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I think that the use it to cut down on spam messages. 

noindex asap

thumbs up for this

its not going to suddenly appear out of nowhere

ha ha... for sure!

You seem to be doing a lot of writing.... but is any of this going on your own website?

Did you take physics in high school or college?

Your question is similar to..... "What is the difference between speed and acceleration?"

Just because you are "continuously acquiring quality back-links" doesn't mean that your competitors are sitting on their butts.

If you are gaining ten links per day but the guy above you is gaining twenty you will never ever catch him....

.... and if he is on the third page then the guys near the top of page two might be gaining hundreds per day.

Every time you move up a position in the SERPs the website directly above you will require a greater level of effort to defeat.

That means you gotta press the accelerator down harder and harder as you move up the SERPs.  Will you have it floored before you reach the top of page two?

In lightly competitive SERPs you might be able to defeat everyone... but when you get into the heavyweight SERPs the increasing competition will at some point be more than most people can muster.

That's where you hit "SERP lock" as you call it.

Keep in mind that the people behind you are working hard too..... you might  tramp the pedal to the floor and see people from behind passing you buy.

My personal opinion is... more people who hold any SERPs today will be lower in the rankings than will be more highly ranked by this time next year.  Really.  They are going to be displaced by existing heavyweights who are expanding their reach and new heavyweights who are starting to accelerate.

Pick ten SERPs in different niches that interest you and record who is in position #5.  Then come back in a year and look for them.  More will go down than up.

What do you think?

If you are not confident about working on this site then I see a few possible routes... there are probably more

1. give the client a refund and confess that you are uncomfortable with this job

2. explain title tags to the client and how reaching for additional keywords could result in a rankings loss for the primary term but a possible rankings gain for the secondary term, then let the decision up to him

3. attack the new keywords with new pages

4. optimize the homepage with off-page methods

None of your replies mentions the strength of your competitors.  Are they soundly beaten or are the threatening in their strength?

Do you have that content yet?  If not, then visitors will laugh and leave.

If you have that content then submit to reddit, slashdot, digg and similar sites.  If your content is any good then that will launch your visitor stream.

I believe that google is smart enough to tear the wrapper off of a website in a way that leaves naked content.

While a lot of people do what you are proposing and may gain some benefit from it, I think that the benefit is very small.

It's another case (in my opinion) of allowing the minute details of SEO to have an undo level of control over how you run your website.

In my opinion the SEO consultant who will bring the most value to a company will be the one who learns the most about that  company's current business, current products, current goals and current capacity... and then identifies ways to match them to opportunities that exist on the web.

This is much more than a bunch of checkboxes that will turn into a "to do list" that you can do or we can do for you.  This is more like a business plan that launches an aggressive venture into new markets - even if they already have a website.

When I first started using adsense I didn't like some of the ads that appeared on my page because they did not match the subject of my page.  So I blocked them.  My income went down.  I unblocked them and my income went back up.

Any time that you post ads you are selling the pleasant odor of your site.  I have found that with adsense an unpleasant odor generally pays quite well.... but generally the ads that appear are acceptable.  It's really rare for me to block any ads unless they are religious or provocative in ways that are not compatible with my visitors..

Place the code on your site and allow Google to do the rest.

They will experiment with the ads being shown and over time will be sending you the ads that perform best on your page.  Those will probably match the content of your page but they might not.

You can block ads from any domain if you don't want them on your site.

My advice... let google do the ad selection.  Don't assume that celebrity ads are going to make the most money on your site.

Self-serving content is when the author thumps the corporate chest by using their brand name in every sentence, surrounding it by superlatives.  A step lower is using possessive pronouns such as "our product" accompanied by  hyperbole.

If you offer generous, genuinely altruistic, informative content without inserting yourself,  your brand or marketing then you don't have to worry about being commercial or self-serving.

A good goal would to build the "go to" place for information about your niche where your internal links provide a self-contained Bible about your topic niche.

