Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Shawn,

Not solely for its PR or age. If you first find a good domain for sale that you'd like to use for a website or blog, then factors such as age, history and current strengths can be taken into account.

If you'd be buying it just to redirect it to another domain, then there will be Zero Pre-existing SEO value if it's dormant (not hosting a site).

Put things like age and PR to one side, think of why you'd like the domain and how you could use it, then bring back factors such as age and history to determine if it's actually a good domain 'for you' and how much you'd be willing to pay based on it's strengths and its value to you.

There are always potential issues to consider when purchasing a domain; check out it's hosting history and who has owned it previously, look out for it being associated with poor quality or poor neighbourhood sites such as porn and evaluate it's own inbound links. Wayback Machine can help as well as registrar history.

There is a useful video for you to view here on SEOmoz, entitled "Age of Site and Old Links - Whiteboard Friday".

Hope that helps, Simon

Hi Filolari

Well done, you've performed the correct actions to try and get your internal page back ranking for the term "realizzazione siti internet".  It's even the first page linked to under the 'Featured Spotview' section on your homepage, it's in the navigation, so it's well linked to from your homepage. It's also in the Title, Description and H1 tag on your internal page, which all helps.

Your robots.txt file looks fine, nothing to worry about there.

As the homepage is often (not always) the strongest most authoritive page, it can take time for a deeper page to rank for a particular keyword instead. Switching back from the homepage will take a while, just need to wait a while longer and try as many of the following as you can to aid the process:

• Your website doesn't appear to have a sitemap.xml file, it's not located at http://www.spotview.it/sitemap.xml ~ I'd suggest creating a sitemap.xml file and submitting it to Google via Google Webmaster Tools.
• I'd suggest to continue what you're doing, obtaining more natural links to your internal page from other good quality relevant websites, with the optimized anchor text.
• Perhaps create a useful & interesting Infographic with a link back to the page, then distribute the Infographic to a variety of relevant websites.
• Create some more new unique content on your website to keep it fresh, where relevant, link some of these pages (only if appropriate to do so, avoid significant link sculpting) to the page you're trying to get ranking highly again.
• When the opportunity arises, do a Press Release and distribute it well, linking back to the page.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi StreetwiseReports

The code to add onto the end of a URL Search Query is:

• &pws=0

Check out a blog post here on SEOmoz from last week, entitled "Face-off - 4 Ways to De-personalize Google" which is all about de-personalizing search.

Regards

Simon

Hi SEOCM, (apologies for the lack of paragraphing here, doesn't work on an iPad). Note: Keri added paragraph marks, and the iPad issue is in our bug queue. (Thank you)

Q1) and Q2) If the redirect was done correctly (a 301 permanent redirect in effect) then Most of the previous website's strength will be applied to your new website, there is some loss though, usually varies between a 5% and 20% loss. A 301 redirect tells the search engines that the move is permanent, so Google after a fairly short while, recognises this new site as the new home of the previous site.

Q3) Keywords in Domains are believed to now not have as much ranking weight as they used to. Most of the old website's overall strength will be applied to the new website rather than say an individual keyword in the previous domain.

So don't worry, so long as the migration from the old site to the new one was done correctly, you'll likely get the maximum benefit that you can.

Regards, Simon

Hi Jarno

The Linkscape Index is not updated daily, a schedule of planned (& previous) updates can be found at  https://seomoz.zendesk.com/entries/345964-linkscape-update-schedule

The last update was on January 17th, so your link that you obtained last week won't be showing up just yet. It likely will be after the next update on February 29th (or the next time your site is crawled after that date).

Regards

Simon

You're welcome Julie.

Lots of those results as shown on the page ( http://www.myvipwebdesign.com/myvipwebdesign/get-found-on-google-maps.html ) are 'local results' based on local business listings and appear in what's known as a '7 Pack' which lists 7 local results for Google Maps.

Others that are ranking number 1 naturally in Google will be for long tail low competition keywords and chances are, they won't be number 1 for long where there's any degree of competitiveness.

There is some complete nonsense on their website, such as statements like "Their is a certain algorithm that Google follows" and "We also apply the formula  we have devised that is "Google Friendly" and submit it to Google on your behalf."

