Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Ryan,

The problem I believe is that you are trying to track the specific page, rather than the entire domain (Of course I understand why in this case), but the feature is configured to track the domain and will therefore not accept a URL that includes the path following the trailing slash. Basically, it wants you to just enter http://en.wikipedia.org

I am not sure if SEOmoz staff will have any suggestion on solving this issue for your campaign, but you should email help [at] seomoz.org explaining your problem. Since it is a holiday weekend, you may need to wait a little while for a response, but I know that SEOmoz staff constantly surprise people by responding to enquiries when we don't expect them too, so give it a go. A direct email will definitely be the quickest way to let them know you have a problem.

In any case, while you cannot pull the information into your campaign, you can still obtain it using the  Open Site Explorer tool. I ran your Comparison URL in Open Site Explorer , but there is insufficient data for this particular page so you will only see the domain information at present. You can find all of the information that is returned in a campaign using this tool. To compare with your own site, just click the "compare sites" link below the OSE search URL input, enter your own URL and then run the search.

You can also download the comparison report from OSE and run advanced reports if you wish to do so. Export to CSV and you will be able to utilize the information in Excel, or generate a PDF.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi fryguy,

A couple of Quick things to check in Google Webmaster Tools:

Index Status: Google Index > Index Status should show you visually whether the site has ever been indexed or not.

Robots.txt tester to check that your robots.txt file is correctly configured.

Fetch as Googlebot Tool to see whether Googlebot is able to successfully crawl your site. You can also use Fetch & Render to see what Google sees on your pages.

Once you get a handle on what might be happening it will be way easier to find a solution

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Z,

There are basically 5 things that make PRO worthwhile for me

• Outstanding Tools that save me time and money, allowing me to give better service to my clients
• Online Webinars from industry experts who can quite literally rock my world with a single idea at times
• This Q&A, which provides access to other members, but also the ability to ask a private question and have SEOmoz staff and Associates help me nail a problem.
• Top notch customer service if I ever need help with something.
• The opportunity to be included in the development of new tools, analysis of new hypotheses on search etc combined with the knowledge that the people pursuing them are authentic thought leaders in this industry.

That about says it I guess.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Gotta Love that SEOmoz transparency!

Looking forward to collecting my hug from Roger at Mozcon!

Sha

Hi Jonathon,

I would agree with James (oh and Ryan too!) that the sudden addition of that number of links may alter your link profile in such a way as to signal to search engines that there may be some kind of manipulative link building practice going on.

Something that is likely to make this appear even more like a manipulative practice would be if the Lion's share of the anchor text used to create the links to your site is identical, for an exact match keyword term etc.

One thing we should clarify is that while this may be having a negative effect upon your rankings, it is not really a "penalty" as such. Basically, the algorithm is seeing a sudden and unnatural looking change in your link profile and adjusting your ranking as a result. If Google has manually applied a penalty for any reason, they are now informing webmasters through notifications in Google Webmaster Tools. Manual penalties usually only happen if you are doing something really overt like buying or selling links. As Ryan mentioned, if the directory is part of a paid link system, it would be an issue. In that case I would expect to find a message in Webmaster Tools.

If it were me I would leave it be for a while and see what happens.

First, provided the directory is not a problem, with 20,000 targeted referral links out there, your potential for increased conversion ready traffic is greatly enhanced anyway.

Second, I would expect that with a little time and maybe some more gradual and diverse links added to your link profile (and no more major spikes), your rankings will tend to come back anyway. If they don't begin to improve (or continue to worsen) within a month, I would bring it to Google's attention by filing a Reconsideration Request. This link is the latest from the Webspam Team on the current process.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi James,

www is a subdomain. The root domain is the non www version.

As far as I'm aware you cannot change the setting once you have created the campaign. There is certainly no option that I can see in the campaign settings screen.

If the definition above does not clarify for you then best to email help@seomoz.org so that SEOmoz staff can take a look at it for you.

