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Donna,
My guess would be the reasoning behind this is that by virtue of having GA or GWMT, you are one step closer to Google by virtue of the data there. As I think through it, I see a plausibility, but still don't think it is true. If by aggressive you are in the grey to black area, I don't believe having or not having GA will matter. If you go over the top while utilizing Piwik, I don't see how it would be better hidden from Google.
Just IMO,
Best,
Alan, that is part of what I believe Google really wants. With this and rel=auth there should be the ability to at least begin to mark ownership and provide a timestamp type trail. By virtue of the content originally linking to EGOL, it is then "his." That won't stop duplication of the content. It likely provides a point of comparison however in the who wrote it first equation.
I just read through it the first time you posted and thought it was good. When you pulled it out in relation to EGOL's response I thought, Duhhh, I missed the importance in the moment. Great Job Alan.
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
Duncan,
Questions are not dumb unless they are not asked. (my bit of Zen for the morning;).
It is interesting and I have seen it before. Not sure that I can answer why OSE would show it. It would be interesting to see the site/link if you could supply. As to not findig a link to the page, are you saying it was not a SERP result on Baidu? It was in some other way on the page?
Using mozbar, click on page analyses while on Baidu page and open box. When it opens in top right you will see several icons and the second is a white pen. Click or hover over and you will see a dropdown with different colors for highlighting. Click on followed and it will highlight in green all followed links. (assumption is it would be a followed link since it is a serp.) Let us know what you find.
Best,
Robert,
I am trying to help so please do not take this as being affrontive. You are talking of a site as opposed to a page. What is ranked is a page; are you seeing each page slowly dropping or are you seeing the home page drop and referring to that as the site dropping?
If it is the homepage that is at issue, for what keywords are you having an issue? I am curious as to "took a hit with Panda," and what you saw that led to that assumption?
Generally, if a page is drifting downward it is the result of stale content, no traffic, etc. I like to look at those issues from a keyword query to meta description to on site and content kind of methodology. What are you seeing as to traffic over time?
I realize this is not an answer, but hopefully the clarification will assist in helping you.
Best
Good answer there Sha. Glad to see your smiling face, thought you were hiding! Hope all is well down under.
Steve
We use IfByPhone dot Com and have used them for two years. I searched and found that they do handle Canadian businesses and one of there testimonials is a business in Winnipeg. What we have found that speaks to an agency and I believe would translate to any business is that they have multitude of features which allows us to customize a solution to fit any client or research need.
From a pricing standpoint I find them to be highly competitive and from a service/support POV I find them to be highly responsive. Considering that we often have initial setup on a site or project done be interns or new developers and they are able to grasp the dashboards, etc. and have easy access to quick assistance, I have to say I would not change.
Hope this helps,
Gareth,
Search engines show different results for different geographical areas(countries) and for different languages. When a site is a .com it is a generic site and the algorithm looks at where it is hosted (US, UK, Aus, etc). It looks at what language has been set in Google WMT as well. EN-US, EN-UK, etc. From this it determines what is most appropriate to show in search.
If a site has a country code TLD - Example.com.UK, it is more likely to show up in the .UK of Google than a .com is unless the .com is hosted in the UK and chosen EN-UK as the language.
By doing this the engines display the results that are most appropriate to a given country.
Best
Project#Labs
The key words used here are quality and relevant. For us (we have copywriters on board) as we see our need for more and more blogs, pages, etc. we will likely outsource some of that content. If someone were writing for one of our client sites, say medical equipment sales, and they could write relevant posts of at least 200 words we would likely pay $25 to $50 depending on the sites they were published to and the quality of the article/post. Obviously, the anchor text and links would have to be there as well.
We do occasionally pay more when we know the writer and have seen quality from them before.
Hope this helps.
Edit (By more, I mean up to $100 per).
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
Modbargains,
In reference to this statement: look at what their competitors have to say about that subject and come up with your own words. Re spin that and repost that on other blogs
Since we have several large, high verdict (one attorney alone has over 300 verdicts) clients and since we write articles for them, if he has a client who is a competitor to one of my firms, you are suggesting:
He takes my quality content,
He changes out some verbs, nouns, and pronouns using some of the software so readily available to the lazy and unscrupulous, and, then,
He puts it out on the internet as if his clients had written it?
