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Antony,

If your site structure is to remain the same use Google's Step by Step Guide to Migrating a Domain

Google recommends redirecting all pages. After you follow Google's suggestions on the move there are things you can do to speed this up. Tweet every URL on your new site that you want indexed. Check the site: indexation for inclusion of the new pages and don't forget the sitemap and Google Webmaster Tools for your URL preference.

Any time I have a question about valid HTML I go to the Source. W3C has an invaluable tool for HTML . Becoming familiar with this will help you always create clean code.

The tried and true methods are keyword research and those you mentioned but to your question, I have always found that observation and opinion posts work very well for us. Whether you observe your industry, your city, your coworkers, your backyard, your commute to work, all are good idea generators. It pays to throw out the old preconceptions and just let it come. Sometimes the harder I try to create content, the harder it is. Forget the box let alone thinking outside of it. Reading is also very helpful. Read all you can about your field and your hobbies. Sometimes a connection happens when least expected. You could actually build out this Q and A and make it a topic to write about. Happy writing

I don't think it's the quantity so much as the quality. EGOL alluded to this. Semantic processing of keywords in relation to other keywords in a context relevant to the search term is key. We have examples of this where our site beats much larger and authoritative sites on long tail keyword phrases even with their brand name included. This is as a direct result of the number of ways the keyword is used in relation to other keywords.

Some really crafty ways to increase clickthrough and enhance your listings in general can be found here. This post should provide you with some other great ideas for your ecomm site as well.

Depending on the nature of the site (business, cause, informational site, etc), our linkbuilding strategies vary widely. Go for quality no matter what. If the directory is quality and established why not? I'd research directories even closer now that Google has their eyes out but they are still viable.

Grader is an overview. Use the SEOMoz Web app for a much clearer picture of your site. Just curious what conflicts?

Not only are they above the free listings but they are on every page at the top. Thus citing your example of 5 pages they would have 5 citations; Where a free listing would only appear on one.

In addition, Google has a crawl budget - how long they spend on a site and page. If these limits are reached there is a possibility that the lower listings don't get crawled or acknowledged especially if they are buried deep into the navigation levels of a site.

I would say yes this hurts. It confuses the signals that Google looks at for it's ranking factors. now with blended search becoming more prevalent, the data integrity should be consistent. See David Mihm's authoritative Local ranking factors.

Great find on that post. It lays it all out. As long as the silos are thin (not more than 2 layers beneath the home page) it can bring a benefit to adding extra ranking pages with minimal work comparatively. Rand talks about eliminating the bottom layer of the hierarchy to push the content up a level and make the resulting pages extremely stout. The major problem is always going to be the end of the chain. He calls them PageRank sinks.

I gotta go with EGOL on this one. Change the link where you can and 301 where you can't.

I think we're all very lucky to have such problems. This field is so diverse and there are opportunities everywhere. I'd study 100% if I could. I like it that much, alas there are bills. In direct response to your statement there's an old saying that if you love what you do you never work a day in your life. Sounds like you do. Congrats.

Great question. While everyone has their schools of thought; both methods have their benefits. I tend to favor flat architecture with targeted cross linking. I guess you could call it a hybrid strategy. I begin with a totally flat architecture and silo where it makes sense for the rankings and the navigation for the user. It's all about logical grouping and don't forget the pages must all be link-worthy on their own. If the pages are all strong enough to generate links the problem tends to take care of itself.

I agree with Alan; you are definitely on the right path. Google Webmaster Tools is only one of many signals you can check. Check out the rankings report Page from SEOMOZ to maximize your use of their Web App as I see you are a PRO member and this is a MUST READ. Also Google Insights, Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and Wordtracker are very helpful in identifying opportunities and search metrics. Then Check your On page Grade in the web app for your specific page and term and try to optimize for one or two keyword phrases per page only.

Hope this helps.

This +1 thing all boils down to Google's Social strategic vision (or lack thereof).  I liken this to the checkout line at the grocery store. Sometimes things just end up in the cart because of the wait. If the +1 is on every site because the site owner doesn't want to feel like they are out instead of IN. We have seen +1 dramatically increase SERP results but only for those users who are logged in and are what Google deems "members of my social circle". Make no mistake Big Brother is here.

Tweeted and Shared Let me know how fast this works.

Good Point. I'd suggest a canonical on the new pages as well as blasting them to the social media sites for a quicker turnaround.

