Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Not a bad question at all. I own an SEO, SEM agency so my answer comes first from ROI: Did the investment bring me a reasonable return. Current one year pro is around $950 or $99 a month. We charge our clients a fee for ongoing SEO. The Pro Tools allows us to utilize less people to provide that service and to provide the written deliverables to the client. (For us, we have no contract and we are not cheap. Every client is told at the moment we begin they only need give us 30 days notice and we will leave without a fight. We follow that with this, "If we are not providing you what we promised or what you needed, the greatest thing you can do for us is to fire us - that will be a wake up call that we have lost our way." 
Obviously, I do not want to lose a single client and I do not want to see a single client lose. By having so many tools and resources (such as this Q and A) available to me on a moment's notice, I can deliver as promised. _Just the Q and A alone has been worth every dime I have spent.  _

I have only asked one private question in 17 months, but I had a top staffer continually answer follow up questions for about a ten day period. The insight gave me what I needed to conquer the issue. (And, it has never recurred.)

Beyond that, I have in the last month ended two other relationships with a similar fee structure. I just did not see any evidence that the $139 and the $79 was giving me really actionable data. One was actually mentioned multiple times on SEOmoz, but I found the data too broad and too irregular in timing to assist me in assisting clients. So, I am not bashful about pulling out if it does not work.

Now, I do have a beef with SEOmoz. As it stands now the membership "levels" are too rigid and in no way help me. I am pro, will be going to Pro Plus in the next few days, but am disappointed in the way campaigns are geared more to large sites. Pro = 5 campaigns and 10K pages with 300 keywords. Pro+ = 12 campaigns, same 10k and 1K keywords. Pro Elite is 30 campaigns, 3500 keywords, and 20K pages. So Pro = $100 per 10K pages, Pro+ = $199 for same, and ProE = $500 for 20K pages. Or P = $20 per campaign, P+= $17 per campaign, and PE= $17 per campaign.

We have a lot of clients with multiple small sites (less than 10 pages). Most are focused on not more than 5 to 10 keywords generally. But, for us the 5 campaigns equal 45-50pgs. and roughly 50 keywords - counting dupes among sites. Someone with one site and 5K pages with 250 keywords gets a better deal. Yet, I am still here and increasing my spend.

The reason for me is that the package of tools (some are available elsewhere for free) along with quality staff and phenomenal members is just a no brainer. I make at least a ten to one return on what I spend. No BS.

Hope you join Pro and give it a try. Would love to know your before and after opinions.

Jared,

As I got my coffee and realized the news of the world had not changed I opened up the computer and saw your question. I immediately thought of one not mentioned in your list: WordTracker. I just started using it so jury is out and I still like keywords tool. James Norquay did a nice post on youmoz on advanced keyword research that is worth the read. 

Before I wrote a response to your question I was struck by how it was Christmas and I was looking at work. But, it really isn't work to me. (And we do our celebrating on Christmas Eve for any who think I may be a Grinch). So, I started writing about keywords and Christmas. Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

As the family rises for Christmas,,,much slower than me,
I jump on the moz to see what could be key.
One clients a lawyer, another sells skis,
I just gotta wonder what words will be keys?

To find one a case or the other a sale,
Then my clients smile brighter, and don't send me hate mail.
My PPC group has it easy you see,
Just send them some money as leads they aren't free!

I tell clients slow down, analyze and take heed,
If you slow down a bit - less money you'll need.
I understand well, you just want it now,
but you gave me a field, and it has to get plowed.
It's a field full of holes and rocks, and nothing that matches.
but we'll find a way when an idea catches.

Then you'll call me brilliant, "those records he smashes!!"
But it just took some digging so your money's not ashes.
Then back to the moz, to Shah, to Ryan, to EGOL, and associate's one through thirty three,
Gianluca, Rand, Keri, Alan, Cyrus, don't forget Dr. Pete,

Some I didn't name cause my wife's coming down the stairs,
When she sees me at 'work', it will be stares!
But thanks SEOmozzers for the help small and in batches,
More questions tomorrow about words and matches!!

It so easy for the others, NUMBER ONES GUARANTEED!!
But with me and you Mozzers
Next year's guaranteers, damn well better take HEED!
**Wishing each of you a wonderful, prosperous, New Year. **

I realize this is not a highly technical question, but I just read over the post by Trevor Klein on the new Beginners Guide to Link Building by Paddy Moogan at Distilled. I cracked up when I saw the post had 31 Thumbs Up and 1 Thumb down. I see this regularly on very good posts where someone just had to thumb it down. I wish there was a way that person could anonymously post why they did so just so we could discover their wisdom that we are obviously missing.

It kills me that I cannot find the time to produce such quality work and post it to Moz. I start a ton of posts, but am just too busy with client work to finish them. I finally finished one around ugly directory sites blocking link tracking tools and patted myself on the back for days (Thank you Keri Morgret for your editorial assistance). But, really, is it just that there is someone who woke up from a really rough night and thought, "Why the ___ are all you people so ____ happy?! Arrrrrgggghhhh!!!"

Obviously, there is no correct answer and you are more than welcome to thumb this into hell if things are that bad. Peace.

I am going to start putting the wrong keywords in. So on a physician site for lipo, my keywords will be: Saw 2, barbequed ribs, Halloween 3, Dexter, cannibals, etc.

Can't wait to see that competitor rank now!

Thanks EGOL!

Nico,

The short answer is you do not unless, you want to create a massive problem for yourself. In Local - and most attorney sites are Local - you want to take care of the NAP. Name, Address, Phone. If you have the same address and phone number but different business names, you create the possibility of merge listings, etc. which cost massive time and money to fix.

I understand how it would at first seem logical: If "x" strategy worked for us in employment law, let's use it for these other areas. But, the other problem I think you can create is brand confusion. (We work with large and small law firms in the US and groups of law firms though we are a full service agency.) I think, there are two methods you could follow:

- If the firm is situated where they can have an address that is Ste. 101, 103, 105 and have 3 distinct phone numbers (I caution against even close to the same), you could possibly do what you are talking about without a problem arising around duplication and merging.

- If not, your options are a bit more diminished given how specific ... employment lawyers is. This becomes a bit of a branding issue. If over three years, in Sydney people assume anything with Anton Forrester is employment law you will have a hill to climb without some rebranding work. (Trust me, this is a better choice than tearing down all you have done with citations, etc.) You could use another Masthead attorney in the firm with Property Law and a third with Conveyance. (Knowing attorneys, I leave it to you to handle the ego issues. Typically that is something handled by written agreements.)

