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Hi there

Just a quick side note - the post Andy is referencing above is located here.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

Your redirect file shouldn't be changed. Leave that as is.

I would update your internal links and sitemap as soon as possible, especially if they contain redirects.

I would also perform a backlink audit and make sure you update valuable links and remove/disavow irrelevant/toxic links.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

There's really no way of telling without a link to your client's site.

Here's a great Q+A on StackExchange where users offer their ideas. Including...

They find new sites by:

• Crawling and looking for signatures of known software. Usually this is a snippet of text like a copyright or a meta tag but it could be any consistent identifier. This usually applies to blog and forum software.
• Manual inclusion. Human beings, whose labor is cheap in many parts of the world, look for known software or forms that are easily exploitable and add them to a database. This usually applies to custom registration and contact forms.
• They buy lists. Just like email addresses are sold by spammers, known vulnerable or preferred target site lists are sold as well.

So, it really could be a lot of things, but I wouldn't jump to inclusions. Just refer the resources above and start doing what you can!

Hope this helps a bit - good luck!

Hi there

So, I would download ScreamingFrog first off, as it will give you a rundown of if these issues are internal links or sitemap issues.

It looks like the issues you are facing are internal link issues, meaning they are being picked up on your website in the menu or content. I would go through those and make sure they are updated to the correct URL. Most of theses seem to be buttons or links with the anchor text "Add to Compare". If that functionality is no longer on the site, I would remove it as soon as possible.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

Don't forget you have Schema testing capabilities:
Structured Data Testing Tool
Structured data validator

Search Console will also monitor your structured data markup and notify you of issues they find.

From my standpoint, this looks fine, but don't forget that you have opportunities around descriptions, offers, authors of the reviews, what they said, dates, etc. There's a lot you can do there. Inflow has a pretty interesting read around reviews and markup, with examples of other companies and how they do it, if you're ever interested. You can read there here.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

What Trevor said is correct but I want to point out a couple of other things real quick.

Make sure you set up proper URL mapping when you migrate your site, so that Google and other search engines know "This old page should now go to this new page" (redirects). Let Google and Bing know that your site moved in Search Console and Webmaster, respectively. Make sure you conduct a proper backlink audit as well so you can update valuable links and remove risky ones. Also, if local SEO is important to you, make sure all of your business listings and citations (including social profiles) have correct domain / contact information listed. Companies forget to do this all of the time and it's easy to overlook!

And lastly, run through a technical audit of your website and make sure that all of your bases are covered there as well.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Great answer!

Hi there

If you are combining sitemap indexes under one main sitemap index, then you'd simply just upload your new sitemap index to Search Console. Google will recognize, if implemented correctly, that there are other sitemaps under that main index and crawl accordingly.

Does this answer your question? Let me know - thanks!

Hey Mike

Could you provide an example URL or a category page that's like yours? It would help guide the community a bit better - thanks!

Patrick

Hi there

Here are a couple of great links:
2015 Local Search Ranking Factors
How to Perform the Ultimate Local SEO Audit

Both of those will help you immensely. I would definitely markup branches and also take a look at Moz Local's bulk upload that will help you load all of your branch addresses to local listing aggregators. From there, you can manage your listings and update/remove them as needed.

I would review the above links and start focusing on your local SEO efforts. But I would still markup as much as you can that's relevant to the business and searches that are happening around it's industry/area.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

Could you provide an example? I am not seeing this in my crawl of your site or on Google. Just want to make sure I am looking for the right thing!

In the meantime, I would check your sitemaps, canonical tags, and internal links to make sure that all of these items are following the proper structure that you wish for Google to follow. I would also check your backlinks and make sure that those are up to date as well.

Chances are Google is finding the indexed URL in it's crawls and more often than not, it's because there's an issue with how it's listed somewhere on your website or in your sitemap. After you correct or find the issue, resubmit your sitemap to both Google and Bing.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Has this been an ongoing issue and you are seeing more and more 404 links coming in? If so, Google has ways of notifying them on potentially spammy / hacked websites, so you could start there.

If it's something where these links are taking up a good portion of your backlink profile, I would do a quick audit and possibly disavow. This may take a bit of work, so if you're not comfortable, Moz has a great recommended companies list of agencies / consultants that will be more than happy to help.

