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Hello! I just came across your question. Here is a recent Moz post of mine on how to use log files for technical SEO -- the example screenshots are from the SEO dashboard in Logz.io. Feel free to sign-up at our site and test our public beta to see if it works for you.

Disclosure: Yes, I work for the company.

Google+ is relevant in personalized search results. If I visit a website, like a website's Google+ page, +1 its content in Google+, or share stuff from that website while logged into a Google account, then I will be more likely to see stuff from that website again in the future when I am logged into that Google account.

Furthermore, Google+ authorship markup can still be shown in personalized search for selected Google+ content.

Yes, definitely save or reserve social profiles and so on for the new brand name as soon as you can (whenever possible -- on Twitter, for example, you have to wait to change the user name until you announce the rebrand). (When there are new profiles with the new name, just keep them inactive and don't publicize them yet.)

I don't work for Moz, but I am active in the community here. Yes, I think it's amazing too -- it's why I participate a lot. Welcome!

Thanks for the question! First, I'd go through these guides here and here on Moz to doing domain migration well. It can be complicated. (Note: Be sure to read the referenced posts and documents for more detail!)

Those articles (and referenced links) contain a lot of technical points that I endorse (for what's it's worth -- you don't know me!). Here, I just wanted to make a point about branding. (Specifically, the first post -- and referenced Mozinar -- mentioned above also details Moz's journey from SEOMoz to Moz as far as branding, which is relevant to your move to a new brand name.)

Basically, a branding change is not something that should be done slowly over time. A rebranding creates confusion in the mind of your audience and customers, and you want that confusion to be over as quickly as possible. If you list the new brand on your marketing collateral but then direct people to the website with the old brand, that creates brand confusion.

Instead, I would develop the new website and brand in the dark. Then, once it's ready, unveil the new website and brand all at once. Once the new website is live -- with all of the 301 (not 302) redirects and other technical issues in place -- THEN change your social media profiles, distribute new business cards, release new letterhead, and everything else. Make it a big deal. Celebrate, publicize, and promote the new brand. But make it all happen at the same time so that people become accustomed to the new brand quickly.

Thanks for the question! I'm sure the community would love to help, but the question is a little vague. If it's possible, could you tell us your brand name and website URL? There are numerous issues that could be involved, so it'd be hard to help unless we can get more details.

Thanks for the question! The answer is a bit complex, so I'll break it down by topic.

First, Moz does recommend here that people use top-level domains (such as .uk) and not second-level domains (such as co.uk). This is what you're now doing.

Second, you've done everything correctly as far as 301 redirects and GWT notification of domain change. (One possible note: If your target audience is primarily people in the UK, then you should also state that designation in GWT in Search Traffic > International Targeting.) If you're not doing this already, I'd also select a web host that will give you an IP address that is located in the UK.

Now, it's been only ten days? I'd humbly suggest that it's too soon to make any judgments. Whenever a major change is done to a website -- such as as moving a website to a new domain -- it takes time for Google to "catch up." Until that time, things will be a little "wonky" (to use UK slang). I'd give it a month -- possibly a little longer.

You're correct that the length of time that a domain has actively existed is a ranking factor. But as long as you've done everything correctly to "tell" Google that the domain has moved to a new domain, then that length of time should "carry over."

Lastly, I'd do whatever you can to get high-quality backlinks to the new domain that are 100% earned -- think of how to get natural publicity on any major, authoritive sites that are read by your target audience.

If you're still having problems after a month or so, I'd post here again -- I'm sure the Moz community will be happy to help again. Good luck!

Sure! What you're describing is called "deep linking." Here are some resources I've collected that will give you more information.

Google's portal with information on getting your app's content into Google search results

Wikipedia's page

INMA's tips for using deep linking to drive traffic to your app

Ad Week's comparison of deep linking for Google, Apple, and Facebook

Hope it helps!

Thanks for the question!

For the most part, all rank-tracking tools are pretty much the same. Most tools out there incorporate two things: 1.) Choosing a search engine and country and 2.) Adding a parameter to show non-personalized results. the rankings that will be delivered will then include (only) those two factors.

However, the actual SERP that any person actually sees will be personalized and reflect his search history, the device he is using at the moment, whether he's logged into his Google account, his Google+ activity, his physical location (especially when searching on mobile devices), and a lot more that we probably don't even know.

So, it's important to know that any "ranking" that a person sees via any tool is always going to be an estimation. There are more than 200 ranking factors (as best as we can know) and no tool can incorporate all of them to present the exact same picture that Google sees -- chiefly because we don't know all of those factors and we don't know everything about that factors that we do know.

