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All that, yet I have still secured Yahoo listing for our site. How's that? I'm not saying I had money to throw around but it's basically a significant directory to be in - even outside SEO value. My vote still goes towards yes if the site is important to you and you are not willing to cut corners.
Yes you can get links like that - and you know what works really well? Lies and misrepresentation. I know because I have seen it. Basically getting the link "Google legit" way (e.g. not buying links) but totally unethical in every other way. For example I know of a team who says they are a doctor of physics at some university and bull their way into gov/edu listings on the basis of false identity. Once their client found out they were fired immediately.
I disagree with your view that "windsurfing equipment" is a bad thing for the users. Consider the fact that they will arrive through results to your site. If the phrase "windsurfing equipment" is in the TITLE of your page that will display as a clickable element in search results and also assure the user they're clicking on the right thing.
As far as SEO goes, having an exact phrase somewhere in the title is an advantage to having a partial title (e.g. only "equipment").
Hi Dave, thanks, I am familiar with that article. I am interested in people's personal opinion.
Any difference or are you actually on the same thing once you hop on a boat/ferry?
Internal linking channels juice being accumulated through inbound links and the two work as a team. I am interested to hear from those who have either tested or have a fairly good gut feeling about the impact of internal links on rankings (as an additional signal).
Also in your opinion how does internal linking compare to external links pointing to the same page (e.g. impact of benefit/ranking gained through internal linking + inbound links as opposed to scenario where there is no relevant internal links at all).
Conditions:
For example:
Since this is a simplified model feel free to provide necessary clarifications below your estimate.
Looking forward to your answers!
If I understand this correctly:
In this case you can use rel="canonical" and point to main page. This will prevent duplication and sort out your link building worries.
My recommendation would be to re-optimise the same page to a new product name (title/H1...etc) if the users expect that product name. If it's still an unknown term then ensure that you have the new name present on the site in form of a disclosure: e.g. This product is now officially called XYZ and that will ensure you're found for it. The only thing you're missing out on is phrase in URL. Potentially when consumers do the switch of terminology you could set up a new URL and 301 the old one to it.
Meh. PR / PA / DA... these are just simplified metrics. If you are really interesting in finding out the potential of the site ask for their traffic (if you can) and see how many unique domain inbound links they have and you'be on the money.
This weather service you provide - is this too valuable to give away to all sites big and small?
I deal with this problem often. Couple of questions:
I found that you can safely exceed "100" quoted by Google if your site is strong enough. It was just a number that they made up, obviously the value is not absolute, but I would probably not push it past 150.
I do it in a few steps:
This process can be applied to multiple ranking scenarios.
Definitely invest in two unique copies of text. If there are thousands and you are unable to get them all done at once you may try variable driven text, however replacing one element and expecting Google to like it is a bit too much.
Alt, although a valid signal is not as heavy as title for example, so I suggest that you do not compromise the integrity and quality of site for SEO purposes only and manipulation of this tag. Use ALT as it should be used and describe your illustrations, photos, products images and diagrams well enough so that a visually impaired may get an idea of what the image is. That's what Google expects you to do and is generally a win-win.
Agreed, community is something that can not only educate but get you going and inspire to do more and better. It does get a bit lonely if you are hiding under a rock for too long.
I find the linkscape useful not so much in grouping but sorting competitor links by strength and priority leaving the least potent stuff at the bottom and focusing on the most juicy links at the top of the list. Often I'll split it up into two groups and assign different people to work on different link strengths.
OSE index is limited however it may be the case that your other site's links get indexed more thoroughly next time.
If the term is not competitive you can do quite nicely by just mentioning the year specials on the page as part of the sentence and perhaps a sub heading (H2). However if it's a heavy term you might get some extra points if you have a dedicated title tag / url etc for it therefore a page for 2012 product would be beneficial. Google always says "think about what would be best for users." Perhaps that's something you should ask yourself also, would users benefit from separate pages? If a product page already ranks and has links to it it's much easier to get it ranked for new terms (especially if they are a variation) than pushing a new page from scratch. A happy middle would be new pages but interlinked across offers for different years, therefore passing votes across.
Sounds like my next test. Exact match brand domain (no great links, indexed) VS linked up and shared FB page.
Now back to my Tai Mai 
Your own domain will naturally rank better for branded search.
It's hard to say without looking at the site however it's likely it's tripped the new quality filter. Try improving content on a single page and see if it makes difference. If yes, then apply to others.
Google is very good at figuring out that www and non www versions are the same site - so content duplication will not be an issue (this happens too often for them not to handle properly). One advantage you do have is consolidation of yoru link juice towards the same canonical version and therefore achieving better results. Set your preference in Google Webmaster Tools to a choice and stick to it - everywhere - even in your email signatures and printed material.
As far as www goes we've purposely dropped it and went with non-www, I personally think www is silly and meaningless however this means we have to from time to time police and correct how webmasters write down and link our URL and ask for www removal if found. Not too hard if you monitor yoru brand via Google Alerts.
I vote for Open Site Explorer as my single most used tool.
I don't think you're gaining much with a complex subdomain play. My recommendation would be to use the usual format: domain.tld/geo/category/degree-name this format will provide clear URLs which are easy to understand by both search engines and users.
