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Exact match domains can be good, but I do agree they are becoming less powerful compared too say 2 years ago.
You can still get the following with a EDM:
Good for branding
Great for type in traffic selling Auto Insurance, 2-3% of people direct type in domains example autoinsurance.com
EDM SEO ability still evident yet it is dropping.
May be possible if the niche of your website is something which has a lot of young people?
But for most tech niches where people log into Google, I can not see it been possible..
Regards James
Well the thing is that it is not ethical to do this type of thing. If Google finds out you are trying to sabotage your competitors it can end up making your company/brand look very very bad. you would never try this for a big respected brand.
That been said people do this kind of thing every day in niches like poker, I also saw a recent example in my market where a clients website was hit with 1000s of adult links from competitors over night.
Depends how many outgoing links these sites have if they only have a limited number of out going links I would just keep it imo.
Limited number been under 15...
If they have around 50-100 links on each site then yes it may not be advisable.
Other things you can do:
contact related companies and suppliers for links.
Use video websites to build links if you have video content.
Make sure your internal linking is tip top.
Check out where you competitiors are getting links!
Build a widget for your business to build links.
I do not believe that iframes get crawled, this was stated from Matt Cutts numerous times.
Also on google help docs they state that they are not crawled:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=72746
I think the thing is most of the sites which spam links within content google will just look at the number of links on the specific page.
If you have a blog with 30 low quality articles and each post has like 5 links within the content it is not going to pass much value.
I mean I still see websites with 100's of root domain links in the footer of their clients and they are still doing well, the thing is because they have a low number of out going links.
if the blogs are on different blogspot domains and they have seprate information than it will be fine.
Try and aim to acquire links from locations rather then just blogs 
if the blogs are on different blogspot domains and they have seprate information than it will be fine.
Try and aim to acquire links from locations rather then just blogs
I think give it a few more days for the re direct to be picked up by Google, at the moment it is only 6 days ago.
Is the redirect implemented at the tld level too?
He may be syndicating the videos to other 3rd party sites which do pass link juice.
Article syndication if done correctly can also work well.
I would look at every thing he is doing and then re evaluate your strategy, do every thing he does yet do it better.
Depends how old the domain is imo, if your site is new and you try a large scale 301 redirect project, yes you may have some issues from past experience, with testing this.
Yet if you have an established brand and you do 100 redirects it will not be a huge deal in the eyes of Google, I have tested that many times.
I would manage seprate clients on seprate gmail accounts or separate client based emails.
If you part ways with the client and then all the Google places is loaded up to one account it is not wise at all.
Well things you can do:
Blog on sub folder with fresh content each week.
you can have category level pages you update, say your top 30 categorys for example then you update these specific pages with fresh content.
I know eCommerce sites are not easy to work with as clients in some cases do not want content on specific pages you just need to keep adding fresh content and product pages where possible.
Hi Mate, I would advise to keep building links and quality content.
I would also do complete profiles of what the competitors have and work out what you need.
I have seen SERP results with dodgy results which have not changed in say 4 years, which is crazy! But some of these sites have 1000s of root domain links, 1000s of pages of content, it is really an on going battle.
You can also test titles and descriptions to work on CTR as said above the competitors sites may be junk so work around that.
But taking a look at your profile I see you are in the Poker niche, I mean it is one of those niches were spam and illegal tactics are second to none, I work with a few guys who use to head up SEO for huge Poker sites so I know a lot of the tactics that go down, you really need to find out every thing they are doing.
That robots txt should be fine.
But you should also add your XML sitemap to the robots.txt file, example:
User-Agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: http://www.website.com/sitemap.xml
I would use the new link,
Another point is that when 301s happen you can loose the anchor text value from some old links too.
Google does take time to note new urls too.
Google Keyword data from the keyword tool is only updated on a monthly basis, trends data is updated more quickly.
Another thing is that keyword tool data is an estimate, I have written a post on alternant keyword research ideas on the SEOmoz blgo recently: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/advanced-seo-keyword-research-tips-and-ideas-14216
Hope it helps
You can view older PR in SEOmoz tools historic PR checker. Historic domain authority but I do not think you can.
Yes I have seen an increase too by around 13 times (Oct vs Nov) on data for some accounts I work on not provided, so this GA hack is a nice little trick.
