Thanks for the clarification on the platform Suarezventures.

I have worked with plenty of brands that have a similar setup on Shopify. They usually put the blog on a subdomain because Shopify's content management system - let's see, how do I say this nicely... sucks. These clients put up Wordpress on a subdomain. Some also put up a landing page platform like Hubspot or Unbounce to which they send paid traffic.

Your plan to put the eCommerce site on a subdomain has some benefits in that the content side won't be affected by future platform migrations on the eCommerce site. However, the content side will benefit the most from being at the main level with the homepage and most of the backlinks. Thus, organic search traffic to the eCommerce site could be harmed by this move. I normally wouldn't recommend it for that reason (because the business is eCommerce, which is what pays for the content) but in your case, it sounds like the eCommerce site doesn't bring in much traffic as it is.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

Hi Suarezventures,

I typically draw the subdomain vs top-level domain line at whether the two sites / experiences and purposes are vastly different. For example, a site like blogspot that hosts different websites on subdomains, or a brand that has a forum community on a subdomain because it runs on a different server and has a much different purpose than the main domain.

Ideally, if you're moving to Wordpress you'd have the content and the store on the same site (e.g. https://site.com). If this isn't possible for them, having one or the other on a subdomain would be better than having them on (Squarespace?).

What about having the new site on a subdomain so you don't have to deal with migrating the existing site? Can' t you leave it there and put up store.site.com on WP?

Hi Christian,

I don't see any evidence of the site being deindexed now. Here are some things I checked for you, along with a few observations:

• Nothing in the Robots.txt file, or robots meta tag, or X-robots HTTP header response that would keep these pages from being indexed by Google

• The rel= canonical tags appear to be functioning properly

• The home page is indexed and not duplicated by other indexed pages

• Google has about 86 pages indexd from your domain

• Hrefl Lang tags appear to be implemented properly

• There are only about 50 links going into the domain from other sites, and the ones from Moz are the best of what few aren't just random scraper sites (harmless, but annoying).

Sometimes Google ranks a brand higher when it first comes out because it's a chicken or egg situation. How else can they collect data for their machine to chew on unless some traffic is sent to a new site? We used to call this phenomenon "the Google sandbox" a long time ago, but it is essentially (in its effect) the same thing. We do it ourselves with A:B testing and paid advertising. You have to spend some budget to gain enough data to know what's working and what isn't.

I don't think you have a technical SEO problem here. I think you need to continue building a brand and producing useful, rich content. Good luck!

Julian,

Will you be translating the content into other languages?

And/or customizing it for the location? For example, changing US English spelling to the rest of the world English spelling?

To answer your question, no, you don't have to worry as much about duplicate content if it is only happening on different ccTLDs. The biggest issue with duplicating content is that Google has to choose one to show. In this case, that decision becomes easy to do: Show the one in the right country.

Use of Href Lang tags, and setting the target country in GSC, are helpful hints as well. I recommend using this tool by Aleyda Solis and team to build out the tags: https://www.aleydasolis.com/english/international-seo-tools/hreflang-tags-generator/

Ahmad,

Has your site been indexed yet?

If you consistently see the IP address and redirect, or change content, based only on that then you will want to exempt Googlebot from those personalizations in one way or another. There are many options to this, like blocking the resources that handle this (i.e. the JavaScript.js file associated with personalization based on history or geo-location), or what was suggested above. Blocking that piece of script in the robots.txt file is less likely to be seen as cloaking.

All of this begs the question though: If you're looking at the IP, then setting a cookie, then updating the content based on the cookie, it shouldn't be an issue in the first place. Googlebot isn't accepting your cookies. So if I were to browse in Incognito mode using Chrome (and thus not accept cookies), would I see the same site and product assortments no matter which location I was in? If that's the case, maybe you don't have a problem. This is pretty easy to test.

Ultimately, I think you're going to want a single product page for each Sku, rather than one for each product at each location. The content, pricing, etc.. can be updated by location if they have a cookie, but the URL should probably never change - and the content shouldn't change by IP if they don't have a cookie.

1. Check IP

2. Embed their location in a cookie

3. Set cookie

4. If cookie is excepted and thus exists, do personalize.

If the cookie does not exist, do not personalize. You can show a message that says you must accept cookies to get the best experience, but don't make it block any major portion of the content.

Hello Nik,

I'd really need to see the site to give an informed opinion on this. If you don't want Google to pay any attention at all to the knowledge centers, you should probably block those in their respective Robots.txt files.

NikCall,

Subdomains aren't so cut and dry, in my experience. It depends on whether Google thinks they're the same site or different sites.

Have you tried setting up your campaign in Moz to track www.domain.com instead of domain.com?

Oleh, I think it would be safe for you to try to eliminate ranking for that keyword. With that low CTR, If you don't do it then Google will do it for you, which would be worse.

It is my understanding that CTR is a signal, but that if someone is manipulating it they would have to keep doing it for the long run in order for it to stay effective. It wouldn't be a permanent thing, as you would slowly rise up again when the attack stopped.

