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That said and done, i believe you cannot create categories and tags on static pages, hence a custom posts would need to be created with the article.
Correct - Well, without looking at other specific templates, then give it a go. Noting ventured and all that 
-Andy
-Andy
I see what you are looking to do Mark but with most templates, when you create a post, it will allow you to set an image and excerpt which is then tagged into the main part of the site. It would be a bit of an odd way to do things if you were to use the portfolio option to link through to a blog post.
I don't really do much in the way of blogging, mainly due to lack of time, but go to my website and click on the Blog link to see an example of the posts populating this section. Is this what you are looking to achieve?
-Andy
Hi Akhilesh,
What you want to be doing is looking at Linkable Assets - these can be images, graphics, tools, research studies, articles, and indeed anything else that would be considered link-worthy. They are a reason someone will want to link through to your website. This sometimes means getting creative with your thinking.
It can take a bit of work to get there, but once you have some ideas under your belt and you get into the flow, you will want to get sharing this and perhaps even look at doing some outreach to other sites who would be interested in mentioning you.
-Andy
On each Wordpress site I have worked on, the Portfolio tends to be image-based and is used to showcase work or products. Unless you have a need to do this, the portfolio tends not to get used that much. That said, I am sure there are lots of people who do use it - I haven't or really seen many sites use it.
To answer your questions:
- What are the benefits of a portfolio page over Static Pages & Posts
See above. Pages are your main structural pages.
- When creating feature rich articles should i use static pages, posts or portfolio.
Articles should be sat in the blog section, which is populated through 'posts'.
I hope this helps.
-Andy
They are all good Jordan, but it really comes down to which one you prefer yourself. Personally for me, I like this one http://demo.jawtemplates.com/goodstore/goodstore03/product/black-t-series/ because it seems clearer on the eye.
-Andy
It really doesn't matter, but it is considered more commonplace to have the www at the front. No SEO benefits either way though.
-Andy
Avoid them like the plague. Concentrate on building some good linkable assets on your own site and go for niche sites yourself. Keep it clean and you will be the one with the longevity.
-Andy
Well, the H1 is 'normally' towards the top of the page, but as there is an image towards the top, there is no reason why not. Just try and keep to H1 then H2, etc., and keep it ordered. That said, its not as much of an issue these days as it once was - Google has bigger factors that help with ranking.
-Andy
I really wouldn't worry about that. It is pretty standard in terms of menus for sites with lots of pages. These Mega Menus are pretty commonplace these days. I haven't yet seen a site penalised for having one.
-Andy
Very unethical. And your H1 doesn't need to just be the same as what is already there - it can be a sentence explaining the page. I wouldn't advise making the page use the same words / phrases all over. Try going for some synonyms for extra punch.
-Andy
When you go to your homepage, do you need to put /default.asp on the end? If not, I wouldn't set it and have the canonical set to just the domain.
-Andy
I really wouldn't try and do that Tom. You could quite easily get a H1 tagline below the menu with a bit of playing around. It wouldn't look bad either - or at least there is no reason it should.
Create your pages in an ethical manner and try not to get on the bad side of Google
-Andy
I would be looking to introduce a heading for each page. You don't want to tag images with an H1 really. This doesn't really serve any purpose.
I would get a title in above the image on the right that you can attribute the H1 to - I would also look at how big these images are as I was finding them very slow to load.
-Andy
Very pleased it helped Marcel
-Andy
You need to be careful with how this is handled otherwise it won't read right and just end up looking spammy.
When looking at keyword research, look at your main phrases (I choose 4-5 important ones) and then look at synonyms of these.
For example, if I was looking to optimise for the word "glasses", I would try to feature some of the following words in the content too:
This will give a good spread of meaning to word and show that thought has been put into the copy.
-Andy
Thank you both! You are both SEOmnipotent. See what I did there?
I might pinch that 
With the links, something else you will probably need to do, is perform a disavow of the ones you don't want to be associated with. Google would eventually get round to them all, but i'll bet that with a bit of digging, you won't just find the links from the network the only issues.
And thank you Egol
-Andy
That's a very difficult question to answer Paul. There are so many ethical reasons why they are ranking well, as well as possible black hat, but without comparing the sites on different aspects, it is impossible to say why Google favour them. It could be trust, links, content, all 3 or none at all and be something else. Only Google really knows the answer to this one.