Hi,
Make sure you have personalization off then check the ranks using Google Ad Preview Tool - https://adwords.google.com/d/AdPreview/?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000
This will provide a more real time result to show where your page is ranking,
Also be sure to test on different IP's and geo locations you are targeting.
The best one I have seen to date is from this blog:
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/8342-how-to-steal-some-not-provided-data-back-from-google
Yet it does come with warnings and potential data loss.
To be honst you can not go "down" in the serps for using CAPS in the way they have done.
In the end of the day it comes down to on site and off site SEO factors and how powerful the site is.
If you span with CAPS then yeah you may go down.
The first site in that example is interesting, I am sure the CTR is decent.
Well if you target a general blog I guess they would have a sports section where you can add your football article. They should allow you to add one related link to the post if it fits the niche, I mean you can not write a football article and link to a debt funding site.
In my experience I do not use those blogger networks, I prefer to go direct to websites, as I see more value when I exchange content this way.
If you go to an SEO agency which has its own network of sites it is risky,
An ethical SEO agency will do natural link building practices using some of the following methods:
Link prospecting (looking at competitors links) finding niche link opportunities.
Building great content to obtain links.
PR syndication to get links.
Video syndication to get links.
Building links on related industry sites.
Building reputation on forums to obtain links.
The list in endless!!! If an agency says to you ok we have a network of 50 sites we will add your site to them all I would not trust it.
Hi, I would not advise on setting up a new account, to be honest you can easily transfer the code from the old account to the new account you can even use new code in GA.
do not set up a totally new account as you will loose historic data from the account.
View the text only version of the cache too, more content than just the header is been shown
example:
The new template and design could have affected the way in which search engines can access the content, you also say the content has changed?
What was the old site built in? and the new site built in?
Have any url's been removed?
If your client is iSelect? It is down to them to them to do brand reputation management on the term, using their own properties "brand owned" to out rank the specific Switch Wise domain.
Really it raised an argument: is Switch Wise an affiliate of iSelect? Should they be targeting the brand terms via the organic space, it is easy to switch the off button on paid but with organic you really need to do your own reputation management.
My advice from working in similar project is to use native speakers, do not ever trust language converters online. Usually what we do is hire consultants to work in house, have tested a few companies yet usually better results come via internal work.
I have designed a few large scale SEO strategies, really you need to work with the client to see what they require.
A good strategy is:
1. If you have the money use seperate tlds for each area (also important to use language specific domains), use seprate content for each area made by local copy writers. This strategy will work best for ranking on a global stage. Ive tested it numerous times
2. If you are strapped for cash use sub folders on the domain for locations, benefit of this is that you can transfer the link juice to the sub folders.
3. I would not advise clients to use sub domains for a international marketing camapgin, I have seen first hand the damage they can make, they do not even rank in global serps, they do not pass link juice as Google treats them as a seprate domain.
Hi Mate,
The site needs a few touch ups I can see some SEO considerations that need help.
I would also advise to link all the sites up so people can cross buy products.
Furthermore I would also advise on Forums and message boards where people are talking about books and this type of niche.
I would also do some keyword research around this area, see what you can use to optimize the sites.
Another niche idea if you are limited on money is to find other bloggers in the space and say you will make content for them if you link back to the sales site, it is a easy way to build traffic and links. I have seen some niche book sites around.
Hope this helps.
Hi,
This tool looks like Market Samurai to be honest which is a once off fee, this tool is a monthly fee.
You can use the SEOmoz API to make your own program to do this, example:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/competitive-analysis-in-under-60-seconds-using-google-docs-12649
So he let the domain expire?
You can not contact Google if the domain has expired, all trust will be lost, you can also not 301 re direct a domain you do not physically hold.
What you can try and do is acquire the domain when it comes back onto the market, yet with high competition it may cost a fair amount, especially if the domain is a good generic term & has 8 years age.
It is true Meta keywords are not a signal that Google really looks at in today's market, they are also something which are not worth wile as competitors can just copy your keywords.
Meta Title and Description are still advisable but.
Give it a few days for the rel canonical to kick in, it is not going to fix the problem over night. If that does not work you can try and switch duplicant content to sub domains on the website, or make unique content on these pages.
I think 80% is too high,
to be honest aim for around 40% imo or a range around their with emphasis on the brand term.
