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Nate
A little more info would help. I looked at your url and all seems ok on the face of it. Was this a crawl test or a campaign? Did you get a summary page and did it show any crawl errors? Warnings? etc.?
If it was a campaign and if in the past ...used to crawl entire site... put a ticket in with support or email help@seomoz.org. They are quick to help.
Hope this helps,
Purple Indigo,
This particular website focuses on unlock codes for mobile phones and isn't a service that consumers would really want to connect with - which is what Google+ appears to be a vehicle for. It is a one off purchase website, and not something people will use regularly.
Will people ever review your product/service? A small amount of info in Google + would not hurt and it can help.
On the face of it Google+ offers very little for a company that operates in this fashion and makes most sense for B2B businesses.
For me, I disagree with it making most sense for B2B. First, it is simply a way of verifying your existence and controlling it first. Then any connection. IMO it is not a marketing tool per se. Frankly, I don't even want to go down the social media marketing road here..... If you have people giving you a plus it will have a minor impact on your SEO, again, IMO.
I feel that by potentially creating a Google+ presence we are in fact attempting to manipulate the search rankings because it isn't a networking site that makes sense for our business and there is actually very little real reason for us to get involved with it.
I really don't do any networking from our corp site nor do our clients per se. So what about 'manipulating' search rankings??? As long as you play by the rules is there something wrong with wanting to get as many customers as possible? Are you doing something you shouldn't be? etc.
As to the follow on to that paragraph about what Google stands for, well they want a good experience for the user and they don't want a lot of trash on the web. I am with them on that. They compete with other companies and Google+ is, at least, a partial response to that competition. I don't think they did it just so they could hug themselves at night. 
Just like with Places, you need to own/verify your listing and get the info in it. I do not see a need for a full scale spend to over brand it. Make it clean, nice, be sure info is correct, etc. That is important and your manager needs to get it no matter what.
Hope this helps,
Robert
EGOL,
As to forbes and you doing the SEO: I have sent them a letter telling them they would!
Ryan, as usual you and EGOL do a masterful job here. I do want to add one thing though: While Ken and Adam may have never heard of you, I have. This was an attempt at getting links by a couple of pikers. Sorry, that's how I see it. Frankly, I think:
THE UNINFORMED POSTING STUPID BLOGS TO OLD MEDIA SITES FOR LINKS IS DEAD!!!
Was tempted to link to something here.....
I was going to ignore all until I read this, so I will respond to the thread separately.
But, in your response to Igor, you state you essentially ignored on page optimization, failed at PPC, and used no PR agency. (and no bought links).
Then you state you did other marketing outside of web based: relationships, events, conferences and that worked.
So, here is my question: If you were going to go to this tremendous effort (and include social, content, etc. What was the purpose/reason for not doing on page optimization utilizing key words significant to the page?)
Do you get business from your site? Is it driven by a query on a search engine?
To go to the trouble of creating dynamic content and then ignore basic SEO is anathema to me.
I did like all the rest though.
I am going to go out on a limb and give you a suggestion from a guy who is likely older than you with a tad of experience.
Do Not Lead With The Answer
This is a prospective client. If you give the answer as a sales tool you devalue the answer. let them know that you have an answer, you understand that answer and what work it will take to alleviate the issue. Remember you will have to monitor the change over time and BE SURE to take a baseline before you change anything, if you get the client.
You may state that the issue revolves around how the sites were originally set up and that now there will need to be multiple fixes most likely. One fix will be in establishing the way in which Google views each sub domain and that you would do that change first for each sub domain. Then, as you watch pages rank up or down, you will making coding changes on a per url (page) basis in the event important pages are not ranking (hreflang). You will drill down to the lower hanging fruit as you progress, assuming these sites have a few pages. (you don't want to over promise if you have to do a long with hreflang).
Think on what I say here and you will likely get the sale and make more from it.
All the best,
Robert
Different languages would not constitute duplicate content.
The issue that confuses all of us is the language versus location issue for same language and it is very important that we keep that straight in our heads. Obviously, it was enough of an issue that Google went to work to develop the hreflang link element.
