Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi,

Try Gorkana if it's PR and social media http://www.gorkana.com/pr-products/media-monitoring/ and this one may be worth trying too https://mention.com/en/

Hi,

A few reciprocal links shouldn't be a problem but I'd only do them if it makes sense from a human point of view and if it adds something for the users of your site. Put them in the place on your site that makes the most sense. A fishing gear shop may well link to fishing books and that would make sense.

It's nice to be able to send traffic to another site that also send relevant traffic to you.

Lots of reciprocal links and links that are done for perceived SEO purposes (and not for the users of your site) should be avoided.

A link to another site could come across as endorsing it so make sure you are hooking up with reputable companies that you know and trust, not just ones that rank well.

Hi,

Do you have a Google Plus? It's not a recent post but it sounds like it has worked before http://www.fiveblocks.com/changing-your-company-logo-in-google-knowlegde-graph-2/. Might be worth a go if nothing else has worked so far.

Hi,

As Zee said, GTM is great once set up.

<address>This video was useful when I was setting up auto event tracking in GTM  Auto-Event Tracking with Google Tag Manager | Lesson 5 - GTM for Beginners  and his other posts are good for learning other bits of GTM if you are new to it.</address>

Hi,

I'd use social media - Twitter, Facebook. If you have good images you could also use Instagram and in the accompanying text say that there's a post about it over on your site.

I'd look at what others have done by searching the keywords on that social media platform and seeing what comes up. if they used a good hook or hashtag then use that in your post too.

You could post a few times on your chosen platforms with different text each time and see what works best - don't overdo the posting though as people will get annoyed.

If your topic ties in with something upcoming eg a national awareness day or big event, make sure you post during that period and use the relevant hashtags (which you can usually research before).

Hi,

Twitter says:

• Top Tweet: Tweet that received the highest number of impressions
• Top media Tweet: Tweet with photo, video, or Vine that received the highest number of impressions

It's impressions that count and the only difference is whether or not media is attached.

If my top tweet for a month has the most impressions but no media it is the top tweet. Another tweet that has media is then the top media tweet. That makes sense and I've seen it in my Twitter analytics.

I'm confused when my top tweet is one with media but it is somehow not also showing as the top media tweet. Surely it should be? how can another tweet with media and a lower impressions count be the top media tweet when the top tweet is one with media and a higher impressions count.

Thanks

Hi,

Using http://www.redirect-checker.org/index.php shows:

https://www.yoursite.ro/contact-us
301 Moved Permanently
 https://www.yoursite.ro/contact
301 Moved Permanently
 https://www.yoursite.ro/contact/
200 OK

http://www.yoursite.ro/contact-us
301 Moved Permanently
 https://www.yoursite.ro/contact
301 Moved Permanently
 https://www.yoursite.ro/contact/
200 OK

http://yoursite.ro/contact
301 Moved Permanently
 https://yoursite.ro/contact
301 Moved Permanently
 https://www.yoursite.ro/contact/
200 OK

https://yoursite.ro/contact
301 Moved Permanently
 https://www.yoursite.ro/contact/
200 OK

Thanks, I had wondered if it was location based but it wasn't making much sense - the computers used to check were all much nearer the head office than the satellite office that showed up top - in fact the satellite office is a long way away. We used three different machines and each time we got the same result. The smaller office is in Leicester (UK) and the head office in in Christchurch which is where where 2 checks were done, and another was done in Blandford, all getting Leicester come up top.

Our head office address is the only one listed on Facebook etc so it's a bit odd.

I've just tried it again and got a more local office showing, but it's still not head office.

Thanks for the links to other posts and thanks for the suggestions:

1. Verify all info is correct and the same business name is being used on major data providers such as Yellow Pages, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Yahoo Local, etc. And be sure they are linking to your website. Here is the full list:
   https://moz.com/learn/local/local-search-data-us - **all the info on Google places is correct and the head office. Will see if there are other places we can list it though **
2. Make sure your full address is mentioned on your website contact page. - this is already the case
3. Get quality backlinks from related websites and include the city(s) name in the anchor text.- will try this
4. Use a local phone number area code and keep it consistent - we use a central call centre for most places although the local Leicester office that was showing above head offce uses a local number so even more strange that is should show as it's miles away
5. Possibly have your smaller offices identify themselves with a specific location in their name - will look into
6. Get more positive Google reviews for your office - will look in to but Leicester has no reviews so bit odd
7. Include location and business keywords in your Google Maps description - already doing

Thanks both

Hi,

We have Google Maps listings for all of our offices but a small office often shows up instead of our head office.

Is there any way to get head office showing instead?

Thanks

Hi Jamie,

That's what I though too.