Tweet the direct urls from an influential acct - share them on FB. Google crawls these real time:)

Mention the home page and I'll tweet it so Goog finds it. We got mad followers.

You can even tweet the sitemap - we've done that as well.

Have you added Google Webmaster tools code and verified your site? This will give you fantastic insight into what is being crawled and if there are any dupe content problems present now.

Do you have an SEO plugin installed? Are canonicals set up? This would solve any problems for you if they exist.

***** OUR SCENARIO *****

We noindex pages, categories, and tags because we want our posts to rank on their own merit. We still assign categories and tags to posts for navigation internally but feel our posts stand on their own and are more of a benefit. Your experience and navigation may vary. We have never had a duplicate content problem yet and have operated our WP.org blog since before canonicals.

I have a motto "Google likes Google" for this reason alone its worth the few minutes it takes to add. - Just my Opinion

As it is an easy add, we'll add it. I noticed it on the SEOMoz Community Blog already and I actually +1ed a post so why not?

I think you're already on the right track. I use the Keyword Difficulty Tool and get a list of top ranking sites. Then I put those sites into Open Site Explorer and analyze their link profiles to get prospective link opportunities.

Directory Links most certainly still work. If you use this strategy make it a part of your overall link-building campaign but not the be all and end all. Also check the value and relevance of the directories as they may be subject to scrutiny by Google in the future. Good research here will serve you well. Make sure the page you're listing will potentially go on is strong and not loaded with other links as the power gets diluted with the number of links per page.

I like to call it building a diversified link portfolio using many tactics to guard against any major hiccups with a change in the algorithms of the Search Engines. Check out the webinars under the Learn SEO tab and the SEOMoz blog under the Community tab for great detailed info on tactics.

We are starting to see the comment spammers come out again with refined tactics because of the Panda Effect. Does your form allow comments on a blog? or deeper access? Bots and Hacks are always looking for a way in.

Nice Find on that article and Congrats on the Guru status

302 redirect (temporary) passes no link juice. 301 redirect (permanent) passes 90 - 99% link juice value.

Fixing it will require you to check the documentation or contact the company supporting it. This problem is fairly common still and some software has workarounds. This may take some research.

PageRank is an outdated stat. Google doesn't update it very much (if at all) anymore so you're looking at outdated data if you use PR. Page Authority on the other hand is calculated much more frequently. One other metric which you can get (and should heavily consider) from the updated SEOMoz Toolbar for Firefox or Chrome is Domain Authority.

Rand Just did a great Whiteboard Friday Video on Link Acquisition called Competitive Link Analysis Tips.

Both are desirable.  I'd personally go with Domain authority and Page Authority over relevance if I had to choose. Links from monster news sites, mash-ups and other high traffic sites really pack a wallop. Need Proof - go to the Keyword Difficulty tool and check the top ranking sites for a series of terms. We have found some result listings that have little to no relevance but massive domain authority which carries the day.

FYI Use the Mozbar plugin when logged in to get more accurate data than PR. Or if you're getting really down and dirty go with The SEOMoz Linkscape Tool and run an advanced report by site links.

Linking out is good if it is done in support of your content and the link points to trusted and valuable relevant content. (i.e. links that lend weigh to your pages' content) A page with a list of links with no textual context tend to be a flag for the Search Engines. (remember the days of the reciprocal link and link farms)

When you say your links are gone, do you mean your links in OSE? Or have companies taken down links to you for another reason?

Comeback story  - JC Penney has had their status reinstated in Google after a 90 day penalty and fixing up some things.

I would suggest researching the traffic sources in detail if possible to see if a referring site dropped thus causing your decline. Maybe they got hit with the update and not your site.

I would say yes they are cloaked links. I would suggest using HTML links only for maximum juice and to not anger the Googlebot. Serving different content to the user with and without javascript is a no-no. As for your crawl budget - best practice is to use a nofollow tag on the link and a noindex on the target page if you don't want it in the SERPS.

When I run into issues like this It's best not to go outside of the webmaster guidelines for moving a site. (updated 3/20/2011) Clearly they have not applied best practices for user experience and missed a golden opportunity in my opinion. Be grateful that they did. With some more work they could be dominating even more. The similar content issue mentioned in GWT guidelines link above will bite them I'm sure. But like Alan said, when is up to the algorithm.

I would stay the course and make your site the best it can be. The competition and the SE are both out of your control.