Let me know if this helps or if you have any more questions! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

The printer friendly URL is coming from the print this article button (attached) and the /default.aspx URL is coming from the  ^ TOP button (attached).

What you could do is use your robots.txt to ignore these URLs. You can all tell Google what URL parameters to ignore, but please be EXTREMELY careful doing this. It's not a fine comb tool, not a hatchet.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments, good luck!
Patrick

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Hi there

Sometimes, this is what Google does. They do it for some of our clients as well. Here's more information at SEW. There are recmomendations from Google saying that your homepage title should have your brand toward the front, while internal pages should have target keywords toward the front of the title tag.

I would leave your titles the way they are because if Google wants to change it, they will.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments - good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Donna nails it here. You can't predict DA in the future. The best you can do is make sure your onsite and offsite SEO is on point and that you are following best practices put forth by Google. There is a great resource from Moz on Domain Authority and what you can be doing to make sure that you are taking proper steps to ensure higher DA in the future.

Best practices + time = higher DA. That's the best prediction you get, but at least the future is bright!

Hope this helps in addition to Donna's answer - good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

Alot of this sounds off to me. First, I'd think you'd want /category living in the navigation, be indexed, have links, and have a great user experience.

In my mind, www.example.com/category?view=all should only exist as a filtering URL when you change the number of URLs you want to see on the page itself.

You'll have substantially more luck focusing on version A in my opinion. Focus on creating a great user experience and optimization strategy, and you should reap the benefits at a deeper level.

Let me know if this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi Guillaume

I would use the questions / answers you have as a chance to build out robust help and support sections for your products. Not only will this help you from a search standpoint with long tail queries, but it will also help you from a user standpoint as they will have a point of reference to help them with issues, answer questions as they decide if they want to buy your product, and also help with brand equity as you build more content that details answers more. What I would suggest, pay attention to the following:

• What questions are users asking?
• What issues are they having most with your product?
• How does your product compare against other products in the industry?
• What does yours do that competitor products don't?
• What new features are you adding?
• Are there any features that are underutilized by users?
• Are there any integrations you may have?
• What's the history of the product?
• What are competitors doing from a promotion standpoint that you're not?

When it comes to keyword cannibalization, that's not an issue. Two different pages can overlap in keywords so long as those pages have unique content regarding a particular keyword. To me, the two examples you listed above are two different ideas, as long as the general idea is different than the software idea and contains different steps.

What matters is that each page has it's own unique topic to the keyword and does not share content with another page. You'll find that as you are focused on a particular industry and product, that these things happen, but it's relatively easy to keep pages specific to an idea regarding a keyword. Also look for opportunities to repurpose content:

• Images
• Video
• Articles
• Gated content
• Etc.

Opportunities are limitless when it comes to content, even for a boring industry. It just takes time and digging. Let me know if this helps and if this answers your question. You have more than enough to make robust pages of content, and should have no idea to nodinex or canonicalize pages to one general FAQ page. Build more content, internally link in a smart way, and keep your eyes / ears peeled.

Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

For one, https is now a ranking signal. When Google says "Hey, this is important enough for us to consider for ranking websites", you hould heed their advice.

Most of all, it's security. When users see a site is https without any issues or warnings, they are exponentially more likely to take action or make a purchase on your website. Beyond that, it's protection against identity and data theft. When you encrypt data and have a SSL, you're guaranteeing you're taking the steps to secure information submitted on that website. This includes everything such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, addresses, and more.

It's a matter of doing what's right to protect your user's information and your website from hackers and breaches. My two cents - do it as soon as possible and let your client know that this should be high priority.

Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

There's a great URL structure resource from Moz located here, as well as a great information architecture resource here. I suggest checking it out.

Generally it's better to be shorter with your URL structure. I would use option B if it were my choosing, because you could easily making it...

www.domain.com/italian-recipes/chicken-parmesan

Otherwise you are doing...

www.domain.com/recipes/italian/chicken-parmesan

You create a deeper page level with option A, making pages "less" important and farther away from the domain, which is the most important aspect of your URL.

Keep pages and crawl depth as shallow as possible so that pages don't get buried and lost in the crawl. My opinion, go option B, but also review the resources above.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick

Hi there

No, this is not detrimental, but consider your users and what would be most beneficial to them. Just make sure from a site structure aspect, the site architecture makes sense and is easy to understand for crawlers.

Hope this helps! Good luck!
Patrick