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NYC-SEO

Personally, I like being listed in ODP/dmoz and believe it is a valuable link. Like anything, you cannot look at it in a vacuum. If this were the only link, it might not be as good as others with authority and less links to you. But, it is recognized as a good link and it cannot be bought. You have to have it submitted (to speed up the process if possible - they do get listed without you submitting) and then hopefully an editor will approve and you get a listing at some point.

We always submit a site after its been up three to six months or with a newer client and an older site, etc. Sometime they end up listed, sometimes they don't. When they do, I think the link is good.

On the paid side, Yahoo Directory is a similar link IMO.

Best,

Robert

Laurie,

I agree with Inhouseninja and would add this: When you buy the domain, try to purchase it so that it is under a different name, on a different server. Minimally, have it on a different C-block. I am not sure how much from a percentage point of view it can effect link evaluation, but we know that it does. 
So, if both of the new domains are on the same server, owned by the same entity, you will not get near the weight from the search engines (if any).

I do this in a couple of verticals but we the sites are actually fully related, have contact forms and other mechanisms for customer contact, etc. These sites are about 5 pages (not sure that any more would improve our lot) and we are able to use them for linking to the main site. If our main site did not exist, these would be real functioning sites that could be affiliate sites, etc.

Best,

If I may put a few words in EGOL's response, it is like this: You can do the quick and dirty SEO or the higher end longer lasting SEO. You do get what you pay for so: For the quick and dirty you quickly get dirty - When you do the longer lasting SEO (good site, content, etc) you end up higher end in more ways than one.

Yes, that is original!

Good on 301. On rel=canon, I did not mean to imply "each page to itself." There are various issues that arise in coding pages, making changes to pages, etc. So, here is a classic: to a non coder, www.example.com and www.example.com/ are the same page. To the bots they are two. So by inserting rel=canon for that page you are saying if example.com/ comes up treat it the same as example.com.

For your example, if it were me, manual juicer and highest rated manual juicer are very distinctly different pages. The first could lead to a description of 4 and the second speaks only to one. You have to be careful with this in the SEO because if you get too diffuse in adding modifiers to the keyword (making them long tail for example) you can draw strength from the main keyword page. Sometimes it is good to do, sometimes not....this part is the art of SEO.

BTW........what type of OR wine???? (Nothing like a Willamette Valley Pinot....and, yes, I know how to pronounce Willamette!)

Duncan, 
Yslow is working on page for me (using Chrome). I think based on what I am seeing it is a server issue. On my side it took about 16 seconds to load pre cache.

On YSlow, you have a grade of 82/B in V2 with the following issues:

F on needing Content Deliv. Network

F on needing to add expires headers

F on entity tags

D on needing to use gzip to compress components.

Interestingly, each time I ran Y Slow, the speed at which it could provide the result changed (last time doubled) again pointing me toward server/host. 
Even with issues here, you should not be loading this site, this slowly.

Do you have any other sites on this server and if so how are they doing?

EDIT - Also, if you have other sites, are they on same or different IP address?

TheOceanAgency

I think EGOL says a lot with his comment re types of sites. An ecommerce site will typically take more time and attention than a 15 page attorney site. Sites that are large, publish a lot, have a reference type role, etc. are others that require more time and attention  Do you have a role in development or are these all fully completed sites? Do you have a developer who assists you with changes, etc.? Can you take specific SEO needs to a developer who can execute the more complex items?

We are an agency and our staff is not set up as handling X # of clients but having varying roles. Within those roles, we are all constantly learning the roles of others. An example is copywriters learn SEO, HTML, etc. Our head of Local is quite competent at handling full site 301's and she is not a developer - she was taught by our head of dev.

For you, if you do not have a process and are instead running "helter skelter" it will be more difficult. So, let's break it down based on what you have here (and I am sure you have other "roles" you take on from time to time as needed.)

Onsite Optimization: Assuming you did not take on 9 new clients with bad on page, you should get to a place where the on page, on site is fairly stable. (Your data gathering/reporting should show when there is a problem). If you are having to redo onsite regularly, there is a problem that needs to be handled - what is causing it to be unstable? (CMS issues for example).