Google don't follow an algorithm, they have the most complex algorithms ever devised. There were over 13,000 changes to their natural search algorithm last year (mostly tests) with around 560 permanent changes. It's impossible to guarantee any top results with any degree of honesty.  Also, the second statement is complete nonsense, there is no formula that's 'Google Friendly' that can be submitted to Google, they are making up total rubbish.

So rest assured that you would be making a wise decision by avoiding any such company as this one that makes such ridiculous guarantees and claims.

For some more reassurance, have a read of a page on Google's site  "Search Engine Optimization (SEO)" which has some really useful advice and even mentions that no one can guarantee a number 1 ranking on Google.

You've probably noticed that this is something I feel rather strongly about.  SEO is an unregulated industry and as such, there are way too many 'cowboys' out there looking to make a quick buck from those that are simply looking to grow their business. It really annoys me when such people take advantage of good honest hard working people. As such, whenever I can, I like to highlight what would be wise to avoid getting into. There are plenty of good ethical agencies and freelancers that can help you in an ethical and sustainable way.

Regards

Simon

PS.  I don't work for an agency, I work in-house so do have a totally non-biased view here  

Hi There

A good question.  I can most confidently tell you that purchasing a domain name and redirecting it to another domain/website will have Zero SEO benefit. It's not even a good idea to market the domain that's being redirected as the links that will inevitably be acquired will be redirected also, loosing some of the link strength through the rediirect.

Plus for User Experience, it's usually not particularly good as visitors expect to land on the expected site rather than being redirected to another.

It's also the general consensus now that exact match domains do not have as much SEO weight as they used to, especially with Google. So exact match domains are not worth what they used to be.

• If you're purchasing a live website on the domain, that's different as you may be able to take advantage of that site's strength if it's a relevant website in a similar category.

If it's purely purchasing and redirecting it, then don't spend any more than the typical registration cost of a few $.  Spend that $10,000 investing in Content and distributing it well, which will lead to some relevant links too, or indeed on PPC as you suggest (though that's not an investment).

If the branded domain has some other value to the business, then paying a fair price is typical as you'd be buying an assett.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Jason

A good place to start is by reading/studying 'The Beginners Guide to SEO' which can be found here on Moz  http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

From your list of keywords, it looks like your target audience is Employers who are looking for new Employees ?  This list of keywords looks like it has the Adwords competition index and local monthly searches ?

If so, those are very targeted keywords with little search volume, though likely to convert well.

I'd suggest considering some more generic search terms also, Employers do search on terms such as 'recruitment' and 'recruitment agency', so worth revisiting your list of keywords to incorporate some higher volume terms as well.

That's not to say it's better to target those before the more targeted & longtail, can be easier to rank for those before trying the more generic, which can be supported by the longtail.

As for how many words, as many or as little really, depends on what your website has to offer and who your target audience are. A combination of high volume generics and lower volume longtail could be the way to go, depends on your website's and businesses' objectives.

Each page within your site would ideally be based around one main topic, so one main keyword, supported by one, two or three secondary keywords. Each page should serve a specific purpose and add value based around that purpose.

It can be useful to try keywords that you're unsure about via Paid search to get a feel for volumes, CTRs and conversions.

Hopefully some things to consider there.

Regards

Simon

Hi Diane

1. Purchasing new domain names and redirecting them to the main website  -  this will have zero SEO benefit.  A reason for doing this would be to provide an easy to remember web address to people, as you mentioned, or to prevent others from purchasing the domains.

in2town.co.uk/tenerife isn't that hard to remember anyway, or even better, in2town.co.uk with great navigation so that the Tenerife section is quickly and easily found.

2. Sub domains could be an option (each one is essentially a seperate website, so needs its own SEO, inbound links...   so something like  tenerife.in2town.co.uk  could be the Tenerife section.   Or alternatively,  in2town.co.uk/tenerife or in2town.co.uk/tenerife-magazine  where you would not be diluting inbound links across multiple subdomains, they would all be benefiting the one main website. Moderate  Internal Linking is worth consideration for which ever option you end up going for.

Whatever you end up choosing, my advice is to put Usability first, SEO can be catered for with all the above options, though probably more effectively with the one main website and a good URL structure.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Theresa

That's a really good question, to which you will likely get differing answers.

These days, there isn't so much difference between the way modern websites appear on Desktop browsers, Tablet browsers and Smartphone browsers.  Non-smartphone mobiles tend to have more issues.

There are differences though, such as some JavaScript, navigational code and flash not working on tablets and mobiles as well as on desktops.

