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Thanks so much, Miriam! Your response is right where I was thinking. Makes complete sense. Now, to have the conversation with the client to come up with some other solutions. Cheers! - Patrick

Hey Mozzers! I'm working with a client who has 2 websites (different URLs completely), which one is for all parts and the other is for accessories only. They have multiple brick and mortar locations throughout the US and have done a nice job creating Google My Business pages for each and all verified.

Their question is will it benefit them to create and verify another GMB page with same address, but place in "Suite B", a new phone number and apply the other URLs for the accessories site. The business name would also be different, but similar meaning Business 1 = ABC where as Business 2 = ABC Accessories. Their goal would be to try to have both rank or display to improve their local SEO.

In theory it sounds like it will work given NAP would be satisfied within the GMB, but wanted to get the Moz community thoughts on this first before moving forward. Look forward to the replies.

• Patrick

Hey mag777! Happy New Year! Great question and one I'm asked a lot from my business advisory groups, clients and referral partners. It's one that undoubtedly always comes up in conversation when talking about either acquiring new domains or revamping a website... "Should we use the WWW or NON-WWW domain?"

In my 12+ years of web consulting and SEO, it has boiled down to a preference ideology. As mentioned by seoman10 in this thread, it could be seen as a shorter, easier to remember URL. When marketing the domain, you'd always want to confirm the WWW is redirected to the NON-WWW if this is the path you choose to take. And visa versa NON-WWW --> WWW.

As Gaston mentions too, check out your competitors URL structure. It's a quick glimpse up to the address bar while you are already doing your competitive research. Do some searches in Google as well for your website and competitors to see how much of the URL does or could display. Moz.com doesn't use WWW. They could get away with it because it's so short. I on the other hand almost need to with https://whiteboardcreations.com since it's a much longer domain. Keep this in mind for those domains you're working on, too.

From an SEO school of thought and how I now operate, I choose the NON-WWW simply because we can get just a little more of the URL to show in Google SERPs, if we're targeting inner pages to provide a hint more of visual for the searcher. The URL string matches more closely to the Title and Description. That is the way I look at this strategy.

Here is a quick video from Matt Cutts a few years back... should ease your concerns over redirects  
https://youtu.be/Filv4pP-1nw 

Either way, the websites you work on for yourself or your clients will be fine as long as you are consistent for the entire site and redirects are tested and confirmed functional.

Cheers to a successful 2018 for you and everyone else reading!

• Patrick @ Whiteboard Creations (Apex, NC)

Makes perfect sense, Paul! Thank you for the detailed account and what to be aware of. I was already planning something along these lines. The trick is getting people to see the new page once they are redirected. I'll work on this and a header bar or a pop up window may work best. All URLs will be redirected appropriately as well as it's standard practice in shutting down one site to pass authority to another. Thanks again for your insight! - Patrick

Awesome! I was confident I'd get that reply, but wanted to get a 2nd opinion and really appreciate you confirming my initial thoughts.

Thanks, Kevin!

Hi Mozzers,
I have a new client who bought a dental practice from another dentist. The old dentist has a website www.olddentistsite.com (not a real domain, just an example) and the new dentist wants there to be a message on the old dentists website Home page stating how the practice was bought.

My idea just came up... most would do a message on that domain. However, would you recommend I actually create a new page in the new dentists website which the old website domain redirects to

ie: www.olddentistsite.com [redirects to >] www.newdentistsite.com/olddentistsite/ and then on this page we display a nice message about the acquisition, scheduling new patients, new logo, meet the new Dr, a video, better office hours, etc... Is this something the visitors will enjoy or get a good feeling from?

Let me know your thoughts on which option is best to implement. Looking for a few quick replies!! Thanks in advance everyone! - Patrick

Thank you for your valuable input, Laura and Miriam! I have read through all of the links Laura shared and then some more I found on doing other searches on the subject. From the jist of it, it's exactly what you hit on Miriam. I've got some more due diligence on this one and prep work to effectively communicate with my business partners on the most appropriate strategy.

My only challenge with having 1 website that encompasses all the services is that we are then limiting our link building, directory, citation and category output/selection, which drastically limits how we would be able to build any type of authority in one given service area to compete others who are more focused just on that service, ie: carpet cleaning or roofing. Not to mention, receiving valid, real reviews for a specific service.