Yossi, where did you get the info that GTM can go in the head? I'd be worried to move it from the body as I'm not sure what difference it would make.

Thanks

Hi,

I think your H1 idea is fine.

For the meta descriptions I'd write a new one for each page and make it so that it compels searchers to click your page. That may or may not be the first few words on your page. If the words do not capture interest you may lose a searcher to another search result. The meta description is important for click through.

As you identified, just a product name or half a sentence will not serve you well.

Hi,

Can I add Twitter cards code using Google Tag Manager?

Thanks

Looks just the job.

Thanks David

When I worked in the newspaper industry and they started to use video, we were always told to keep it to under a minute and a half - I think if you go beyond that then people lose interest. Even so, if you go to the full time it has to be interesting throughout. The shorter the better really and don't do it for the sake of it - it has to add something for the viewer.

Hi,

I'm trying to filter staff visits from Analytics on a new view. IT have given me an IP address range and I have found the following advice:

"For an IP address range, you’ll have to select Custom Filters, then choose Exclude, and IP Address from the dropdown list. Then, enter a regular expression for the IP Address"

If this is correct, how do I write the IP address range 1xx.xxx.xxx.160 - 1xx.xxx.xxx.223  in RegEx?

Thanks

Thanks Peter

Thanks.

I had added the second property code because at the time I think was the only way to get the Universal Analytics without losing historical data. I looked at https://blog.kissmetrics.com/universal-analytics/ which said:

"Setting up Universal Analytics
You need to set up a whole new property for Universal Analytics. This will send all of your site data to a new location. You won’t lose your old data. It will just get split up between two different properties. However, you will be starting over from scratch with your new “Universal” data."

I was leaning more towards the option you suggested so now feel more confident removing the second property code and I'll upgrade the first property code to Universal.

Hi,

We have been using two lots of GA code on our website - one was the old code and we added the new GA code under a different property too.

Now that the old code is redundant do I:

1. update the old code on property 1 to the Universal version and keep running the two properties (not sure this is the one I should do)

2. remove the old code from property 1 and don't replace it with Universal version (but what happens to historical data?)

3. remove the new code in property 2 and update the old code to the latest Universal version (but what happens to the historical data in property 2 or doesn't it matter?)

The current code on the site is:

<noscript><p>Please enable javascript</p></noscript>

<noscript><p>Please enable javascript</p></noscript>

<noscript><p>Please enable javascript</p></noscript>

<noscript><div>Please enable JavaScript for your browser.</div></noscript>

I've clearly got a bit confused so help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi Matt and Bridget,

Thanks for your help.

I have re-looked at the problem and spoken to one of our IT guys. Think we have collectively got to the bottom of it!

Spectrum-online seems to have two sorts of page - those with keyfax32 and those without. The ones I had checked for code had been the Keyfax pages and I hadn't known about the other type. The other type is the one with the UA-7828548-3 code e.g https://www.spectrum-online.co.uk/services/tenants/register.aspx. Our IT guy is going to see if it is possible to add the code to the other Keyfax32 pages.

The reason they appeared under the GA property with the domain set as Western Challenge was because historically, the Western Challenge domain would have had had that code on it and the Spectrum Online code (set up before I started). When Western Challenge was redirected, the Spectrum Online part was left.

I think the reason I kept getting redirected when trying to see the top pages under the UA-7828548-3 Western Challenge property is because the Western Challenge domain has a redirect on it and the domain hasn't been changed in the analytics property. I can't change it to spectrum-online.co.uk because no site is set up. As we are changing to a new system in a few months though I think I won't fiddle for now and will make sure the UA-7828548-3 code is transferred to the new system.

Hope that makes sense and thanks again.

See you at SearchLove....

I'd agree that it takes hard work.

Make sure your site is as good content-wise as it can be and make sure you only use ethical ways to promote it - trying to take short cuts won't pay off in the long run.

You're in the right place to learn how to make your site great - there's plenty on moz and on the site of partners Distilled.

Also, try watching the regular Whiteboard Fridays https://moz.com/blog/category/whiteboard-friday

Good luck

Hi,

This page might help http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/to-slash-or-not-to-slash.html

Why will it be two blogs if it's all about the same product? It may be worth looking at just one blog but tagging topics so people can find what they are after quickly

Hi,

If there's a reason to have both sites live then instead of a 301 (which would only show the content from one site) you could use a canonical (if the content can't be updated to something different enough) and chose the main of the two sites

Got to agree with Patrick - the first URL's look normal and the others look simply odd.

Remember your site is for humans as well as search engines.

Hi,

Are they products that will come back in stock again soon? If so I would have a page that says it is temporarily out of stock but why not sign up to newsletter that will tell you when it's back in. That way they may still buy the product from you.

