{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "Our SEO audit found a number of 404 'Not Found' errors. How serious is this?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The Severity of 404 ErrorsWhile Google has stated that having a few 404 errors is a normal part of the web and won't directly penalize your site, a large number of them can be a serious issue with indirect negative consequences for your SEO performance. The severity depends on the importance of the pages returning the error.Key problems caused by 404 errors include:Poor User Experience: When users click a link and hit a dead end, it creates frustration, leading to higher bounce rates. This can signal to search engines that your site provides a poor user experience. Wasted Crawl Budget: Search engine bots have a limited number of pages they will crawl on your site at any given time. When they repeatedly encounter 404 errors, they waste resources that could have been spent discovering and indexing your important, live pages. Lost Link Equity: If a page that has valuable backlinks from other websites returns a 404 error, the authority or \"link juice\" from those links is lost. This can negatively impact your site's overall authority and ranking potential.Broken Internal Linking: Internal links that lead to 404 pages disrupt the flow of authority through your site and prevent both users and search engines from easily navigating your content. In short, if the 404s are on pages that used to receive traffic, have backlinks, or are part of your core site structure, they should be treated as a high-priority issue to fix." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is the best way to fix broken internal links that are causing 404 errors?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "A Prioritized Approach to Fixing Broken LinksThe most effective way to fix broken internal links is to take a systematic and prioritized approach. The goal is to correct the link at its source so that both users and search engine crawlers are sent directly to a live, relevant page.Follow these steps:Find All Broken Links: Use a website crawler tool, such as Screaming Frog or the Site Audit feature in platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush, to perform a comprehensive scan of your website. These tools will generate a report of all URLs that return a 404 status code and, crucially, show you which pages contain the broken links (the \"inlinks\"). Prioritize Your Fixes: It's not always practical to fix every single broken link immediately, especially on large sites. Start by addressing the links on your most important pages, such as your homepage, primary service or product pages, and pages that receive significant traffic. Choose the Right Solution:There are three primary ways to fix a broken internal link:Update the Link: This is the best solution. If the link is simply incorrect due to a typo or because the target page's URL has changed, edit the source page and update the link to point to the correct URL. Redirect the Broken Page: If the original page has been permanently moved or replaced, implement a 301 redirect from the old, broken URL to the new, relevant page. This preserves user experience and passes link authority. Remove the Link: If the linked page was deleted and there is no suitable replacement, the best course of action is to simply remove the link from the source page. Regularly crawling your site for broken links should be a part of your routine website maintenance to ensure a good user experience and maintain your site's SEO health." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "When should we use a 301 redirect versus other methods?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Choosing the Right Redirection MethodUsing the correct type of redirect is crucial for signaling your intentions to search engines and preserving your SEO value. The choice between a 301 redirect, a 302 redirect, or a canonical tag depends on whether a page's move is permanent or temporary and whether you are dealing with duplicate content.Use a 301 Redirect for Permanent MovesA 301 redirect signals to search engines that a page has permanently moved to a new location. It is the best method for passing the vast majority of link equity (ranking power) from the old URL to the new one. You should use a 301 redirect in the following scenarios:You have permanently deleted a page and a similar, relevant page exists to serve the user's intent.You are migrating your website to a new domain. You are changing your site's structure, causing URLs to change permanently.You are consolidating two pages into one and want to forward all traffic and authority to the single, new page.Use a 302 Redirect for Temporary MovesA 302 redirect indicates that a page has temporarily moved. It tells search engines to keep the original URL in their index because you intend to bring it back. This is appropriate for situations like A/B testing a new page design or redirecting users while a page is temporarily unavailable for maintenance. Use a Canonical Tag for Duplicate ContentA `rel=\"canonical\"` tag is not a redirect. It is a signal placed in the HTML head of a page to tell search engines that it is a copy of a master page. This is used when you have multiple URLs with the same or very similar content (e.g., from URL parameters for sorting or filtering) and you want to consolidate all ranking signals to a single, preferred URL without actually redirecting the user." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What are trailing slash inconsistencies and how do we fix them?