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There was a pro webinar on this in February - you might want to check it out. http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/what-signals-could-make-you-a-brand-in-google
Verified/verifyable address and phone (claim your local listings - Google/Bing/Yelp/etc.) - also Business affiliations (BBB, Chamber of Commerce etc.), being in an official business (recorded by civic/government registry), citations, branded searches, social presence (active and well-followed FB/Twitter/etc.) - to name a few.
I'm assuming the keywords in these domains are generic in nature?
There are two ways to go - 1) Build other sites on the domains and leverage them in some manner. This can become a huge task to manage - instead of promoting one site, now you have a whole group of them to deal with. If that's your plan, IMO this is a risky time to make a big investment - at least, not until we see how Google is going to implement the keyword domain changes iNET referenced.
Inbound Marketing: Modern strategies for promoting your business
Search Gets Social: Leveraging the power of inbound marketing
This is an easy one: You have a meta robots tag on that page set as "noindex". It's the last line in the head section of your page source.
Fix that and make sure it isn't on any other pages where it shouldn't be!
The meta description doesnt affect ranking. It does affect click through - use it to get your visitor's attention and interest.
Aside from that, watch out for using the same word or words too many times. Not only will search engines view that as spammy, people won't like it either.
Google Places (formerly, Google Local) isn't the right solution for a situation like this - you need to have a bona-fide address at each location to list there.
Some people USED to get around the PO box requirement by using mail centers that provide you with a street address instead of a box number, however I don't recommend this. Not only would it be an unreliable tactic on a large scale, but it would be way too easy for Google to identify and block these providers (if they aren't already.)
At the risk of stating the obvious, make sure the location is in your page titles. Local directories are a start, but try to get backlinks from local businesses and resources. What are your competitors doing that you can do better? Lots of web sites post local weather links - the trick is in getting them to post YOUR link.
Hope this helps!
From the Google Adwords blog adwords.blogspot.com (emphasis mine):
"You don’t have to make adjustments to your advertising strategy based on +1 buttons, and the way we calculate Quality Score isn’t changing (though +1s will be one of many signals we use to calculate organic search ranking)."
So it definitely IS going to be used as a signal.
And they're going to keep people from gaming this ... how?
Years ago, the performance advantage of relative urls made them the better choice. These days, that's not a major issue.
One advantage to absolute urls: If your content gets scraped there's a chance that they won't bother looking at the links, so any traffic they pick up will be directed back to YOUR site instead of to another page on the scraper's site.
(Also makes it easier to find the thieves...)
I woudn't be as concerned about making it more difficult to pick up citations as I would be about it being perceived as spammy, prompting them to dump my listing. This is specifically addressed in the Places quality guidelines:
"Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business in the business name field."
_(source: http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528&_rd=1)
If that's how you refer to your business offline then it's probably OK. Otherwise, I wouldn't.
Local search is a bit different than universal search and yes, you there are things you can do off-site to optimize the results. This Whiteboard Friday touched on the basics: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-basics-of-local-seo-whiteboard-friday.
You may also want to check out the list of Local Ranking Factors on David Mihm's site http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml.
Hope this helps!
Is it a fast bounce or do they spend some time on the page first? Sounds like perfectly normal behavior the way things are - do you have reason to believe that the bounce rate is actually harming them? Or is sending traffic to site #2 affecting your conversions in some way? If not, I'd be inclined to leave as-is.
Should be easy enough to test any of your scenarios...
#1 shouldn't be a bounce if part of the contents of the page are pulled from the other site, but the target url itself is on site 1.
#2 I'm inclined to think this would work, but would the 5" wait annoy your visitors?
#3 Definitely would work.
Agree with the other two replies - as long as the link goes to a respectible and useful resource, I would leave it as "follow". My reasoning being:
1) People have linked to useful sites since the beginning of the web - It's the more "natural" thing to do. Google tends to like "natural".
2) There's always the chance the site owner will notice the link on my site and link back to me.
Using an 800 number may have a negative impact on local rankings - especially if it's the only phone number. http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml#62
Cell phone number shouldn't be a problem - especially if the area code matches the address. Per Google's own Places quality guidelines:
"Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, and provide one website that represents your individual business location.
Use a local phone number instead of a call center number whenever possible.
Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or “refer” users to landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business."
(http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528)
A business cell phone should meet that criteria.
I generally would try to mix them up - keeps your link profile looking more "natural". I would also focus on optimizing for local search (Google Places, etc.), if it's a local business. For many verticals, the Places results take up a LOT of real-estate on the results page.
Agree with Shailendra Sial - the home page is more convincing to me.
Home page clearly explains process (the landing page focuses on the benefits, but it wasn't clear to me exactly what this was or how it worked.).
Home page is simple and the graphic elements make everything stand out. To me, the landing page is a little crowded and sections seem to blend in with each other ...