Personally, I see three main categories at present:

• Desktop
• Tablet (including the iPad)
• Smartphone

because websites do tend to load differently enough between the three, thus having three different technology platforms to cater for.  As tablets and smartphones continue to develop & advance, it's slowly becoming more or less the same, one day not too far off, I believe all 3 will be similar enough and there won't be the need to build different versions (other than perhaps for the speed issue mentioned below).

Within Google Adwords, there remains the option to target 'All Devices', 'Desktop and laptop', 'Mobile devices with full browsers' and 'Tablets with full browsers'

Although another issue is of course Speed;  3G does not usually bode well for full-blown websites to be loaded on a tablet or a smartphone, thus this is a major reason why for the time being, it's usually advisable to cater for tablets and smartphones separately with cut-down versions of the main website. 4G is starting to launch and wireless hotspots and becoming more common, so also one day, speed won't be so much of an issue with tablets and smartphones.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Corey

Kind of. Search Engines don't crawl design features as such, however the ability to easily crawl pages within a website is believed to be a factor, as are other factors such as page speed.

Regarding 'conversion heat mapping', I doubt it. The closest factor that I'm aware of is Engagement, as in how visitors interact with a website;  do they spend time reading pages or bounce straight off, do visitors visit many pages on a website such as going through a research and purchase cycle, or do they not stick around for long.

So there are ranking factors here to take into account such as those mentioned above.  Check out 'The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors' which is also included in a blog post here on SEOmoz.

Regards

Simon

Hi Randy

I'd suggest checking out and working through the SEOmoz Pro User Guide, which can be found at  http://seomoz.zendesk.com/entries/20027997-campaign-set-up

As your campaign is already setup, start by looking at Crawl Diagnostics and addressing any issues there, then check out the Rankings Report to see how your SEO endeavours are doing (helps if you have visitor numbers as well from Google Analytics linked-up).

From there, look at your On-Page Reports, then your Link Analysis.

After you are comfortable that your site is in great shape, start looking at Competitor's sites strengths and weaknesses and your Off-Page SEO (the all important inbound links, which of course requires great content on your site to gain maximum benefit from this).

That should get you off to a great start.

Regards

Simon

Hi Zoltan

A good question.

It's the general consensus that Google does not place much weight on keyworded domains anymore, some sure, though not much. So bearing that in mind, I'd suggest going for a domain that is user-friendly and describes your business.

'spiceandcoffee' sounds ideal, it does what it says on the tin!

Domains without hyphens are better in my opinion, they are easier to communicate, remember (as you said) and to type, so avoid hyhpens if you can and stick with e.g. 'spiceandcoffee'.

(hyphens are considered the same as spaces by search engines, though they can easily distinguish between and identify words that are all together such as in your suggestion of 'spiceandcoffee', no need for hyphens).

So no difference for Search, just better for usability without hyphens.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Maldinii

This could potentially be harming, though mainly because you say the only links are from bad sites with poor anchor text.  If the website also had a reasonable number of good links, then it wouldn't matter, probably.

This is because Google in particular simply discount irrelevant links from poor websites/websites in a bad neighbourhood rather than penalise a site for having those kind of links.  Except for when it's apparent that those links have been purchased as a part of a link building scheme to try and artificially inflate rankings, when both link provider and link receiver are at risk from a penalty.

For some reassurance, have a read of this blog post entitled "What if My Competitors Point Spammy Links to My Site?" and in particular, the section "Defending Yourself from Potential Link Attacks".

Also, view the whole of this video from Rand entitled "I'm Being Outranked by a Spammer" which has some relevant information for you around what I've described here, which is poor spammy links being discounted by Google, so no harm will likely be done purely from having these links.  Still need to have some good links coing in though otherwise the overall SEO will be poor and indeed, you probably won't rank highly.

There isn't much that can be done about those unwanted links pointing in, which is a reason why it won't usually attract a penalty purely for having those links.

What you can do is to start some ethical link building, create some great valuable unique content and distribute it well to start attracting some of the right kind of links from relevant authoritive websites.

I hope that helps

Regards

Simon

Hi Michelle

Drop-down menus are usually fine for SEO, so long as the navigational links within them are text links that search engine spiders can crawl and follow.

HTML and CSS are usually the preferred choice, JavaScript can sometimes be troublesome for bots, though certainly has it's useful place in web design. So long as the links within the menus are text links, then it will be fine.

