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Thanks Gianluca!  I appreciate the reply and am going to move forward with the idea.

Within my website we maintain a nationwide directory of auto repair shops.  When we add or significantly update / modify a particular listing, would it help improve the individual search engine rankings, Google PageRank, and / or Page Authority of the new auto shop page if we linked these pages to an area on the home page for "Our Newest Featured Shops" or "Latest Member Additions" or something of the nature?

Each new shop profile would then be linked directly from the homepage for a period of time.  I assume that it might be crawled and added to the indexes quicker, but would there be other benefits?  If so, would those benefits only be temporary if eventually the new shop no longer linked to the homepage?  Would keeping all featured shops in rotational display on the homepage make any difference?

Any input is appreciated.  Thanks.

Kelly Vaught

I'd recommend Derek Ashauer and the team at AshWebStudio: http://www.ashwebstudio.com/.  I've been working with them for over a year now and am not only happy with the website work but also with the interaction and communication.  I plan on continuing to work with them on projects for the foreseeable future.  If you want to see examples of their work you can check out my site, www.autorepairkey.com or their site at the URL listed earlier.  They have a lot of WordPress project examples in the WP section of the Portfolio tab on the website.  FYI I have no ownership, interest, or affiliation with AshWebStudio, other than as a satisfied customer.

With this particular keyword phrase, I'm not surprised at the difference between the two search estimates.

If broad match targeting is selected for this phrase, ads would be eligible to show for searches containing the words find and deal, either together or separate, and possibly with other words included in the search query.

If phrase match targeting is selected, ads would be eligible to show for searches including the words 'find a deal' in that order (I don't believe the "a" is factored in), in addition to searches including other words, as long as the keyword phrase is in order within the query.

See: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6100 for more details on keyword match types.

Without doing any additional research, I would suspect that the keyword phrase "Find a Deal" when targeted with broad match would include wide ranging possible searches, e.g. "Vacation Deal", "Deal on Umbrellas", "Find Shoe Stores", etc.  Obviously, the numbers from broad match targeting here are going to be higher in volume but much lower in relevancy.  In contrast, analyzing "Find a Deal" with phrase match is going to be limited to searches such as "find a deal on electronics", "how to find a deal on hotels", "find a deal on Seattle hotels", etc.  This limitation should result in lower impressions but greater relevancy and conversion rates.

So as far as what match type numbers are most important to you, I would say that it depends on what your business offers and how precise you have to be with your targeting in order to attract a relevant audience.  If you offer every possible deal on anything under the sun, broad match becomes a bit more attractive.  However, I imagine this isn't the reality of the situation, in which case you'll end up often having a mismatch between user demand and website supply, as well as lower CTR and CPA with higher cost if employing paid promotion.

It really depends on what you are trying to do.  Can you provide a little more detail?

Hi Maria,

I think Dan gives some good advice here as far as due diligence goes when picking a theme, namely choosing one through a reputable source, qualifying your options by considering reviews and usage, etc.

There are certainly a lot of well designed WP themes out there to choose from, and I think if you employ the approach that Dan suggests you will help yourself to find something suitable.  That being said, this is the way I personally looked at my situation when deciding on the course I wanted to take.

You have some options:

Custom designed WP theme: If completed by a quality designer, this option is arguably the best.  This option is, of course, the most expensive, but can potentially suit your needs most effectively.  I think whether or not the upside is worth the additional expenditure depends on the depth and complexity of your business model, goals, and uniqueness of your offerings.  If you're dealing with a traditional and established type of business or are simply aiming to have a presentable, clean, and professional looking blog or simple site using WP as a content management system, then you will probably be fine with one of the vast number of available already created themes out there.  However, if you have a business model that is less common or are looking to add a lot of additional functionality, then custom design may be the way to go.  Personally, I had a custom WP site created by a development team, that I would be happy to recommend if you like - they have been great to work with.  For me, a custom site was the best option to achieve the look and functionality that I desired.  These considerations, as well as of course budget constraints, will help to influence your ultimate decision.

