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The url doesn't seem to be working?  I searched your keyword, and with just a quick view the top sites all seem to have a significant edge in page authority scores (Or domain) . Can you give the URL again?

The url doesn't seem to be working?  I searched your keyword, and with just a quick view the top sites all seem to have a significant edge in page authority scores (Or domain) . Can you give the URL again?

We recently had this problem with two sites belonging to new clients.

As it turned out (I think)  because these sites had what appeared to be text link ads on the home pages (2 each) and both had a rather large "links"  page,  GWM  had stopped showing all thier back links. That is a BAD SIGN of things to come!  We fixed it, and the links are back.

So... does your site sell links?  does it look like it might be selling links?  Could be the issue?

Not sure if this will help. We recently brought in two new clients.  Both had text link's to other sites on their home pages.  It would make sense that Google would view them as suspicious, as they also had a robust "links" page. There site rankings where slipping, and when you used the Link:www.yoursitehere.com" command, they didn't show at all. Talk about RED flags!

GWM wasn't showing any back links to either site (A REAL PROBLEM)  and we assumed they where passing no link juice because of it.

Long story short, we removed the spammy looking links on the home page, and change the link page so it had far fewer links, and looked more natural .  Links are back on GWM   and rankings have returned.

My Point...  If Google picked up on these two sites, which trust me, are not all that spammy and are real companies , and were NOT selling text links, I can only guess that the sites you will end up on will have very little value.

Why not do it the other way?  Earning great links back through great content and great P.R.  ?  Use professional SEO process? The days of buying your rankings are fading fast!

Ryan, yes there are a lot of factors.  But ....  going back two page example. Two pages of the same value. One has 3 outbound links, the other has 30.  Clearly in most cases the page with 3 is better.  In other words, if you have this situation 100 times, you might see it proving correct 70 or 80.

I doubt that figuring out several of the SEOmoz metrics is much (if at all) more difficult than the one I am describing, and a Link value would be of huge.

Every metric we see on reports is in fact a guess. PA, DA, Trust, Cblocks, Backlinks.. none can be completely trusted and we all use these tools with that understanding, and the hope that they are at least generally correct.  What would be any different in a link value report that took as much into consideration as possible?

Can you imagine the time savings and efficiency acceleration of Link building if such a tool existed and was even somewhat accurate.

I think SEOmoz attempted this with the old Domain Juice passed metric. But seeing the formula for it, I can understand why they felt it was not very helpful.

Ditto Bevelwise. We see Page Authority as gaining much more rank this year. Link's from pages with low page authority seem to have very little effect.

We understand the PA, DA, trust and all of that.  My question is, is there a process or formula anyone uses that shows an individual links value as to the link juice it passes. The old Domain Juice seemed to be that, but after further investigation (And Rand setting me straight)  I now understand it's not a good metric.

Today, we use PA  divided by the number of external links on that page to get some sense of an individual links actual value to the site or page we link to. I understand this is a very sloppy system, but seems to be the only choice we have?

It's based on this simple thought.  If you get a back link on two different pages, and both are equal in every way,  except one has 3 outbound links and the other has 30, the link from the page with 3 will be significantly stronger as far as passing juice.

So...  anyone using something to determine an individual links value?  I did ask the SEO staff, and they do not current have it.

Page Authority is explained here.

www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/page-authority

It's our number one metric to understand why a client ranks some where on a page. Have lot's of clients who start with an A grade on the Keyword tool, but are not ranked.  It's the Pages "PA"  that has the largest determining factor in ranking. (In general)

If your page is getting an A,  can you tell us the PA  and DA on the page and domain, and what those are for the competition?

Is this a national site , or Local. If local there are several other factors that will apply.

If your page is getting an A,  can you tell us the PA  and DA on the page and domain, and what those are for the competition?

Is this a national site , or Local. If local there are several other factors that will apply.

Chnage the Title to "change"  from "changes". Now ranked 2nd for Change, and 5th for changes.

