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I have a client in a niche building industry that provides 4 different services to them. She has provided me with a list of 131 past clients of hers that she wants hyperlinked on her site to theirs. The logic is that a lot of these clients are heavy hitters and quite impressive to their peers so the links will be reinforcing my client's value.

Is there a best practice for determining whether the link should be follow/no follow? Should I be checking the client's site's spam score, page rank, anything else? Some of these 131 links will be duplicated due to the client performing more than one service for them.

You come through again, Laura! I really appreciate the links and guidance you have provided. Now, to explain this to my client -- wish me luck.  

Thank you so much for your clear answer and links to further information, Laura. Our initial concern, (years ago when her profiles were claimed in Skokie), was personal security. My single, female client did not want her home address published on the Internet.

Now, it appears one of our problems is solved -- where to purchase mail service. I will suggest she simply cancel her PO box street address and change that address to her home address for important items. (She receives mostly junk mail at the Skokie address anyway.)

Another question - since her purchased Skokie address is listed as her business address, I'm guessing now I will need to change her address on all the local profiles and citations rather than create a second location, (I will definitely hide her address on all listings possible).

How do you think I should handle those listings where hiding the address is not possible?

I work with an interior design whom I've persuaded to purchase a virtual street address in the town she wanted to work in years ago. She has a Skokie, IL business address that has been claimed and confirmed across the internet. Now, she is growing and wants her new website to not only be optimized for the more affluent areas of Chicago but she also would like to gain Global notice, (I'd settle for National).  My problems:

• She doesn't want to purchase a street address in Chicago because it is a pain to go get her mail.
• What do I do about all her directory listings and review sites that have her located in Skokie if I can persuade her to get a Chicago address?
• Do I leave the Skokie address and add more content targeting keyword phrases with Chicago?
• What should be my initial focus here? I feel it is a smaller target and less competition to go after Chicago but she wants to start spreading her wings and work all over the world.

Help!!

Yup, Linda - I just checked it and as suspected, it is decreasing.

I agree with you 100%, Miriam, but the client is disagreeing with me. Ugh!!

Thanks Linda - I did try the Keyword Planner before I posted here but it only showed information through October. I'd like to see November. Do you have any idea how often Google updates that information?

I'm managing a project for a local fence contractor in Wisconsin. During Fall, his site was getting a fair amount of traffic. (We only track traffic from the State of Wisconsin and exclude office IPs.) For November, traffic tanked and keywords fell. Is there a way to check the search volume by month to see if the recent extreme cold and early snow are the culprit, (people not searching for fences), or should I be looking elsewhere for a problem?

I know I have to get more pages optimized for ideal keywords but time is extremely tight on this project. (But, that's another problem and story all of itself!)

Thanks!

Awesome catch, Chris!! I will look into this issue. Had no idea it was there!

I took a website that never had any keyword research performed, meta data filled in or anything strategic regarding getting ranked on the search engines. We rebuilt the website from an old Dreamweaver install using Wordpress, did keyword research, optimized one page per keyword term, filled in all the appropriate meta data and alt tags. The site has dropped in rankings and I've been working for the past 3 months to attempt to raise it up. Can you see what I am doing wrong? (This is the client site: http://www.atozqualityfencing.com).

I have a client in a niche building industry that provides 4 different services to them. She has provided me with a list of 131 past clients of hers that she wants hyperlinked on her site to theirs. The logic is that a lot of these clients are heavy hitters and quite impressive to their peers so the links will be reinforcing my client's value.

Is there a best practice for determining whether the link should be follow/no follow? Should I be checking the client's site's spam score, page rank, anything else? Some of these 131 links will be duplicated due to the client performing more than one service for them.