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Hi Brian

If you try and do that it never works - it strips any subdirectory out. I have only ever been able to do it for the whole site.

I'd be interested if you do find a tool which works at page level!

Cheers

Nigel

Hi spacecollective

As long as you tag the sites correctly then you will not have a problem.

Add Hreflang tags to the pages. They can be identical pages on the same server in if you wish but this is how I would do it. As long as they are separated like this.

website.com for the US
website.com/en for the UK

Any other country would then have its own directory.

This avoids you having to mess with the various country TLDs like .co.uk or any other you'd wish to set up.

Then add Hreflang tags to tell Google which country is targetted and the relationship between each one.

 https://moz.com/learn/seo/hreflang-tag

(The first part en is the language and the second, the country)

The combination of search console and Hreflang tags is enough for Google to know that there is no duplication.

You would move UK users on to the gb version and US users would see the .com. It would all resolve pretty quickly as you are telling Google the alternative country versions in the Hreflang tag.

I hope this helps

Nigel

Carousel Projects

Good solid advice

They can be created in any number of ways but it's normally simple enough to specify the preferred URL on the server then move any variations in htaccess, such as those with www (if the none www is preferred), those with a trailing slash at the end etc.

The self canonical on all will sort out any other duplicates.

As for getting rid of them - the search console way is the quickest. If they don't exist after that then the won't be reindexed unless they are linked from somewhere else. In such cases, they will 301 from htaccess so it shouldn't be a problem.

if you 410 you will lose any benefit from those links going to the pages and it's a bad experience for a visitor. Always 301 do not 410 if it is a version.

410s are fine for old pages you never want to see in the index again but not for a home page version.

Regards

Nigel

Hi

A site wide menu at the top is essential. If you don't have links to, say, sub categories in that menu, then have a side menu with the lesser (lower) pages in there. Make sure they are linked through the anchor text you deem to be the most searchable term.

Yes, Google 'counts' - (follows and uses it to help index for search terms) the menu links.

The menu is either a structural set of links at the top on the website on every page. Or a list of links in the left or right-hand side of the page on certain pages.

I fear there may be a slight misunderstanding of terminology & semantics here as I have tried to be very clear,

Regards Nigel

Hi Kingalan

Personally, I find that page all rather gloomy. If you are in the business of selling office space then I would make it as light and airy as possible. Giving the impression of a 70's Chelsea Hotel is not going to float my boat!

However I agree with William - A/B test a couple of designs to come up with your own answer - we are not experts in the NYC property market.

The important thing here is to get the page ranked and this will require extra written content which I have always found looks better on a white background. It's easier to read and assimilate.

Regards

NIgel

That doesn't work by page Paul - That's what Brian is asking.

OK, thanks for that - I'm still a bit cynical about that amd am pretty sure that doesn't go for a redirect chain but: The reason I asked for the person answering to read the question properly was so that I wouldn't get half an answer

please could someone read it all the way through and give me their thoughts?

Thanks.

Hi Steve

It really depends what your goal is. If it is to get people coming to you from Youtube because you have a great channel then post it there first  - the downside of this is that anyone seeing the video will be directed to the Youtube page and not your website. You will be relying on any link you can put in the text below the video to acquire visitors unless you are a not-for-profit organisation or part of the Youtube Partner Programme (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2887282?hl=en-GB) so traffic from that source will be limited.

I would use this approach:

1. Post it on your own website first - you can self-host or use a CDN like Wistia - (You get 5 free to test this out) this way you keep control over your video and you can add a nifty transcription below - the combination is great for SEO and you get all of the traffic.

2. Wait 3 months then post it to Youtube/Vimeo and any other platform to generate extra traffic. At least this way you will be credited as the original author and you have the best chance of ranking higher than the other platforms you post it on. When you post use a slightly different title as well.

If you have ever looked at MOZ's Whiteboard Friday, these are hosted on Wistia but the platform does not have a page where this can be seen so it's like self hosting and they don't compete with you.  If someone is researching you and sees the video in search then, of course, all the backlinks come directly to your site, not Youtube or Vimeo or others.

It goes without saying that when you host on another platform you need to give it a good description and add tags.

I hope this helps,

Regards

Nigel

Hi Gerard

I have looked at the URL and backlink profile for starters. So these are my observations:

1. https://www.lewestowntaxis.co.uk/ was registered in 2012 yours in 2008 - Looking at Moz their Domain Authority is 10 and yours is 14 so little difference

2. You both have very few backlinks 7 vs 8

3. Lewstowntaxis is quite skinny and your is better defined. Plus you rank for around 4x the number of keywords they do.

4. You've got better GMB reviews than them too!

If it was me I would.

Work on your local backlinks from Yelp, Yell and Thompson to local news sites - get those links! - this is not difficult. You can use Moz local or Bright Local is good - you can do a 35 site citation burst for $100 https://www.brightlocal.com/take-contol-of-your-citations/
Get more reviews on GMB - talk about yourself and add photos, links & posts
https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038063?hl=en-GB
Set up Google maps and embed one in your site - 'How to Find Us'
https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6139433?hl=en

That really is just for starters and the best things you can do to bump your site upwards.

I hope that helps,

Regards Nigel

Hi Alix

It will solve your problems as long as you make sure all Meta is completed and that content is separated and those pages noindexed and removed as I said. This is what is causing your duplication.