With link building, what are you doing there and what are you outsourcing? This is very labor intensive role and may not be a highest and best use of your time as an SEO professional. (Remember, whomever is doing it, you must inspect what you expect.) You state that **"...with some outsourcing when it comes to content creation (things like infographics, articles and some linkbuilding efforts)." **For us, we create a lot of content and that is why we have a copywriting team and a director of media who oversees that role. Beware if you are getting too involved with how the outsourced pieces are done - have a result you want and do most of your input at the beginning and not on correcting at the end.

Last, you handle monthly reporting. This, too, is one of those that when handled correctly in the beginning, should have little impact on your time. If you are spending a lot of time on it, then I would guess you do not have it set up in a cogent and manageable way. Usually, each client is getting something different as opposed to a more standardized reporting with specific 'unique reporting' that is set up early in the relationship.

If, your role is also taking all the data, deciding what is wrong/right, then creating a plan of attack, then meeting with the clients, etc. You are likely overburdened and have a role that needs to be organized. NOTE: I am NOT saying you are disorganized; I am saying the role may be. There are lots of ways this happens, but typically in an agency that is less mature, you take on clients at a lower cost to them. In order for the agency to profit some will just provide less resources; worse than that is when they just do not deliver on their promises.

So, I am guessing there is no "answer" in what I have given you. Hopefully, I have given you some things to think on and a way that you might be able to be of greater benefit to the agency - creating an organized role to minimize waste of resources.

All the best,

Robert

PS As to ration of in-house to outsourced efforts: I only outsource one thing and that is SEO Audit backup. When I do an audit, I go outside to one of three or four Moz top rated SEO pros and have them do back up audit for me. Not a full audit, but an overview of mine for errors or omissions. (And, rarely, for a second audit if there is apt to be a question in a legal or more complicated sense.)

Ryan,

Casey makes a point, but I still think you are getting ahead of yourself. You have lawn care tips which no one searches on. However there are over 550K searches on Lawn care How To. You have to research your own site and see what needs to be done. For Allentown as a location add, there are no searches. That is just not a good thing to do when there are this many misses.

To go from where you are to providing SEO for others, you need to read all you can on this site and not be bothered to be wrong and ask questions. There is  a ton of knowledge on this site and others, avail yourself.

Hope we can help.

Scott, I am not saying you are. My point is about PR Web, newswire, etc. What they do is spam the world with their news releases and yes, some get a bit of traction. At the same time, I can tell you of individual pages of content I have written, placed on a client site, and watched as it got picked up by Google as a news piece and made my client some money. (No, that does not happen even regularly.) My point is that there is a news release or PR release that is real and then there are these SALES companies whose only motivation is to SELL YOU on their PR product of sorts.

If what you have is newsworthy, put it out there yourself or use one of them and see what happens. If I put out a piece about a lawyer who has decided to take a certain case (say tainted baby food) is that really news? Bob X has decided his firm the X law firm is now taking tainted baby food cases (then a rehash of something that has been in the news for a year), that IMO is worthless. If it is truly newsworthy, if you are the only one it applies to, etc. give it a go with them and then tell us what happened.

Or, pick up the phone or email several PR professionals where you are and ask what they would charge to put it out to their "contacts." I am guessing if you get half lucky they will get a better response for you than one of the PR Spam companies. It is simply a choice for you of try it and see or try something else and see. Then you will have the experience for the next time.

Hope that clarifies

Best to you.

NicB1

The myth is that clean urls are better for indexing, etc. Actually, you do not need to change dynamic to static unless you are worried that the CTR may diminish a bit due to not having a clean url. Personally, I don't think today that even happens more than rarely.

So, go forth and analyze. Now on the off chance there are some who would think that my having started drinking when I got up this morning was effecting my judgement, I went and pulled an old Google WMT post:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html

Best

iNet,

In answer to number 1, there is one giant in China and that is Baidu. Luckily,there are a lot of articles on SEO and Baidu (here is one 8 tips on Baidu and SEO). Also, there are articles on Search Engine Land, etc. so you should be good to go there.

As to number two and three, since I have no direct experience, I would have to refer you to the above.

We are handling a couple of sites in South America and working on an African site. The one cautionary would be that the only way to work with another language is to have a true language pro. So, you have to have someone who works professionally with translation of Chinese for mainland China on a regular basis. I would personally look for someone who has lived there or lives there now that already has clients or a body of work.

Sounds quite exciting, good luck.

