Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Meta Robots.

Not that I'm aware of.

Even if it isn't penalized, I don't see it as a long-term strategy with the rankings focus on User Experience post-Panda.

And are you going to attract the right kind of people to your site with all caps?

I was caught up in the wording.

OSE lists the number of internal and external links for a website.

But you also have to factor in where they are linking to. Links to spam sites is not a site you want to be associated with.

I understand what you're saying. It can be a great deal of work getting a link from someone and you want to find an exact way of rating one over the other. But I think you have to factor in all of the other context factors.

I know from Rand and others' comments that a low PA/High DA link is favorable compared to a High PA/Low DA link.  And I believe the PA score is affected by the number of outgoing links (Not 100% sure). This would mean that DA is a larger factor than the number of outgoing links.

It would be convenient if links were absolute in value. E.g, four links are worth twice as much as two links. But they are not and there is a ton of value in analyzing where links are coming from and where your competition is getting links.

Open Site Explorer is a good option for this. So is Yahoo Site Explorer. Majestic is another option.

OSE is my preference. Each one will likely give you a different number of links. Some links are discounted for appearing spammy, some are considered duplicates, etc. While you may not always have an absolute number to rely on, there is value in analyzing what you and your competitors have and improving on that over time.

I believe you are talking about inbound links. Links to you.

"In the event that there are three sites on which you have been offered the opportunity of a link"

To answer your question: I don't believe so. It's not as simple as counting the number of links on a page. You also have to factor in link placement. Top of the page vs. bottom of the page. And while you want to hold the other factors constant, anchor text, relevancy, etc., they will never be constant. There are always variables involved.

You would be different, but making your titles in all caps appears spammy.

Do you click on emails that are in ALL CAPS?

The home page, from my perspective, has too much information. One section is diabetes. One is osteoporosis. Another is Vitamin D. And that isn't even half of the front page. This combined with the two-column drop-down navigational buttons is a lot to process.

The drop-down tabs and rollover images appear instantly making the website interface feel jumpy.

I'd focus on simplifying the front-page and having less internal links directly off the home page.

The first is talking about Meta Descriptions. The second is talking about Meta Keywords. Two completely different things.

Meta Descriptions are important. Meta Keywords are not.

Maybe it's because you have two home pages. Each one splitting your backlinks.

http://www.1step2heaven.co.uk/index.php

and

http://www.1step2heaven.co.uk/

Or some of those links might not be counted due to having bought links.

I wouldn't focus on your statistical discrepancies at this stage. Instead I'd focus on adding more quality links and adding strong content to your website.

You will see different statistics for each SEO tool. Some don't take into account linking domains that are spam, some do. Some don't count duplicate domains, some do. Etc.

The same thing happens with traffic statistics. GWT and Google Analytics rarely line up on site traffic numbers. It's more important to follow trends over time than the actual numbers.

In the following URL, "example.com" is the domain URL and the entire URL is the page's URL:

http://example.com/category/page/

Consider the page an extension of the domain.Your page statistics are going to be better than the domain statistics If you have a page that is performing better than the rest of the website.

http://www.tareeinternet.com/forum/knowledgebase/54-canonical-urls-301-redirects-important-search-engine-optimization.html

This post covers Apache redirects in-depth.

Read this if you don't want an entire overview:

"Part 4 - How can I add a trailing slash to requested URLs ?

Description of the problem:

Some search engines remove the trailing slash from urls that look like directories - e.g. Yahoo does it. However it could result into duplicated content problems when the same page content is accessible under different urls. Apache gives some more information in the Apache Server FAQ.

Let's have a look at an example: domain.com/google/ is indexed in Yahoo as domain.com/google - which would result in two urls with the same content.

Solution:

The solution is to create a .htaccess rewrite rule that adds the trailing slashes to these urls. Example - redirect all urls that do not have a trailing slash to urls with a trailing slash:

  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !example.php
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1/ [L,R=301]

Explanation of the add trailing slash .htaccess rewrite rule:

The first line tells Apache that this is code for the rewrite engine of the mod_rewrite module of Apache. The 2nd line sets the current directory as page root. But the interesting part is:

  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f 

makes sure that existing files will not get a slash added. You shouldn't do the same with directories since this would exclude the rewrite behavior for existing directories. The line

  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !example.php

excludes a sample url that should not be rewritten. This is just an example. If you do not have a file or url that should not be rewritten, remove this line. The condition:

  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$ 

finally fires when a url does not contain a trailing slash. Now we need to redirect the urls without the trailing slash:

  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.com/$1/ [L,R=301] 

does the 301 redirect to the url, with the trailing slash appended. You should replace domain.com with your url."

https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/357?step=357

You have a trailing slash canonical issue. There are two version of every page on your site. The slash version and the non-slash version.

Find out which version has the most links going to it. Using Open Site Explorer is one way. And then 301 redirect all of the pages from the less popular version to the more popular version.

