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Hey there, Garrett!
Haven't heard of Linkredible, but I'd put my caution lights on any time I run across a company that offers "link building" services. Besides creating good, honest content, I can't think of a more natural way to "earn" links.
If you go down that road, I'd investigate heavily.
Best of luck!
Hi Matthew,
Great question. And your hunch is correct. If you already have links from the other domain, and you're confident that the DA 30 is a credible site that isn't engaging in bad practices, then do the work to earn that link!
Best,
Wayne
Hi Gang,
We are a multi-state law firm (Indiana, Michigan, New Mexico) that is looking to increase ranking for Michigan and New Mexico for 2015. (Michigan and New Mexico used to exist as subdomains under 2keller.com but have now been incorporated as pages under the main domain.)
The question is whether or not we link directly to what we call the "main state pages" from various accounts like G+, FB, Yellow Pages, Yelp, etc.?
For example, should we link from our New Mexcio G+ page to our New Mexico main page, or should it be linked to the main domain at 2keller.com where our general branding is on display?
I seem to remember somewhere seeing a Whiteboard Friday or some other forum in which Rand had spoke to something similar. I believe he advised AGAINST trying to control the "user experience" for instances like these, but I can't locate same.
I understand that clients/customers are looking for our main brand, but it would seem to be the better experience to get users in state specific locales to their state specific page. Am I thinking wrong about this?
Thanks in advance!
Wayne
Hi Frank!
That term "paid directory" can send shivers through an SEO'er. The reason? Directories were long exploited by--_TA-DA!--_SEO'ers!
That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with employing the use of a directory paid or non if it's relevant and carries authority. This is especially true with regard to niche categories and the need for citations. These citations often help with local listings and are obtained by way of directories.
A great tool you can use to illustrate same is MOZ's Top Local Citations by Category page. As you scan your client's industry and look at the results it provides, you'll quickly see that not only are there a host of directories, many of them are paid. Paid directories aren't always a bad thing, but you certainly want to be careful and selective.
Hope this helps!
Wayne
Hi Kevin!
ABSOLUTELY you want to link to authoritative sites that provide additional resources and/or source information. The reason is simple, it creates a better user experience, and that's what Google wants to foster. 
In the past it was the belief of some that you might dilute pagerank or authority by linking out to external sites. That's not the case today, if it ever was.
There are, of course, good practice to linking out:
Wayne
Friends, am ready to launch an infographic campaign for a client and received an email from a resource I consider very reliable that said, "don't include an embed code on the webpage that is hosting the graphic. That's being seen as bad practice by Google these days." I responded with, "Say what?"
Can anyone confirm or deny that affixing embed code to an "infographic page" is indeed vile? Thanks!
Despite not knowing the user's interest level in these larger sites, you may want to consider the implication of potential link acquisition and the benefits of having them point to pages under a singular URL.
Better yet, would having all the portals under one URL be a better experience for the user? If yes, you'll want to seriously consider this option regardless of the content aggregation.
If you want to provide more specifics, I'd be happy to offer up more concise thoughts.
Best of luck!
Wayne
Thanks, Kevin! I had envisioned a 1-2 sentence disclaimer, but I actually like your idea of putting an expanded blurb on an About Us page.
Hi Gang,
State requirements mandate that our law practice (Keller & Keller) properly display their distinct business entities on all advertising materials, including our website.
Specifically, our offices are set up in a way that makes Indiana's law office an LLP, New Mexico's an LLC, and Michigan's a PLLC.
All 3 offices/states are represented on a single domain, but I want to be careful about mixing the different registration titles (LLP, LLC, PLLC) throughout our site when we commonly refer to ourselves simply as Keller & Keller throughout the main pages and in our content. I worry it may negatively affect our local listings?
(One idea is to place a simple 'disclaimer' in the footer throughout our site that identifies the business entities, however, I'm still concerned this too might affect/confuse our local listings?)
All thoughts, advice, and theories are welcome!
Thanks, everyone! (And to my fellow Yanks, enjoy a safe Memorial Day weekend!)
W-
(Wow... thanks, Miriam. I'm on my way out the door and scanned what appears to be an incredibly thoughtful answer. Look forward to digging into it when I get home! Thank you very much!)
One of the best SEO secrets I've learned (which took a while) is how to implement what works best and leave the rest alone. Trying to read and stay abreast of everything regarding SEO is a futile venture--it's as much art as it is science, and few 'secrets' exist.
There are large components of SEO that are open to grand interpretation and it's often hard to separate good information from mis-information from out-dated information from just plain flase information. (If you ever get the opportunity to attend PubCon or an SES conference and listen to the bevy of conversation and opinion happening all about you, the quickl realization is that there are few fast and hard rules.)
