Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Marynau

It's considered bad practice to link to other sites through footers. It results in 100s and often 1000s of links coming to you from one site which could be considered spammy. You probably won't get a manual penalty but there may be an algorithmic one if it happens too frequently from a number of different sites.

Check the spam score of the site linking to you - use the MOZ bar - if they are a sponsor then they are likely to be OK. Then politely ask them to link to you once from an 'Our Sponsors' page or just one link from the home page (as it's likely to have a higher PA - page authority)

I hope that helps,

Regards

Nigel

Hi Marynau

I doubt very much that they will do you any harm. It's more to do with how spammy the site is and whether it has 1000's of outbound links. Install the MOZbar in chrome and check the spam score. If it's high ie 4-7 then consider this:

1. Ask them directly to remove any links to your website. Email them.
2. If you get no reply after a week or so upload a disavow file here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main. Download the template first so you know the format.

I use SEMrush and that gives me an indication of my clients (what SEMrush call) toxic links. MOZ has something similar but it's not as obvious which are the really bad ones.

It's simple to add them to a list of sites to contact and request removal. Old spammy directories are the worst but I have seen a lot of spammy links recently from Theglobe and similar mega directories. It's always good to keep an eye on your backlink profile.

Note that the disavow file should always contain ALL of the links you want to disavow - you don't add and add - they should all be on one csv. Also, it's simple to 'un-disavow' a particular URL, just remove it.

I hope that helps

Regards

Nigel

Just double check in a clean browser (with history cleared & F5) or in incognito mode to check the default.

Sounds good Tom!

Hi Tom

It will still be there but will slowly decline as the new format one takes over. You won't lose anything, GSC just tracks. You will see the non-trailing slash data begin to populate over the next few weeks.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Tom

If it redirects to www.domain.com then that must also be set up in GSC as that is now the preferred domain format. It looks better as well without the trailing slash.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Mouse

DA is only a metric which MOZ came up with - it doesn't exist outside of MOZ and is only a suggestion of the comparative strength of the domain (or page if it's PA). It's a combination of on-page SEO elements, content and backlinks.

If you create the best possible themed content on every page, including the homepage then this is the first part of increasing DA. Acquiring backlinks from high authority sites, the higher DA the better but even sites with a lower DA can help if they are relevant to your industry and are of good quality. (no follow links can also be tracked by Google so don't just discount them - a balance of 75%/25% is recommended so it doesn't look contrived)

If you are chasing a higher DA because a higher manager has instructed you to ask him/her why! lol It doesn't automatically guarantee more visitors! You might be better setting up a content sharing strategy through blogs and Social Media!

Regards

Nigel

Hi Tom

Moz will not reveal a 301 unless there is a nasty redirect chain. If you use Screaming Frog it will reveal all the directives for every page.

There must be a redirect but it might be worth checking if it's a 301 (permanent) or 302  (temporary) - it should be 301.

The good news is that it is redirecting.

As Martijn suggests you should add the preferred one to Search Console. It doesn't 'do' anything but you will be able to see both versions.

Regards Nigel

Hi Profitect

These are two separate home pages and duplicate each other so do have the potential to kill all of your SEO efforts as they are seen as separate pages by Google.

You will need to put a directive in the htaccess file to move all traffic to one of the other. It's a two-minute job for a developer.

This would move all URL's to a trailing sash format. (Assuming the site is https)

 <code><ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine on

    RewriteBase /

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$

    #Force Trailing slash

    RewriteRule ^((.*)[^/])$ $1/ [L,R=301]</ifmodule></code> 

Regards

Nigel

I think I saw somewhere a warning somewhere if the description was matched to an H2 or something silly like that! lol

I completely agree with you EGOL!

Rant on!

Hi Sameer

My thoughts are that it is the overall content on the page which is important. Having semantically connected keywords and phrases in a well written, contextually strong format which conveys the theme of the page perfectly.

I don't regard H1 on its own as a ranking factor but as part of defining the theme of the page, it is absolutely essential.

Using H2s to further break up the content into well defined closely related blocks of text is also very important.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Harjodh

When something is found by site crawler it just means that the page is accessible, it does not mean that it is indexed in Google. There may be many reasons why a page is on the site but not indexed, Including

Duplicate content problem
Noindex tag or directive in robots.txt
Canonical to another page.
Skinny or low quality content

The code to a page title will be viewable if you right click, 'view source' - the page title will only be viewable in WP if you have Yoast or similar installed and is not in the text view of Wordpress.

So:

1. Check source code and search the page for the title tag - this will be the name of the article. 
2. Install Yoast to add an alternate title and description if you need to. (definitely install Yoast!) 
3. If the H1 is not visible on the page (and I would be surprised because most themes, as you say, make the post title the H1) then you will need to add it or update the theme so that the theme does it.

Screaming Frog is an excellent tool for scanning a site and has no limitations on daily use. It will help you see everything!

I hope this helps,

Regards

Nigel

Hi Sorin

I think that resulting Google title should always be like this:

Brand, Product Title, Colour, Size

Google pretty much does this.

If you list very few products then you can send them individually with colour and size in the title. Just don't put size and colour as variants as they will appear twice in the Google title!