Could always run them through a spider simulator to make sure.

Regards

Simon

Hi there, unfortunately the answer is No. SEOmoz provide a superb set of tools that can help you to improve both the on-page and off-page SEO of your website. However it's down to the SEO person/team to use these tools and to improve the website in many ways, in order to improve your search rankings. The SEOmoz toolset will certainly help you, no doubt about that, used properly you'll have a great chance of improving your rankings. Regards, Simon

Hi Atul

James is correct in his answer and likewise Robert provides a good answer also.

Check out a blog post from back in December 2010, 'The Problems with Exact Match Domains' which highlighted the issues associated with exact match domains being given too much weight and SEO benefit.

This was shown in blog post by Rand himself entitled 'Are Exact Match Domains Too powerful? Is Their Time Limited?'

Since then, it is widely believed that Google has changed the weighting that is given to exact match domains and they now count for less than previously.  Check out this blog post entitled 'Google: Exact Match Keyword domain Does Not Mean Rankings' by Barry Schwartz over on Search Engine Roundtable.

Going back to your question, there will be Zero SEO benefit from simply buying a new domain and redirecting it to another site.  If you were to buy an existing strong relevant website with it's domain and redirect that, there would be some SEO benefit, though mainly from the website rather than the domain name.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi there, from how you've described the link building that you outsourced, 'commenting on blogs and forums', there will likely be little SEO value to be had there, especially as so many links are not followed (though some no follow links can still pass link juice). It's the non-relevance and poor quality factors of those blogs, forums and links that will not help to add any Search value for your website, if that's the case which is very likely when outsourcing such link building, depends on the professionalism and competence of the agency being used.

Though can't be sure without a proper analysis of the blogs and forums in question.

Guest blogging is an important part of inbound marketing, helping to build up ones' profile and Authoritiveness. However simply commenting for the purposes of link building is all too often wasted effort and money.

I'd suggest focusing on creating some really useful socially shareable content and distribute it well. You'll find the links being obtained as a result of great content work far more valuable and beneficial.

Regards, Simon

Hi Shelly

If the pages are 'crappy' as you describe, then a good idea to delete them as poor quality pages can negatively affect the site overall.

If you are going to delete the pages, then yes, cisaz is right, ensure they are 301 redirected to a relevant page to retain some of the link benefits and to give direct visitors to those pages somewhere to go other than a 404 error page.

Also, request the removal of the URLs of the deleted pages within Google Webmaster Tools to speed up the de-indexing of them. (Will need a NoIndex robots tag on the pages, and/or a Disallow in the robots.txt file).

Regards

Simon

Hi Nightwing

I suspect you'll likely get several differing views to this question as it's a highly topical and debatable area of SEO for which there is no hard & fast right or wrong answer, it's down to ones' own views, beliefs, ethics and experience.

My view is:

• If providing a link out will likely benefit visitors (which means it's a valuable, relevant, value-adding link) then by all means link out.  It adds to the user experience if they have good quality relevant links to follow to other websites.

• If the link is purely there as a part of a link exchange and/or purely for SEO reasons (i.e. visitors won't benefit from visiting the site being linked to) then don't link out to that site.

• If the link out will benefit visitors from following it and just so happens to be a part of a focused & select link exchange, then go ahead (always with careful consideration) as it benefits the visitor and helps to create a positive user experience.

So in summary;  link exchanges can be beneficial to a website owner and to the visitors, however only when certain conditions are met.  If those conditions are met, then go for it.  If not, then don't partake.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi there,

Maybe, it's likely that there are enough inbound links to the old domain, however it is worth checking whether the Domain Redirect that's in place is a 301 or a 302. If it's the later, get it changed to a 301 if you can.

Depending on your access to Google Webmaster Tools, it would be worth informing Google via GWT (if you can) of the change of address (domain) for the old site. This would help to speed up the full reindexing and removal of the old domain from Google's index.

Hope that helps,

Regards, Simon

Hi Jake,

It is believed that metrics including visitor/traffic numbers, click through rates, bounce rates etc are amongst the 200+ ranking factors that Google in particular use in their natural search algorithm.

They are used because it helps to rank pages based on merit to 'return the most relevant search results based upon the users query'.

Check out the 2011 Ranking Factors here on SEOmoz for more details.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi there,

The nearer to the beginning of a page that content appears, the more prominence and perceived importance it has.