As to the site, you could do it with three sites and no matter what you choose, you still have to have different enough address and phone number with each entity. Typically, I would say you could use the employment law site and build out pages for the other areas; I am not as sure in this case based solely on the branding component tied to the local merging issues.

Please understand, we have dealt with many merged local listings for a long time and are very, very, strong in Local. You really are risking a lot with trying to use the same name (Anton Forrester), Address, and Phone.

I hope this helps,

Robert

Will,

I appreciate your dilemma, but will start with a why are things as they are: I had a few quotes from firms who used this and they basically tried to sell me the world for £500 a month.

So I have done my own SEO over the past 5 months and I think the figures are slowly going up, as are visits and sales (albeit slower than the visits).

There is a reason that there are fees associated with SEO. There is a lot of work involved and there is a lot of learning involved. A corollary to this is medicine. As an RN I would often hear someone saying: They charged me $1,000 and all they did was look in my throat and and write me a prescription. No, the hospital bought land and built a facility, the nurses, doctors and techs all went to school for many years at a high cost and the hospital has to pay them based on that and their value in the marketplace. So, you paid $1,000 for the convenience of coming into a trauma center for a quick diagnosis of a flu or strep throat and for the ability to be given a prescription as opposed to having one of us kill a chicken, smear you with blood, and shout oba doba do while another one throws rocks at the moon. (Not really sure that would cure the flu, but I sure as hell wouldn't complain about it anymore).

So, there is a reason for the costs of SEO. I am going to give you a quick glance audit that will hopefully provide insight and assistance though. Secondarily, your second sentence re I think the figures is a bit troubling as they either are or they are not. You need to know that and how much precisely given that you are in eCommerce.

So, first and foremost, we speak often here of the www vs non www issue. You have a big issue in that when you enter your url without the www you get either web5 or a 404. This is costing you $$. I am not sure what you are built on, and the web5 reminds me of a server or platform some time back, but there are a lot of great coders who may see this and help. Minimally, you should go into GWMT and select www as your preferred domain. When there is no preferred domain and (for your situation) the non is not 301 redirected to the www, you are seen as two sites as opposed to one. Now, that said, you may have done this in some way server side or with a plug in that i am not seeing, but you have blocked visitors who do not use www when typing in a domain. (probably most mozzers and maybe 40% of population).

Next, here on SEOmoz, there are several guides you should read. Beginner's guide to SEO being the starter for you. Also this from Danny Dover on Small Business SEO.

You have overlong title tags (you are attempting to tell all in the wrong place. No more than 70 characters).

Your meta descriptions should be different for every page and should be designed to make me want to click on your site in a search. It is a sales tool for click through. So, instead of telling what you have, think of what are they searching for: men's designer shirts at great prices, easy to fit, fast and free delivery, guaranteed return for no fit, etc.

Your H-1 is the same on all pages (win a pair of creative trainers...) The H1 should apply to the page and the free offer should be side bar content.

You need to do some key word research to insure you know what people are searching on. (You can start with your Google analytics to see where traffic is coming from - what search terms.)

You have an ad for Like to Fight in the bottom left of page. When I click on it I leave your site but not for another window or tab. When I close like to fight, you are gone. This is a personal issue to me with eCommerce in that if they were searching for Armani burlap mens underwear, found you ranked, liked your meta description, clicked on it, then clicked on the ad and, not liking what they saw, closed it...well you may lose a potential customer. What if they search on same again, but see a different company they go after as opposed to browsing your store? I hope you own like to fight and it makes you more money or that they pay you a ton per visitor.

Lastly, you could use some good quality links. As near as I can decipher, your main traffic keyword is around designer menswear. I don't see you in the first 3 to 4 pages of Google.ie.... so, that isn't good.

You will need to learn a lot or pay someone to assist you. Now, I am not sure that pounds 500 per month is the best you can do there, so shop around. I would think that in pounds you could find someone to do an initial site evaluation for around 500 to 1000 pounds. Then likely about 200 to 300 pounds per month. (If they like clothes and are men, well make a trade). But, understand this, you will pay no matter what: If you do it you will pay in time to learn what needs to be done and how to do it and in sales lost during that time. Or, you can find someone and pay them.

Here is the good news, For what I gave you I ask only one thing: If you see someone who needs a hand, a cup of coffee, or pound or two to get a meal, help them out.

Good luck,

The Yahoo directory is still a good link. The question of value can only be answered by you. Do you have a site with a lot of links to it that are strong? Did your PA/DA improve with that and did you measure other links that were added over time? (This in my estimation would be the only way to determine even a quality guess).

For me, some sites - clients who are new with reasonable spend available, clients who really need all they can get, etc. it is a good spend. For smaller local without highly competitive areas, those with history (2 plus years), strong locally, i do not see the point in it as there are good ways to optimize them without the spend.

Best

I have read the comments and the frustrations associated with the recent issues and would like to suggest that with any software such as this there will be glitches from time to time. We currently use roughly 30 to 40 SaaS providers of many different types and I cannot think of one that hasn't had an issue at one time or another. Having been with Moz for over 5 years I will say that the issues are few and the response is always transparent with frequent updates. (I cannot say that for most other providers).

I would suggest to anyone who is doing client work that as soon as you can afford to have more than one service provider you do so. There are two basic reasons: if there is an issue you always have back up and second, you get the benefit of being able to compare data. Personally, I find this invaluable for client work. I do not feel disloyal to Moz, I just know that every piece of software has its own limitations.

Good luck to all with the current travails.

Well,

Sorry, your understanding is incorrect. Domain authority is just that, an overall value for the domain. So, if you go to a site where the links all come to a home page or the vast majority do, you are going to see a high PA for the home page PA. If that same site has 50 pages with few links you are going to see a lot of PA=1.

So, while the home page is important it does not outweigh the fact that overall the site is not that highly trafficked. This is a reason sites have trouble with conversions of inner pages sometimes.  All the value is placed on the home page and someone then has 500 internal links from that page so it does not even help the inner pages.

Remember this in the search engine world pages are ranked and not sites. So, PA is more important from that point of view.

