Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Ross,

Thank you for confirming this - I was hoping this would be the case. I appreciate the help!

Many thanks,
Katarina

Hi Moz community,

I hope everyone is well. I would like to ask for your advice on how to show a Google Business listing in both the UK and US for our brand. I understand that you can add multiple locations to your Google listing under the 'Manage Locations' tab but I wasn't quite sure how it worked in practice.  I have a couple of questions below:

If we have 2 registered locations/offices (one in the UK and one in the US) are we able to create 2 separate locations that will show our business listing correctly in the right-hand margin when people search for our brand in the US and UK respectively?

If so, when a user finds our business listing in the US, are we able to serve them our US website version when they click the 'Website' button, as opposed to showing them our UK website?  Our US website has been created as a sub-directory from our main UK site and can be seen as: www.example.com/us/

I hope someone is able to help, and thank you in advance.
Katarina

Thank you for taking the time to help me with all of my questions Kate. It is refreshing to know that experienced SEO marketers like yourself are happy to help others build their knowledge.

I hope you have a good weekend!

Thanks again Kate. This makes sense to me now and it seems to be a nice, easy method. I just have one final question when it comes to differentiating content between UK and US pages.

If we have a page that is relatively similar in terms of content, but the language has been amended to match the local dialect, will this remove the duplication issue if hreflang is in place?

Say, for example, there are 5 key features about a product on a page, and 3 of them are suited to both the US and UK markets. Is it enough to add localised spellings to each description, or would the entire paragraph have to be re-written from scratch to create 2 unique copies?

I see that some competitors re-write their content entirely which makes sense if they're appealing to differing local user intent but some only alter the spellings and their price points where needed. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks
Katarina

Hi Kate!

Thanks for your response, I really appreciate the help.  What you say makes a lot of sense. The reason we are opting for US and UK sites is that we offer different package and pricing information to each market so it was important to have a distinction between the two.

One thing that is very new to me, however, is the use of hreflang. Here is a sample of what we currently have on our UK and US pages:

I wasn't sure whether we needed to only include the emboldened line of code on US pages. Are the other 3 lines necessary? The same layout appears on our UK pages also.

Thanks in advance!

Hi, Moz community.

I hope you’re all OK and keeping busy during this difficult period. I have a few questions about international SEO, specifically when it comes to ranking pages in the UK and the US simultaneously. We currently have 2 websites set-up which are aimed towards their respective countries. We have a ‘.com’ and a ‘.com/us’.

If anybody could help with the issues below, I would be very grateful. Thank you all.

Issues

• When looking in US Google search with a VPN, the title tag for our UK page appears in the SERP e.g. I will see:

• UK [Product Name] | [Brand]

• When checking the Google cache, the UK page version also appears

• This can cause a problem especially when I am creating title tags and meta descriptions that are unique from the UK versions

• However, when clicking through from the SERP link to the actual page, the US page appears as it should do. I find this very bizarre that it seems to show you the US page when you click through, but you see the UK version in the SERP when looking in the overall search results.

Current Set-Up

• Our UK and US page content is often very similar across our “.com” and “.com/us” websites and our US pages are canonicalised to their UK page versions to remove potential penalisation

• We have also added herflang to our UK and US pages

Query

• How do I show our US SERP as opposed to the UK version in US Google search?

My Theories/ Answers

• US page versions have to be completely unique with content related to US search intent and be indexed separately - therefore no longer canonicalised to UK version

• Ensure hreflang is enabled to point Google to correct local page versions

• Ensure local backlinks point to localised pages

If anyone can help, it will be much appreciated. Many thanks all.

**Hi,****I am looking to improve the aesthetics of some pages on my website by adding written content into collapsible tabs. I was wondering whether the content that is ‘hidden’ by tabs is given less weight by Google from the perspective of SEO? **Some articles I have read suggest that tabbed content is weighted equally with the content which is already immediately visible to the user, but others suggest that this may not be the case. **Please, can I request opinions on the matter? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, many thanks.**Katarina

Hi,

I came across multiple websites where blog articles are split into multiple pages and once you reach the end of the page, you need to click 'Next' or '2/3' to continue reading. Is this a good practice? I understand you keep clicking through multiple pages instead of reading an article only on one page, but you also split the strength of the targeted keyword between multiple pages.

Can anyone advise?

Thanks

Katarina

Hi,

Thanks for your answer. We sell B2B software.

The website is structured as global, /us, /au etc. It's just the urls appear all equal atm.

Thanks

Katarina

Thanks for your time.

Excellent! Now I'm super scared haha But I  understand what you are saying and will share your advice with the team.

Many thanks.

Katarina

Hi all,

What is the best Wordpress theme for a professional DM blog? I am looking for something minimalistic where I can add my personal profile and have articles nicely listed, potentially grouped within categories.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Katarina

Hi,

First of all, there is no way you can submit a URL to any tool and it will provide you with a definite number of keywords you rank for. Why? Because you can have thousands of long-tail keywords that would bring your URL in search results.

There are a couple of things I would advise. The first one is a tool called SemRush - this will show you limited number of keywords your URLs rank for - you can explore your competitors' pages and their keywords too. The tool is really interesting, it allows you to submit projects and track changes over time.

Another tool is your own Google Search Console which is probably the best solution - simply select a date range and you will see all search queries you received impressions for. You can also see clicks and positions. You can select a particular landing page (equivalent of your URL) and this way explore all search queries that triggered this page for impressions. If you are not sure how to do it, let me know and I'll send some screenshots across to guide you through. It will be very useful for you indeed!

i hope this helps. Let me know how you get on! Good luck!