I have however always found that the way Google concatenates (puts together) title + colour + size as perfectly OK.

Concentrate on optimising the title of the products and descriptions along with on-page content.

Regards

Nigel

Hi Kingalan

I can understand you not wishing to fill your home page with spurious content but you need something to tell the user what the website is all about. It's OK adding a great title but that is only a maximum of 70 characters, depending on the width of the letters. So you really can't convey the full meaning of the page with so few words. (The user rarely sees the title anyway)

Similarly, the description only allows 315 characters but is not used as a ranking factor, so that is not considered as home page content. (And is rarely seen by the user)

The alt text on the images on the page will be read as part of the content so I would recommend one major feature image with a strong key phrase for the alt. (Wordpress calls this the 'focus keyword' but I would simply call it your 'primary keyword' or phrase). Other images can use semantically related keywords and phrases.

My advice is to write around 300+ words of contextually rich content designed to be read by the website visitor whether you believe it will be read or not. This is headed by an H1 which echoes the title using semantically connected keywords. I'd consider this to be the minimum to convey the meaning of the page and be able to use keyword rich content to rank it for the satisfaction of user intent.

If you need more than 300 words then separate into blocks with H2 headers.

The important thing to remember is to make the writing compelling and relevant - people do read homepage content, so rather than thinking how few words you can write, think about 'what can I write that is great for the user and shows Google the theme of the page'

I hope that helps,

Regards

Nigel

I agree about the alt text - there are many on-page factors - I didn't list them all.

When you say 'get credit' you mean, found in search?

By putting the two keywords together you will get found for both. It's a clever way of getting more information in the title.

So if someone searches: "IPA Beer" you have a good chance of being found. If someone searches 'IPA Beer Kit' that will be found also.

If it was me I would probably use: 'IPA Beer Kits' as more people will search the plural.

For goodness sake don't go away and create two pages. Especially if all the information should be combined on one page.

So don't have a page for 'IPA Beer' and another 'IPA Beer Kit, because you run the risk of being found for neither.

Regards

Nigel

Kind Regards

Nigel

That's fine Casey. I just don't see the point in having a public argument.

So for the record.

I completely disagree with you.

To put generic and stop words in a title is incorrect especially when they are rarely searched for keywords and phrases. (There are occasions when it is correct, for example in the band 'Reverand And The Makers' where the two words in the middle are part of the band's name)

320 searched a month is 10 a day! - that is not in my opinion worth chasing after. With such a rarely searched combination of keywords, of course, you are going to be high in search! It's easy prey! (White Wine has 1.7-2.9k a month)

You are wasting valuable space by putting those words in there.

This is the correct way:

Product (Primary Keyword)  | Category of Products (Secondary Keyword) | Brand Name /Shop

Then support the on-page with clear H1 headed, well written contextually strong text containing semantics, around the primary and secondary keyword.

Don't litter the title with 'Buy' or 'Online' put those in the description where you can use 315 characters including spaces creating a really strong call to action to heighten CTR. Also put keyword and secondary keyword in the description as they will be bolded and catch the eye. (Description is not used by Google as a ranking factor).

There is more here: https://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag

Regards

Nigel

Hi Sorin

I think it's down to interpretation.

1. Their titles are identical in the feed (Dubarry Ultima) - Google appends (adds to the end) the colour (if there is one) and the size.

2. Yes, description is used to help PLA ranking by a combination of search term, title and descriptive content. That is why it is essential to have a full description. It is however only visible when a searcher hits the shopping tab.

3. The parent product does not need (and in fact can't because it is non-variation specific) to show the size and colour because Google appends (adds to the end) anyway!

4. You don't need to because the description describes the product and Google appends the colour (if there is one) and size to the end of the title, so Google knows what the product is, its colour and its size!

Making descriptions for every variant (take a product with 7 sizes and 5 colours - 35 variations!) is just not necessary as Google knows all of this information anyway.

I hope you understand better what I have written.

Kind Regards & Good Luck!

I don't know what more you need to know. I work with many retailers who send in a Google feed as well as configuring them so just tell me what the issue is. The odd thumbs up wouldn't go amiss either! We do give out advice for free!

If a product only has one colour then it's OK to have it in the title as it won't have a colour - child. Th description isn't used in PLA's

For the Dubarry Ultima - their title is just that: 'Dubarry Ultima'with the size being pulled in from the feed. Size is not in the title.

They only have one title and they come up multiple times because they send all the sizes to Google and are paying more than the next person for PPC.

The description is also being pulled in but it doesn't contain colour or size. The description is common to all sizes and colours. There is no way anyone could manage a different description for each size anyway - it's time-consuming enough coming up with one!

Regards

Nigel

Hi Kevin

If you are talking about Featured Snippets in search results then Google doesn't even know what a PA is. This is an arbitrary number assigned by MOZ to determine the relative strength of the page. It is calculated through analysis of on-page content and backlinks.

If you are after a featured snippet then you need to focus on answering a question - and fulfilling a user's intent. Dr Pete did a great video on recently here:

https://moz.com/blog/content-for-answers-inverted-pyramid

I hope that helps,

Regards

Nigel