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Most people like to use a blend of linking to your pages that include your brand name plus keyword, a certain percentage of just your brand, and then the smallest amount using the anchor text you want to get ranked for.
Also be sure to so the same on the social networks too.
As long as the content is distinct to each page, and not just a rehash of what was found on the Branding page, you should be good.
Hi Naomi -
You will probably get some various thoughts on this, but it's probably best to forget about the messages Google is telling you.
Focus your time on earning quality links from topical sites. This will easily replace the value lost from your previous linking efforts.
Without knowing all of the activities you've done for the site, it's hard to provide more reasons as to what could have caused the drop in rankings. Be sure to do a thorough audit of the site from a technical perspective and take a deep look at your backlinks to see what the issues might be.
Like Cornell said, there are much better ways to invest that monthly budget. You should look for a company that will work with your goals and create a strategy around getting your terms ranked.
There are many ways to earn links that will get quality traffic to your site.
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This is something we can help you with, if you're interested, send me a message!
Not sure if this will answer your question entirely, but the association of a contributor tells Google who wrote the article. So in time, the author is building up a brand presence due to the various places online where their content is being used on.
The one constant you should always use as a guide is will this action benefit the reader? Anytime that answer is yes, then you should have nothing to worry about.
If you are using strategies with the intention of building links only, then you have to figure at some point in time, Google will adjust the value of those links.
Google knows it's a parked domain and will discount that link in time - don't sweat about it.
I had to deal with this exact issue for a new client. Our solution - we compiled a list of all the parked domains (over 500!) and sent that to Google with a detailed account of why we felt those links should be discounted.
It took about 2 weeks from start to finish, and although those links still appear in OSE, the rankings have returned for the client.
Hope this helps - Good luck!
By all means produce it and have it on your site. Not only will it bring the possibility of traffic and links, but you are also expanding your brand presence online.
Be sure to include the embed code so that others can link use your image, and it will link to your site.
Good luck!
One of the first things I would check would be to see if the competition improved their search snippets. I've had clients enjoy great click thrus at the #3 spot in Google - because their messaging was more in tune with what the person was searching for.
That's one place to start.
Good luck!
It all depends on what you want to achieve with the blog. I run 2 sites that get lots of comments. For one site, the comments become part of the content of the site (it essentially sets a scenario for people to debate over) so for that example, it adds to the uniqueness f the site.
For another site that I run, I have to spend a lot of time monitoring the comments since many people are there to just drop a link. Like everything on the web, you need to decide what's going to make your site stand out from the rest.
Allowing "junk" comments won't add any value.
By "indexing" do you mean pinging them? Listing them? If you can provide some clarity I think you'll be able to get a helpful reply.
I recently went through this with a client of mine. Previously, they had their top 2 keywords first, then the company name.
They were ranked #2 in Google for both of their terms.
We made the switch last Monday, placing the company name first, then the keywords.
The other sites in the top 5 with them all have their keywords listed first.
Impact?
Since we made the title switch, they are still in the second position, but they are now averaging 15 more clicks per day!
I know some will say it's because the company name stands out from the clutter - and I agree on some levels. But as Doug mentioned, the title is phrased in a way that we humans like to read, so I think that helps too.
It could just be that OSE hasn't found them yet - Remember that they don't update as fast as Google's Index.
There's not a lot that can be done. You might be able to contact some of the sites and get a reply, but for the most part, your plan moving forward should be to create new content and earn links from quality sites.
I had the same issue. My solution was to request the report, and leave the browser open on the page - if I went to another tab or even used any other program, the report quit on me.
Here I thought I was the only one experiencing this!
Google knows that there are high quality directories out there, and BOTW is one of them. Since Google knows that real humans are reviewing the sites that are submitted and allowed to appear on the site, it's a quality service that benefits the web.
While the list of high quality directories is small, they are certainly worth getting for any link building campaign.
Since you are using Google's properties, this exercise should focus on Google's realm of influence. By pointing back to the Google Plus page, you are re-enforcing the value of the +1's that you get on your site to Google.
This will help build the brand and create trust in Google, which in turn will impact all your overall search efforts.
Good luck!
It's probably a link purge on their part, and if you were able to see some of their linking activities and were able to identify them, that's probably a good indicator of what they did wrong, and what you should do to avoid it.
A low quality blog will have a few of the following features:
1.) Out of the box WP Theme with no changes
2.) Scraped content or obviously low quality content
3.) Automation - check to see if every post gets re-tweeted/Stumbled/etc
For your site, it's probably a link purge. That's one of the reasons why earning links on a monthly basis is a must.