-Andy
Egol has pretty much hit the nail on the head.
You have a big old mess there and you don't want to end up doing more damage than good - it is easily done!
Now the content is different enough that Google doesn't seem to notice that its the SAME FREEKIN THING on each domain, but I am very concerned. The company has their main multi-page domain which has other links and sources of traffic, but in essence the previous owner created a micro link web.
That there is a big problem - link networks, as that is what this basically is, are a huge headache and I can only assume it is because it is poor quality, that Google hasn't found it yet. However, they probably will at some point so you want to back out of that as soon as possible.
Am I right in thinking that we have to build a bridge before we burn a bridge?
Yes... And no. If you get this bit wrong and suddenly Google becomes aware of what is going on in the background, you will bring them down on you quicker than you can take the sites offline. I am guessing that 99.9% of these sites have no reason to be there? If that is the case, I would be looking at a structured takedown / decommission.
Is it worth fixing up some of those other domains to have original content to try and bolster what we already have?
Probably not. If the content is how you describe it, Google has probably already made their mind up about the site and trying to fix a site of poor quality, can sometimes be an uphill battle because you are starting at a negative score. That said, it is difficult to advise exactly on this. You want to get out of this whole link network though.
Would it be better to combine everything into one website, or try and have different domains represent different things. For example Envato.com is an umbrella website with 8 separate websites operating under the same roof using different domains.?
Trying to combine the 'fluff' content of 1000 sites into a primary domain could seal your fate. I would advise heavily against doing this. Perhaps there are some sites with decent content on them that could be used to make up a blog post, but you would have to be careful about checking to see if was indexed before placing it elsewhere.
Where do I begin? I feel like I have started this project numerous times. I know the keywords, I know where the duplicate content is, I know the structure of the main domain, I am getting the structure of the entire link web.
I wouldn't want to advise incorrectly on this, but I would guess you need to look to start a structured takedown of the network, but you must handle this carefully. Either that or distancing the main site by removing links from the network to the primary domain.
I hope this helps a little.
-Andy
Hi Issac,
Keyword cannibalisation is pretty much exactly that. This is why it is important for pages to be as unique as possible.
The two below are sort of a similar thing, except the first one refers to linking to your key pages from a product page by way of a short sentence that has a link with some nice on-topic anchor text leading off.
-Andy
Hi Issac,
In these circumstances, there are a few things to look at.
See how you get on with those. There are other lesser possibilities, but these should give you some good starting points.
-Andy
I assume your site is running Wordpress Ruben? This is quite common - you should be able to find your fix here. Snippets do cause a lot of problems, especially when plugins are in use. See how you get on with that.
This error occur when Google Snippet cannot find date it was published or last updated.To solve this find,**<span < code="">class="post_date">`'j F,Y'); ?></span <>`** and replace it with<span < code="">class="post_date date updated">`'j F,Y'); ?>``</span <>```
-Andy
Well hopefully Google will do it's job and recognise the canonicals. Keep an eye on your stats and if you don't see improvements, then you may need to do additional work.
-Andy
Dropped you a PM with some specifics Adam, but isn't looking too healthy.
-Andy
No problem at all. I will set a crawl going and see what I find when it finishes
-Andy
If you have canonicalization in place, you shouldn't need to worry about this as much. However, from a best practice standpoint, I would try and rectify and duplication on a site.
How big is / was the problem?
-Andy
Great to hear you have recovered Adam.
Also, it is worth remembering that as good a job as MOZ do, they aren't Google so you can't really use that as a definitive gauge of how well you are doing in that department. It's a 3rd party indicator (albeit a good one), nothing more.
If you wish, I can run a quick scan of your backlink profile to see how it looks?
-Andy
The best tool I have found for checking for duplicate content is Copyscape.
Resolving duplication issues depends on what is found and how it has been generated - duplicate page titles, page content & descriptions can all be problematic.
-Andy
Hi Adam,
I would remove those footer tabs. I have never been a fan of these as there is always speculation over what Google can and can't see, depending on how they are implemented.
