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I would redirect the brand site to the company site.  I'd place it into a folder.

Search engines are fantastic for many types of ventures.  However, in your situation it is possible that social media and placing articles on websites visited by people of the proper demographic will yield superior results.

Instead of hoping that people will type in an unlikely search term you might do better trying to make connections between like-minded people.

For example i would like to say the same thing on each product landing page but just changing the keyword for the proper product lading page , but my fear is that this will look like duplicate content.

You are correct.  This will look like duplicate content to google and you should expect to see lots of your pages filtered from the search results.

I dont want to write this differently on each 1k  on pages for products since they are doing the same thing but in different brands.

I understand, but if you want your content to be honored by google it is very important to avoid cookie-cutter content.  If you don't want to do it then hire someone who can do it - but keep an eye on their work so they don't write too repetitively or copy descriptions from other websites.

I hope you can help me on this.

Sorry, you didn't get the answer that you wanted. 

I am doing what I described above.  I believe that it is far more valuable to build a library of awesome resources for my potential customers than it is.... as you worded it... "having the landing page content re written every now and then."

Writing is a time consuming job.  If I am going to do it I am going to be attacking new turf with substantive evergreen content.

Once you have a great landing page don't rewrite it because you think it will impress google.  Spend your time improving your site and your visitor's experience.

For an ecommerce site I would focus my efforts on evergreen content rather than fresh content.

I would be working to make my product descriptions unique, substantive and exciting.

And, rather than  blogging trivia and prattle I would be writing unique, substantive, generously illustrated "how to do it" guides for my important products.

Not enough information has been provided to make a decision.

How big are these sites?

If you place all of the content on the smaller site onto the larger site will there be topic duplication?

How much duplication is there in the linking root domains?

How much traffic do they get?

If these sites were on same topic, did not have duplicating content, had a huge diversity of different linking root domains and both ranked well in the SERPs, I would redirect the one with smaller traffic to the one with larger traffic and where content is topic duplicated I would rewrite/redirect to merge their strengths.

Hang in there!  Keep working!

If your site has better content than theirs by a obvious margin I think that you will be gaining on them every day.

When other sites rank above you do your best to use kickass prices, free shipping, great deals, value propositions, provocative messages and free beer in your title tag to pull traffic into your site instead of into theirs.

To be honest... I would not anticipate and simply rejoice if you received any visits in June.

Right.... make a change on the site and show how it increased sales.

Show what you have done that has hit the bottom line.

I agree with all of your theoretical arguments.

From practical experience I have found second page rankings to be worth very little even if you are selling a retail product at the lowest price on the web.

....but if a certain query has over a million searches per month, for example, it would still be possible to get considerable amounts of traffic by trying to rank highly on the second SERP...

That is a possibility, but the probability is very low.  As a general rule that type of traffic is going to attract significant competition.  The websites that rank on the second page are either... still moving up.... lost their determination... ran out of resources.... have been beaten down.   You might be able to get some significant traffic from long tail searches if you write substantive content that fills diversity niches that very few others are covering.

I am having a lot of difficulty finding keywords in my niche which return a score that would make this easily achievable for a site of my size....

I know what you are saying.  I think that you have two obvious choices.  1) Find a different niche..... or.... 2) Gather the resources needed to mount a big attack.

For retail sites I think that the keyword tool is a valuable "glimpse" of what the competition might be like.  However, I think that once you have experience in a niche you can simply go to the first page of the search results and see WHO is ranking there and decide how easy or difficult the fight is going to be.

For information sites I don't use the keyword tool to make decisions on where to attack.  Instead I go to the first page of the SERPs and look at the top sites and ask myself if I can beat their content. If the answer is yes then I attach.  If not then I pick a different SERP.

The two questions that I use in place of keyword difficulty numbers are.... WHO is competing?.... and.... WHAT has been published?

Try reddit.... if the articles are news and you qualify to be listed in Google news then do what is needed to get into their content suppliers list.

You say that you are targeting.. "lifestyle magazine"..... but you also have lots of content about these topics....

holiday and travel news, soap gossip, celebrity gossip, product reviews, lingerie brands, gastric band hypnotherapy, health, fashion and beauty and holiday reviews.

.... So, which of those would be considered a "lifestyle" and which of them do you have abundant content to support.?

But i rank page one for every single product so i get great traffic from long tail, but what Im afraid of is that google is hurting my broader search terms b./c it looks at my overall site and doesnt see enough diversity in title tags even though none are identical, is that true or does google just analyse keyword by keyword and doesnt let other pages effect SERP.

