Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Personally, I rarely (if ever) use article directories anymore. The links are usually as close to worthless as they come. (behind forum signature links perhaps)

Like Dan said, try networking and guest posting on *reputable sites.

I would add to that, a good social plan, network with people, create link worthy stuff (memes, infographs are hot right now), provide/create something needed in the industry for free, etc...

I hate to suggest this, because I think people take it and run spammy campaigns with it, but I have had much success commenting on sites. Not "Hey, nice post. I found you on Yahoo, how do I subscribe?" comments, but real value added information. It's a great way to network and get attention, which can lead to people writing about ..... YOU! Best links ever come from those that are linking to you because you have something of value to share..... (isn't that what Google intended for links to be for anyway?)

Good luck

I actually prefer subdirectories over subdomains.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites

There is a good resource on the topic... there were a couple of good instances to use a subdomain, but it also said you wouldn't necessarily get the authority of the root (which you will with a subdirectory).

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/ is the one I use on over 20 WP sites, it is easy to set up, one click and your done. With over 7.5 million downloads I think it's pretty popular

Any links are helpful, and for many reasons. No-Follow links help to diversify your link portfolio, if all links were followed, it would look strange to the search engines. Having a good mix is more "natural".

Same goes for getting too many links all at once, doesn't look natural.

Are they getting any traffic? Redirecting url's has zero SEO benefit (as far as I know), especially new domains.

If you are getting traffic, yes, redirect. If not, does it really matter? I guess if you already built links it wouldn't hurt to redirect with a 301.

Great article John provided. I recently did some research on this topic for a friend (luckily for me my clients are all US targeting US so I don't have to deal with it) and found this Matt Cutts video helpful too (a couple years old now but still relevant I think)

http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/more-about-generic-tlds-in-say-uk-results/

This is a tricky space Leslie.

I went through something similar with a fence contractor and we ended up with a bunch of worthless sites with exact match domains for various towns around the area.

In my case I found it easier to carry the authority of the existing site to rank for new keywords on a "blog" in a subdirectory rather than a new site.

Also, looking briefly at your sites, it looks like you are linking back and forth anyway so one doesn't really help the other. Because those links under "Latest News" flow through a feed proxy, they aren't really adding any SEO value to your blog as well (I could be wrong here, but I think there is a way to change the way those links show from a feed).

I guess if it were me, I would install the blog on the main URL. Seems like the whole site could work towards the same goals then....

Hope this helps, I look forward to seeing other responses.

So, you are looking to buy links from these sites? Maybe you should start here:

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66736

Everything SEO isn't links Alan. If you go commenting on blogs looking for links only, yes, you will fail.

If you read my comment, it clearly says use it to build a network and gain exposure, this in turn could lead to someone writing about you because you are simply awesome!

On top of that, Matt Cutts tells us what he wants us to know

Links are more than just to gain rankings on Google. What about traffic, new followers, brand evangelists that share your stuff socially? There is so much more to a good quality comment strategy other than looking for links as an SEO strategy....

Seeing a recent comment about promoting infographs here in the forum, I thought I might ask if anyone has any resources on getting them made, obviously they are a great way to promote and are extremely shareable becoming a link building source.

I am not a graphic artist so am wondering if any of you have used someone to build them with any luck?

I see this A LOT lately, and I have been using Plus since it started in beta.

You get what you put in to it. Period. If you only use it as a "megaphone" to self promote, who cares. If you use it like any other social network (to network and share) you will get something out of it.

Most of the people I see that say they don't get anything out of it, don't try. If you opened a Twitter account, followed 10 people, then sat and looked at it.... only sending out links to your own crappy content, you will get the same results.

I have found that by sharing content, videos, images, etc... and actually engaging with people like you would on FB or Twitter, you get more out of it.

That being said, Google has made it very difficult to get people to circle business pages, so I have learned a trick or 2 to help expedite that. I have a local home builder page that has over 300 people that has circled them, while our FB page only has 130 fans for the same builder. And yes, I have seen it help the SERP's.

We share industry related articles, cool architecture images, and add in a little of our own stuff for that builder, and we are starting to see some traction.

Bottom line, you get what you put in it. I am seeing local groups forming to work together to help promote each other, etc...