Usef4u,

I think the first thing to look at is you are very likely misusing the disavow tool. (It is a single file with all disavowed links/domains on it). There should be no reason to be resubmitting with new links/domains every couple of weeks. This was intended to be a tool of last resort. 
First, you should contact the domain's webmaster and seek to have them take the link down, etc.

Is there a reason you think you need to do this regularly?

Best,

Robert

You will occasionally run into this and it could be that there is just a lot of activity at that time. If you keep getting the message contact support at help@seomoz.org

Scott,

Do a search on public relations Denver. Look at the pr blog one, then the one without shoes, then the one about mid page looking for interns. I am willing to bet you can find someone within that group that would take your $500. 
If you say they do a good job, I am willing to give them a shot as well.

Best,

Dan is correct and the biggest reason to redirect the www to non www or non www to www is that the chance will always exist that they will be seen as two sites and by virtue of that you will split the value of the site. We see it every day when we take on new clients.  While the DA is the same on both, the PA for a home page or important other ranking page is different. One I just finished sending a proposal on has a DA of 23 for the site. The www version home page has a PA of 32 while the non www version has a PA of 21. There are four links on the non www that do not exist on the www.

So, your call, Dan is right.

Best

Richard,

There is some good advice here and I would add a suggestion. Look at your meta description for each page. If you were searching for Arabic interpreting and both were there as the only choices, which would you choose?

If, more people click through to your site based on a good meta description, i believe you will see an increase in ranking for that page. Remember, if the meta description sends them there, they need to find similar on the page or they will bounce.

Also, I looked at US search and then UK and find that Arabic interpreting is searched less than interpretation which is less than interpreters. Also, it seems that translation, translating, etc are used more than interpret. You may know this already and have a plan for ranking on those as well, but something you might try is to use  "... for Arabic interpreting/translating here in the ...."  in your meta desc.

Be interesting to see affect.

Best,

I really think you could be creating a problem for yourself using the disavow file this way. My concern is that you are drawing attention to the site you may not want and if you truly needed it, I worry about having submitted it and changed it over and over having a negative effect.

Remember, the disavow tool was created as a mechanism of last resort. Also, some spammy links should not affect the site overall as everyone is going to have some "bad" links. If you think someone is purposefully doing this to you, you may want to approach it differently.

Is there a reason you originally started using the disavow tool? What are you wanting to accomplish with it now?

Best,

Robert

The dark check signifies that that url is the ranking url for that metric. So in your example here, 38 is the highest page authority and three urls are tied with one linking root domain each, and so forth.

The highlighting simply gives you a visual as to who is higher or lower (darker equal higher).

Glad to have you here with us in the land of Moz..

Best

The last time I answered a question around this, a PR Web rep sent me a nasty email. In spite of that my opinion remains unchanged. I do not believe they are worth the costs. Yes, I still see their "press releases" ranking occasionally for certain legal terms and I don't keep up with how long that lasts, etc. Even though Google says they don't like them, the results seem to say otherwise. But, I have yet to see the "few hundred bucks" plan you mention here.

I was looking at it some time back and you had to give them thousands up front and they tell you when you can or cannot put out a release, etc.

You can get links with good content and diligence. So, all you PR reps give us a call

Rasmus,

First and foremost, if you are penalized by Google I doubt you will be ranking 9 on page one. So the next question is what is going to move you up? Not, how are your competitors ranking above you. The reason is that question is a trap that focuses your attention on the "inequities of ranking" instead of on what you need to do. 
Whenever you have a question like this, we need either more data or the url and keyword you are speaking of if at all possible.

Now, without it, if you are first on Bing and Yahoo, you are likely paying attention to them as being one third of all search (US) and many who have sites focus only on Google. So, good job.

For your number 9 ranking, look at a few things: Is your on site better than your competitors? Does your meta description get people to click on your site? When they do click on this page, is the content such that they are not bouncing off.Remember, if they are getting more traffic, even if you are higher PR, they will be able to move ahead of you. Is your content fresh? Etc.

Now, that said, understand there are times that someone comes out of nowhere and seems to climb to the top easily even though they do not have PR, etc. In that case, be calm and watch. Typically, with our clients we watch not where they are today, but over time. Are we moving slowly up the SERPs in a highly competitive arena? If we are already up in the SERP's, are we taking care of business so that we do not fall?

Lastly, if you can provide a keyword and a url, mozzers can provide more for you.