Was the site a never before registered domain? Or was it already well in existence prior? If it's the latter, it might have had a history that was passed along to you.
The other thing to consider is that if you are entering a competitive space, your competition might have stepped up their game too...
I think you are looking at this the wrong way. A subdomain should warrant enough unique content that is related to the main topic of your site. Links to both a subdomain and folder will increase value of the TLD.
In regards to "link juice" - building on the TLD will always help. You should be looking at this from an ease of use perspective of your readers.
Point is, I have yet to see any difference from a subdomain vs a subfolder. I've never seen a subdomain have a higher PR than the TLD, and same goes to the subfolder idea as well.
Yes, ping every article you post.
Depending on your platform will dictate what you can do. If you're on wordpress, they have a built in system that automatically does that for you.
I'm sure other systems have them in place as well, but I am not familiar with them.
If you need to manually do it, here are a few sites I am aware of:
Good luck!
Just some SEM basics - get links from India pointing to your site, talk to Indian bloggers to write about your service, and be active in the social networks.
I work with a client that has over 800k products and about 500 category pages. It was decided to always place the content above the listing of the all available items.
Not sure why you would want to place content at the footer? Unless you don't want the category pages to get ranked?
Like Anthony said - create great content, and you'll never have to worry about linking penalties. Here's another item to consider - links are always going to be pointed to your site, and not all are going to be of high quality sites today. But, you never know that one blog that stays online and in 5 years from now has grown into an authority site.
People are way over-reacting to this latest Google "penalty". If it was that easy to lose your rankings to just a few blog networks, why wouldn't I go out and get thousands of "bad" links pointed to my competitor to de-rank them?
Look deeper at what Google is trying to accomplish.
Just because the top site is an exact match doesn't mean you can't dislodge them from their #1 spot.
Without knowing all that you have done for your site, the best advice I can give is to look at what they are doing, and then think about other ways to beat them. For the sake of this discussion, let's say that they have a great youtube channel and are very active on twitter. First, you will have to make sure you have a presence on those two sites as well.
Then, you need to take it to the next level - make sure you have a Pinterest, LinkedIn, FB, StumbleUpon, reddit and delicious accounts. Make sure you have the google +1 button on your site and a Google plus page where you link back to your site from.
Simply put, you will have to do more than them in order to take the top spot.
In regards to if it's worth it or not, only you can determine that.
Good luck!
I had three show up for one of our test sites. All came on 3/29. All said the same thing.
Funny thing is, while it said that we had to request re-inclusion into the index, the site remains well ranked on other terms.
This makes us think that the infractions are for getting exact match anchor text links (they were the ones that got the messages). Compared to the other organic links we earned (variations of the anchor text in the links).
So, this latest wave of penalties applies to keywords, not the site, which is a step in the right direction.
We are already anticipating what the next penalized type of link will be, and we are already actively testing.
Latest? Pinterest image pinning of course.
Guest blogging - my rule of thumb is that any blog that i would considered has to be online for over 2 years and has original content.
Link requests - Always work. Best part is, you no longer have to explain why, but you have to make it personal for each request.
Are the 301's for old urls on the existing domain that now point to a new one? Or are they from an old (or expired) domain that you are looking to pass along that value?
If it's an old or expired domain, you should be able to remove the 301 after 90 days.
If everything is still on the same server, you should keep them intact. 500 re-directs isn't a tremendous amount.
I work with some enterprise level clients that have millions of 301's in place.
Hope this helps!
The thing about "White Hat" is all up to how you define it. When any person looks at the page in question, it clearly looks like a spammy technique. Unfortunately, this method does work - otherwise people wouldn't do it.
I doubt this would pass any human review as being a quality page, and there are many legit ways to take the idea of the product/city page to make it provide a quality experience for the user.
I have used some sources where it costs $200 per 950+ word article....
...and they are all ranking well.
Remember, quality doesn't come cheap.
Never understood how people think there is value in a link building network - Anytime you do this, you are leaving a link footprint for Google to find. (http://www.ranksurge.com/are-you-leaving-a-link-footprint-for-google.htm)
Link diversity is the key to earning sustainable rankings - not quick fix hits from a link network.
just my $.02
http://www.ranksurge.com/are-you-leaving-a-link-footprint-for-google.htm
Google is always looking at various signals of quality to help determine rankings. Any time you can get a +1 or "likes" on facebook, you should. If it's a question of only doing social media versus getting links to your site, I would choose links for an established site, but social for a new one.
