Welcome to the Q&A Forum

EGOL,

I did not think of this. Most excellent. This is what I love about MOZ, helps me get smarter daily.

Thanks,

As to link building, since the Dr.s have travelled, I would explore conventions, papers, etc they have been involved in.

As to my wife, I met her in a very exotic place: Men's Suits at Sax Fifth Avenue. She was in Dubai two years ago coming back from Syria or Egypt. Said it was...hot.

My best,

James,

First, as to "... it seems many other people have faced the same." I would disagree. When you read Dr. Pete's post, few sites/pages were impacted.

Carlos makes a great point: EMD is not a penalty. In fact, it would be surprising if the EMD update would cause a site to fall say ten places (e.g. from #5 pg 1 to #15 pg 2). If it did, it would be more surprising if that fall was not for the exact match keyword. So, if I own monkeysuits.com and am ranked #2 for monkey accessories, there should be little impact from this one change on monkey accessories. But, I may feel some impact if monkey suits is a keyword that is a moneymaker for me.

If you read Dr. Pete's post : Googles EMD Algo Update - Early Data, , you will see that based on tracking EMD's over time, the change in the impact of EMD's was around 10%. From his data, out of 1,000 EMD's tracked, a net of about 3.5% of domains were impacted but :

Across our data set of 1000 SERPs, 41 EMDs fell out of the Top 10 (5 new EMDs entered, so the net change was 36 domains). Please note that we can’t prove that a domain lost ranking due to the algorithm change –

When you read further you will see additional details around the ones that lost the ranking. Many had somewhat less than optimal content. (I'm paraphrasing). When you read Matt Cutt's tweet (no opinion here on whether or not he is really Darth Vader, just reporting a tweet.): "Small upcoming Google algo change will reduce low-quality "exact-match" domains in search results."

So, if you feel you have been impacted, the way I would deal with it is to evaluate all else and make the appropriate changes. Do you have good quality content that you created? Have you over used keywords?, etc. If so, make the changes and track the rise in rankings.

Unfortunately, in the SEO world, we have no easy days with easy answers. Too much changes too fast. But, i have learned that if I latch onto the first "obvious" reason for a negative result, I waste time in finding the correct reason. No, not all the time. Sometimes it is the first. But, many times it is the third or fourth or a combination of factors that affect a site.

Hope this helps you out a bit.

Robert

That still has value. Think Wiki. I bet they have a gazillion links from sites with no DA and pages on those sites with no PA. (1 is lowest so no value theoretically). The fact people are linking says, there must be something here. 
You are confusing fighting link manipulation with what links are intended to do. When I answer a question on Moz and link to a specific piece of knowledge, there is typically a nofollow which would mean the link is less than 1 in value. But, it is not lacking value. The fact someone is citing a piece of content has intrinsic value.

Also, there is not black and white in SEO. Everything has uses and misuses.

Frankly, I do SEO and I don't wear hats.

Best

I think if the page is "slow" it will have a negative effect if for no other reason than some people will not wait for it to load. The question is, what is slow? For me, I like a page to load within two seconds or less. This is certainly not fast, but I don't think it is slow in terms of the engines.

The biggest issues we see that effect page load speed are failure to use expires headers, too many http requests, etc. We use Yslow on any site to check for things we can speed up. It will tell you where the site is slow (Cause and solution) which makes it easy for anyone. YSlow is a free download and works on Chrome and FireFox for sure.

I was doing a search today around a client and immediately saw several listings in the 7 pack that had no website but show with a G+ page. See attached screenshot.

Interestingly, it would appear Google is serving these up and I am guessing they have no Local/Places listing with a hidden address as this should get you deleted if you also have the G+. This link is from Blumenthal. I just find it funny that Google would serve up a G+ page for a Service area business given the 'rules' around same.

kg2iBgr.png

I think Harald is correct. It is already known so leave it be. Besides, you are talking about two sites and the effect they alone have on one another for linking. Why go to the expense and bother to have multiple IPs and manage them when you can focus elsewhere and keep this as it is and manage from one screen?