So, the actual ranking positions that a person sees will often not line up exactly with what a tool shows. Tools pretty much give you a good guess as to a ranking, but it's still just a guess. What I would recommend: People should care more about the overall trend than a specific ranking. If the tools show that rankings are slowly but surely increasing over time, then you're on the right track. It's a marathon, not a race.

Thanks for the question! The simple answer is that your website is too young to make any definitive conclusions. Three weeks is nowhere near enough time to know for sure what Google "thinks" about your website.

Whenever a company does something "new" -- create a website, publish a new piece of content, get a batch of new backlinks, and so on -- it will usually get a quick boost in rankings (and search-result impressions, as you mention) simply because it is new and fresh in Google's eyes. However, that exposure will lessen over time as the "newness" wears off. So, one answer is that it's crucial to keep the site "fresh" as much as possible.

But remember: SEO is a marathon, not a race. Rankings, impressions, and traffic will rise and fall on a daily or weekly basis. But the key is to keep them increasing over the long term in general -- think monthly, quarterly, and yearly, like the stock market. If you see the results going up over the long term, then you know you're doing the right thing. Anything good takes time to be successful. Nothing good comes quickly.

301 redirect each and every page -- not each and every folder. The reason is simple: External links go to specific pages (and not folders). If you want to keep the "link juice" from those links to those pages, then the pages need to be 301 redirected to other desired pages. It's about keeping the specific destination in mind -- for both users and search engines.

You should be fine. Here's Google's guide to multiregional and multilingual sites (emphasis mine):

Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries. While we strongly recommend that you provide unique content for each different group of users, we understand that this might not always be possible. There is generally no need to "hide" the duplicates by disallowing crawling in a robots.txt file or by using a "noindex" robots meta tag. However, if you're providing the same content to the same users on different URLs (for instance, if both example.de/ and example.com/de/ show German language content for users in Germany), you should pick a preferred version and redirect (or use the rel=canonical link element) appropriately. In addition, you should follow the guidelines on rel-alternate-hreflang to make sure that the correct language or regional URL is served to searchers.

Just make sure that Google "understands" that the different domains are targeting different countries, I'd double-check all the technical factors listed in Moz's guides to international SEO -- International SEO, Hreflang, and CcTLDs. For example, be sure to state in each site's Google Webmaster Tools that it is targeting a specific country.

Good luck! If you run into any issues, feel free to post more questions in the Moz Q&A!

First, it's crucial to know that 99% of directory websites out there at best will not help you and at worst will hurt you. The directory is good only if the answer to all three of these questions is yes:

**1. Would I want this link if Google did not exist? **In other words, do a lot of real people visit this website? Would a link send you valuable referral traffic of people who are interested in your website's topic -- or, are you trying only to get a link to boost your search rankings.

2. Is this directory curated by a human who is an expert in the field and who does not accept each and every submission? In other words, would Google view the site's owner as an authority on the topic? For example, a list of recommended Seattle restaurants compiled by a local newspaper food critic is much better than a generic list of each and every restaurant in Seattle on some random website.

3. If this link is being paid for, does it not pass PageRank (i.e., is it a no-follow link that adheres to Google's guidelines as such)? Paying for any link to try to manipulate rankings could get you hit by Penguin.

For this reason, Google is not a big fan of directories. And that's why more and more of them are adding no-follow tags -- they don't want to get hit by Google themselves. Yes, no-follow tags do not pass "link juice."

Unfortunately, I have news that might be a little disheartening. Google's main goal is to provide users with good search results. How many people would consider going to a local business that is located 20 miles away when there are countless others very close? Obviously, few of them. So, Google will reflect that fact.

But all is not lost! Read this great guide to local SEO on Moz -- specifically, point number two on physical address. I'll summarize:

because of Google's bias toward physical location, these businesses are unlikely to ever appear in the local pack of results. As things presently stand with Google, the best hope for these types of business owners is to begin developing city landing pages that showcase their professional association with these other cities, whether this involves windows they wash on the skyscrapers of Dallas or lectures they give at a Denver hospital. The goal here is to gain additional visibility in the organic results for these other geographic terms.

There are some exceptions that may overcome Google's bias. If you search for a niche business model in or around a major city, or search for any business model in a rural location, you may see listings in the local pack of results that stem from several cities. For example, if there is only one gas station serving a large radius in a rural area, it may pop up as a local result for any of the towns in that region. This scenario, however, tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

In sum, it is generally wise for local business owners to set the goal of earning local pack rankings for searches related to their city of location, and organic rankings for any other geographic terms they feel are important.