One thing that surprised me about your post is that you are "a knowledge expert in your area" yet you are farming out the writing.  That's like a race horse letting a donkey take his place at the Kentucky Derby.

Competition on the web is usually won by creating the very best content anywhere rather than turning the content into a commodity.

If you really want your site to succeed, consider doing this important batting yourself and making the site the best it can possibly be.

I know you are busy... but if you don't have time to do this right then your sharp edge as a content expert is made dull.

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As for using the content in a blog... you could do that if you don't have the ability to build a custom website.  However, a blog is a way to publish mass produced content.  Departing from that to create a format with custom pages where you can cross-promote other content exactly at the point where it will be most effecttive.

It will also enable you to create custom topic pages to organize the site for visitors who arrive through search instead of arriving through subscription.  These can be done with a blog but it takes extra effort and planning.

I get different rankings using different browsers at my office.  I can remote to a computer on the other side of a small town and see different rankings.  I can get out my ipad and see different rankings and check my iphone and get different rankings.  (all of these are done logged out of google but using different machines, different ISPs, and desktops, laptops, tablets and phones).

Also did you know that google is always running experimental SERPs and those often involve A/B or multivariate testing?  (Read "In the Plex" if you want to learn a lot about google experiments.)

What are the correct rankings?

I trust SEOmoz because all of the browser and location and history data are eliminated (I think)... and I also think that that the progress of your rankings over time is more important than where you rank on this device or that at a random moment of time.

Here is what I do... I'm not saying it is the best way... just sharing.

I don't bold anything unless the context of the content commands it.  I think that SEO bolding puts a bad odor on my content.

My alt tags contain words that precisely describe the image.... and if you have done a good job of sourcing your images that usually produces keywords in the alt tags.

I try not to let the nuances of SEO drive the way I run my websites...  I am not saying that I ignore SEO - I don't. ... just saying that I try not to do things that make my visitors wonder... "Why is this bold?"

Instead of leaving awesome comments on blogs that belong to other people, I think that it would be more effective to create awesome content on your own site that everyone will want to see.

If you want visitors then create content that everyone will want to see, tweet, like, and subscribe to.

**It seems like the main consensus here as far to install the blog in the domain.com/blog  and I just did that.  **

Nice!

So now when I create content for that blog should I just link back to the specific categories and or products then?

If you blog about a product or a category of products it is appropriate to link straight to them.

However, instead of worrying about where you are linking, I think it would be a better idea to put as much effort as possible into creating content that will be shared, remembered and subscribed to.

Share = inspire others to tweet, like, email, link

Remember = bookmarks that will be used

Subscribed to = rss and email subscriptions to your blog feed

Should I be aware of duplicate content issues?

Absolutely.

**So if the product is widgets and I am talking about widgets in the blog, or blog title, could they be competing or helping the main URL?  **

  BOTH

The links from your blog to the product page will give a very small amount of help.

However, it is not a sin to make a blog post that is so interesting, funny, or informative that it generates so much sharing that it competes with your product page.  I my opinion that makes you a huge success.  And... contrary to what some people say it is not a "problem".... the problem that you have in that situation is to then drive that traffic to your product page... or bring product purchasing opportunities directly to the content page.

I must say that I have spent very little time thinking about this.  I have ecommerce sites and have not spent even one hour trying to get keyword anchor text into them from external sites in the past ten years.

Instead we create content that a few people link to and the links to that content are what power the sites.  Nearly all of those links are followed and nearly all of those links have a domain, a URL, or a brand as the anchor text.

I have read what others say on this topic and people who I trust say that anchor text should be varied across a broad mix of keywords - and that would mean very few exact matches and a lot of partial matches.

I am very confident that anchor text on internal links passes value to the target page.  It also can add optimization on the host page.

However, on  an ecommerce site I would select internal anchor text that strongly and quickly communicates the destination content to the visitor.