Hope this clarifies,

Best

Christy,

This is a very good discussion question. I think we have to look at the test Tom Coad did and ask is it more about Brand Awareness or more about a longer-term test of "pogo-sticking?" Tom is careful to explain the limits on any test like this and his data is certainly quite interesting. The fact Tom is looking in this direction says a lot about his thinking and I like it. For me, I just don't see it as a branding awareness experiment.

I would see that type of experiment as more where we take a branded product and see how their click through rate is for non-branded searches around their products. Once you had a baseline, you would do television and radio or print, etc. over a week in a given market. Then measure two or three weeks later to see if there is an increase in searches on the branded product or an increase in click through choices of the branded product (assuming the SERPs were the same as pre test). So, having been exposed to the brand over a limited amount of time, were people more likely to now choose that brand when it appeared in non-branded searches? Note: we are not even asking did they purchase it; simply, did they choose it in search more frequently than it was being chosen prior to the brand awareness campaign?

I think Google does take into account click-throughs to sites and if being a known brand on some level is possible, one should certainly work to that. I don’t want to get into an argument on CTR and ranking here as it is not the point, but if suddenly thousands of people are searching on a given subject and going to a specific site in that search, that site page does increase in the rankings for that search query. The ranking changes even if the increase happens in a day or period of hours in the case of news events, etc. IMO.

Working in a marketing firm that does branding work, etc. along with SEO and other digital marketing I am still amazed at how few companies understand or care about branding. For me this says a lot about how aware and forward-thinking Tom Coad's research is. It would be great if more SEO firms pushed companies beyond SEO or SEO and PPC. Many companies, if not most, would rather throw large sums at PPC, etc. and mechanisms that provide an immediately measurable return than to worry about tomorrow and what having a strong brand can provide. Coming from an area years ago that was all direct marketing, I fully understand why it is difficult to want to focus on branding. I have come full circle and we constantly push more and more of our clients to consider their brand and what it means in the marketplace.

For those who might be less about general marketing, when I say the client’s brand I mean more than name, tagline, and logo. What does Nike mean? What does Jaguar mean? What does Chase mean? What emotional connection does it create when people here it? Frankly, even if I am not a fan of Chase, (assuming I have no past experience with them) if I am in a new town and looking for a bank and the only familiar name I see is Chase, I have to believe I would be inclined to at least check them out (click on their result in the SERP).

To me, building brand awareness is not unlike SEO; it is longer term, but the dividends pay off over time and can be considerable. They are both a hedge against less active advertising times, etc.

This is certainly a great question and I look forward to other discussion on it.

Best

Jonathan,

I am not sure about "the drill" but I do know how to rank a given service for two or five or ten cities. The way we approach it is simple: First and foremost, you need to rank in the Local (how many Pack) for those areas where you have locations to the best of your ability. When trying to rank for a city plus a keyword, IMO it starts with Local. Given that, to rank organically as well, here is what we do: The site is built around the major city (that can be the largest or the one that is most important to the client, etc.). Then for every other city we use subdirectories. Assuming one service in general, we will have two pages for each "subdirectory city": typically one that explains the business with content containing info re that city. By content I mean not only text, but images, videos, etc. Then we have a contact page with same and with Google maps API. 
Now, originally, we would say (rather hubristically) that this will be for local and that for organic. We soon learned that we could not accurately predict which would be organic versus which would be Local. Yes, there are some ways to try and influence it, but don't worry over it.

I can tell you that we have no problem gaining ranking for clients following this methodology.

I hope it helps you,

Robert

MGordon,

This is patently untrue. We have clients who change locations and we do not change the website/content/etc. Yes, you need to make sure the NAP is clean for the new location, and make sure the website has the new info and not the old, but there is no other website change needed.

Best

None whatsoever. 
I am assuming you are buying a domain name XYZ.com and not an active ongoing site with pages that would be 301'd to your urls. A 301 says content that was originally here has moved to there...permanently. So, if there was no content and no links, there would be no benefit.

Donna,

My guess would be the reasoning behind this is that by virtue of having GA or GWMT, you are one step closer to Google by virtue of the data there. As I think through it, I see a plausibility, but still don't think it is true. If by aggressive you are in the grey to black area, I don't believe having or not having GA will matter. If you go over the top while utilizing Piwik, I don't see how it would be better hidden from Google.
Just IMO,

Best,

Jesse,

This is not a bad question at all. Please note that this is not my first rodeo and that I have a few opinions around this. First, realize that even with its non profit status, the BBB is a business and the directors are typically well paid. So, where is the value for a small business?

If you are in the trades: plumbing, roofing, auto repair, auto body repair, HVAC, etc. I think it is a good bet that someone will look you up. Know that anyone who is worth their salt can become accredited even if they are not the "best" business. I do not know what the current fees are, but let's assume you can get your trial attys in at the $500 per year level. Will it hurt them? Nope? Will it help them? Probably not. (I have large trial firm accounts). The link will be on a page with a bunch of others, but you will have the seal for what it is worth. With an HVAC firm, I think it is more personal to people and they look at it like I may get cheated...

So for that type client it may be helpful. From an overall, I do not see value beyond that. Yes, its a good directory for local, but you said "accredited." Beyond being in the directory, unless you are a local trade, I don't really see value.

Best

Excellent question Rand, and ...

... I was going to keep this hidden away, but love the moz.

For me the most underutilized and proven technique in our shop (not sure for every industry, but certainly for B2C) is having a phone number in the meta description for important pages. We usually have 5 to 10 per client that are distinct and trackable. We use an outside service (IfByPhone) to purchase numbers and their platform.

Each important page for ranking and where we are at least in the top 20 of SERP's, has its own distinct number and we are able to generate calls from there. (Remember don't put them on the site other than in the meta description).

The belief is that some people want the convenience of being able to get the answer now. By having a number where others do not, you can be ranked 6th and "steal" clicks from those higher.

So, if the meta answers the query and there is a number, we see people call without ever clicking through. If they do click through, that's good too.

Thanks,

Robert

Michelle

Yes, as a general rule you can say that a given position has a relative CTR, but in my opinion you are not served to go to things like this with any but the most sophisticated client. The reason being that one vertical versus another will be different. The level of competitiveness will be critical in determining CTR. If you are stating a given CTR or traffic estimate, I would assume you are also stating that there will be a given position for a given term/page? What if three new competitors pop us tomorrow (yes, it does happen).

