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You can use the Moz Crawl tool to identify Duplicate issues. You can get the same report for a competitor that you get in your campaign. http://pro.moz.com/tools/crawl-test

Yes it will.

This is fairly new to me so I'd like to know the answer to your question as well..

From the brief research I've done, I've read somewhat conflicting info. I've read that you could implement the rel=alternate tag on the geo-targeted page/subfolder that contains the dupe content. This will tell Google which page is the preferred version but for people searching in the targeted location it would return the geo-targeted page. (If its in a different language, you'd include the hreflang tag as well)

On the other hand, I also read that you cant geo target different countries if you have a country specific domain. So for example, website.ca is dedicated to serving canada results, and therefore cant geo target US. You can only geo-target when you have international domains (.com, .net, ,org etc.) I'm not sure how true this is, and cant find a source that explains this in detail.

If someone has experience in implementing geo-targeting with success (languages/locations/country specific domains etc) i'd also appreciate some clarification.

Greg

Nothing wrong with contributing to other websites! The problem comes up when you start scaling it up and do it to much! (quality decreases and footprints start to appear)

Instead of looking to "build" links through groups of webmasters that exchange content (My Blog Guest), why not find websites related to your industry manually that have blogs and reach out to the webmasters or editors?

You could look at what they've been publishing in the past and visualize what type of content they'd love to share with their audience and then pitch your ideas to the editor and see what they say. It doesn't have to be directly related to the service you offer as long as its in the same general industry.

Just remember, with guest posts, the intention is to write awesome content for a given website and its audience, not to try and sell anything or deliberately do it just to reference your site. Keep the website's audience in mind first and you should get your articles published on great sites!

Greg

Do you mean the Knowledge Graph? http://moz.com/blog/the-day-the-knowledge-graph-exploded

This is a tricky one and don't have an exact answer for you.

In my opinion, G+ plays a part in triggering the knowledge graph to display when searching for the brand name, but more importantly it needs to be an established and known brand first.

I wont go into details on how to "build a brand" but the jest is to make sure your back links are primarily (or a good percentage of them are) branded terms (this as well as many other factors)

Once Google recognizes your site as a brand, the knowledge graph should appear with all the info Google knows about it (Google + info etc) 
http://moz.com/webinars/online-reputation-management-branding-for-serp-domination

http://www.localseoguide.com/google-plus-takes-over-google-knowledge-graph-for-brands/

http://moz.com/ugc/brands-google-plus-and-the-knowledge-graph-a-love-triangle

Greg

How many links have you built to this site? Can you confirm that the links are live? Are the pages were the link exist indexed?

If you've been building links to this domain since January, the DA surely should have gone up by now. The DA is only measured by links pointing to the site and page speed doesn't influence this at all.

Check your webmaster tools account and see if Google is reporting on any links pointing to the site. If not, i'd audit the links you've built. Perhaps you linked to the wrong domain or those pages simply haven't been indexed yet.

Greg

Agreed,

As long as each of the location pages are unique but all contain the word "trip" you'll be fine.

Have you considered taking it a step further and researching what people search most for each location?

Example:

Atlanta Trip vs Atlanta Tours vs Atlanta Holiday vs Atlanta Vacation etc.

Obviously it would need to match the intent of the page, but you could further improve the page by matching what people search for most for each location in the URL and Title. (If "trip" is a common term for all locations, then use this across them all)

Greg

Strictly speaking, any form of duplicate content is frowned upon and in theory, if a link exists on a page with content identical to another website, that link would be less valuable.

If each of your descriptions in listings were unique to some extent, i'd guess the value of the link would be somewhat better.

I don't think you'd run a risk of getting penalties though as the dupe content doesn't originate on your site, (unless the description you plan on using is identical to content somewhere on your site)

I think the only negative to using the same description across multiple sites would be the value that passes with the link.

(I don't have any evidence for this though, just a theory)

Greg

Just use the Main domain URL.

I don't think individual pages are a factor. If you include the post URL, Google i assume only looks at the domain so either or, it doesn't matter, It just needs to confirm that your a contributor to a given domain.

To my knowledge, you have to do both for it to take effect.

You should include the rel=author tag on the post AND include the "contributor to" link in your G+ profile (Link to the website were you contributed)

Greg

Yes, there is a way.

Use the Rel=canonical tag on your duplicate pages. Essentially you'll be telling google: "This is page B, which is a duplicate of Page A, please use Page A when displaying results in the SERPS"

Insert the code on the head of your page. Example:

Page A: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/139394?hl=en

I agree with Phillip,

If your site is established and ranking well for brand terms, then making this change shouldn't effect the over all branded rankings, especially seeing as your not taking the brand out completely.