In the agency business we were tempted and did for a very short while go to a multiple IP approach. We even went so far as to never register as ourselves when we got the client domain names, etc. But, in the end, even with lots of sites, it is a pain in the butt and not worth the hassle. Our time is better spent in constructive pursuits.

Good question though and great answer Harald.    Edit, sorry, Harry!

ETSgroup

I would answer you first with this from GWMT regarding providers of SEO:

Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:

• Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
• Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
• Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
• What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
• What's your experience in my industry?
• What's your experience in my country/city?
• What's your experience developing international sites?
• What are your most important SEO techniques?
• How long have you been in business?
• How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?

Today, everyone does SEO and unfortunately most who say they do cannot spell it. I see new prospective clients regularly who just had their entire site optimized and all someone did was put 30 keywords (and not even the best ones) on the page or wrote a paragraph for a title tag or meta description. So, yes, I have an opinion.

If your site is fairly new and was originally set up with keyword analysis done first, good on page/ on site SEO, etc. there is less for someone to do in that vein. If they are doing an SEO audit, with no guarantee of ongoing work and are a reputable firm/pro, the cost will likely range from $500 to $2,500 or higher depending on the type, size, etc. of the site. 
Once that is done, it is on to what Andy writes about and content is first. Authorship, Rich Snippets and structured data like Schema, Links that are quality and are earned (recent WBF by Rand) are best.

An ongoing SEO program of building links, etc. is difficult and expensive in time and people. For us with a site that is trying to get a lot of good links, we can charge up to $5K per month, but this is really having someone on it about 20 hours a week doing nothing but link building, etc.

If you are blogging it will depend on whether you are doing it or having copywriters do it. A decent page can run $50 to $250. (Length and Technical level, etc.).

I would look for someone who understands that SEO is not about ranking in Google, et al. It is about getting the business clients/customers/revenue, etc. What you have to weigh is what result you want for a given spend. If the site is bringing in customers, how many more do you need to spend say $500 to $1,000 a month? If you spend that you want to cover more than just the SEO piece, you want it to give you additional funds as well. My rule would depend on margins in your vertical, but probably minimum of 2:1 and more like 3:1 in most.

I hope this helps as I understand it is a difficult line to walk. Please check out those who say they do SEO. Make sure they have happy clients that will talk with you. Not that they never made a mistake; but if they did they owned it and improved.

Lastly, what Andy says about who to steer clear of is very important. Anyone who has some "special" way of doing it with magic windows, sites they own that link to one another, etc. cannot spell SEO.

All the best,

Robert

Sam,

I saw Keri's response and said, damn she is smart. (I once patted myself on the back until I bruised because I had taken a client's site from a bounce rate of about 40% to 1 to 2% on a site we developed for them. Someone on Moz then kindly pointed out that I had the GA code in header and footer, negating my bounce rate. I had to go to client and say... sorry.

Can you assist by giving me an idea on the numbers? It is obviously more than 5 visits a day, but can you put into context a bit? In Oct. 2013 you are looking at Penguin's murderous update and you went up before and then down but right back up to a mid level. When I see a spike like late Aug to mid Oct. (about 6 weeks it appears) I generally ask was there other marketing or did marketing change in any way? 
I suggest doing this with settings on weekly instead of daily to provide a bit easier view for analysis.

With the numbers to the site, it appears that since January you have lost about 33% of your traffic; is that correct?

Thanks

Nicole,

Since you are using WP, I think it would be easiest and do not know of an SEO loss with WP media gallery. With that, all images are at your fingertips for any editing you may wish to do whenever you wish to do it.

Make sure you have given each img a good alt text description of up to about 140 characters. (Do not try to keyword stuff, etc. - imagine you are blind "seeing the image" by description). Do not over edit the image when you upload it as once you have compressed, cropped, etc. that image you cannot reverse it. Or save two in the media gallery and title one edited and one unedit in case you wish to make a later change.

You have the option of titles and captions and I would create my own on both in order to accurately portray my message about the image. (I believe both are important in SEO. Captions do help the reader.)

Best

Monster Web,

There is no way to embed G+ reviews (EDIT - and have that resolve to the SERPs). You should look at using Schema or other markup for reviews to show in the SERPs. I have been impressed with the number of people who will leave a review for our clients. We push our clients when it comes to review markup because we see it as a big advantage.

