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I would start off with a couple of good purchased links too. Like Business.com and BOTW.com. BBB.com is a great one I have heard too.  That is the next one I will buy.

Excellent Question!

My site started out at 18 and in 12 months I have increased it to 38 with the help of suggestions on this site.  My goal is to hit 40 by the end of the year.  I did this by

#1 Created 22 new root linking domains. (including a few paid from the list of suggested domains on SEOmoz.

#2 Changed my URL's to be more keyword rich

#3 Improved SEO on site with Optimization tools on SEOmoz

#4 Improved content

It has been fun and exciting.  I  know that if I improve on all the SEOmoz recommended metrics that it will help my search rankings and gradually help me against the competition.

New Things in process to get us to the 50 mark!

#1 Blog

#2 Better landing pages

#3 Web development

#4 More links to pages deeper in site

#5 Continued optimization of webpages on site. etc

Boo

Does the order of the words in the URL matter?

What could have factored into some of my key words dropping from an A to a C on my on page rankings.  I am not sure how it happened because there were not any chages made.

Thanks,

Boo

Very nice!

It is a function of the volume.  I lost about 20% of my links that were industry specific.

Many of my links dropped off too.  Not sure what happened this month.

oh well...ideal world.  I realize there are tons of variables.  I will print out competitors monthly rankings along with mine.  Now that I think about it that is really the ultimate measure I should concern myself with at the moment.  Thanks for response!

Seems like only 1/2 the url's were scanned this time but that they are fresher. While happy about the freshness and the gains starting in April I am also hoping for some CONSISTENCY so I can accurately measure my hard work and efforts each month.   Several of my good links were dropped off this last scan and my domain also dropped a little in rankings.  I was really looking forward to a good jump this month.  Now I am not sure if my domain dropped because of loss of links, because even though several are missing this month some new ones were added....or if my new URL structure caused the slight decrease.

Anyway I am in this for the long term so it is not that big a deal I guess.

Today I read something different.

My understanding is that Google will also rank for the words in the title themselves not necessarily in the order placed,  whereas Bing and Yahoo have a stronger emphasis on exact order keyword match.  So today I changed up my Title in hopes of getting in a few more key words too.  Hopefully I don't fall from my lofty perch for my main key word that is in my URL.

PS...I did have one word twice in my title ...I hope I don't get penalized for that.

Definitely a great long term strategy!  Both velocity and acceleration will be a welcome addition to our new site! Being new I wanted to get a few quick links out there.  The domain authority for the PR company is in the 90"s and mine is only in the 20's...right now.  I was thinking it might help in the short run a little. My blog is not going to be in place for another 4-6 months so maybe I can do this as a precursor just one time, although after reading your comments I am inclined to do much more research and am leaning towards not doing it.

Thanks for your feedback!

You are correct. They are way ahead in the broader categories but we will be at different starting points and heading to pristine waters. By they time they realize what happened hopefully we will have outdistanced them by a long ways and they will have to do the catching up.

We will be using some of the same mediums but will control for different keywords in a more verticle market.  We will go deeper and hit more long tail.  By the time they see they are behind in these areas we will hopefully be the one that is far ahead.

How much value is there in links from articles sent to places like Yahoo and Topix.  Various news sources.  I have about 20 related topics we can publish articles on in order to try and get some higher rankings from a few key word phrases.  Is 4 a month okay?  Would 1 a day be okay.  Just looking to help to compete with the big guys in my industry.

Any past experience or advice is appreciated.

Boo

Another report came out today...SEOmoz said I was ranked 12 for a term on yahoo and I am not in top 50.

For the past 3 weeks I have been getting several #1 rankings on Yahoo or Bing but then when I check it on the same day I get the reports from SEOmoz...I am not even ranked in the top 50 on most.  After the 1st week I thought it was just a quick drop in rankings but 3 weeks in a row...something is not right.

Is there a problem with SEOmoz yahoo rankings?

Boo

EGOL,

I clicked the link but could not find "where" they place the trust symbols.  Do you remember where the placement of the trust symbols were located?

