Welcome to the Q&A Forum

If the negative press is towards a person rather than a website you could try and build backlinks to some more positive stuff that is already present on the web about them.

For example lets say your client is Bob Smith of Atlanta Georgia, do you find this stuff when you Google Bob Smith Atlanta Georgia?  What I would do is build backlinks to the good pages online about Mr Smith, it doesn't matter whose website it is find 10 good websites that are online about Mr Smith, and add links to the pages about Mr Smith.

Also while you're building up some of the other established sites webpages create a few new ones of your own as well, and tag them with negative tags, but have positive comments, use something like is Bob Smith A #@# in the title, and description however, in the text tell a different story.

I see companies doing this all the time when I do background checks on shady sites for clients, and it works. Usually if the site knows what it's doing I will have to search 3, or 4 pages back to find the bad stuff.

I sent you one last pm. Thanks

I sent you a private message too.

I didn't see that page I would still rename it, or redirect it.

"Regarding the meta description -- I was under the impression that these are just for CTR purposes and the the engines don't actually use those?"

You will hear different people say different things, my best advice is to never listen to anyone, except Google. You can't directly ask them questions, but you can look at how they list other sites and then figure out the patterns from there.

In your case if the top 3 sites have Canada in their title, or description I would have it in mine as well.

Also I would do  /lsat-courses instead of course because courses has course in it, not the other way around.

I would use no more than seven remember Google stopped valuing the keyword tags because people were stuffing them.

30 keywords is stuffing, and could possibly send spam signals.

Hi well if your going for google.ca it would be good to have Canada in your title tag.

After looking at your site I believe you need a whole lot more than back links.

I like to analyze how my competitors are listed in Google, and look for trends.

For example your competitors in Google.ca are:

www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/lsat_dates.php

www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/

www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat

www.kaptest.com/lsat

www.testmasters.net/

www.powerscore.com/lsat/

cstudies.ubc.ca/test-preparation/LSAT.html

www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat/

www.renertonline.com/index.php?p=lsat

By the looks of it the trend is to have a page called /lsat I see you have this page  harvardready.com/lsat

This is the page I would focus on.

Now you will want to build links to every page including your homepage however,

**I would save some of my best quality links for this page. **

**Looking at the meta title, and description you will notice the top 3 sites mention Canada **

1. LSAT Test Preparation Courses All Across Canada: Alberta, BC ...

   <cite>www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/</cite>Cached_LSAT_ test preparation courses in 22 cities all across Canada: Alberta, BC, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Proven ...

2. Canadian LSAT Test Prep Course Locations: Toronto, Ottawa ...

   <cite>www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/lsat_dates.php</cite>Cached - Similar7, 8, 9, 27, Oct. 4, Edmonton - U of A • Halifax - Dalhousie U Toronto - U of T • Victoria - UVic. Sept. 14, 15 ... Edmonton LSAT Test Preparation Course - U of A ...

3. Ivy Global | LSAT Prep

   <cite>www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat/</cite>CachedIvy Global's LSAT Prep program is designed to give students in Canada the necessary resources to maximise their performance on the LSATs.Yours says:

               <title>The LSAT Explained | Harvard Readytitle>

           "<a class="attribute-value">Get the details on the LSAT -- </a>

<a class="attribute-value">we explain the section breakdown, the scoring algorithm, and provide</a>