Best

Waquid

In the legal field you see it a lot. While I cannot point out any place where there is a penalty for it that I have seen I will tell you that without it I am able to add links and pass those above. The question becomes is it the links they are using or is it the content we are using, etc. that eventually moves us ahead?

I will leave it to you to decide, but in the legal marketing arena I have not seen any penalty for it. To my knowledge there is no benefit....

Best.

activitysuper

Anecdotally, I would have to say that Google does not hold them back. First, even you say,"I have noticed with a few..." which would mean not with all or most. We put up a few sites each month and we see some that are new domains that are rocketed fairly quickly, some fall back, some stay. We see others that are the slog through to ranking, etc. I think it depends on many factors:
Linking day one, site map submissions, indexing on all engines asap, in GWMT or not, site architecture, vertical competitiveness, on page, on site, etc.

I do believe, again anecdotally, that there are times when a site seems to be pushed to the top by Google and "tested" for lack of a better word. Where in a tough vertical all of a sudden there is a new page showing with no authority/PR and then a few days later it is not. I keep waiting for Larry or Sergey to call and explain it to me...

Best,

This Is Totally funny. Here is what jellyfish sends back to someone who owns an agency:

Thank you for your interest in the Jellyfish SEO Tools. Unfortunately due to a high volume of demand, we are not able to offer you a beta account at this time.

Yet you just posted your penalty checker two hours ago and this question has had 47 total views so maybe 30 people. That blew out your beta. LMAO.

Well, I flagged you and you need to cease and desist.

Well laid out as usual Simon. Question,

From your response: Having a hyphen/dash in the domain name can cause confusion and memory issues for some, usually without it reads just fine in search results.

From my response: ..._One-Two.com as it is more readable to the searcher or client. _

I found in WMT that hyphen in domain has no bearing on SEO, but after your response I started looking for anything to support you or me. I remember there was a response a while back from someone on Q&A where they put in some non-hyphen domains that when you first read them you actually read them wrong (spelling read exactly for two different names). I could not find that response again (though it too was an educated opinion only).

So, it appears there are two schools of thought. It would be nice to find anyone who had seriously looked at this and found it to be one way or the other. There were a few blogs on the subject claiming to have tested it...and they were split 50/50.

We need to team up with someone strong in test validation and really test it. I am fine with either, would just like to be able to say yes/no with more confidence.

Best to you,

James,

Given we are doing a fairly broad SERP study, I can tell you I have not seen a G+ in the actual SERP organic but regularly see them in the 7 - pack (or whatever number shows). I have attached a screenshot on a random search where we have no clients. You will note each of these in the Local have a site url as well, but we do see them where there is NO site for the business and a G+ page shows. (And the page is rarely beyond 25% complete). In this screenshot you will see where someone is using their G+ as a landing page for PPC which IMO is not wise.

I am not seeing a G+ show as I do FB for similar businesses within the 10 organic listings.

Best

9zUzhcs.png?1

As per EGOL, it is both. Another thing with the changes you are making to the pages, if you change things to the point that the meta desc. does not match the content, you will cause a higher bounce rate because when someone clicks, sees something other than what they thought they would see, they leave. That will also affect PR (IMO).

EGOL nails a lot here.

Zakaria

The 'mugshot' to this point is attributable to the author. So, if you are an author who is a contributor to a given G+, and there is a post/page, etc. that comes up in SERPs, your pic as the author will be shown and not the company. If you have an image that is not a photo of you (or a stunt double!) other images like avatars or art will not come up.

Think of it this way: just as PR is a measure of page validity to query, authorship is a measure of author validity to subject. (I am not saying either is or is not correct at times).  So, a company cannot be an author (it can be a publisher, but have not seen logo show yet).

As to what is the best way to make that work for you, I would think it would depend on the situation, the strategy, and the company. We publish a lot for various properties we own and for properties of clients. With clients, we sometimes allow authorship to the copywriter if it in no way effects the client. With our properties (an example is we have a site on local merchants) we allow authorship and encourage it for our copywriters. If you have a good team member who is writing and becoming known on a topic, there is no reason they cannot be granted acknowledgement in the marketplace as knowing the topic. The only argument against it is that they may leave and compete against you and since we employ hidden ninja assassins we do not ever have that problem reoccur with the same employee... Just kidding.

