1. Google does not use GA data for rankings. They only use data they have access to "outside" of your analytics, such as possibly;

• Click through rate
• bounce rate/time on site
• +1's
• "Block this site" (sometimes it shows up in the SERPs when you return)
• Google Toolbar activity like bookmarking

2. So following from question 1, it would not help for SEO to do this. It might help you however in gaining some more insight as to how logged in users use your site.

3. Its thought sub-domains do not pass much link juice across sub-domains, but for a subdomain to be on a private part of the site, this may not matter quite so much. If you've always done it that way, it may be better to just keep it the same. In these cases I always do what makes the most sense to the user. Eliminate confusion. Have a short but description word for the subdomain.

4. Compete's official documentation is here - and Rand did an interview with them back in 2008 here

Hope that all helps!!

-Dan

Hi Sophia

I just checked and see your homepage indexed in google.co.uk with a cache date of April 26th. You should be all set!

-Dan

Hi Sofia

I just ran the same validator on your sitemap and it went through fine - see screenshot

I intended to mean that you should just be sure Google Webmaster Tools accepts the sitemap as valid - if so, there's no need to run through a 3rd party validator. Apologies if I didn't state it clearly!

Let me know, but from what I can see it looks good!

-Dan

EDIT - Looking more closely, it looks like your ran the homepage through the validator - you would actually enter the sitemap address its self in the validator - http://containerforsale.co.uk/sitemap.xml

Sofia

You are using Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress, so use the XML sitemap within Yoast. You don't need a separate plugin for the XML sitemap. And yes, within Yoast turn the sitemap on.

Hope that helps!

-Dan

Thanks guys for all the responses and helping!

Three Things to try

1.Fix Robots.txt

Sofia - I just checked your robots.txt now and it reads;

User-agent: *

Disallow: Sitemap: http://containerforsale.co.uk/sitemap.xml.gz

• with the sitemap on the same line as disallow - I'd check on that and make sure its on a separate line.
• ALSO, you don't need the .gz on the sitemap file just sitemap.xml

2. Re-submit Sitemap

• RESUBMIT your sitemap to webmaster tools and make sure its valid.

3. Submit URL to Webmaster Tools (only last resort)

this is only last case scenario, shouldn't have to do this on the homepage if everything is correct.

• go to fetch as googlebot ->run the fetch ->then submit URL
• do this for the homepage
• see article on google blog for reference

Let us know if you're all set, thanks!

-Dan

Hi Ben

No problem... thanks for clarifying.  Seems like the only way to do it and have anything "redirect" is to have some sort of intermediate step.

This is a little wild, but you could;

1. Create your middle blog with matching content
2. Redirect wordpress.com to the middle blog with matching URLs and content
3. Then cross domain rel=canonical the middle blog to the final destination with the same content.

Maybe that's worth a try, I don't see any dup penalties cause only the final site is being "credited" by you as the source, but you end up with a chain of redirects, which is not recommended, but Matt Cutts has said they can handle 2-3 most of the time.

-Dan

Hi Ben

Highland's response is definitely a good "poor man's" way, and there's nothing wrong with it at all.

WordPress now offers site redirects through the wordpress store - I believe it's like $12 a year.

There is also this domain mapping trick, which seems like it would still work, but they do say its a little complicated.

-Dan

Hi Andrea

I've had a quick look, and I think Ben has the right idea by trying that plugin. I found two resources for you to go along with it:

WP Multi Site Domain Mapping <--there's some stuff about GD in the comments

WP 3 Multi Site Installation

I think between the plugin Ben mentioned and those resources, that should get you there.

-Dan

Hi Andrea!

Funny, you just tweeted to me today and then I was assigned to help you out with this question

Anyway, just want to make sure I understand exactly how things are setup to see if your question has been answered.

Is this correct?

• You used www.wordpress.org (not .com) and installed a WP blog on a domain hosted with Go Daddy? In other words, you installed the WP files etc into your Go Daddy hosting account?

• And you want that blog to map to like blog.yourdomain.com ?

Let me know, thanks!

-Dan