Latest posts made by RyanD.
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Mapping the Google My Business locations I manage?
Is there a way to see all of the business locations I manage on a map, so it's easy to visualize and check? Like a Google Custom map, but I don't want to create a custom map because then I'd be updating information in two places. I thought this would be a built-in feature of Google My Business but I can't seem to find any information about this.
Thanks!
-Ryan
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Does content in collapsible menus negatively affect SEO or featured snippets?
We want to confirm whether content in collapsible menus negatively affects SEO and/or featured snippets on Google. We're hoping to add a menu to answer some frequently asked questions and attract featured snippets, while also creating a positive user experience/not clogging up the page.
Here is an example of the style of menu we're using now, the troubleshooting menu:
http://www.lynden.com/help/index.html
Appreciate your help!
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All about PDFs in search
I'm trying to track down some information on how PDFs work in Google Analytics, GWT, and Google SERPs. We don't have very many PDFs on our website but suddenly, in the past 4 or 5 months, one of our hidden-in-the-corner-of-the-server PDFs is outranking our homepage for a specific search term. That's led me to some investigating in Google Analytics and GWT, which has led to more questions.
To be specific:
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Has Google changed how they index/crawl PDFs and how likely they are to show up in SERPs?
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Some of my PDF URLs show up as "Pages" in Google Analytics, but not all of them. How does Google know Pageviews, time on page, etc. for these PDFs since there's no tracking code on them?
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The PDF URLs show up more reliably in Google Webmaster Tools > Search Traffic > Search Analytics. The "# clicks" in GWT is way different than the Pageviews in GA, though, like 500:1 different. One reason I'm suspecting is that Google Analytics is only showing how many times the PDF link was clicked on from a webpage, whereas GWT is showing all of the clicks when the PDF showed up in SERPs. Does that make sense?
Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks!
-Ryan
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Google is associating the wrong address with my website in SERPs
I've dealt with submitting address change information to Google (and Yelp, YP, etc.) when they have somehow scraped the wrong address or phone number. This is a little different. I work for the parent company with multiple companies of similar names making up the family of companies. What's happening is that people are searching for one of our companies (Lynden Transport) and getting the correct website results to pop up, but the address/phone # shown below the URL and in the local results screen is for one of our other companies (LTI, Inc.). Customers should be seeing a Fife, WA address but instead are seeing one for Lynden, WA. I've attached a marked up screenshot to better those what is happening. At least customers are generally finding their way to our company but it's causing quite a headache for our customer service reps and customers as they get transferred back and forth on the phone, and confusion for customers unfamiliar with our office locations.
I've clicked on the "Send Feedback" link at the bottom of Google and explained what was happening, but beyond that I'm not sure what to do. The information presented isn't wrong, it's just being associated with the wrong company. It seems like a Google logic error and not something I can control or edit.
Any ideas?
moz-ltia.jpg
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Leverage power of high ranking domain for a company we acquired
Recently our company acquired one of our competitors (this was a business move, not SEO related). However, their website ranks in the top-10 for many of the keywords we target. Our website generally ranks higher in these SERPs, but I would still like to leverage the power of their domain to boost our main website up even further if I can. Their website is still up and running during the customer transition period but eventually (later this year) we plan to remove it and point all customers to our main website.
Any suggestions on the best way to use their website going forward?
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Website redesign - how do I avoid screwing up my site SEO?
We are preparing to launch a newly designed (and much improved) website in the next few months. I want to be very careful to ensure we do not mess up any rankings (and hopefully actually improve rankings) when switching over the site.
I'm particularly concerned about one key phrase that our homepage currently ranks on. After the redesign it would be more appropriate for our of our subpages to rank for that term, but I'd rather have our homepage rank (less relevant for this keyword than the subpage) then nothing at all.
I know about 301 redirects, and we are planning on creating a few comprehensive diagrams to ensure we redirect old pages to the correct new pages. Beyond that, what can I do to preserve our rankings?
Thanks!
-Ryan
Best posts made by RyanD.
Lynden is a multi-modal shipping company based out of Anchorage, AK and Seattle, WA. Lynden's service area has grown to include Alaska, Washington, and Western Canada, as well as other locations around the globe.