Without knowing if they are using a gTLD, which, server location(s), etc. it is a bit more difficult but not impossible. With simply setting the sub domains with geo target preference, most will be solved IMO.
I actually liked what you had given him as well as you laid out the setup and gave a couple of good tips.
Thanks for mozzing around with us!
Robert
Jasarrow
I am going to try and hit this from a broad brush vs. a dissertation on internationalization. Also, I understand the limitations you face with the all too important "prospective client" issue. So, (Are they using a gTLD? = .com, .net., .euro, .asia?)
First: Your toolkit for internationalization is GWMT. The knowledge here is good and on the whole understandable.
Next, you can use geotargeting in GWMT for sub domains. Same place.
there is a blog for internationalization questions: Google WMT Intl.
Your English language problem is first in that if the main domain is US English and they want a sub domain from the UK to outrank it even though it is in US English: I am assuming by subdomains they are using uk.theirsite.com? de.theirsite.com?
If you set the geotargeting for the uk.theirsite.com to UK, leave the (assumption is .com) .com as US, but set the geotargeting as US as I am also assuming the server is UK based. If server is US set location anyway given that you are trying to "tell" Google what is what. (server location is an inference of country)
In the query you say subdomain for language as opposed to sub domain for country and even GWMT says this can be confusing. If they are using sub domains, I would suggest for country not language - especially for those who are users of the sites. Beyond the English problem, you have the French: Canada, France, etc.
Lastly, with your UK problem I would go one step at a time. I abhor multiple corrections to single problems as they leave you with unanswered questions. The easiest first fix is the geo targeting in GWMT. Then if you are still having issues, you may need to consider utilizing rel="alternate" hreflang link element. (From GWMT -Many websites serve users from around the world, with content that's translated, or targeted to users in a certain region. The rel="alternate" hreflang="x"_ annotations help Google serve the correct language or regional URL to searchers._)
So, you have some work to do, but I hope this helps provide some direction, Good Luck with Prospective Client,
Robert
ribandhull
First, the answer is no on the whole if the only way you are going about ranking is with keywords in tags. But, you are going to have some text, images, and other parts of the page that need SEO. So, make sure your images have appropriate alt text (kw=wedding photography, alt txt = Jones Wedding photos - bride and groom). Make sure each page has good title tags and H1's. Make sure your 1% text is relevant to your keywords and you should be able to do fine considering this is what a lot of photographers do.
Another helpful hint is each photographer needs to take advantage of Google Places (+1 ) listing.
Mark,
Either will work fine for EMD. Note that I only saw this due to the settings i use with SEOmoz. Next time it would be better if you post a question in Q & A as a new question as opposed to an older string. It is not a problem and I am always happy to answer, but you will get a lot of responses the other way in case no one on a string is getting emails about it any longer.
Hope it helps,
Robert
Great stuff, we will talk soon Brian. I am looking forward to it.
Best
One thing Brian that might clarify for all is that the candidate cannot announce prior to a certain date within the next 6 months. That was the reason for the somewhat understated site prior to the official launch.
As I go forward, I will PM you.
Thanks,
Alex,
Thanks for the great article.
Most of what the candidate has done socially is known and within normal limits. Not sure of any kangaroos or etc. in closet. Good kids, kind to animals, etc.
I will push to keep the candidate human as I like them and would hate for them to become a politician...
Thanks,
Good points. First, my thought was that the first was to be with nothing political just Joe.com and that was it. Then JoeForSenate.com. I do agree you could do without the 301 though and simply redesign.
I was not talking about politically censored, but more about that with a person who is in their early 40's with tons of family and friends on their social is exposing a lot and that it is too easy today to turn a harmless comment from a friend into an incendiary. one of the things I like about this person is they are real.
We are considering taking a candidate for office on as a client. The run would be for a state office in the U.S. by someone who is involved in politics/government but not currently an elected official. The candidacy would not be for a couple of years and the exploratory committee approached us asking if we would take on. Sooo, decision time.
First, yes I like the candidate (as much as I like business I could not do it otherwise).