It's always a fine balancing act between User Experience, Core Messaging and SEO.  If in doubt, do what's best for the user experience (pretty images often don't have the desired result) then cater for Search afterwards.

You may find a blog post here on SEOmoz from yesterday a worthwhile read, it's very long but worth the time.  It's entitled "Just How Smart Are Search Robots?" and highlights towards the end just how important User Experience is and the content that appears above the fold.

So yes, it is believed that content placement does matter, both for user experience and for search.  I'd suggest ensuring that your core messaging and most important content for each page is above the fold, whilst also ensuring that the user experience is a pleasant and easy one.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Geoff

Probably not the answer you'd like to hear;  there will be absolutely zero SEO benefit from doing this.  The new domain would have no history behind it, thus zero strength to pass on, no matter how many relevant keywords are in it, simply doesn't work like that.

If you were to purchase an existing website with keywords in the domain and redirect that, a different story, there would be some SEO benefit, so long as that website is a good quality website with a positive history.

Though the reason to do that wouldn't be for the keywords anyway, as it's the general consensus that keyworded domains do not carry as much SEO weight as they used to. Such a purchase and redirect would be for the overall websites' positive qualities rather than the keywords in the domain.

Regards

Simon

Hi Josh

This is a great question to ask and I will try to answer it as best as I can for you;

I understand the temptation here, which is as you've said, could be a great revenue stream. However with this comes a significant risk of devaluing your large group of community sites by selling out for a quick buck, which in all fairness is the measure of this.

Google's Web Spam team have many extremely bright people working hard on detecting this type of activity, that's what you'd be up against. I wouldn't fancy my chances of getting away with it unnoticed for any lengthy period of time and I believe that for any credible website, it's too high a risk to take, that's the revenue vs the risk of penalty for selling links.

Yes many sites take this risk and many have so far gotten away with the extra revenue with no downside, however logic says that it's only a matter of time and come that time, a lot will regret their original decision to sell links.

You're perfectly entitled to do this, just bare in mind the harm that a severe ranking penalty could do to your group of community sites and weigh that up against the extra revenue you could make.

(I haven't worked with the company that you mention or any similar company, though I do know people that have and I do know the risks associated with doing so. I'm not risk averse, I just don't like gambling when the chances of loosing are too great).

It also depends how you feel about ethical SEO, which is basically not trying to play against the system, not trying to manipulate the search engines. There are those out there that do love to, the so-called grey hat and black hat SEOs and sometimes, they suceed. It's just personally, not something that I'd feel comfortable doing, I much prefer to play the game fairly, which takes longer to get there however is far more sustainable.

Again though, it's a calculated risk that everybody is entitled to make, if it fits in with your strategy and goals, maybe it's the right thing for you to do. That's your call.

Hope that helps in your decision process,

Regards

Simon

Hi there

It could be that the new relevant keywords that you have replaced the 'fluff' words with within the Titles and Descriptions are more competitive than those previous words, resulting in a drop in rankings.

If you're now fully targeting the site towards more competitive keywords than before, it's justifiable to expect a drop in rankings.

Additional supportive content (still unique, relevant, valuable content) plus some good distribution and PR should attract some new inbound links, hopefully on relevant anchor text.

So you may well have a justifiable reason there, plus an action plan to remedy the situation, which a client will likely be appreciative of.

Regards

Simon

Hi Gary

Yes you can, domain & nameserver settings are global, so you can have the same kind of configuration that you have in the UK in many different countries.

Some hosting providers may not like this though as they'd prefer everything to be hosted through and done with them.

Check out  http://www.godaddy.com/tlds/info.aspx?tld=info&ci=16860  and  http://help.godaddy.com/article/668?locale=en&app_hdr=0  which shows that with GoDaddy you can certainly do this.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Mackenzie

That's a great question.

The main potential drawback with this is:

• If the short domain that's on a 301 redirect is used for marketing purposes, chances are this domain will acquire a lot of the inbound links. Some of that link juice will be lost through the redirects, it's better for Search if all the links go straight to the domain that's hosting the website (homepage and internal pages).

Also, it's not advisable for usability to market & promote a domain that's redirected, doesn't give a great first impression.

Exact** match domains**don't have the SEO weight that they used to (that's the general consensus, especially with regards to Google), so it's not a real must to have an exact match domain.