Try to resist the urge to get your key phrases into the page too many times. Google are pretty smart at figuring these things out and as you said, your competitors are ranking well without the need to do this.
I would also be focussing on link-building for the site as that will be one of the biggest contributors next to content. Have you done much of this for the site?
-Andy
White-hat link building is the same the world over. There needs to be a reason for the link to exist.
Yandex did drop links from the search algorithm, which did change the way they now rank websites - just don't be drawn into buying links as this will do you no favours.
That said, links still do play a part - just not in the same way as they used to.
Rather than quote verbatim, have a read of this post, as it is very informative.
-Andy
Hi Brian,
First of all, remove all of those 301's to the homepage. This will cause you nothing but a huge headache (like now, you have redirect loops). Redirecting pages en-masse to your homepage is a big no-no in general.
Hop back into Webmaster Tools and mark the 404's as fixed and hopefully this should appease Googlebot as it doesn't look like those pages actually exist on the site anywhere, unless you have captured each one with a redirect.
You can block all of those pages via the robots.txt file as well by adding the following:
Disalow: /?post_type=crown_enquiry&p=*
I would also block the /wp-content/ folder via robots.txt while you are at at as well.
My robots file looks like this:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-includes/
Disallow: /wp-content/
Sitemap: http://www.inetseo.co.uk/sitemap.xml.gz
That said, 404's won't really do anything to your rankings - it is more of a warning that something isn't there than anything else. Of course, if you had a site that had 10,000 pages then you suddenly got 9,999 404 errors, this might be a little different
-Andy
Hi Marcel,
Google are doing this more and more and one thing I find does help, is to make sure the description is very closely targeted to the page in question. Don't have key words and phrases in the description, that don't appear in the page. This has been changed by Google because they don't consider it to be focussed enough or as on-topic as it could / should be.
As a matter of course, I would also block Google from going anywhere near your ODP listing by adding
-Andy
Hi Arta,
Sorry, I was out for most of yesterday. And not quite sure what happened to the link. This is the tool I was referring to: http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php
If you break your page up, you have basic information and cost at the top left with the image to the right - nothing wrong with that, but the buy button should also be in the Product Details up there at the top. As it stands, you have a price match and accessories before you get to it.
Then you have a big block of Special Offers. It is important to say if it comes with something free, but this doesn't look right at all. The heading for that (included free with this stove) is smaller than the product headings below. You need to box this off somehow and make it stand out.
Then you come to the drop downs and additional information. There is so much going on here - the use of the collapsable ones and horizontal tabs don't really work well together. Why not use all horizontal tabs? And I would get rid of any duplication you have in the Additional Information.
-Andy
Hi Arta,
Andy has given you some good tips there.
I found the page a bit all over the place with nothing where I would imagine it should be, but in terms of what the search engines can see, have a look at this tool. It will help you understand what Google can see on the page.
-Andy
Hi,
It is possible that you have had an algorithmic penalty from Google, and just looking at a few of the pages, there are concerns that you should address.
Basically, lots of very spammy SEO techniques that need to be corrected. I would start by having a read though the MOZ Beginners SEO Guide and take action on lots of problems you have throughout the site.
-Andy
Hi Sam,
The best way to deal with this is to setup 301 redirecting in your .htaccess file, but this depends upon the platform you are using. You want to point all non-www pages to the www versions.
Something like this should do the job for you (replace my domain with yours).
//Rewrite to www
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^inetseo.co.uk[nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.inetseo.co.uk/$1 [r=301,nc]
-Andy
This is one of those circumstances where Google know that an attorney and lawyer are one in the same and will deliver results for Lawyer when you search for Attorney. As David said, if you try to cover off both words here, then you could land yourself in trouble.
If I do a search for "London Immigration Attorney" then I get results back for Lawyer, so for me, this is the phrase that I would go for.
-Andy
I'm with William on this. There is nothing to be gained by undertaking this slowly. Matt Cutts said in a video that if you have a lot of bad links, or don't really know where links came from, then just disavow them. Google are realistic as well and know that you can't be expected to contact thousands of domain owners.
But do make sure they are bad - I have seen disavow files sent to me to look over, only to find that some links were actually really good.
-Andy
Hi Steve,
First, I would suggest looking at Yoast's SEO plugin. This offers much more in terms of customisation and function.