So, over time, your increase in author credit around a given subject should be the benefit you derive.

I hope this helps a bit.

LMAO

Robbie,

The 301 redirect would point this "root domain"  (mymicrosite.com) to www.mymaindomain.com/city/XXXXXXX

The key to this redirect is that you want to insure you 301 each url on the micro site to a specific url on the main site. You want to do this in the .htaccess file. You don't redirect the root domain to root domain.

Also you state the "site has no back links, no advance SEO", does it have any DA/PA? If the site has a PA 1, DA of 7 for example, I do not see where it will help you. When you redirect, you are trying to move the links to the main site so that you maintain that link juice to the new site (you will lose a bit 5 to10%). This way, when you change a domain name, sell a business, etc. you do not need to try to go to each site linking to the "old" site and ask them to link to the new.

With "what happens if it doesn't work, can I change back?" While I cannot say I have ever tried to, I can tell you that I have done a few redirects of sites and I always watched the old site to see if it lost value and the other gained.

I have a site we did a full redirect to new site in late August. When we initially did it, the old site home page had a PA 44 and a DA of 39, the new had PA 1 and DA 1. Today 3.5 months later Old site is PA 33 DA 31 and new site is PA 44 DA 33. The big difference is there are only two links showing for the old site now.

Since we handle a lot of Real Estate business, one thing you want to be sure of is that your Google Places and Bing Bus. Portal, Yahoo Local. Have the new site if at all possible. It may be fine for a short run, but you will gain more from having a correct, thorough local presence. Do the same with any citation sites. 
Good Luck.

Titan,

I am going to give you a suggestion before I answer your question; if you fill out a bit of the info on your Moz profile it will help people understand about what your business is in cases where they might need that info to help you.

Next, with your business and the new merge of google business + with social (best descriptor I have found), if you have a service area business currently, you will not be able to do a merge. Full disclosure is that I am not able to find anything about this for you to link to and it came from our head of Local who talks with some of the top Google contributors for local. I suggest you check out Linda Buquet's posts and Mike Blumenthal if you haven't yet. Mike has localu.org and this post has some good back and forth that follow it.

If you have a physical location where customers come in to do business with you, you should be able to create a G+ page using the same email address and then force the merge. If this does not answer fully for you, let me know and I will give you clear directions on how. It appears you have already done some reading and the only thing you need is a G+ page.

Best

Here is what I would suggest: David Zimm did a post about a month ago on SEOmoz around using Blekko to discover the value of directories. Given you are willing to pay for these, it would be worth reading and understanding then going to Blekko to test it out.

As to just generally sending money to a bunch of web directories I don't suggest it. With clients who I want fast credibility of links, etc. I always suggest things like Yahoo Directory as you know what you get with the $299. Another if you are doing this around retail, etc. is BBB. You pay for membership, but the link is worth it if you are an accredited business.

As to paying for old, unranked pages, I would not but that does not mean they are without any value. I just don't see the point. Remember, the algorithm is a math equation, if you are putting something in as a variable that is extremely minute, the end effect will be minuscule. So, to impact it you need something big. I do not see a point in buying 200 zero level links, but that is me.

As to what to look for in a directory, I would say look here for the list of directories suggested by moz

I would say you don't want all directory links so spread the wealth. Some blogs, similar business or vertical notations, etc. and directories.

Hope it helps.

In terms of the overall question, Why SEO, I would say don't. Just wait and see what happens.

Now, how did it feel when I said that? Shock maybe? Concern maybe?

That is the answer. If you don't what marginal ranking status (rankings are not as important as sales IMO) to go away, you will have to improve this.

**"how come we build our website so bad" **Typically, when it shows like this, someone was cutting corners and did not want to pay for a really funcional, fully SEO'd site with prior thought given to business model, strategy, most important items to sell and why, competitive analysis, a real web dev team, real web dev experience, real web design experience (not pretty sites, functional and pretty sites with good UI/UX). Sorry, but that is reality. I never cease to be amazed at how very bright business people end up with a ____ site because they got cheap on the one thing they should have spent money on. Think about it, it's an ONLINE grocery store...

