Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi, there are more factors that play into ranking then on-page optimization. In the 2011 ranking factors, you can see that Page Level Link Metrics and Domain Level Link Authority all play a larger role then on-page keyword usage.

To give you an example, Geek Squad ranks in the first few results for "computer repair" but they score an F for on-page optimization. (imagine our frustration)

Getting high quality links from powerful domains, and getting links with powerful anchor text can account for your situation. I am curious as to why your page isn't optimized for those specific keywords? Did you do this intentionally?

Jason, (in my opinion) the best way to use Bold is to use it as the title of a list. In your example http://www.keystonemortgages.co.uk you used the Bold tag within a list. Instead you might want to use it like this " Why Use Keystone IMC for Independent Mortgage Advice" and then start your list.

Here is an example of bold tags, http://www.callnerds.com/blog/10-free-ways-to-clean-up-your-pc/

When you use the italics tag, try to use it in places that make sense and look attractive. I usually use them within blog posts. You can use italics to ad a "side note" or a quote to an article.

I agree with Daniel, applying a class to them will borderline on cloaking.  Hope this helps.

You can try combining 2 tools to accomplish this, #1 use advanced search Queries like:

Intext:"keyword" + "blog" to find blogs in your industry.

#2 Then use a tool that mesures their rss subscribers.  Tool From Google | 3rd Party Tool

Best of luck,

-Bryant Jaquez

Ok, I have to admit, this answer is not my own. I "borrowed" ok, I stole the answer from Tom Critchlow. Your question was very intriguing so i took the time to research an answer for you.

Here is the regex string that will segment traffic according to the number of slashes in an url.

^/([^/]+/){3}[^/]*$

This specific regex segment will show urls with 5 slashes. You can play around with adding and subtracting slashes untill you find the perfect string for yourself. Here is a link to the article where Tom talks about this topic.

- Bryant Jaquez

Hi, Mackenzie Fogelson

This could have something to do with the recent linkscape updates talked about here and here. Basiclly, there have been some changes in how many sites ose is able to crawl, and how deep into the sites they crawl.

When you run a scan in OSE, you can always filter the results by "all links" ,"external", and  "all links to the root domain"  After you run this report try cross referencing it in Google Webmaster Tools, or Yahoo's site explorer tools.

Hope this help.

-Bryant

You are correct. The more links you get from a website, the less important future links become. However, at least the first 3, or 4 links from that site will be worth a lot of links juice.

If I were you, I would try to write up to 5 unique articles per site, all with unique anchor text (watch this weeks white board friday video) Point most of the links to your home page, and a couple of them toward important internal pages. I would say that mixing up the landing pages will help a little, but make sure your links go to related and relevant pages.

Remember, inbound marketing is all about getting high quality traffic., If your articles are accomplishing that goal, go for it, even if the link value isn't high.

This is a tough question because (everyone, feel free to correct me here if I'm wrong) Google does not directlly tell us how to influence those links. However, I have observed the following patterns.

#1 Branded searches tend to lead to "bulleted snippets"

#2 From what I remember, their patent talked (vaguely) about how users can influence those links. The more people visit a page on your website the more likely it is for that page to show up in serps. You can influence this by leading people to the pages you want displayed in serps. UI and Site Navigation can play heavily into influencing those serps.

#3 Google will display internal pages, or bulleted snippets, if it thinks those pages are relevant to a users search. If you search for my brand, you will see pages that tell a searcher everything they need to know about Nerds On Call.

#4 Google will only display these internal pages for the first result.

Here is a link to that patent. http://bit.ly/nRBa8L

(just a suggestion) In my experience, it would be wise for you to add a clause in your contract where, the seo will be guaranteed a specific amount of money.

You would probably be able to attract a higher quality applicant this way. A bussy, experienced seo is probably going to be hesitant to put a lot of work into something that may or may not make them any money.

Hi Aaron,

First let me say that sometimes competitors will try to point spammy links to your site (they hope that the bad links will hurt your serps). Usually this will backfire on competition, and the links can actually help your serps.  If you have a healthy domain age, and other legitimate links pointing to your site, Google shouldn't penalize you.