I approach marketing differently with clients. First, what do they wish to accomplish? Are they accomplishing that now? What have they tried? What has/has not worked? etc. Then, I speak to the level of competition for a given set of terms in a given arena: Attorney: Business Bankruptcy for example. Do they want national or local clients? What changes are they prepared to make? New site? New content? etc.

Then, I want them to understand that what we are going to do is start at a point X. We will make changes, keep them appraised of each change (not micro though), keep them appraised of ranking, etc. Our approach will be "Holistic" in that we are going to take care of local, directories, citation sites, etc. We are going to insure on page SEO and quality content. We are going to know what key words will be more important, and we are not going to guarantee anything. We believe if they are willing to do X + Y + Z and if they understand it is not a static (one time) process over time we will change their outcomes. 
We show them where they are and then we track where they are going. So, if it is selling jars of Peanut butter online. How many did they sell without us for each of the last 52 weeks and we will measure going forward.

I know I can find people to buy PB, I am not positive I can get them ranked third in google for crunchy peanut butter and have 1000 visitors a day with a 1.5% CTR. To try and shave it that thin is just not wise in my estimation.
Hope this helps you.

If you want to do this, for a purpose other than getting links from the sites you are linking to (reciprocal links), and you want them to have some measure of SEO relevance, you would put them from a portion of the content where you can link to a really relevant authority. For you, under services you have air conditioner repair/recharge. In that you mention Freon. You could link Freon to the Wikipedia article on same or to DuPont. You could also link to other refrigerants that have replaced Freon. In this way, your content is more scholarly or deep which helps in some peoples opinions. (I like to do this with content). Make sure it is a good source and make sure it has readability factored in.

Best

AWCthreads

I hate these kinds of discussions ... because I just have to respond. Its as if I have the angel on one side and the devil on the other - move on dude, no, no, say something (you know you have a perfect opinion)... etc.

But, what I find interesting about the post of VC is that it is only meant for one thing: to sell him and his stuff. The "I only did this because my 0 page rank two page sites were outranking my ..." etc.

When he talks about the 6 clients he has with 50 websites, and he says to people like me:  "I’m a huge fan, but what Rand recently advocated on his blog is just…totally misguided the total opposite to what is really working right now." and

"While I can understand that preaching “build good content, focus on growing your brand’ sounds great and it’s what people want to hear, for a HUGE percentage of search phrases, this is just no longer relevant. I just can’t take anyone seriously who mentions these things anymore in 2013"

Really? You can't? What do you take seriously? I have copywriters on staff so you can guess where I fall in the content debate (I did not realize there was one). At the end of the day, any site, any page is subject to one thing that rules the day no matter how super clever you are with SEO: If you answer a query in the meta description and then you give the person who clicked on it exactly what they wanted, you are going to do just fine with ranking at some point and probably some point soon. 
People make statements like this guy does to drive traffic. That is what he is doing. He mentions not using Rand's surname as if he is a stand up guy, but do a non personalized search on Rand and tell me what you come up with. Then do Rand, SEO and tell me. There are so many Rand's in the world...not.

So, let the guy have his few seconds to sell him and his knowledge. The easiest way to sell knowledge is to tear down others. Someone will always listen. So, quit listening to the dummies who say things from the Franklin mint will not appreciate, go by that coin set they just made - you are gonna be rich!!!!

Best

Fred,

I enjoyed your query here because it is something we have all faced either ourselves or when doing client work. NOTE: That your query is about Local but you immediately go to a State + KW which is not a Local issue. What you are doing in this respect is very good and keep it up. I will tell you a couple of things that we don't talk about as much that I think are very helpful as well: A quality meta description (please no one tell me about it not being part of the algorithm) helps you in that it brings traffic to the site. I stress with our team that you must always "answer the searcher's query" in the meta desc. Another key item is the URL structure in my opinion. If Solar Installation is important for ranking for you, I am going to do my best to have a URL with that early in the structure. But...

I think you answered yourself a bit when you said, "Based on data I don't actually think keywords like "solar + state name" are actually that powerfully but frankly it is bit embarrassing to get crushed by 1-2 person companies when you have a 150+ company with a three-person in-house digital marketing team." I would say a search for Texas Solar Installation would be worthless in Houston, TX. People don't search that way on the whole.

But the bigger thing is worrying about what the other guy is doing / where they are ranking and how many resources she or he has. I have had clients drive me up the wall because, "XYZ company is ranking above them for these 10 terms... " What is hilarious is the one that stands out the most was a large regional firm that we helped increase traffic, recover from huge Penguin issues, and increase revenues by double digits year over year and they could only focus on rankings for KW's.

I urge you to focus more on what you are doing and what business results you are achieving than worrying over where Bobs Solar truck ranks against you for Michigan Solar Guru.

Best

A while back when things had really gotten over slow, I asked the opposite. Today I go on Q&A and the feel is quite a bit different. I also notice other cool little changes.

I am wondering if moz did it just for me or is everyone seeing it???

As usual, steady improvement from the folks at SEOmoz. You guys are on.

Thanks

PS (For any who require uber speed, yes it takes about a second and a half for the response to load... I can live with that).

My personal opinion is that you can do either, but I would go with the hyphen.com. The reason for me is simple it is easier to read. That said, you will shortly have other opinions and they will revolve around being spammy. There is no increase or decrease in SEO value and I have yet to see any quantification of the spammy factor and any effect on CTR or conversions. But, I don't think the hyphen will out perform the non hyphen.net. I think all things being equal, they will be equal.

Best

Chammy,

The KDS as with PA and DA are "relative" and are arbitrary to those creating the metric. PA and DA were created by Moz and not by Google. A pure example of this (and I swear I am not lying) is we have a client we have worked with that sells... hoes as one of their products. When you search on "hoes" and are not restricted by any geolocator, they rank well for the term against the same types (and many of the same) large big box retailers you see for hose. So, yes you can rank, but you have to be clever: Are you using structured mark-up (Schema) for your product, do you have aggregate review schema or an accepted review site streaming reviews to your site/page? Do you produce unique hose content? Do you have a hose video? Are your pictures ones you created and do you have correct alt text, etc.?
Never believe that DA alone means you cannot beat them; there are tons of Moz members who beat the big boys daily!

I hope this helps.