You wouldn't be the first or the last to block all traffic from the Philippines. I'd start there.

That said, I have no idea what the title and description are in the SERPs, or what the landing page is, or if the content is relevant to that query. All of these things matter.

Also, I have doubts that CTR for a single page or query by itself would cause a 10% drop in traffic across the site, even if the global CTR did lower because of it. As Roman suggested, have a very close look at your link profile using a tool like Link Detox or Moz Link Explorer, just in case they are hitting you there as well.

Hello Oleh,

It could be that you just started ranking for that term in that country (for any number of reasons), and therefore the spammers took notice and started emailing you. It really is hard to say without knowing the page, but Roman has some good advice. I'm not entirely sold on Disavow files, but you should definitely look to see if you have new links from domains in the Philippines.

You can also block traffic from that country if you don't think you'll ever get any customers from there.

Hello Micey123,

I think the link provided went to a phenomenal post, but there may have been a misunderstanding about what the post was instructing. From what I could tell, it was about tracking your own internal site predictive search, and not Google's.

Assuming you can get the full referrer path, including query string, in GA or via log files, I think one way to approach it would be to separate the queries from last to first, and you'll see the last is probably the original query that was "assisted" (or "interrupted", depending on how you look at it) and the first one in the URL was the auto-complete suggestion that was chosen. Here are a few examples.

This is the URL from my address bar while searching on Google for “I’m searching for something" without quotes, and selecting the suggestion for "I'm searching for something".

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=i'm+searching+for+something&oq=i'm+searching+for&gs_l=psy-ab.3.1.0l4.1499.1817.0.7345.4.4.0.0.0.0.92.291.4.4.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.4.290.Fz6_pi3zWK4

First query in the URL string (I'm searching for something):
q=i%27m+searching+for+something

(q=i%27m = I’m)

Second query in the URL string (I'm searching for):
q=i%27m+searching+for

This is the URL from my address bar while searching for “baby pandas are” without quotes, and selecting the autocomplete suggestion for “baby pandas are ugly”. I agree Google. Hideous creatures.

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=baby+pandas+are+ugly&oq=baby+pandas+are&gs_l=psy-ab.3.1.0j0i22i30k1l3.20197.27059.0.30266.25.18.7.0.0.0.94.1212.18.18.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.24.1197.0..0i67k1j0i131k1.jSUEntwdCtg

First query in the URL string:
q=baby+pandas+are+ugly

Second query in the URL string:
q=baby+pandas+are

URL from address bar while searching for “typing in full” and selecting the autocomplete suggestion for “typing in full sentences”.

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&site=&source=hp&q=typing+in+full+sentences&oq=typing+in+full&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0i22i30k1l4.4541.7337.0.10987.15.13.0.0.0.0.141.1024.10j3.13.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..2.13.1022.0..0j0i131k1.RXV-_xh0WAk

Same pattern.

This is the first…

day of my life
https://www.google.com/search?num=100&site=&source=hp&q=this+is+the+first+day+of+my+life&oq=this+is+the+first&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.0l4.2320.8339.0.20873.18.15.0.0.0.0.99.928.12.12.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..6.12.927.0..0i131k1.-seSP1VLnd4

day of my life lyrics (after “day of my life”).

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=this+is+the+first+day+of+my+life+lyrics&oq=this+is+the+first+day+of+my+life+ly&gs_l=psy-ab.3.0.0l2j0i22i30k1l2.35530.35903.0.38600.3.3.0.0.0.0.77.213.3.3.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.3.212.1OcUb3_4rGU

First query:
this is the first day of my life lyrics

Second query:
this is the first day of my life

I hope this helps. But there may be an easier way. I'll will ask around for you if you'd like, but I want to make sure I understand your needs first. Do I?

Hello Tom,

Five or six years ago this may have been a problem, but I seriously doubt it is right now. The text is clearly visible to humans and bots and you are not doing anything malicious. The div with the text appears over the image and it views fine in text and full mode when looking at Google's cache of the page.

Though both Pedram and Donford have answered your initial question well, I could not officially "endorse" them because I don't advocate keyword density ranges and do not agree that a manual review of the site would result in you being subject to any kind of penalty.

Write naturally for the topic at hand, focusing content on the correct keywords and topics with the goal of being helpful to the reader. Don't worry about manual checks for this because it will be obvious to the person looking at the site that nothing fishy is going on.

Good luck!

Well that's where it might get difficult. I forgot for a moment we lived in a not provided world where queries don't pass through referrers.

Being on a secure site would help, and you might try looking into jumpshot.com for click-stream data, though you're probably talking tens-of-thousands of dollars.

I think the auto-suggestions themselves are a good indication of what people are trying to search for in relation to the other searches. People Also Ask boxes are another one.

Tools like SEMrush, Moz and Stat Search Analytics can help you see the types of results you're showing up for, and they track features like "people also ask" suggestions.