Suggestion: Perhaps the short domain would be suitable as the actual website address, or perhaps one in-between with a 'partial match' on the keywords, which is both short enough for Usability and short enough to market & promote effectively, whilst still incorporating the main single keyword or two for Search (mainly 'result to click conversion' from the search result snippet that is).

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Gaz

There probably are, though I find it difficult to make such a recommendation when it's my strong belief that Link Building should be a part of an integrated search & content campaign rather than outsourced as a standalone task.

The best links are almost always free (natural) links obtained as a part of producing some really valuable content and distributing it well. This can often be done in-house easily (resource dependent of course). Though it does take time to seed, distribute and promote content, which is where an agency can come in handy by assisting with this as a part of a bigger search & content campaign (an on-going campaign that is).

If you really are intent on outsourcing link building specifically though, or even as a part of a larger project, I'd suggest searching for an agency that is in fairly close proximity (within acceptable travelling distance that is), by searching initially to draw up a short-list of contenders, then evaluate them from checking out their clients' sites, rankings etc and asking for authentic testominials from the shortened short-list. That's in addition to all the usual evaluation criteria of course.

Regards

Simon

Content in an iFrame can be indexed, that's the biggest issue here. iFrames have a URL all of their own, so are a page in their own right. Sometimes they are wrapped in a Frameset, which can tie them together to produce a whole normal page.

If their is any way to avoid using an iFrame, then go for it. If not, then it's not just about SEO anyway, Usability is also very important and it's often a compromise that has to be made.

So do what's best for the User Experience and cater for SEO afterwards, which could be using a 'NoIndex, Follow' tag on each iFrame and an 'Index, Follow' tag on the overall main page URL.

Regards

Simon

You're welcome Gary.

If you'd like to provide your IT department with even more reassurance (via Rackspace US), check out the first paragraph of  http://www.rackspace.com/apps/support/portal/1164  which shows that in the US, you can have your domain(s) registered with one registrar and your website hosted with another.

Regards

Simon

Hi there, you'll be glad to know that it's a positive SEO attribute when a Meta Description matches some of the page content, if it ties together then that's considered good for SEO (so long as the said content is not spammy and is relevant to the rest of the page content).

Also, ensure that your Title tag and your H1 tag also reflect what your page is about, optimise those in a similar way to your Description and page content.

So don't worry about duplicate content here, from what you've said in your question, you're doing some good optimisation.

Regards, Simon

Hi Brian

This is an easy question to answer; "absolutely not". Please don't copy them, you'll end up regretting it.

How you've described your competitors' links makes them fall into the 'worthless spam' category; their efforts would have been for little gain, especially any long term gain, plus they've risked getting penalised for link spamming.

Links from blog posts are usually nofollow so will hold zero SEO value, there is only a small percentage of decent blogs out there.

To acquire some links that will actually be of benefit to your website, create some unique relevant interesting valuable Content for your visitors and Distribute this well. In turn, you'll likely be rewarded with some great natural links. Infographics with a text link built in can really help.

I hope this has been of some help to you.

Regards

Simon

Hi Ivaylo

I shall share a few pointers with you here for consideration;

1. Perform an on-page analysis of the website to identify and help resolve any issues that might come up, such as too many on-page links or too many no-followed links pointing in, any issues with titles or descriptions... (The SEOmoz toolset is great at helping with this).

2. Research what valuable links are pointing to the Wiki page and try and get some of the same links pointing to your clients' site (new followed links from different reputable websites will help a lot). Also, identify existing links where the anchor text could be improved.

3. Keep the content fresh, relevant and interesting.

4. Depending on what your clients' site offers, consider if there are any tools/widgets that could be developed to help make the site more useful.

5. Consider building upon the Social aspect, such as engaging with people on Twitter, Forums and Guest Blogging to attract more visitors and more sharing of your content.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Exactly, a good answer from James. For a positive user experience, 'Familiarity' is key, many visitors don't like surprises and will leave quickly if they feel lost or unsure of what they are looking at, so keep the Blog's design and style similar to that of your main website.

Doesn't have to be an exact copy of style and design, just easily recognisable that your blog and your website are Your blog and your website, that the two are related.

This isn't for search by the way, you won't be peanalized by Google if your blog and website have different designs (only if the designs are poor and crawling, speed etc are an issue, could you be peanalized).  User Experience is key here rather than Search.