Robert

Hello Marie,

I don't think it is a bad idea and I have no opinion as to how well it might work. I had to smile when I read the first sentence to the webmaster. Knowing a few, I would have to say you might want to slightly reword it. It could be perceived as a bit of: "Noticed your ugly FB page and thought you might want to learn something; I will teach you for a link!" So, soften it a bit and try being a bit self effacing in the beginning. 
Hello webmaster, I am just learning the value of web masters and of linking and am trying to offer something in return for a little help. (Think of me as the internet version of the person on the street with the sign: Will work for food.) I have been told I am good at developing FB pages for business and if you had an interest, I would be more than willing to assist you with one for a simple link to my site. My FB page is here and my site is here........

So, that's my two cents worth. Let me know how it goes.

Best.

It is really quite a simple answer. In WMT, Google gives you the answers for targeting a specific country. Frankly, Google did not require your server to be in the country you were targeting in 2012... Remember, Google is not saying any of these is the end all or be all of geo targeting. They state clearly each is a signal and each signal has a given weight.

The first indicator if you base it off of what Google says (and your question seems to be anchored by the search behemoth)... ccTLD is the first indicator they mention. Google further states it is a STRONG signal. Next is geo targeting. The fact that there is an option to tell them where you want to target and that it is second would seem to indicate that server location was less relevant than you waving a flag and screaming: Hey Google! Hook me up in Russia please! 
The third (But not last) signal is... server location, but they are very clear about this being not as strong a signal when they state, "Some websites use distributed content delivery networks (CDNs) or are hosted in a country with better webserver infrastructure, so it is not a definitive signal."

And, finally, there are other on page signals that Google can use to determine where you are targeting like phone and addresses on the pages, language, etc. (If your server is in the US, your site is a generic TLD, you have not geo targeted in WMT, and the entire site is written in Urdu, it is likely not going to rank well in Lithuania, but would have the ability to rank in Pakistan or Bangladesh).

Now the winner is ... sorry, YOUR PARTNER. Please by him a nice 5 button, 2000 vintage, Tokaji as a compliment to his SEO prowess...this time.

Best,

Robert

Good discussion Felicia.

As an agency we tell all of our clients that SEO is a tool within a larger toolbox. With a question like this there are myriad approaches based on what the business type is. For example with Service Area Businesses (SAB's) everyone realized with the recent changes at Google and with Amazon Services, that the world is much more dynamic than they wanted to believe it is. 
If you were in the 7 pack for plumbers at number 5 today you may not be in it at all and need someone to look at "More Places" in order to see you Locally.  With changes to GMB Local listings, changes to Adwords, the advent of Google Services, Amazon Services, etc. you have to start to ask: "What are you willing to pay to be found?" 
For any client we are optimizing for Google, pay some attention to Bing and, well, don't worry much about the others. We are suggesting things like Yelp with caveats where in the past we would not. Today one also has to consider app advertising, etc.

IMO as Google moves to monetize more and more of their property, they edge toward being the YP of this era. I mean this in the sense of 20 years ago many businesses felt they were forced to advertise with YP.  With that growth for Google and people potentially feeling marginalized by it, many more advertising mechanisms will open up and we need to be open to what those will be and to being willing to test them.

Thanks for good discussion question.

Gregory,

I will tell you that your dumb questions have been asked by others, me for one. So, where to get the answers: You are here and there are answers here. If we cannot give you what you need, you will find that Moz has a help hub. I tried how to set up branded keywords and it does provide some answers. Short of that, you simply ask the team. Now, you may end up on the Seattle VS. Portland SEO cage match page where you just have to decide which is the one that will offer hope. Well, having  been to both cities, I would suggest you choose based on the pics. With Seattle you have a whole crew coming from a fish market (if you like fish, well never mind re the smell), or with Portland, you have the answer to the question "touch or tackle?" ... figure it out, these cats can tackle some SEO.

But, I digress. You are in the Moz analytics section and under keyword rankings you need to click on add and manage keywords. Then manage brand rules. For your brand, I would suggest this: click include each that you have above. (one at a time). For my company, drumBEAT Marketing, I have it as drum beat marketing, drumbeat, drumbeat marketing, drumbeat marketing houston, drumbeat houston, etc. The reason is I know that if they are searching for anything related to drumBEAT, they already know we exist in some way and by virtue of that, it is a branded term. So, drumBEAT SEO, drumBEAT Copywriting, etc. are all branded terms.

I do it the same way for clients. I include their brand name, geo locator + KW + brand name, etc. If it is a domain, I include that so drumBEATMarketing.net, www.drumBEATMarketing.net, etc.

Last, you state: "I find these sort of unanswered questions almost every time I try something new."

Fantastic, now you can learn because you have questions. So, each time come to Q&A and ask the question. I promise you will learn more this way than by having example after example. You will be forced to think about what is the question and how do you communicate it. You will be nervous about asking the wrong question and you will force yourself to stretch a bit - before you ask the question - just to be sure you tried everything. (In doing that you may actually find answers we do not know of and we will learn from you.) You will see that SEO and using the myriad tools available for it means you are going to be asking questions for the next....few years at least. (I am still asking questions.)

I will also tell you that I in no way work for Moz, am not compensated by Moz (ok, thanks for the Tshirts Megan), and I do disagree with Moz and its team occasionally. Really. But, I can tell you I learn more here than anywhere so you are in the right place. Ask another dumb question, I dee double dog dare ya!

Best,
Robert

Yes you have. First, your content is the same on every page except for adding the city info. That is duplicate content and not good. You would be better served to use your home page as you are and mention the other three cities there. You can even use a link to a page telling how you have a truck in San Luis Obispo on every Tues,/Thurs. etc. 
Also, you need to go into Google and set up a Google Places account How to for Google Places. Go into Bing and set up a Bing Business Portal Account,  and then set up with Angies list, BBB, merchant circle, etc. These are going to help you a thousand times more. You can only set up an account for a business where you are located in that city. You can't do Atascadero and then set up accounts in other three cities. But it will help a lot in Atascadero.

Hope this is helpful.

edit added links

Craig,

Your issue is not uncommon but I would first suggest you reconsider your Title Tag structure and go with either product | location | brand (best IMO) or location | product | brand (OK IMO). Typically the keyword closest to the front of the Title Tag is attributed as receiving the most weight. If you want to optimize for searches on the company name, I would put it first. The cautionary here is that you really need to have a lot of searches on your company name if that is what you are doing. (In other words, companies like Nike, etc. should have brand first.)