But you can also mix up variations of your main keyword for example:
* NEW YORK REAL ESTATE
* REAL ESTATE in New York
And so on to target other long tail keywords because I bet the main head term has high competition.
To be honest use the same article on around 5 websites, then for the next 5 spin it then so on and so on.
If you go out and do article syndication and put the same article on 50 sites this is when you can run into drama.
It is advisable to match the style of the blog's with your main website.
From a design point of view it is always something I advise site owners to implement.
From a cross site branding point of view too it will look a bit funny if you do not use the same design.
If you are putting out regular updates it will be better for your business, freshness is targeting websites which have new news content which is been updated on a good basis.
Work your blog strategy to publish great content on a daily if not weekly basis.
Yeah I agree signing up for Webmaster tools is a great way to pull up 404 errors which SEOmoz pro tool have not picked up.
If the domain is registered as a dropping domain Google can take the power away from the domain, they note the loss in back links, I have tested this many times the thing is that Google is a registered domain buyer and seller so they have huge lists and know exact what is dropping or what is a policy delete domain.
My advice is to not worry, but to re build the site and re build content, make new links and then see over time it can in fact bring back some of the power which has been lost from the domain.
I am not just an SEO I personally am a domainer to so I know quite a bit about this type of stuff.
To be honest you can run it off the sub folders on the website I have seen recently a big website which has a directory on it: http://marketing.com.au/
Also from a link juice point of view it would be better on the sub folder.
The issue is duplicant content from people copying other directories and placing the info direct on your site which can leave dup UGC.
If you website is established and already has ranks then I would go with the sub domain. you really need to put a internal case together and look at all options both positive and negative.
What you are referring to is unicode URL's.
Here are 4 tips for dealing with these types of url's -
• Keep them as short and simple as possible. Wherever possible, use static URLs without too many parameters. Short and simple addresses are easy for search einges to crawl and for users to remember. You want to encourage people to click on your URLs.
• **Use keywords if appropriate. **Don’t stuff your URLs full of keywords, but if using a keyword in the URL is applicable, stick it in. It’ll be highlighted in the search results just like keywords appearing in titles and metas.
• ** Translate your URLs. **If you’re building a site in German or Spanish, don’t use URLs that are still in English. You’re missing a valuable opportunity for German and Spanish search engines to see that you have relevant content in those languages. Even if it’s a short and sweet URL, you might not encourage clicks if searchers can’t read it.
• Don’t be shy about using Unicode if you’re able to. The DNS, browsers, and Unicode translations have all improved recently. Domains in Unicode form are becoming increasingly available. Since website content (and keywords) will be written in Unicode (don’t write your entire website in transliterated Chinese or Russian or Hinidi!!!), why not give yourself the opportunity to begin sticking out in the search results.
more information here: http://www.internationalindustrialseo.com/good-international-urls/
Hi the best thing you can do is track down all the 404s which have the most in coming links and then 301 re direct them to the most appropriate related pages. If not just 301 redirect them to the home pages is the next best bet.
Is the content unique that is the main question?
I would not delete the blog I would look at putting 301 re directs in place and mapping out content and urls on the new site.
I would also look at moving across content if it is unique, you could even add content to a sub domain if it is not that great.
My advice is to make separate channels fro separate client, do not place clients videos on your channel because if you part ways it can get messy.
I work on a big ecommerce client which purchased another ecommerce website, the strategy they eneded up going with was running both websites still as they had such a good name in the market and both had decent ranks. (Option 1)
We can also aim for SERP domination on specific keywords, yet I understand the clients request to take one site down.
I think if you implement cross site 301's and move content to the main site it is evident that their will be a loss in rankings seen. (options 3)
My advice for you is to try and use different reporting show him that his site is ranking in say the top 5 states based on Ad preview for example.
I would also tell him to search on his computer with personalized search off, he may have blocked his own result or any thing (I have seen that happen hehe)
If you you purchase a domain which has been indexed for 11 years and it has quality links and quality content it will work far better then a brand new domain. I have tested this many many times and it is true to the story as it has trust and age with search engines.
Furthermore watch out on buying domains on the basis of PR it is easy to fake PR, people can get burnt very easily, do a historical PR check from the SEOmoz pr history check, view Moz domain authority and page authority.
As said above Archive.org is a good tool to use, but some sites block it.