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Hello everyone.  I'm looking for recommendations for affiliate software.  I'm also curious if there is any truth in the "SEO-value" that some softwares are touting as a benefit. Choosing a Software: This Moz Blog Article says to build it yourself.  However, I'm inclined to use an out-of-the-box software for  advanced features such as real-time analytics for the affiliate, w-9/1099 processing, etc. MozPerks promotes hasoffers.com which seems overly pricey ($230/month with perk discount) and OMNISTAR who just left me on hold for 10 minutes (and still no anwer from their sales department). So I'm still looking.  Any recommendations? SEO-value of Links from Affiliates: Here's an example of what OMNISTAR claims about the SEO value of the way they structure the links from affiliate sites to my site. I hear a variation on this pitch from each software and none of them seem to agree. Does Google want me to clearly tag promotional vs. editorial links? Is there SEO-value in promotional links on affiliate sites or is that a load of bologna? Thanks a bunch!

We've begun using AddThis for tracking our social sharing.  AddThis has been adding the snippet to the end of the URLs on our pages and we've been finding that people linking to us are linking to the URL with the snippet.  AddThis says this isn't a problem for SEO.  Is this correct? Here is an example: https://www.harborcompliance.com/information/how-to-start-a-non-profit-organization-in-colorado.php#.UunCfPldVig I want to make sure this is not affecting our SEO in any way, particularly that Google would see this as an affiliate or paid link since it has the "#".  I may be crazy but I just want to make sure!

Hello everyone.  We recently posted some of our research to Wikipedia as references in the "External Links" section.  Our research is rigorous and has been referenced by a number of universities and libraries (an example: https://www.harborcompliance.com/information/company-suffixes.php).  Anyway, I'm wondering if these Wikipedia links have any value beyond of course adding to the Wiki page's information.  Thanks!

What would you give someone as a general rule for extrapolating Google search volumes from the Bing volumes?  I'm looking at the Moz keyword analysis tools and only Bing search volumes are listed so I'm wondering how I could those figures to estimate Google search volumes.

For longer tail keywords with typical local monthly search volume of 50 or so, there are exact match domains that are just killing it.  Take for instance "alabama registered agent", I'm showing www.alabamaregisteredagent.com in the first spot ahead of the state department, etc.  This site has zero links in OSE (DA and PA 1) and is a very small site in general.  Can anyone explain why this domain is doing so well?

This is a "paid link" so I'm naturally skeptical.  But I'm wondering if the SEO value plus the usability of a potential client clicking the BBB link to our site would be worth it.

A site that is a competitor of ours is basically dominating the search results despite doing everything you're not supposed to do, including: Purchasing links Having content that is thin, templated, and duplicate - adds little value Owning half a dozen other sites for linking to each other (link wheel?) We spend a lot of time on our content and making it the most useful it can be for our visitors.  Granted our site is newer but we avoid these gray/black hat practices and yet we're not ranking nearly as high.  What gives?

We've come across an offer through HostGator from Attracta for link building.  They have a few packages but the basic offer is as follows: 50  Pro Links (text links to the site within 72 hours)
30 ¢per link,
$30 per month Has anyone tried link building services through this company?  If so, would you recommend them?  Any insights otherwise? It doesn't exactly sound white hat but at the same time we're curious to buy a month and see what links we get. Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Hello everyone, I've been building links for a while now and none of them show up in Explorer.  My domain authority hasn't changed for about a month or so.  When does Google do crawls and when does SEOMoz do crawls? Thanks

Dear Community, I'm getting into blog commenting heavily now for the relationships I'm building with other bloggers.  I think the relationships I will build with these other influencers will be helpful. But I'm concerned that Google may penalize my site if I have a lot of links coming from blog commenting.  If I sense that a blog is spammy, obviously I stay away.  I've also noticed that a number of CommentLuv sites include a link to my latest blog post, and that has helped me greatly in promoting my posts and building readership.  I am also interested in the follow links I get from it, but concerned in that regard that (1) Google won't count those follow links (won't pass page rank) and (2) Google will penalize me for some reason or in some way. What does everyone think about this approach of blog commenting, and in particular, including posting some comments on CommentLuv blogs. Thanks! Mike