Welcome to the Q&A Forum

The biggest con for me is the anticipated response time on questions.  When people ask a question on a Social Media site they expect an answer in less than 15 minutes.  Sometimes I happen to be sitting at my computer, and that's no problem.  However, most questions happen early in the morning, and late at night (auto industry).  Because of that, I'm typically not conscious or coherent enough to answer questions about towing capacity, cubic feet of space, etc.

However, I've been able to connect with some people on a personal level, and have been able to get them to come in for service and repairs.

Bottom line, it can improve your bottom line, but the chance to lose a customer is there, as well.

Do you have a decent amount of links pointing at these internal pages currently?  If not, that would be the second step (after the menu problem).

For terms about the same topic, as you just wrote in your A/B example, I would utilize one page.  That is, one page for "Dental Implants."  The reason being, your content is going to be relevant for terms regarding the same topic, and your link profile will be built with many variations of the term (Dental Implants in Boston, Boston Dentists who do Implants, etc.)

Back to your original question though, you will want a seperate page for each individual procedure.

yourwebsite.com/boston-teeth-whitening

yourwebsite.com/boston-dental-implants

I would just make sure to use the keyword phrase with the most traffic in your url (depending on overall length of url).  The benefit seems to be getting smaller as time goes on, but that's what people are looking for when they search.

Local Search results are just another vertical of Organic; that's why local and traditional verticals occasionally combine.

It does look like the archived posts get an _archive added to them.  It would be better to keep the original URL intact, and not create this separate one in the archive process.

That brings up an interesting thought, when you "archive" the blogs does a /archive get added to the url?

How does your link profile compare to the ones that are popping up in search?

You mentioned that the Title tag has the phrase, but does it also appear within the body?

How many links are going out from the page?

How many levels from the home page is the blog?

Do you have links pointing at these individual posts?

Now I know!  Thanks Ryan!

Advertising would sound so much better as yoga dot my studio dot com, though lol.

I'm sure you've read this as much as I have Brett, but a top 10 list is a good way to spend a brain-dead writing day.

Top Ten Prizes for Hole In Ones or 10 Worst Prizes Ever Used for Hole In Ones

or

10 Reasons Why I Shouldn't Have Ate That Burrito Before the Back 9

Personally, I would do subdirectories just because its easier to say.  "yoga (dot) DenverStudio (dot) com" instead of "denverstudio (dot) com forward slash yoga"

However, I've only read about the benefits of sub-directories within very large websites, and wouldn't know what the benefits of a smaller website would be with it.  Although, www. is technically a sub-directory, and most websites use it.

Back to the milk thing:

If you make it funny it could be a really good link bait scheme!

Create a separate website all about doing the challenge, generating tons of links*, and then just 301 it into your main website when the fad is over!

*Not exactly sure what kind of links you would get from puking on camera...

The best incentive you could possibly offer is great content.  Something that truly benefits their readers/visitors.  But the non-utopian answer would be what Shannon said - free random offline item that isn't really e-traceable and is inexpensive.

On a side note, I may give you a link for the gallon of milk thing... just saying...

I've talked to a couple, but I've never worked with one.  Just make sure to ask if they are using multiple servers across the country you are doing business in, that they are correctly using C-Blocks and that your links will be put in relevant content.

Another factor to remember is making sure your link landscape is diverse.  Have both exact and similar keyword usage ("Live Chat" - "Chat Software" - "Live Chat Software"), a collection of both followed and no-followed links and websites with Page Ranks ranging from really low to really high.  This makes it look more natural.

If you wanted to use a link building service for the high quality links, you could then go after low quality links on your own.  Post on blogs about your topic, use social bookmarking, etc.

Websites linking to you is one of the more important SEO techniques, and actually offers the highest potential.  However, trading links with other websites will actually hurt you, and I would not advise doing that at all.

Link building comes from using various strategies in order to convince them to link to you.  This could be through writing very informative or controversial articles (Link Bait), emailing webmasters or hiring an agency that specializes in it.  These companies tend to have networks of websites that they use to build links.  Because of that, it's very important to ask for references.

I would also suggest listening to what Shannon Lily has proposed to you for a technique.  There is such an art to link building that any good tips will help!