I'd also add 'you may also be interested in' products on the page to see if people want to buy something else from you in the meantime.

Hi,

It makes sense to have a Facebook page for every country you operate in because you can then talk in the right language to your fans and post content that would be of regional interest to them.

Hope that helps

I'd look at which has the most traffic then and which makes them the most money.

The primary site will need to cater for the people who would have landed on the secondary site equally as well as if they had landed direct onto the secondary site though.You don't want to put off people who are already happily using the secondary site.

Hi,

Do they both do/sell the same thing?

Which one has most visits?

Why do they want to merge them?

I would work on the assumption that it will affect the rankings on desktop too and if you have time to make your site responsive in time then I would - it covers all bases then.

Also, as mobile searches are increasing it makes sense to go responsive as soon as you can.

Hi,

What's the best way to deal with old news on a website. We don't want to take it off of the website but the news section will look ever bigger if we don't do something. Is there a good way of archiving?

(The news is currently all under a 'news' tab in the top nav).

Thanks

Hi,

Paid positive reviews are definitely not what they want to see but it's a bit less clear about paid impartial reviews as you aren't trying to influence what to write. I'd still steer clear though and find ways to encourage genuine reviews with the money saved. Given that you may end up paying for a bad or neutral review I don't see the point.

If you have Google Analytics (or similar) take a look at where the traffic is coming from and compare it to any historical data if you have it.

It could be something happened online like better rankings or a buzz about you on social media as Don said a link in a forum or it could be something offline like a newspaper or magazine article on you or even a mention on TV. Check referrers in Analytics.

If you have been at any trade shows that could also have driven traffic. Check 'city' report in Analytics.

If it's possible you may also be able to implement a 'where did you hear about us' question at some point - either when people come to buy something or as an after sales thing. That would help for future.

All good news for you though as you said but it's better to know why it happened so you can do more of it.

Hope that helps

I would add that if you are going to have user generated content, make sure there's a review process so it doesn't get spammed/abused.

Thanks Hutch

Thanks.

How do you set up the find and replace filter?

Hi, I think the 3rd party can add code.

Our main site currently has both old and universal code

Thanks, but still unsure. I've also read

https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSite

http://www.ericmobley.net/guide-to-tracking-multiple-subdomains-in-google-analytics/

http://moz.com/ugc/single-google-analytics-tracking-code-for-multiple-sites-when-to-use-how-to-report

I don't think it's s a problem for you but there's more info here: http://moz.com/community/q/why-should-your-title-and-h1-tag-be-different

Hi,

Our jobs section has recently been moved on to a subdomain https://jobs.ourwebsite.co.uk/home.html which is handled by a third party. Our analytics for the jobs section was lost as no code was added to the pages. Previously it was part of the main site.

How do I track it as a subdomain so that it appears to be part of our main site?

We have the old GA and universal GA code on the site

Thanks

How do you mean 'is this bad' - what aspect?

It's not great that your meta description is the same on each page. It should describe the page, not be generic to the whole site.

Hi,

That should be enough to stop the search engines crawling and indexing the test site.

Remember to take it off when you go live though.

Hi,

If the dev site can't be crawled (which is generally the idea), it doesn't matter what you call the URL's on the test site.

If the URL's on the old site are good, keep the same names for the new one to avoid the need for 301's. If the URL's could be better though, change them but 301 the old pages to the relevant new ones.

Hope that helps

Hi, if you can get yours indexed first it would be seen as the original - otherwise it's difficult to tell.

Linda's answers sounds good and yes it does count as duplicate.

Hopefully they will agree to implement the tags as it shows you as the source and not them. Google doesn't always know which site something came from in the first place.

I'd 301 it if it has trust and no spam.

I'd look at doing the redirects to the most relevant pages though rather than just the home page - as you say the content is similar to what you have - it shouldn't be too hard to match up the important pages.

As others have said, alerts will come to you based on the search terms and frequency you have told Google - you can change these if the results emailed to you aren't what you are looking for.

In terms of what it means, all it means is that the web pages have matched the terms you asked for.  It doesn't mean the pages are of any set quality or ranking.

Alerts are great for tracking mentions of your brand and those of competitors.

Hi

Check out this http://moz.com/learn/seo/internal-link

Good advice above but I'd also ask him to educate you in SEO and his plan for marketing your site. Any SEO should be able to explain what they are doing for you and why - you are after all paying for them and it shouldn't be a 'dark art'.

If they don't help you, try and educate yourself using the great resources on this site and get another SEO...

Ideally you don't want a redirect chain. It's best to redirect the old page to the new, missing out the middle one.

Redirect the middle page to the new too.

Hope that helps