It sounds like you are doing quite well.  If you have a site about widgets google is going to expect a lot of title tags about different types, styles, colors and sizes of widgets.  I think that the same thing holds true for dresses.  I have lots of pages on my sites that are variants on a theme and they have title tags that are crafted similar to what you describe.

If it is working keep doing it.

I asked about doing black dresses, black prom dresses, black homecoming dresses as one title tag, im sure this is overkill for dresses but i need to get adjectives in but would black dresses for prom and homecoming give as much of a match with less keyword stuffing.

I might approach this at the "category" level.  I would have category pages for prom and homecoming.  Some dresses that might be worn to two different types of events might be listed on two category pages and receive a link from each of them with different anchor text.  That will help that product page rank for two different category terms.

Think about more category pages.  They can be powerful in the SERPs, present your products with different accessories and hit common product pages with various anchor text.

1) how important is it not to change your title tag, I own a prom dress site and I'm always changing them between prom and homecoming'

I believe that you can change it occasionally (a couple times a year) without adverse results.  However, I have experience with changing it frequently (every few days) and my pages seemed to be demoted.... but then original rankings came back when I stopped monkeying with it.

2) Is it bad to have title tags that are only different by one word across thousands of pages on your site.  I have thousands of dresses so each title tag only varies by the style #

I honestly think that you should put a little more work into this.  Do each of these thousands of dresses look identical?  No... so use your imagination to be more explicit - it might bring you more traffic because you will have diverse title tags.

Get provocative with some of these, get reserved with others, shout a value proposition in others.

Do this and see if it increases the total traffic into your site

3) I have always had title tags that are for example black prom dresses, well i recently discovered that just black dresses is googled 10 times the amount

If you can rank for the exact match query "black dresses" then go for it.  Otherwise include more restrictive adjectives that are relevant to the product.  I believe in a diversity of text in title tags, and product descriptions.  I think that it gives your entire site greater keyword reach.

4) I also put the year in almost every title tag 2012, is that bad, I ranked great for 2012 stuff but could it hurt my homepage domain rankings on major broader keywords

Go into your analytics to see if anybody is visiting your site as a result of placing the year in the title.  If yes then you might have a good thing.  If no, then use that space for something that might pull traffic.

Some final comments....  It is good that you are thinking about these things but I think that you can learn a lot and get firm answers to your questions by experimenting and carefully watching your analytics.

Your anchor text should communicate what is to be expected on the destination page.  However, it might not match the title tag exactly - because it should be in context with the anchor text usage on the linking page.

I don't believe it phony anchor text just to squeeze a keyword into it.

(this question could start an argument!)

In my opinion they should be the same.

When your title appears in the SERPs that is what visitors are expecting - so give it to them.

I have hundreds of domains that I have purchased over the years that arent going anywhere

Is there anything on these domains to attract visitors?  If nothing is on them then don't expect them to go anywhere.

I wonder if it would make more sense to just point these domains to actually e-commerce sites that I own.

If there is nothing on these domains to attract visitors, links, likes, tweets, etc.  then pointing them to an ecommerce site will be a waste of time.

If so, how best to take these domains and point them so that SEO credit is given properly.

If these domains are not earning SEO credit such as links, likes, tweets, traffic, bookmarks, etc. then they will not transfer any credit.  SEO credit is like money... you must earn it before you can give it away.

If I were to purchase new domains that were more relevant to the keywords to our e-commerce sites, how best to set them up so we can generate traffic on them and point them over to the actual domains?

Here's my best advice.... Stop focusing on domains and start focusing on the work of building a great website.  Let  these domains expire and buy a digital camera with the savings.  Then start creating great content on a subject that you are passionate about and use the digital camera to illustrate it generously.  Maybe start shooting videos that will inform your visitors about the topics of your website.  If you are not up to creating content then just spend the money on beer.. you can probably buy a couple cases a week with the savings.

If you are determined to make a website then think about the websites where you go shopping, read content, or find amusement.  I bet that they are not naked domains.  Build something that will rival them.  It will be a lot of work but without that investment from you why would anybody visit your site?

Thirty days.

That might be possible for some really easy terms such as "dancing pink hippo sneakers"... but if you wanted to get top rankings for terms such as "texas holdem"..... "payday loans"..... "digital cameras".... "physical chemistry"... it would be virtually impossible with the resources of any scriptlance bidder.