He is to do this in the same space that I operate in daily?
Really? Against trial attorneys who love to go to court? Brilliant!
All Star
Great point on number 2!
Best
Bob,
Welcome to fun! We deal with a few attorneys so I will throw in my two cents worth for you:
... I was going to recommend to my client that they set up an account and blog away!
My experience is that every attorney wants to blog until it is time to blog and then......
...now I have to "ride" my client to get busy and start creating content.
I do not know that you will have success with this on a couple of levels: they won't like being pushed and, if you have not spelled out the relationship regarding who is responsible for content, they may resent it.
I feel like I want to do more for them on the blog side to keep things going but not having a law background, probably not doable.
I will tell you what my head of development has said to me along these lines: "This is not your job. We do not need you doing this, we need you moving the company forward! This is a low return item for you." Now, you may be smaller and having to do more, but you need to weigh you doing it against what else you could achieve by you not doing it. Ask yourself what your role is.
Do most SEO's do the blogging for their clients, farm it out or keep pushing their clients to do it?
I don't think there is a "most" in terms of business practices. (I do occasionally write something if it is moving a major client project along - once every two months a page or two). You can farm it out, but do it on a basis of paying per piece if accepted. There are several copywriting sites you can look at). We have hired copywriters from major colleges here on a parttime / paid intern basis and some of them have worked out great. You have to have time to spend with them early on to teach them CMS, on page SEO to a point, .etc. (Maybe 10 to 20 hours tops). You would be amazed what they can write about given the right background material to research. Since it is law i would be happy to share a few pointers via phone or email on this.
I also want them to sign up with articlebase but the same thing is going to happen. I have to push them to write articles. I guess this is my job?
I am not familiar with Articlebase, and don't have time to read their terms, etc. If you are simply giving them articles, then hoping someone picks them up, there may be some better legal publishers to look at.
As to the last ?: I guess this is my job? NO, it is a massive opportunity for you to provide exceptional service and make a great return for that! Get them first to understand why they need to post content (blog, articles, PR, etc.). Then show them they will not do it due to their needing to handle their business. Then decide what amount of profit you want to make in order to provide them this service. Add the cost to provide it to the profit number and show them how you are going to benefit them by providing the service for them. That is what a great SEO/CEO would do!!
Good Luck!
Stephen,
Thanks for this, it is actually quite well thought out and makes a lot of sense. I appreciate the time and effort you put into it.
Robert
Utah Tiger
I am assuming you are UtahTiger.net and you have a quality competitor who is UtahTiger.com and you are trying to insure people know the difference and equate you with the .net.
If so, then I would go about it this way in terms of your on page. I would not put it in the title tag. I would see that from a customer point of view as odd. I would caution against trying to overdo it and have it on every page as well because it looks spammy. I would use an About Us or and About UtahTiger (title tag) with a brief who we are paragraph and then use an H1: There Is a Difference with UtahTiger.net or similar. for the content after the H1 I would tell the .net story. You could even then use an H2 that was: When you think of UtahTiger... Don't Forget the NET!
Anything catchy will work for branding imprint in a customer's mind. That is what you want. If your domain really was UtahTiger.net, man, that would be easy: We're the Tiger you caught in the NET!
That would be my approach. As to the SEO you hired, I would simply ask his rationale for the title tag and see if he has anything further for the strategy.
Best,
Ben,
When you say "just stopped ranking out of nowhere" - ranking for what terms?
Upgrading and report differences are coincidental. With both a Plus sites, there was no Google Places verification, etc. Your other sites have that. Trust me, it is big.
Activitysuper
We use exact match domains with and without hyphens so I am quite interested in this. As an agency we handle a few sites so exact match/keyword in domain is an often discussed question. Most believed that there would be some mod to the algo in the last year or so, but we have not seen it. So, understand that my question is driven by curiosity on this interesting subject; I am always looking for answers that improve the outcomes of our clients.
The more I read your response: "national-currency is not better or even as good as nationalcurrency when it comes to exact match domains" and your subsequent reply to Greg(( NationalCurrency.com is a EMD for the term 'National Currency' - National-Currency.com is not.) , I am curious as to where you are getting this from? If it is the same link in the reply, is there anything newer? This link is from a correlation study that is 18 months old - an 18 months in which a lot of change took place - and given more and more people are trying to possess and seem to have exact match domains, there might be a higher correlation of exact match utilizing a hyphen due to the larger data set.
