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If you have no (more) links to the tags, maybe there is a sitemap? I mean, when moz found them, there was a way to do that right? This way seems to exist, still. Maybe you have hidden links to tags or something? In most cases you don't need to redirect them (if there never was value/rankings/something useful) from an SEO POV, but from User view, you should kill the links or kill tag-sitemap whatever. 404 is ok then, if not internal linked.

Hi Radi, I think that is because the competitor has more accurate title tags and meta descriptions on regard the query - hand therapy Sydney - despite they do not have  inbound links pointing those pages. They answer the query accurately. It is not all about links. Content - answering the query - first and above all. On top of that, they are first in Google local listings. https://moz.com/blog/why-listing-accuracy-is-important-whiteboard-friday All the best, Mª Verónica B.

The best ones I have seen are capabilities decks that tie an agency's core competency into what the business needs with the proposal at the end.  It's hard enough to get the attention of a potential client, never mind rick losing it with multiple documents, decks, one sheets, proposals, whatever.

Hi Radi, It's hard to say, but with the new penguin update, there is a chance that certain parts or pages of your site might have been affected by the new penguin as a result of spam signals, but there is still a lot of uncertainty. Here is what Google said: "Penguin now devalues spam by adjusting ranking based on spam signals, rather than affecting ranking of the whole site." They said "adjusting ranking" as opposed to penalisation, which looks like your situation. More about it here: https://moz.com/blog/penguin-4-was-it-worth-the-wait I hope this helps! Thanks,

I would NOT replicate this linking pattern for your client's websites. In the long run, it could do more damage than good. I will save you the long explanation, but it's just not a good long term strategy. Do the things you know are right, and not the things that could pose a risk in the future. For small businesses, the easiest way to combat companies that use BS linking strategies is to look at the TOTAL health of one of your client's websites. This would include keyword density testing, a complete citation profile analysis (using Moz Local or Yext), domain choice, on-page health, page load speed, etc. Basically everything that Google says matters, and do it to a "T". Beat them with quality quantity, not by replicating the same tactics.

Hey Radi, What you are talking about is hyperlocal content, which, if developed deftly, can be great for both visibility and conversions. However, if it's obviously a stretch to create this kind of content for a specific business model, it can end up looking really spammy. Issa is on the ball stating that the content for these hyperlocal landing pages would need to be strong and unique, and this is pretty much where the rubber hits the road: does you client have something unique to say about his product/service in each of these hyperlocal markets, or is it really just all the same from one neighborhood to another? You mention that your client sells plastic plants. My guess is that he is selling the same goods to each suburb, so unless there is something unique you can think to for each suburban audience, my concern would be that these pages might be being created for no other purpose that SEO. Sadly, as you've pointed out, a competitor is getting away with it. This is where Google lets SEOs down: teaching the business community that low quality is rewarded. Can you think of something better for this client to do, that isn't low quality? Maybe video marketing? A social campaign? Acquisition of awesome reviews/testimonials? Something about businesses in each suburb that used plastic plants? What I'm urging here is to use your marketing smarts to see if there is a higher path you can take the client along, rather than agreeing that he should imitate a low quality competitor. One thing to bear in mind with this ... that spammy competitor may be getting away with this today, but they've got a sword dangling over their head. They may be only one Google tweak away from anonymity. Should that happen, and should your client have invested his marketing budget in more interesting, creative work, he could find himself standing tall as others fall away.

This kind of thing definitely happens. It is often the result of a link injection malware that finds vulnerabilities in websites and then posts hundreds of links on them. Usually, link spam will not affect your rankings, but it can. Fortunately, Google provides a tool to help you tell Google that you weren't the one who built those links. Moz has a guide to using it here: https://moz.com/blog/guide-to-googles-disavow-tool. It can take a while for links to get disavowed, so in the meantime, do whatever you can to build high-quality, relevant links to your site and make sure your site is optimized for search as best you can.

1 visit, 3 pageviews From an SEO perspective, each page is considered a part of the same article. So the difference is really you get more page views if you split it up (given that users will choose to go to next page)

