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Good one Paul - is there an article on this you can point me at?

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 Yael

I completely agree - it is pretty much what canonical tags were developed for.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Ali

I can understand why because otherwise all of the images will have the same alt text which is confusing for Google. Best practice is to have different alts for each image The images are separate files so they should have different alts, regardless of the fact that they are the same image in different sizes.

Keep it simple: 'Blue casual shirt large' 'Blue casual shirt small' etc

If you are a branded site put the brand in. 'Lacoste Blue Casual Shirt Art 35789 - Small', 'Lacoste Blue Casual Shirt Art 35789 - Thumb' etc

The alt is your anchor text for links and image name, so be specific. The better you get at this the more you will feature in Google images - a good source of traffic.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Ricky

That is pretty much exactly what you need to do.

301 olddomain to newdomain

Then at page level

301 olddomain/services to newdomain/new-services

You will need hosting on the old site but only really so that the .htaccess file can be filled with redirects. If you let the domain expire then Google et al won't see the redirects. If there are inbound links from other websites then you need to do this to maintain link equity to the new domain and pages.

Regards

Nigel

Hi grbassi

You are basically asking the broadest of questions which is 'How do I do Local SEO for my website?'

The website you posted doesn't even mention Santa Clara in the title so you might wish to start there. Setting up Google My Business (GMB) is another.

There are a host of articles on local SEO here: https://moz.com/blog/category/local-seo

I would start there if I were you, at least it will give you a basic understanding which you can build on by asking specific questions here.

Kind Regards

Nigel

Hi Doug

If you have duplicate content then you could add a cross-domain canonical on all the pages from site 2 to site 1. Then when it's dropped away just 301 everything,

That means you'd still get direct traffic to it but Google would rank the main site 1 and drop site 2 because all the canonicals would reference site 1.

You just put the 301s in the .htaccess file

I wouldn't do it this way - I'd just make sure all the content was on site 1 then 301 but I understand you might be nervous.

Regards

Nigel

You can test the site in GSC - Google search console.

It's quite common for Google not to fully index a sitemap so check in there first.

Also my comment about Descriptions is slightly out of date already! Google has recently been allowing up to 300 characters so maybe curtail any description shortening - make them attractive through a great call to action.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Doug

Firstly I doubt there is any value in the backlinks to those old domains so I guess the only way you will get a click is if someone assumes a domain name and types it in, however

You haven't said if there is any content on those pages. If there is, then delete it and 301 to the relevant pages.

1. Use analytics to see how many entries came from those domains.
2. If it's low to zero and there are no backlinks to them then just delete them altogether.

I doubt they are doing much damage to be honest unless they have duplicate content on them.

The cleanest way of course is to have one domain name but big companies still use domains that point at them. It happens a lot with TLD variants e.g. diy.co.uk points to diy.com

Regards

Nigel

Hi seoanalytics

I have spent hours trying to help you on this thread and the other two or three you have started! I have patiently answered every question you have asked, in detail. If you still don't understand what I am saying after acres and acres of help and advice then that's it from me.

https://moz.com/community/q/sentences-rdf-format

https://moz.com/community/q/asking-a-natural-question-in-h-tags

https://moz.com/community/q/bolded-words-in-search-results

https://moz.com/community/q/user-intent-and-ranking

This comment is simply idiotic, but more than that it is insulting:

"I have more chances of winning the lottery than ranking..."

Please don't bother me again.

Have a good weekend.

Nigel

I have no idea what Alchemy API is.

No, write your own content with your own researched keywords.

No, I've found pages moving weeks after the first cache after major surgery!

It depends on how frequently your site is crawled. If you check the cache in search results and click the green down arrow you will see the last time Google updated its cache of your page. I have seen pages move sooner than this but if you take that time as a yardstick you will be about right.

Hi seoanalytics

I think you get the idea. I'm not saying that tablet is a perfect synonym for laptop but I think you do understand what I am saying!

Good luck with it

Regards

Nigel

Hi seoanalytics

The whole area of primary and secondary keywords (or Keyphrases) has largely been overtaken by Google's new Rankbrain AI system of determining themes and relevancy. So don't think in terms of these terms - also please don't listen to anyone focusing too heavily on LSI's as these have mostly been debunked as a load of flannel used by SEO's to impress, although leading SEO Brian Dean still insists that they have some effect on SEO. If you start researching LSI's you will end up in a rabbit hole from which you will never emerge! to advise - 'use your primary keyword a couple of times is nonsense'.

Think of your website like this:

Each page represents a theme - for example as Alick300 has used 'Laptop chargers' You need to think about writing chunky, relevant content around the term 'Laptop Chargers' but you do not need to mention every 'secondary keyword' you can think of to pepper the text with. Write compelling copy using semantically connected words like batteries within the content.

By all means, search related terms like batteries, tablets and transformers (are they still a thing?) but if you think in the way of 'Primary keywords' and 'secondary keywords' you will risk overusing certain terms, not having free-flowing writing and turning your intended customer into a brief visitor. Think of the use of synonyms as well - (the Bike/Bicycle analogy is a good one).

Modern SEO is about writing semantically connected and lexically relevant content in such a way that you engage your website visitor and ultimately convert them into customers. The more you engage, the longer the 'dwell time' and the more you satisfy user intent.

Have a read of Brian's latest post on Rankbrain - it's pretty brilliant and you should come away inspired!

https://backlinko.com/google-rankbrain-seo

There is no way of outsmarting Google by determining and hoofing in endless keywords and phrases. Modern content needs to be well written with perfect grammar and spelling and theme focused.

Also, break it down into easily readable chunks - this helps the user to stay engaged as opposed to being lost in long paragraphs. Pretty much like I have here.

Use Google search box to help and 'related search terms' at the bottom of the page to find semantically related phrases.

I hope this helps,

Regards

Nigel

Hi Olatz

If the blog name is Leading Minds Network then that is the title of your site and your brand.

Forget about the term blog - you will not rank anywhere if you call yourself 'the blog'

Focus on building brand equity around your new name 'Leading Minds Network' and forget that it is based on blogging software, as that is unimportant.

There is no problem referring to it as 'our blog' on your main website (if it's in a sub-directory of this) but if you want it to grow and have a life of its own apart from your site then I would do as I said.

I hope that helps.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Sagi

If you have a link from a completely unrelated website then I would politely ask them to remove it/them.

If you can't get it removed this way then add it to your disavow file.

Frankly, toxic links are damaging and they need to be dealt with.

If that was my affiliate it would quickly be an ex-affiliate. Warn them first - then take action.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Nigel

Hi Slumberjac

It's embedded in a piece of Javascript which pulls in an image to your site from theirs.  Just ignore it - it has no effect on SEO whatsoever. the only time it could affect is if it loaded slowly.

I would not play about with it in an attempt to no follow.

Regards

Nigel

Thanks and good luck!

Yes - I am just doing something else.