Katarina

Hi there,

DA 37 is fine, but if you can see the website is rubbish, Google will realise it soon too! What if they carry on with this strategy and they will be marked as a proper spammy website? No one wants a backlink marked as a spam. Google sees backlinks as recommendations/testimonials. You want them to be top quality not only when it comes to DA, but all other aspects - such as spam score, relevancy to your website (niche), etc.

So even though your competitors might have a free backlink from them, is it really worth to you? Instead, don't be desperate for the backlink & challenge yourself and find another relevant website for a backlink instraf and make sure you are happy with the quality of the website. Feel free to check the directory discussed in future and see if they improved or not. If yes, then go for the backlink. For now, I wouldn't. It's about both quality and quantity - but quality is more important when it comes to backlinks.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your backlinks!

Katarina

Hi all,

I manage a website for a software company. Many terms can be quite tricky so it would be nice to add a Glossary page. Other than that, I have 2 questions:

1. What would be the SEO benefits?

2. How would you suggest to implement this glossary so we can get as much SEO benefit as possible (for example how would we link, where would we place the glossary in the terms of the sitemap, etc.). Any advice appreciated!

Katarina

Hi there,

What SERP results you get depends on your search queries. If you search for a niche category of your products and you see your results, naturally you will see the URL where these products sit. So it is the exact URL of the result.

Potential benefits:

• You see the search term a few times which might look appealing and increase CTR's
• You can easily run research on competitors and see how they organise their sitemap or in which category they place a particular product
• Potentially it can be more eye-catching as it takes more space than a short URL.

I hope this helps.

Katarina

Hi there,

Yes, definitely!  Don't forget to update not just content, but also titles, H1's and other H's - so Google can index them with the local info. Also, make sure you update your contact details and use identical details for all social accounts and directories. You can add a new article that is more location focused and add a map. Don't forget Google My Business - optimise it and make sure you have your website link there.

If you are coming with fresh content, I would recommend researching long-tail keywords or the most frequent search queries via Keyword Planner. Try multiplying keyword lists, i.e. generic terms x location (town, area, state etc.). This should give you a good idea, and I would start there. Publish regularly. All this will work for you!

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Katarina

Hi there,

First of all, if your competitors have only links from directories, that's perfect for you! You can see they have no proper backlink strategy in place and your options are really open.

When it comes to directories, you are right, they are mostly ignored. I would still recommend you submit your business there as you might be found through their searches. So don't hesitate and list yourself everywhere relevant and make sure you use your details exactly as on your website and there is no discrepancy.

I don't know enough about your business and website, however I would recommend you make sure you have content. Since it's all that counts - amazing content and backlinks. If you neglect one, you might struggle. Keep adding relevant content, maybe blog articles such as case studies, industry facts etc. and share. Infographics can be a very interesting way of how to earn backlinks - you just need to select some interesting data and share - via your own social or getting in touch with third parties. I would prefer publishing infographics on your website and have a code to share. I always prefer activities that give me a bit of PR - so if your content (whether infographics or a guest post) can receive backlinks, get shared and bring relevant traffic, you won!

I don't like backlinks for the sake of having them as many as possible. Make sure you focus on relevancy. I would recommend to create a spreadsheet and search where your relevant traffic might be. Maybe you can team up with an online magazine and offer a competition (details on your site), maybe your customers/suppliers/institutions you are a member of are happy to give you a backlink. Very often they will want something in return, so it's up to you how creative you can be.

Have a look at Google mentions and find out where your business is mentioned. Just get in touch and ask if they could give you a backlink. Can you provide a placement for students, sponsor an event or provide an interesting article to benefit .edu organisations? .edu links are very powerful. Also, don't forget review sites - submit your company for your customers to review to receive a backlink and traffic.

If I were you, I would start here - with a brand new spreadsheet and I would just start generating ideas within your niche. If you get stuck at any point, just let me know! Also, any more questions, I'm happy to answer.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Katarina

Hi there,

Keywords are just one of the factors - probably the most obvious one.

However, without you noticing, they might have rebuilt the website's foundations which means the website is improved technically - stronger and faster. Obviously, we would need to analyse before & after, but it can be anything from responsive design, accelerated mobile pages, internal links and overall site structure (even thought it might seem the same).

It can also be any of the following: gained a number of good backlinks (e.g. launched an intensive backlink strategy), increased their traffic, reduced their bounce rate, improved the quality of their reduced content, focused on meta descriptions, increased their social following/engagement/shares etc. Perhaps you have noticed they changed their URL structure? This could deliver good results too.

So without any further info, it is very difficult to tell as it can be a few of the factors I mentioned above.

Thanks.

Kat

Hi,

I'll give you an idea how I approach this. If there is an image of red shoes, I describe as accurate as I can: 'red high-heels suede shoes with a bow on the top' (I'm being creative!). There is no harm in adding the brand if the shoes are this brand or if you want these shoes to be shown under Images when searching for your brand.

So always be descriptive and feel free to add the brand if it makes sense.

Hope this helps.

Katarina

Hi Jim,

This is not an experiment. It is selected by Google - you cannot choose/set up the sitelinks there. You should check the sitelinks once a while to make sure you are happy with how these pages are optimised. They give you a massive advantage so you should treat these pages as landing pages as they can drive traffic and be a good shortcut to conversions.

I hope it helps. Thanks.

Katarina