Three websites means:

1. 3 times the link building
2. 3 times the content writing
3. 3 times the monitoring

Three websites do sound tempting until you realize that you will not be able to benefit from each area driving its own links.  With a single website you will be able to receive the domain benefit for every link you generate, while having multiple domains you will not.

Another problem with linking to other websites all the time is the drop in link juice.  While it  may seem beneficial to pass links from your websites, you have to remember that you are giving away some of the value of your internal links each time.  With just a couple links its no problem, but with dozens you might face a dilemma.

I would stick to the one website with landing pages for each area of interest.  I would then do an intense link building campaign for each, and write a very informative blog (to both drive visitors and links).  By having high quality landing pages for each "department" you will be able to achieve all your SERP goals, and be able to build on each "departments" success.

The only reason I wouldn't do this is if I was going to have 1000's of pages of content for each department.

How many reviews does each company have?  My gold stars didn't pop up until I had 10 reviews - half being Google reviews.

First off, I agree with Shannon.  There are some long tail phrases that would work better for you.  As for a quantifying reason for why you are slipping: the #1 website in that search has 2414 linking domains, compared to your 300.  Regardless of the overall quality, that is still a massive gap.

I would suggest two things:

1. Go after less competitive long-tails (which will convert better)
2. Either start, or get  more aggressive on link building

Although having visitors looks nice, and makes you feel good, your ultimate goal should be to convert visitors to customers.

There are many variables involved with a redesign.  The biggest concerns being:

1. Are you using the same url's from your previous pages?  If not, did you 301 redirect them into the new corresponding pages?
2. More importantly, did you make sure to check which pages had links pointing at them, and make sure those were reused or redirected?
3. Is the new redesign more efficient?  urls like domain.com/blue-widget instead of domain.com/reallylongstretchofcharacters
4. Have you submitted a new sitemap?  Did the sitemap change?
5. Is the website faster/slower?  Do a google speed check to see how its doing <80, you may need to make a couple minor changes.
6. Has Google went through and indexed your website?  How many pages have been indexed?
7. Do you have well developed content that is created with keywords in mind - without being spam?

Anyway, if you made sure to 301 redirect all of the old pages, or reused the urls, you should see a recovery.  I'd advise that you do a big link building push right away, though, in order to speed up the process, as well as be beneficial all around.

Understandable, that it would cause worries.  I've only been with this company for about 8 months, and walked into a terrible platform.  Sadly, every automotive website provider I talk to has their system that they use, and I'm stuck trying to find both the best ecommerce platform, as well as overall site build.

I'm switching to a different company that supposedly has built their own.  I'm currently using Seritas, and I'm switching to TK Carsites.  The current company uses a jumbled mess, while the new company designs it with keywords in mind.

I'm just entering the process of switching web developer companies, and I was wondering what process would be best for redirecting our old product (new and used cars) pages.  Our current design leaves much to be desired seo wise (http://www.resslermotors.com/index.asp?cmd=detail&vin=1FTSX30F3XEC01446&stocknumber=123911&sg=ocor5h42d2yhkla&Make=Ford&parCertifiedFlag=&Model=&parVehTypeID=&p=6&page=1), and redirecting all of them seems like it would be pretty complicated.

In addition to that, we currently have 35,000 pages.  Is there a practical way to do redirects with this many pages?

I don't believe the layout is used within the SEO measurements, besides linking structure, so having the same looking website shouldn't matter.  Even though you have mentioned that you are going to do this, I figured it wouldn't hurt to repeat, just make sure you have unique content.

A Second Alternative would be to create two different funnels.  One for customers in CA, and the other for the customers in UT.  You would then have to create landing pages specifically for each City, State in order to most efficiently utilize the system.  So, your current home page would be for brand searches, a CA landing page for those keywords and a UT landing page for those keywords.  This would cost you quite a chunk to build, unless you can do it in house, but you would have the benefit of your current domain authority.

Just as a reminder, there are many different pieces to the SEO puzzle, and my offered solution may hinder you in achieving the results an a very competitive market.  If you do have stiff competition, or anticipate any, than a new domain would be the best answer.