The URL structure you have using sub folders is how I would go, but if you can take /product/ out as a sub directory that would be even better. This will typically depend on items such as your menu structure, CMS, etc. and is not hyper-critical.

Your concern re duplicate content is astute and there is a fix that is easy to implement. What you want to do is use a rel=canonical for the actual product you want to display. Google provides easy to do instructions in WMT/Canonicalization. You already have the url structure correct and for each you will choose which is the canonical for that product so you end up actually having the urls as you have here, and they all point to the canonical. With rel=canonical you are telling google, no matter what is here in the url, this is the page.

You stated that your problem as in some areas you can rank well for a given product/service and in another not rank as well. You also state you implemented Schema markup for each location that carries the item on product page. So what markup Type are you using: Place, Event, Product, Review...? If you are using product markup where you are having trouble ranking locally, and you are not using Place markup for a local business, you are missing an opportunity to help yourself.

If you have a B&M location you can obviously utilize that markup. You stated you have claimed the listings in Google Places for each location, is each location showing in maps? is each location showing in a seven pack (or whatever # pack is showing)? Make sure that you have correctly optimized each locally. Make sure you have not thrown in superfluous categories or geotarget KW's. You can make mistakes here that will work against your product pages showing. 
The moral of the story is the SEO moral: It is not playing a flute well, it is making sure all in the orchestra are playing well and at the same time and to the same tune. (OK, I just made that one up, gotta go copyright it!)

Hope that helps you out. This is a good question and I hope to see others respond as well.

Best

Jesse, I think Ray-pp does you a great service in pointing you to Moz recommended companies because obviously there are a lot of people who will immediately reach out to you as the result of this question. I am going to go an entirely different track for you and I will point to a firm that is not mine and explain why they would be a good choice. I also want to ask that you quit looking for a recommendation and start looking at what companies do.

Everyday, we talk with clients and potential clients about web development. Almost all have a story about the website that took a year or more to build or was never really completed. You have to quit looking at the companies that fail and ask yourself, "Why are they failing?" Those companies that fail will tell you it is because YOU did not get them the content. (Just think about that, "If it weren't for client's, they could be great at business!!")

You not getting them content is so much BS. It would have to be an extremely rare occurrence for content purely to halt the completion of a web dev project. The reason a project (for you, building a new or replacement site) does not go on schedule is because the company doing the project does not have a process for their dev team. Or, if they do have a process, they do not follow it. Understand if you call or walk in and ask, "Do you guys have a process?" they will all say yes. Ask simply, how do you go about building the site for me? How long will it take? Then wait for them to show you a process. Failure to show a process means: They do not have one.

When I started in SEO I never intended to go into web development or integrated marketing. Our company got into web dev out of self defense: I got tired of fighting "webmasters" or overlords over territory when trying to take care of someone's SEO. So, before I started hiring web developers I went to Distilled's website because I respected them, I respected things Will Critchlow had written - because they made sense, etc. I wanted to see what they did given they had to have experienced the same issues I was about to face. As a former critical care RN, I was sold on them. Because they had PROCESS. PROCESS. PROCESS. If a firm has a solid process, they will get the job completed on time. BUT - and this is a big BUT: They will be on you to produce as much as they are on one another. I got it from them, I have used it, and what Distilled does works.

I would ask anyone I was considering engaging a few questions: (First, call the company do not email. Call during business hours. Does a human being get to the phone to talk with you? If so you may ask these questions of them. If no human speaks to you during business hours, IMO they are not interested in your business right now. Sorry if that offends someone.)

1. Is your development team in-house or do you outsource? IMO - you cannot have the quality control with outside developers that you can when they are integral to the team that includes SEO's, PPC pros, copywriters, other marketing pros, Local experts, etc. That is a strong IMO. You must have an in house dev or dev team.
2. Do you have clocks? Yes, I am serious. A firm that is not tracking where every project is (projects on the clock) doesn't know when there is a failure. We are all going to have failures (including Distilled), the great company is going to know of it before the client does and they are going to practice something else I learned here from the Moz team - TAGFEE. In other words if they have a failure, they will report it to you before you discover it and they will have a plan of action to correct it and keep it from happening again in the future.
3. Are you active on any forums and if so, which? How active is active? - In other words are they learning every single day? EVERY DAY? If their team members are not on Webmaster World, Moz, SearchEngineLand, Linda Buquet's Local forum, etc. and ad infinitum, then they are not going to be up to date. That will cause failures and my guess is... they will not know it.
4. Who will run the project? (This is a trick question; do not tell others about it please!) - if they say you, I would take a pass. You are not a web development expert; why in the hell would they want you to run the project? why would you want to? You want input at every step (Distilled can show you a great input process at every step); they should want your approval at every step (I guarantee you Distilled will want your approval or they are going to let you know that your project is in some way sidelined). And that wanting your input and that wanting your approval will be the reason the project is done on time. Trust me please on this. When you get a sitemap or wire frame and you do not give approval, you are going to get an email that says, essentially, that your project is not moving forward until you either give approval or submit changes. If you submit changes, they will then ask again for approvals of their new sitemap, wireframe, comp, copy, etc.

So, that is what it should look like and that is a better answer for you than anyone telling you who can. Yes, I still believe that Distilled is a great choice, but now you can go out wherever and ask the questions that will allow you to choose even with no recommendation. Make sure you are all over them about process. Make sure there will be someone who you are going to be talking with all the time who is managing your project - ten people cannot manage a project.

I have to add this last part. IMO if you are wanting someone to beat a price or give you a lowball estimate, etc. that company that wins won't get it done for you. A good developer(s) costs money. You cannot build cheap great websites.

I hope this helps you out,

Robert

James, 
I noticed no one had even attempted to answer you and it has been 7 hours. I think there are a couple of reasons for this: the technical level required for url rewriting, the vietnamese language makes understanding a little more difficult (and good move on the url format in english), and there is no reason given as to "why" for the rewrite. So, what do you want to accomplish in making this change?

No one wants to give direction that could potentially lead a site like this down the wrong road. From looking at it, you are getting traffic to it and it seems to do well for you. One note, you might want to get some of your bilingual members to assist google in translating vietnamese as I am sure from using Google Translator, they need the help;)

Here is a link to a post in youMoz that appears to have some excellent info on rewrites. Note that you should also read the comments below as they seem to add a lot to what was posted.