Also, given that correlation does not equal causation, any one piece of the findings or all the findings in aggregate could be proof of nothing...or something.
Thanks
Note: My stating exact match with hyphen is simply a way of differentiating a piece in the question here.
Activity super, you state the link is proof that national-currency.com is not an exact match domain. I see that in a correlation study exact match and exact match hyphenated are two categories out of four. Are you saying because they created a category "exact match hyphenated" that makes it not an exact match?
I could find nothing else within the post that stated your assertion so I am curious as to how or where you are seeing that.
Thanks
Greg, see the link above where Matt Cutts confirms it:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3...
Greg
Actually, I find this a bit funny on a couple of levels. First, I think exact match keywords in url/title tag still matter even though we all thought they would not by now. Corey says that the dash does not make it two words...what does? Matt Cutts says it does: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3SFVfDIS5k and, when you look on this subject a response from Dr. Pete even showed that an underscore can do the same: http://www.seomoz.org/q/hyphens-vs-underscores
As to the 303 I am at a loss as to why you would want to use that type redirect, but am open to hear it. If you are going to do a redirect I would use a 301 as that will pass most of the link juice and a 302 will not. I do not believe a 303 will either.
Now, Corey makes a good point about your needing links and that is important. The other thing I would look at is have you done keyword research on your field of expertise (I know nothing of national currency). Are there many searches on sameare there searches on Natonal currency values, etc.?
If you are going to use this for the exact match, two keyword reason, you need to do it because you have some link value and you want to exploit that (with a 301 url to url in the .htaccess file or equivalent.) Without the links now, maybe you just billed a new site or clone the old and move on down the road with the new domain.
Best
You make an excellent point. I am not sure about it legally though (will ask one of our clients). I do believe on a news source, if you give attribution, it is still doable. Again, I am not an attorney. I just believe there is a public domain issue at some point on the news. (All news is re reported after the first incidence).
The 30% he was referring to regards duplicate content so is 30% of the content on his page, not the content attributable to the source.
But, you raise a very good point. Thanks,
Rafael,
I just received this from Google:
From: Google Mapsnoreply-local-issues@google.com/noreply-local-issues@google.com
Subject: Google Maps Problem Report - Action taken
Date: March 14, 2012 10:58:34 AM CDT
To: RFisher@DrumBEATMarketing.net
Hi Robert Fisher,
Thanks again for sharing your local expertise with other Google users! Based on your edit, we've removed Miami Printing from Google Maps.
Thanks for your help,
The Google Maps team
Jeffrey,
I would agree with you and I rant about those who do steal, but Shazad says in the Q and A:
but do mention the source like......
Best
Since you are giving attribution: "but do mention the source like "according to XYZ news source" etc." You are likely following the creative commons rules since you are copying from another news source. Here is where you can check : creative commons licenses
I don't think using 30% from another source for a news piece will present many problems for duplicate content but would think you are reaching a limit or close to it.
Hope it helps,
Pulsesol
As to the first question (are they OK)- They are just keywords/phrases essentially. If you believe that is the way to improve your lot with this portion of on site, I guess they are OK. But, they are pretty much spammy titles IMHO.
So, the way to change that is to follow a bit of convention as opposed to seeing what you can get in the 65-70 characters:
Let's say your site is Cool Online Pharmacy then for Cat Skin Care I would have a title tag like this:
Discounted Skincare Products for Cats | Cool Online Pharmacy (I do not believe there is a need for the word buy, but will get some disagreement on that I am sure)
Then: For Nebulisers Nebulisers | Discount Nebulisers | Cool Online Pharmacy
I don't think based on title tag alone that you would face a penalty doing these the way you have them. I do think that they look terrible and people will see them as poorly done. By having the brand second after the pipe ( | ) you are branding the site and at the same time insuring your keywords are first.
Best
Edit: You do not need UK in the title tag if site is a ccTLD, if GWMT is set to EN - UK, or if server is in UK. (You need to follow one of these anyway so you do not need UK in title)
As we say down Jamaica way....It be jammin' mon. It be jammin'.