There are several camps that will advise you a bit differently in all aspects of SEO: some will claim that their methods are proven, others will be more humble and offer a "best-practices" approach sans the 'guarantee'. I often believe I'm only as good at SEO as the success I had yesterday.
Try to find what works for you inside your vertical and then cherry-pick tips from the rest of the SEO community as you see fit. Translation: there is no magic bullet!
Here's to future success!
Hi Frank!
That term "paid directory" can send shivers through an SEO'er. The reason? Directories were long exploited by--_TA-DA!--_SEO'ers!
That said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with employing the use of a directory paid or non if it's relevant and carries authority. This is especially true with regard to niche categories and the need for citations. These citations often help with local listings and are obtained by way of directories.
A great tool you can use to illustrate same is MOZ's Top Local Citations by Category page. As you scan your client's industry and look at the results it provides, you'll quickly see that not only are there a host of directories, many of them are paid. Paid directories aren't always a bad thing, but you certainly want to be careful and selective.
Hope this helps!
Wayne
Hi Kevin!
ABSOLUTELY you want to link to authoritative sites that provide additional resources and/or source information. The reason is simple, it creates a better user experience, and that's what Google wants to foster.
In the past it was the belief of some that you might dilute pagerank or authority by linking out to external sites. That's not the case today, if it ever was.
There are, of course, good practice to linking out:
Wayne
Hey there, Garrett!
Haven't heard of Linkredible, but I'd put my caution lights on any time I run across a company that offers "link building" services. Besides creating good, honest content, I can't think of a more natural way to "earn" links.
If you go down that road, I'd investigate heavily.
Best of luck!
Hi Beeneeb,
You are correct in your assumption--the reports are not real-time. In fact, I have had as much as a week go by before my changes were recognized by the report pages. I'm assuming others enjoy the same experience
All the best,
76
Stephen, I think I'm following you, but I want to be sure... is there a way you can send a link to show an example of what you're referring to?
(If it's regarding the mega-links, there is way to exert some control of what site-links appear, or, rather, what you don't want to appear through Webmaster Tools.)
Thanks,
W
Thanks, Kevin! I had envisioned a 1-2 sentence disclaimer, but I actually like your idea of putting an expanded blurb on an About Us page.
Hi Sunil,
If I understand you correctly, you're asking "how" to get the same backlinks as those of your competitors? If that's the question, then I'm afraid the answer is there is no sure-fire way to ensure you will ever gain the same links. Link attribution is never a guarantee.
My suggestion would be to approach the webmasters where you see your competitors are receiveing backlinks and offer them a "value-add proposal" that is unique form that of your competitor.
You can also always offer a widget, a partnership proposal, etc. The key is to provide value and personal thought to your link request. Just asking for a link because your competitor has one is not going to likely yield positive results.
A word of caution: make sure your competitors backlinks are coming from good neighborhoods. There are many posts on SEOmoz that speak to this. You don't want to waste your time or effort, or jeopardize your sites performance, by acquiring suspect links.
Link building is tough, but a little creativity and human touch can usually open the lines of communication!
Best of luck,
W
Hi Peter,
Great question considering the latest Panda update. A lot of people have been scrambling to remove content that Google might deem "shallow" or of no value to users. We implemented a couple of practices to see which worked best with regard to moving content:
A: We simply added a 'robots.txt' command. This is designed to not allow Google crawl the content.
B: If you have the luxury of moving it to an entirely different domain, that could also be a choice. We found this to be the better of the two in terms of aesthetics. We simply didn't want to gunk up our site with a lot of "shallow" content. It also seemed that the engines responded better to this approach.
Your 404 is another option if you simply want to remove it from the indexes. However, I'd be sure to check that no link juice is flowing through the pages. If so, then a 301 re-direct might be appropriate. Depending on your intentions, each of the three could serve your purpose!
Let me know if I've confused you, or if you need additional opinion!
Best of luck
W
Hey Joe,
We syndicate content at our company and have faced this same question.
A very succesful method for us has been to arrange unpaid internships with local colleges. They often will have job boards online at the various universtities where you can post your listing by department, e.g., English/Journalism, etc.
Depending on your pay scale, you may also want to scan already-employed journalists in local papers. Indianapolis for instance (where we are located) has a free entertainment paper named NUVO tha tis distributed once monthle all across the metro area. Very popular paper and the writers for these types of places generally make very low income and are willing to make a transition. We have also had a lot of success with this approach. (The plus is that these folks are known quantities in terms of their talent and their commitment to writing!)
Lastly, do a search for blog communities in your city. There are often large communities of bloggers that are writing purely for the sake of writing. They are often very good, too!
Best of luck,
W