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I have not looked at vistaprint or moonfruit but those types of systems are generally awful for SEO.

If I knew a person who had a tiny business and needed a website I would point them towards a wordpress site using a template.  Then they can focus 100% on the content and easily change or improve the design in the future.

They might need some help getting started, so there could be a small expense and a learning curve - but you will have that with anything.

I would also register a domain and have the wordpress on my own hosting.  This cost is very small - probably under $100/year.

In the end you have your website on a platform that is very versatile, functional, well supported, and can easily get experts to improve it when you are ready.

We had a site that was republishing lots of government and university press releases.  The rankings fell across the domain during one of the Panda updates.  We deleted lots of the old releases that were not popular with our visitors and placed noindex/follow on the rest.  After doing that the site recovered nicely.  The only loss was search traffic into those noindexed releases.

Another site had hundreds of html pages with .pdfs of similar content posted so that we could control the appearance of printed copies.  That site took a Panda hit but recovered after we used .htaccess to noindex/follow the .pdf documents.

If the same article exists on lots of websites google will likely do two things......

1. Filter some copies of that article from being displayed in the SERPs (they don't want the searcher clicking into the same stuff six times from the first SERP.  The ones that are filtered are usually the copies on less powerful domains.   It does not matter if they are the original source, or published first.

2. Some sites that have lots of these duplicate content articles posted on them will be hit by Panda problems.  Rankings across the entire domain will be reduced.

I don't know how they influence my MozTrust or MozRank.....  and I don't care how they influence those numbers.

What I do care about is....  "Does linking to relevant high authority websites effect my search engine rankings?"

I believe that if you have two identical articles....  One that links to source, supplemental and superior information on other websites.... and One that links to nothing...   the article with the helpful, relevant links is a better information source for the visitor and could be ranked higher by search engines.

So, when I write an article I often link to supplemental, source and superior information on other high quality websites.

I have zero mental problems linking to websites that are superior to mine in some way.

The only thing I noticed is they're linking to their clients website, which are all high authority websites.

When I read this I don't quite understand why these links are being given?  If they are linking because they are relevant and helpful information for the visitor on the page then that is good.

However, if the are linking to them just to link to them then why bother?  I think the linking page and the linked-to page must be highly related to one another and the page receiving the link should have supplemental or superior information.

It should be dependent upon page length.

I completely ignore such rules and simply write naturally.

Occurrences per page and density are hogwash.

I think that a site with a lot of pages like this might see those pages survive for a few weeks and then... BAM... they disappear.... then the next Panda update a month later might reduced the rankings of the entire domain.

So, if this domain has lots of other traffic that you don't want to lose then I would not use the cookie-cutter method.

Would it be possible, are these new pages potentially valuable enough that you could afford to do this properly and have a unique photo and unique content written for each location?  The extra text that would be placed on these pages would pull in lots of long-tail traffic.

(I know what its like to write this stuff.... lol)

If these pages are cookie-cutter pages that look like this.....

Yada Yada in Salem County

Yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada Salem County.  Yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada.  Salem County yada yada yada yada yada yada yada yada .

...with the page-to-page variation being that you remove "Salem County" and replace it with another county name, then google will probably index these pages and rank them, but Google will eventually filter almost all of them from the search results.  And, pages like this can get you a Panda demotion for low quality content.

This strategy worked great in google about 8 years ago... then you needed a few more variables to swap out on the pages.... now Google is smart enough to filter pages like this with several variables being swapped in and out.

You might get away with it for a while and some powerful sites can get away with it for a long time, but I would consider this method to be ineffective in the long term.  Most important, if you have a Panda problem it can demote the rankings across your domain.

many seo companies put their site link in their client site's footer too!

I think that this is a good idea.  It tells me who I should not hire.

Changing the articles or even page titles is not an option.

That's too bad.  What Irving suggested has the potential for HUGE wins.

I'd find a way if that was my site.

Your question has at least two answer perspectives.  1) the site owner, and, 2) google.

Since google has not said what they think about these links then I don't want them on my site in case google does not like them.

From a site owner's perspective I think that those links stink up the design.  They are distracting and useless to my visitors.

I know designers who are really picky about everything, yet they want me to say that odor in the footer is nice.

Irving Weiss makes some great points that I also agree with.

It is much easier to double your money from existing customers than double your customers.  (at least on the first pass).