Slap their face with your words....   "Green Widgets"

If you select anchor text that communicates the content of the target page to your visitor as strongly as  a slap on the face then you have at the same time selected anchor text that will help you in the SERPs.

I understand that multiple links fro a site dilute link juice.

Some people think that Google still operates this way.  Nobody knows for sure.

However, multiple links to excellent external targets could have benefits that are enormous when compared to linkjuice loss.

On important pages I don't hesitate to place multiple links to authoritative, relevant and trusted targets.

I wonder if there is an ideal ratioof tgese two items.

No.

One should maximize both within reason and do what will impress the visitor.

At my office we do not have any SEOs or designers or content writers or developers.

Everyone here is a "webmaster".  A job that requires broad expertise and responsibility.

Working in silos is ineffective.

Place the blog in a folder... not on a subdomain.

The performance of your blog will be most influenced by the quality of your content.  If you post yada yada yada yada that nobody gives a hoot about then expect every visitor to backbutton out.  But if you post awesome information that the visitors to your blog want to read and share and subscribe to then you will have a chance of success.

If your visitors are not reading, sharing and subscribing then you will probably be wasting your time.

I agree with Stephen... and toss on another problem...  you need a tighter definition on "percentage" .

I really like this question!

If you are a content area expert and your competitors are not making that type of investment in their sites then a one or two man shop could effectively compete against huge corporations in an information niche.

Huge corporations usually produce chest-thumping content but you will produce altruistic, evergreen, informative content - that will have enormous appeal to the people who are using the web in your niche.

Most people can't do that.

On top of that.... you need one or two people who have (in addition to the content expertise) an ability to do all of the SEO, development, photography, video, research, etc... superbly well.

This constellation of content expertise, presentation ability, SEO savvy and usability skills rarely occurs in one person, or even a small team or even in most large web-savvy companies.

So, that is my answer to the question in your title....  in your post you say that you are in the retail "flowers" industry.

To that, my answer is......  if you have everything that I described above.. you better have it in awesome proportions because you are going up against some very savvy, aggressive, hungry, well-established, brilliant, well-funded, and very powerful Goliaths.

You better practice with your sling, have a really strong arm, and pick up some really good rocks.

You might be able to carve out a city niche... maybe... I am not betting.

I agree.... my answer for NO CMS is based upon in-house work.  If I had clients this could be a huge briarpatch.

Most of the 'low hanging fruit' that I have picked has been figuring out ways to make more money from my current traffic rather than going out after new traffic.  If you are working on an established website with good traffic it will probably be easier to double your income from current traffic than it is to double your traffic.  Better ad placements, more effective paths to YOUR goals, more enticing descriptions, more obvious calls to action are examples.

Get Tim Ash's book... Landing Page Optimization.

Other 'low hanging fruit' has been simply knowing my products and discovering SERPs where I have no presence or an unoptimized presence and building an attack on them.

Early this year I 301 redirected all of my subdomains into folders in the root.  The results have been kickass.  Everything ranks better now because the power of the subs were united with the root and the power of the root was united with the subs.  It was like uniting the clans.

Here is what I do... I don't know if it is the "best way"... and I am willing to bet that "best way" for you might be different from "best way" for me.

I operate on the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world... and I also know that YouTube will promote my video as "related" when many other videos are viewed.

So, I upload my videos to YT and write a big, detailed description that contains links to related pages on my website and tell visitors there is LOTS MORE HERE.   (I know that they are nofollow links but you never know what google does with those links

My videos also have EGOLsDomain.com obviously visible in the video window.  So people know where to find my site.

I am not doing this for the links. There is more valuable fruit here.

I also place the video on a page of my website that has what I believe is best-on-the-web content for that topic.  So anybody who lands on my site will see the video plus more.

So, now I have a really rich page of content on my site to pull traffic.  Maybe search engines will rank my page better because it has a video and a big caption under the video and a substantive article below it.  My videos get viewed a lot on youtube by searchers. They also get viewed a lot from related video links.  My videos appear in the Google SERPs.  Some people click the links in my description... some people see the URL in the video window and arrive at my site as "type-in traffic".