<a class="attribute-value">you with the score and percentile templates.</a>" />

**I would mention Canada in my description as well especially if you're targeting Google.ca. **

**Next your on-site content looks like it needs work you have a good start but no keyword definition. **

**Your site is not telling the search engines this is what I should be listed for. **
```

1.  **I would contain LSAT prep, or courses in my title since your competitors do, and since that's the keyword you're shooting for. ****Your competitors use the term LSAT COURSE 10-19 times in the body of their website, you use it 0 times.****Remember your text tells the search engines what your site is about, and what keywords to list your site for. ****I would use it in my site.****Your competitors use Lsat course up to 80 times in their H2-4 tags, you use it 0 times. ****I would probably use it there as well.****Your competitors also use Lsat or course in their image alt tags, and in their image names like Lsat.jpg****Now lets look at oxford seminars since they are the #1 website listed on Google.ca for that keyword, and try to figure out why they are there.****The first thing I see is their link structure Home ![](http://www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/images/arrow.gif) LSAT Preparation ![](http://www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/images/arrow.gif) LSAT Test Preparation Courses. ****Second a defined H1 tag **

# LSAT Test Preparation Courses All Across Canada

**Third keyword rich text:**

 With courses from Halifax to Victoria and many more in between, Oxford Seminars is

the leading provider of LSAT test preparation courses all across Canada. Since 1992,

we have been providing the most comprehensive LSAT test preparation courses

available for your valuable time and money.

Now lets look at your site.

# The LSAT

The Law School Admission test (LSAT) is a half-day standardized test administered by

the lovely folks at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). Pretty much all the

common-law schools across North America think the LSAT is a pretty big deal for

admitting students, which is a pretty good reason for you to care about it. Unless you're

not applying to law school, which means you're probably reading this for someone else.

That's cool too.

**Now for some reason you mentioned North America, but you're targeting Canada.**

**You need to say Canada remember the search engines can't guess.**

**You have no mention of courses, or a call to action you need to tell people this is what I am selling.**

There are a lot of other issues as well I would address, but I think these things should be worked on before worrying about back links.

One other thing almost 50% of the text on your page is random numbers I think I would remove it.

I am talking about the chart while it may serve a purpose in the eyes of the search engines it looks like this: 

