Thanks Oliver - I'm going to go ahead and mark this question as answered. If you have any more questions feel free to reach out!
Posts made by RuthBurrReedy
-
RE: Why does only one result show for a given term?
-
RE: Why does only one result show for a given term?
Hi Oliver,
To clarify - you're not only seeing one result total, just one result from your own domain out of the results for that term, correct?
It is rare for Google to show more than 1 or 2 results from the same domain on the first page of results. It sounds to me like you've got a whole bunch of pages on the same domain that are all cannibalizing each other to try to target the same keyword - instead, try targeting different keywords with each page. If you want all of your hotels to be found when people search "Hotels in Bournemouth," creating one page that highlights all of the properties and targets that phrase would be a way to do it.
In terms of Google Places - properties showing up in the 7-pack doesn't have much to do with what's displaying in the regular organic results (Google certainly wouldn't exclude your Places pages just because you show up in the organic results). I would recommend further optimizing each of your Places pages, and making sure that address/contact info is easily crawlable on your own domain as well. Good luck!
-
RE: Meta Tag Force Page Refresh - Good or Bad?
Hi Todd,
Using the Pragma no-cache tag means that no cached content from that page will be used when a user next accesses the page; the request will go back to the origin server instead. It's useful when you have a frequently-updated page that you don't want users to end up seeing older versions of. It's generally considered to be a bit of an outdated tag - you may want to explore using your HTTP headers to expire content instead - but won't hurt you with the search engines (or prevent the Cached version of your page from showing up in the SERPs). Hope that helps!
-
RE: Use rel=canonical to save otherwise squandered link juice?
I'd recommend not using the canonical tag here for the following reasons:
- It's not what the tag is designed for. By using canonical tag you're saying to search engines, "this page is the same as this other page so just ignore it." Not true in this case.
- It seems like the pages you're noindexing are good candidates for it: they aren't pages that would be a good experience for users to land on from a search.
IFor product pages that are no longer available, I'd use a 301 redirect to point users to the home page or a similar product - that's a way better experience for users who click on links to those pages (remember, it's about the users as much as search engines), and you preserve link juice. I'd also just double-check and see if your "view cart" and similar pages are accruing many links; my guess is they aren't. I'd keep those noindexed via robots.txt just because it would be very odd for a user to click on a search result and land there. A good user experience is more important than the (my guess is very small) amount of link juice you might lose by not having them indexed.
-
RE: How much is enough when it comes to Social Media?
I think you pretty much have to be engaging with people on social media - otherwise in what sense is it "social"? You're missing out on a lot of opportunity not only to win your users' hearts and minds, but also to learn how they interact with and think about what you do. That's how a lot of companies right now are using social media - to figure out what their customers really like and want so they can make a great product. The conversation will happen whether you participate or not - don't you want to be part of it? If you're not, you have no control over the message.
So who to hire to do it? I've had a great time working with the good people at Social Creatures Media. That's who we use when we need some social magic. I don't know what you'd consider a "reasonable" cost but I find their pricing more than fair for the quality work they do. And no, I don't work for them

-
RE: What should we include in the updated developers SEO cheat sheet?
Not sure how you'd cover this in cheat sheet form - but somethign on using JavaScript/AJAX for faceted navigation would be helpful.
-
RE: Developing location pages
I always say, don't build a brand new baby website for your existing brand unless you're absolutely sure it's necessary - you're going to have to work hard to get it even just to the same level as your existing website, let alone beyond it. Plus, why cut your link profile in half? I'd definitely say build a page or section on the new location. Some things you can do to help SEs figure out you're in 2 locations:
- Make sure both locations are in Google Places or other local services. I highly recommend Universal Business Listing for this - one submission to UBL will put your business info everywhere it should be to send strong local signals. Well worth the low price.
- Mark up the addresses of each location on your site with hcard microformat - this says to search engines "here is an address." here's a wiki with everything you could possibly need on hcard microformat: http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard
- Upload a KML sitemap with your locations to Google Webmaster Tools. Here's a good guide on how to do that: http://www.martijnbeijk.com/tutorial/using-kml-for-local-seo/
- Use your city name in the title tags of pages that are about that specific location.
Best part about those last 3 suggestions - you can do them all for free.
Good luck!