's like quantity vs quality debate.
Well - go in SearchConsole and reevaluate site from scratch. As long as you return 404 to hacked pages its' OK for you and for Google. But what they told you in "reconsideration request"? Because "this site may be hacked" isn't helpful for your CTR.
PM me site please.
It's normal. I think that there is change in Google Play and their rich snippets are broken:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobilio.seoggestor&hl=en
just see structured data:
https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool?url=https%253A%252F%252Fplay.google.com%252Fstore%252Fapps%252Fdetails%253Fid%253Dcom.mobilio.seoggestor%2526hl%253Den
So - reviews are there but due warning and errors they wasn't showed in SERP. Your competitor also can lost his rich snippet soon.
Like mine SEOggestor? But it's for one keywords.
The trick is that for large set of keyword they will can detect your robot activity and temporary stop you with captcha filling.
Disavow w/o any doubts. Also report for scrapper and hosting weird redirects (and maybe malware soon!):
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/160202_M1_GH/
just see waterfall diagram and watchout for iTunes, Alibaba, Bing, Codecanyon, Walmart, and few more.
Starting from today Google also sent notes about spam:
http://www.thesempost.com/google-sending-confirmation-notices-for-spam-reports/
so for now every report count.
PS: I just make another test here:
http://www.webpagetest.org/result/160202_19_Y1/
this time with "save results body". Seems not so trivial! This site is trying to add someone in mine list of CodeCanyon. Also trying to manipulate Groupon + increase visits of Indeed job offer.
I see errors with Googlebot:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flesliekays.com
and Mobile Friendly test uses Googlebot.
You need to go in Search Console -> Crawl -> Crawl errors just to see what results are return to Googlebot.
And this would be $1M question... even $1B.
As i said - it's core algo changes that's out of our control. I believe that top SEO experts (include Moz one's!) are trying to disassemble what's changed. So far there wasn't news that someone share it.