Best

Excellent

No, the number in the meta description should not affect the NAP (and we have not seen it do so - yes we are watching for a stray to show up in a cite) due to the meta description not being a part of the algorithm and due to the number in no way appearing on the site.

In cases where we want a secondary number on a site/page and we do not want it to affect the NAP, we use an image of the number without the number in alt text. We keep the actual NAP # in the footer for Local cite purposes on that page.

Hope that helps. Great point!

Good link Luke. I remember when Russ wrote this and how interesting it was.

Also, I really do not think the vast majority of links we see that are "bad" are the result of a coordinated attack on us. We probably give too much credit to our competitors. Yes, it does happen, but I think it is rare. But it does make you wonder in a case like Alex's where the linking site is a porn site with no reason to link to him.

Thanks,

Dan, I know I am older and its early here... but where in this do you have the name of the site...?

I found it in Matt's response link, but where did he get it from??? Also, you are obviously looking at Google.uk I think......

Just trying to remember if I took all my meds.............

That said, here is what I see doing a search from US on Google UK (first image) StringBusters is 6th and stringsDirect is first. 
One thing you may want to try in the future is the Compare Link Metrics in OSE. I also have screen shot here. So, you see at the root domain why stringsdirect would likely be first based link metrics.

Hope this helps a bit

WMQmH.png?1 X1yqK.png

Allie,

Schema and responsive design are very good overalls. I think something that you have to be aware of is what are the urls now and what will they be after the redesign. I suggest making sure you have a list of where you start and where you are going to do 301's, etc. 
When we do new sites, we start as if it is a new domain and begin with KWA, sitemap, wireframe. That helps us know what will be needed for the client to achieve their goals. I would think of every way you can use the structured markup to improve outcomes.

Also, when you are setting up the sitemap and wireframe I would suggest you really get clear on what the UI/UX improvements you need for the new site. A way to start is the visitor flow in GA. You may see contact forms that do not work, etc.

Hope that gives you a bit of extra ammo and Great Luck to you!

Robert

Sean,

In answer to your question, I don't think it would be worth it to do the footer links as I just don't see the value in those at all anymore. When I look at the site, I like it. I like the left side nav with each brand and the general nav at top. The site seems a slight bit slow but not to the degree that would bother ranking or visitors. So, why not just do some normal link work to the questionable pages? Get a few good links and see what happens.

Another component that falls into opinion is around traffic: How is the CTR for the higher pages vs the ones you are not getting movement from. I am a big believer that meta descriptions are the SEO's sales ad. If each one is not selling for you, you need to fix them. What I would experiment with would be pick a few PR 2 or PR 3 pages and then really write a great Meta description for each that answers the query someone would have: for a search of Ray Ban sunglasses - Ray Ban Sunglasses for those when you need them now! Free Delivery in the UK! 20% Discount for two pair. I never cease to be amazed at how we can increase traffic to a page by focusing on a great meta description.

You could also do something around having a short article on the main category page that maybe tells a "Ray Ban story" (My first Ray Bans by the Sunblock Kid), this provides interest though I fully understand that in the end they are wanting to see the sunglasses you have.

I always like to design some simple plan and then watch it over two to three months and then understand the results. It teaches you even if it fails.

Hope I helped a little bit,

Best

Keri

You battle ship vixen!!! I love it. Rankin' Roger to the Rescue. I can see it now: Roger comes into a town besieged by sociopathic zoo animals bent on destruction and distraction. While the townspeople quiver Roger goes to work finding ways to show up in the right video at the right time and keep the animals wondering. 
Then, in an evil twist of fate, a crazed gang of hummingbirds corners Roger in a burned out saloon...

But wait, I hear battleships firing of the coast...

Ok, I went overboard... (sorry bout the pun too!)

I love you guys. (And Rankin' Roger)

Ruwanthi,

You can use Moz analytics/OSE to do it, but I typically find that ahrefs gives me more. I could never do without the set of Moz tools, but for backlinks, I like ahrefs.

Hello Hugh,

This is a very understandable question. I hope to provide you a small guide on this.

If you have a range of terms for more than one site and you have most entered into kw tool you will see that in some verticals you have a high difficulty and not a lot of searches. In others you can see high difficulty and many, many searches. That to me is one component.

The next is whether or not the search would be for a product or service that is perceived or marketed on a local basis. (A muffler shop comes to mind).