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The SEO Impact of Trailing SlashesA trailing slash is the forward slash (/) at the end of a URL. An inconsistency occurs when your website allows a page to be accessible at two different URLs—one with the trailing slash (e.g., `example.com/page/`) and one without (e.g., `example.com/page`).This is a significant SEO issue for several reasons:Duplicate Content: Search engines treat URLs with and without a trailing slash as two separate, unique pages. If both versions serve the same content, it creates a duplicate content problem, forcing the two pages to compete against each other in search results. Diluted Link Equity: If external websites link to both versions of the URL, your inbound link authority is split between the two pages instead of being consolidated into one, which weakens your ranking potential. Wasted Crawl Budget: Forcing search engines to crawl multiple versions of the same page wastes your site's crawl budget, which could be better spent discovering new and updated content. How to Fix Trailing Slash IssuesThe solution is to enforce a single, consistent URL structure across your entire site. The standard practice is to choose one version (typically the one with the trailing slash) and redirect the other version to it using a permanent 301 redirect.For WordPress sites on an Apache server, this is typically done in two steps:Update Permalinks: In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings > Permalinks. Ensure your Custom Structure or chosen structure ends with a trailing slash (e.g., `/%postname%/`). Save your changes. Edit the .htaccess File: For a more robust solution, you can add rewrite rules to your `.htaccess` file. This file is located in the root directory of your WordPress installation. Add a rule before the `# BEGIN WordPress` block to redirect all non-trailing-slash URLs to the trailing-slash version. It is critical to add this rule correctly to avoid redirect loops, especially for the `/wp-admin/` directory. By enforcing one canonical version, you resolve duplicate content issues and ensure all SEO value is directed to a single URL." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "We have a lot of old pages being redirected. Does this hurt our SEO performance?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Understanding the Impact of Redirects on SEOHaving a large number of 301 redirects is not inherently bad for SEO; in fact, they are a necessary and beneficial tool for maintaining link equity when URLs change permanently. A properly implemented 301 redirect passes most of its ranking power to the new page. However, problems can arise from how these redirects are managed, particularly with redirect chains and excessive redirection.The Problem with Redirect ChainsA redirect chain occurs when one URL redirects to a second URL, which then redirects to a third, and so on (e.g., Page A → Page B → Page C). While search engines can follow chains up to five redirects long, they are not ideal. Each redirect in the chain adds latency, which can slow down page loading times for users and waste search engine crawl budget. This can lead to a poor user experience and may cause crawlers to abandon the process before reaching the final destination URL. The best practice is to avoid chains by ensuring all old URLs redirect directly to their final, live destination page.Excessive Redirects and Crawl BudgetWhile there is no penalty for having \"too many\" individual redirects, a massive number of them can impact your crawl budget. When search engines have to process a redirect, they must crawl both the original URL and the destination URL, which uses more resources. If your site has thousands of redirected pages from past migrations, it can introduce extra crawling that may slow down the discovery and indexing of your new, important content. The key is to ensure redirects are implemented cleanly—as a single step from the old page to the new one—and that old, redirected URLs are eventually removed from internal links and XML sitemaps to clean up the site structure." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is schema markup (structured data) and how can it help our SEO?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Defining Schema Markup\nSchema markup, also known as structured data, is a standardized vocabulary of code that you add to your website's HTML. Its purpose is to provide explicit context about your content, helping search engines like Google understand what your page is about in a much deeper way than they can from keywords alone. Developed as a collaborative effort by major search engines, this vocabulary (found at Schema.org) allows you to label entities, relationships, and properties within your content. For example, you can explicitly tell a search engine that a specific number is a product price, a string of text is a reviewer's name, and a date is for an upcoming event.\nHow Schema Markup Boosts SEO\nWhile schema markup is not a direct ranking factor, it provides significant indirect SEO benefits that can improve visibility and click-through rates:\n\n Eligibility for Rich Snippets: The most visible benefit of schema is that it makes your pages eligible for rich snippets in search results. These are enhanced listings that can include elements like star ratings, review counts, prices, event dates, or FAQ dropdowns directly on the search results page. \n Increased Click-Through Rate (CTR): Rich snippets are more visually appealing and provide more information at a glance, which makes them stand out from standard blue links. This often leads to a higher CTR, as users can see that your page is highly relevant to their query before they even click. \n Improved Content Understanding: By clearly defining your content, you help search engines index your pages more accurately and show them for more relevant queries. This is also crucial for feeding factual information to generative AI and voice search assistants. \n Powering the Knowledge Panel: Schema markup, particularly `Organization` schema, is a key source of information for your brand's Knowledge Panel, helping to ensure accuracy and consistency." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What type of schema is most relevant for a B2B cybersecurity website (e.g., Organization, Product)?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Prioritizing Schema for B2B Cybersecurity\nFor a B2B cybersecurity website, implementing a strategic combination of schema types is essential to communicate authority, define your services, and build trust with both search engines and potential customers. The goal is to clearly define who you are as an organization, what you offer, and the expertise you provide.\nThe most relevant schema types include:\n\n Organization Schema: This is the foundational schema type and should be implemented on your homepage. It explicitly identifies your company's legal name, logo, address, contact information, and official social media profiles. This information is critical for helping Google populate your brand's Knowledge Panel accurately. \n WebSite Schema: This schema helps identify your website to Google and can enable the Sitelinks Search Box feature in search results, allowing users to search your site directly from the SERP.