Premium WordPress Themes:

This option is not free, but will most likely cost you far less than paying a developer for a custom theme.  A great thing about WP is that the community contributing to the product is large, and therefore any person creating a theme, plugin, add-on, etc is subject to competition and mass feedback, providing at least some incentive to create a quality product, especially if one is trying to earn revenue from his or her efforts.  When there are a lot of participants in a marketplace like this one, you are more likely to have transparency into what is quality and what is not.  Because of this, I believe a premium theme creator is more likely to be compelled to produce a quality product that conforms to appropriate guidelines and that is supported and updated accordingly.

Free WP Themes:

There are also many free WP themes to choose from.  While free has it's upside, I would be particularly observant if you choose this option.  I'm not suggesting that all free themes have problems - I imagine that there are many that follow the same best practices as do custom or premium themes.  However, I do think that the lack of financial incentive for creators of this theme gives rise to a greater risk than do the other two aforementioned options.  If you choose this option, then I would heed Dan's warning with particularly strong vigor.

While I agree with the sentiment that what you do with your WP site is more important than the theme that you choose, I think there is something to be said for the foundation on which you build your house.  Rotten site design can significantly hinder your ability to accomplish the goals of your business and website, regardless of the quality of the effort you make in optimizing and promoting it.  Yes, you'll want to create original, compelling content as well as engaging in a myriad of other SEO related efforts, but I do believe it's critical to make sure those efforts aren't destroyed nor damaged by a problematic base.

Finally, Yoast is respected in the field and I've heard positive things about his SEO plugin, including those echoed in the other responses here.  I personally have been using the WordPress SEO plugin by Joost de Valk and have no complaints thus far.  That's not to suggest that what I have been using is any better or worse, it's just the only WP SEO plugin that I am qualified to comment on at this time.

Kelly

I used RPWeb years ago with a prior company, and it seemed to be of benefit.  That being said, I did not use the service extensively nor for any significant duration of time, so I cannot make a strong endorsement.

The only other thing that I can share is that this topic did come up in a few conversations I was involved in at MozCon, and the general sentiment seemed to be that PRWeb is at the very least of reasonable value.  The subject just wasn't discussed exhaustively.

I'm sorry I can't offer more specifics, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable can add to this thread.  I'm looking to incorporate press releases into my SEO startegy ASAP and would appreciate any insight.

Thanks for the explanation - I've got a better understanding of what is going on.

I think 301 Redirects are going to be the way to go.  Some PR should be passed along to the new target page, though I imagine a significant amount will be lost due to the lack of relevant content to the user.  I agree that the bounce rate will be higher, and the degree of that change will be directly related to how much overlap the new and old pages have.  At the very least, though, you won't have 404 errors.

I'm not aware of any risk of penalty from the search engines as a result of redirecting an old page to an unrelated, or less-related page, but you may want to research a bit or check with other resources to make sure.  That would be my only concern, though it doesn't seem to me that it likely to become an issue.

If you continue using 301 redirects, you may want to consider installing a plugin into wordpress to help you execute and manage them.  I haven't used any, but I searched around a little bit and found some options.

If interested, you can check out:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

or

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=301+Redirect&sort=

for other options.

Hope this helps.

So I understand a little better, what is your goal with the pages that no longer exist on the new site?  Is it to pass page rank of those pages that are no longer hosted on the web to those that are now live on the new (WP) version of the site?  Or am I missing something?

Hi Maurice,

I apologize - it seems that there was a period connected to the link I posted before.  Try this one:  http://www.seosteve.com/seo-best-practices/redirecting-index-html-after-a-wordpress-migration.html

With this particular keyword phrase, I'm not surprised at the difference between the two search estimates.

If broad match targeting is selected for this phrase, ads would be eligible to show for searches containing the words find and deal, either together or separate, and possibly with other words included in the search query.

If phrase match targeting is selected, ads would be eligible to show for searches including the words 'find a deal' in that order (I don't believe the "a" is factored in), in addition to searches including other words, as long as the keyword phrase is in order within the query.

See: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6100 for more details on keyword match types.