Directions for a 301 redirect can be found in the Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet:

http://static.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf

She could offer fashion advice. How to look good and be comfortable at the same time.

Just look at UGG boots. They don't look any different than other boots. But they feel like slippers.

Leggings is another example of combining comfort and looks.

Tell your wife good luck.

SEO encompasses many things and it keeps changing.

It's easier to understand all of the articles on this site when you can visualize the process step-by-step. That's why I recommended Dover's book. He covers the information from a consultant perspective.

Watch all of the Whiteboard Fridays. You shouldn't need much background information to understand them. And most of them are only ten minutes a piece.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/category/33

Pay particular attention to Rand's Whiteboard Friday discussing the new Panda Update and what it means for SEO:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-googles-panda-update-changed-seo-best-practices-forever-whiteboard-friday

A negative effect would be from incoming links. You want the links going to the old page to route to the new page. I'd use a 301.

The old pages might still be indexed if you do your proposed switch. Currently your site has a robots.txt file, but it doesn't have Meta Robots. Meta Robots will allow you to choose whether to index a page or not.

There are many articles on this site. You should read through the beginner's guide if you haven't already:

http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

SEO Secrets by Danny Dover is a great book to get an overview of the SEO process, especially for on-page optimization:

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Engine-Optimization-SEO-Secrets/dp/0470554185/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1/177-8397498-2734067

And to answer your question, I'd pursue on-page optimization first.

There shouldn't be any major issues. You will lose the link juice going to the old link if you don't use a 301 redirect. But the conversion you are describing isn't a dynamic URL issue. Both are static URLs. The bigger issue is the duplicate site locations:

http://ciee.org/#home

http://ciee.org/

http://www.ciee.org/

http://www.ciee.org/#home

Also the meta description and home page title are too long:

CIEE is a leading provider of international educational experiences. Each year, more than 35000 people from around the world study, work, travel, host, and ...

CIEE - work, travel, study and exchange programs for students ...

Hope that helps.

I agree with everything John said, especially the text.

And your meta description is too long:

"Internet marketing specialists online media direct are experts on all internet marketing services. We specialise in providing marketing to companies who ..."

Either way would work.

You won't get much value out of that third link, but I don't see it hurting you.

Informational Graphics.

Part information. Part graphics.

Examples:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/4-essential-seo-infographics

They're popular. They look good. They can convey complex information in a simple visual format. And you can attach alt keyword text.

1. It will help, but not as much as if it was at the top of the page (assuming it's relevant and that the site is not spammy).

2. You should host it.

3. Yes. When anchor text is directed toward the same search page, search engines only count the first occurrence. Make your keyword the link.

4. I'm not sure what you're asking. If you are talking about multiple linked keywords, I'd advise against it. If you are saying to use other keywords as relevant surrounding text, maybe. It's up to you.

Not that I know of. Maybe someone else can chime in with their experience.

I could possibly see an issue with Analytics  if you're running an AdWords campaign for the old site version. But that would be a simple fix, if it's even an issue.

SEOmoz's section on redirects is comprehensive:

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection

You want to put out unique content. Article directories have a ton of links, are not as relevant, and as a result, have low link value. It takes a while to write a quality article. Use your time on what will have the highest return.

It's best to put your content directly on your site, blog, and supplement that with guest blogging. All of it unique and high quality.

Switch to a static URL.

Search engines are becoming better at dealing with parameters, but sometimes they falter, as in your situation.

And from an aesthetic and sharing perspective, the shorter static URLs are superior.

It would have been better to do it earlier.

But losing that small percentage of link juice (1-10%) is a small price to pay for canonicalizing (with a 301 re-direct)  that website.

You have a lot of links to gain by doing this (1,084) and you prevent duplicate content issues.

Also, if she has the time to regularly write, have her start a blog for her site. This will draw in searchers to her main site and when she continually puts out great information, people will want her to guest blog.

Finding opportunities for her to write articles should be easy if she is a recognized expert. If she is under the radar, she will have to win over authors of popular related blogs and sites with engaging content. A simple Google search should discover which informational sites rank highly for your industry. Have her study the sites, find out what kind of content makes the blog/site, and then write a guest article catered to that blog/site.

There is a good discussion related to your topic in the comments section of this post:

http://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/3145/https-best-practices-for-seo-and-usability

Regular links. You want people to link to your website, because you have a great website. This means providing interesting content that your viewers want to read and having a visually appealing website with easy navigation. It's all about catering to the searcher's needs.

But to get started, locate popular lingerie blogs and analyze the website to see what kind of content makes it on the blog. Then write an interesting article that will fit right in with the blog and ask if the website host will allow you to guest blog your interesting article.

The fashion industry has so many blogs and websites devoted to it. It's a big opportunity for you to put out great content and receive links back to your website.

"...and will be working with an external agency."

The external agency should have their own consulting strategy.

