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I appreciate your response. I do not need to permanently change the urls, as the domain is not changing in the redesign. I just need to see that all the images I have edited are in place correctly on example.mysite.com. There must be a temporary/test solution.

I'm redesigning example.com on a subdomain of my own site, so at example.mysite.com. As part of the redesign, I am optimizing the site's images. I used Wordpress Importer to get the content to the development site, but I did not import the images. Instead, I added the images to the development site by copying and moving over the contents of example.com's uploads folder. The posts at example.mysite.com are showing the images, but they are pulling them from the original location. I tried adding the following code to wp-config.php under the (misunderstood?) impression that the image URLs would use the development site's domain:

1 define('WP_HOME', 'http://example.mysite.com');
2 define('WP_SITEURL', 'http://example.mysite.com');

I am not seeing any change and the images are still pulling from the original site. How can I test the images on the current site without actually changing the URLs in the database. (If I understand correctly, I could search and replace, but that is not what I am trying to achieve.) The original domain is not changing with the redesign, so there is no need to actually change the URLs. I just need to test the images, as I will be removing those that are not being used as well as optimizing the remaining images before moving the redesigned site over to the original domain.

I should have mentioned that I don't have that option. The pages are dynamically added to the site via a plugin which pulls MLS data from the local real estate listing board. (The plugin is dsIDXpress by Diverse Solutions.)

I manage a real estate broker's site on which the individual MLS listing pages continually create 404 pages as properties are sold. So, on a site with 2200 pages indexed, roughly half are 404s at any given time. What can I do to mitigate any potential harm from this?

They definitely lead by example. I couldn't tell you how many times I've been converted by their landing pages;) Have you had a demo yet? That gave me a much better understanding of their product. Once you are on board, they train you (for a fee of course) and support you, and even provide you with content and materials to attract new clientele. I had demo use of an account so I could get a feel for myself. My main issue was that the landing pages do not exist on your own site, but on a subdomain of theirs (if I remember correctly?)

Another thing you could do is contact someone who is already using them and ask about their experience - I was referred to sparkreaction.com as an example.

I wish I could speak from experience using them myself - I am in the same position as you, but the expense is definitely worth considering. My qualm was having to increase my rates to cover it, which wouldn't be such an issue if you were attracting new clients with it.

There are definitely pros and cons.

Here is the situation: A site was moved from its original domain to its new domain, and at the same time, the external wordpress.com blog was moved to a subdirectory, making it an onsite blog. The two pages that rank the highest on the site have virtually no links from the blog and no external links, while all the other pages are linked extensively from the blog and have backlinks. Their targeted keywords are not so much easier to rank than the other pages for that to be the sole cause.

To confuse the matter even more, there was a manual penalty affecting incoming links which was removed last month. The old site, which has many backlinks to the new site, is still in Google's index. The old blog however, has been redirected page by page and is not in Google's index. Most of the blog posts are short 1-paragraph company updates and potentially considered low quality content because of that (?)

The common denominator among the two highest ranked pages (I'm talking top 3 in SERP v. page 3 or 4) seems to be either the lack of external backlinks or the lack of internal links from the blog. Could there be an issue with the blog such that internal links from it are detrimental rather than helpful?

It certainly does confuse my understanding. Thanks for your help at clarifying things:)

What got me started on this question is a situation I can't put my finger on. The pages that are bringing the most traffic right now, and ranking the best, aren't even linked from the header nav or the footer. Their only link from the homepage is in a Spry dropdown menu, which isn't showing in a screen reader emulator (Fangs - I was hoping this would duplicate Lynx text-only), so maybe that doesn't even count?

I know there are other factors, keyword difficulty etc. The two best ranking pages mentioned have no backlinks from other sites either. All their internal links are mostly from the other main pages on the site (which in turn are linked from the homepage). All the other pages, by contrast are linked A LOT from the blog subdirectory. So the best ranking two have roughly 15 internal links, while the others have 600+ and backlinks.

Can you see why I might be confused?

I have a decent understanding of site architecture and siloing, which I have used to build a site that ranks extremely well and is getting more traffic every day. Of course, I can always learn more. I am having a harder time applying the concepts to a site that was built a long time ago that has tables and Spry menus and a missing doctype and deprecated code all over, not to mention uses images for everything including the main navigation menu links (not the dropdown links). It's pushing me to the edge of my comfort zone, and that's where I take the opportunity to learn and get better.

