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a) Understand that you're likely not going to be able to build high-quality links at a mass rate -- with that said, it's quite easy to build low-quality links at a mass rate.
b) You have writers creating original content -- turn your focus to guest posting on high-quality sites. You'd be surprised how many opportunities are out there.
c) It's a marathon not a sprint.
Add the "noindex" tag to subpages of archive pages to fix the duplicate page title and potential duplicate content issues. Alternatively, you can add page numbers to you template (but that won't take care of the duplicate content problem).
This feature is available in Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin. I recommend migrating to it from All-In-One. AIO may have the same feature -- check the Settings panel.
A link from one page will not hurt you. A wide dismemberment of sitewide links like this could hurt you. I seem to remember Google addressing this with WordPress theme footer links recently.
The only benefit here would be a keyword-related domain name for each industry; however, as Google has made clear in recent history, this matters less and less.
The major downside would be having four or five sites to build up and promote to rank versus only having one.
While others may disagree, I feel your efforts will be better served concentrating on one site.
The perp hasn't downloaded and copied your site. He/she is using domain masking to point the URL to your site. Still, I would consider doing something about it a high priority.
Please don't take the above advice. I think the responder misunderstood your situation. If the externally linking page is broken, there's not much you can do. It will fall out of Google eventually.
There are lots of issues with your site -- you may not think these all relate to SEO, but some relate to user-experience, which can ultimately make a difference, particularly if you've been slapped by Google as you say. I recommend engaging in a full review of every aspect:
All menu links open in a new window. Why?
Home link points to /index.htm, which is then 301-ed. Why?
You're using a lot of repeating keywords/terms in your title tags.
Ditto for descriptions, meta keywords (ditch this) and on-page content.
English landing page basically competes with home page. Each page should have a purpose/target.
Nowhere near a comprehensive list, I'm just trying to give you a place to start.
You have two options here:
Let Google sort it out (which they will -- but it may take time)
Remove the unnecessary URLs yourself via Webmaster Tool's URL removal tool.
If the site ranks well and there's any way to preserve the present URL structure, that would be your best bet. If that's not possible, 301 the old URLs to the new applicable pages.
You can do this via .htaccess like this:
301 redirect /old-permalink-here http://new-full-url-goes-here
I did not see the Yoast breadcrumb code in your source code. Yoast's plugin does not automatically enable the breadcrumbs. Were you aware? You'll need to add the code to generate them in your template files.
Yes, to the above. Fill out your home page with more content and do something about your title tags. Presently the title tag for every page on the site is "Mardi Gras Parade Tickets 2013."
I don't think he's referring to site links but instead Google's penchant for showing a number of pages from the same site. It's a domain diversity issue. Nothing you can really do about it -- it's out of your hands. Can't really think of any negative implications for folks searching for your business.
If you're comfortable editing templates, you can use some variation of the following call in your template file to display the author bio:
If you're not, you can use this plugin and activate the feature for the archive pages using the settings panel:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-biographia/
Google should then automatically display the author bio as the meta description, even if the tag isn't explicitly defined.
Here's the best way to proceed with article submission/syndication:
Stop.
I would personally reconsider the use of .md as the primary domain, although I think it would be appropriate for a vanity URL to use in offline advertisements, etc., that redirects to your website.
Google does not just use the Geotarget data:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=182192#2
Also, Google does not explicitly list .md in its list of ccTLDs that are considered generic:
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1347922
In the above link, scroll down to this section:
I'm not guaranteeing you that this is a problem, but I'm saying I would personally reconsider it if the site is still fairly NEW.
Actually, a 301 redirect can be avoided here, provided you maintain the same page/URL structure. You can use this WordPress plugin to generate the custom .cfm page extension and retain your URL structure to avoid hurting your rankings:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-page-extensions/
It would be best to avoid a 301 redirect if possible.
I think you are misunderstanding the purpose of Google Tag Manager. The meta keyword tag is ignored except in cases of site search.
To OP:
Social media is going to be your main source of traffic here, IMO. It doesn't mean you should completely ignore natural search optimization, but that the best way to drive traffic to your site is through social media. The rankings will come with traffic/shares/backlinks.
Try BlueHost for managed/shared hosting. I would stay away from GoDaddy and HostGator -- way too slow.
Correct. The only way Google uses the meta keyword tag is in site search:
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/keywords-meta-tag-in-web-search/
Based on the cached pages I saw, I'd say it's a spam site. It also returned a 403 error in Lynx, so I presume the site is no longer active or just temporarily down rather than only visible to robots.
I'm going to agree with all of what Adam Thompson said, less the social bookmarking part. Social links can be valuable as they can lead to an influx of traffic (depends on the content obviously). Reddit can be particularly powerful.
Yes, the tag is a little too long, but how long ago did you change it? It takes some time for Google to update the indexed page titles -- if you've changed it in the last week it probably just hasn't been re-crawled and updated yet.
Subdomains are technically treated by Google as separate site. That doesn't mean that blogging won't help your main site, but the benefits would probably be higher if you hosted the blog in a subdirectory rather than a subdomain.
Here's Google's Matt Cutts on the topic:
“My personal preference on subdomains vs. subdirectories is that I usually prefer the convenience of subdirectories for most of my content. A subdomain can be useful to separate out content that is completely different. Google uses subdomains for distinct products such news.google.com or maps.google.com, for example. If you’re a newer webmaster or SEO, I’d recommend using subdirectories until you start to feel pretty confident with the architecture of your site. At that point, you’ll be better equipped to make the right decision for your own site.”
Don't bother with it. Even if something has a short-term benefit, we know the general direction Google is going, and we know they will eventually be addressing any so-called loopholes.
Link-building is not dead -- but link-building as we know it is dead. Yes, you should strive to create quality content that others will share, but you should also seek out guest-posting opportunities from high-quality sites.
And don't underestimate the power of social media -- reddit in particular, depending on your niche/content.
You may have success by requesting removal of the cached version of the page using the URL removal tool; however, I'm assuming you aren't the site owner, and thus do not have access to the forum's URL removal tool.
It really depends on the site. If it's a highly trafficked forum, it is likely crawled frequently. You may see it updated within the week. If it's not, it make a month or so, unfortunately.
Personally, I would do it, as I'm always on the lookout for extra ways to market my services. There's also the networking factor, which can reap an endless stream of benefits down the road.
But all in all, there are too many factors to give a definitive answer. For example, how much time will the project require? Can you afford to work X number of hours knowing that the payoff may be gradual or may not come at all?
I would also avoid the link at the bottom of every page.
And on the flip side, there's the Harlan Ellison philosophy that seems to work for some folks
It's listed right here in the Google Webmaster Guidelines:
"Building partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking."
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66356
The guidelines also mentioned "excessive link exchanges" -- so what's deemed excessive? This is definitely a gray area.
I would nofollow the links just to be safe.
I hate to be a Bernie Bummer, but Content is King, and I don't recommend going after the cheapest solution when looking to produce it. While it's theoretically possible to find an "overseas" individual or company willing to produce content very cheaply, the chances are very good that the content itself will generally be low quality.
In a nutshell, if you're on a tight budget, content is not the area to apply restraints to.
Exactly -- take advantage of all the tools at your disposal. In this case, local results will be displayed more often than not. In a nutshell, you need to be setting up Google+ Local pages for the businesses you are working with rather than clinging onto the hope of competing with the big dogs for organic search position.
The trackback links are generally nofollow, so PageRank isn't being passed. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Personally, I do not allow trackbacks on my WordPress sites.