Yes it is. Going through this whole thing myself with a few sites.
No need to repeat word software so much, Google will know what you are about. Write it down naturally and keep the number of links to around 100 per page. The rest should be handled by site hierarchy.
Google know's it's in the footer (pretty much always) so it will treat it like a footer link. No big deal, just not as potent as a content area link.
Why not just have logo as logo with ALT on it and H1 where it should be - right above the content area?
Another solution would be geo targeting users and pre-setting their location with option to adjust. Use dropdowns or ajax to select cities. I find the top nav a bit strange - not sure if I would use it. Another option would be a prominent search field to give users quick access to their city's deals.
I would get straight to the point and move the license field right on the first landing page. You're creating additional step and giving people a chance to give up. Testing different page versions will be the only way to tell for sure.
Guest blog posts are not a bad idea, though bloggers are going to start being more sensitive to link hungry blog post requests. Do I see a new marketplace being created just like link sales....? Hope not.
It may take some time, but you better start making a move on your content. Think about what else you can bring into your product descriptions that other sites don't have (apart from rewriting descriptions). Providing additional data/value could be the easier way out - especially if you have data floating around or can collect it using your current traffic through surveys etc.
Having a TLD specific to a country/region makes sense not only from SEO but also business point of view. I understand what it means to start again and building links again from scratch however you have a good headstart and a super relevant link from your old juiced up site. Google will figure it out it's the same brand, country specific and will start treating it as a family of websites. Make sure you use all local signals (phone, address, business reg numbers and are present in local directories). When interlinking own sites ensure good disclosure is in place.
/frames/ is a useles element in the URL so I would get rid of it, basically your new URL structure shows improvement. You should 301 the pages (not 201, I think you just made a typo).
a: Yes. Google will fairly quickly pick up on the new structure.
b: Don't repeat company name, that would not be helpful to anybody.
Good luck!
Try analysing your keywords in Google Webmaster Tools. You will discover some very nice opportunities in there:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en
I had a look at a random page: http://www.thebudgetfashionista.com/archive/ugg-boot-cleaning/ and what I see is a link to an internal page, link to CJ and adsense... if I was a googlebot I would also have some content that I'm not smart enough to deal with yet bit it has definitely triggered the new algo. Try Improving the content quality by including references to other materials, for example if you make a statement or claim link to the source of that information and reference it at the bottom. Pages that are created to make money via adsense/aff programs usually try to hog all the pagerank to themselves. Do a test and see how it goes. Post it back here so we know
Good luck!
You will find that an ALT element can be elsewhere on the page and still help, perhaps below the fold (or whatever makes sens for usability) and still achieve the same effect. We've used a stock photo to achieve better conversions successfully and combined it with a strong call to action device. In your case (like in anyone's) there is only one way to find out - try A/B testing
I would imagine it's your linking structure and internal anchor text that affect it. As far as WP goes pages vs posts should not mean anything to Google as you can completely tweak the URL structure...etc to the point where it cannot figure out what's what. Have you tried implementing an auto-parse internal link tool? It gives great control over how pages are interlinked.
I just checked your site (http://www.bing.com/search?q=site:beauty-tips.net) and it seems to be indexed ok, however it does not come up when I search your main term (using bing.com / malaysian IP). Sitemap doesn't seem to be the problem but perhaps you should check how you rank for other terms. Is it just that one main term you're struggling with or is it every key phrase?
Creating of own pages on FB & Twitter is just one step. Google uses/will use other signals also such as user reputation, diversity of posts/tweets, cross-referencing with other metrics, geo location...etc. It will be these that will influence results more than your own pages.
I'm doing a check on a sample of 1000 domains and will publish results as soon as it's done. We'll give it 30 days
Consider how your related articles are handled. At the end of an article you could have related content which is great for both search engines and readers.
I would say no. If this was a problem a lot of sites would get in trouble, too many for Google to go and mass penalise.
If you are looking to engage community I wholeheartedly recommend Buddy Press for Word Press. Plenty of useful plugins for it around.
Penalty can affect you in two ways:
Reconsideration request is useful for the first one, not the second. This means that if you have been algorithmically penalised you will need to remove the source of the problem and the issue will self-resolve. The problem is that Google will not ever tell you what you did wrong. Aint that a bitch!
What may have happened in your case is two things:
Options?
Clean up some more and wait a few weeks.
Contingency plan?
Dump the domain and move on if you can afford to do this from business point of view. Sometimes you can get away with 301 from A to B, however if you are a higher impact website you will not stay under a radar long.
Best of luck mate. I feel your pain.
For me using exact match is useful when managing expectations (yours and your clients') for that particular keyword / phrase only. On a broader research stage I may use phrase or broad. It's all useful in its own way.
Make handy internal links using relevant anchor text in a meaningful way that will be helpful to users as well. No need to link to same page ten times and no need to use ten anchor text variations for the same link on the same page. If the equilibrium is there you will benefit from it. Once it starts to look excessive is when it becomes a problem.
If you have articles and they don't link to relevant product pages then you're missing out on that extra signal your competitors may be using.
I'm also curious to hear why change to Joomla? I find WP to be a superior solution in many ways although not as robust as drupal and others. The support network for it is amazing and the number of plugins available for it outweight many limitations it may have as a platform.