Without going into a massive list (I just spent 10-15 minutes in research), I will say this you have more issues than you even realize. On top of that, the KW's you are ranking for are ok. But, they are not the best searched terms around your industry. So, where do you rank for those terms?

Here is the bright spot and I mean this: They hired you and you are digging and researching. 
But, with companies that take this type approach, typically what we see is this: someone comes to us saying hey, we need help, blah blah blah, really ready to fix it, blah blah, blah, and can you give us a proposal? Sounds good so far! Early in my career as a marketing firm, we would detail what all needed to change, when, why, and cost. The business then takes that to India, cousin Wilbur who once worked the phones at GoDaddy, or says to their bright new employee who found it all:"You have the list of what needs to be fixed; go fix it!"

So, that is all I can give you. Don't fix it at your own risk as others in your vertical are way ahead of you.

I sincerely wish you luck as you go forward,

Robert

Killer,

Sorry I fell out of the loop on this one. I have to say that Takeshi has done beyond an above admirable job on laying out the issues of how referrers become direct. I think two things stand out to me: yes the installation of your GA code could be wrong and it should be before the closing head tag . Often people will put it in the footer and occasionally someone enters it more than once.

I think another thing you have to look at is you are comparing Chartbeat to GA and they provide two types of analytics. The numbers, of course, are different. Chartbeat was out before GA had realtime and, I think, it was intended for the real time needs. It claims to have better data for publishers and I have no way of comparing. Since it has been around for some time, I would think it has some real traction, but you have to be careful as you are comparing two different services.

Another thing that gives me a slight amount of concern about the issue is that they have a section on how they help you sell more ads (when you are a publisher). That type of data makes me a bit nervous. It may be the real deal, it just makes me nervous when something claims to help you prove your position.

The question re your site is a bit skewed in the way you present it. What is the other data re that site? How many total directs? How many organic visits? How many PPC visits? Etc. You cannot just conclude that there cannot be that many directs without all the data. How many total visits would be the first place to look.

As to the expert on analytics and your GA code, you can do it your self. Look at view page source (typically a right click function). When you have the page with the code on it, do a control lookup (command or Control  plus  F on). Then in the search box, type in UA- and see where it occurs. There should be only one occurrence of UA-XXXXXXXX-1 or -12, etc.

If you see it more than once it is likely a problem, but not always. If it is in the header and footer, typically you will see an artificially low 2% or less bounce rate. You can also do a lookup of the closing head tag and see if it is after the analytics code.)

I hope this helps you a bit.

Robert

Well, someone did not like the answer I gave, but left no reason as to why it was wrong... (my response above is what typically is wrong)

But, I looked at your places listing and no address is showing as you said. I tried junk removal cincinatti to no result then used your 800 number and same and found your Places listing in maps.
Did you by chance get any error message from Google?
Besides the address what did you change?
Did the PIN come via postcard or was it phone.?

Sometimes when you make a lot of changes that will effect your places account for a while (sometimes a couple of months). The account will show in maps but not in general search.

That is the only other issue I could see. Was the 800 number new or has it always been there.

Irvco,

I checked with our head of Local, Amber, who I consider an expert and she states as follows:

You don't have to add a special character. It just depends what vanity URL's have already been generated by Google and accepted by the listing manager.

Sometimes you don't have the option of adding characters. You can either accept the vanity URL or keep what you have.I hope that helps you out, Best,Robert

UtahTiger,

No rule on the domain with or without the http. Sometimes depending on the site and how they have configured the box you put the info in you will get an error message. Usually, that means try it the other way:-)

Thanks for understanding I was not disputing you. I will let you know as soon as we complete. As to the A/B it is not a bad idea, but we are looking at rankings vs known SEO factors at this time. We are going to show what is present or missing from top 10 in multiple cities and categories (US) and provide it as a guide. I am not sure we will provide a conclusion, but likely leave it as a discussion and then each can decide for themselves how they address it for themselves or clients. We have four paid interns gathering data along with several staff members supervising and insuring accuracy and validation at each step of the process; this requires a lot from each of them. They are a good team, but it is a daunting task.

