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Hi - open site explorer always showed backlinks to my site's blog for Wordpress, a couple of edu sites and others that ranked somewhat high.  These are no longer being shown.  However, they do show up on some other backlink check tools.  Does anyone know why and if this should be a concern?  Thanks.  Don www.uniquegiftsanddecor.com

Hi all: It is time for my semi-annual “I don’t have a clue” question.  Actually it’s questions since there are three although they may overlap. I am confused about the intersection of social media and SEO.  A couple of years ago it seemed like one of the better procedures for link building was writing articles and having them published on Isnare, Goarticles Ezine and the like.  Now I am not sure if this is effective anymore.  It seems like all of the emphasis is being put on social media sites. Not just Facebook, Twitter Pinterest, and blogs, but big ones (that I don’t have a prayer in the world of getting on) such as Mashable, Reddit etc. How are my efforts best served at this point?   Should I still submit articles to article directories or should I concentrate on guest blogging (which isn’t so easy if you want a reputable blog) or try something that I can’t even think of? Second, my blog is a Wordpress Blog that is no big deal and probably isn’t read much.  It can be accessed either at Wordpress or through my site.  It is listed in my Google Merchant Account, but I can’t imagine anyone reads it.  It’s about gifts and products that we sell and is not going to stimulate anyone’s mind.  Two things here: First (and I don’t know if anyone will know the answer to this) my site is hosted by Yahoo.  There is a tab at the top of my site that takes you to the blog, but Yahoo also has some way to integrate the blog with the website.  Does anyone know if this will make any difference?  Second, the last several times that I ran by backlinks on Open Site Explorer my Wordpress blog has not shown up.  It always did previously right at the top.  Any guesses as to why it no longer shows? Finally, in the last couple of months I have had a precipitous drop in orders and visitors to my site.  The only thing that I have done is to lower my budget for Google Adwords, but it was never that high to begin with and shouldn’t account for the change. Given the holiday season traffic should be picking up but it is going in the other direction. Does anyone know what is happening here and what to do about it?  Anyone with really good insights might get a gift certificate from us (is that permitted on SEOMOZ – if not then forget it). The website is www,uniquegiftsanddecor.com.  Here’s a thought – buy stuff from us. (ignore if this is spammy). Many thanks. Don

In light of so many Google changes are press releases with PRWeb or the like still worth using?

First, thanks to those who have helped me before. Second, according to Google Webmaster there are about 14,765 external links to my site.   According to Open Site Explorer I have 22. So a couple of questions: 1. Why such a discrepancy? 2. Of the 14,765 links shown in Google Webmaster 14,665 are all from one place and all link to my home page.  The site is interiordesignproductfinder.com.  In August of this year I bought a sponsorship there.  There are several of these sponsors so which show up on a rotating basis. Will having 14,765 links all of a sudden showing up be grounds for some type of a Google downgrade? Why are there 14, 765 links instead of just one.  Is a new link created every time our sponsorship rotates to the page? Another thing, in the past couple of months our conversions have dropped significantly.  we average about 180 visits a day with a 50% bounce rate.  Is there anything obvious thatt might have caused this drop? Thanks for any insights. Don www.uniquegiftsanddecor.com

Hi – I don't know if this is an SEO matter or not, but I have data feeds to Google, Bing and thefind.com for all of my products. I have no idea if these feeds help.  My guess is that they do not generate much business.  For example if I type in "Brass Bookends" our products usually don't show up until the late pages.  Using this as an example does anyone know how these sites select the order in which they display products?  Another way to phrase this is what makes thefind.com show a competitor's brass bookends several pages before ours? FYI we have been doing these data feeds for a year on a consistent basis so being new shouldn't be a factor.  Any insights will be most appreciated. Thanks. Don. www.uniquegiftsanddecor.com

Does anyone have any thoughts on, or experience with, pay for performance SEO companies such as Results First? Thanks