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thank you for the insight. Let me ask you a related question: I own a website in a non-related field. The website is not doing anything for me, but is a trusted quality site. Can I redirect that website's homepage to my other website's homepage and otherwise just close that site down? Or, since the 2 websites have nothing in common (1 is about oranges the other about apples so to speak) would this be a move that could be considered manipulative and I shouldn't be doing?

thank you. So what you saying is: Google will not mind 301 re-directing 1 entire website to the homepage of another domain within the same industry? The website does not have a worthwhile link profile (not spammy either), but I thought that given the site is rather old and has developed a certain level of trust (I guess) it may be worthwhile doing the 301 redirect.

Any thoughts?

My colleague owns a domain (A) for about 10 years that he does not use. The domain's content is the same as my company's website (B) content. 
Question: Can I 301 redirect domain A to domain B's homepage or is it better he just closes down his website since this would not be SEO best practices?

thank you

How much does Google value placement of unique content in the source code vs where it is visually displayed? I have a case where my unqiue content visually displays high on page for the user, but in the source code the unique quality content is below duplicate type content that appear across many other domains (think e-commerce category thumbs on left side of screen and 80% right side of screen unique stuff).

I have the impression I am at a disadvantage because these pages have the unique / quality content lower in source code. Any thoughts on this?

thx for the feedback. I created a "/map/" folder in the URL and added to robots.txt. Again, they are simply a "Map view" option for users and has no or limited unique content, and no plans of changing that since the main page has all the unique content and indexed.

I have a Page X with lots of unique content. This page has a "Map view" option, which displays some of the info from Page X, but a lot is ommitted. Questions:

1. Should I add canonical even though Map View URL does not display a lot of info from Page X or adding to robots.txt or noindex, follow? I don't see any back links coming to Map View URL

2. Should Map View page have unique H1, title tag, meta des?

thx, again. That is my big concern: should I put in the effort to move the content higher on page. It is year 2014 and Google does not give real estate websites or e-commerce sites any clue as to how they want us to deal with duplicate issues (content appearing across a bunch of other websites). I am using "noindex, follow" for the "MLS result pages" where I do not have unique content added, and when I have unique content on Page 1, then I keep entire serious of paginated pages (sometime Page 1 - 100) indexed but add rel=next prev.

Any thoughts on that?

th, Everett. Appreciate the input. Take a look here: http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu/metro/waikiki-condos/ - if I move all my "unique content" (currently below the thumbs and large map) up to location where the map is and get rid of that map, you are saying that most likely that will be seen as being located more "above the fold"?

I have a page with 2 scroll features. First 1/3 of the page (from left) has thumb pictures (not original content) and a vertical scroll next to. Remaining 2/3 of the page has a lot of unique content and a vertical scroll next to it.

Question: Visually on a computer, the unique content is right next to the thumbs, but in the source code the original content shows after these thumbs. Does that mean search engines will see this content as "below the fold" and actually, placing this content below the thumbs (requiring a lot of scrolling to get to the original content) would in a search engine's mind be the exact same location of the content, as the source code shows the same location?

I am trying to understand if search engines base their analysis on source code or also visual location of content? thx

thx. but my image XML sitemap shows. I am puzzled why 1 sitemap shows, the other does not….

If your site is new(er) and / or simply does not have much trust from search engines yet (do not rank well) I would strongly encourage you to use similar keywords on page as long as it does not compromise user experience. Ideally also get those keywords in your H1. As your site becomes more trusted you can get away with more (less keywords on page) and still rank. It sounds like you may have a site where I would not recommend such approach yet.

My website's FAQ section has a lot of detailed answers, of which I want to upload most on an individual basis to my blog. Example: I may have 30 FAQ and I want to upload 28 of these FAQ as individual blog posts, as it could be good additional search traffic.

Question: how do I deal with duplicate content issues? Do I Include canonical? The FAQ are all on the same URL - not separate URL's - which means each blog post would only represent a small % of the entire FAQ section, though each blog would be a 100% copy of an FAQ.

Maybe your competitor is using dynamic ad titles and not targeting your brand. Try entering "ABC plumbing" in Google and if title starts with "ABC plumbing" then you know they use dynamic ads.

Why dont you create ads for your brands and you will quickly be nr 1 on PPC section and also quickly see price drops and pay very little per click (at least most likely).

Let us assume they were targeting your brand: it is unlikely their conversion will be any good since users are looking for your brand.

great video. Best part the mention about State Dept spending $600K+ and going no where with the 2M likes they accumulated…..

got you. So URL wise with my categories maybe something like
/blog/real-estate
/blog/non-real-estate

Cleaner and shorter.

As per my previous comment, delete Blog subdomain, re-upload all blog posts to sub-folder and make sure I have better structured URL as part of it. In this way I avoid 301 redirects to each blog posts. Would that make sense or how do you see it?

Site is 2months and 10 days old…..

If you have an H2 on your page, maybe try to include same or highly similar wording in your meta description and try to avoid any sentences where relevant words to that page (or synonyms of such words) are not found on your page. I have tried with my own site in past and it has worked. No statistical evidence beyond what worked for my own site, but consider giving it a shot.

Hi Filip,

Check this article out - http://blog.kissmetrics.com/100-conversion-optimization-case-studies/ - 100 case studies broken down in simple format. By having 100 case studies one can really see there is no right / wrong and one approach for all websites, but at the same time some outstanding tips and observations. 1 thing I have learned: keep it simple, ideally focus on 1-2 main messages on your homepage, even though you burn to highlight 10 different things you feel is so great about your business.

thx, Thomas. Appreciated. After I have all posts uploaded to the new blog sub-folder and they are indeed indexed by Google, then I will delete the blog sub-domain. That is the order I had in mind. Hope that makes sense.

OK, all clear on Yoast. I will get it installed.

Great reponses. Wish I could give you extra thumbs up!

Hi Thomas, Just woke up here! Your insight has been terrific and I can tell you are spot on regarding these matters as I research. thx again. I wouldn't have notice moving the blog from sub-domain without your details

thx, Sam. Here is a video from Matt Cutts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpK1VGJN4XY - it appears Google is OK with hidden text that makes sense for user.

For my site I have a lot of read more types like here:
http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu-condos/
http://www.honoluluhi5.com/oahu/honolulu-city-real-estate/

As you can see from those 2 links, I have created with only the user in mind and nothing else. In order to play it safe, maybe I should just show all the text somehow, even though it compromises user experience.