Eppie, I think it is totally reasonable to acknowledge that it is there and that it works. Frankly, If you look at Wil's post re Google Making Liars Out of All of US, that clarifies a ton. Anchor text manipulation is king, that is a fact.
My point was that I don't like it. It is that simple. I was against and still am against SOPA and its iterations; however, when I see quality content turned to trash and someone claiming they produced an article, page, etc. I do see the harm done by it. So, that said, if someone wants to spin I cannot stop them. If they want to be involved in paid linking, link exchanges, link wheels, etc that is their choice. I do not have to stand by and allow it to be passed off as if hey, go ahead, everyone does it. No harm, no foul.
I simply am voicing my opinion of the effects of it on everyone. Remember most who are involved in SEO are seen as common street scum because we allow this stuff to go on and we can say either everyone does it or Google doesn't stop it. I challenge anyone to show me where even half the population has a positive opinion of those in SEO.
So ask yourself, why is that?
Best to You, I fully realize you were not condoning it per se.
I wish that article spinning and web trash were funny. Guess I lost my sense of humor when the brainless "SEO experts" took articles I had written, changed the verbs, pronouns, nouns, etc. and made, "Voila" new articles. What freshness. What I wonder is would they do it to my face?? This is called web trash to those who actually produce for a living.
I recently had a client go with a major publishing company (Newspapers) and they produced a new website, Facebook page, etc. (and were in the middle of canceling her Google Local, Bing Bus, etc. and setting it up their way). When I communicated with their rep about who wrote the content she proudly stated "Our SEO partner!" (happened to be owned by same large media firm....).
She was a bit shocked when I highlighted their stuffed in keywords and left the other content plain. Along with that I sent them copies of pages I had personally written a year and a half ago. The client is my wife.
There is no fast in SEO. But by all means suggest as much trash as is possible.
Highland,
I read this and went to do a bit of research regarding whether or not Google would ban an entire IP address.... Well I found nothing, either way. Typical Google. But, I think you are right and that I may have spread an urban myth or at least something that became an urban myth.
So, I agree, I do not think the entire IP address would be banned to begin with. Thanks for making me think.
Best
Mark Anthony
Nijzing is correct re that links from the same IP address have less value would be one effect on your site. The other in the case of a non dedicated server is if the other sites hosted on the host gator server you are on should have a spam site within the group, it can cause the search engines to ignore the entire IP address.
So you are on same server as SpammyJoe.com and he gets busted by Google, they will not list anything on that server. So, if you are not sure of the issues that could hurt you.
Best
SEOJellyfish,
There is no way that you can turn off the site, wait 1 to 2 months, turn the site on, and expect to be anywhere near where you were.
So, have you asked any more questions around the "testing" they need to do? I am assuming you are an affiliate and not an agency since you state a line between their site and your "campaign" site.
Are they just tired of paying affiliates?
What do they want to achieve with this?
How are they going to compensate you for going black for up to 2 months?
What are they going to test?
If you do this and the test finishes and you cannot readily regain your ranking, what changes in your relationship?
I think I would clarify all of this before moving to turn your site off.
Best
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.
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:-)
OK, Miriam, you are truly and I mean truly on top of all things Local at the Google. I had done several searches recently on "Do not support location" in places and in GWMT, etc. and the most current thing I could find was 2010. That had a bad link to take you to a resolution. Ouch. These are not only great links from you, the Shotland blog piece was priceless! I commented and gave you attribution.
I am thinking a name change may be in order: Miriam Local or Miriam S.E.O. Local. (like that second one.)
Thanks for the great help you provide,
Robert
Comprendo Amiga,
I truly understand as I have often had to withhold one of mine as it is a clients and I have a rule about what we disclose without permission...nothing. So, yep, I agree. But, sometimes it is more out of not wanting to be seen by competitors or nerves over what someone may say, etc. So, anyone reading if you can, please let us know a url. 
Because, I am older than you. The older you get the less you sleep. Why, because you realize you have less time left and you wanna be busy....
Just kidding. Was working on a new project, got tired of it and wanted to moz around a bit. BTW, you gotta send me a pic of that cat! Amazing. Just don't tell anyone I like cats and the like as they may think I'm a bit of a sissy or something.... 
