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Most-searched for keywords will also typically be the most competitive.

Competition = higher CPC and lower CTR. So, you're spending a LOT of money on keywords that have a low chance of getting a click (when they do, it's an expensive one at that), and is likely to be early in the buying cycle (less chance of a conversion).

For example, "real estate" would not be a desirable keyword. If you're selling luxury apartments, what percentage of people who search for this are looking for what you're selling? If you were to bid on this, you're going to pay big for it and see no real conversions from it.

However, "luxury condos in highland park" with a geo-focus on that area will not get a ton of clicks, but the conversion rate will be extremely good on a well-written and optimized landing page. Not to mention, the clicks will be cheap; probably 10% or less than "real estate". Although that keyword is one that wouldn't even show in the AdWords Keyword Tool, but is highly relevant to someone looking for what you're selling.

It's these sort of things that can't be taught easily, but that come from experience and independent research.

Exactly.

I have many, many people asking similar questions in my circle. It's far more expansive than most folks realize. Plus, there is a lot about the way AdWords works that simply reading a book or online resource can't cover. Every account/budget/competition/industry is different and needs to be treated as such.

The AdWords Help Center linked in the previous answer (note: this is NOT the SEO guide you're referring to) will answer this questions in detail and outline use cases for each one. I do implore you to read it. It'll also guide you in keyword research.

If you're hear asking this, don't try doing this on your own. You'll get reamed in the worst possible way on real estate terms.

I'd highly suggest starting in the official AdWords Help Center and study the AdWords certification material. That'll get you a good working knowledge.

But, seriously, you're going to be far more cost effective to find a local (this is important since you're a localized business) Google AdWords Certified Company. What you "save" on management fees you'll spend 5x over on the first time you make a mistake on the way you set up bidding or daily budgets. I'm not trying to dissuade you from learning AdWords, just trying to get you to understand the potential money sink it can be.

Not necessarily. Yes, you shouldn't automatically nofollow every external link; however, nofollowed external links versus followed external links have to be treated differently.

Especially in cases of online journalism and blogging, it's not unheard of to link to a site that might be unsavory. Using a nofollow in that case (where otherwise, external links are usually followed) would clue crawlers in that "this site might be bad, don't ding us for it".

If 95% of your external links are spam/porn, and you nofollow one of those links, then, yes, you should expect to get smacked down. But, when you have a slightly shady in-context link that's nofollowed, and plenty of other good links that are followed, it's not going to be an issue.

I've seen this in cases where multiple pages are significantly better optimized than the competition. Contrary to what other folks are saying, I think 301ing the inner page to the homepage would be shooting yourself in the foot. You're sacrificing page authority and known 'good' content to have only one page appear. Give your user double the opportunity to pick you, versus taking it away from them if you happen to choose in error. Spend time on additional content for the inner page (and any related pages) to try pushing it up. Perhaps some well-thought out links to the inner page would be a good thing, too.

Simply from a human perspective, I'd do something with the large blank footer area. Maybe add contact information, short testimonials, something that will fill that area out a bit.

You'll get the links listed in WMT, but it's certainly not all the links they count towards your link profile. With the recent updates, you may want to take a look at some other third party tools to try to sniff out any bad links that aren't showing in WMT, but that are penalized or not passing any real authority.

Yes, you'd do well do add some real content. Your link/nonlink content ratio is already going to be link heavy simply on account of the product listings. You might write content on the particular use cases of the products, high-level features/specs/advantages, etc., to build up valuable context for the page.

I'd also take another look at the meta description for the GetPaper page. It just reads a little wonky.

I've seen this in cases where multiple pages are significantly better optimized than the competition. Contrary to what other folks are saying, I think 301ing the inner page to the homepage would be shooting yourself in the foot. You're sacrificing page authority and known 'good' content to have only one page appear. Give your user double the opportunity to pick you, versus taking it away from them if you happen to choose in error. Spend time on additional content for the inner page (and any related pages) to try pushing it up. Perhaps some well-thought out links to the inner page would be a good thing, too.

Simply from a human perspective, I'd do something with the large blank footer area. Maybe add contact information, short testimonials, something that will fill that area out a bit.

If you're hear asking this, don't try doing this on your own. You'll get reamed in the worst possible way on real estate terms.

I'd highly suggest starting in the official AdWords Help Center and study the AdWords certification material. That'll get you a good working knowledge.

But, seriously, you're going to be far more cost effective to find a local (this is important since you're a localized business) Google AdWords Certified Company. What you "save" on management fees you'll spend 5x over on the first time you make a mistake on the way you set up bidding or daily budgets. I'm not trying to dissuade you from learning AdWords, just trying to get you to understand the potential money sink it can be.

Yes, you'd do well do add some real content. Your link/nonlink content ratio is already going to be link heavy simply on account of the product listings. You might write content on the particular use cases of the products, high-level features/specs/advantages, etc., to build up valuable context for the page.

I'd also take another look at the meta description for the GetPaper page. It just reads a little wonky.

You'll get the links listed in WMT, but it's certainly not all the links they count towards your link profile. With the recent updates, you may want to take a look at some other third party tools to try to sniff out any bad links that aren't showing in WMT, but that are penalized or not passing any real authority.

Most-searched for keywords will also typically be the most competitive.

Competition = higher CPC and lower CTR. So, you're spending a LOT of money on keywords that have a low chance of getting a click (when they do, it's an expensive one at that), and is likely to be early in the buying cycle (less chance of a conversion).

For example, "real estate" would not be a desirable keyword. If you're selling luxury apartments, what percentage of people who search for this are looking for what you're selling? If you were to bid on this, you're going to pay big for it and see no real conversions from it.

However, "luxury condos in highland park" with a geo-focus on that area will not get a ton of clicks, but the conversion rate will be extremely good on a well-written and optimized landing page. Not to mention, the clicks will be cheap; probably 10% or less than "real estate". Although that keyword is one that wouldn't even show in the AdWords Keyword Tool, but is highly relevant to someone looking for what you're selling.

It's these sort of things that can't be taught easily, but that come from experience and independent research.