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Powerful statement. Question everything and I like the statement. I want to keep learning and I want to do White hat principles for my clients to raise their DA and ultimately get found.

EGOL,

I appreciate you taking a stand on the position and question raised. I guess it all comes down to competition. I have only had my website and marketing business for two years. My competition has been doing this since 2010. They have a ton of the footer links coming back to their site which helps their DA which is presently a 34. If this helps them, why can't it work to help my DA while showing off my work?

I just wan to know what is right, so I don't do anything spammy but I can tell, my frustration with getting found is already putting me on the slippery slope of cutting corners.

G

Like I posted below, the CIMC is a digital marketing conference which MOZ is attending as an exhibitor. They have four links in their footer no of which are no follow.

Does this mean they are wrong?

They are rel="external" . Is that considered best practice?

G

Hi Deacyde,

I'm talking about the Website Designed By Constructiv Works type URL. It's purpose was two fold, one of which I have learned is bad. 1. it is to allow people who are looking at the site, if they like it, find me in the footer and come to my site. 2. To provide link value like almost every other site I have now reviewed.

Here's one I came across this morning with multiple URL's. http://digitalbuzz.ca/

How is this site any different? Denbow.com 

"sometimes I think I know what I am doing...other times I feel like a child lost in the forest..."

Hi Kirsten,

Thanks for sharing. I'll have a look. Thanks for sharing the three points.

Have a great day.

G

Hi Deacyde,

Thanks for dropping in. I'll take a look at both sites and see what I can come up with.

It's funny the more you work at digital marketing you realize the less you know...

Fun game, just want to stay above board.

Gary

Thanks Kristen. appreciate the feedback. What is the top three steps I would take to check the site for an algorithm penalty?

Thanks,

G

Hi EGOL,

I consider myself a white hat SEO person but I honestly didn't know about this. So am I a "good designer" probably not because I didn't know and everyday I am learning. I am working on trying to build out better and better sites with good design and UX.

However, am I someone who wants to learn from mistakes and improve? Yes, yes I can definitively tell you I am.

Thanks for the slap on the wrist and telling me to get my stuff together. Also, thanks for sharing the information so I can get better...

G

Hi Moz Community,

How do you find out if you have been hit with a Google Penalty?

Thanks,

Gary

Gotcha. That makes sense and yet I am hoping that people in this person's network are looking for a webdesigner then they will click on and find me. But if that is spammy, I will remove it.

Didn't even think this was not good practice... almost two years in and still learning about the moving target.

Thanks again.

G

Thanks Patrick.

Appreciate the encouragement. I will provide a service that is above board and ethical. I know that there is a lot of interpretation on things and I would rather take the high road then get stuck in the mud over a few successful, short term leads.

I am going to get back to the "other" guys and challenge them on their practice and try to encourage them to change practices. Doesn't matter what their response is, just my actions.

Thanks again. Really appreciate it.

Gary

Hi Deacyde,

Thanks for dropping in. I'll take a look at both sites and see what I can come up with.

It's funny the more you work at digital marketing you realize the less you know...

Fun game, just want to stay above board.

Gary

Hi Everyone,

I am launching out into an e-commerce site and I am looking at purchasing an EMD as my brand. The brand of product I am selling is different "brand" but the e-commerce brand I will be building will be for a three word keyword that is competitive and gets great traffic. My questions are these:

1. Is an EMD worth it? The asking price is $42k for a site that is a keyword that gets 60k searches per month.

2. How much should offer without being rude to the seller?

3. The $42k represents a significant portion of my start up cash. Forget converting, (that will be an ongoing tweak that I am committed to perform) will a good EMD help brand the site and drive the traffic? My thinking is that with social media and ppc you could burn through that money and not be any further ahead.

Thanks a ton in advance for the weigh in. Happy Holidays everyone.

Gary

Hi Deacyde,

I'm talking about the Website Designed By Constructiv Works type URL. It's purpose was two fold, one of which I have learned is bad. 1. it is to allow people who are looking at the site, if they like it, find me in the footer and come to my site. 2. To provide link value like almost every other site I have now reviewed.

Here's one I came across this morning with multiple URL's. http://digitalbuzz.ca/

How is this site any different? Denbow.com 

"sometimes I think I know what I am doing...other times I feel like a child lost in the forest..."

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the response. The site itself is sweat equity that I am putting into this. I have SEO experience, not tons but just enough to be dangerous! And I keep learning and expanding my knowledge everyday.

The site itself isn't active. The niche market of this URL is pretty highly competitive and profitable.

What did you mean by hold up the site by itself? Do you mean the value of the EMD and associated keyword would hold up the site? If that's it that's the question I am looking to answer.

I already have a couple of domains that have the keywords in them but I feel like the exact EMD would be stronger. IE keyword "buy great widets" (Google Keyword Planner 60k avg searches per month) coupled with buygreatwidgets.com as the URL.

This is great discussion and helping me work through some of the issues that may be surfacing during this process.

Thanks a ton.

Gary

Awesome response. Thank you. Yes the URL/EMD is not a site and hasn't been. Someone has just been sitting on it. The site itself is built on shopify and yes, I cannot hold the EMD accountable if my images, alt tags, content and pricing are garbage. Garbage in garbage out!

The word "brand" is a reference to the EMD being your brand online not as in the brand "Nike". It's a generic keyword string that gets 60k searches a month in the US based on Google Keywords and seems to be consistent with Marketing Samuri's keyword research.

I definitely want to spend the right amount of time before i spend some serious dough and I also realize that it could be dough well spent considering the other options to drive targeted traffic is paid which can convert lower and cost about the same. $3500/month in adwords isn't too tough to burn through a site early on.

How would I check the URL for any bad linking or history? Run it through Moz?

Thanks for the opinion. I realize that it's just that but I believe in asking people who have already run through this situation.

Gary