If you haven't already caught up with it, there is quite a lot of really good information in the Pro Help Files

There are also a few pre-recorded webinars on the SEOmoz Webinars page as well as a link to register for the Weekly Intro webinar that happens every Friday morning (Seattle time). I found all of these to be very helpful when I started out my Pro account.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Peter,

I don't really see how this can be related to images as I have always had outlook set up not to download images.

After your response that it was related to images I edited the settings to ensure that there is absolutely no way outlook will ever try to download images, but emails from the blogs and Q&A still freeze Outlook for between 1 and 2 minutes before they resolve to show the actual text of the message...it is as if the actual text of the post itself is being called and queued.

As mentioned by Christopher above the problem does not occur with ranking reports, new crawl notifications, the Moz Top 10, Monthly Newsletter or general email from Mozzers.

At this point I can do nothing but avoid allowing those emails to open and can't even delete them without the same issue unless I am lucky enough to have them sandwiched between two other emails that I want to delete

I know it probably seems like a trivial issue if it isn't happening to everyone, but honestly, for those of us who are fairly active on the blogs and in Q&A, 1 - 2 minutes of having your mail program disabled for every email that comes from there gets out of control very quickly!

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say, Please HELP!

Sha

P.S. A heartfelt apology to all of you who just had your mailbox freeze up again because I added this post   hugs

Kind of sad when the Real world knocks on the door and reminds us that success can bring the odd negative along with all the positives.

On the other hand, this is also a reminder that it's time to step up my game and be ready to bump into some of my favorite people in the world more often!

WooHoo!

Hi James,

I would start out with cleaning up damaging links first, then lodge a reconsideration request. It is important not to appear to be trying to get out of a situation without making any real effort. That could put you on the back foot if you need to make future requests.

Keep in mind that some links may be totally within your own control to remove - I recently cleaned up links from more than 160 sites for a client by getting hold of a list of login information from a previous SEO vendor. I was then able to log into all those sites and either delete bogus profiles (where that was an option), or delete over-optimized body text and signature links that had been created within them.

Over-optimized links from article directories and syndicated content are another area that is usually within the site owner's control. I am stunned how many people I see sending email to the owners of Article Directories asking them to remove links when they could just log into the account and fix the problem themselves.

Once you have removed all the links that you can, you can use the Disavow Tool to inform Google of any links that you have not been able to clean up, then lodge a reconsideration request and include a link to the information in the Disavow list that you uploaded.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Kadira,

If you enter your domain without a trailing slash ( www.yoursite.com or yoursite.com depending whether you are targeting root domain or the www subdomain) then your campaign should launch.

If you have tried this and still cannot get it to work then there may be a problem specific to your account. If this is the case it is best to email the help team  help [at} seomoz.org and describe the problem so that they can take a look at it for you.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi sbrault74,

No, links that have been disavowed will not disappear from your GWMT most recent links list.

Google has made it clear that a disavow instruction is treated as a suggestion only and since the links have not actually been removed from the web, they will remain visible in the list.

Googler John Mueller made this clear in a public Hangout a few months ago.

While it is difficult to make judgements about your process, whether you have provided sufficient detail in your reconsideration request etc, there is one area to consider that jumps out at me from your post.

It seems the only data source you have used to identify troublesome links is the GWMT list. Google provides only a sample of backlinks in this list, and we know from experience that every tool which provides backlink data will return a different list. While there will be some overlap (which means you will need to deduplicate your list), there is always a number of links found by each which do not appear elsewhere.

You should also make sure that you include links from any old SEO reports and other lists that may have been provided by link builders etc.

There is information in these slide decks that will give you some tips (and there are some almost invisible links in the slides) for data mining and email outreach:

Move or Remove, The Where, Why and How of Dealing with Penguins & Penalties

10 Link Removal Mistakes You Never Want To Make

and if you haven't read this post from Ryan Kent yet, you should do that before going any further.

