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Was that done by client or real hijackers?

heh.....  Christmas Bills was my guess.. but you said this didn't  happen last year.

Is there a mortgage program or deduction in play?

Please explain "hijack".

I doubt that a holiday greeting in place for several weeks will cause a problem with rankings - unless that greeting deoptimized the page.

In purchasing domains we have changed... registrar from an Asian company to a USA company, registrant, all contact persons, all physical address, all email address, moved hosting (from one USA host to another USA host), changed DNS, changed IPs.... all of that was done the same day.

No problems.

I think that it you have a lot of these links that you are painting a target on your back.

http://youtu.be/I5qZ9GrBf4w

News sites frequently place their branding atop of the video.

1) If I want to set my pages apart with product descriptions, what it s the minimum amount of text I can add to make them unique?

It is great that you are going after unique content.  The more text you can provide for a product the better.  Sometimes that text can be easily obtained by writing about the product specifications.

As far as a minimum...  I would like to have at least fifty words... but I have taken fifty word descriptions and changed them to 500 word descriptions and the result was... 1) rankings increase... 2) lots more traffic from long-tail keywords.

So, writing the extra words might be a great investment.

2) The content will be from an offshore company, so it will likely not be of the best quality. Can Google determine the quality of text and evaluate it differently?

I work on the assumption that Google can spot misspellings and bad grammar; also that google can determine reading level.

If you are getting offshore writing there is a good chance that you will get content copied from another website or content that is spun from another website.  Be careful.

3) I have also added product reviews to the site. Are there any other methods to make the product pages more unique or SEO friendly?

Hard work!  As mentioned above, get the product manual and there might be lots of easy writing that can be produced after becoming familiar.  Also adding dimensions, weights, speeds, etc. can put lots of words on your pages that will pull traffic.

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One more thing... you use the words "SEO friendly".... those make me smile because "SEO friendly" and "SEO effective" are two very different things.  You want SEO effective.

I believe that the presence of a video on your page makes the content "rich" and that is an onpage benefit.

If people link or like your video then you get an off-page benefit.

However, if you allow youtube to host your video and you have a youtube channel that is associated with your website then you have the opportunity to show google that your domain is the source of the video content.

Youtube also is the world's second largest search engine and that can result in a lot more people seeing your videos.

We have videos on youtube and you can get a lot of action from youtube search and related video clicks.  If you place your URL in the video window and link to it in the first line of the video description that can bring a lot of traffic to your website.

I agree with Stephen and Andrea.

Sit it out.   I would allow 2 more weeks for a powerful site and a month for a site that is new or without a lot of connectivity.

If I owned this site I would figure out how to accomplish my goals for ANY traffic that flows into this internal page and roll out a big WELCOME sign on that page.... This is where you can buy widgets!

I would want to take in money with BOTH hands rather than just one.

If these pages are blank then they are thin content.  If you have one or two or maybe even a dozen then no problem.  However, if they are a significant part of your site then you could be hit by the Panda algo and that could cause your rankings to be reduced across your site.

I would try to figure out a way to keep these pages out of the Google index until they have substantive content or get them populated with content as soon as possible.

I posted that message at Cre8 as soon as I saw that the image SERPs were being cleaned.  Nothing triggered me to look at image SERPs... I was simply looking at images and noticed that the SERPs had been cleaned.

On that date only the high traffic SERPs had pirated images removed.  Now many of the secondary SERPs have improved image results.

I can not tell you that this has brought me extra traffic.  I didn't see a traffic lift.

For my title tags I believe that Google is removing a great marketing message and replacing it with keywords - often in lower case which is counter to my style.  They also are appending a domain on the end of some of my titles and I already have the domain in the title - so it appears twice and looks dumb.

I am not doing anything to trigger this.  I don't know how to stop them.

I would like to have an attribute "DFWMT". 

In my SERPs, lots of people were reposting my images on their domains.  A couple months ago almost every one of those reposted images disappeared from the SERPs - leaving my images in place.  I was really surprised that google did an accurate job of attributing those images to me.

... and  disappear when you stop payin' the $6000/month.