Regards

Simon

I agree. If not exactly the same then the H1 should at least match the start of the page Title, they should both reflect the main theme/topic of the page.

Hi Maxwell

A few answers here for you to consider:

Comments are usually beneficial to a blog, it shows engagement and participation, so I'd suggest keeping the comments there, so long as they are relevant and not blatant advertising.

For comments that are purely there only for link building and add no value to the post concerned, I'd suggest removing them if your blog guidelines forbid such link & advertising practices. If not, update your blog guidelines and remove any further posts that are only made for link building purposes and ensure the existing ones are Nofollow.

For links within comments, I'd suggest making the links 'Nofollow' by default, if they are not already.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Michael

Assuming this is Google PageRank that you're referring to, I'd suggest not paying much attention to it.

This is because it's only updated usually 3 or 4 times per year and is the public PageRank that Google occasionally publish, not Google's up-to-date internal PageRank for websites.

• There are alternatives that are more significant and meaningful, such as SEOmoz's Domain Authority, Page Authority, MozRank and MozTrust.

A really useful resource on SEO Ranking Factors is "The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors" over on Search Engine Land.

Also, check out the "2011 SEO Ranking Factors" here on SEOmoz.

Making use of the SEOmoz Pro Tools to help with ideas and strategy to increase your website's authority signals will be far more beneficial than focusing on PageRank.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi there,

To answer your real question, "How do small businesses use social media, without being annoying?"  ~  I have 5 tips for you.  It's by no means an exhaustive list, it's just 5 to consider and to start with:

1. Be engaging, don't simply broadcast, one-way conversations are annoying and won't encourage that many to actively converse and engage.

2. Content,  in order to have something worth communicating about, you'll need some great content, whether that be website based content or purely social content.  Having something interesting and topical to share and engage about is critical.

3. Join existing communities,  before being able to realistically build any social community of ones' own, become active in relevant existing communities, whether those be LinkedIn groups, forums, guest blogging... Becoming known and perceived as an authority in your chosen specialist areas can really help.

4. Don't be too opinionated,  by all means share your knowledge and views, just be careful not to force them on others, as that can easily become annoying.

5. Enjoy engaging socially,  if you enjoy engaging with people in social circles and get some satisfaction and value out of it, then chances are others will also.

An important point to note as to why some don't do so well when it comes to social online;  a lot of small businesses (and even large & medium ones) start out really well intentioned with their social networking initiatives, not realsing just how much resource it takes to be regularly, consistently engaging socially online and to focus on the reasons for being social in the first place, the social objectives if you like.

It often starts out well then becomes less and less regular with reducing value, purely because of the amount of time and resource it takes to participate in and be successful in social networking.

I hope all that is of some help to you,

Regards

Simon

Hi Joshua

These 50 domains that are on redirect won't hold any SEO value as they are, except if any are new redirects that recently hosted a reputable website themselves. If any were to host a new unique website with their own SEO quality attributes such as inbound links and then linked into the main website, it may only provide some temporary benefit as that would be likely be flagged up as link farming and would be more costly and time consuming than the following suggestion, so I really don't recommend doing anything such as this. Thought I'd mention it as something to avoid.

My suggestion is to not do anything with these domains other than continue to redirect them if they are desired to be kept. Instead, focus on improving the on-page and off-page SEO of the main website through investing in unique relevant interesting valuable content which in turn can form the basis of obtaining more good quality links.

Also consider some online and offline PR, plus further distribution of your content through channels such as Social. Hope that helps.

Regards

Simon

I agree with PabloGV.

Don't sell your site short by engaging in these dubious link practices, Search is an unregulated industry and there are so many unethical agencies out there (such as many of the purely link building service companies) which can harm your site more than it may seem.

That said there are many ethical professional agencies that could help with your overall search strategy, including ethical link acquisition as a part of the mix.

Keep focusing on a variety of high quality, useful, interesting unique content and distribute it well, that will help to get those all important high quality relevant links.

Regards

Simon

That pretty much covers it.

Matt, if you do decide to implement such a redirect as you describe, absolutely make sure that it's a 302 redirect, not a 301 Redirect.  301's are permanent (as in the message a 301 gives to search bots), 302's are temporary.