If you are looking for tools and resources that might be helpful, you will find a short list of both, including a reconsideration request checklist in the sidebar of rmoov.com under helpful tools and resources.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Jamie,

Maybe neal is right and you just clicked on your Marty McFly Nike boots ready for the weekend?

but seriously, Roger is obviously having a little timing issue there. I noticed the same thing on my report and have emailed the SEOmoz help team to make sure that they are aware of the problem. It is always a good idea if you notice that Roger is having a bad day to email help [at] seomoz.org and let them know.

Have a good weekend,

Sha

Hi David,

It would be standard for your campaign information to be archived when the account is suspended.

Just go to your campaigns dashboard and click the Archived tab.

Then restore each campaign and you are on your way again, no problem

If you have any more problems with it and can't restore them as normal, just go to the help hub and submit a ticket to send your request for help straight to the Moz help team.

Hope that solves the problem for you,

Sha

Hi James,

There are a number of things that can affect results - A few of the things that may be influencing your conflicting results include:

1. It is my understanding that SEOmoz Rankings are based upon non-personalized and non-regionalized results
2. I believe that SEOmoz take into account embedded local results if they appear, but do not include them if they appear in a 6, 8 or 12 pack.
3. There have been recent anecdotal reports that searchers using the Google Chrome browser are receiving vastly higher ranking results than those seen in Firefox and IE.

If you feel that there is a problem with your Rankings Report, the best thing to do is to email the Help Team (help [at] seomoz.org) and ask them to take a look for you. Be sure to provide them any information you have regarding manual checks and results from other tools.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Keiran,

After reading the comments here and taking a very quick look at your site I would say just a few things (since I am playing hookey from a project to recharge with a cuppa and really must get back to meet a deadline

1. Please DO NOT ignore the text errors on your site. While many view this as a minor issue, there are some other things to consider. You are in the web design business. Errors are NOT an SEO issue, but a conversion issue!

   First, there is a typographical error on your home page which has completely changed the message you are trying to convey to potential customers "You do need any technical knowledge". While those of us in the business understand what you are trying to say and will read over the mistake, potential customers with little or no knowledge of web design may at the very least find themselves questioning whether it is a mistake. Some will even take it to mean that they need technical knowledge if you build their site!

   The other very significant problem with errors in your text is that you are sending a message to potential clients. Remember you are selling a service which requires you to build pages full of text.  If your own website is full of errors, the message you send is that the websites you build are likely to also be full of errors. That is without even considering the secondary message that there may be an issue with attention to detail in your company

   Having read a blog post I am surmising that part of the error problem may be your reliance on an editor to catch the errors. While it may be alerting you to obvious spelling and typos, it is not letting you know when you have repeated words etc.

   Yes, I'm a self confessed word nerd so I'm always going to be sensitive to the error thing, but in this case it is all about the sales message you are sending.

2. The home page feels a little unfinished with the 3rd column and service sections looking empty and to be honest I would be looking to get some more text into the page. I would also make sure that text adds some more local emphasis (not just the county name, but some more specific references to your location). Have you claimed your local business profiles in Google Places, Bing and the best known citation sites? The links in these profiles will provide some trust signals and increase your chance of moving that page 1 keyword above the fold.

3. You are missing out on some nice keyword inclusion opportunities with your Blog Titles which also appear on your home page via the feed. Consider perhaps - "If I Had A Hammer - Could I Create Your Website In A Day?". Two things here actually. First, including some relevant keywords and second, talking to your prospective client in the first person. The text and images on your site are your first face-to-face meeting with your client. Speak directly to them and you have a much better chance of engaging them - that is the first step to converting them

If I were you I would keep the Pro account a little longer, do all the reading Stephen suggested and use the Q&A forum to learn and ask for help. Don't forget your monthly private question where you get to ask SEOmoz staff and Associates for specific help too.

Also - when the problem seems insurmountable, remember two things ...

• The heart of this community is TAGFEE and that means help is close by.
• Best way to eat an elephant - one mouthful at a time!!

Oops ...back to my deadline!

Hope this helps,

Sha

Hi Alan,

The URL from your Google Webmaster Tools is a different domain.

