SEO Training

Can I use robots.txt to optimize Googlebot's crawl?

Today's question comes from blind five year old in San Francisco who wants to know, can I use robots text to optimize Google bots crawl?

Is Google doing away with use of the meta description?

We have a good question from Quinton in Vancouver who asks in the search results, Google will often display a snippet appropriate to the specific search query, often disregarding the metadescription.

What is your advice for geotargeting sites with ccTLDs?

Today's question is about geotargeting.

How many pages can Google index from a single site?

Okay, Chris from the UK asks, is there a limit to the number of pages that Google will index from one site?

How can I remove old content from Google's index

Here is a fun question from Sebastian in Germany. Sebastian asks, “We still have old content in the index. We block them via robots.txt use 404 and delete them via Webmaster Tools.

When would someone use noindex, follow in a robots meta ta

Today's question comes from Andy in New York.

How can new pages get indexed quickly

Vladgidea from Romania asked, "How much time is Google taking to index a new webpage, and how can we accelerate the process besides using Google Webmaster Tools?" Well, the simplest answer is to get more links.

Should I use ccTLDs for sites not targeted to those countries

We have a good question from Andy in New York who asks, "as memorable .COM domains become more expensive, more developers are choosing alternate new domains like .IO and .IM, which Google geotargets to small areas.

Does Google treat "brandname" and "brandname®" differently?

We've been getting a lot of good questions from Ryan in Dearborn, Michigan. Ryan asks many corporate legal departments insist on using registered and trademark symbols on brand keywords and titles.

Will changing hosts cause any SEO concerns?

Fernando C in Spain asks, we are a pretty big site.

Does PageRank take into account cross-browser compatibility?

Today's question comes from landlord in Colorado who asks, does PageRank take into account cross browser compatibility?

Can moving my website to "the cloud" harm my listings?

We have a question from Michael S in Austria.

How long does it take for Googlebot to recrawl a page?

Clayton SEO from South Africa asks, say your index page or any page on your site has been cached by Google, crawled and indexed by Google.

Can too many redirects from a single URL have a negative effect on crawling

Today's question comes from India, where Arpit asks, "Can too many redirects or multiple hops for a given URL, 301 as well as 302, have a negative impact in crawling/indexing/ranking?"

Can I disallow crawling of my CSS and JavaScript files

CUTTS: A fun question from SEOmofo in Simi Valley, they ask "If I externalize all CSS style definitions and Java scripts and disallow all user agents from accessing these external files (via robots.txt), would this cause problems for Googlebot?

How can I get Googlebot to notice a 301 redirect

Today's question comes from a different Matt.

Should I make up filename extensions to improve my rankings

Today's question comes from London. IanVisits asks, "Knowing that the keywords in a url is one of many factors used to rank a site, what about the impact of the filename suffix?

Can coding errors affect how a page is indexed

We have a fun question from Ryan in Dearborn, Michigan, who asks: previously, you mentioned that W3C validation isn't a ranking factor.

Should I disallow crawling of all of my site's JavaScript files

Today's question comes from Zurich, in Switzerland.

Will using Google Analytics have a negative effect on my ranking

Today's question comes from Linda,in Lakewood New Jersey. Linda asks:"If I use Google Analytics to track conversions on my e-commerce website, would that have a negative effect in my Google search engine results?"