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OMG, finally.  I've been trying to figure out how to hide the damn thing for HOURS.

Thanks.

This is what I figured, but I realized that I've never tried it before and I wanted to be 100% sure before potentially noindex'ing my homepage

If I've got a page that is being called in an iframe, on my homepage, and I don't want that called page to be indexed.... so I put a noindex tag on the called page (but not on the homepage) what might that mean for the homepage?  Nothing?  Will Google, Bing, Yahoo, or anyone else, potentially see that as a noindex tag on my homepage?

1. Clean up (remove) those spammy backlinks.  This is VERY important.

2. Optimize your title tags across the entire site.  Use this tool to see what your title tags will look like on Google.  Your homepage title tag says "Colorado bernese mountain dogs | puppies | breeders Colorado" - I would put something more along the lines of "Bernese of the Rockies: Colorado Bernese Mountain Dog Breeders".  My suggestion/example is slightly longer than what Google will display but since it is your homepage, you want to make sure your brand name is front and center.  For the interior pages you wouldn't necessarily need to do that.  For the puppies page, instead of "Colorado bernese mountain dog puppies | For Sale Colorado" - I would do something like "Adorable Bernese Mountain Dog Puppies For Sale in Colorado".  My example barely fits within what Google will display, it says exactly what the page is about, it's clean, AND it has something a little enticing ('adorable').

3. Fix up your URLs.  They are very "keyword stuffy" right now.  Your "Education & Tips" page's URL is http://www.berneseoftherockies.com/colorado-bernese-mountain-dogs/ -- It should be something as simple as http://www.berneseoftherockies.com/education or http://www.berneseoftherockies.com/education-and-tips.  Editing your URLs will mean 301 redirects are necessary.  You're using Wordpress and there's a plugin called "Redirection" that works.  I still prefer just editing the htaccess file manually.  Some quick Google searches can tell you everything you need to know about 301 redirects.

Your overall site isn't that bad.  You're using H1s and H2s.  You have a lot of content.  You're inserting images and some video.  Do those 3 things above and you'll be much better off.  Of course there's more you can do, but check out the Learn SEO link I shared in my previous comment.  I can't go on forever

Hey Chris,

Unfortunately, Google didn't give you any secrets

"Meta tags" is broad.  It doesn't specify what the attribute is.  You can have meta keywords, meta descriptions, meta charsets, etc.  You can read a bit more about exactly what a "meta tag" is defined as here.

As for the meta keywords tag, Google does not use it at all.  Without looking up the exact date, I believe Google announced this in 2008 or 2009.  It's been a longggg time since the meta keywords tag was used as a ranking factor.  A couple years later, Google announced that the meta description tag was no longer used as a ranking factor.  HOWEVER, unlike the meta keywords tag, Google does still look at the meta description tag.  It just isn't taken into consideration while ranking pages.  Meta descriptions are important for click through rates, but they won't give you a rankings boost.

Why aren't you ranking for anything?  Well, at least 90% of the backlinks are spammy.  I only took a very brief look, but I saw a bunch of directory links and not much else (maybe nothing else).  If you don't have a manual penalty yet, you might be due for one.  I would highly suggest getting those spammy backlinks removed.

Assuming all the content on your site is original, it isn't a terrible site.  It could use work in some areas, but then again, that can be said for 99.99% of websites.  If you really want to learn about what you should be doing to improve your rankings, take a look at the Learn SEO section of Moz.

The 'default' setup will be for no redirects to be in place.  It's not that something was done incorrectly, but rather, a best practice for SEO was overlooked.  It's not something your average Joe or webmaster with no SEO experience is likely going to.

In your scenario, you will want to choose one or the other, and setup a force WWW (or non-WWW) 301 redirect.  If your site is on a linux-based platform, that is accomplished with an htaccess file.  If you are on a Windows-based server, you will need to use IIS (I think).  A simple Google search for "force www redirect windows server" will likely return tons of solutions.

If you're on Wordpress or a similar CMS, it is usually very easy to do from within the backend.  If you have no idea what server you're on, or what platform your site is built on, use builtwith.com to find out

How do you choose between www.example.com or just example.com?  You'll want to go with the one that's linked to more often, and then work on sticking with that as often as possible in the future.  The majority of the link juice that's pointing towards example.com will be transfered to www.example.com with the 301 redirect, so it's not like those links without WWW will be worthless.  They only lose a very tiny amount of their value through the redirect.  The good news is, you're fixing a big issue so it isn't going to get worse for you.

Let me know if you have more questions.

Hey Kimberly,

I would highly suggest checking out the resources on this page: Learn SEO

A good place to start with the Moz Toolset is to click on (from within your campaign) "Search >> On-Page Optimization >> Add & Manage Page Grades".  You can enter your main page URLs and their corresponding main keywords.  Moz will automatically check a plethora of areas on your page and give you feedback on where you can improve the grade given.

Also check out "Crawl Diagnostics" under the same "Search" menu.  There's a lot of data in there about what's potentially harmful to your site.  Things like 404 pages, duplicate content, missing title tags, duplicate title tags, overly dynamic URLs, and much more.  If you are unsure of what something means, like "overly dynamic URLs" for example, and you've got 90 results for that, you can search Google for help on fixing it.  Or ask here.  Or you might even stumble into that issue and ways to resolve it in the "Learn SEO" link above.