Have you done a press release for that term and the site? Typically, those will get some high quality authority links pointed to your site and should solidify your rankings.
The quick answer might be that your link appears on a footer/blogroll section of a site. So, if that site has 500 pages, you're getting credit for those 500 links.
Despite that, you should always focus on the getting a diversity of links, and that includes various linking root domains.
I have no solid evidence to support this, but I think Google counts the number of likes and tries to chart the growth of the number of likes a page/person gets. From that, they can then look to see of that particular page gets other social mentions, or has various links pointing to it.
Just my $.02
A good practice is to always make sure your release is on your site first, and that Google finds it there before it finds it on the web. For most of us, the PR site probably has more authority in Google's eyes and would most likely get picked as the original source of content.
I run 2 wordpress blog sites - 1 where the home page is static, and the other has a home page that is updated with at least one new post per day.
Both sites rank very well, and on the day a post is made live, typically about 4 hours later, I can find that post on the first page in Google. Of course, both sites have been online over 4 years each, so there is some trust that has been earned.
You should do what makes the most sense for your readers. If the site is about content that changes frequently, then it might make sense to use those posts as the home page.
Good luck!
"Aged" links are great in terms of seo. That is a quality signal that Google will use especially if you have a link from a high authority site.
This is always a tough question to answer. The question about linking is, will it make the customer more likely to buy, should they visit the link? Or will they leave and never come back.
I know some people argue about the value of linking to external sites to either justify your product/service, but I've always felt that by doing that, the only one getting anything out if it is the site that was linked to. Even if you apply the nofollow element, the search engines still see that you are linking out.
So, you'll have to reach your own conclusion on this. Personally, I never link out on pages where I am trying to sell something. But, if you are composing an informational type article, it might make sense to do so.
Hope this helps!
There is a
<figure>element that is supposed to provide better descriptions of image on the web in HTML5 - do you think that will replace the importance of the "Alt" tag?
Link to figcaption description
</figure>
From a coding perspective, applying the nofollow to the links is the best way to go.
With the robots.txt file, only the top tier search engines respect the information contained within, so lesser known bots or spammers might check your robots.txt file to see what you don't want listed, and that info will give them a starting point to look deeper into your site.
Keep in mind that no tool will ever be able to track all the links you've acquired. Also, since you've only just got started, you need to give it some time before you see all the links you've earned appear in the reports.
Last thing. Some sites just aren't considered to have any real link value, so while they might appear in your report, that doesn't indicate the quality of the link.
I don't know if this will solve your problems, but could you program the site using breadcrumb navigation? That will go a long way in your seo efforts.
You should only include one link in total in your post. I know others might have different opinions, but if you are trying to build a link profile, each site should have it's own set of unique inbound links.
By having 2 or more links pointing to different pages, you are diluting any link juice you might get from that post.
Just my $.02
A quick check into your robots meta tag might help. Make sure it's set to the following:
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="Index,Follow" />
That should ensure what you want in Bing.
The questions I would ask:
Expectations - how long will it take to get ranked?
What techniques will you use?
While you can certainly ask as many questions as you want, at some point in time, you just have to trust that your vendor is delivering value to you. By asking for weekly reports and ALL links that point to your site, you are taking time away from your vendor to do work that will get your site ranked.
Accountability and transparency are important, but if you are constantly asking your vendor to "show your work", they won't have time to get your properties ranked!
I understand that every dollar spent has to work for your business to grow. At the end of the day, you have to trust your intuition and go with the people that are interested in your success.
Good luck!
I should have been more specific. While the social icon buttons should be present, you should also include the open graph protocol on the site.
First off, great looking site!
I wouldn't worry about the li tags vs the p tag - quality content will always trump any display issues.
The banner is of great concern since that is what I was tempted to click on first, thinking it would lead me to more information on your site. I noticed that you don't get a navigation option until the images for your content appears in the banner. If possible, you should really push for that same treatment for the starting image of the banner.
The only other suggestion would be to include some social code (open graph) so that you can get some link love from FB!
Hope this helps!
The only experience I've had is a client who was heavily involved in Social media (youtube/twitter/fb) decided to create a new brand under a new domain.
We did so, and 301'd all the social "link juice" to the new domain. We were able to keep most of the traffic that was arriving for about three weeks, then it started to fade away. Keep in mind we actively told readers about the new social profiles to follow, and convinced about 75% of the audience to follow the new profiles.
As to the link juice getting passed along, The new site only needed about 3 months to get ranked, so my take is that yes, using a 301 will send the signals along.
good luck!