I would appreciate any insights or thoughts from Mozzers re the changes they are seeing in the SERPs. Right now, we are focusing on organic sans the local results, but will follow with Local. The problem with looking at both is the carousel beta, the 1 pack, 3 pack, 7 pack shuffle, etc. The biggest thing we are seeing is just a massive proliferation of directory sites for staggeringly important search terms. At the current rate, I could see page one of most service/professional searches to be all directories. That is where I am seeing all the duplicate content around categories and "About your business" pages and where it does not seem to matter in the least.

Take a look at any major US city plus: realtor, plumber, electrician, etc. and see how many directories now show up. It has skyrocketed even in the last 4 to 6 months.

Best to you,

Killer

I saw this in the Moz Top 10 this morning and had to reach out to you. Very interesting stuff on organic traffic showing as direct. While not referral showing as direct, I think you will see the implications. Best

Groupon organic vs direct test.

It could have been one of my ex wives. They can be so spiteful!!

No worries, just wondered what they did not like....if I thumb you down I let you know why as do many others. That way we all learn. Your answer was excellent btw. One question would be is, if Google did not like the places page, why just not incorporate the new address as opposed to etelling hm in the WMT or Places dashboard??

But, given what you found, I could see how they would have some verification doubts. Best to you.

Alan,

It is hard to tell hear if you are asking a question or not. If it is a question, give a bit more detail and maybe someone in the community can help. Our company does a lot with Places so would be happy to assist if possible.

Greg,

So you are looking at competitive sites with links from sites with DA of 95+. Now you are saying one of these competitors bought some links for a couple of hundred dollars and all were highly ranked on moz. (I am assuming you mean DA or PA is that correct?). Now when you went to rank tracker they came out as a one or a two? 
If this is correct, you may be mixing up your software here. Rank tracker showing a one or two, would mean they were ranked on a given keyword term as the first or second page in the SERPs. That would mean what you saw around the PA/DA was correct.

Now, as to directories, I would suggest Yahoo, BBB, Manta, yes. Also, go look at the recommended directories here on moz: http://www.seomoz.org/directories

This list also allows for ratings which I think is indispensable for someone in your situation. Look to see how mozzers have rated the sites/directories.

Excellent on optimizing site first. Now you are going in the correct order.

Hope this helps you out.

Jellyfish,

Kudo's on having a product. Not sure I would hawk it this way as it appears you are trying to use this forum to capture people with websites for your agency. You have a profile that is barely filled out and you have been on Moz since June 16th.

I just "signed up" and after giving email, etc. am told you will get back to me. Yep, even the email says that. I really do not think you should do this in this forum.

Best

Atul, I think the way Rasmus has it here is correct. The other day I came across a tool for 301's that will write for you.  FULL Disclosure is I have not used it yet. If you want to check it out, the site is

http://seo-website-designer.com/HtAccess-301-Redirect-Generator

Might be worth a try.

We can certainly dream about an end to the spammers!

All Star

Great point on number 2!

Best

Digirank,

I do not see how you could use it for that, but admittedly have kicked your ball over to our head of dev just to be sure. Curious, how would you want to use it for schema given it is set to be more for tracking?

Best

I would go with the code the way Rasmus has laid it out for you. I will check out the tool and let youknow.

We are in a nice position in that we are growing everyday. As the result, we need more staff, but do not have the time to bring along someone without any real SEO background. I have used just about every source over the years to hire people with good and bad result. 
For an SEO, with experience in some or all of the process:

Link building,

Keyword Analysis

Site evaluation,

eCommerce,

Analytics... where do you go to find someone good? What about to find them yesterday?

Obviously, they do not have to be expert at all, but they need to be familiar with all and have experience in at least two or three.

As to using the full sentence, the first part was about speaking to his clients regarding research and I did use the ... to show that the copied portion was the end of that compound sentence. That is the correct way to utilize a quote wherein only the germaine is pointed out. I did not disagree with speaking to the client re research.

You are correct you did not say - use software - and I did make it seem as if you did. You have my apology for that.