If you need information about how to view your website from a consultant perspective, Danny Dover's book is a good resource:

http://www.amazon.com/Search-Engine-Optimization-SEO-Secrets/dp/0470554185/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313596634&sr=8-1

Everyone has their own method.

-I'd start with a quick site audit. Make sure you have content that people will link to, a solid graphic design, and a good UX.
-Determine who is your target audience.
-Decide who are your main competitors.
-Research what your customers are calling your services.
-Research what keywords your competitors are targeting.
-Find out what variations of these receive the most traffic with the least competition (SEOmoz Pro Tools/AdWords Keyword Tool/Others) 
-Pick your metrics to track. Have a way to separate web conversions from other sources (a separate email, phone #, feedback form, etc.)
-Fix your internal site issues (canonicalization issues, Meta Robots, no Meta Description, etc.)
-Optimize your site for your targeted keywords and a strong UX.
-Start gaining external links
-Continually test keyword variations and add new content
-Compliment organic campaign with a PPC campaign (optional, but it's a  good way to quickly test keywords).

I'm sure I left out several steps. But that gives you an idea.
And there are many ways to complete each step. Many ways to build links, do competitor analysis, perform keyword research, etc.

If you ask ten people, you're going to get ten different answers. I'd find an external agency that you can trust and let them do it their way.

You don't buy them. Websites that are willing to sell links are usually the websites you want to avoid. Paid links will often trigger search engines' spam filters.

I posted this in your other question. This will be a good read for you:

http://www.seomoz.org/article/the-professional-guide-to-link-building-2011

No. You have to research and locate quality, relevant links in your industry. There are many link building articles on this site.

Reading this should give you an idea of how to go about acquiring links:

http://www.seomoz.org/article/the-professional-guide-to-link-building-2011

Google PageRank isn't something I'd worry about in this context. Rand covered what PageRank should and shouldn't be used for in his latest Whiteboard Friday: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/what-is-googles-pagerank-good-for-whiteboard-friday.

I prefer a 301 redirect over GWT preferences. I'd 301 redirect the non-www version to the www version (assuming that the www version has the popularity).

Code and directions are provided on the Web Developer's Cheat Sheet: http://static.seomoz.org/user_files/SEO_Web_Developer_Cheat_Sheet.pdf

No problem Dan.

Brad Geddes has a great book if you want to learn more about Google AdWords. It's worth checking out:

http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Google-AdWords-Brad-Geddes/dp/0470500239/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1313594583&sr=1-1

Add quality external links to your site.

It's similar to Actual Page Rank.

This page explains it well:

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/mozrank

Check out this article:

http://www.conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2009/03/step-by-step-guide-to-google-analytics-for-beginners/

That's up to you.

Changing the product headings and descriptions for each seasonal product version will take more time, but it may make your product appear more relevant to your customers. And you won't have duplicate content, but the content will be similar.

But if the same cup is going to be advertised as a Christmas Red Cup and a Valentine's Day Red Cup, you could get away with just updating the page season-by-season and having one page version.

-Fix the canonical issues:

http://www.clubfitnesswarehouse.com/index.php/

http://clubfitnesswarehouse.com/index.php/

http://www.clubfitnesswarehouse.com

http://clubfitness.com

**All show the home page.  **

-Limit your title to 66 characters.

-Get some content on your site a la http://www.elitefts.net/Default.asp.

-Remove the Meta Keywords (They don't do anything.)

I'm sure there are other issues, but I'm about to catch a movie.

Good luck with your business.

I'm having a hard time finding a quantifiable correlation for subfolders.

Jane Copeland said this back in 2009: "Keywords in folder names or file names are not nearly as effective as keywords in domain names, but they still play a part in optimisation."

http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/24340/keyword-in-many-subfolders-away-from-root-domain

And URL length has a negative correlation (-.06).

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics-8

Something like this would get the location in and still be short:

http://www.trulia.com/NY/New_York/

I don't think either way will affect you too much. I like things concise, but that is just a personal preference.

Thanks. I read it a while ago and mis-remembered it.

And it is from 2 years ago. But I doubt it would become more relevant with searches trending toward UX.

[Wrong Reference]

You can target multiple keywords, but the words need to fit the same purpose and be relevant. You don't want to throw in keywords just so you can rank for them.

Check out this post by Rand. It should clear some things up for you:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/keyword-targeting-how-to-employ-multiple-keywords-for-seo-conversions

Let me know if you still have questions.

More return users would account for the increase in visits w/o the increase in visitors.

And a high bounce rate would correlate with a drop in page views and time-on-site.

Assuming GA is acting normal, you have people finding your site repeatedly and leaving immediately when they do.

Which is odd.

Do you have a high level of traffic?

8/22/2011 is 6 days from now.

Maybe Chris is having a SEO premonition.

Final Destination: Google Analytics Edition.

It's always tough to outrank a website for their brand name, because of the associated anchor text.

And for my Google search (US), you ranked 7th.

I would put your money in other ventures.