The keywords should ideally be the main focus of the page, thus having your keywords in the front of the title should boost rankings for those targeted terms.

I have always used and recommended using: Main Keyword | Secondary Keyword - Brand Name

On a side note: Something i recently started noticing (I don't have any resources to refer to) is that quite a few of our competitors don't use the "Keyword | Keyword - Brand" formula, instead they use "Great [Keyword] deals from leading [keyword] suppliers - Brand Name" and they seem to be ranking really well. (More descriptive words that entice users)

Perhaps Google is starting to prefer "natural" looking titles (including stop words, adjectives etc) and not putting much extra value on "optimized" title tag formula's (Keyword | Keyword - Brand) This is just a thought and haven't researched it much.

Greg

Nothing wrong with contributing to other websites! The problem comes up when you start scaling it up and do it to much! (quality decreases and footprints start to appear)

Instead of looking to "build" links through groups of webmasters that exchange content (My Blog Guest), why not find websites related to your industry manually that have blogs and reach out to the webmasters or editors?

You could look at what they've been publishing in the past and visualize what type of content they'd love to share with their audience and then pitch your ideas to the editor and see what they say. It doesn't have to be directly related to the service you offer as long as its in the same general industry.

Just remember, with guest posts, the intention is to write awesome content for a given website and its audience, not to try and sell anything or deliberately do it just to reference your site. Keep the website's audience in mind first and you should get your articles published on great sites!

Greg

I would recommend the articles be on your own website FIRST. you can then syndicate your article on your external blog, just be sure to let google index your site first.

Your keywords stand a better chance of ranking on your own website rather than a blog on blogspot.com (not always true but most of the time this is the case)

Hi Ben.

Now more than ever Google is focusing on Brands rather than standard "keyword rich" websites.

Brands offer trust more than anything and is by far the best way to go if you plan on building a long lasting online business...

"Budget Car Rental" is a real brand, but then its also a money making term. Google has clearly recognised the term as a brand which is great and if your client can do the same, then no harm done.

It gets manipulative when your brand is "ABC car rental" and your website is "Budget car rental.com"

The only reason exact match domains are still ranking I presume is because Google is still tied up in identifying which are brands, and which are there solely for ranking benefits. Google's not stupid and things are changing fast.

I guess the best way to explain it to your client is to say:

For short term ranks with no guaranteeing on future success, then choose a URL with the sole objective of manipulating Google into ranking you well.

Or

Choose a brand name and built trust that will last for years to come.

If they choose to go the manipulative route, then at least you have done all you can to educate them leaving you with a clean conscious for when they regret the decision made.

Just my 2c worth...

Greg

Followed links : Google finds the link and passes on a "vote" to the website linked to.

No-Followed links: Google finds the link but does NOT pass on a "vote" to the website linked to.

Internal Links: Links pointing to pages within your website

External Links: Links pointing to other websites from within your website.

I would advise you spend some time going through the beginners guide on SEOMOZ!

GREG

How many links have you built to this site? Can you confirm that the links are live? Are the pages were the link exist indexed?

If you've been building links to this domain since January, the DA surely should have gone up by now. The DA is only measured by links pointing to the site and page speed doesn't influence this at all.

Check your webmaster tools account and see if Google is reporting on any links pointing to the site. If not, i'd audit the links you've built. Perhaps you linked to the wrong domain or those pages simply haven't been indexed yet.

Greg

IMO. Google wont ever penalize someone for providing relevant and useful content to a website. The only time it would become an issue is when the site you guest blog on, is no different to a link exchange website built only for the search engines.

If you provide a great article to a site that actually serves a purpose and naturally link back to your site (contextual links that support the message in the article), then you have nothing to worry about. If you submit your "guest post" to a site no different to the old school article directories, then you're doing it wrong and Google will pick up on this.

When they say guest posts need to contain a no-follow link, this applies to "sponsored posts" were you pay a fee to get your article published. This is no different to a paid link and if its paid, you need to no-follow.

With a niche like yours, find creative ways to create content that's not directly related to your website. If its gambling, think about related entities. "Board games, Bingo nights for Seniors, Card games etc. There are loads of websites that talk about these subjects that may be interested in guest articles that you can use to legitimately link back to your gambling website (without a bad neighborhood)

Greg

Your campaign does the checks automatically. You cant force it to re-scan. However, you can use the moz crawl tool and export the CSV document to confirm you've fixed the issues.

All the info is identical to the weekly moz crawl, only without diagrams and charts etc.

http://pro.moz.com/tools/crawl-test

Greg

If you are competing with this guy, dont replicate what he has done. Prove to google your site is more popular by getting even better quality links. Google wont have a choice but to rank yours if your link profile is more authoritative.

GREG