The next, which is very important is: Where are you starting from? So, for us as an agency if the client has a site and is already ranking in some areas, etc. it will provide a boost if we are helping them spread out. (making it easier even for a difficult term). But, if the client is going into unchartered waters or is essentially new to the space, it will mean having to build authority for site and pages while competing.

So, if I am looking at a global US search and have a new client with little they have done right on the Internet and we are going into what has been described as a "red ocean" in Blue Ocean Strategy, and, if the terms I am after are highly searched and difficult, page one could be 6 months or longer away.

Assuming the difficulty stays the same, but the search is now changed to be local and all else is the same, I think, I can begin to rank them for some of the terms within 3months plus or minus.

Then, if we go back to global but change them to having some Internet sophistication already, there is a significant increase in the speed with which we can help them rank. Change this to also include local and it gets faster. If, the search is a small number of searches monthly in local for any of the above, I find that it is easier to rank as less and less competitors focus on the longer tail or less familiar terms. NOTE: This is a major reason I do something I do not thoroughly enjoy: KW research.

So, I hope I have lessened your frustration to a degree,

All the best,

Robert

Brad,

Questions around this seem to be prevalent lately so I am assuming more and more are realizing there may be value in the G+ piece. As to your question, First I will suggest you read this great post by Cyrus Shepard that certainly got some circulation. Pay attention to the Update at the end as it explains a bit re why it may be true.

Next, for your brands the first question is around the type of businesses they are. If they are a service area businesses you need to make sure you keep the brand pages (Google Plus) and the local unmerged. Read this from Mike Blumenthal. 

I do not know that driving the traffic from the local 'places' pages to the G+ will help you as much as getting reviews on the Places will or potentially, having content on G+ that drives traffic to the locations. By the sites having individual G+ buttons, those +1s will help that site/page IMO. (OK, over time, etc.)

Hope this at leasts adds a bit of information for you.

Best

Robert

Hello Sushant,

I feel your pain, but I think you are worrying too much about site size, etc. First, if you can actually accomplish anything with GoDaddy, please do a white paper. GoDaddy is a SALES organization: "Thank you for calling sales and support, my name is Matt. May I please have your four digit pin number?" Yes, it is a direct quote.

If you do not light a fire under your client, you will regret it long term (a month or two from now). Remember that with an eCommerce site and an entrepreneur it will only grow. I am going to guess that you likely are not a developer of sites and that may be the cause of some of your fear of moving due to the size of the task. Actually, when I look at a 200 page eCommerce site (assuming most are product pages) I do not see anything daunting at all. Many on moz are handling 10,000 pages plus.

Marcus makes a great suggestion in steering you toward WP and I would also say, with a little study, you could likely have a competency in Joomla. Utilizing osCommerce, you can use a WP platform and life is fairly simple. You would just need a web developer (no offense to anyone, but not a designer) with a reasonable track record and someone (you) to supervise and supply SEO direction. Remember, you are not recreating the wheel and by all means keep it simple. Do not go for a full redesign, etc. Keep it essentially the same, move the data. Just get it done.

With a platform and correct architecture, you are just moving data once all is set up.

Yes to all, it is an over simplification, but you cannot let fear stop you from pushing a client. I would rather push the client and lose them than be a party to their downfall. Remember, when they fail it will be on you. I would rather fail making a move than fail standing still.

So, the final push is this: You have this forum for help as a first base; if you push your client and make the move, get a dev with at least a year of experience to assist you with the basics, you can PM me and I will allow one of our developers to answer your questions via phone/Skype/email to assist you with any roadblocks or questions you run into. We will not carry you, but we can certainly move some hurdles. We will provide the instruction but not do the work for you.

So, no excuses, call the client and tell him what he has to do.

Hope this helps,

Robert

David,

Since no one answered this, I wanted to answer you as I am assuming no one could find it.

(Next time add a time frame as many won't watch the whole vid. The part showing a report button is at about 1:42.)

The vid shows a report button next to the campaign settings in the Moz Analytics Beta. My guess is there is intent to have a button but there is not one yet in Beta.

Hopefully Keri, or one of the other staffers will see and let us know.

Best

Chris,

I was responding before yours had posted and I am not sure this would qualify as a scheme or as an attempt to manipulate rankings. I think it falls more in the area of someone who has developed a Plugin for, say WordPress. Yes, he is wanting links, but if he is clear (and remember these are webmasters) that it links back to his site, I think it really falls in that area of are all infographics of value? IMO, if I went to the trouble to put an infographic on cats without hair on my marketing firm site, I must have thought it provided something (Whether or not John and Matt agree ;).