If you have read the posts that I make here you know that I am a preacher on "do not give your content away"... however, I think that giving content to youtube is the exception.  And if another webmaster posts my video on his site then his viewers will see my URL in the video window, hear me mention it, have opportunity to click to my channel... decide if my video has good information and maybe that inspires them to visit my site.

Bottom line... if you have good information in a video give it to youtube... if your video sucks then you better not show it to anybody.

If I owned these two sites and my goal was to strengthen the storybooks site then I would 301 redirect griefreflection page-by-page into a folder of storybooks.

I believe that the rankings of the storybooks site would benefit.

Congratulations... glad you made all of those improvements.

OK.... here is a question... Did your rankings go up?

Search engines are like people and food..... Some like Japanese food... others hate it... some like Indian food... others hate it...  Difficult to explain why.

It's pretty easy to find websites that have the marks of an SEO expert all over them 

One of the dangers of working on these sites is the off-page expertise that might be smacked down on your watch.

Good luck!

I agree with not using a CMS.... with the exception of a couple of blogs my sites are all hard-coded html....  it enables you to make finely-crafted arrows.

Some people might give the thumbs down for a comment like this.... they are using crooked sticks for their arrows.

We have about 7 k site pages (however not all are with content).

The advice that I believe that you most need to hear....... dump the pages that have no content.  Do not publish a page until you have substantive, original content.

....we try hard to publish more game reviews...

Where are these coming from?  Are they grabbed from other websites?  Are they spun from other websites?  Are you writing them yourself?

Your content targets the English language speaker but some native speakers of that language might not understand your message because there are many grammar, word selection and punctuation errors.

5. Our main revenue source is on advertising, and currently we are using adsense. Would the ads placement affect anything?

Google currently does not like sites that slap the visitors face with advertising and that have more ads than content in the first view of a page.  The pages that I visited had three big ads in my face and the content was a trivial, below the fold and not worth a visit to the page.

...we have no idea how should we further proceed to attract more visitors...

I believe that you must get more concerned about the visitors who are visiting your site rather than concerned about how to attract more.

What can you do that will make visitors...

...bookmark your site?

....email the URL to a friend?

.... visit again tomorrow?

.... share on facebook?

If you can do these things you will have repeat visitors and they will promote your site for you.

I would put huge effort into pleasing visitors.

I never think about "stop" words or "keyword density"... I try to use words that will make the fastest and strongest connection with the reader.

Sometimes that eliminates the stopwords for you.

"US History" is a face slapper in my opinion....  BAM!    "The history of the United States" is a sleeper.

Articles to inspire the purchase of retail products.

Video to show how retail products are used (and to post on article pages)

Keyword Cannibalization in a small niche    (Longshanks:  "Archers!".... Commander:  "Beg pardon Sire, but... won't we hit our own troops?"... Longshanks:  "Yes.  But we'll hit their's as well".   ----  Replace "Longshanks" with "Longtail")

I start with my brain and then use adwords keyword tool to set priorities.    If you know your content area well then that should be enough to do the job.

If you don't know the content niche then snoop some competitor sites - the ones that you think are the most successful and dominating the SERPs.

I don't know how famous your jewelers are.. but if they are not generating a lot of search volume, I would be optimizing product pages for the "uncommon techniques and materials" that you say they are using.  For example "moldovite pendants".

For your question on where to place the article content, I would place it on a page of its own and optimize for terms like "what is moldovite"... "how to facet moldovite"....

Lots of people make this complaint....

.... but they are only looking at one factor..  Google uses different calculations.  Google considers the optimization of your page, the optimization of your links and the amount of trust that google gives to each of your links.

To win you need to impress google.

Do you think the links on that post will come into play and push me above over a period of time?

Maybe.  If the blogger has more traffic than you do it is possible that he will get more likes, tweets, links and social shares for his copy.... If you have more traffic then maybe you will win.

ha ha... thanks! ...   lots of practice... I've heard this question before!  