I think it legitimately provides value to the site visitors (that's the main aim of a website isn't it).

How many of those visitors?   0.000000001 (meaning YOU are the only visitor that gets value)?   I think that the reasoning here is weak and biased.

I also feel that if there are a whole bunch of authority sites with footer links pointing to a web design company, it's probably a pretty good sign that they're worthy of ranking high.

I don't know of any authority sites with such links.  Can you name a genuine authority site that I would know about that has such links?

**In saying this I think that the link anchor text should be branded rather than keywords. For example I usually write "Web Design by Static Shift" **

I'll agree with this.

**Am I being blinded by my bias? **

Very biased.

Thoughts aside, and onto the facts...what are people's experiences with footer links for a web design company.

I am paying the designer for doing design work.  He should not expect free advertising as part of the deal unless it is negotiated up front.  I have the attitude that the advertising should cost a lot more than the design job.

The top ten ways dumb designers kill business websites.

Marcus Miller is a member here at SEOmoz and gives lots of free advice in this Q&A.

Why don't you watch or search for his postings and see if his methods and style suit your needs and philosophy?

I respect what he posts here and imagine that you get even better assistance if you are a client.

I just posted this in another thread but believe that it applies here as well....

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Let me just call this... "logical speculation"....

If you chop a domain's content in half and place it on two different websites, you have also just chopped all of the links, likes, mentions, etc in half.

If you do that you should expect every ranking everywhere to drop - because you now have less domain authority - you cut it in half.

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Let me just call this... "logical speculation"....

If you chop a domain's content in half and place it on two different websites, you have also just chopped all of the links, likes, mentions, etc in half.

If you do that you should expect every ranking everywhere to drop - because you now have less domain authority - you cut it in half.

I used to have a lot of hotdog stand websites... then built a big site that quickly  defeated all of them and most of their competitors.

Who is kicking all of the ass out there right now?. The hotdog stands? Or, the big sites like wikipedia, about, amazon, ebay, ??

If you are going to attack the US Navy which would you rather have?  One battleship or ten potato guns?

I used to run subdomains and then redirected them into folders on the main site and the results have been kickass.  Kickass.

There is always a question about how google is going to treat subdomains but there is never a question about how they are going to treat a big website.

As far as conversions go and impressing your visitors.  Which is going to do a better job.. A hotdog stand or a supermarket?  Which will produce better shopping cart totals though cross selling?

Your questions have been asked in this Q&A over and over again.  If you use search you will find lots of opinions that support the above?

These links sound relevant and extremely wholesome.

Great websites link to other great websites all of the time.

In a new Webmaster help video from Google, Matt Cutts reveals that [...] Pages and websites with a higher reputation within Google tended to have better spelling.

If your content is not very good but you hire a proofreader to clean up the spelling that will have about the same results as dipping crap in chocolate.

I don't include this information on product pages because it is too long.  The product pages are short and sweet for good conversions, although a link to this additional information is obviously posted for people who view the product pages.

The articles are typically over 1000 words, several photos and a video.

These articles also target keywords that the product pages do not and they pull in a lot more traffic from search than the product pages.  Lots of the traffic that enters these pages moves to the product pages through obvious links and some of them buy the product.

Most of my posts are about "how to use this product".

My goals in creating them are....

1. make helpful content that increases the trust of prospective buyers.. In emails lots of people tell me that they bought from my site because I have so much good content about the product -much more than the manufacturer or any other retailer.

2. make helpful content that answers questions that prospective buyers might have - this saves phone calls and email questions

3. make helpful content that I can link to when someone writes with a question or refer to on the phone

4. get more pages in the SERPs for product-related keywords.  This expands your keyword reach and earns double listings for valuable keywords

you're saying that an internal link within a blog post is good, correct?

This is what I do.  I believe that it is helpful for SEO and helpful to visitors.

I have lots of articles on a blog and every one of them links to a product page whenever that product is mentioned in the article.  (I only link once to that page in each blog post - the first time that the product is mentioned or the mention where I think the reader's interest to view or purchase might be highest.

is there a guideline as to maybe how many links i should put per post?

I have never heard about any "guideline".  I can only say what I do.

One of my post could have links to one, five, ten or twenty products.  Most have three to five.