Glad to help

Regards Nigel

Hi Robin

You have two versions of the page, the desktop and mobile.

If you search from mobile the m. comes up
If you search from PC the desktop page comes up.

So there really is no problem. It could just be that if someone is searching on mobile then the desktop version is set as the canonical and so Google has rightly chosen the m.

What is sure is that your search results are not being affected.

My advice though would be to change your title to '**Bus Routes In India - Route Directory | **Travelyaari'

This is because the title does not convey the full meaning. Your page would probably move much higher on the page with this title. And the description: "Get Indian Bus Schedules, timetables & information about bus routes in India. Get daily scheduled bus services & bookings on bus routes more than 20000+ - Travelyaari" Get those keywords in there!

I hope this helps

Regards Nigel

Hi DGAU

There is no doubt that cross-domain 301s do pass link juice and depending on who you listen to you may experience a 15% drop in the juice passed.

The problem is that if it is completely different and irrelevant content then you may do more damage than good.

Your second option, linking to a directory with relevant content is a much better idea and may help you get the link back if you can show them that the destination URL has more relevant content. It also means that you may keep it for longer. I should imagine that no Government department would want to link out to an irrelevant URL!

First, though I would enhance the page to make it as relevant as possible - then request the link back. You'll give yourself a much better chance of getting it!

I hope that helps, Regards Nigel

Hi Joelher

It's perfectly OK to have three pages very similar or even identical as long as you choose one main page to be canonicalized to:

So you have:

www.example.com/one (main page)
www.example.com/two -   place the tag: <rel="canonical" href="www.example.com/one">in the section of this page.
www.example.com/three - place the tag: <rel="canonical" href="www.example.com/one"> in the section of this page.</rel="canonical"></rel="canonical">

Pages two and three will not rank and all juice will be passed to /one

I hope that helps

Regards

NIgel

Ah OK Robin you didn't make that clear - I'll have a look.

The stuff about title and description is still very valid.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Conversal

There are search results - they are just not showing in SEMrush and Google takes a while to report them

Regards

Nigel

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Hi Becky

Load Movers - Pos 3
Wooden dollies - Pos 1

Maybe open an incognito browser with history cleared.

I don't see a problem

Regards

Nigel

PS You still have 748 http pages indexed but it's only 10% of the total

Hi Robin

I have checked a few of those as well and the desktop version is coming up high in search for PC search and the m. for mobile.

Whilst it is true that Google can choose its own canonicals I think in your case both versions are being shown on the appropriate device and I think the only reason you are seeing the error is that on your mobile version you have the PC version tag as canonical so Google is quite rightly picking the m. - See screenshot

Despite what you are seeing it is not affecting your rankings.

I would also make all listings https as you are linking from a secure page to a lot of non-secure pages.

Regards

Nigel

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Hi Dale

If that loop you have specified there was true then the homepage wouldn't show up.

https://www.theirsite.com/keyword>https://www.theirsite.com/>https://www.theirsite.com/keyword ad infinitum...

It would just keep on going and Google wouldn't be able to show the page.

You could use Screaming Frog to check for redirect chains - SEMrush and MOZ also pick them up so scanning the site would be my preferred option before touching it. Failing that I would remove it and see what happens.

Regards Nigel

Hi

I think you can compete with those numbers, I don't think you'll capture the No. 1 spot straight away but I think you have a chance of getting on the front page. But you will need to add some very tight contextual content if you want to rank for Bike Tours.

You could create other pages with Bike Tours/City

And try and rank in different niches but you have to be really careful not to cannibalize your home page. Making the page specifically about the city your choose with photos with appropriate ALT text and even videos of the tour. In that way, you can create really useful sharable content. If you have a page with a 5-minute video of a speeded up tour around say, London. imagine how long people will stay on the page. Especially if you host the video with Wistia or a similar CDN (ie don't use Youtube as that age will rank higher than you)?

Make the page interesting, sticky and 'shareable' that's what I mean.

You could make the support pages with how to guides, Q&A and Advice centres surrounding each subject but again be careful not to cannibalise. they may have their homepage No.1 for Bike Tours but you could rank high for lots of associated cities, how to, advice, equipment etc. Do you see?

Regards

Nigel

Hi SEOanalytics

The better a sentence is written with contextually strong keywords intertwined throughout, the more elegant it reads and the more professional it looks. Just compare reading Oscar Wilde to JK Rowling. Wilde's writing is poetic and richly written with proselike descriptions, fabulously florid verbs, alliteration and dialogue.

For me, it's important not to repeat nouns. for example 'The singer stalked the stage' (Subject, Predicate (verb), noun), then the singer leapt into the audience, smashing his face bloody on the ground'. You would change the second 'singer' to 'he' or 'front man'. There are a million examples and this is a very obvious way of using semantics.

There is an art to good writing and the Subject/Predicate/Object form is just a discipline to ensure you write in a clean and precise way. It's also good for SEO as it ensures that the correct keywords are used in the right way, using the correct tense and not stuffed.

One could imagine that if my sentence was targetting the keyword 'singers' then the use of alternative, or semantic would enhance the SEO value of the piece.

There is rather a wonderful video here: https://www.brightstorm.com/english/grammar/sentence-basics/subject-predicate-and-objects/

But of course, I have tried to explain the practical use of this in relation to SEO. If we didn't write in this way then the piece would simply be a list of interconnected words or bullet points.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Nigel