I know none of this easily solves your problem or answers your question. I'll let you know if I find out something that does. In the meantime the question is still open for others to answer.

Rajiv,

In GA are you looking under Goals or Events? Go to Behavior ---> Events.

Do you see anything there? And are you sure people are clicking those buttons?

That landing page is massively keyword stuffed. If it works for you then fine, but if you're having trouble ranking I would look into drastically reducing keyword use on the page.

Good luck!

Hello MIcey123,

Yes that is what I was talking about above by using the parameters in the URL to pull out the queries. However, that post was written in 2013 and Google is not passing that information through the referral header anymore so I would be surprised if you get anything. Most of it will be (not provided).

Hello Micromano,

See this thread on Stack Exchange. You can mark up your organization, as well as any organization (or other "entity") that you describe / discuss on your website. Marking up an organization doesn't mean you are necessarily affiliated with them UNLESS you use the "SameAs" tag to connect that data with your own website, wiki page or social profiles...

Also, you may want to look into using JSON-LD instead. You would still base it on the Schema.org hierarchies, but the code is slightly different. The cool thing about JSON is that you don't have to show all of the data you're marking up. It can just be in the source code and not visible on the page, similar to meta descriptions as far as that aspect goes.

Here's what I would do.
1. Put Organization Schema for YOUR business (or your client's) in the HTML header of EVERY page using JSON-LD. Here's a generator I like. Also check out the JSON-LD Playground for testing your code. Don't forget the SameAs tags pointing to other sites/pages that you can verify as "official". This includes Wikipedia pages, Wiki Data pages and social profiles.

2. Also surround information about YOUR business (logo, NAP...) with traditional Schema.org Organization markup.

3. Use traditional Schema.org Organization markup for the business listings, and include a SameAs tag around a link to their official websites.

Here's a good Stack Overflow thread to check out: Mixing Together Schemas.

If you consistently see the IP address and redirect, or change content, based only on that then you will want to exempt Googlebot from those personalizations in one way or another. There are many options to this, like blocking the resources that handle this (i.e. the JavaScript.js file associated with personalization based on history or geo-location), or what was suggested above. Blocking that piece of script in the robots.txt file is less likely to be seen as cloaking.

All of this begs the question though: If you're looking at the IP, then setting a cookie, then updating the content based on the cookie, it shouldn't be an issue in the first place. Googlebot isn't accepting your cookies. So if I were to browse in Incognito mode using Chrome (and thus not accept cookies), would I see the same site and product assortments no matter which location I was in? If that's the case, maybe you don't have a problem. This is pretty easy to test.

Ultimately, I think you're going to want a single product page for each Sku, rather than one for each product at each location. The content, pricing, etc.. can be updated by location if they have a cookie, but the URL should probably never change - and the content shouldn't change by IP if they don't have a cookie.

1. Check IP

2. Embed their location in a cookie

3. Set cookie

4. If cookie is excepted and thus exists, do personalize.

If the cookie does not exist, do not personalize. You can show a message that says you must accept cookies to get the best experience, but don't make it block any major portion of the content.

Google is a corporation whose sole purpose in the universe is to make money. I would never think of anyone as a "hater" for legitimate criticisms of an entity that has all the rights of a human being, but none of the responsibilities or risks of one.

The javascript you shared would allow Google to fairly easily access the page ending in dtc_inventory_ajax.php?id=29935291. If that's the page you want them to not be able to access, perhaps you'd be better off referencing just the id portion of the URL, which should be enough for the database to take the user to the right page.

Regardless, you "should" be OK with just the robots.txt block, though all of the href tags are sort of diluting the amount of pagerank you can send to other pages from whatever page you're on.

The robots.txt disallow statement you provided might be improved upon.

Disallow: /*?

The one above seems to me like it would only work on URLs that were in the root directory. Try this one instead of, or in addition to, the one above:

Disallow: /?id=*

Also I'd add this one to any Wordpress site, which in itself should take care of the issue if the URL in your script is an example of those that you're concerned about:

Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/

You can use the URL Removal Tool in Google Webmaster Tools to get the ones that have already been crawled out of the index. You can do it at the URL level, or at the directory level.

Lastly, if you're blocking Google and the SERP says unable to display because of the robots.txt file I don't think you need to worry about the content on those pages affecting your site with regard to a Panda penalty or anything like that. However, if Google had already indexed the content on those pages you will want to remove the URLs via Webmaster Tools as described above.

I would imagine it would affect sales. There's probably no way around that. If they do this make sure call tracking is implemented so they can see what it does to their conversion rates.

As for rankings, Nakul Goyal gave the best answer so far with a first-hand account. He said they didn't change. But I would also imagine that you'd lose some sales from other channels that you can no longer participate in without pricing, such as Google Shopping, Amazon, and price-based comparison shopping engines.

There are other ways to block people from scraping your site for pricing besides requiring customers to call, so I wouldn't say that issue justifies this strategy on its own.

Good luck!

Everett