Good luck!

There are positives and negatives to using different strategies. Moz's education section has three articles on international SEO: International SEO, Hreflang, and CcTLDs. I'd suggest going through them and also reading any further resources that they cite.

Good luck!

This recent in-depth case study that was published on Moz is a great place to start -- seriously, it's amazing!

Thanks for the question. The best answer is that it's impossible to make a specific recommendation without knowing the exact keywords in question and how they relate to your overall digital strategy. But that being said, here are some high-level things to consider.

1. Place in the sales funnel. Take an example of "SEO software." Keywords would vary based on the place of the searcher in the funnel and thereby his or her likely location on your website:

"seo software" -- informational query likely from someone at the top of the funnel who wants to learn about SEO software. This would usually be targeted on the home page
"compare seo software" -- informational middle-tail query that would be likely targeted on an interior sales page whose "content" would obviously compare all the different types of software. This would target someone in the middle of the sales funnel
"buy seo software" -- transactional query from someone at the bottom of the sales funnel. This would be targeted at a check-out or sales page

2. Semantic understanding. Google is getting really, really smart. Years ago, people would have one page targeting "buy tennis shoes" and another for "buy sneakers" in an attempt to rank highly for both phrases. Today, Google (I'm sure) "knows" that both keywords refer to the same "entity." So, a single page should be created that would aim to rank for both.

If your two "boost" terms mean pretty much the same thing, then you should have one page for both. If you create more than one page in this context, you risk duplicating your content in Google's eyes.

There's a lot more I could say, but I just wanted to throw out these two considerations for now. I hope it helps!

I can only hope that we'll see more penalties for guest posting. It's a tactic that I truly want to die because "guest posting" is just an amateur form of marketing and public relations that deserves to get penalized. It's trying to shortcut the traditional marketing process in order to get higher rankings quickly for a brand that probably doesn't deserve them in the first place. Nothing good comes quickly.

Why do I mean when I say "guest posting"? As Jen Jopez wrote here on Moz, it's "trying willy-nilly to get your posts on every blog for the sole purpose of building (probably bad) links." Google, after all, doesn't want to give websites credit for links that they build themselves.

In this and this post of mine here on Moz, I outline the proper process for obtaining the best links naturally through the traditional practices of public relations and publicity. Two of the parts are audience and channel research: determine the websites, blogs, and news outlets that are read by your target audience, and then aim to get news coverage from them or quality articles published on them. One of those links is better than 100 or 1,000 links on random guest-post websites that no one even reads.

Just do good marketing, and the good links will come just as natural by-products without you even needing to think about it.

EGOL, thanks so much for the kind mention -- you've got an upvote!

Here is Google's definition of bad linkbuilding:

Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.

Google sites this an example: Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking.

So, basically, if you arrange to get clients to put links to you in their footer in an attempt to increase your search-engine rankings, then you are violating Google's guidelines and risking a penalty. (Nutshell: Google doesn't want to give you credit for a link that you give yourself.) So, I'd make sure that those links are no-followed AND that the anchor text is your brand name and not any desired keywords. The value from those links is the referral traffic, not any help that they give for rankings.

I would forget about Domain Authority -- it's about as useful as PageRank.

On which of those two sites should you get links? The one that is more prominently read among your target audience. If I have a website about basketball, I'd prefer a link from another big basketball site with a DA of 20 over a site on, say, cooking that may have a DA of 60.

In the age of "earning" links, the best links comes as natural by-products of just doing good marketing and public relations. And involves the process (which I outline here and here on Moz) of KPI setting, audience identification and research, messaging and positioning, channel research, content creation, and campaign execution. Do this process well over and over again forever, and the best links will come your way without you even needing to think about it.

No. Here's the basic reason why: Google doesn't want to give you "credit" for a link that you give yourself. One "earned" link that is 100% natural is better than 100 or 1,000 "built" and "artificial" links because links that others freely give you carry much more weight.

Here's the process that I recommend:

First, I'd suggest that you change your mindset so that you think less about getting links and more about genuine marketing. Second, read this Moz essay of mine on an introduction to getting coverage and attention to content. (I also have a follow-up on integrating SEO and public relations.) The best links, rankings, traffic and more are actually just good by-products of doing good public relations and publicity.

The basic idea:

First, determine your website's target audience. Second, find out what major news outlets, publications, and blogs are actually read by your target audience. Third, use the methods that I detailed to get news coverage, a quality article, and other attention from those specific websites.