Taking a page to the top of google for any of those terms would be very expensive and I am willing to say beyond the skill level and resources for at least 95% of the SEOs on this planet - even if you gave them an unlimited amount of time and a $100,000 budget.

For someone starting out, this is really annoying.

Wow!  You got great advice. Fantastic advice.

I think that you should reread it several times and hope that  your competitor is not reading this thread.

Ressler gave you some of the best advice that you will get.

If I did not have expertise about these products I would encourage the company to have a knowledgeabe staff member write these desciptions to assure that they are accurate.

More important than the persona is the visitor's impression that he/she is reading content written by someone who really knows what he is talking about. Nobody wants to buy the wrong part or use it incorrectly. So, pick a persona and an author who will fulfill that.

There is no penalty or loss for changing an IP address. There are many legitimat reasons for doing that. IP changes often occr when your host moves your site to a different server, or, when you upgrade your hosting package, or move to a different hosting service. No worries at all about new IPs.

Park A on B and redirect with explicit .htaccess.

Yelp is an authoritative domain and that enables it to defeat lots of small local sites who might be more relevant but not as authoritative.

However, I believe that if you can get a local listing in google, have some links from local business associations, local directories, chamber of commerce, your landlord, local service clubs, local tourism association..... some facebook action from people in your community... then I think that you have a chance to rank above them.

You might have a slightly better chance using a keyword domain, however if you already have an existing site with any history at all I would put all of my energy into that site.

These local SERPs usually are not so competitive - even if yelp is in there.

If it takes just a little longer to get a nonkeyword domain to better position then you have the strength of your brand working for you.

Lots of people do not think this way... they simply look for the easiest and fastest route to good rankings.  They might be better off in the long-run to spend a small amount longer and use the power of their brand and their position in the SERPs.

You want people to know who you are and not ask WTF is that?

Most of my sites are keyword domains.  They used to be very powerful in the SERPs.  Now they still have a slight advantage but not an overwhelming advantage.

For a retail site, in my opinion, a keyword domain such as binoculars.com can have a very high conversion rate because visitors think that you are "the place" to by that category of product.  However, if I owned a brick and mortar business  I would use the name of my biz and not a keyword domain.

I would place all of my efforts into dixiecutters.com and do nothing with barberhartford.com other than just hold it to keep competitors from using it.

This should not be an extremely competitive niche and if you focus all of your effort on one site you should be able to rank well.

If the name of your shop is dixiecutters and people drive by and see that on your sign, see that on your newspaper ads, talk to their friends about who is their barber.... Then when they search and see dixiecutters in the SERPs then will know who you are....

If they see barberhartford in the SERPs they will wonder who the heck is that?

Diluting your own brand - especially in a small market is not usually a good way to get the word out about your business.

It just seems so very unfair they are ranking number one like this,

How do you know that is what is responsible for their rankings?

...one of our big competitors...

That's what my money is on.

I never like to limit anything.

Before you merge or remove pages you should look at analytitcs to be sure that you know the TOTAL TRAFFIC for these pages and not simply the traffic for the targeted keyword.  It is possible that these pages have enormous long tail traffic.

This is not a simple.. yes... no.... question.  All of these pages have value in many ways.

I would not waste my time on those satellite sites.

I don't think that they were a good move in the beginning and messing with them now is even a bigger waste of time.

Just an opinion.

Sell them to your competitor for a good price.

Nobody knows how those links will impact your new site.  Even if they know now, they can't say how they will impact the site in the future.  Search engines change their mind about things often.

Just build the new site... build a fantastic site... and you might be surprised at how popular it becomes.

In this situation I would become an Adwords expert while I continue an attack on organic SEO.

Have you thought about making a few videos?  I believe that opening a youtube channel and getting a few videos up and one on your homepage can help your rankings.

How about a video on "renting a limousine - how to get what's right for you"?  This  would not be promotion of your service and would not contain any chest thumping... just explaining and showing all about limousine rentals to people who have never rented before.

Also, have you gotten your site ranking in local search?

If you are creating strong content for a weak site then promote that content where a one-sentence post about it will capture a lot of attention.

Promoting it on sites such as slashdot or reddit or digg can be valuable.

If you give away great articles and they are posted on other stronger websites then those other websites will outrank you, steal your traffic and get all of your link, like, tweet, etc attention.  This is feeding your competitors and creating new competitors.

Be patient as your site accumulates power and don't be so tempted to give away your most important assets for a small and short-term gain.