I am fully open to any of the more technically skilled to smack this down, but I wanted you to at least have some direction. Note: If this is your first time at this level of technical change, you might want to consider at least hiring someone to assist you who has been down the road before.

All the best, I hope this provides you with at least a bit of assistance,

Robert

PS - If you do not get what you need here, as a pro member you can use a private question straight to moz. As you will notice from many of the associates to moz that answer here, their level of expertise is very good and they have assisted me on several occasions with good direction to a source or other info.

Lesley,

I know you and like you but this is TERRIBLE advice.

Google is fully aware of Regis and most larger virtual office suppliers. They are also aware of the street address look of UPS stores. I understand that people are doing it; I can show you a client who is large who cannot get his main office into the Local Pack in a major city due to trying to play games with this. He is a service area business in a major US city and he is the largest by double the next two competitors. This is a very competitive vertical. (Like wedding chapel Las Vegas.)

Because we are friends I know your business and I know that you are likely talking about an ecommerce company and that is a totally different issue from a wedding chapel. That wedding chapel will live and die with Local. An ecommerce site by its very nature does not; yes, local may help it and you may be able to game the system for a while, but that does not mean you should do it if you have a true bricks and mortar business.

Trust me this advice you are giving is the most dangerous kind there is with Local. I urge anyone who is considering this to stay far away from it. Do not believe because a few have gotten away with it that you will. If you are a service business and being in a Pack is important, you must consider with the recent update/change/Pigeon poop from Google that some industries in some cities have critical KW terms that now show a one pack. What if that business must be in the one pack to be successful and Google discovers the office is not real? It can affect everything Local.

Please do not give advice like this. Local is a true sub specialty of SEO and if you are not living it daily you should pass your clients to some firm that has a pro.

That is just pure experience talking,

Robert

I found it! I know how they did it. Look at his desk!!!!!

There he is for the world to see! RogerBot !!!!! He's trying to hide behind the blue phone and the perfectly placed valentine shaped picture frame.

Roger Did It!

Ahhh, Juice vs. Rank....

Imagine Page Rank as the orange of the Internet. (The fruit;not the color

So, a given orange (page) only holds so much juice. A page may have as many straws as is possible so long as you understand that the more straws there are the less juice to go through each straw. Soooo, if an orange holds 10 ounces of juice (roughly 300 ml. for my more metrically inclined friends) and, if there is only one person with a straw.... lucky lady gets the whole orange worth minus just a tad that sticks in the straw.

But, imagine a lot of people are needed to make the orange grow and develop juice and they all get a straw. So, now there are ten people with straws. They each get a bit less than one ounce (again, some sticks to the straw).

But wait, there is more to this breakfast time analogy..... Imagine there is one person who is really loved by the oranges! And the oranges each give that person a straw! Well, that person becomes Minute Maid (Big orange juice company) as it has a thousand straws from oranges that hold an ounce of juice to ten ounces. As the result they have the most orange juice in the world. Notice Chris' picture....that is orange juice! Really!!!

Thanks Andy,

That is a reasonable consideration, but you have to ask the question: "Whose CTR are you affecting, your own, or the ones on the page without a number?" Yes, I think its both. But if you are lower (6 to 10) I think you take the higher traffic somewhat.

Then, say 10% of those who would have clicked through, called instead and you lost 10% of that traffic. Would you rather have ten click throughs or ten calls where you talk with a potential customer? For my money, I want to talk with the potential buyer.

Best,

Gareth,

This seems to be the question of the day. How to link, etc. By asking about link building companies, usually, people are looking for easy as opposed to quality. (I am not saying this about you, but drawing a distinction).

The main reason is that most people do not want to take the time or expend the effort required in good link building. The only other option beyond time and effort is $$$. For anyone to do a quality link building program it will cost you. So, if you are looking to pay some amount like US $ 500 or $1,000 and get quality link building, I am not aware of any who do it. I am open to seeing some though.

The other option is to go to a directory listing company that is trusted/somewhat trusted and have them list you with directories. (Not great option, but an option). Here is a list of directory sites: SEOmoz Pro Directory List, which was recently updated.

To assist you with linking and all that goes into it, here is a link to SEOmoz Professional Guide to Link Building. This will give you some perspective on why finding a quality link building company that provides a lower cost service is difficult.

We build links daily for our clients and there are days that I think we are still under charging (and we are not cheap). The reason is that it takes people to make all of this happen and good people cannot be had at a cheap rate. We have to pay good people well to do what is necessary to get the clients the quality links. We continually have to look at the clients and find new quality link sources based on what they do.

Good Luck, let us know how you work it out.

Sitelinks are totally at the behest of Google. So, they may or may not come to you. Typically, it takes a bit of time but not always by any means. Are you seeing them when you search on your domain: your domain is HotTamaleFactory.com. If you search on Hot Tamale Factory .com and it comes up are you seeing sitelinks?

Carrol,

Oh if it were that easy. Being at A+ for the on page is a good start as that, typically, will put you ahead of a lot of competitors. There are a lot of factors that go into who ranks where on page one for example. If after one week you are "stuck" in positions 15 to 20 you are likely on the right track.

Now, you need to look at the other factors that affect what is going on. What types of links do the sites above you have? How does the quality of your content compare to theirs? How long have their domains been established? Do they have exact match domains? Etc.

In SEO, I like to say we strive to be at 100% while understanding that is unattainable. Therefore, we are going to get as close to that as works for the client and the needs of the site. So, what you have to do is understand that there are other factors you must look at. Here is a great infographic from SearchEngineLand with a table of all the factors.

Look through these and you will find bits of knowledge that will assist you. Then, I would suggest that first you go about finding who is linking to your best competitors for the term and see how you can get some links from them. I would also track the traffic coming to the page and see if the CTR is reasonable, are people spending time on the page/site, etc. Every little bit of help will move you closer to your goals.

I hope this makes you feel a bit better about the good work you have already done.

Typically, our SEO questions are around "how to's" and etc. So, to change it up I will ask a business question: What is your biggest selling point when presenting your SEO services to a new client?

In a spirit of transparency, I will tell you mine ahead of time. With PPC, TV, Radio, and Print at some point in time that ad comes to an end. When it ends, that is it. There is no residual from that advertisement - or very minimal at best. With SEO, once you are ranked well and well optimized you continue to get clients for a much longer period of time.

