Is this a legit approach?

No, not really. Google has never confirmed the use of CTR as a ranking signal for their search rankings. And, services such as these point to the fact that if Google did use CTR as a heavy ranking signal, it could easily be manipulated. That's what this service is proposing they are doing, manipulating the search results.

Now, does CTR actually impact search rankings? It's only speculation at this time and does seem like a logical factor to influence ranking. Google wants to show the most relevant results to the user; the results that answer the users search query the quickest and most complete. However, I don't think it could ever be a heavy impact ranking factor because it can be so easily manipulated.

A single URL for both desktop versions and mobile versions is the recommended best-practice from Google (https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/overview/select-config?hl=en). So, I believe your client should first understand this if going the non-responsive option.

If responsive is still ruled out, then I suggest creating a m.domain.com subdomain for the main domain. You'll want to make sure you integrate the correct canonical tags, so Google understands that the main domain is the authority and unique content. Including rel="alternate" tags that point to the mobile versions is also recommended.

Hi VC,

Unfortunately, I do not think there is a default reporting option to sort a compared Source/Medium report by % changed. Absolute change is available (although sometimes doesn't sort properly) and may give you a good idea of the traffic differences - Absolute change may even be better since it could identify a low %, but high traffic change.

To find exactly what you're looking for I suggest:

• Export the Source/Medium data for 2014
• Export the Source/Medium data for 2013
• Run a VLOOKUP function in Microsoft Excel to have a single table with 2014/2013 data

Now, you can calculate percentages, absolute values, and sort/filter the data as you see fit. Google Analytics provides a lot of the necessary data analysis tools, but it doesn't replace the power of MS Excel :)....yet.

I suggest not to block foreign traffic.

• You do not know why someone might be searching from a foreign country.

• Foreign traffic may help you identify key content areas for optimization, curation, opportunities, ect

• Your site may provide value to foreign visitors in some way that you don't yet understand and removing all traffic could have a negative impact. For example: Foreign visitors cite your content and routinely link back to it (helps you in the SERPs).

If you're seeing many bot attempts on your admin, change its login address. That is a good first measure to preventing brute force attacks.

You can also use a plugin to limit the login attempts. If a bot comes and tries to login it will be prevented from logging in after X attempts.

Use a service like Cloudflare for additional security. Cloudflare is a free CDN provider that will give you an additional layer of security for your site. It has a list of known ip abusers and can filter those out from reaching your website.

What SEO plugin are you using? If Yoast, there should be settings you can apply to differentiate subsequent pages' titles.

However, your blog should have canonical and/or rel/next settings added to properly inform Google (and other SEs) that the page being viewed is page 2..3..4..5..ect. Then, the SEs understand that this is a continuation of the original page and factor on-page SEO into the ranking accordingly (i.e. do not count the duplicate titles against you).

Hmm, well in my experience the larger ecommerce/brick stores usually have a single product page. They then allow you to set your store location and the stock is updated based on that user preference. E.g. If I go to walmart there is 1 product page and if I select My Store the product inventory will adjust to show if it is in stock near me.

If you cannot invest in a system like this AND the product pages are duplicate content, you'll want to set 1 product page as the canonical page to prevent duplicate content issues. I suggest adding the locations to the main product page, so users can easily view their location and inventory status - since a single product page location should rank highest in the SERPs.

I would say that the only piece missing is the notification to the user that the article content has been updated.

Let's say that I read your blog everyday. I've seen this post previously, read it, and the content is value-added. Now I notice that the same post is again at the top of your blog - why? When I click into the article it seems similar to me, at first glance.

I would suggest putting a highlighted notification at the top of the post that informs the read the content has been updated for the latest trands|content|info|your word here

Now it makes perfect sense to update the publish date, informs the user that there is new content in the article, and it makes perfect sense for articles that are as old as your example.

In the Moz report it means 330 unique c-blocks that link to your website.

It sort of an indicator of the diversity of your website's link portfolio.

Hi RobertFisher,

I've recently integrated Cloudflare Business into a large ecommerce site (top 50k Alexa). The site had several issues that impacted page load speed, our new visitors were experiencing very long load times in the 4-7 second range.

Cloudflare is amazing for the price. at $200/month it greatly reduced the amount of HTTP requests, minification reduced our page size, and it even saved a lot of bandwidth (which translates to server cost savings and/or more for your money).

Their support service has been consistent, however, I know their Business and Enterprise customers are priority.

Most other CDNs are going to cost far more than $200. It reduced our page load speed around 50%, before optimizing the other performance configurations they have available.

You do need to do some quality and assurance testing. With any CDN, when you deliver certain things differently, like javascript files, a new conflict could arise. For example, our sliders were having trouble rendering after integrating CF, so we had to adjust the settings to get them loading properly again.

Is there something more specific I could tell you about it?

Hi hellemans,

Make sure that your shared negative keyword list is not conflicting with your campaign level negative keyword list at the shared library level.

You can add a list of negative keywords at the campaign level or through the Shared Library - the SL is where your conflict may be happening.

To remove a negative keyword from your campaign, you'll need to manage it at the campaign level.

Campaign > Keyword > Scroll to the bottom of the campaign > Add/Remove negative keywords at the ad group/campaign level

Hi Jonathan,

Welcome to the Moz community!

You should definitely update the display and landing page URLs to match the landing page the user will eventually end up. Not doing so could be in violation of the Google AdWords policy and negatively impact your account.

source: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/6021546?rd=1#027

• Redirects: You can use a redirect for tracking purposes as long as the destination URL's final resulting page uses the same domain as your display URL.

I know that in the above they talk about redirects for tracking purposes, but it remains the same for general advertising guidelines.

Updating the ads shouldn't be much of an issue, though, with Excel and the AdWords editor. I suggest exporting all of your campaign ads into Excel and then doing a Find and Replace to update all of the URLs to the new domain. Then you can easily import those ads back into the AdWords editor.

In fact, I believe the AdWords editor added this as a native function in the 11.0 version.

https://support.google.com/adwords/editor/answer/47657?hl=en