Chnage the Title to "change"  from "changes". Now ranked 2nd for Change, and 5th for changes.

I agree with Ryan completely.  I would only add that the ultimate metric is your ranking for keywords, and as you are the only one who knows what is happening to your site and link profile, you need to track and measure everything to see what effect your changes have.

Link scape is a great tool, and certainly one of the best on the planet. But it, like any of the tools need to be assessed with an understanding of the task they undertake, their methodology in doing so, and a clear understanding that it, and all tools , are guides, mere hints if you will, as to what is happening in the hallowed halls of Google search.

Thanks Boulder!  I used the browser in Natural search, so it shows what the national results are.

I just changed the title to the singular to see if that changes the ranking.

Thanks Boulder!  I used the browser in Natural search, so it shows what the national results are.

I may change the title to the singular and see if that changes the ranking.  I am sure it well... right?

Thanks Ryan... right on the Mark n this one. The site does well in Bing and Yahoo, I just think it takes them (it) a while longer to get the individual pages index. I will add and see. You are truly one of the Guru's on here.

Me to. I am only adding this so I will get updates. Sorry.

Search "Google Places Changes."

My Blog, www.salesjumpstart.net/blog  is ranked first.  Has been for a week.  Why?  Makes no sense. I have been getting many first page Google results for 3 and 4 word keyword searches.  The site or Blog just isn't that strong.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Google+places+hchanges&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#sclient=psy&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=uFR&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&source=hp&q=Google+places+changes&pbx=1&oq=Google+places+changes&aq=f&aqi=g2g-j1g-b1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=4293l4293l0l4628l1l1l0l0l0l0l271l271l2-1l1l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=661c0b1152c259b4&biw=1024&bih=583

Same issue here. Firefox will eventually close for me, but it takes 5 minutes or so.

I think you can find a great deal of information on Ranking Factors by searching through this site. Our experience is that Back links control about 70% of your ranking.  Keep an eye on your pages PA, and how it compares to your competition

Here is a great blog on Ranking factors: .

www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

We noticed a loss of links showing up for one client.  Their PA went up, DA went down. The main BBB links did not show up, and 9 or so other from known sources.

Thanks Rand.  Is there a report that shows an individual link strength (for a back link) vs. the page or Domain strength that the page is on?

It looks like they are retiring the old Link scape.  Where do we find the report that showed the Domain Juice passed by each link?  Is it in the advanced reports and we need to request and wait?

Thanks James, Excellent response.

Are you or anyone else actually building back links to the social media page?

In my limited experience it's about clarity, not density. EGOL  makes a good point, if your page is clear and well written about its subject, in general you should be alright.

Seems to be a thought process emerging (CALL THE MEDIA!) that twiiter and facebook are having through various different paths a real ranking effect.  Is anyone now doing SEO on a clients Social media page because of this. I know they are no follow. I am not sure they don't pass juice.

Isn't your Blog basically viewed as one page?

Posting on your site has some value in adding more SEOo content (Title Tags, Meta stuff) as long as its well organized.

Isn't your Blog basically viewed as one page?

Posting on your site has some value in adding more SEOo content (Title Tags, Meta stuff) as long as its well organized.

I would assume we would have results of some significance in the next month.

Great answer Ryan!  I would only add a small comment, that being that their is some evidence that no follow links can (and in the case of twitter and other social media) may pass Juice. We are running an experiment on a new site using 90% no follow to see the results.

Great answer Ryan!  I would only add a small comment, that being that there is some evidence that no follow links can (and in the case of twitter and other social media) may pass Juice. We are running an experiment on a new site using 90% no follow to see the results.

If Google can not access "shares" how did it track them in GA? hmmm

Spend the money on a well written piece of content to add to your site. Much better investment.

Are these rankings for Maps, or Organic?

Have your competitors (if there really is such a thing) been adding links or have their SEOmoz numbers improved?