Still a very young network. Remember, you can't automate "social".... (not that that was question at hand, just like to remind people social isn't a "set it and forget it" metric in marketing)

I actually question the value of any of these directories anymore (even the ones listed on SEOmoz)... just seems like the things that worked a few years ago with the directories just doesn't do it anymore.

Maybe the big G is hip to these techniques.

After all, Google's job is to provide the best results to searchers, the most relevant information. Just because you have more directory submissions, does that make your site better than one that has more natural links?

Certainly not knocking using directories, I just usually start with the on site metrics like content, titles, descriptions, images, video, etc... Then move towards social interaction (I honestly think this is where more weight is, or will be given) including articles on authority sites if possible, maybe even press releases... all before ever even thinking about directories.

Once again, I don't want to say directories are a waste of time, I just go in a different direction maybe.

If you don't no-follow the links, isn't it just paid links which is against TOS? Seems like a big chance you would be taking in getting penalized to me.

I have a Plus page for my company, I don't use it but wanted to capture it. I use my face, and my personality to brand. I do the same thing on FB and Twitter as well. Having "company" profiles for all of them, I rarely actually use them.

I think you answered your own question

I would echo Doug's response, get involved in the community of auto website owners, write soem of the very best articles you can come up with and start submitting them to the best sites.

I am new to the community here too, and I love it!

I would still be careful, whether they are paying for the link or the ad, Google can decide and you could be screwed.

Also, if you can't vouch for the page it is linking to, I wouldn't make it a followed link. Being careful who you link to is important, at the same time I think it is important to link out to high quality sites with relevant content.

To me, if you are questioning it, your gut is already telling you the answer. Besides, the advertisers are there for the job ads, not followed links right?

Naghirniac is right, also I would consider changing to SEO by Yoast plugin (I have even used this plugin in conjunction with SEO Presser with great success) and write all your titles and descriptions.

The Yoast plugin has a great interface that allows you to see the Ttile, URL, and description exactly as it would look in Google search, excellent WP plugin....

Love the BBB answer Syed. Real legitimacy involved in that so MFA's would never do it. Good call!

It may take some time for it to propagate to Google if that is what you are asking. Are you trying to block the pages/posts completely from search engines?

I couldn't have said that better James! Far too many SEO's refuse to link out at all and are missing out on the benefits!

Personally, I have run some tests, even before the devaluation by Google, and have found articles directories to be a waste of time for the amount of time you put into it and the little to no value you get from it.

With so many factors to consider for a good SEO plan, I try to focus on ones that help the most...

I wouldn't consider myself an expert on this one, but I would have most likely created internal pages that have yoursite.com/keyword-phrase and optimize them, especially if the site already has some authority on the topic.

Pointing the new domains to internal pages won't do anything as they don't have any rankings yet, and you can't get any if they don't have any content (I don't think).

Just my .02

Did you try to generate a new sitemap after clicking update options and then submitting it to webmaster tools?

Generally it will only update when you add/delete pages on it's own.

Using directories for SEO is probably not the best way to spend your time, and if you use a submission service getting a ton of submissions at once will most likely result in negative results.

The ONLY time I use directories is when I have a client looking for "local" listings. And even then I use it with the concept that it will help us get more traffic from visitors to those directories.

The links aren't worth the time in my view....

I would consider moving hosts then. I use Wordpress to not only build CMS type sites, but static sites as well, and have been for over 4yrs. I use HostGator for hosting, but I like BlueHost as well. Mine have never been hacked. (knock on wood).

I am a big fan of Wordpress, the community and forums are great, it is user friendly, SEO friendly, and works great for any type of site.

I would go with Wordpress, and move my hosting to something more reliable. A plan on most places is only around $100 for shared (obviously more if you need dedicated servers).

Great question, and WP really should make this easier!

http://businessaccent.com/2009/06/08/what-is-my-wordpress-post-id-number-and-how-can-i-find-it/  This article explains one way to see it, also if you open up the post/page in the admin panel to edit it you can just look in your browser to see the url which will have the post ID in it... IE: www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=615&action=edit (615 is the post ID)

Hope that helped

I have about 25 sites on an unlimited HostGator account right now ($8 per month I think), most of them get minimal traffic (few thousand visitors per month), but a couple of them are pushing 30k-50k per month and I will most likely have to move them.

Using it as a starting point is fine for new sites until they begin to gain traffic, then move them to better hosting.

That's my humble opinion anyway