But, I have to say, one could argue either way.

Best

I mostly disagree with "People don't use Google/Yahoo/Bing for one or 2 word searches anymore..."

I think it is very dependent on the search and can show data to prove it. Take a term like plumber or smithville plumber; people do not search for toilet clogged plumber in Smithville. They do search for the plumber, plumber smithville, or smithville plumber. NOTE: we are talking not every single human in Smithville but 80% plus.

Also, I do not think it really addresses the plurals issue.

Best

Prime85

The only ones I would ever suggest to anyone would be BOTW and the Yahoo directory. Many of the others that are listed on Moz are fine IMO, we just do not use directories that often.

Hope that clarifies,

Best

Sushant,

As I was writing my response I saw this. There is no problem with a 1300 or 3000 product WP eCommerce site, etc. Since you are selling furniture, there is not going to be a huge parts inventory, etc. and my guess is that your product pages will initially come from the manufacturer (please change asap after move). 
If the developer really doesn't want to use WP you can use Joomla. The problem with a Drupal build is you have to have a good Drupal dev and they have to know process to do this efficiently. You do not want to be designing and building at the same time. Please do not do that. You will be 6 months and still no site.

hope this helps,

If they clicked on the affiliate link on the landing page that takes them to a different site, that would be considered a bounce.  If they did anything else to leave the site: Closed browser, hit back, typed in a different site, they would be a bounce. If they went to that landing page and never left and fell asleep, they would time out and that would be a bounce as well. A bounce is a single page view of the site without visiting another page.

An exit is when a visitor leaves the site for another site and will be defined by which page they left on. So, they hit landing page, looked at two others, and left from page 3. They would have exited at page 3.

Hope it helps. (Yes, for affiliate marketing it makes bounce rate a bit of a pain. You will know who tracked to the affiliate though and be able to differentiate the "true" bounce from the apparent.)

Peter,

First and foremost, when you responded to Mike Roberts, you used caps when you thanked him A LOT! for telling you about Googles spam reporting. Then, when you responded to EGOL (Whose avatar/screenname has always been in caps), you use caps again, except it comes off as yelling. (Full disclosure, I respect EGOL very much.)
I am not the smartest SEO professional on this forum, but IMO their site does not violate every rule in the book. It may violate some, I do not know. I was responding honestly in an effort to assist you.

I looked at their backlink profile and, while it appears to have a very high link velocity and many of the links appear to be from similar sites in that industry, I do not know that those things alone will meet Google's criteria for actionable link spam. Again, I do not know. I am not screaming that you are wrong; I am stating that I have not given it the required study in order to pass a professional judgement. I thank EGOL for his comments, and I also hope you can realize that what I wrote to you originally had no judgement in it. I have been involved in Internet marketing since 1998/1999 when my first spend on AOL was monthly for banners at a reasonably high cost for the time. I was simply trying to convey to you that my experience has taught me not to waste my time on trying to figure out what someone is doing wrong and why they are getting away with it. The reason is that I can have only one result from it - _I become a victim. _

By focusing on what a competitor is doing right, I begin to learn ways to beat that competitor and others.

I have made a choice in life that I will never be a "pigeon" (I am older and this may not be common in today's lexicon so, for anyone, it means that I will go down swinging before I will resign myself to being a victim to anything.)

By virtue of living a while, I have learned that railing against those who have a better lot in life than I do is a waste of time. Taking action that changes my lot in life brings me peace.

Forever learning, so if I offended you with my original comments or if EGOL offended you with his response to my comments, please accept my apology for the both of us.

Robert

Wait, there are sooo many SEO experts out there, it should be easy! OK, just kidding about one of my pet peeves.

I would first take a step back and ask some questions of myself, just like I would do if I were going to hire someone into my company: What do I want to accomplish by this hire? How will I know when it is accomplished (what metrics will be used)? What measures will I use to know this is the right hire? What are things I cannot accept in this position? Etc.

Anyone who has been in business even a short amount of time has made a poor hiring decision. Do all the things you would do to avoid making a poor hiring decision. Then, begin looking for companies/people who fit the initial picture of what you want: quality backlink strategist and Google Places expertise.