Next, candidate has no real public persona other than FB, LinkedIn, etc. Our approach is to shut all down all social first - to prevent anything that is harmless from being manipulated - and then revise to a political run. Also to create a site for candidate that is not necessarily a political one that could gain some DA, PA over time as the candidate begins to put out opinion pieces, etc. around their beliefs in what is workable/needed.
We would maintain the site utilizing SEO until the announcement to run is made and then have a full political candidacy site go live with 301's from old site. Obviously, I am not at liberty to say names, etc. and some of our strategy specifics must be kept confidential as well. I would be interested in your opinions and thoughts on the approach and also if someone has handled SEO/SEM politically and has insight as to whether I should act like I am in the movies and ... RUN FORREST RUN!!!
Thanks,
A client is requesting bar codes for simple tracking of event attendees. Their need is to be able to verify at the door someone has registered and then have that data link to the registrant to show who did/did not attend, etc.
We looked at QR code solutions (seems bar code makes more sense at this point) and now are at a point where we need input from any who have experience with either system and could potentially make a recommendation.
A person would sign up for this once a year event (no charge, informational) on the site and be able to print off their registration ticket to bring to the event. If it could also be downloaded to iPhone/Android that would be a plus as well. When they come through the door the code is scanned and registrant is in. Simple.
They currently keep a database of past attendees and only use it for general area the attendees are from and how many show over time, etc.
Since we do not want to reinvent the wheel, we were hoping a mozzer might have insight.
thanks,
Robert
Looking at 6 to 8 pages, you providing the content (images, video, text) somewhere between $1,500 to $3,000. The reasons for the range are myriad, but typically if you have content, a site like that should run toward the $1,500 more than the $3K.
Capitol Shine,
Great question and you are asking it at the right time...before you build the site. I like your question about comparing the ranking of websites in their portfolio but would suggest you not use that as an end all. Here is why. I am working on my wife's real estate site. She has about 15 communities in Houston that are important on her site, but we put our content efforts into five. She kills for those, but the others are all over the place depending on the term used. That is the other issue - do you know what their client wanted to rank for? So, look at their on page if they tout SEO. Do they have duplicate meta descriptions or no meta descriptions at all? Do they have a bunch of 404's? Have they taken care of the www.mysite.com vs. mysite.com with the canonical and domain preference in GWMT?
Now, I prefer web developers vs. web designers (Please no one take offense). By this I mean someone who can design from the stand point of understanding architecture, some SEO, coding, and can find ways to stretch themselves and not do what everyone else does. If the sites are all template looking, well, they are template looking. I like to give a client something more. You want someone who is proficient in Adobe beyond photoshop. You want someone who understands how to use code to make things happen that the rest of the world has not caught up with yet. You can also ask them how they are using Schema today to improve the outcomes of their clients. (That will suggest how well they are at keeping up.)
Lastly, and most important of all. PLEASE Read and Re-read: Find out how they approach the building of the website. (But don't ask that question.) Are they telling you a lot about what you will need to do? Are they telling you that if you do not have the content they will not start building? Are they telling you that they will not work with another developer? Do they have a website with a questionnaire on it or a way of gathering data about what you might like? These are things they should be doing and things they should have. Here is why:
Most people start building the website while they are designing it. When you do this, things will change at the design and development level and inevitably stall the project. The way to approach a website build is to know what you want to accomplish first. Be clear on what features are important to you. Be clear on what look your potential clients will want and that the dev/design team can do that.
If you put the design phase with the build phase you will not get the kind of site that it appears you want. Find someone that will tell you, "This is how we do it; we will work with you in our framework."
Lastly, ask if you can speak with their last three customers... You will learn a lot.
Good question, looking forward to the site,
Robert
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,
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
Great Fence,
I am going to remain calm here and simply say, No.
I have looked at them and I just cannot wrap my head around the massive outpouring or the content issues. Too many of both PRWeb and PRNewswire releases are amateurish and that cannot be ameliorated by the fact they can run it out on AP or have a list of 6,000,000,000 places they send it to.
Think about this: look at the releases of others and you will see what bad is. If you are going to do this, make sure you write something that is more than your company name and a retweet of someone's retweet of retweet about some event.