My best guess is that Google will just ignore the links that are low quality, but I don't think they will actually hurt you.

You can always submit a Google Webmaster Spam Report from your webmaster's account. Just explain to Google that you were not involved in setting up the links, and the you did not pay for them, nor do you endorse them.

IMO you should use your main, more competitive keywords on your home page

Jewelry Online | Company name

Then you can use the less completive words in category pages.

Bracelets | Trendy Bangles and Arm Cuffs

and then depending on your keyword research, you can even have individual product pages that are more focused on the long tail keywords. Keep in mind that the closer words are to the http:// the more relevant they are to your keyword optimization.

Trendy Bangles | Bracelets (make the url look like this, http:www.brandname.com/trendy-bangles/bracelets

Gold Arm Cuffs | Bracelets...

Elegant Tennis Bracelets | Bracelets...

Yes. Bing is ... um.. kind of "picky" about what they index. If you browse through the Bing webmaster tools forums, you can lean a lot about how they choose which pages to keep in their index. Here are a few highlights:

#1 Bing will remove a site from it's index if it finds too many erors in your site map (404 errors, etc...)

#2 Bing will remove a page from it's index if it doesn't rank high enough.

Bing will actually remove a page from it's index if there are (quote) "700 million pages that rank higher then you" . Apparently the thought behind this, is that Bing doesn't want to use space to save a site that isn't ranking yet anyway...  Once you build some more links to your page try resubmitting your sitemap.

#3 Bing is always "testing". Bing wil actually move you around the serps to test how people react to you. Bing will mesure the bounce rate of your page, how long people stay on your page, and the general way that people react to your page.  If your page doens't pass the "Bing tests" then they might remove you from their index.

So in summery, Bing is trying to keep their serps unique by making it harder to get included in them. They are testing user interaction and they make decisions based on those tests. I know you can try to re-submit your sitemap to Bing after you've made some changes... Best Of Luck.

Since there are a few different opinions on this topic, I figured I would weigh in.

A bad backlink profile can effect a sites SERPS, but it depends on the site. If your site has a mostly White Hat, clean on-page strategy, and mostly good backlink history, you should be fine. If your site has a lot of authority, then the bad back links definitely won't hurt you, they might even help you (read this), but be careful, because you still don't want to get to careless.

I would say that you should remove as many links as you can, and then forget about the rest. If you move forward and build a strong link profile that is filled with editorial links, and legitimately acquired reviews, you'll be fine.

Best of luck

-Bryant Jaquez

If you have accesses to the other websites's webmaster you can simply ask them to use the rel= canonical tag in all syndicated content. This tag will tell the search engines who the author is, and you'll be fine.

Hi Greenman,

Google has stated publicly that they do read pdf documents.

"...However, while we can process HTML, PDF, and Flash files, we have a more difficult time understanding (e.g. crawling and indexing) other rich media formats, such as Silverlight" (from Google Webmaster Tools Forum)

So, I think this strategy will definitely help your seo efforts. As with all things seo, there are a million ways to chase backlinks (here is a good list of back-link article to read) so I wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket, but I think your off to a really good start. Good luck with your site!

-bryant jaquez

I know that comments can help long term keyword  optimization. For example: If the commenters use variations of your keywords, and partial matches of your keywords, then it can help build more organic on-page optimization.

If your blog gets a lot of spam, you can consider adding a quora style system where other users can vote for comments. Allow people to vote comments up or down.

I agree with Cyle. If you link to other authorities, it makes you look like an authority. Basically Google says, "These people know who other authorities are, so that means they must be an authority too..."

If the FB mention had a link in it, I would choose the Facebook share. In the ranking factors for 2011 release Facebook has WAY more influence on Seo then twitter (especially now that google and twitter no longer have their "real time stream" agreement)

It sonds like you have a perfect oppertunity to become the industry resource. Finding an industry that produces a lot of money, that doen't have a lot of online competition,  is a GOLD MINE!

Create something that everyone in your industry needs/wants and then ask them to read it, contribute to it, and link to it.

Good luck, i'd love to hear how your project turns out.

-bryant jaquez