My point was not about the use of software though; did you think it was?  My point was about not creating your own content which takes time and effort and, instead, choosing to take someone else's content and change a few words so that you can post it as your new content.

As to posting my clients on a free directory I did not say that I did. I suggested some legal publishers (they are actually blogs for the legal community). So, I guess you should buy what you are selling and not state that I said something I did not. There are actually blogs around things like personal injury with high DA and PA and you can pay to be a blogger on their networks. They get quite a bit of links from them.

We do blogs within Pharma, Personal Injury, Bankruptcy, Complex business litigation, etc.

Best

AA in Florida,

I would not use the connector "in" for optimization. The reason being is the query utilizing "in" is rarely made. So, when optimizing for Spas Florida, you say Florida Spas ( don't worry about someone searching for Spas Florida; they will see you). 
If the product is a Spa, and you are using a geo location term with it, no matter what the traffic is, you need to optimize for it: that is the business you or your client is in.

Hope that helps,

Robert

I have to first assume you mean a 71% bounce rate? If it is actually a .71% then you have a problem likely with analytics code placement. If the .71 is real (based on your math it is) you have to first fix that issue. Do you have analytics code before the closing HEAD tag? If so, check in your footer or BODY for a second occurrence of the code.

This is the only way I can see these numbers as real. Hope this helps.

Robert

This is not a function of Google Places. These are called Place labels and they are set algorithmically. Having your Places verified helps but doesn't guarantee it. This is from Google: 

Having

The place labels shown on Google Maps are determined algorithmically based on a large number of factors, so there is no way to guarantee placement of your business on the map as a place label. One factor these algorithms consider is the accuracy of the business listing and the richness of the content associated with the listing, so you can improve the chances that your business will receive a place label if you claim it in Google Places.

Best

Ryan, 
I like the answer, but I also had to smile. I go back and forth with Linked In. I was just in a pissing match over the latest Panda update not saying that you have to do 50% of anchor text using primary keyword and the other half with secondary etc. God, where do they come up with this .....stuff??? I know there are some good SEO's on there, but the couple of groups I was in I baled on as I could not take the BS clowns trying to drum up business and having sites showing AdWords Certified that linked to Google stating they were not. Etc.

Sorry for the rant.

I also like the idea of the local marketing groups. Out of the ones you are aware of which do you find brings the most to you?

Thanks again for great advice.

Jason,

This is the first I have ever seen a question like this... - no we all have asked it. Here is my take:

First great content will win - yes you can do the other stuff in the short term but it may cost you long term.

Some of the link building others do is simply directory after directory. If you find industry specific it can be a bit better at times. (Legal blogs with links to sites, etc).

If you want instant pay for Yahoo Directory and Best Of the Web.

Use a service like BrightLocal to check your local citations, etc. This is very helpful. Very helpful. Make sure where you can you use every local resource available. Local SEO is important.

Great links can come from Infographics and videos, think about it.

In the end, content will rule the web. Give the searcher something original, insightful, etc.

Hope it helps

BJS1976

The Fetch as Google tool allows you to see what Google sees. Yes, it can help you get the page indexed more quickly, but first take a look in WMT and see how the indexing is now. If your site is being indexed regularly, look at crawl errors. Do you see a problem there? etc. When you fix the problem, mark it as fixed and it will be removed from the list. The next time G crawls it, if the problem still exists it will reappear. But, you will know it was crawled. This allows you to dig deeper.

NOTE: Fetch as Google will not follow a redirect.

If you feel you are still not getting the page reindexed, I would resubmit the sitemap.

I hope this helps a bit.

Robert

You sir, now have a plaque in the offices of drumBEAT. 
Best and Thanks!

Jose,

My first question would be: Are you absolutely sure nothing exists of the old site. I have heard this many times and had top shelf server pros go in and recreate. Are you sure in any case there was no back up? etc.

If you have no other option, my inclination is that you should get a page up to speak to customers first. Let them know what has happened and provide a time line to resolution. When you say larger scale, that is the scary part for me. So, my next inclination is to do a 302 to the blog and then do the 301 when the new site is up and do it url to url.

Mozzers I am prepared to be wrong on this, so pitch in please.

Best