Have you made any changes to meta tags?  Have you been actively promoting the site in the last three months?

I have a client that has used several consultants and companies listed on O Desk with good results.  Proper screening and reference checks are important of course.

There is a new web site dedicated just to info graphics recently launched, but I don't have the url at the tip of my fingers... anyone?

In our experience if you are going to have more than a few landing pages (for whatever reason)  don't optimize them, and do "blocked from accidental indexing by robots.txt"  As EGOL  states.  You will find yourself in Optimization heck if you have a bunch of pages fighting for the same basic keywords.

The only value I can think of is if you build a unique content site on redballons.com and then optimize it.  You can then link it to the main site and have some SEO value.  We see this done often within local link profiles.  But I am not sure I would go to all that trouble, instead I would use that energy working on great content to draw traffic.

Redirecting a domain ( as John pointed out) has no SEO value, but may have some marketing or branding value.

I think most of us have given the wrong answer at one time or another. Sometimes it's in the understanding of the question.  Thanks for your response!

Great discussion.  Here is what we do with some success.

We don't do link requests, we do content requests.  Thinking what a web master wants, we can write and deliver content for them. A guest blog is an excellent example, but there are many other content suggestions you can make.  A  half page glowing testimonial about there services will often get published.  A tips page related to what they do might be very helpful for them.

Think like the web master, be there friend, an the links and citation will follow.

Good Content is specific to what ever would get the site book marked, and that is very specific to the topic and purpose of the site.  Give the visitor the information they were seeking, and you have great content.  It doesn't need to be deep or wide , it just has to tell them what they came to see.

I would be interested in how you all measure great content?  Bounce rate?  Conversions?

I agree with EGOL, and would add, we have several successful SEO clients that if you look at the keyword volume of there services, it's to low to even show up.  Bigger ticket, needs less volume.  Smaller ticker, lot's of volume.

What a great idea! You may start a new trend here Dejan.  Maybe you can add a "buy it now"  amount  and make it easy on us.

Hi Gary,

We have lot's of multiple location clients. Are you trying to get visible in Google places or organic, or both?

You are doing it the correct way. Make sure your individual office pages have unique content. You also want to make sure each office has it's unique phone number listed.  The golden rule of multiple locations on the same site is be very clear on each having a unique phone number, address, and third a page.

If you are using Google places follow there guidelines on each listing. And try and get unique listings on Yahoo local and other local directories for each office.

Just as a FYI... We have had two clients move to Word press platforms in the last month, and both had a big gain in rankings for a few days ( not sure if it was a week or 10 days, we don't check every day)  but then both dropped back to where they had been (basically).

Like others here, and I discuss this with clients often; don't pay any attention to major changes in rankings unless they last for a few weeks.  Would you let us know what happens to your clients ranking on the word press site?

I wish we had a vocabulary that could differentiate between the link farm type directories, and the high quality directories. We still use high quality directories, and we use this thought process. If the directory is one we would want the client to be found on, no matter what effect it might have on the sites ranking,  and the other sites on the directory are decent quality, then of course we use it.

Local directories (if your client is a local type business) can be very strong.  News media sites are great if they offer a directory style listing (with or without follow links).

So high quality directories that are there to serve the purpose of making it easier for viewers to find good quality sites,  yes. Low link farm type directories that clearly exist for link purposes only- no.

This may not pan out to be a perfect SEO process ( Matt Cutts did say a link can not hurt you)  but we feel long term it is a better and safer process ( Matt didn't say that a bad link profile couldn't hurt you).

I think the concept of an influential person is an individual assumption. That's really the core of the question.  I know I spend 30 minutes a day or so on the Q.A. and do try and give valuable answers.  It's not charity, it's a business culture.

I feel that in In SEO there are many who feel they want to help, but don't want to give away there hard earned intellectual property or experience, which makes sense, so they have a tendency to teach people to fish, instead of handing them a fish (so to speak).