The domain that is for sale has a hyphen in it that is not included in the link from your WMT message... or do you own them both?

The WMT  message is a courtesy message that is being sent to all Wordpress users with out of date software versions. The risk of your site being hacked is significantly increased by having out of date cms versions. This is something that Google is concerned about because hacked sites may put users at risk of exposure to malicious code.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Bondtana,

I believe when Rand first started what was then a blog intended to share his own experiments in SEO, it was never intended to be commercial, and so the .org.

Obviously, it grew into a blog with a massive following and resulted in the company becoming what it is today.

Actually, I happen to think that the .org is still appropriate...it would be hard to argue that the site is not home to one of the most information rich, industry leading, generous & sharing communities on the Net. Not just in SEO.

Also hard to argue that there is a more authoritative information source in the Inbound marketing space.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Matthew,

It is not possible to see changes in Domain Authority over time in your Pro App. If you have downloaded reports from Open Site Explorer or the Keyword Difficulty Tool for your site over time you could lift the DA from your reports and consolidate them in excel to create a chart.

If you would like to see a history of your DA in the Pro App, you could ask the Moz staff to consider adding it by lodging a feature request

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Greenman,

I would guess that your problem is most likely caused by the fact that you have used the robots.txt method to block the pages you removed.

robots.txt is not the most reliable method of ensuring that pages are not indexed. Even though robots.txt tells bots not to crawl a page, Google has openly stated that if a page is found through an external link from another site, they can be crawled and indexed.

The most effective way to block pages is to use the noindex meta tag.

So, the simple answer is that there are links out there which still point to your old pages. Just because links are not highlighted in OSE or even Google WMT, does not mean that they don't exist. WMT should provide you with the most accurate link information, but even that is not necessarily complete according to Google.

Don't forget that there may also be "links" out there in the form of bookmarks or favorites that people keep in their browsers. When clicked these will also generate a 404 response from your server.

If you know that you have removed pages you should add 301 redirects to send any traffic to another relevant page. If you do not know the URL's of the pages that have been removed the best way to stop them from returning 404's is to add a catch-all 301 redirect so that any request for a page that does not exist is redirected to a single page. Some people send all of this traffic to the home page, but my preference would be to send it to a custom designed 404 or a relevant category page.

Hope that helps,

Sha

Hi Tom,

I would never throw away traffic unless it came from a "questionable" source.

If the reason for the domain switch is because the domain more accurately reflects the client's business, then the existing traffic is also likely to be relevant. This gets you "one foot in the door" in terms of conversion.

If you still have the existing site loaded, then you are in a good position, because you already know the URL and content of the existing pages.

My recommendation to the client would be to do the work to salvage the existing traffic for the domain. How well you do the job will depend on how large the existing site is, how much traffic it has and how much work the client is willing to pay for,

The process would be to add 301 redirects for all existing URL's on the new domain (that will not exist once the new content is added) in addition to 301's for all of the pages on the domain that you are transferring from. The best way to do this is to ensure that each is redirected specifically to a page containing content that is relevant. Obviously, if the old site is large and/or the budget is small, this will be more work than you are getting paid for. In that case, you have the option of redirecting groups of pages to a relevant category page, or in the easiest, but least advisable, just redirect them all to the home page.

If the existing traffic to the new domain is insignificant, then you shouldn't lose too much sleep over just redirecting them all to the home page, but if there are some visitors there, I would explain to the client that sending them to a relevant page gives him a chance of converting them.

If you choose not to redirect any of the pages you are just setting up a situation where you constantly play "catch up' on the 404's - you cannot know how long it will really take for every link in existence to be clicked by someone. Don't forget that the biggest link source will be indexed pages in search engines. These don't always get de-indexed in the time frame we expect, so there is no correct time period within which links will just go away.

I wrote a blog post on this recently after doing a "salvage' job for a client whose designer installed a new site version and killed off all his old pages without redirecting anything. While your situation is different, It talks about redirecting for relevance, so might be worth a read.

Hope this helps

Sha