```
```
<tr><td>180td><td>99.9td><td>149td><td>40.0tr><td>179
```
```
td><td>99.9td><td>148td><td>46.3
```
```
td>tr><tr><td>178td><td>99.8td><td>147td><td>32.9td>
```
```
tr>
<tr><td>177td><td>99.7td><td>146td><td>29.6td>tr>
```

```
**Perhaps** **place the chart on an image named Lstat-course-chart.jpg and**
```
```
 **then add some good call to action content to** **your website as well in place of random numbers.**   
```

```

I don't think there is a magic number of links it will have a lot to do with your content as well, and how you build the links. I have seen one good press release give someone thousands of links over night, and while they received a boost it was not enough to place them on the first page for a "moderate difficulty" keyword.

I have also seen a site with excellent content take a  "moderate difficulty" keyword with less than 100 back links.

It is more about the quality of the links, and content than the quantity.

We could possibly help you a little better if we knew at least one of the keywords, and how much back linking you have done in the past (this can be a big factor as well). I doubt it will hurt anything to post one. Also it would help if we had a link to your site. It is not too hard to get an A- grade.

With local SEO it could be a little different we built our sons Karate school's website two years ago, the majority of his links come from Karate tournament videos on Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, Manta, and a couple other local sites.

We had first place after 2 months, and have never added another backlink. He is still number one, but this is because the competition is so small.

He may have 20 real competitors for his top 4 keywords, but most of their sites have little to no SEO at all.

I think it depends on your competitors if they are adding good links you should be adding good links.

For larger national keywords someone is always going to be adding backlinks so to stay relevant you will need to as well.

It looks like you are almost spamming the same phrase by viewing your source I see this phrase 5 times on the home page. I would reduce it to once, or twice at most. I would also add some more text to the site as well.

<title>Airport Shuttles OR Tambo and Lanseria Airport

<meta name="description" content="Airport Shuttles to and from OR Tambo and Lanseria Airports.

|

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Airport Shuttles OR Tambo and Lanseria Airport » Feed"

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Airport Shuttles OR Tambo and Lanseria Airport » Feed"

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Airport Shuttles OR Tambo and Lanseria Airport » Home Comments Feed"

| |

I don't think it will hurt your rankings look at pr news sites most of them have tens of thousands of pr links however, I would try to diversify my back linking profile if I could. Possibly add some directory listings, social listings, and site links as well.

I would only use plain urls like "http://www.example.com"

I believe content is the most important factor, and then on-site optimization which would include URL selection, Identifying keywords, and structure. Once that is out of the way I move on to link building.

I don't think there is a magic number of links it will have a lot to do with your content as well, and how you build the links. I have seen one good press release give someone thousands of links over night, and while they received a boost it was not enough to place them on the first page for a "moderate difficulty" keyword.

I have also seen a site with excellent content take a  "moderate difficulty" keyword with less than 100 back links.

It is more about the quality of the links, and content than the quantity.

We could possibly help you a little better if we knew at least one of the keywords, and how much back linking you have done in the past (this can be a big factor as well). I doubt it will hurt anything to post one. Also it would help if we had a link to your site. It is not too hard to get an A- grade.

I don't believe I would recommend this to a client, while they may see some initial improvement in rankings after using a service like this in the long run it may hurt them. This is basically a new spin on blog networks, and ultimately is used to manipulate the search engines. Google has been destroying blog networks for the last year, and they are getting smarter everyday.

\

Hi you have a very nice website I would recommend adding a paragraph or two of text at the bottom of the site about your company, and your products as well if Shopify allows you to. That is one of the biggest drawbacks with Shopify not having full control of the site.

"I have a list of links from competitor sites via OSE, what do I do with them? "

Look at the best links your competitors have created, and see if you can get those links, or some that are comparable. For example if your competitors are listed in certain directories it would be a good idea for you to do the same.

"Can anyone share any real-world examples specifically relating to e-commerce businesses? "

**When it comes to Facebook and Twitter you can use it to hold contests, promotions, sales ect. **

For example you could give away a block of cheese to the follower that posted the cheesiest picture. You will be surprised at what people will do for free stuff. Get your fans involved, and you will go a long way.

Hi well if your going for google.ca it would be good to have Canada in your title tag.

After looking at your site I believe you need a whole lot more than back links.

I like to analyze how my competitors are listed in Google, and look for trends.

For example your competitors in Google.ca are:

www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/lsat_dates.php

www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/

www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat

www.kaptest.com/lsat

www.testmasters.net/

www.powerscore.com/lsat/

cstudies.ubc.ca/test-preparation/LSAT.html

www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat/

www.renertonline.com/index.php?p=lsat

By the looks of it the trend is to have a page called /lsat I see you have this page  harvardready.com/lsat

This is the page I would focus on.

Now you will want to build links to every page including your homepage however,

**I would save some of my best quality links for this page. **

**Looking at the meta title, and description you will notice the top 3 sites mention Canada **

1. LSAT Test Preparation Courses All Across Canada: Alberta, BC ...

   <cite>www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/</cite>Cached_LSAT_ test preparation courses in 22 cities all across Canada: Alberta, BC, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Proven ...

2. Canadian LSAT Test Prep Course Locations: Toronto, Ottawa ...

   <cite>www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/lsat_dates.php</cite>Cached - Similar7, 8, 9, 27, Oct. 4, Edmonton - U of A • Halifax - Dalhousie U Toronto - U of T • Victoria - UVic. Sept. 14, 15 ... Edmonton LSAT Test Preparation Course - U of A ...

3. Ivy Global | LSAT Prep

   <cite>www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat/</cite>CachedIvy Global's LSAT Prep program is designed to give students in Canada the necessary resources to maximise their performance on the LSATs.Yours says:

               <title>The LSAT Explained | Harvard Readytitle>

           "<a class="attribute-value">Get the details on the LSAT -- </a>

<a class="attribute-value">we explain the section breakdown, the scoring algorithm, and provide</a>

<a class="attribute-value">you with the score and percentile templates.</a>" />

**I would mention Canada in my description as well especially if you're targeting Google.ca. **

**Next your on-site content looks like it needs work you have a good start but no keyword definition. **

**Your site is not telling the search engines this is what I should be listed for. **
```

1.  **I would contain LSAT prep, or courses in my title since your competitors do, and since that's the keyword you're shooting for. ****Your competitors use the term LSAT COURSE 10-19 times in the body of their website, you use it 0 times.****Remember your text tells the search engines what your site is about, and what keywords to list your site for. ****I would use it in my site.****Your competitors use Lsat course up to 80 times in their H2-4 tags, you use it 0 times. ****I would probably use it there as well.****Your competitors also use Lsat or course in their image alt tags, and in their image names like Lsat.jpg****Now lets look at oxford seminars since they are the #1 website listed on Google.ca for that keyword, and try to figure out why they are there.****The first thing I see is their link structure Home ![](http://www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/images/arrow.gif) LSAT Preparation ![](http://www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/images/arrow.gif) LSAT Test Preparation Courses. ****Second a defined H1 tag **

# LSAT Test Preparation Courses All Across Canada

**Third keyword rich text:**

 With courses from Halifax to Victoria and many more in between, Oxford Seminars is

the leading provider of LSAT test preparation courses all across Canada. Since 1992,

we have been providing the most comprehensive LSAT test preparation courses

available for your valuable time and money.

