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The preferred version has been verified by adding an HTML tag in the Shopify theme (this is how I usually verify too). But I don't have access to the same search console account...

• can I generate a new HTML tag to verify the other three variants (ie. is it OK to use two different HTML tags)?
• or should I create a new HTML tag to verify ALL 4 variants (ie. is there any negative side to replacing the orginal HTML tag)?

Thanks William,

That's always been my approach too, but the dev is adamant that if they redirect all variants to the preferred version there is no need to verify them all.

My question is: should I believe what this dev is saying?

I've been going on the assumption that when verifying a website in search console, it's always good to register and verify all variants of the site URL:

• http
• https
• www
• non-www

However, if you create redirects to the preferred URL, is it really necessary to register/virfy of the other three? If so, why?

Yeah, that's the next step. The robots.txt file is blank!

I have a client who has created a number of login pages for their clients (eg. clientA.domain.com, clientB.domain.com). They are all password protected.

Just wondering if this has any impact on SEO, good or bad?

In fact, what the client really wants is this...

... any user in the UK who:

1. clicks on a link from social media (which goes to domainname.com)
2. searches google for domainname.com
3. types in the URL domainname.com

... ALWAYS be redirected to "domainname.co.uk" so they only see what the client sells direct from the UK. This sounds to me way beyond just hreflang. This sounds like it might need some kind of redirection based on IP?

OK, thanks Gianluca.

So how would you specify hreflang so that...?

• domain.co.uk is visible in UK SERPs
• domain.com is visible in all other SERPs

Thank you Gianluca. I will certainly checkout that deck.

But (groan)... classic SEO experience here. One expert says 'black' then next says 'what'. Who are we to believe?

Thanks Joe.

Found this link - by far the best I have read on geo-targeting:

http://www.seochat.com/c/a/google-optimization-help/geo-targeting-techniques-in-google-for-seo/

I have a client with a Shopify site. It is a clone of the 'main' website which is a .co.uk domain.

Client wants to use .com.au for Australia and New Zealand. All are English language.

How should we structure hreflang tags?

Or is there a better way to target the .com.au website at Australia/New Zealand?

Definitely looks like something to do with http/https...

Just checked the domain in ahrefs (http and https):

• The http version has 102 links from 45 referring domains
• The https version has 'no data' for backlinks or referring domains

I also noticed in ahrefs:

• The http version has a Domain Rating of 28 and a URL Rating of 20
• The https version also has a Domain Rating of 28, but a URL Rating of only 3

Although all the http pages appear to be redirecting to https, it seem that the backlinks have been lost.

If this is the case, can they get them back? And if so, how?

I have a simialr problem...

In December, a client site switches from http to https. Any clicks from old backlinks redirect from the http target to https, so the traffic still flows. But because the backlinks are to http, not https, the latter version has lost the Domain Authority.

How do we resolve this? Is the only solution to approach referring sites and ask them to change links to https?

Just started a site audit and trying to determine the number of pages on a client site and whether there are more pages being indexed than actually exist. I've used four tools and got four very different answers...

• Google Search Console: 237 indexed pages
• Google search using site command: 468 results
• MOZ site crawl: 1013 unique URLs
• Screaming Frog: 183 page titles, 187 URIs (note this is a free licence, but should cut off at 500)

Can anyone shed any light on why they differ so much? And where lies the truth?

Anyone familiar with Shopify will understand the problems of their directory structure. Every time you add a product to a 'collection' it essentially creates a duplicate. For example...

• https://www.domain.com/products/**product-slim-regular-bikini**

may also appear as:

• https://www.domain.com/collections/all/products/**product-slim-regular-bikini**
• https://www.domain.com/collections/new-arrivals/products/**product-slim-regular-bikini**
• https://www.domain.com/collections/bikinis/products/**product-slim-regular-bikini**
• etc, etc

It's not uncommon to have up to six duplicates of each product.

So my question is twofold:

1. Firstly, should I worry about this from an SEO point of view? I understand the desire to minimise potential duplicate content issues and also in focussing the 'juice' on just one page per product. But I also planned on trying to build the authority of the collection pages. If I request Google not to index the product pages which link off the collections, does this not devalue these collections pages?
2. Secondly, I understand the correct way to fix these is using 'rel canonical' tags, but I'm not clear about HOW to actually do this. Shopify support has not been very helpful. They have provided two different instructions, so just added to the confusion (see below).

Shopify instruction #1: Add the following to the theme.liquid file...

<title><br />{{ page_title }}{% if current_tags %} – tagged "{{ current_tags | join: ', ' }}"{% endif %}{% if current_page != 1 %} – Page {{ current_page }}{% endif %}{% unless page_title contains shop.name %} – {{ shop.name }}{% endunless %}<br /></title>
{% if page_description %}

{% endif %}

Shopify instruction #2: Add the following to each individual product page...

So, can anyone help clarify:

1. The best strategic approach to this inherent SEO issue with Shopify (besides moving to another platform!)? and
2. If 'rel canonical' tags is the way to go, exactly where and how to apply them?

Regards,

Murray

Thanks Brandon. I tend to agree with you. Just too many variables outside of my control.

Given that they are moving to Shopify, which means 'collections' and 'products' added to URLs, it's clearly impossible to maintain continuity in URLs and site/nav structure.

Nightmare!

Thanks James. Yes, I'm beginning to wonder of it has been over-optimized.

There are no external backlinks, but there are a few internal links and I noticed they use 'exact match' anchor text. The same keyword is used in the URL, title, meta desc and H1. So maybe over- optimization is the issue?

I have a client who has created a number of login pages for their clients (eg. clientA.domain.com, clientB.domain.com). They are all password protected.

Just wondering if this has any impact on SEO, good or bad?

Yeah, that's the next step. The robots.txt file is blank!