I would make content pages for all of those.  Not chest-thumping market-speak content, but informative stuff that is targeted for lawns in your area. Demonstrate your knowledge - that builds credibility and gets a page in the SERPs for each of those services that you sell.

Google has been monkeying with my titles for at least a few months.  Sometimes I like what they do and sometimes I don't.  ... and it really ticks me off when they change my PPC titles.

Disable firewall or antivirus for a moment and try visiting the site.  My firewall blocks a couple of sites or makes them perform poorly.

our short tail search has a lot less competition that our long tail

Yes, that makes this sound extra good!

Good luck!  Let us know how it works!

First, I agree that the traffic for "garden wedding" is going to be very different from the traffic for "garden wedding cakes".

If I owned a cake site I would want at least two special pages dedicated to "garden wedding cakes".  One would be my sales page... and another would be an informative page that has a lot of content about that topic.  How these cakes are different from others, why a person would want this type of cake, lots of sample photos, lots more sample photos.  I might even have a third page that explains how to make them.  These two informative pages would be built to be best-on-the-web content for their topic.  The hope would be that they would attract links, likes tweets, and traffic.  Each of these informative pages would have "house ads" with the goal of luring visitors into the sales page.  If you have these three pages and they are successful you might get ranked #1, #2, and #3 in the "garden wedding cake" SERPs.

I would also build pages for "garden wedding".  The goal would be to produce awesome content that will attract generic traffic.  These would be very long content pages with tons of words, lots of photos, maybe video.  I'd want substantive content because I think that it ranks better, gets shared more and attracts lots of long tail traffic.

As you mention, the "garden wedding" SERPs have a lot more competition and probably are more difficult to get rankings.  However, my philosophy is... "Do not fear competition" because where there is competition there is also lots of traffic and there is often some money changing hads.  My garden wedding page would have adsense on it to generate a bit of income and it would also have house ads that attempt to lure visitors to my cakes sales page.

Depending upon the topic and the amount of traffic and potential money I would not hesitate to create more than one page for the "garden wedding" theme.  As long as you are producing more diverse content that is high quality you can keep pulling in still more long tail traffic that is different from your other garden weddings page.

Lots of people would say... you are committing the huge sin of keyword cannibalization.  Yes, that is true - for the short tail terms but not for the long tail terms.  It is the opposite side of  the "archers dialog" from Braveheart that was horrifying in the film but applies perfectly here.

Lots of people ask... how do I beat  exact match domains... how do I beat spammy links... how do I beat the link buyers.... how do I beat...

Just get in there and build great content on a great site and you will defeat all of these "competitors of the month".

They are doing you a favor. They are telling you that you will have better results with different content.

There is a lot of content on SEOmoz about linkbuilding.

There isn't a lot of content on how to create successful content and how to recognize it.

So the next time you have some content that you want to get in front of bloggers, why not come here and ask... "What do you guys think of this content?"

You will get honest feedback.

If its really good content some folks here might blog, tweet or link.

If you have really good content you don't have to show it to very many people because a few eyes on great content is like throwing gasoline on a fire.

What does your content production process look like? Do you produce a certain number a month, a quarter, as needed, etc?

We are a small company with all aspects of the web done in-house for a few websites.  Two people work full time on content creation and site maintenance.

How do you go about refreshing your content?

For our two retail sites there is no content refreshing... only new content creation.

On the information sites content is created daily... there is no refreshing other than genuine updates when content is out of date. However most pages of content have a list of related blog posts and lists of related articles.  These are updated several times per day as new content is added to the blog and as new pieces of content go live.  The homepage is updated several times per day with featured content items from a database.  The content does not change, just what is featured changes.

I agree.

Each page of content (intentionally not using the word "article" because they have lots of photos and possibly video) should be built with the intention of being the best-on-the-web in that niche.

But, if you want to be go-to-guy for mountain bike tires you should be able to pull it off.

I have lots of pages competing for the same keywords and sometimes hold positions #1, #2, #3 and sometimes even #4.

If you are going for "Mountain Bike Tires"... you could have separate content pages for...