\n Article/BlogPosting Schema: For your blog, whitepapers, and threat intelligence reports, `Article` or the more specific `BlogPosting` schema is crucial. It helps Google understand the content is editorial and can make it eligible for features in Google News and Top Stories carousels, highlighting your thought leadership.\n Product and Service Schema: If you offer specific cybersecurity products (like a firewall appliance or a SaaS platform) or defined services (like penetration testing or incident response), use `Product` and `Service` schema. You can specify features, pricing (if applicable), and service descriptions. For software, the `SoftwareApplication` type can be particularly useful. \n FAQPage Schema: If you have pages with a question-and-answer format, `FAQPage` schema can make your questions appear as interactive dropdowns directly in the search results. This is excellent for capturing visibility by answering common customer questions. \n Person Schema: Use this on author bios or leadership pages to establish the expertise and authority of your key personnel, which is a vital component of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness)." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How do we implement schema markup on our WordPress site?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Implementing Schema on WordPress with Plugins\nFor most WordPress users, the easiest and most reliable way to implement schema markup is by using an SEO plugin. These tools handle the technical code generation, allowing you to focus on providing the correct information. The most popular and effective plugins include Rank Math and Yoast SEO.\nThe general process is as follows:\n\n Install and Configure an SEO Plugin: Install a plugin like Rank Math or Yoast SEO. During the setup wizard, you will be prompted to enter site-wide information, such as whether your site represents an organization or a person and to provide your business name and logo. This automatically generates the foundational `Organization` and `WebSite` schema for your site. \n Set Default Schema Types: In the plugin's settings (e.g., 'Titles & Meta' in Rank Math or 'Content Types' in Yoast), you can set a default schema type for different content types. For example, you would set all 'Posts' to be treated as 'Article' schema by default.\n Customize Schema on a Per-Page Basis: When editing an individual post or page, the plugin will add a meta box to the editor. Here, you can override the default schema and choose a more specific type. For instance, on a page with a list of questions, you could select 'FAQ' schema. On a product page, you could select 'Product' schema. The plugin will then provide fields for you to enter the required properties, like the question text, product price, or review rating. \n\nOther Implementation Options\n\n Dedicated Schema Plugins: If your SEO plugin lacks the specific schema type you need, you can use a dedicated plugin like Schema Pro. These plugins often offer a wider range of schema types and advanced customization options. \n Manual Implementation: For advanced users, schema can be added manually by inserting the JSON-LD code directly into the header of a page or via a code snippets plugin. This offers the most control but requires technical knowledge to ensure the code is valid. \n\nAfter implementation, always use Google's Rich Results Test to validate your markup and ensure it's free of errors." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Why is Google showing the wrong information in our brand's Knowledge Panel?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Understanding How Knowledge Panels are Generated\nGoogle's Knowledge Panel—the information box that appears on the right side of search results for brand or entity queries—is generated automatically by its algorithms. The information is compiled from various sources across the web that Google trusts, including Wikipedia, authoritative third-party websites, and your own website. \n\nIf the information displayed is incorrect, it's typically because Google is finding inconsistent, outdated, or conflicting data from these multiple sources. It may be pulling an old logo from a news article, an incorrect founding date from a directory listing, or a description from a source that is not your official website.\nTaking Control of Your Brand's Information\nThe key to correcting this is to establish a single, authoritative source of truth that Google can rely on. The most effective way to do this involves two main steps:\n\n Implement `Organization` Schema: The most direct way to feed correct information to Google is by implementing comprehensive `Organization` schema markup on your website's homepage. This code explicitly tells Google your official name, logo, website URL, social media profiles, address, and other key business details. By providing this structured data, you are giving Google a clear, machine-readable signal about your brand's identity. \n Claim and Suggest Edits: You should claim your Knowledge Panel to become a verified representative. Once verified, you can \"suggest edits\" for the information that is incorrect. While these edits are not guaranteed to be accepted, they have a much higher chance of approval if the information you are suggesting is supported by the `Organization` schema and other consistent information on your official website. \n\nUltimately, consistency is key. Ensure your company details are uniform across all your online properties, including social media profiles and major business directories, to reinforce the correct information to Google." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How can we claim our Google Knowledge Panel and suggest edits?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Claiming Your Knowledge Panel: A Step-by-Step Guide\nClaiming your Google Knowledge Panel allows you to become a verified representative of your brand or entity, giving you the ability to suggest edits and influence the information displayed. \nFollow these steps to claim your panel:\n\n Search for Your Entity: Perform a Google search for your brand or organization's name to bring up the Knowledge Panel. \n Initiate the Claim Process: At the bottom of the panel, look for a button or link that says \"Claim this knowledge panel.