This is going to be tricky, but an overall great exercise and case study!

• Patrick

Alex,
I agree with EGOL. Many of those domain extensions aren't being used or promoted at this time. They may in the future, however, they are very new to the marketing world and people may get confused or think they are spammy. I'd stick with a .com, .co, .net at this time, if available.

On the otherhand, there have been many case studies on this very topic. Even a post here on Moz. See them below as they are highlighting many valid points. In short, Google doesn't really care what domain you are using, so long as you are creating value on the web for their searchers and building authority for the domain and its pages. It's yours and your client's call to pursue that "builders" extension or not. I'd recommend a strategy to back it up, in order to justify the efforts needed.

• http://searchengineland.com/google-explains-how-they-handle-the-new-top-level-domains-tlds-225671
• https://searchenginewatch.com/sew/study/2433834/case-study-will-new-domain-extensions-provide-an-seo-boost
• https://moz.com/ugc/an-seos-guide-to-acquiring-new-gtlds
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/253408
• https://ceo.xyz/rank-in-google/

Hope this was helpful! - Patrick

Hi Mozzers! I have a lot of knowledge in local search, G+ page setup/optimization, etc, etc... However, I'm about to begin a business based around "home services". The brand will be ABC Home Services as the umbrella. Then under it will be the individual services like "ABC Carpet Cleaning" "ABC Roofing", etc... Each service will have it's own website for optimization purposes and local search authority building as well as the services will be developed over the course of a couple years ie: carpet cleaning would go up 1st, then the next service and so on...

I have purchased all of the domains I want for the services to focus on. What do you recommend I do in terms of setting up Gmail accounts/G+ accounts? Individual service related Gmail accounts and have a main "ABC Home Services" Google account and then add in the service G+ pages over time?

I'm open to any questions, but trying to make this the most efficient for me and my team and also the best if can be for local optimization goals and criteria. Thank you! - Patrick

Thanks so much for the response, Kane.

She is very particular in the content placed on her website. I didn't work with her on her website or her existing pages, navigation, and content, so I'm coming in fresh and from what I know, she was tough to deal with on the content portions.

Adding more pages about her services probably isn't realistic as she doesn't dive into her "services" on the website nor does she want to. She has this false sense that her clients KNOW what she does and will search for her "method". Yet, when you Google her "method", nothing shows.

This led me to talk with her about and be very honest with her, that her name, her method and her book need to be the focal point. So, when people do hear about her, and then Google her, they will get the bigger picture vs just searching for a service keyword and her showing up.

Another challenge is, her budget is low. It will increase, but have to prove it works. I explained this is a limiting factor, but will see where it goes.

We will focus on blog articles, a few press releases, a couple SlideShare presentations about her method and book outline and wish we could do videos, but she will never do a video, but she enjoys and does do speaking engagements.

We also discussed getting her to do more podcast type interviews and try to get her in front of bloggers or podcasters as she speaks very well and would be comfortable doing that.

This will make for an interesting case study if it all works out the way I want it to. One thing I won't allow is for it to ruin or soil my reputation or our mutual brand consultant's image.

Thanks again, Kane! I do appreciate your input. - Patrick

Ian, the use of bold and italic text within pages or articles is so minute to the SEO ranking factors that your best focusing on what really matters for getting ranked. This article can help you see that bold and italic text doesn't even make the list http://moz.com/search-ranking-factors. Even the H1 tag is 3/4 the way down the list.

Per using bold and italic text for your readers, absolutely! Use it appropriately as it seems you have been doing. Also, consider breaking up content with bullet points or using call out sections in the page (if using WordPress, they have plugins and widgets for these call outs to highlight important content snips).

I'd stray away from bolding singular keywords or italicizing a keyword as those are old, out-dated SEO tactics which were never proven to have any affect, positively or negatively. Keep doing what you're doing and always keep your readers' best interests in mind for them to have a nice experience on your site(s)... Google will see this in the Analytics as they remain on the site/pages longer.

Hope this was helpful. - Patrick

Masbro,

We run into this issue all the time working with small business owners. They have a friend's cousin's nephew from down the street get them a website and don't tell them anything about what really is going on with their domain purchase/renewals, where they bought the domain, where they bought the hosting, the login for hosting, where they are hosting email, or logins to WordPress/Drupal/etc if using a CMS. The list goes on.