Without doing any additional research, I would suspect that the keyword phrase "Find a Deal" when targeted with broad match would include wide ranging possible searches, e.g. "Vacation Deal", "Deal on Umbrellas", "Find Shoe Stores", etc.  Obviously, the numbers from broad match targeting here are going to be higher in volume but much lower in relevancy.  In contrast, analyzing "Find a Deal" with phrase match is going to be limited to searches such as "find a deal on electronics", "how to find a deal on hotels", "find a deal on Seattle hotels", etc.  This limitation should result in lower impressions but greater relevancy and conversion rates.

So as far as what match type numbers are most important to you, I would say that it depends on what your business offers and how precise you have to be with your targeting in order to attract a relevant audience.  If you offer every possible deal on anything under the sun, broad match becomes a bit more attractive.  However, I imagine this isn't the reality of the situation, in which case you'll end up often having a mismatch between user demand and website supply, as well as lower CTR and CPA with higher cost if employing paid promotion.

It's hard for me to say whether 32% is 'normal', as I'm not familiar with the average stats of your industry and more specifically your competition.  On the surface, yes, 32% seems impressively high, and I'm sure your client is excited about 1 in 3 converting into a lead.  That being said, what ultimately matters, of course, are the closing rates of your client.  100% of the traffic could convert into leads, but if they don't close, the efforts are not producing actual value, regardless of how well the audience responds to the website.

I checked out the site you are referring to, and my initial thoughts were that it was a pretty good looking, clean, non-spammy site with a clear call to action.  There does not seem to be anything misleading or incentivizing that would artificially inflate form conversion rates, so I would suspect that the users are genuinely interested in receiving an estimate for shipping, which would help closing rates.

One thought I have stems from my own experience transporting a vehicle across the country.  When looking for free estimates, I went to as many sites as I could find, and as long as I wasn't completely turned off by the site, I requested an estimate and therefor converted into a lead.  Of course, if I went to 10 different companies, that is a lot of entities competing for my business.  I based most of my decision on price, as I believe most do, and so for me, when I was checking out my options, comparing many estimates was free and required minimal investment on my part.  Therefore, I happily converted into a lead for several companies.  I didn't have any obligation or to buy anything, and because the move had to occur and I had to select a company, I took the path of least resistance and gathered multiple quotes in a short time.  It wouldn't surprise me if many others view this research and decision-making in a similar fashion.

Bottom line, I don't know whether or not 32% is abnormally high or in line with competition, but it doesn't surprise me that conversion rates would be high, given the nature of the service.  Like I said, for the company what ultimately matters is sales, but that is the responsibility of the company and a result of the value potential customers perceive from the services offered.  Since I don't see anything that suggests that users are misled when visiting the site or anything strange with the quote form, if your data continues to confirm what you've seen recently, I'd suspect that you are doing your job, and doing it well.

I used RPWeb years ago with a prior company, and it seemed to be of benefit.  That being said, I did not use the service extensively nor for any significant duration of time, so I cannot make a strong endorsement.

The only other thing that I can share is that this topic did come up in a few conversations I was involved in at MozCon, and the general sentiment seemed to be that PRWeb is at the very least of reasonable value.  The subject just wasn't discussed exhaustively.

I'm sorry I can't offer more specifics, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable can add to this thread.  I'm looking to incorporate press releases into my SEO startegy ASAP and would appreciate any insight.

Thanks for the explanation - I've got a better understanding of what is going on.

I think 301 Redirects are going to be the way to go.  Some PR should be passed along to the new target page, though I imagine a significant amount will be lost due to the lack of relevant content to the user.  I agree that the bounce rate will be higher, and the degree of that change will be directly related to how much overlap the new and old pages have.  At the very least, though, you won't have 404 errors.

I'm not aware of any risk of penalty from the search engines as a result of redirecting an old page to an unrelated, or less-related page, but you may want to research a bit or check with other resources to make sure.  That would be my only concern, though it doesn't seem to me that it likely to become an issue.

If you continue using 301 redirects, you may want to consider installing a plugin into wordpress to help you execute and manage them.  I haven't used any, but I searched around a little bit and found some options.

If interested, you can check out:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

or

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=301+Redirect&sort=

for other options.

Hope this helps.