Good luck!

You could setup 301 redirects from the sold property URLs to another relevant page, like other properties available in the same neighborhood/town/city.  Or possibly even to search result page that contains very similar properties in regards to square footage, bedrooms, baths, etc.

The answer on this page is from someone that tested it, with 2 authors: http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/25140/how-to-implement-rel-author-on-a-page-with-multiple-authors

You can test it as well and use the tool (http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets) to see what happens.  I don't doubt that you'll end up with the same results -- the 1st instance of rel=author is going to be used.

I've come across this discussion a few times, and it always ends the same... there just isn't (currently) a way to handle multiple authors for 1 page using rel=author.  On your forum, is there a "best answer" chosen?  Maybe you can assign the respondent that gives the "best answer" the authorship?  I'm not sure how Google will feel about that though, as it's not a clear article or blog post that is being assigned authorship.  Rather, it's just a response in a discussion.  Much like blog comments.  Although blog comments aren't exactly like your scenario, it's similar enough, and it would be strange if a blog comment author was set as the author for a whole page.

You can't have more than 1 author per page.  If you put 10 rel=author tags on 1 page, I would assume that Google is just going to look at the first in the list.  OR, Google may just entirely ignore it.  They don't have to show a rich snippet, just because the rel=author code is there.  It's up to them whether or not the author image shows in the SERP and if you've got 10 on 1 page, there's a chance Google might do something like this (Warning: F-bomb ahead!): http://www.quickmeme.com/img/78/788d7237ecca60d8d235cb352eab832f472264065a048fcd24adc834f0ca82f0.jpg

Yeah, I know I can do that in Google+ Local... and I know that some other websites also support this.  What I want to know is how Moz Local handles this with its '1-click' auto-syndication feature.

Just listing the address and hoping people will call 99% of the time isn't really an option.  I don't want to list the guy's home address as the business address if it's going to be public.

Voila!

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-socializer/

That one is exactly like socialmediaexaminer.com's

Can you pinpoint the approximate date that the traffic dropped significantly?  Look for a Penguin update that's near that time frame using this page: http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change

If you don't see a Penguin update near your drop in traffic, AND you don't have a manual penalty, you might have another issue.  Possibly a Panda penalty or just some other site health issue that caused the drop in traffic.  Considering the large amount of spammy backlinks you say existed, it does sound like a Penguin penalty is likely, but it can't hurt to check that Google Algorithm Change history.

If the spammy backlinks are ALL gone now, then you're right... there's nothing you can do in regards to disavowing or manual removal.  If you do have a manual penalty that was given due to unnatural inbound links, you can submit a reconsideration request and let them know that you didn't build the backlinks and they all disappeared.  Let Google know you plan to continue to monitor your backlink profile and take immediate action against future negative backlinks that are found.

There's a chance I'm wrong about this.  Maybe EVERY site shows that "update" line, regardless of whether or not an https version was found by Google....

Try a "site:" search on Google for both variations.

• site:https://example.com
• site:http://example.com

edit:  "if you have a website on HTTPS, or if some content is indexed under different subdomains."  You'll see the "update" line if you've got multiple sub-domains as well.  So that's likely what's happening in your scenario.

I'm wondering how Moz Local will handle a business that doesn't want to publicly display an address.  A handyman, landscaper, or locksmith might want to do something like this.  Is it easily handled or do you have to manually try to "work around" to hide the address on sites that let you?

Thanks!

That "update" line you posted a screen shot of means you have an https version of your website.  Are you sure you've got the right version verified in Webmaster Tools?  If you've verified http but not https, or vice versa, verify the other one.  You might be able to see the backlinks in Webmaster Tools on the other version.

You can read more about this recent Google Webmaster Tools update here: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2337524/Google-Webmaster-Tools-Gives-More-Precise-Index-Status-Data

Update us with what you find once you look into that a bit!

Hey Robert!

There are a few tools you can use to get a good idea of when an external link was created.

1. opensiteexplorer.org (a Moz tool) will give you a "date discovered" date.
2. ahrefs.com will give you a "first seen" date.
3. majesticseo.com will give you a "first indexed" date.
4. Google Webmaster Tools will give you a "first discovered" date when you export "recent links."

Between those 4, you should be able to find the link you want.  Webmaster Tools is free but will be limited.  The others show you some data for free, but require a monthly subscription for all the details.

Hey BloggerGuy!

Your reference to "WP adapting theme" is actually called "responsive design."  That is definitely a great way to go in regards to mobile.  I could go on forever but this great write up (and accompanying video by Matt Cutts) already does a great job at explaining why responsive design is a good choice.

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2308069/Googles-Matt-Cutts-Responsive-Design-Wont-Hurt-Your-SEO

Let me know if you have any specific questions after watching that video, and reading through SEW's take on it.

On the /media-coverage/ page, the header says "Media Coverages Archives" -- I imagine there's a way to edit this headline?  I checked archives.php with the theme but it doesn't look like it's pulling from there.  If you aren't sure, I can see if the plugin creator can help out!