Unfortunately for us, we have to figure all of that out for them. Although, fortunately, we also get to build a great rapport with the client and educate them on making sure they maintain control over all of their property. I would educate them about all you know for consolidating their domain, hosting and email if you wanted and make sure you keep a login record and you share that with them as well. If they lose it, then you have it.

Now, to answer your question. Many folks are very hesitant to provide direct cPanel access because they may be in a shared environment with many other domains and websites being hosted. So, once they give you login, then you may be able to see ALL of their clients or websites and, to me, that is a big security vulnerability. I'd never allow just anyone into our shared server.

They may also just want to validate who you are in representing your mutual client on their behalf. Usually a phone call to them, with the client on the line is a good starting point, or an email from the client to the host provider.

It really all depends on the level of work you have to do. If it's minor, then you can ask them to provide FTP or SFTP login OR if it's something major or a brand new website, then another alternative you could request is for them to simply provide you a full backup of the website/database files (if any) and you can move the hosting to another provider where you have a little more control.

I believe they are simply looking at this from a security viewpoint. Allowing you access, wouldn't be beneficial to their other clients in the server, putting them at risk potentially.

Again, there are several ways to get to the end point based on your goals and needs for the client. We see it all the time and sometimes it goes smoothly, and others, it can be a long-drawn out nightmare. I hope it's not that latter for you And I hope this was a helpful answer!

• Patrick

Courtney,

I agree with Bradley. You and your client shouldn't worry about it too much. Write the Title to be the best for your searcher to help provide the best explanation for what that specific page consists of. This will also be to Google's liking, especially with the Hummingbird update to show relevance and human readability.

Avoiding stop words can be considered an older SEO tactic, much like placing your brand name at the end of the Title. We now see Google taking the brand names, if placed at the end of the Title, and moving them to the beginning of the Title at their discretion. Also, educate your client on other SEO focused articles and checklists rather than GoDaddy. GoDaddy's SEO content and advice is sub-par at best compared to the plethora of content out there for SEO best practices for proper optimization.

Hope this was helpful! - Patrick

Hey Ruben! Great question as I recently posed a similar question to the community, since we're getting ready to take over an medical practice website and they have 3 office locations. Our goal is to touch up their existing website with improved navigation. One of the key takeaways is that each location has their own independent page.

Within each page, we are going to be accomplishing a lot such as:

• Build the location pages off your root domain as noted above, domain.com/Office1 and domain.com/Office2 so that you can work to build links to those individual pages going forward
• Create and implement Schema markup to let Google quickly identify the NAP (Name, Address, Phone #) to the respective office and make sure it's consistent with the G+ pages information that you verify as noted below
• Provide 100% original and non-duplicated content which talks about the practice, the eye care services, products they offer, and which doctors at that specific office
• An interactive Google map pin marketing their exact location (this also links to their G+ page)
• A slideshow to display only that office's pictures
• Internal links to/from the Home page and some inner pages like the Dr bios, an eye care service, etc
• And most importantly making sure that the office location pages are linked to only their respective G+ pages (you will need separate verified G+ pages as a note)

There are other items we'll tackle for the website, but remember, you can "optimize" the G+ pages, so our focus will be to populate those individual G+ pages with as much content, images, videos, and links to the site page and site Blog as Google will allow. Another tip I learned was to do a Review Acquisition Strategy to obtain more reviews to your G+ pages and other sites by potentially using a service like GetFiveStars.com.

You will also want to build local citations, so we're looking into the new Moz Local service to assist our efforts. Link those to the location pages and if you have a blog, like we'll be doing for these eye doctors, then you can also write articles specific to an area/their location and build more relevance and inner links to the location pages.

I know you were asking about getting ranked in local and feel I went on a tangent, however, all of that will assist in getting the local listing in G+ more relevance and more exposure over the competitors who may only have a G+ page with a description, an image and a link back to the site.

