Hi Dan,

I know this is an old question but I wanted to ask if using MultiSite and Domain Mapping had any negative impact on search rankings? Or do the search engines treat the mapped domain as a completely unique domain?

Thanks in advance.

Seems like the seo jury has spoken and CSS it is. Thank you all for your help on this matter. Thumbs up to you all.

For a user / seo perspective, what is the best way to code a drop down menu nav bar? Is it best to use css, javascript or a scripting library like jquery?

I am thinking about overall best practice that will not have a negative impact on serps.

I am also thinking about what will work best on all types of devices i.e. desk tops, lap tops, smart phones and tablets.

What are the Pro's & Cons of Using CSS for Drop Down Menus.

What are the Pro's & cons of using Javascript for drop down menus.

And the same question for jquery.

Thank you all in advance for your ideas.

No problem,

I'm more than glad to help. Enjoy your weekend.

Last I checked Analytics still gave insight on keywords.

If you use google analytics it will give you every keyword that a person uses to get to your site. You need to follow the reports. I have the app for my iPhone and iPad. I monitor my site daily. One of the best features is seeing how people get to my site.

Analytics shows me their operating system used

Keywords Used

Unique visitors

location of the search

and a crazy amount of data

Best part it is free.

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Hope this helps.

There are no concrete rules when it comes to ratio of no follow / do follow but a rule of thumb is that you should have an 80/20 ratio of do follow versus no follow.

It would be suspicious if you only had do follow but wouldn't look right if you only had no follow.

As you already know, do follow links hold a lot of value. No follow links just gives the impression that your link building is natural.

That being said I would't remove the no follow links to get a better ratio. Just make sure your link building strategy focuses on natural white hat strategies

Hope this helps.

XML Sitemaps are important for search engines. It makes their job easier. Even if you rank in the #1 position today you still want to take care of the maintaining your position. Especially for the simple stuff.

Here is a link for an XML Generator

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

I hope this helps and Good luck.

Like everyone stated, the h1 tag is not the make or break issue for sep. But it is part of your overall on site seo things to consider. You should normally place the h1 tag first and then followed by the h2 then 3 and so on. If you wanted to have another group of text larger than the h1 tag then simply use CSS to do this or an inline span.

Hello Brian,

I'm a Realtor also. Yes, the school of thought is to optimize a page for one keyword phrase. But in our business that is not necessarily the case. Me personally I have about 4 keywords that my site is optimized for. Reason for this is that most people will link to your main page, so the link juice will be for that. I would use this order

1. Dallas Real Estate

2. Dallas Homes for Sale

3. Dallas Condos

These tend to be the most competitive phrases in our industry. what you want to do is make sure your title has the phrases based on value. The order above should be the order. meaning your page title should have

Dallas Real Estate / Dallas Homes for Sale / Dallas Condos

Then natural mix in those phrases into your content but make sure it is visitor friendly content and not just keyword stuffing.

Also think about internal linking and your external link profile with these various anchor terms.

Note: keep it all natural and legit. The only short cut in SEO is to the Penalty Box.

It all depends if you don't want visitors seeing one of those pages. With a 301 redirect if someone attempts to visit page A they will be redirected to page B which means they will never see page A.

This is interesting because if you have your title tags with different keywords and your meta and content are different, it just leaves me to believe that in your content you have the same keywords, even though the substance is different.

Question are you on page 1 for both pages? That wouldn't be a bad thing as it would drive down your competition.

You did the right move by doing the 301 redirect and by submitting a new sitemap. Another thing you should consider doing if possible is identifying the links you previously had for those two sites, contact the site owners or webmasters and politely ask them to change the old link for your new URL. You should also make sure you are promoting your new site on all social media and you might consider a small PPC campaign. Also analyze the keywords you had on both sites and see how they compare to your new site. Keyword density may not be as powerful as before but still relevent. Hope this helps.

Hello Brian,

I'm a Realtor also. Yes, the school of thought is to optimize a page for one keyword phrase. But in our business that is not necessarily the case. Me personally I have about 4 keywords that my site is optimized for. Reason for this is that most people will link to your main page, so the link juice will be for that. I would use this order

1. Dallas Real Estate

2. Dallas Homes for Sale

3. Dallas Condos

These tend to be the most competitive phrases in our industry. what you want to do is make sure your title has the phrases based on value. The order above should be the order. meaning your page title should have

Dallas Real Estate / Dallas Homes for Sale / Dallas Condos

Then natural mix in those phrases into your content but make sure it is visitor friendly content and not just keyword stuffing.

Also think about internal linking and your external link profile with these various anchor terms.

Note: keep it all natural and legit. The only short cut in SEO is to the Penalty Box.

I spoke with Yahoo, apparently they only offer the 301 redirect for the higher cost hosting plans that run about $40. Any ideas?

Last I checked Analytics still gave insight on keywords.

If you use google analytics it will give you every keyword that a person uses to get to your site. You need to follow the reports. I have the app for my iPhone and iPad. I monitor my site daily. One of the best features is seeing how people get to my site.

Analytics shows me their operating system used

Keywords Used

Unique visitors

location of the search

and a crazy amount of data

Best part it is free.

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Hope this helps.

You wouldn't get penalized for the 302. 302's normally aren't used because they don't pass along link juice but in this case that is not your concern. What might create an issue for you is that people will like your site and then choose to link to it, but it will most likely be the Sydney link structure if that's the route you go, most people copy and paste the URL and then use it as a link. Then when you redo all your structures you will have one city page with a crazy amount of link juice but a main URL with no link juice. You won't be able to fix it either with a 301 because then no one will be able to see your Sydney page. You will create a problem for yourself in that sense. Hope this helps.

Seems like the seo jury has spoken and CSS it is. Thank you all for your help on this matter. Thumbs up to you all.

XML Sitemaps are important for search engines. It makes their job easier. Even if you rank in the #1 position today you still want to take care of the maintaining your position. Especially for the simple stuff.

Here is a link for an XML Generator

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

I hope this helps and Good luck.

There are no concrete rules when it comes to ratio of no follow / do follow but a rule of thumb is that you should have an 80/20 ratio of do follow versus no follow.

It would be suspicious if you only had do follow but wouldn't look right if you only had no follow.

As you already know, do follow links hold a lot of value. No follow links just gives the impression that your link building is natural.

That being said I would't remove the no follow links to get a better ratio. Just make sure your link building strategy focuses on natural white hat strategies

Hope this helps.

I heard about the Art of SEO but is it outdated?