• product category page

• how to select them

• changing a tire in 45 seconds with video of me doing it

• technical specs

• inflation methods levels for different types of riding

• flat prevention

• I could list more - but one should be the first content that an interested person should read about the topic

If you put all of that content out there you will be everywhere in the MBT SERPs and maybe one or two of these articles (all huge presentations with big photos and possible video) will attract some heavy sharing - enough to move it to good rankings.  And, each of these pages that might acquire authority will have straight links into several of your product pages.

..are they moving 10 a day while you're moving 1 a month?

Thanks for this comment.  I am interested in something similar.

Let's say I sell a very high end product that moves slowly but my competitor sells disposable product in great quantity.  We both have very satisfied customers.

Do you think that there is any way that Google can see his conversions and promote his rankings above mine because it looks like he has hot product and I do not?

Not everyone will agree with me here....   but I really like to attack a KW with multiple pages - one of them with deep content.   It would not bother me a bit to have my homepage optimized for a term and a second page optimized for that same term.

No worries about two pages for the same KW because that second page might outrank the homepage and if it does not it might be strong enough to rank at #20 and that will give me #11 and #12 in the rankings.

If I was attacking in heavy competition with a second page I would like to have an informative page rather than a product page.... however, since you have something FREE, I would gladly use it... but create content there that makes a great reason sign up for this free trial and SHARE. You want content there that inspires sign ups and telling your friends because this service is so damn good.

If they sign up I would like to have some very occasional email that would contact them with a message that will elicit sharing... and when you have substantive upgrades let them know and again... "tweet to us if it's working for you".... suggest  the tweet for them so you get what you want.

The deeper you go into the rankings the more flux you will see - because all of the shuffle above and below can jostle you around.

Also, for sites with a DA in the teens you should expect more shuffle than those with a lot higher DA.

To close... for the past few weeks I have been seeing more than normal flux in most of the product SERPs that I am watching.

The moves that you describe are not surprising, I would say they are common.

Have you made any changes?

Has the site that moved above you been doing SEO?

I just thought of something else that I should start posting every time someone starts a thread complaining about spammy links on competitor sites.

If I look at my own backlinks there are a lot... I mean a freeking ton... of links from scraper sites.  Tens of thousands of them.

I did nothing to build those links.  Not one.

This type of stuff happens when a site has been up for a long time and gets decent traffic.

So, some of the people who post here could really be saying.... Wah! EGOL is beating me with spammy links!

Spammy links appear on their own... they are gifts from the blackhats.   I am going to dig into your link profile and if I see scraper links I am going to rat you out to MC.  lol

What can I do to compete with this junk?

You will compete best if you pay no attention to it.

You will not beat them by duplicating their methods.

So draw up your SEO plan to kick their butts and every other butt in your SERPs with quality work and get busy on it.

The effort that beats your real competitors will also beat these people.

Honestly.... if these guys are beating you with trash then they should not be that hard to beat.  My bet is that there is some gold in their methods that give them their current rankings.  It is common practice to hide your gold in crap so people can't find it and will stop looking as soon as they get a little on their shoes.

Good luck.

I am wondering what is the best way to consolidate the rankings/websites to take advantage of the purchase of the competitor's web assets.

Do not make quick decisions with shallow data.

When I have purchased other sites I run them for a while to see what kind of traffic they are making and what easy things I can do to kick it up.  If you are a better webmaster than the last guy you might be able to double traffic and double conversions in one afternoon.  Then you have a better idea of the site's potential.

Also, how much money is that site making compared to yours?

How much does content overlap?

How much more or less keyword reach does other site have?

If you redirect will the extra power push you up the rankings or is the power all coming from the same sources?

If you hold #1 and #2 with your old site then why redirect the #3 and #4 site to allow real competitor to move up from #5 and #6?  That second site is covering your back!

Would a basic 301 re-direct on a page-by-page basis be enough to 'steal' all of the juice their domain name/site has built?

Maybe.  Maybe Not.  It will steal juice only if the redirected site adds link diversity to target site.  If all of the links are duplicated then you gain zero - and just wasted a good site that might have made money .

...their site is 15-years old...