- Trust signals more prominent on the home page. I didn't notice the "100% guarantee" at first on the lander ... or the form when you click through, because it's in the upper right and the white-on-light green at the bottom of the page. On the home page it's right in the middle of the page and the green header text and icon make it stand out more. At least, to me.
- The first CTA on the lander appears a little bit "lost" under the checkmarks. You're only asking for one piece of information, I'm thinking why even make them click through to a second page?
- Re the video: I run FF with Flashblock so it doesn't load and run immediately for me (another, albeit small, demographic to consider besides the proxied users). When I played it, it not only drew my eyes away from the benefits list and the CTA but the video itself didn't feel dynamic enough to capture my attention and make me want to whip out a credit card. Maybe the video should be an optional "See how it works" link?
No concrete answers, but a few things you can test - hope this helps!
In theory, I believe Google drops PR if the domain expires. In practice, people have been successful with this tactic in the past...
A safer bet would be to buy the domain at auction before it actually expires. Word of warning: Some sellers resort to blackhat tactics to falsify TBPR and artificially boost traffic/Alexa stats so they can "pump 'n' dump" the domain. Do your homework and make sure what you're buying is the real deal.
If you have multiple locations, you can create a places listing for each location.
If they are multiple businesses with different phone numbers, they can co-exist at the same street address and each have their own places page. Think of businesses having suites in an office building.
One business with 3 different web sites is still just one business. You offer 3 different services - why not use categories for the services? Use your primary business website as the url.
A couple of others which could be in the top 10: Poker, Gambling ...(those won't show up on Adsense top lists because of content guidelines), Downloads, Loans, Free ... I would put those ahead of Homepage or Click Here because nobody's likely to be optimizing for the latter two (at least, not on purpose!)
If your prospective insurance client is a local business, expect to be up against a LOT of competition - from other locals and the big, national brands. Choose your battles wisely :).
FYI, this may help filter out some of those inaccurate results:
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/03/location-targeting-on-adwords-now-with.html
Toolbar PageRank can be faked with 301 or 302 redirects and user agent cloaking. It's frequently done to sell links for inflated prices or to sell the domain.
As Wissam said (we replied at the same time) since Toolbar pagerank is only updated periodically, they can leave everything in place until the toolbar updates, then remove the redirect and everything looks totally innocent and legit.
There are some tools online - look for Fake Pagerank Checker. Looking at thatt site, I would be very surprised if it WASN'T fake. The backlinks and the site content are a dead giveaway.
Have you checked out the Beginner's Guide to SEO on this site? You may find Chapter 5 particularly helpful - http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research .
They're one and the same, fundamentally. DMOZ was the original name, it was later renamed to the Open Directory Project. Google Directory has google search technology layered on top of the ODP data.
To address the other half of your question: I'm quite certain that if your site is hosted in the US and your host were to receive a spam complaint, they'd be obligated to address it according to the laws of their jurisdiction, which means you would have to abide by the US CAN-SPAM regulations. I'd definitely run this by your company's legal counsel to be on the safe side.
TLA may be doing more harm than good. Ditto for the multi-topic free reciprocal link directory.
Also in the Diamond Education subtopics - I'm seeing some duplication when I search on random text strings. Is it your original content or syndicated feeds?
No concrete answers - just trying to identify things that might be displeasing to Google ...
Keyword usage, as EliasAQ describes, is a best practice. However focusing on keyword density (the idea that a keyword ideally must comprise x percentage of the page text) is essentially a myth. This document explains this in more detail: http://guides.seomoz.org/chapter-4-basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development.
I use keywords in strategic parts of my page but aside from that I just try to write naturally and for the target audience.
Keyword density is important in the sense of never "overdoing" it. Hammering on a keyword over and over is likely to get your page flagged as spam (and scare off your visitors.)
This is a good place to start: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml.
Also, I think there was a Whiteboard Friday on it a few months back (I think November or December.)
How do others utilize keywords and preserve branding in the title tag for clients with a REALLY long name? Two examples.
Example 1: Business name is 38 characters long in the following format:
[Firstname] [initial] [Lastname] [Businesstype] Services
38 characters is workable, but the keywords for what he offers and this industry in general are long too. He abbreviates to his initials in the domain name - I don't love doing that as the acronym has a meaning of its own. (We unintentionally acquired at least one very amusing if useless backlink thanks to that.) Leaving off "Services" saves a few characters.
Example 2: Business name totals 58 characters and references their two related lines of business. Similar to:
Rogers Institute of Robotic Studies and RIRS Robot Repair
or (saves a few characters)
Rogers Institute of Robotic Studies and Robot Repair
How would you handle that? Use the appropriate half of the name on pages related to that particular LOB? Only use the brand on some pages? Abbreviate more? I've been using their full name on the more "general" pages of the site and omitting it in favor of keywords on the more specific pages .
Suggestions? Other ideas?