"Google Shopping doesn't allow the promotion of services."

Reference: https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/2770285?hl=en

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).

If your company plans on having the acquired domains redirect to your primary domain, then 301 redirects would be the proper method to use.

You'd set those up in the acquired domains' .htaccess file.

It looks like you have canonical URL meta information in place. However, there is no 301 redirect from the non-ww version to the www version.

For instances such as this, you want users to resolve to a single URL, which I believe you want the www version of the URL. You should implement a 301 redirect from the non-www to the www URL.

Also, in your Google Webmaster Tools, make sure to configure the setting that tells Google what your preferred domain/home page is.

This should help clear up any duplicate content issues for this case.

That would be effective if the Source/Medium was consistent between both years. You might have better luck with Channels for this method (less variation between years), but Source/Mediums are probably going to vary between years. I.e. 2013 includes a Source/Medium that no longer exists in 2014, so the data would not align neatly.

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.

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.

FWIW, I think you executed appropriately. I would have redirected 1 -> 3 and 2 -> 3 just as you did. It is going to take a while for the authority to catch up to the new (#3) domain and I would expect a lot of that authority coming from 2 -> 3 since 1 -> 2 has had a lot of time for its authority to pass to the #2 domain.

If you've developed a page that is highly related, but with fresh, unique, value-added content then I would feel comfortable 301'ing the old page to the new page. The new page will get the old page's authority, over time.

I say to put all those comments on a single page. If I'm searching through comments, I hate skipping through multiple pages.

If comments are increasing your page load speed, then pagination may be the solution, but I would try to solve the performance bottleneck first. You would want a proper canonical tag and use prev/next rel tags.

do logged in-user and anonymous user should have the same behavior ?

For the most part, yes, however it depends on the forum you are running. The important piece to understand is that whatever is hidden behind a login wall, remains hidden to the search engines. So, you have to weigh that factor when deciding which content to display to everyone versus the content to display to only logged in users.

How do you suggest handling canonical in a UGC world ?

Canonicalization isn't too hard to manage. Your forum software should include canonical URLs, but if not you will want those implemented into the template as soon as possible. The use of the rel=prev and rel=next tags are highly recommended. This allows you to keep the main forum thread as the canonical URL and Google understands that the subsequent pages are related to the main page and how they add value.

Do you have specific editorial guidelines enforced on UGC ?

Again, that's up to you and your community. What work editorially for one forum may not be the most desirable for another (e.g. the use of profanity). As long as the content being added is of value, then I consider it good content. With forums, you can be a lot more loose with the guidelines and allow users to interact as they desire.

Don't let your forum become infested with Spam, obvious self-promoting threads, and make sure all links are nofollow. Many forums implement restrictions on users in regards to links and only when they prove themselves can they add links to their posts. Link and Spam management are very important for forums.

Hello Yan,

Fortunately, the on-site SEO for UGC is not very different from the on-site SEO of other forms of content. We can still apply those best-practices to the forums and UGC you're experiencing in forums.

Duplicate content / on-page factors

• Make sure the forum is using proper canonicalization
• use of rel=prev/next for paginated threads
• Semantic SEO where appropriate
• Make sure to have all on-page SEO factors optimized (title, headings, images optimized, ect)

Broken links

• Use Moz or a tool like Screaming Frog SEO Spider to identify 404 pages. Redirect any important pages with a 301 to its nearest related page (save SEO authority for the important dead pages).

Are there more specific issues you are experiencing with the forum?

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.