This is why I never give my content to others.  Think about this........

Your site is doing pretty good.  You got position 7 right away - and without any help.  Your content is good enough that other people like it.

So, instead of spending any time looking for links or other people to post your content, just spend that same time creating another page of content.  Then you have two pages up collecting traffic that probably rank well enough to pull in some traffic.

If you are giving your content away then the people who publish it are getting the traffic, the links, the likes and the sharing that you have earned.  Don't feed your competitors and create new ones!

Work for yourself!

Over time the rankings of your good pages will rise and you will be the only person on the web who will have that content - that means zero compeition for your longtail keywords.

The results will be slow at the start, however, over time there is a good chance that your site will be more powerful and better known.

Yes, I answered it... you might not like the answer.....

I would not spend a lot of time trying to understand every nuance of google.  Google has lots of nuances and they are even more volatile and difficult to understand than the primary factors that drive traffic.

So, to make it perfectly clear and less polite.  I think you are wasting your time.

From watching the SERPs and visitor behavior in my niche... I believe that singular queries tend to be informational.... plural queries seem to be transactional.

1. I put backlinks leading onto my website. Those backlinks are on website I also own (they are on the same server). But nothing happened. Than I put other backlikns on this webiste. Those links also led to webistes I own. So could Google "punnished" those websites I'm linking to?

Hard to tell... Maybe those links were worthless.... maybe google can tell you are giving links to yourself.... maybe you misspelt the URLs?

2. I offered my content to another website, which has a higher authority. This content had been published on my website weeks ago, I put it on this (another site). Co could Google punnished me for "duplicate" content?

Google does not punish for this.  If you give your content to a more powerful website you should expect them to rank above you and possibly cause your site to be filtered for duplicate content.  It's not punishment.  Strong sites always win.

3. In the past, we outsorced our SEO, and the company which was responsible for our SEO put backlinks leading to our website almost everywhere, I mean, those websites, they put links leading to our webistes fos focused on almost everything but our field (finance). But everything seemed to be fine, till now

Nobody enjoys having these types of links placed on their blog or their forum.  It's best to learn the methods that a company will use to promote your site before they embarrass  you or get you in trouble.  Most likely these links had nothing to do with your ranking problems.

4. Couple of days ago, I put our RSS on many RSS agregators and put our webiste on many catalogs.

This can cause a problem.  Those aggregator sites can start outranking you.

Here's what I would do if I were you.

A) Invest in yourself.  Learn more about SEO.  Read all of the SEOmoz beginner's guide and as many blog posts as you can.

B) Before you make any big SEO moves describe them here in Q&A.   Usually smart people will read your post and tell you if you are making a mistake.

Also, any linkbuilder who accepts a job from a webmaster who demands "guaranteed results" needs his head examined.

That link builder has no control over what your competitors are doing and no control over what you might do to stink up your own site.

I can't guarantee my own results so how is a linkbuilder going to guarantee yours?

Should I turn that image page into a blog post with more text, change the title tags, etc

Yes, by all means... the more substantive the content the more longtail traffic it will pull and it might rank better or get imporved social sharing.

YouTube is the world's second largest search engine.

If you have a message to get out, giving your videos to YouTube and promoting them would be a smart idea.

If you want to control smaller amounts of traffic then use another video hosting solution.

I think that you are doing the right things...

... you have your eye on analytics and learning about where your traffic is coming from.  When you see traffic coming in for a subject that you don't cover completely then improving the entry page used by these visitors makes a lot of sense - or building a separate page to address that topic.

Keep improving your current content, improving your keyword reach with new content and working to understand your visitors.

Nice work!

I would not spend a lot of time trying to understand every nuance of google.  Google has lots of nuances and they are even more volatile and difficult to understand than the primary factors that drive traffic.

Keep your eye on the big picture... content, sharing and visitor information.