As Sebes says though, your best bet is to not redirect your homepage.  As you say it will take you a couple of days to fix the browser issue, maybe slightly longer, it won't make much difference from your current situation if you just leave the homepage as it is until it's resolved.  Better to be safe in the medium & long-term rather than the very short term and risk harming your site by redirecting your homepage.

Regards

Simon

Hi Hugo

Check out the introductory blog post entitled "Introducing Social Analytics in SEOmoz Pro" by Miranda Rensch which is specific to the Pro Tool in SEOmoz Pro Tools.

There is a Webinar entitled "Introducing the SEOmoz Social Analytics Dashboard" by Casey Henry which is also specific to the Pro Tool.

There is an upcoming Webinar on January 17th entitled "Understanding Your Audience Using Social Media" which will be presented by Mike King.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi webfeatseo

That's good advice from Serge.

You can find Ontolo's phone number under Section 20 of their Terms & Conditions of Use ~  http://ontolo.com/legal/terms which is worth trying before taking it any further.

You could also try contacting them on Twitter ~ https://twitter.com/#!/ontolo

Regards

Simon

Hi Dan

There are potential pros and cons here:

Pro:  those blogs on blogspot.com (Blogger) will be different sub-domains, e.g.  example.blogspot.com  and  sample.blogspot.com  Each one is treated as a seperate website, so they are essentially not on the same domain.

Con:  a lot of blogs have NoFollow links by default, thus negating any link juice flowing out to your website.

So I wouldn't be concerned with a number of blogs all on blogspot pointing in to you.  Though I would suggest ensuring that you have a healthy mix of Relevant good and high quality websites pointing to you on a variety of anchor text, best achieved by creating great content and distributing it well.

Also, check out a blog post published today on HubSpot entitled "The 8 Best Link-Building Tactics to Boost Off-Page SEO"  questionable whether or not they are the best 8, though certainly some good ones there and it's worth a read.

Regards

Simon

Hi Baptiste

A good question.

Check out an awesome blog post from Rand from back in May 2010, entitled "All Links are Not Created Equal: 10 Illustrations on Search Engines' Valuation of Links" you'll see that Topic Number 1 provides some great information specific to your question.

I believe that on the whole (as in more times than not, but not always) visitors are more likely to click on the first link as opposed to the second, third...

As the most important content is often towards the beginning of a page's content, generally speaking, it's logical that the first link would be deemed more important than the second, third...  Therefore the first link would pass on more of any available link juice.

Of course, relevance and context also play a part, there is no absolute answer one way or the other.

On a closely related topic of "multiple links", check out these two blog posts here on SEOmoz:

• Results of Google Experimentation - Only the First Anchor Text Counts
• 3 Ways to Avoid the First Link Counts Rule

In summary, "Google does not appear to count multiple links to the same target page from a single page", which I believe is still true today.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Ravi

As you mention SEO in your question, I am relating my answer to SEO.

Your suspicions are justified, as in there being no SEO value in doing anything like this. It adds absolutely no value to any User's Experience, no SEO value, I personally and professionally regard it as a pointless unethical practice.

If somebody has a domain for sale, then fair enough in putting a sales banner on the homepage, however doing so with the hope of gaining any SEO benefit and including all those links to other spammy domains is a game that can only be lost.

So I'd recommend to Not follow suit and to help keep the Web a better place by avoiding doing the same if SEO benefits are the main goal.

Regards,

Simon

Hi Vitaly

A good question.  There are usually 2 main considerations when it comes to cross-linking sites:

1. To benefit the visitor from pointing to a useful related site

2. To try and aid SEO/Search efforts.

Your goal of trying to improve rankings of the newer sites by linking your hotel booking sites together could be counter-productive. Cross-linking sites with the intention of trying to improve search rankings (through the passing of link juice through the said links) usually has a short-term gain, then either neutral or negative. It's a risky game in trying to 'manipulate' search rankings by linking a load of sites together, which being honest is just what this would be.

With regards to the other reason for doing so, providing links that visitors could find useful, that's a sound and credible reason to link the sites together, just play it safe and NoFollow the links as Ben suggests. This would be playing it by the rules and keep the search engines happy whilst also benefiting your visitors.

Have you considered migrating your websites into one large site to serve all cities? Done properly, always with the visitor experience & offering in mind, it can benefit everyone.  You'd only have the one website to create content for and get links into, whilst providing one more in-depth offering and experience to your visitors.  Worth considering anyway, local search can still be catered for with one large website.

Kind regards

Simon