Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Tanks Moe for the list.

Hi Moz Community. I would like to ask for any recommendation/suggestions for top 20+ links where to share articles for SEO? Links could range from social media, blogs, etc.

ok, but you relaize when u add KW via a list it does not give you options

yea, but why today? This happened all at once....

I have a Request for Quote contact page is there any benefit to linking from the Google + page? or the other way?

Our company has locations in several different cities, and we're in the process of creating landing pages for each city that feature relevant information. We use Drupal, fwiw.

In the past, we've talked about trying to include a local weather widget, a news widget, or something similar as a way to help improve our local rankings for each area.

Have you used anything like that? What did you find to be effective? Can you recommend anything similar?

Thanks!

Thanks, Erick. We do have a verified listing for one of the locations (verified many months ago) and it isn't showing as expected. We're waiting on post cards for the other locations, but I am concerned that they won't show up either.

We are trying to include maps to our locations on our "Contact" page, and in taking these maps from Google, we came upon the following issue:

We have Google+ listings for several of our satellite offices, which are set up through Carr Workplaces. When we look on maps, we can only find the Carr Workplace listing, rather than the listing for our business at that location. Obviously, we don't want to display the map that way on our own page; we want the map to show our business name.

I realize that Google only wants fully-staffed businesses to be displayed on maps, and so whether or not we belong there is up for debate within our company. That said, we'd like to know how to make the maps listing work regardless.

Thanks!

LOL, I've been doing SEO for more than a decade now. I remember when submitting to search engines was a thing people did, but I haven't done it in years and I didn't think I was missing out on anything.

It seems like such a shady way for them to solicit business, though I guess that isn't surprising either.

We get tons of emails from Network Solutions with the following text:

To ensure that your website is easily found online it is important that you submit your website to the major search engines and internet directories, including:

|

• Google
• Google Places
• Google Mobile
• Bing
• Yahoo!
• Twitter

|

• Facebook
• CitySearch
• Foursquare
• Angie's List
• GPS navigation
• MerchantCircle

|

To do so, we recommend you go to each search engine and internet directories web page, locate the instructions and then complete a monthly refresh of your listing. If you would like us to complete this process for you please call us at...

Everything I've ever read about modern SEO says this isn't necessary and it's just a solicitation to get people to pay them for something they don't even need. We update our social pages regularly and maintain listings on many citation sites using Moz Local (in addition to manually building citations).

Can you guys confirm that this is just more spam from Network Solutions?

I'm not at all familiar with what an epigraph is in the context of SEO (and a quick Google search wasn't enlightening), so I'd recommend telling them to remove the backlinks they built and leave your site alone.

Their comment about the relevancy of backlinks wasn't even true of SEO several years ago. That's just terrible, unethical, and lazy.

As everyone else pointed out, you're definitely not working with a reputable company. Even Google receives solicitations from spammy SEOs (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35291?hl=en is an informative page about how to hire an SEO).

If you can, tell them that you want them to use the time they have left to remove or disavow the links they've built. Otherwise, just tell them to stop.

I'd recommend searching for a local SEO company with positive reviews. SEO isn't a perfect science, so be wary of anyone who makes outlandish guarantees and promises fast results. Good SEO just doesn't work like that!

Google is pretty finicky when it comes to displaying maps listings. As others have mentioned, it can take ages, and they don't make the process an easy one.

Did you make sure that the box indicating that your business serves customers at its location is checked off? Google doesn't want to show businesses on maps unless they actually serve customers there.

Here are some updated rules for showing up on maps. I hope they help!  http://localu.org/blog/rules-for-google-plus-local-for-business-listings/

Good suggestion - thank you!

Thanks, EGOL. You're always so helpful!

I think you're right - searching the forums (and possibly LinkedIn) for active, reputable posters is probably the best way to go. Time consuming, but in the long run, it should leave us with a good selection of freelancers to call on when we need them.

Thanks, Amanda!

I can handle content development and social marketing/engagement for the company without sacrificing our ability to get work done for clients, but nitty-gritty SEO tweaks end up taking up way more time than I have to give when I have many clients who deserve that attention on their own sites.

Someone who can optimize page titles, descriptions, schema, alt image text, etc. and then work on off-site SEO would be ideal. In this case, we need technical know-how more than creativity.

My firm has tried working with cheaper ($300ish a month) SEO companies, and the results were inconsequential. It felt like throwing money away - over many months, we never made any real headway. I would suggest looking for a qualified freelancer versus a company at this point - with less overhead, they are sometimes able to work for a lower rate.

If you have a solid idea of what needs to be done, perhaps you can find an intern to do the actual tasks?

I agree with all the other comments - the sooner you start, the better, and you do have some catching up to do now. But all isn't lost. Keep plugging away and you'll get there.

If you think of H tags as part of an outline, it makes sense to have just one H1 but more than one H2, H3, etc.

The H1 should be your most important, broadest subject for the page, and then H2s, 3s, etc would relate to more specific aspects of that.

I know Moz has a directory of recommended companies, and I've found that very useful.

However, we're really looking for an individual (who, of course, keeps up with the latest best practices and trends in SEO) to optimize our site while we put our time into client sites.

We've done Craigslist ads, but those seldom pan out. Have any of you had luck finding part-time SEOs? Where did you find them?

Thanks!

This does seem like a good opportunity for you to do better than your competitors.

Obviously, that's a huge amount of pages with issues. I agree with EGOL's suggestion to remove the brand name if that's one thing making your titles too long. Otherwise, prioritize your most important pages and start there.

It's my perception that a good page title is important for SEO, but it's even MORE important because it represents a chance for you to communicate with the people who are finding your page in their search results. Give them a reason to choose your site over your competitor's - a too-long, keyword stuffed title won't do that.