If you consume that site... you might eliminate a LOT of customer loyalty.

Like I said above there are more things to think about than SEO.

I agree... I've read it twice and attended his seminars.  Great guy, great information.

I gave a short review here...  http://www.seomoz.org/q/what-seo-conferences-do-you-recommend

Thanks.... most of the ten content items listed there required a LOT of work, usually from multiple people.

Also, I really like that you reported on Noah's Dad.  A really good success story about someone we know.

I believe that most content people will tell you that most of the content that they produce fails to get viral distribution.  But when it happens they get a lot of traffic and the stature of their site gets kicked up a notch.

Sharing your content via Digg, Slashdot, StumbleUpon, Reddit is a good way to begin.  Very few of the items submitted get a lot of attention, but when that happens it is like throwing gasoline on a fire.  If that doesn't happen with your content it is a sign that you need to be throwing bigger, or better or badder balls of mud at the wall.

I wouldn't link to it.

I don't think it is very good.

It is chest-thumping and marketing.

That  does not attract links very well.

Just being honest.

I would simply keep those pages live at all times

I keep seasonal pages up... and have found that they creep up the rankings over the years. Next season they are more valuable.

Perhaps you have never searched for that content?

Efficiency information, calculators, all types of "how to", all types of buying guides, product reviews...

... even if you were in the manure business there is an awful lot of content that can be written.

ha ha...  content is the only linkbuilding method that I use.

How much linkbuilding does wikipedia do?  How many links to they have?

but from an SEO perspective... are there reasons to put them all together?

4. only one site to promote

5. power of all content is united

I would do it for those reasons ignoring the other six listed.

Depending upon what products and services you are selling a video might work well.  I expect that it would be better for services where the potential client gets in touch with you by phone.  The video would give them an opportunity to learn about you before calling.

If it was shopping cart transactions I would definitely land them on the product page with a buy button.

However, the video might work well.  If you don't try it you never find out.

One thing that they say about trying something that is very different.... that is how you kick things up an order of magnitude or learn what does not work.

Good luck.

First... I am always an advocate of big content pages... 2000+ words and six great photos make me smile - and 3000 + nine photos is better.   So, I would be inclined to have cedar and pine and a few other species present on this single bigass page with photos... then if you can make another big article about each species I would do it... or a big photo gallery for each species.

Regarding the longtail..... you will get more longtail (in my opinion) with 2000 words on one page than you get from four pages with 500 words on each.  It will not happen immediately but check in a year.

My list of content to create is really really looong.

Starting to add videos and calculators to some of it.  Juicy photos as always.

Add links to your site within the .pdf

You can also add your branding to the .pdf

I would make one site for a lot of reasons... just a few here... use your imagination to expand the list...

1. easier to cross sell

2. simplify design

3. simplify hosting

4. only one site to promote

5. power of all content is united

6. only one shopping cart

7. simplifies accounting

8. you can add more reasons..

(I know that this was not one of your choices... but I feel so strongly about consolidation that I had to toss this out)

I kinda had the same impression... if you don't know the powerful sites in your own niche then maybe you need a different niche.

I would prepare for a meeting that would be fun... I would make up some funny headlines that can target the wrong audience...

hot dogs - can hot canines or frankfurters or hot feet

Then talk about how they can get maximum readership for their writing.  (Jens mentions keyword research with is perfect)  I would have some hypothetical stories and brainstorm with them to get possible titles.  How will people be searching for this?

Make it fun.  They will want you back.

Most of the time... at least for me... the keywords reveal the intent of the visitor.

• If the keyword is a product/service name that person might be a buyer and I would want to land them on the exact page for that product/service.

• If the keyword is your brand then I would land them on the homepage.

• If the keyword is something else then I can probably protect my budget by not bidding on it.

• And, as you describe, if your focus is on local big business, I would be calling on them by phone or in person instead of using PPC.

I usually don't like subdomains but what about... japan.yourbrand.com?

The most powerful websites in your industry will be the ones that are beating you everywhere... then use the SEOmoz tools to get some data.... then call somebody at each company and they might give you an earful.