Do you mind listing the URL so I can take a look at the homepage? It might be Google (probably is) but just need to be sure.
-Andy
Not without going searching again, but it was only incidental and had no need to undertake this for many months now. It wasn't something I went looking for.
Hi,
What phrases are you trying to rank for? I ask because your homepage title is "Best Folk music and Poetry by Local Puerto Rican Artists", so I would assume that you are looking to rank for something like "best folk music"? If not, then you need to think about the key phrase(s) that you wish to rank for and ensure a good, clean page title.
There are so many reasons why a site wont be ranking in Google:
EDIT. Have you read the MOZ guide to SEO?
-Andy
Hi,
Yes, this is very possible. Page Rank doesn't just focus on backlinks, but many other factors as well. I have seen sites that have a PR of 4-5 and not a single backlink, but amazing content - I have seen sites that have a PR of 1-2 and loads of backlinks.
This is more common that you might realise.
-Andy
Hi,
Before you moved over to Wordpress, how were your rankings then? Was every page being delivered as expected?
-Andy
There are 3 industries I wont work in. Insurance, finance and automotive, purely because of the amount of dirty tactics that go on. I have found that a lot will undertake tiered link building, networks and other unsavoury tactics in place of being white hat, because they feel they have no option.
In terms of making sure you have something that people really want to link to, you need to create some link-assets. These can be anything that will make people want to link back and can be a study, white-paper, research, tool, informative post or something heavily news-worthy. You then need to look to doing some outreach and contacting sites, journalists, industry bodies, etc, and informing them of what you have to offer (link assets).
Look to the sites you want links from, and then decide the route that is likely to gain you positive attention and links.
-Andy
Hi Simon,
I have seen a very similar issue with another site I have been working on, and by no-following the links to the external sites, this cured the problem. These just opened in a new browser window, rather than being modal.
It is the same as just no-following links so you aren't seen as either an affiliate or selling links and passing page rank.
-Andy
There are no Google penalties
This is a little awkward to be sure of Roderick as there are manual and algorithmic penalties, the latter you won't be notified about.
Can you tell me what you used to build the profile of backlinks to disavow? Based on what you say, this is where I would start looking.
-Andy
Hi Meaghan,
The rank tracker I use will offer this information, and would be happy to set this up and run the report for you if you wish? It will tell you which pages are ranking for which phrases. I can export it and drop this back over.
Drop me an e-mail to info (@) inetseo.co.uk
-Andy
Hi Josh,
Keri has asked the same question I was thinking about when reading this.
One thing to consider around this is that SEO isn't just about getting people to your site - it's about getting the right people. I personally would be looking for phrases like "charitable donations", "charity donations", "donate to charity", etc. Those people that are searching for those phrases have one clear action in mind, whereas "donate" could be anything, including people just looking for general information.
-Andy
Hi Conrad,
Aside from internal linking, it is also important to look at the page titles, and these could do with some work.
When crafting page titles, you want to remember that Google has changed how they calculate how much is now shown, and this equates to 56 characters (512 pixels). MOZ has a tool to show you what would be seen here.
You say that when someone searches for "active new zealand", then you want this page to be returned http://activeadventures.com/new-zealand
However, the page title of that page is "New Zealand Hiking & Adventure Tours & Vacations | Active Adventure".
This title is also a little spammy, and you need to get your desired phrase in there as well, if you can. Rather than what is there, I would have "Active New Zealand adventure tours | Active Adventure". This gets both key phrases in and fits into the 512 pixel limit that Google now has.
Internal linking can also help by explaining more to Google about the pages as well. A strong anchor text around each phrase would be desirable here.
If you want a hand with any of this, just drop me a PM and will be happy to give you some pointers.
-Andy
Hi Vince,
The page layout algorithm is more about ads and placement than no-following of links. The first thing someone sees when this come to your page, is an ad for someone else.
Also, I think we are looking at different pages - the example you gave me was this page:
http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-fails.22423.html
On this page, there is a Wix banner at the top. This could be the problem from an algorithm point. However, there is definitely no nofollow attached to this.
The second is the Bluehost banner on the left of the page at the bottom. This is another ad that is has no no-follow.
-Andy