With clients who TV and print, this rings especially true and is easily provable. I can't wait to hear yours.

James,

The way you do what you are asking is like this:

Create a new page: Totnes Hotels or Hotels Totnes

Your title tag convention will be like this: Totnes Hotels | Why the Sea Trout Inn Wins | The Sea Trout Inn

If you believe having a highly crafted set of kw title tags is the answer to ranking all on page one, do the same with each other term. Now, note that the current title tag you have is way over-long and the last part is essentially of no value. You are trying to use title tags as a ranking tool  when you would, IMO, be better served to think about who your customer is (hint - it's not Google/Bing/Baidu). Make it recognizable and relevant for your customer and make sure it makes sense from a UI/UX point of view.

Then worry about keywords in the Title Tag.

Hope that helps,

Robert

Edmond,

Having read your question and the response above I have one thing I would add based on years of marketing experience (not just digital): With any ppc campaign you should always be running A/B testing as a mechanism to either improve conversions or validate what you are doing. I think this is the most under utilized tool in all paid search. 
Running an agency I can tell you that we occasionally fall into the trap of not doing this regularly with clients who are being very successful. To me that means we are complacent and due to have a fall. So, I urge A/B testing.

Robert

Luis,

I am going to suggest you find other ways of getting links. Your first line is a major redflag: I am looking for a community eager to exchange links. I believe the folks at Google would see your effort as a scheme to build pagerank... 

Given that I have gone to your site and see you have some decent links and PA/DA, why risk it with taking the easy way out?

Good Luck,

Robert

Assuming it makes navigational sense, I don't think there is a problem. If you have other healthcare solutions beyond just identity, it would make sense.

Hope that helps,

Immanuel

It appears you did not 301 your urls from the old site to the new when you were in Development. Now, you literally have the same url twice. I followed the sitelink for Coffee by Segafredo and landed on Segafredo.com.au/coffee/ see screenshot with Segafredo from sitelink. Then, in a new window, I went to the domain link you provided and added /coffee/ and got the second image.

When you design a new site you need to insure you take care of the url's from the previous so as to maintain the link juice from each. I believe the one with the beans actually has a PA of 36. the new one has a PA of 1. You need this link juice or you will lose all your rankings. EDIT TO ADD EMPHASIS - Do not wait, you need to act now.

You are using IIS and you need to follow the how to's for 301's on an IIS server. You can still fix this. Where is the other site hosted? Do you still have it, the FTP files, etc.?

Let me know and I will give you some direction.

Best, Robert

8cjQU6b.jpg PODu8ME.jpg

LELOnic

I want to be sure you are getting what you need from the forum; call it the caregiver in me. I understand the dilemma you face quite well and, unfortunately, there is not an easy answer here. The reason is that Google has never really supported multiple languages within G+ very well. Here is a quote from one of the smartest people on the planet re Google and Local,Places,plus, MM, etc. Mike Blumenthal: "Google has never fully supported multi-lingual listings in Places very well." This is from Nov. but those of us who have been at it a while remember when G had Local, which became Places, that begat Plus, then etc.

The reason this is difficult is that to truly answer your query it actually takes pages of writing. I am going to try to give you a synopsis that will allow you to carry out enough research to allow you to "learn" your way. When I am taking on something like multi lingual, multi country sites, I go very slowly and very methodically; I suggest you do the same here.

First go to Mike's blog and read this article on how to use MapMaker to assist your G+ with what you are trying to achieve. You will also see a download link for a PDF that was created by Dan Austin to use as a cheat sheet of sorts. I need you to read this next sentence from Mike who really knows this stuff very carefully five times: "As a side note, MapMaker is not for the faint of heart and is very quirky and often bug ridden. Caveat Emptor." Did you read it five times? If not go back as it is very important.

You need to understand that I own and manage a robust agency and I work at this daily. I have an expert on staff that I go to with my questions who lives on forums and blogs like Mike Blumenthals, Linda Buquet, and on the MOZ there is Miriam Ellis who is brilliant as well, etc. There are times we have to sit down and literally draw a picture of what will be done to be sure we get it right...and even then we can make mistakes.

You might want to go to the expense of learning Local SEO from Linda as she is a wonderful person who will also help anyone when they ask. I have paid to have our team members learn from her and my only complaint is I think she vastly undervalues herself, her knowledge, and her product that she delivers. She could probably charge 600 to $1K an hour to big companies. So. There is a ton to learn but there is also a lot of help as you go.

You can try to use the MM info by Mike that I have given you the link to and it is still fairly fresh info. Hopefully, I have provided the resources that will allow you to work things out. Then, remember, you can answer questions here as well. When you have worked through this you will have valuable knowledge. Share it.

Best

Robert

Alan,

At the beginning of each month, any response or reply gets you a point up to 20 points. Once you hit the 20 level you points only come from others giving you a thumbs up, or moz endorsement, or new question that gets good answer or three thumbs, etc.

So, hang in there and keep at it. As you give good answers you will get thumbs up. You also can have a quality question (this one has been asked a few times), say something that causes people to really think out of the box or consider a difficult white/black hat issue, etc.

Good having you answering, stay at it.

Best

Good question Nicholas,

What we have done in the past and (I believe is a best practice) is to 301 url to url wherever possible. I would not do a splash page, on your pages if you added something in the header of SuperWidgets: Welcome GreatWidgets members, two great companies have now become one greater company, etc. The 301 gets you the juice infusion, GW customers are not freaking out is great too.

On the local, it really will be around what other assets. Brick and mortar, staying open or closing, etc. You won't be able to use a 301'd url in Places, but the others will still resolve. As to unclaimed, I would claim and then use that for as long as it is good.

Best,

When you say, "this page and the pages below it in the structure now get...," did you do a redirect for each of the urls that are below this? 
If you redirected this url only and then did not do the same to the pages below it, that is likely your problem. With a 301 you need to do every url that is involved individually.

We did a site a while back and did not do this and it simply was not ranking. After changing and doing each url where applicable, we were back within about 10 days.

As to the page rank of one to the other, the original /malmo had a PA of 25 with only one linking root domain (per OSE). I would think if you could add a few links from other root domains you would assist your effort quite well. But, the url to url is most important.