We have our own copywriters, train them weekly, keep them abreast, watch as their quality content is stolen by also rans...think news services, people that Huff, etc. The issue today is not simply creating content with your company name attached to it to get links, it is about creating quality content that no one else created and that someone wants.
These companies make a lot of money on people who are looking for an easy way out. There isn't one. Sorry,
Hope it helps,
Also, I would suggest you go to AP and see what you can do with them. As an AP member, you can use their content and they can use yours and the prices are less. You won't necessarily have the outlet but there are ways.
Steve,
On the whole I don't see a problem with it. I am big on attribution if we use someone else' content and would suggest that you provide attribution within the caption and/or on mouseover even though it is on the feed. Something like ...from SEOmoz, a leader in Search Engine Optimization thought and practice. (this is simply a quick example)
As to the question, I think it is a good idea, is a valid way of creating good content (so long is you remember good attribution), and is credible.
Best,
Robert
The 301 has already been answered and I agree.
As to the "Should a re-direct always be an exact match?" If you are speaking of keyword to keyword, url to url (DomainA.com/this-url to DomainB.com/this-url), etc. I don't think so. I have certain sites we handle for clients that over a couple of years are not as necessary. Similar vertical but not exact at all. Think Jelly Beans to Gum Drops. We have taken jelly bean pages and redirected to gumdrop with a nice positive effect. So long as you are ball park with content, I think you should go for it.
A cautionary is that I would not take say a muffler site that is closed and redirect it to a daycare facility, etc.
Hope it helps,
First, I've done a lot of full site 301's - meaning all pages on the site to new domain pages, not domain to domain - and never lost 10% (usually 1%). Second, the answer was based on how you wrote the question. You could simply redesign one page (one with less PR, PA, etc. would be suggestion) and redirect it to the other. Just do not change anything in that url.
Hope it helps,
Robert
Hello SEO Hunter
Just making sure you are creating a new page and both 301 to that as opposed to 301 one to the other for each? So your new page would be widgets.com/about-contacting-us and you would 301 from the two current to the new page. If so, that is great.
I agree with Marisa otherwise.
Per Keri's response, I have been amazed for some time by the staff at SEOmoz and their desire to see all questions answered. They are amazing, provide their own qualified insights, and when necessary seek out the expertise of others.
As to Irving's why do more not respond with thumbs and best's, I would say that there have been times that I actually thought I wrote such an amazing answer the entire world would thumb it up only to have...nothing happen. But, there have been others where I was just answering the question and the next day had 4 or 5 thumbs up and a good answer. Sooo, go figure.
By the way, I did have one occurrence when I was (probably unjustly) given some quality thumbs up in an answer where I included poetry... No S%$!.
So, if all else fails and you've given your best,don't feel downtrodden and for god's sake don't rest!
Pick up that pen and write more advice, when the thumbs up finally come, its cause your smart and your nice.
Cheers.
Hello Bob,
I agree with Alan re the hold off on scrapping the site. And, if there is a way to utilize what weight it does have, use KW research and see what type of quality domain that is exact match you can come up with. An example would be LodiCosmeticDentist.net, etc. (Then use 301 redirects from Dentist90210.com as you know to do.)
Handling dental sites, I never use smiles, smile, teeth, etc. as they are not terms that are searched for and I prefer a domain have some semblance of a keyword in it, if not an exact match.
Ahh, Miriam,
You are always there for me. This appears to be a great resource and I will follow up on it in the a.m. I will let you know how it goes.
We usually just buy whatever workable level (like SEOmoz Pro) to start with and test it out for 3 to 6 months. If it works we expand or stay with it and if not, well we don't.
I actually had higher hope for BrightEdge, (EDIT: THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN BrightLocal NOT BRIGHT EDGE. We use BrightEdge for our enterprise solution and are two to three months in and liking it so far.) but we get to much conflicting data to make it actionable for our clients who are paying us. I will let you know how Places Scout works out for us.