\" If this option is not visible, it may mean the panel is not claimable at this time or has already been claimed. \n Verify Your Identity: After clicking the claim button, Google will require you to prove you are an authorized representative. To do this, you must sign in to a Google account that is also a verified owner of one of your entity's official online presences, such as:Your website's Google Search Console accountYour official YouTube channelYour official Twitter or Facebook account \n Complete Verification: Follow the on-screen instructions. In some cases, Google may require additional verification, such as providing documentation or a selfie with a government-issued ID to confirm your identity and association with the entity. You will receive an email confirmation once the review is complete. \n\nSuggesting Edits After Verification\nOnce you are verified, you can suggest changes. It's important to note that you cannot directly edit the panel; you can only submit suggestions for Google's review. \n\nTo do this, navigate to your Knowledge Panel (while logged into your verified account) and click the \"Suggest an edit\" button. You can then propose changes to specific elements like the logo, description, or social links. When submitting, provide a brief explanation for the change and, if possible, a link to a public URL that confirms the information. Edits are more likely to be approved if they are supported by information on your official website, especially data provided via `Organization` schema." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Our site is creating a lot of thin or duplicate pages from search parameters. How do we stop this?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The Problem with URL Parameters\nURL parameters (also known as query strings) are the parts of a URL that appear after a question mark, such as `?sort=price` or `?filter=color`. They are often used for sorting, filtering, tracking, or paginating content. While useful for users, they can create significant SEO problems if not managed correctly. Each unique parameter combination can create a new URL that shows the same or very similar content as the original page, leading to:\n\n Duplicate Content: Search engines may index multiple versions of the same page, diluting ranking signals and causing confusion about which URL is the canonical (master) version. \n Wasted Crawl Budget: Google may waste its limited crawl budget crawling thousands of insignificant parameter-based URL variations instead of your important, unique pages. \n\nThe Solution: Canonical Tags and Crawl Management\nThe best practice for managing duplicate content from URL parameters is a two-pronged approach:\n\n Use the `rel=\"canonical\"` Tag: This is the most important step. The canonical tag is an HTML element placed in the `` of your webpage that tells search engines which version of a URL is the preferred one for indexing. On all parameter-driven pages that do not create unique content (e.g., sorting or session ID pages), the canonical tag should point back to the clean, non-parameterized version of the URL. This consolidates all ranking signals to your preferred URL and tells Google not to index the duplicates. \n Manage Crawling: While canonical tags handle indexing, you can also guide crawling behavior. You can use the `robots.txt` file to `Disallow` crawling of URLs with specific parameters that provide no SEO value. This helps preserve your crawl budget. However, be cautious: blocking crawling also prevents search engines from seeing the canonical tag on those pages. Therefore, this method is best for parameters that you are confident Google does not need to access at all.\n\nFor most filtering and sorting parameters, using a canonical tag is the safest and most effective solution to prevent duplicate content issues." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Why is it important to have a clean XML sitemap and how do we update it?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The Role of a Clean XML Sitemap\nAn XML sitemap acts as a roadmap of your website for search engine crawlers. It lists all the important URLs you want search engines to discover and index. A \"clean\" sitemap is crucial because it ensures that you are guiding crawlers efficiently and effectively, without sending them to dead ends or low-quality pages.\nA clean sitemap should adhere to these rules:\n\n Include Only Indexable, 200 OK URLs: The sitemap should only contain the final, canonical versions of your pages that return a 200 OK status code.\n Exclude Non-Canonical URLs: Never include URLs that have a canonical tag pointing to another page. This sends conflicting signals to search engines.\n Exclude Redirected URLs: Do not include URLs that redirect (e.g., 301s) to another page. This wastes crawl budget by forcing the crawler to process the redirect instead of going directly to the final destination. \n Exclude 404 Error Pages: Including pages that are broken or no longer exist is a significant source of crawl waste and signals poor site maintenance. \n Exclude Pages Blocked by robots.txt: If you've blocked a page from being crawled in your robots.txt file, it should not be in your sitemap.\n\nBy maintaining a clean sitemap, you help search engines use their crawl budget wisely, focusing only on your valuable, live content and speeding up the discovery of new or updated pages.\nHow to Update Your XML Sitemap\nFor most WordPress sites, the process of generating and updating a sitemap is automated by an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO or Rank Math. These plugins automatically create a sitemap and update it whenever you publish new content or make changes. To update it, you generally need to:\n\n Configure Your SEO Plugin: In the plugin's settings, ensure the XML sitemap feature is enabled. You can typically choose which post types (e.g., posts, pages, products) to include or exclude from the sitemap.\n Submit to Google Search Console: Copy your sitemap URL (usually `yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml`) and submit it under the 'Sitemaps' section in your Google Search Console account. You only need to do this once; Google will recrawl it periodically.\n Regenerate After Major Changes: If you make bulk changes to your site's structure or URLs, you may want to manually trigger a regeneration of the sitemap within your SEO plugin's settings to ensure it is up-to-date." } } ] }