Hope this helps! And all the best! - Patrick

Rachel,

The gimmicks I've heard are countless. The clients feared into buying a product/service are countless. Yet, this is a new one I haven't heard about. I'll put it this way, if you are promoting a service which is "KILLER" and "WILL GET RESULTS" then you had better just show up for the service name in Google, at the very least, right? I wouldn't worry about this "company" and/or "service" and be upfront with your clients about how these types of solicitations will be frequent and annoying.

I'm sure you already did this, but I wanted to do it also and share with the community. First, begin typing in "Autocomplete Engagement" into Google. You can clearly see you have to type out the whole phrase and yet you don't get one single "Instant" result in the drop down menu. Unfortunately, I already entered and searched the whole phrase, so that's why you see it in my search history AND also this post in my screenshot. No results for their SUPERIOR SEO TRICK

Second, when you do search the entire phrase, you get nothing about any mention of an SEO service. Hell, this question is already ranked on 1st page for that term. Scratching my head. Show this to your clients and then let them know it's just another scare tactic to get them to spend some money... I mean waste money.

Hope this was a helpful response! - Patrick

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Bradley,

David is right in terms of your time vs your return if you sell. I had the same idea about buying up domains (lots of them) in hopes to build a few, rank them, generate leads for businesses, then sell them or continue to build leads. It was a mess, expensive, time consuming and something I won't do again. Our return was low, if any on most. We just sold a bunch of the domains last year. Out of sight. Out of mind.

EGOL, the way you responded to this question is amazing. I enjoyed reading it and agree wholeheartedly with you.

All the best, Bradley. - Patrick

We just finished dealing with this exact scenario last week. And we have dealt with it a handful of times when dealing with inexperienced developers or those who just do not know how GA works.

The developer set up our now new client as a User in their account. When we requested access, we got the same answer you did. As we expected. We explained in great detail to the developer that all he needs to do is add our @gmail.com email to that individual client's Profile as an Admin and we will only see that individual client's Profile data. No other clients of his will be seen on our GA account. Every Profile is separate from each other in all GA accounts, so like Bill and Paddy and now I'm saying... Developer is not correct in his explanation to you. Feel free to share these responses with them and also check out more about it in Google Analytics support boards/FAQs. All the best and hope you get the data you need, so you don't have to start over with a new GA account.

I was just about to post the same as Jesse. Get Moz Pro and you'll get a whole bunch of data for all pages, errors, duplicate content, warnings, can do keyword ranking, etc, etc... Definitely worth the investment.

Tony,

Miriam NAILED it! Take her advice and run with it and tackle this large project by chipping away little by little as she mentions. We're in the midst of starting this process with a client who wants/needs to rank in several very small towns in NC, but also 2 bigger cities nearby and the one they are headquartered. It's a daunting task, but planning it out, setting those expectations with the owner(s) and executing items from the plan in a way that doesn't overwhelm you or the business owner or their staff/customers will get you some great results in the end, while playing nicely with Google.

You won't rank locally as NAP (Name Address Phone) won't be apart of each page since there is no physical office location within each of the cities/towns you mentioned. So, don't count on your local listings with Google Maps, however, get some great content in the pages, design them a little differently too and another item I'd like to add to Miriam's task list, would be to create some blog articles around the coupons or specials you are running, which you can link back and forth from the company blog. Google will see you aren't just trying to slap up 40 pages and leave them, rather, they will see you are building the pages and content for your searchers/potential customers, then developing some ongoing content around a specific landing page. You would be creating value and more relevance for you searcher and Google is now seeing this.

All the best in your project! - Patrick

Jeanette,
You'd want to create 2 separate pages around those keywords as someone who is a cat lover looking up info about cat allergies will want a crystal clear, very relevant answer or solution for their cat. Same for a dog lover/owner. When you create 2 pages, just be mindful that your content will need to remain 100% unique (hint: write the content and submit through Copyscape.com to check uniqueness). You can make your secondary keywords the plural variation which will add some more relevance to the pages.

Target your content for what are some allergies most recognized, the signs & symptoms, the treatments, the potential meds that help, etc.... Create a lot of good solid content and section it out appropriately including some paragraphs, bullet points, call to actions and you will have more success than just putting it all on 1 page.

Next, write content around those subjects for both cats and dogs as blog articles or social media posts or guest posts and link it all back to those pages for relevance.

All the best!
An avid dog lover and internet marketer