Thanks as usual, you are the best,
Robert
Irving, I understand where you are coming from, but I think it is easy for us to get a little too worried about Pandas, Penguins, and the other animals. If you look at GWM Guidelines they are fairly clear on what the link schemes are:
So, unless they are adding to the manipulation or purchase of links I don't see a problem. This site is currently up and I have to believe if it was not hit by Penguin 1.1 on the 25th of May, I don't see a redirect causing it to happen.
Good thought though.
Anderson,
With a 301 you are redirecting page to page. So www.olddomain.com/page1 to www.newdomain.com/page1. This is done in the .htacess file and it is important as it will transfer the link juice 90 to 99% (my experience is that it is always closer to 99%). We are doing that with a 1,000 page ecommerce site now and do not foresee an issue.
If you follow the protocol, you will not have an immediate increase in domain authority, but will gain it gradually within two to three months based on my experience. MAKE SURE YOU EXPLAIN IT TO THE CLIENT BEFOREHAND. I meant this for emphasis, I am not yelling.
Most of us keep believing at some point the value of an exact match domain will go away and I still see value in them. I also believe having the keyword in the domain is important if you can do that. Here is a link to a handy 301 guide (Courtesy of Sha Menz): http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php
Hope this helps,
We have used BrightLocal for some time now. With Bright Local we do not like the reports from a qualitative point of view in that the information is often wrong.
Does anyone recommend something other than Bright Local?
Thanks,
Actually better! 0.7% WOW. ...if only...
Interesting thought on header/footer though our JS is at bottom so not a 'slow' load.
All,
I have to admit, sometimes you guys are too good. My head of Dev was in this morning and I was speaking with him re Keri's assertion (eunaneunan posit) on two instances of GA code. Well......... He looked and said its here in header and footer. "Good bug catch!" I opened my email and Keri had followed up with screen shots earlier this morning. Well, that's why she is one of my favorites.
Does anyone know how to rebuild an ego that had gone way up with a way low bounce rate and which has now gone way down due to being, uh, well, uh brought to reality??
While the current stats are great anyway, I had allowed those improvements to cloud my judgement on this and therefore did not look closer. (Picture me wiping the rose coloring from my glasses!)
Thanks to each of you as usual. I cannot imagine a world without Mozzzzzzzzzzzers!
Keepin it real.
Thanks again Keri,
I wanted to reply and thank all who have responded so far. I do not think the code is in twice and am checking it with three different sources as, frankly, Keri made me nervous.
If you look at May to May, the Total Visitors are up 78% (I see this as attributable to better CTR mostly and to some degree you would have to say it could be attributable to different market or marketing, but for May last year they did PPC all month and this year it started on the 25th with lower daily spend).
If you look at average visit duration it is up 56% and pages per visit have more than doubled - up 131%. With total pageviews, well it is 4 times. Now, when you look at percentage of uniques to total it is 87% for 2011 and 83% for 2012 so no real change.
When I add it up, I see: People are engaging the site more and deeper. They are finding something that takes them in and makes them want to look at more. Obviously, if this is true (I am open to it not being) you would assume the bounce rate would go down.
Or am I off here?
Thanks, Adam, Good viewpoint in my estimation. Before I give it all away, I want to see some more responses as I am highly intrigued by what we are seeing over time. When it first occurred I thought the result would diminish but it has not. So,.......
BTW - Crimson Penguin is one I haven't seen before! Have to elucidate some time!
I am really curious about a result I have never seen before. Our bounce rate went down a lot on a new site. So, what is good???
Recently, we took on a project with a company that offers a product they install for consumers and who had been in business for 15 plus years. The company is successful, has good customer base of those who have been made very happy, etc. It is not a repeat sale type of product, etc. One and done.
Their site when we began talking was roughly a year old and was not well constructed but not terrible. Most of the issues were around I frames, use of older coding, poor SEO, etc. There was not really a way to "redesign" and we built a new site.
This became a true collaboration in a B2B environment as the owner pushed us like crazy. Not the bad kind of push, the one that makes you say to your team, "Let's find a way!"
The result, IMO, was a gorgeous site. But, as you know, those are a dime a dozen. But, to get to the point, when we took over the account they had a bounce rate of around 45%. I did not see this as either good or bad, but a fact and for this industry probably not bad at all. In all honesty, I was not looking at that as a first metric I wanted to move, but it was obviously at or near the top for all the reasons we know.