Now lets look at your site.

# The LSAT

The Law School Admission test (LSAT) is a half-day standardized test administered by

the lovely folks at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). Pretty much all the

common-law schools across North America think the LSAT is a pretty big deal for

admitting students, which is a pretty good reason for you to care about it. Unless you're

not applying to law school, which means you're probably reading this for someone else.

That's cool too.

**Now for some reason you mentioned North America, but you're targeting Canada.**

**You need to say Canada remember the search engines can't guess.**

**You have no mention of courses, or a call to action you need to tell people this is what I am selling.**

There are a lot of other issues as well I would address, but I think these things should be worked on before worrying about back links.

One other thing almost 50% of the text on your page is random numbers I think I would remove it.

I am talking about the chart while it may serve a purpose in the eyes of the search engines it looks like this: 

```
```
<tr><td>180td><td>99.9td><td>149td><td>40.0tr><td>179
```
```
td><td>99.9td><td>148td><td>46.3
```
```
td>tr><tr><td>178td><td>99.8td><td>147td><td>32.9td>
```
```
tr>
<tr><td>177td><td>99.7td><td>146td><td>29.6td>tr>
```

```
**Perhaps** **place the chart on an image named Lstat-course-chart.jpg and**
```
```
 **then add some good call to action content to** **your website as well in place of random numbers.**   
```

```

I don't think it will hurt your rankings look at pr news sites most of them have tens of thousands of pr links however, I would try to diversify my back linking profile if I could. Possibly add some directory listings, social listings, and site links as well.

I would only use plain urls like "http://www.example.com"

Hi my name is Tina I am new here I hope you guys can help me out. I thought building my new site with Word Press was going to simplify things, however I have a ton of errors, and I am not sure what they are, or how to fix them.

I am hoping someone could share with me a solution for these errors.

I have 28 rel=canonical errors, I am not sure what this means, I understand it to mean my pages are similar, and this is to set a heirarchy between my pages. Please correct me if I am wrong.

If I am correct would this be necessary to add if my main keyword was "widgets" and my home page was optimized for "widgets" and my next page was "blue widgets" and so on.

While my pages are similar they are all optimized for different versions of my main keyword some using long tail keywords. Do you know of a plugin that can help solve this problem?

Also does anyone have a plugin they recommend for G+ my G+ authorship verification is causing an error as well?

I am using Head Space 2 I have used this seo plugin numerous times with great success it has been my favorite seo plugin. However, we have a portfolio that shows our clients websites, and on those pages Head Space will not let me enter a description tag.  What plug in do you guys recommend with more control over each page?

Another interesting issue is on one of our pages I optimized it for our Canadian clients, and now every page has been listed in Google.ca for the keywords it should have on Google.com.

We are listed on Google maps, verified  in Google places, and our address is on the site so they know we're from the USA however, the majority of our keywords are only listed in Google.ca. We're on page one for all of them, we are in the top three on most of them so that's not bad, but we want to be listed in Google.com as well. Any suggestions on this?

With local SEO it could be a little different we built our sons Karate school's website two years ago, the majority of his links come from Karate tournament videos on Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook, Manta, and a couple other local sites.

We had first place after 2 months, and have never added another backlink. He is still number one, but this is because the competition is so small.

He may have 20 real competitors for his top 4 keywords, but most of their sites have little to no SEO at all.

I think it depends on your competitors if they are adding good links you should be adding good links.

For larger national keywords someone is always going to be adding backlinks so to stay relevant you will need to as well.

Are you going to be the only guest blogger for the other website, or do they allow others to guest blog as well? I learned the hard way that you don't want to place your links on spammy blogs. If every other post has links to random sites I would avoid it.

Word Press has a plugin for images that adds meta tags to them I have used it before and it works great especially for e-commerce Wordpress sites. You should look into it.