I get that there are bigger issues here than nofollow - I'm just trying to sort it all it out and find the priority issues.

Per Page Speed recommendations I specified the Expires header in my .htaccess file. Do I need to add code for Last-Modified too? I thought I read somewhere that it will put the date next to the meta description in the SERPS, which might cause the result to seem outdated after a while.

Are there any problems that could crop up if these aren't implemented correctly.

I absolutely do appreciate the longer explanations Paul, so don't stop!;) I'm one of those people who HAS to know the why, not just the what. And, Andy, I laughed too.

So let me ask some specific advice: if the homepage has a header linking to pages we desire to rank well, and the footer also has links to those pages PLUS links to a bunch of area-specific pages (i.e. Town A Keyword, Town B Keyword, Town C Keyword) which aren't remotely as important to rank, should I remove the links to those area pages from the footer? Will that increase the link equity going to the more important pages?

The odd thing is that the two pages that rank better than the others are not linked to from the header or footer at all. I know competitiveness of the keywords plays into that but it can't be coincidental.

Are your slideshows at the top of the page? Read this tweet (from the czar himself) which says there was a refresh Feb. 6th of the page layout algorithm. Cutts: https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/432940645200588800

It targets ads above the fold, but seems to indicate that lack of written content within easy viewing reach can also be undesirable.

Read more about the algorithm here: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html

Other possibilities may be that the text in your slideshows isn't html, or you don't have alt tags for the images, or the slideshow slows down the site, or that's all you really have for content on the site? Some slideshows are just not SEO-friendly, aside from algorithms and the case that they are generally not user-directed, and hence not user-friendly.

Good luck! Sounds like the the kind of haystack I find myself rummaging through as we speak;)

Aren't duplicate title tags more than a minor issue?

Another thought...In my experience I watched a page which was ranking in the top 3 drop to under 50 then come back up again for its targeted phrase. As it turned out, once I changed a different page which happened to be targeting the same phrase, everything calmed down. It's just an observation, but it seems once I removed the possibility for confusion about which page was 'the' page, Google ranked the right one.

good luck.

I have verified quite a few listings and I am allowed to verify most by phone number, but not all.  I'm pretty sure it's based on some sort of 'trust' factor. I did have a phone option appear after I waited over a month fcard post card to no avail. I would say take your only option and verify by post card

Wow, I can say at the very least that your process shows perseverance! The advice that follows comes from a background in sales and marketing, less so in expert link-building.

Your appeal to your target doesn't seem to offer a solution to a problem. You are stating that your product is 'useful,' 'beneficial,' and 'important'. Don't tell them. Show them. Does your article 'explain how to harness the wind so your community has water to drink'? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kamkwamba) Maybe your humanitarian market is not concerned about the lack of drinking water in African villages, but they do have a unique concern, and you need to connect with it.

Keep in mind, more so than a target market of accountants or phlebotomists, humanitarians are moved by emotions. They are who they are and do what they do because they care. Choose your message accordingly.

If I can say one last thing...less is more.

Go get 'em tiger;)

#5 Unequivocally Wordpress + Genesis!

Wow, you are very quickly and easily making me much better at what I do:) Thanks for that.

I actually just updated the code a couple days ago by adding the Expires code and fixing the redirect. Maybe the previous double 301 redirect could be the culprit? Or - something I mentioned in another question - there were a ton of 404s because of a blog that wasn't redirected to the /blog subdirectory correctly, which I fixed recently. Could something like that cause the server to work to hard and return a 500 server error?

I'll definitely check out the logs and Pingdom.

Great information and advice.

I absolutely do appreciate the longer explanations Paul, so don't stop!;) I'm one of those people who HAS to know the why, not just the what. And, Andy, I laughed too.

So let me ask some specific advice: if the homepage has a header linking to pages we desire to rank well, and the footer also has links to those pages PLUS links to a bunch of area-specific pages (i.e. Town A Keyword, Town B Keyword, Town C Keyword) which aren't remotely as important to rank, should I remove the links to those area pages from the footer? Will that increase the link equity going to the more important pages?

The odd thing is that the two pages that rank better than the others are not linked to from the header or footer at all. I know competitiveness of the keywords plays into that but it can't be coincidental.