For example right now I have an H1 tag with my main targeted keywords on every page on my site, even if the pages content doesn't necessarily match the keywords in the H1 tag.

Most likely, you will be able to improve the search engine traffic of most pages by making the H1 text match the topic of your PAGE.

It has not been working for me.

It all depends on the quality....

... if this content is best-on-the-web then publish it only on your site but promote it everywhere

... if this content is really good then publish it only on your site, promote it there conspicuously, promote it to your closest allies

... if this content is low quality then offer it to your competitor to post on his website

It is difficult to give a good answer to this.

If you can move #13 and #14 up to position #10 they will merge with your other pages to occupy #3, #4, #5, and #6.

You wonder about merging the pages and promoting only one....  here is an analysis...

If KW.com defeats you by a slight margin you might gain by merging some of these pages if they are on the same topic, and each have unduplicating links from  outside your domain.

In that situation you might instead simply promote the page at #3 with the hope of it moving to #1.

However, if KW.com has you beaten by an ENORMOUS margin then it would be best to optimize your title tags to steal their traffic.  For example, you can shout your value propositions such as free shipping, kickass prices, free pdf instructions... or shout about other things that differentiates you such as videos, exciting content, free beer.

There is a lack of consensus in that thread... so what you read becomes less important than what you decide to believe. 

Exact match keywords have a slight advantage in the rankings.... and as Alan has pointed out the advantage has recently been reduced.

I own a few exact match domains and believe that they are really good for SEO and for conversions.

Maybe you should find the people who own this domain and buy it from them?

Google will find new content on your site if it is new pages or revised pages.

So, do what will work best for your visitors and that usually works best for google too.

Your visitors are the ones who send signals to google by their actions on your site, by likes, tweets, links, bookmarks and more.

Build a great site and Google will usually like it.

will Google recognize that i'm only promoting our own websites and see this as a bad thing?

Google is really smart and knows that people have been manufacturing links this way for a long time.

In my opinion, a better idea would be to merge all of these little websites into one big kickass site.

You can do more damage to the competitor with one battleship than you can with ten potato guns.

Also... one big kickass site with tons of information and resources usually impresses the visitor more than a hotdog stand with a lot of links to similar websites.

I think that the SERPs look pretty good here in the USA.

My only complaint is that powerful sites with one page of information about a subject can outrank less powerful sites that have the Bible for that topic.

I would them expire and spend the money savings on beer.

And, spend the time savings improving my main website.

These are long-tail keyword domains.  Yes, I would allow them to expire and allow my competitors use them in a strategy that is ineffective.

Most of the places where I am defeated by wikipedia are places where they deserve the top rankings.  A few places they don't deserve it for the PAGE but they do deserve it because of the authority of their WEBSITE.

In my opinion, donations to wikipedia are paying a HUGE bandwidth bill and the administrative expenses required to run one of the busiest sites on the web.

If wikipedia is beating you then you must earn the position above them.

Right... and the more difficult the KW the bigger that fee.

I would let those domains expire and buy beer with the money savings.  Then spend the time savings improving my primary website.

I have it on several sites.  For most of them it has been there since AddThis was new.  We added it to a couple sites a few months ago.

No problems at all.

I think that it is a very good service.  We get lots of traffic back and some of our pages have received thousands of actions.

oh... you are a numbers person.  So am I - at least I am when it is practical - and sometimes even when it is not.

I have spent lots of time trying to solve some of these same types of questions.  Unfortunately, we either do not have the incoming signals, the tools to capture them, the skills to create our own, or the time to spend acquiring them.

Bottom line.... I have discovered that it is often better to accept schloppy data and use it to make fuzzy conclusions than it is to spend a lot of time trying to solve the problem.  If you make assumptions that go against your ROI calculations then you will at least know for sure that you are doing the right thing when red ink turns black.

Since you are a numbers person I explain it in your language....  the cost of the time that you are spending trying to solve this will go into the denominator of your profit calculation.  If you redirect that time into activities that hit the numerator such as working on your conversion rate or work that will acquire more SEO traffic your profit number will be a lot higher.

Sometimes we must be able to work with uncertainty.

Now... if anybody knows easy ways to get these types of data, I am ready to hear it.

I have not placed the code on my site yet but Google seems to be figuring some formats out without the code as I see bulleted lists, dimensions and prices displayed for some of my pages. Even if this data does not improve rankings it might improve your clickthrough rate - especially if you have a kickass price or provocative product bullets displayed.