Boo

Excellent!  Thanks for the further explanation.  I knew what I did worked but was not sure if it was short term.  I did make the mistake of submitted to a few non editorial directories early on but I will not get any more of those.  Industry specific makes the most sense and I have two real good general directories.

I will have to research were else I can get links.  I am guessing blogs are huge so we are developing a blog on our website over the next 2 months.  Also we are adding social sharing to our content in hopes of getting additional links.

Boo

My company just put up a website recently and I put speed, content, design and architecture first.  But then when I did links this past month it gave rankings a huge boost.  I still need to do on page optimization but have decided to design great landing pages first, then a blog then onsite seo last. As a warning though I would choose industry links and some general high reputation links to start.  My website domain authority doubled last month and my page authority increased 33%.

I did the links myself.  I would also be very careful about others building links especially the kinds that are automated.

I have a similar set up and we are going to do landing pages on every page and work towards getting higher conversions.  We will also plan on building trust somehow and having social sharing buttons.

Boo.

Based on results for my "new website" that didn't have but a few links..... and being new to seo for my company....... I highly recommend industry specific directories and some high quality general directories.  Not being experienced I may be walking the edge but for a new website it gave our website a very big jump across all SEOmoz factors.

My Domain authority(doubled) and Page Authority (33%)  just shot through the roof because I added several new reputable high ranking directories.  I also added two or three industry specific links.

Two of the best general directories BOTW.com and Business.com and one industry directory have not been added yet for some reason.  . Hopefully those will show up soon and help me a improve a little next month.  It has been an exciting journey so far on this new adventure in SEO.

Two days  ago I went from ranking outside the top 50 to ranking  #1 and #4 for two great terms on Yahoo.  Now two days later I don't rank in the top 50 again.  I sure wish I knew what that blip on the radar was all about.  It would be great to get ranked again.  Seems like a mystery.  I have not heard of this happening on Yahoo before.  Maybe it was a problem with the open link explorer?  Anyone see this happen before?

Thank you,

Boodreaux

I don't think I have had any problems with my pages getting crawled.  I only have about 500.

I was thinking more along the lines of Click-ability and if it had any bearing on the google rankings.

Which is best:

www.domainname.com/category-subcategory

or

www.domainname.com/subcategory-category

or

www.domainname.com/category/subcategory

or

www.domain.com/subcategory/category

I am going to have 12 different subcategories under the category

Yea...but all the three keyword phrases in my case really mean the exact same thing and will attract the exact same audience.  They are synonyms.

A better example I should have used is:(probably still not the best)

So if I ranked #1 for Car Dealers and wanted to add the following that had equal traffic.

Car Auto Dealers

Car Vehicle Dealers

Could I add those two terms to the same page?

I finally reached the #1 ranking for my websites main keyword phrase.

There are two more equally good keyword phrases that have my main two keywords plus one additional page.  Can I shoot for both of those or should I limit it to just adding one more keyword phrase for a max of two?

For Example. I rank #1 for Horse Buggies (our domain is the main two keywords)

(Example) The other two equally good phrases with a little more traffic are Horse Large Buggies (I rank #29)and Horse Giant  Buggies. (#46)

What is the best way to start ranking for those terms....without saturating or cannabolizing my current terms?  We are about to change the URL's on some of our pages...so maybe I could add Large and Giant to the URL.

Any suggestions?  I sure would like to capture the other two keyword phrases.

#1 URL additions? ( I think this would just rank me higher for the new pages)

#2 Would getting new links with those two new keyword phrases in the alt text help or is that black hat?

#3 Adding more of those keyword phrases to my home page?

Thank you,

Boo

Domain keyword and keyword again is spammy.  Thanks for input!

I recommend this site for beginners because I am a beginner and it is perfect for me. Not sure about Intermediate and advanced but this is probably good because most is still out of my reach. ( for now but I am closing in)

Boo

TEGS,

I am also VERY curious to hear answers to this question also.

I too have the exact domain and was trying to decide if I should restate the exact keyword again in the URL after the exact keyword in domain name. I also plan to either but a subcategory and state in the url but not sure which to put first.  ( Lets keep in touch by private message to share updates on our URL changes.)

