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What do you mean by (3) it doesn't reveal your underlying platform? I don't think URL structure would be of much concern here, especially if you where experienced in exploiting websites? Maybe I'm wrong, not to sure what you are referring too.

In regards to you leaning towards this one, surely posting it as a directory /hotdogs/ implies that it is that, a directory and not a just a page about hotdogs? I'm digging a bit to deep into this, as I'm sure it won't make that much of a difference, but I'm just saying, it seems more logical to have it .php or .html

1. Free Traffic.

2. When it's done right, it lasts!

3. Free money, with a bit of work

I would use hotdogs.html, not that it makes much difference, but I personally prefer it so it doesn't look like an auto-generated page. If your planing on having a lot of hotdog related content I would defiantly go with /hotdogs for it all.

This is only an estimate by seomoz, it doesn't take all factors into account. However they seem to be quite right here, all the sites ranking above you have the same or a greater page authority bar hiphopbling.com (and thats only outranking you because they have the EMD advantage.)

To get to #1 ? Simple, build better quality links on related jewelry sites/blogs.

Create content around google trends.

It's not a fine art. Google is far, far, far from perfect. Just build links as you would, just try to find places to post more niche relevant than your competitors, so you have the upper hand.

Some search engines actually use them to penalize words your targeting if they get the vaguest indication your involved in keyword stuffing/black hat. If your going whitehat I don't see any harm though.. Just take note if your doing anything a tad shady! Good luck.

This is a sensitive subject, there is a chance but you really need to look at it on a case/case bases. You would have to contact google webspam team and start an investigation. To be more of a judge I would really need to take a look at your keywords/competition as it is really case/case and your competitors could just have better quality links/content.

Oh & blocking them from your .htaccess will have no effect whatsoever on the links! If your niche is competitive it could negatively effect your ranking, so just be sure before you ask them to remove the links.

Do you mind screenshoting it and uploading it here?

When I search locally I don't think I see what you are describing.

I don't like hyphens, but I don't like foreign domain extensions even more (Columbia!) despite what they say about it meaning "company", no, no. They pulled the same stunt with .me it's not on.

It depends how competitive the niche is and how much you want it. I have a feeling EMD won't be as strong in the coming months for long tail searches like this, but for now I guess it will give you the edge, what I'm trying to say is if you don't like the domain don't go with it, follow what you feel is most logical, as that is probably best for long term SEO success.The EMD benefit is nowhere near the same (in my exp) with hyphenated or foreign domains, don't get me wrong they are a benefit, but a .com, .org or net will always outrank (for now).

So in response to your question, If I was you I would buy them both (so comp. can't steal em' later), make them both blogs and get a nice brand-able domain for your business, use the two blogs as feeders for your business.

In response to your original question, I am still using directory's as I used to before the update. I feel that they devalued the rank of the pages rather than the trust of the links in the article, I have no data to back this up but it's my view. Would be great to hear from someone with proven results (i.e uses article marketing and has seen no ranking changes in the last month)

Trust me, you won't run into any resource problems unless you plan to serve to the ten's of thousands!

I personal use mysite.com/postname as I find the category of a post dilutes the target keywords.

Take note that this directory list is out of date, as stated by Rand, CEO of SEOMOZ.

http://www.seomoz.org/q/is-this-directory-guide-by-seomoz-still-accurate

Ah so your back already?  This does happen occasionally, but it's nothing to worry about.

Might have been because of the new algo changes. Google farmer update, they cracked down on dupe content sites!

In my experience it can take months, however with a high traffic site you may see results much, much sooner, then again this is google, so it's always a bit unpredictable.

It might be for the very reason you stated, you are whitehat and google recognises that. Whereas bing isn't as advance* and is rating blackhat's above you with low quality/high vol. links.

Just theory, would really need to see your targeted kw's to give you a more accurate answer.

There are NO penalties for link building on external blogs, build on any blog as long as it has high authority and is far away from spam.

As long as the actual page relates to yours you will be on top of the world.

Care to share? How do you add your keyword to the link without making it look like an advertising post, no matter how you phrase it!

I got a feeling you might have been slapped due to all your duplicate content.

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aclientfirstfunding.com

Solution? Make all those pages unique:)

I'd just 301 it to your homepage, seriously doubt it would be worth the effort doing anything else unless this employee was famous and getting links from all around the web.

If you must, you could always do what others have suggested and write a nice "no longer working with us (content rich page) " and 301 all past employees pages to it.

Add more unique content, it may have been dropped after the last google farm update due to the page not being unique enough, as the others have pointed out, just build more links, obvious but true.

Is there any chance of getting the music legend to produce a "viral" sort of video? That way all the fans(ites) would post about it, and if it was good enough it would get the attention of a much wider linking audience. I'd stay far away from content farms!

May we know who it is?

I'm not sure if this is what you mean..

You want the keyword from a google search to show up on your afflink?

I hope I've understood you correctly. If you remove the unneeded subdirectory from the stucure (which you should) it would mean the other keywords in the url will carry more weight in terms of ranking.

In response to your main question.. If you are changing the URL structure more than once, do it all in one go, no doubt.

I've found them to be good when you give them a list of URLs, but only when they are fluent with english so they can contact/post whatever you ask. Just gotta keep looking for the right people

I don't think it would have any effect to be frank. Take a look here, a bit old but the closest I could find;

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters/thread?tid=2d4592cbb613e42c&hl=en

great advice, how many satellite sites would you recommend?

10 or so?

Can't you just do a quick .htaccess url rewrite to remove the /n.c?

If you want the links to have more value sending them to the actual /n.c/ directory would be better (as long as there is no plan to change the url stucture in future.)

Don't do it. Very bad idea.

Consern your efforts with buildingt stronger links.

SEO = Gaming the search engines

Where is a does a non-spammy link come from?

Even the directorys list on SEOMOZ is outdated (according to staff).

If we stay away from squidoo and other article sites, what other options do we have? haha, the options are growing smaller by the day.

If they are ranking above you.. then it must be working. From what I can see, they are providing unquie content.. and google is eating it up. Not a good idea for long term, but for now, the proof is in the pudding.

You believe or have seen proof?

(thanks in advance)

I have to disagree with your .gov comment. I've seen a lot of.gov/.edu with autoapprove comments and the amount of OBL's on page is ridiculous. Sending an obvious signal to google because a large majority of the pages are so spammy.

However if you can get a link from a .gov with moderated comments.. fair play.

Where would you advice getting your links?

Blog comments look like spam if your keyword is in the name field and I'm sure google will crack down on this. Emailing webmasters will cost a hell of a lot if you want a lot of links. Directorys are low quality and irelevant!  Where does this leave us in terms of getting links?

Where do you ask them to get links for you?

Do you ask them to leave comments on blogs or email webmasters for a link? (if going the email route, surley most webmasters will want a chunk of change to place your link)

Regards.