If they are a quality link strategist, they will be able to point to sites they have handled and explain how they got the links that are there now. If they are knowledgeable in Places, they will be able to show you that knowledge in sites that are clients. I would not tell anyone what your site is until you interview them if there is a way to avoid it. (Maybe you just keep it general and say you are looking for a marketing company, not sure what you need, etc and don't stress SEO). The reason is I don't want them to go get the knowledge from someone/somewhere else and come back to me with it. I want experience.

I would set up to interview a minimum of 3 companies. I would pick those three from at least ten or twelve. I do not necessarily agree that those who are ranking high in SEO are the best providers of SEO services, but I do not think they are excluded from being the best either.

I would then have a specific set of questions around, How would you......? Get backlinks onto my site? Improve my ranking? (This would be loaded in that if they say we would..... before they say which pages, what key words or phrases...then, oops)

I would give them 15 minutes alone with the site a piece of paper and a pen and ask them to come up with a plan that would improve the site/rankings, etc. Then, I would ask them when that would be accomplished. At what cost?

Lastly, I would ask for a slew of references of clients. The real issue is if they are truly experts at SEO, there will be a string of clients ready to recommend them even if 75% of their clients require confidentiality. I would then CHECK the references with specific questions about what they did for you, how they did it, how long it took, what they did not like, etc. Just like a job hire.

Now, I realize the answer is long and the task list is longer. But, I have hired large marketing firms and 6 months and a lot of dollars later had to kick myself for not asking more questions and interviewing more companies and checking more references. So, fool me twice, shame on me.

Good Luck,

Oh, yeah, If they make more statements about how good they are than they ask questions about you, your company, your needs, and what you are doing now, they are probably not a good fit.

Peter,

It appears you are new to Moz and I appreciate your desire to tell about your directory site. This is not really what this forum is for and i would suggest you talk with someone at Moz re how to get the site listed with getlisted, etc.

Personally, I think directories with few exceptions are not good for business. (Yahoo directory, botw, etc. can help a small amount, but with any of these they are more helpful to a brand new site with no links and then they become an albatross.)

We work every day trying to correct all the directories that have come into being with no other purpose than to be a directory. (Not really a blue ocean strategy IMO.) So, businesses feel they have to be in Yelp, YP, CitySearch, etc. and yes, for attorneys, Martindale, etc. But, at the end of the day, the directories really do nothing to improve the business outcomes (unless you are going to tell me about link juice). As it stands now, a search on practically any trade or profession returns over half of the results with directories. Gosh, as a searcher that is what I wanted, to go to search so I could go search a directory.

Please understand it is not about you and you may have a great directory. I work in SEO everyday and my job is to rank my clients, not the directories they are in.

Best,

Robert

Tourman

It is likely the change in GWT to .com being set as CA preference will affect the ranking in AU of the .com. If the .com was not on a CA server it is more likely. Since you want the .com to rank in CA primarily and you have a .com.au site, assuming you have covered your bases with regards to other countries you want to rank in, you are going in the correct direction.

Back Burner

Our firm, years ago, was first a lead gen firm and then began using affiliate aggregators to assist in the production of those leads. I have worked with some of the bigger and a few smaller aggregators and there are plusses and minuses. We no longer do lead gen (other than having clients who develop leads for their own businesses) and we do not use publishers or aggregators.

That said, the issue is not necessarily Link Share itself. (and I have never used them), it is that having affiliates is a full time job requiring a full time tracker, modifier, enforcer, discoverer, etc. Many publishers are the original SEO Blackhats and I give them a lot of credit for exposing the flaws that existed. Unfortunately, for every solid high end publisher who is doing it legit, you have 100 sleazy, low end, pubs trying to simply beat the system if only for the evening. That is what makes it difficult. They are trying to minimize their cost in order to profit on your offer. That ultimately leads to abuse. So, it is not necessarily that any one aggregator is flawed, it is that the system is flawed. Remember the best publisher would be superb at SEO and have no cost to speak of yet drive you traffic. Most are not that.

I doubt this helps you, but if you are trying to convince people who believe it is good, ask this question: How many real site visits has it brought and from those how many sales? Was it worth it? Then you will have the answer.

I spent lots of $$$ in that world...I won't again.

Best,

I agree. No follow if you are going to do it. I will also tell you that we get calls re specific sites we have built, and we do not use footer links. Do I think I could have missed a call because I did not, I would guess it is very likely.