If those products are mentioned naturally in the post then I link them.  I am not trying to stuff products into posts, just whatever natural writing creates.

should i, from google's perspective?

I can say that internal links can improve rankings and they can transfer small amounts of anchor text value to the target page (or at least that was the case the last time I experimented about  a year ago - who knows what google did yesterday or will do tomorrow).

So, based upon that, if I write an article that has a relevant connection to a product on my site I will make an anchor text link to the product page.

This should be helpful to visitors.  If you are talking about a widget twister in an article the person reading might want to look at one for informational reasons... or they might want to buy one.  Either way, that link helped the visitor.

Recently i have been working with some larger corporations and i have quickly found that publish new content is a nightmare.

This is why I only work on my own sites.  

I would spend $1000 to have a local photographer coach your employee on taking great photos for your website.  Then with advice from photographer spend $1000 on a good digital camera.

Then set the employee to work taking great photos for your website.

After that I would get graphics program coaching and a graphics program.

I know that blogging is good, because everybody says it is.

heh... I think that blogging is the silver bullet that lots of people are wasting their time on.. they are just going through the motions thinking that they have the secret weapon - but it isn't unless your blog is producing.

Ideas for measuring success...  all of these might not apply to you and you might think of others...

--- search traffic that is pulled in directly to the blog (you would not have gotten these visitors otherwise)

--- growing feedburner subscriber count

--- number of visitors that land on site homepage and then click to the blog

--- adsense income from blog pages

--- number of likes, links, etc generated by the blog

--- volume of site search that clicks through to blog content

--- number of sales from people who enter through the blog

--- comment activity in the blog

--- direct traffic into the blog

Mine is customized to match the website and the things that I like about it are....

--- the adsense income is great

--- it makes things on a large site very easy to find

--- a lot of people who enter the homepage go straight to search

I have been doing some guest blogging and its hard to find guest blogs opportunities. I have found some but they are direct competitors. Is it safe to write guest post?

This is stepping into the alligator pond.....

One of my competitors offered me a really good article to post on my site.  I really liked the article.  My visitors really like it.  Very low bounce rate, it holds visitors about 5 minutes, ranks really well for lots of money keywords.....

Then he is really upset when that page on my site ranks above his site in lots of SERPs and is pulling thousands of visitors into my site.

He hasn't given me any more articles. 

Build a great website on it.

I am making more content, better content, videos, free printables, expanding my keyword reach.  I make sharing very easy with addthis buttons.

Traffic is going up every month, sales are going up every month.... eventually I will overtake them on the "trophy keywords" but for now I am gutting them everywhere else.

If you have two pages on the same topic that are essentially duplicates I would 301 redirect the weaker one to the stronger.

If you have two short articles on the same topic that could be combined into one longer article with more complete coverage of the topic I would combine the content on the stronger URL and 301 redirect the weaker.

If these are two distinctly different articles in the same topic area that would not be logically combined then I would keep both of them "as is".

My goal in small niches is to SATURATE the keyword spaces with lots of unique, substantive articles so that I keyword cannibalize everywhere.

Being called a "cannibal" can be a compliment.   Yoummmm!

I'm ranking for 'bodybuilding schema' with two separate pages...

Nice work!  This is giving you twice as much exposure in the SERPs and pushing your competitors down.

Is this a problem? I heard that's it's better to only have one page ranking per keyword.

I hope that my competitors believe this.  

1.  Other than exact match domains or the age of a domain what would be other reasons why competition would outrank you?

Google thinks that they have a better website.

2.  Can anyone suggest other ways to help increase a sites domain/page authority besides creating more indexed pages, link building, etc..?

You have probably decided for yourself that these metrics do not translate into google rankings... so placing your focus on making a better website in the eyes of google would give you a better return.

**I am trying to get an rough estimation anyway....  **

That's good.  Lots of people are selling the $1000/month package to people who need $5000/month to be effective and don't know it.  You are trying to figure it out and that is very important.

Economists call this "ceteris paribus" analysis.

There's an awful lot of variables here.  That's what makes it interesting.

I think that this site has a lot of problems and until you put some work into it and give that work time to stabilize in the SERPs it is not a good use of anyone's time to review it.

You have gotten a lot of great advice, most of which can be accomplished by writing and editing.  For the technical issues, if you can't handle them yourself I recommend hiring a pro to fix them.

Good luck.