Paul,
I am at a loss on this. The reason being that i don't see anything all that "unnaturaly:"
You have some great high quality links to begin with.
Your anchor text is fairly diverse (Shopping cart software is what you do so..., and then the others around it are also fairly well used, etc.)
TLD distribution is 74% .com with the rest spread out, about 1% .edu, etc.
Your first 20 linking root domains are ubiquitous, high DA sites.
So, I have a big, big, hmmmmm. IF yours is unnatural, then GoDaddy is the spawn of satan's links.....?????
I would still move slowly on the resubmission give yourself at least 24 hours to really survey all and then go for it with your ducks in a row.
Good luck, please let us know how it goes.
New Rule:For questions like this you must supply a url..... It is near impossible otherwise.
Best
OK, it can be one of several things, a recent edit gone wrong, an over stuffing in categories with keywords, etc. Did you do a recent edit? Did you do it in your Places account? Etc. Again, it is near impossible to help without a url. Thanks,
I just reported it to the help desk as well. May be doing some maintenance, etc. We shall see.
Stephen,
Well thought out and very much appreciated. My lead web developer was the best hire I have made in 20 years...because I took my time, was methodical, refused to settle for less than the best, etc. He is a 27 year old guru, great attitude, great ethic, loves the work, etc.
I think your idea of reversing the problem shows sound business thinking btw. Luckily, the only client I did not love went and got himself fired by me about two weeks ago. Agreed on the higher rate. One question? would you care to elaborate on scaling linkbuilding vs scaling consultancy?
Thanks again and I will let you know what our answer becomes.
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.
I hope most people who read this understand it EGOL. As a fact, we have raised prices by nearly 50%. More because we provide massive value in my opinion.
Secondarily, one Yoda versus a handful of Luke's makes total sense. Especially if they have a Yoda like work ethic.
Thanks as always,
Pablo, Wait. Do not submit for reconsideration yet. If you are missing something, you could create more problems than you solve. So,
Go through the site and see what is going on. If Google is questioning "unnatural links" look at all and see where they may be right. You want to try to fix this before you submit for reconsideration.
Is there any way for you to give us a domain name so that we can see what is there, that would really help with helping you. What % nofollow, how fast have you garnered the links, what directories? What paid directories, any link wheels or reciprocal links that you know of? Etc.
Hope this helps, be patient for a minute, it will help.
Best
kynduvme,
I think you may not have understood the question. We are an SEO/SEM/WebDev firm, I am looking for ideas as to where to find the candidate. I would consider consultants, but it would be with strings as my experience with "consultant" hires is that many turn out to have a full time gig, etc. and when it comes time to deliver, the full time takes precedent.
Thanks for trying though,
AllaO
Do you have some campaigns set to track at the root and some at the sub domain? That would be the only way I could think of when they are essentially being run simultaneously.
Best
Bill
yes it is helping you. You are getting a link to your homepage, and you have an exact match domain name for what you want. So, they likely did not really cause any problem IMO.
Interesting assumption on traffic here.... I think it helps you either way today or tomorrow, the same. Remember, the link is a gift that keeps on giving. One days worth of traffic will likely make no difference either way.
Best,
the second url (lubock) shows up in rank tracker quite well. See Image. Midland does not show up on the ranking. Now, I did find the other (Affordable, Midland) and it is fine.
When I look at A+ Midland, it is totally different than the Lubbock sites. (Places not verified, where as they are done very well for all your Affordable locations.)
As to if the rankings stopped tracking, I can only guess that you may have in some way turned them off in campaigns, or if using rank tracker, you unchecked a box.
Note: Rank tracker. If you put in storage units lubbock and appropriate url, then two weeks later you run another for same but uncheck box and in essence create new, the ranking history will be lost. You must leave the box checked in rank tracker or you will lose the history.
Best
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.
Anthony,
I can't tell you if this is the same issue, but Megan with SEOmoz just responded to a question re duplicate content:
http://www.seomoz.org/q/duplicate-page-content-and-titles
Again, may be helpful, may not. But there was a bit of a bug.
Best
Thanks for the follow up Megan, impressive as usual.
Robert