So, this site is a local business, not an everyday product and gets about 2500 to 3000 uniques per month. If we compare to May of 2011/2012:
2011 2012
Total Visitors 1852 3,298
Uniques 1609 2,740
Pageviews 5,634 23,203
Pages/visit 3.04 7.04
Avg Duration 2.05 3.20
Yes, I am leaving off what we are getting, yes, I am leaving off the site. Please don't hate me. I am really wanting to see what others see with site changes and bounce rates first and will disclose. So, what's a great bounce rate? How do you know?
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
Paul,
Frankly, for a music site - indy type, I like it a lot. I generally do not like the long pages. Using the HTML5 to change to help users (thanks Tommy) is cool.
As to the use in a different type site I think you have to be more careful. Sites should be defined by the queries and the users and built from there. We do a bit of WebDev and have a rule with our clients. You must follow our process if we are to build you a site. It won't work otherwise for us or them.
So, we stress function first: What do you want to achieve with the site? Most in business want clients, customers, sales, etc. but many get lost in having a cool site. Most in professional practices want new clients/patients but get lost in wanting to speak about how good they are or what great works they do. This does not create search results that work for them.
You must get the client to understand that if they are not an indy band or a cutting edge resource this will be a bit more of a pain for a user looking to answer a query. We live in a drive through world and we want our latte now dammit!
Best
You can look at Vimeo and Viddler. A suggestion is that you read this excellent post from Phil Nottingham here on SEO moz. He is with Distilled and I have gained some significant knowledge from his post and answers. Here is the link.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/hosting-and-embedding-for-video-seo
Hope it helps.
Ryan,
This is impressive from the effort point of view alone; what sets it apart is your understanding of the need for documentation if you were to achieve success. So many sites had "SEO" firms do poor linking in the past and there was money to be made by just linking your junk to others. Unfortunately, many of these people went away or are of the type who would never take the time or energy to respond.
It would be interesting to know at what percentage of removal the Manual overseer will deem the site to be sufficiently rehabilitated on two levels:
The first being the obvious that if a site can rehab to 35% for example the likelihood is google will lift the manual action.
The second being that, even at the example percentage of 35%, is it fair to the sites that did not go down that road that the "rehabilitated" site still has 65% of the inorganic links?
A question arises as to what caused the manual action?
Is the action taken as the result of some fixed ratio of organic to inorganic links?
Or, is it at least a varying percentage based on a given industry?
My guess is it is subjective on the part of those attempting to manually validate a huge piece of real estate.
Thanks for the excellent detail, you are truly a champ.
Robert
Again, if it is relevant and not just some cheap directory, go for it. If you are wanting some good links and want to pay for directories, go to Yahoo Directory and BestoftheWeb
Hope this helps
OSE is not set up to show every possible link. It is showing the more relevant/significant links and most state that it shows about a fourth of the total. So, the question re: reliable, is yes it is reliable; the links shown are there and the PA/DA, anchor text, etc. are accurate. What it will not show is every link.
Also, it won't show newer links but if you look after a recent update is published and a link is not there, look again after the next and you should see the newer link.
Best
Rmedlin04
My opinion is that you should decide based on the amount of time/effort/$ you must expend versus what they do for you. I think when you have links from relevant sites it improves your site and chances for additional traffic. Too often we are out looking for the PA 60+ sites that we can get for the juice without thought to whether or not there is a fit.
That is due not just to "gaming" the system, but the reality that we all need to rank above our competitors and the current algorithm(s) require it.
I would still go after the relevant links based on the resource allocation question being one I could live with.
Best
Brandon,
Here is a quick check to try just based on the url you show. Go into posts and see if there are example theme or WP posts or post categories. Remove those. See if that will remove the errant url. Then look in permalinks and insure that you have decided how you want the permalinks structured. My guess is somehow it is in the permalinks. Here is a good description of them and how to set them: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#PATHINFO:_.22Almost_Pretty.22
Hopefully that will help (sorry for the less than in depth)