Either way, you are going to have to do some on-site SEO, like Ryan said.

meta-keywords and description don't count towards the content on your website, based on whatever I've read, but the description is extremely valuable in getting people to click.  Alt tags do have some influence, but make sure the alt tag is for the user, and not just for the search engines.  Here's what SeoMoz says about description tags: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/meta-description

1. Age of Domain

2. Inbound link keyword usage

3. Keyword usage

4. Relevant words around Keywords (minor correlation from what I last read)

5. How often content is updated

Here's a little breakdown from SeoMoz: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

I would add another phrase to your Title Tag that is similar to what you are going after.  This will add relevancy to your website, which has a slight positive correlation to rankings.  In addition, make sure that you are getting links with the exact phrase you are going after, as well as others that are similar.  In addition, you will also want some no-followed links in the mix just to be diverse.

Sadly, I'm in Montana, and have very few bushes around, so option D) is out of questions

How is the new domain ranking for other keywords?  Maybe like 4 slice toaster, or whatever phrase gets a lot of traffic?  If it's ranking high for other phrases I would use it as a temporary test dummy.  Pretty up the website, and find out which phrases, designs, etc. convert the best while you improve your original /toaster website.  Once you have all the data you need, and a highly improved /toaster page, just 301 it over.

However, if you don't have that much time, I'd just 301 it over, and go on with your day.  There's always room for hopes and dreams, but this whole 24 hours in a day thing can get in the way if you don't have help.

If you choose to redirect, I would definitely put it on the inner /toasters page.  It looks like you already have a good amount of links pointing to your home page, and not many to the inner page.

The letter grade "A" only implies that you have used the phrase in the places it suggests.  However, there is far more involved.  For example, I actually get a "F" for a search phrase that I'm not totally interested in.  However, I rank #2 for that search phrase.  The only reason I'm #2 instead of #1 is because of Google Local results.  Anyway, my point is that the seomoz report card is just a starting point, and not the answer.

Here's what SeoMoz says about it: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/canonical-url-tag-the-most-important-advancement-in-seo-practices-since-sitemaps

Seems to me that you have a few easy options.

1. Write unique content for all of the pages.

2. Use "canonical tags" to tell the bots which is the original source

3. Use a standard page for all of the different departments

Neither of you seem to be utilizing on page SEO (Title, H1, H2, etc.) in a way to rank higher for any particular phrase.  In addition to on page seo, you must also consider the structure of your website, the age and the keywords from the links that you have.

Well, I wouldn't expect you to jump to the first page just from 301'ing their website into yours.  There are other factors at play, as I'm sure you know.  However, you can expect a good portion of the link juice pointing at the other website to be transferred to yours.  Depending on the other factors on your particular website, you should see a jump in your current ranking.

I keep getting a 404 error when I try to go there from Google.

What would you do if a competitor had their main domain, and then another domain targeting your local area with the same exact content?

That's currently happening to me, and I'm not sure what I should do about it, if anything:

http://www.bozemanchevrolet.com

and

http://www.montanachevy.com

You could set up Google Alerts for phrases you are interested in (I follow all the makes of cars I represent), and follow some blogs that continue to have breaking news first.  I have mine set to make a noise when something pops up.

I'm the Marketing Director at a car dealership that is trying to break into online shopping.  We have had an internet sales team for about 4 years handling online leads.  These leads were generated by forms present on our website.  However, I'm trying to step up our production of leads online (we are currently at 1-2%).

Here's my problem:

The current method that car dealership website developers use, at least the 4 I've utilized, makes all the search pages have duplicate content, and many of the product/car pages have duplicate content (Title, etc.).  Is there a way to stop all of these search pages from coming up as duplicate content?

My other question is:

Our inventory completely refreshes about every two months, what would be the best option for our product web pages?

Should I no-index them?

301 redirect to a similar vehicle?

Any better options?

Thanks

Optimizing for phrases like "Toyota Dealer" Will allow you to still show up for those searches, but I've experienced the best benefit at my car dealership by optimizing for "City Toyota" and "Toyota City".  I then followed that up by using "City car dealership" and "City used cars."  However, I have over 100 domain links to my website, so It's easy for me to rank well in local search.