Best,

Gareth, 
Unless something has changed in the last week. You have must put in their default category as the first. So, if you don't choose from their dropdown, you won't get the Places category info to populate when you are done with editing. I have not been able to move it down to place 3 in categories - it stays first.  Unfortunately, Google has some areas where there is simply no correct answer.
For us, in those cases we choose as best we can and then stay diligent on what we enter as custom. Also, and you likely know this, try not to stuff with items that are near identical. A little depth is best in our experience.

Hope this helps you out,

Peter, I have no way of knowing what your intent/meaning is by "pouring out your heart," etc. but,  I can assure you this is not a "heart" issue for me. I spent years in trauma centers and my heart issues are kids that are abused or injured or ill, and animals in the same situation. Beyond that, only the abuse of power or station can ring my bell.

I was frankly stating a point of view. Trust me that my opinion will not keep people from using directories. I did not thumb you down nor did I attach any vitriol to what I wrote.

Best to you and your endeavors,

Robert

I would be surprised if it took more than a few days. Given your site has been up and ranked, wont take long to reindex.

EGOL - I always appreciate your answers.

A question arises with this: If NearlyKeyword.com purchases Keyword.com and 301's each url to the new site URL's (Keyword.com redirects now to NearlyKeyword.com) does it increase the aggregate value in a one to one addition assuming all links and content are different (obviously this is a stretch and there are other factors). If no, then with two similar ECommerce sites as above, similar content, similar on site optimization, etc. what would one transfer to the other? Would it even be a 5% increase in domain or page rank?

If the Domain name is the only change and there is a cost that would not be recouped for say 3 to 4 years, is it even a reasonable idea? Could they not insure that they have good keyword use in the urls and spend the money on other SEO, etc. and be better served?

I do think the keyword domains rank a little easier for exact match queries, but have not seen a significant conversion increase one to the other when I am comparing multiple sites under my management all targeting the same keywords.

Good question. Good answer EGOL.

Any link that is followed will provide some level of link juice - even if it is reciprocal. The algorithm just views the reciprocal link as having less value. They do not void each other out to use your terms in my opinion.

I think the way you are going about it is the best way for this practice.

Best

nvs.nim

I believe you are correct and would go with what you have for a couple of reasons.

First I believe due to the redirect it is best to use the site it resolves to.

Second, if you were doing this as a franchisor/franchisee this would be very common. The main company as the domain with each location. Even if there is no rule associated with it (and I am not aware of one) it follows a convention that is already established and sometimes that is a good thing in and of itself.

I think you asked an excellent question and I appreciate it.

Let us know how you go with it and how it works out. You can even PM me with it if you wish as I would really like to know.

I am curious if this has happened to others and if so if you were able to resolve it.

Today a client forwarded an email that went to a client account and we were in no way copied on it. This is a client that spends in the 6 figures with us and I was shocked to read (Any bold or italics I have added):

Hi *****,

My name is Jimmy Morrow and I am an Account Strategist at Google on our Agency Team. Your account was recently selected for free dedicated support this quarter and I will be your new point of contact at Google for all things AdWords. We can go over a few housekeeping things I noticed, broader strategy, and some betas that would be a good fit. Please let me know when you have time for a 20-30 minute phone call when we can go over the accounts and make a plan for working together this quarter.

Thanks and just let me know a time that works best for you!

Best,

Jimmy

To me, they have essentially gone around us and with the "housekeeping" and "beta" comments sought to make us look either incapable and/or uninformed.

We are Google Partners, etc. and we have clients in our MCC for Adwords. I have never seen an occasion where Google blatantly tried to steal the client as it appears is happening here. This is a client who heretofore had NEVER used Adwords and they have been in business since before there was a Google or an Internet. We brought them to Adwords about 6 - 8 months ago!!! They are spending 6 figures on Adwords and I am ready to pull them out and spend the money elsewhere.

We sent emails from our UK and our Houston office and no response from lil ole Jimmy. Our UK team has tried calling Google and nothing and then Chatting with them and we can get nothing.

This is a client who has a lot of faith in our abilities based on many things we have done for them that worked and they are the kind of client that let's us know when issues arise. So, they are not going to switch and that is not the issue. The issue is Google acted as if they wanted to embrace agencies and if that is so, why then try to back door them?

I hope to hear from others who are handling PPC with Google. Thanks a ton.

Robert