IMO, this site has a rankings reduction from not enough unique content,  cookie cutter pages, and category dupes.

Sample SERPs

Great advice in those threads by Ryan, Alan Bleiweiss, Geoff  Jackson, and BradKRussell.  I would listen to them.

The best advice is usually difficult to carry out.  If easy work was all that is needed then everyone would rank #1.

Let us know when you have done some of the suggested work.

Our biggest problem with content is that puzzles are very graphic oriented. A picture of a cat looking cute, is exactly that... a cat in a picture looking cute. There's not much more to say about.

I strongly disagree.

What am I doing wrong?

I would say that it is more about what you have not done.

Your product pages are duplicate content in my opinion.  Your product descriptions are puny and almost copied word-by-word between several similar products.  Start writing unique content.  Lots of it.  If you are the  puzzle guys you should be able to sing long and loud about these products.   Google does not respect cookie cutter sites without content.

Why should anyone want to buy puzzles from you?  You have no content on the site to show them that you are the puzzle experts.  If it is in your blog it is behind a dead link.

"Jigsaw Puzzles" is a difficult keyword.  You have not earned it yet.  You have only earned followed  links from 16 different root domains.

EDIT - Just thought of a third option - try to buy the domain.

lol... that was the first one that I thought of.... I would be on the phone, sending email, driving to their house.

... but after you own it they might realize that the bozo running the site for them allowed it to expire and see that you grabbed it and want it back!    They will be cussing about you louder than they will be cussing about Bozo.

But... I would still go after it.

I don't use drop-down menus because some people will not see them.  I would rather have all of my navigation links out there and visible to the visitor.

If you want to know for sure you can run a simple text and see what delivers the  most action.

Do you know about "Penguin" link overoptimization problems?

So, here's the question..... Is the big list of anchor text links in the original post on this page dangerous for hungryhouse?

I thought a lot of them didn't DO the actual work as much as they just made recommendations.

This type of service is known as "SEO consulting".  You might be a "teacher" or a "strategist" or a "planner".... depending upon what they need.

Consultants also do a lot of "study and recommend"... in which they have a problem or opportunity that the need to have researched, explained and options developed.

They also might "source" services such as what you have done with the mobile app.

How much to charge?  For your first clients charge what you think your time is worth and if you are delivering value then you can adjust your prices until your phone stops ringing.

This sounds like a "coaching" strategy.

If that is what you are offering then why not just charge by the hour and allow the company to put as much employee time into coaching sessions as they can afford and feel that they are getting value.

If you coach them on title tags today then getting back on the phone two days later to review work and answer questions would be very effective.

The big part of selling this service is educating them on the amount of time required to learn and implement this type of work.  Different companies will be able to dedicated different amounts of time into it and the results that they get will be determined by the amount of time they put in, the uptake speed of the student and how fast they can get work done.  Highly variable among people so they don't want to give this job to the guy who screws everything up.

If you are targeting sites that have minimal SEO work in place then this is a good screen.

For sites above "minimal" you might consider the idea that for many sites 90% of the revenue comes in through 10% of the pages... and if you can increase the rankings of those pages by just a few positions you might be able to double their income.

If you can identify those pages and move them up then the website owner would be maximal return on the SEO instead of getting the cookie cutter plan that is commonly offered.

Great return is also available for a narrowly targeted business such as "auto glass in Scranton PA".  There, getting the biz visible in local search can bring a huge payoff.

It will take me about 8 minutes to look at their site and run it through a couple tools and and have a quick list of things that are missing.

Eight minute SEO?

You are going to tell me what is missing on my site in 8 minutes?

This hits really high on my BS meter.

I can spend more than eight minutes writing a title tag.

Just sayin'.

.....building more links with branded and naked URL anchor links...

If you control the anchor text then these are phony links.

I agree....

Something else to consider....

If you are a great author but your employer has you writing quick and dirty summaries to stay within budget then you don't want to stink up your personal reputation by claiming them.

But, wouldn't you agree that testing is the only way to know for sure?

Yes, I agree.  Testing is the only way to know for sure and I highly recommend it.

I have done enough testing with my own content on my own sites to decide this is the way that I am betting - every time I have appropriate content for this method.  However, other writers on other websites might have different results.

Can you tell I'm on my testing soap box?

Glad you have a soap box... keep it ready at all times.