1 issue that jumps out immediately is the on page links warnings - recommended is 100 MAX. Just click on the yellow warning button and it will explain it. These are devaluing your juice. Site Architecture is a major ranking factor. Also, have you checked your backlinks? They may be getting hurt by the worldwide Panda that rolled out.

Next, are your pages optimized for their keyword/s? Check the On Page Optimization tool to see if you're doing all you can.

Finally - I see you had a major spike in traffic in November - have you tried to recreate the success you had? Check GA traffic sources for that time-frame and determine what that success was from if you can.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but it is a good place to start.

Please have a look at this question about local listing services : Manual submission trumps auto submissions in many ways. I know you're looking for a down and dirty service but like the post states - you can end up causing more work by using a service. I've used UBL and frankly was unimpressed.

The quickest and most effective way to get quality is to submit to the Acxiom, infoUSA and Localeze databases directly as they feed many of the directories you should be looking for. This does 2 things - it lets you control the quality and offers a short list for future changes.

Twitter - Facebook - Leverage your social channels - Industry contacts - I think SEOMOZ may offer a jobs posting location. If not it's not a bad idea. Hope this helps.

"I have a client who has a website which is getting fairly descent traffic in the current industry its in. He is launching a new business model, same industry. New domain, new brand etc." Excerpt from question

"If the other site no longer need be used, I see no reason not to redirect."

I would agree, but she says nothing about not using the old site.

That's the issue - the other site already has traffic for more keywords than just the new domain exact match. So why kill all traffic that the client receives from the old domain? - and leave what in it's place? Reliance on Google to catch up?

With fairly decent traffic (and conversions) I'm assuming, I would probably build the new site out and keep them both up until the new site gains some "Trust and Authority" (links and index position) You can leverage the power of the old site to link out to the new site (targeted keywords of course) to expedite the process. I would want to keep the traffic flowing and try to make the transition as painless as possible for the client. After the new site has achieved some credibility in the eyes of the Search Engines, then you may consider your 301 option.

Exact matched domains usually rank very well initially anyway. Hope this helped.

This recommendation is based solely on your question of course. If there are other circumstances at play then my opinion may change.

You want them on all pages as I'm sure Google is seeing copies of all your pages. This is really a best practices thing but I add them to all pages when the page is created to avoid just such issues. If you choose the www version you would use this tag for the Career center page:

In addition I've added a link to this great post on canonical

Hope this helps

1. In addition to your 301 redirect issue Ryan mentioned you are internally linking to the non www version for your logo link: (this leaks juice on the redirect as well if you are going for the www version)

2 ) You really want to choose one version and go with it everywhere (be precise down to the trailing slash) - Google webmaster tools has a setting for this as well - sign up and choose your preferred setting / then save if you haven't already

3. Make the changes and check Open Site Explorer for both versions to see your links that appear the non-preferred way and see if you can contact your external linking sources to fix the issue to the preferred URL

4. I didn't see any canonical for the other pages (other than the home page) add those as well

5. Rerun OSE after your next crawl completes or use Xenu for immediate testing for the internal links - external may take a bit longer.

Best practices is using the 301 redirect method - permanent

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_alias.html#redirect

You can also contact the link webmaster/s if possible to let them know that the page has changed url.

For added stability and to let Google know you should rebuild your sitemap to reflect the change as well.

In addition run Xenu or Screaming Frog to find all your internal linking locations to avoid missing the buried internal links.

First link is your standard .php page

Second link is a duplicate of page 1 http://www.rmtracking.com/products/index.php

In other words it sees http://www.rmtracking.com/products/index.php as http://www.rmtracking.com/products/ which is a duplicate

The link and the product are for Search Engine Marketing Services - ADWORDS - with a monthly budget ad spend.

When you see "No Website or Experience Required" run away quickly and don't look back.

When I hear the word Wordpress I think Yoast - have a look at the definitive guide to Wordpress SEO. This gem is always updated and has a straight forward style including examples and pics. TOP NOTCH

When I see questions about PageRank I always first point to this Awesome Pagerank Document. It lays it all out for you.

You may want to check this awesome resource - The Professionals Guide to PageRank Optimization

On the contrary, I think Google cares about links even more. They just added more weight to the quality of the sources and the link juice they pass. Be very diligent when choosing who to get your backlinks from. Do your research with all the outstanding tools here on SEOMOZ and be consistent about building your link profile and you'll do wonderful and have fun as well.

The Panda Update is evidence of this. Google has to care because it affects their bottom line. Other things to watch out for are Social graph metrics influencing SERPS.