I will not have to 301 redirect my URLs  because I had no links to any of my other pages. I currently rank #2 for my main keyword in Google but expect a drop in my temporary drop in rankings after the change. (I have very bad rankings in Bing and Yahoo for some reason)  In order to be re-indexed quickly I have read on this site that it is a good idea to leave your old site-map up with the new one until the new one is indexed.

Just curious.. on your backlinks what alt text did you use...your domain name url or just the keywords?

I am eating popcorn and hope answers are forthcoming from the experts!

Boo

Not sure about the SEO...I guess if others are sharing your content maybe it would help. On the other hand if I went to a site and it had 12,000 likes my first reaction would probably be "spammy".  My second reaction would be I wonder how much he paid for those likes.  If others can see all your fans in Croatia with a different language theymight think the same thing.  I guess it depends on your service area and market.

If fake accounts are being used I am sure eventually the gig will eventually be up!

Boo

Piwik is another great free alternative.  Lots of add ons etc.

Sounds like it has to be an exact keyword match for the domain to be effective according to EGOL.  I have some exact keyword domains and I will have to look into this too.  I sounds like it is okay to add a link to a main site as long as it is a no follow from the responses so far.  Hopefully more info is forthcoming.

Boo

Wow!  That is cool.  I already have about 50 other sites taking my data and re-posting it on their sites.......as soon as I put up an rss feed in the next couple months I will do this...sounds like great advice!

James,

If you want more responses you may need to post a new discussion question with your latest information you found out.  Your question is far down the list now and only a 4 people are in this thread.

Ouch...great looking site. Very scary.  Hope to hear back from you on what the issue was in your being dropped so low.

Thanks Nakul.....I will give those tools a test run.

Yep......thanks EGOL........I also feel it should be a collaborative endeavor.  Our team will be able to give them some good insight in our niche and then hopefully their keyword research expertise can bring home the best results.

Thanks Phil....I will use this advice! I had one offer for exactly the scenario you mentioned.

How many years would someone need to have to be experienced enough to provide a thorough job of providing me with keyword research?  I am willing to pay for the best job but I don't want to be taken to the cleaners...especially by someone that may not be giving me the best effort or that is not qualified. ( I was just quoted $200 an hour from an 18 yr old today)

We are getting ready to change our URL's and add keywords but I am not sure which terms to add and in what order.  I have heard  put the most important words first but I am not sure which are the most important. By my research we only have about 5 keywords but I am not sure. (Excluding long tail)

I had a bunch of title tags that were too long and I shortened all of them to be close to the max.    My ranks all went up higher over a 2-4 week period. I just made sure all the important key words remained in the title.

Kynduvme,

Here is a list of recommended directories by SeoMoz.

http://www.seomoz.org/directories

I just bought a link from the directory business.com and botw.org.  Both seemed to be reputable and all of my top competitors are listed with them.

Boo

That is a lot of detail! Hope it is correct because I am gonna follow it.

I am planning on setting up a blog in the next couple months.  We would like to have 10 different categories that professionals can write about and submit articles.  Any suggestions on which blogging software to put on the site.  So far I have heard of WordPress and Joomla. (Not sure which is the best version)  We want it to maybe have the bloggers logo or pictures, date, etc. None of us have had any experience with this so we needed some input.

I have been reading everywhere that blogging is huge for SEO and so I just wanted to improve ours plus maybe drive more traffic with a high level blog for professionals. Any ideas or even books that I should go purchase to study up.  When we do this it would be great to get it set up properly from the get go.

Boo

We will see...I just got BOTW and Business.com a couple weeks ago...looking forward to the April 27th crawl for updated rankings.

Eating popcorn in anticipation with this one.

Good to know... I was getting carpel tunnel checking 5 times a day over the past 4 weeks.

lol....no it was not intentional....:)

without.....but when you click on them both are listed with the #!.

Yesterday for some reason my twitter account rankings went through the roof and I am ranked for many keywords for my twitter account now.  I am not sure what happened but am very happy about it.