Short answer is no, it would not have a negative effect. The big issue is this: WILL THE URL CHANGE if you update and republish? Hopefully, you have a FLAT URL STRUCTURE that doesn't have dates in the URL. That way you can update your best content (maybe you change the pictures, maybe you research and update the post with new information, maybe the UX has been improved) but publish at the SAME URL. Doing this is clearly very important for SEO purposes -- you don't "break" URLs and you allow the earned authority of the post to stay intact while also republishing and generating new "pings" to Google to take advantage of Freshness boosts. Google wants you to update and republish. But you need to update and republish WHEN YOU HAVE IMPROVED the content for the reader. And that's what is important here. That's what we are talking about when you hear about the topic of "Evergreen Content." It's not that the content itself never expires, it's that you have been a good gatekeeper of the content and when it can be updated with fresher, more current information, you have done so with the clear interests of the user in mind. So with regards to your question, the important point is this: are you updating the date just to keep re-featuring content that you haven't actually made UX changes too? Or are you updating and republishing when you've actually IMPROVED the original content for the reader? If it's the former, personally, this is really a waste of time. But if it's the latter and you have monitored the content and made improvements, then republishing is absolutely the way to go. Within your Google Search Console make sure to avail yourself of the "Search Queries" report. Sort that by both impressions and clicks. If you see content from the last 28 days or longer that has not accumulated any clicks that's a clear sign that Google "didn't like that content" much. Once you sort for seasonal shifts, use that report to spot the content that didn't connect the first time and then update and republish. That's where you will get the most "bang for the buck" in this area. Pro Tip: use the tool www.answerthepublic.com to find questions users are asking around the root keywords of your posts and then seek to ask and answer some of those questions in your content. Doing this will promote more "complete" content pieces that Google will eat up and rank accordingly. Good luck! Hope this was helpful.

Hi Radi, Syndicating content isn't always bad if it is done right, and Google is pretty good at getting this right anyway. They know that you can't stop someone copying your content. Have you checked to see if they are setting your pages as the canonical page? This is the way that syndication should work - ideally they would rel=canonical back to the page where the article resides on your site. If they don't, I would be asking them if they would mind doing that for you. You clearly don't mind good exposure, but I would call it a safeguard for both sites. -Andy

Hi there Ultimately, what you're trying to do is guest blog for SEO, which Google says is a no no. The reason I say this is because, above all, you're mentioning "links"; not the value that your product or viewpoint will bring to a customer. Here is how you should approach link building for your client: Look for citations / listings that are relevant to your clients industry Look for partnerships / certifications that the client may have that could include listings Look for resource / reference opportunities on how-to sites (eHow, Wikihow, Wikipedia - don't abuse this strategy) Use client data to develop case studies or whitepapers Offer authors / writers topics or stories to write that includes your data and a link to that data (keep branded) Look for charity or community sponsorship opportunities Here are some more great ideas from Backlinko. The reason I list these items above, is because while they garner links and quality ones at that, they also offer users great information about your business when and where they are looking for it. You're building links to capture audience attention, not just users. So, while guest blogging isn't a bad thing at all, I think you could stand to put a little more legwork behind it, build some great content, reach out and build relationships, and ultimately build a fantastic brand in the process. Let me know if this helps! Good luck! Patrick

Looking forward to seeing those changes and improvements Rand

Hey there! Your traffic data in your campaign is imported directly from your Google Analytics account. We don't change or alter it, so if you're seeing dropped traffic there can be a few different causes. If your traffic in your Moz campaign is lower than what you're seeing in GA, this is likely due to a connectivity issue the prevented us from collecting your traffic data on a daily basis. Oftentimes this is caused by expired or invalid tokens. We recommend reconnecting that token to restore traffic data. You can double check this by heading into your Traffic from Search section and switching the timeframe to daily. You may see missing data points from the days it wasn't connected. If your Moz traffic matches what you're seeing in GA (as it sounds like is the case for you), this might be an issue on GA's end. We would recommend troubleshooting with Google to find potential causes. Traffic drops can also be due to SEO-related issues. Unfortunately, we can't diagnose SEO root causes for you, but you can definitely use Moz Pro to research why it might have happened. Did you have an increase in crawl errors that might be preventing people from reaching your site? Did a competitor make big strides recently? The Q&A forum is a great place to reach out to SEO experts who might be able to help. You might also consider reaching out to an SEO consultant to look into the issue!

Hi Radi, There really isn't any advantage to placing multiple links from your Home Page to a single page on your site. It splits your link juice among those pages and adversely affects their ability to rank. The only benefit might be if you are attempting to generate more leads from a UX perspective and want to create multiple CTA's to your digital marketing page. From an SEO perspective, however, any internal linking should be strictly limited to relevancy and pragmatism - give your visitors what they want in the easiest way you can without spamming your own site. One link from your Home Page to any page on your site is plenty. Cheers and hope this helps! Rob

Hi Radi, The time it takes for Google to crawl your website very rarely fluctuates. It will typically take about 2 weeks for a crawl regardless of whether you use the Console to request a recrawl or not. You may save a day or two of waiting with the request but realistically it is probably best to just let Google do its thing and crawl your site when it comes around. It's a much better idea to focus on your content and to make the most of each crawl you make rather than to make small changes and demand a recrawl to determine if it has had any effect. That's a good way to drive yourself insane! Hope this answers your question, Rob

yep that's right you can get data on links to your facebook page

To be clear that's a URL change not just the name.

Could using canonical links help in this situation? I guess if I have no external links to the category pages then canonical links wouldn't be appropriate here?

Nope! If you could summarize the issue one more time with your examples, we'll get back to you shortly.

That's really helpful Paddy - Thanks!