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You think it would be worth setting up a new Analytics code?

Just found this in the landing pages...

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Thanks for the response, Matt.

Any idea how I can correct this then?

Hmm. You could be onto something. Direct traffic has definitely increased in the last month. Although, it spiked before May 7.

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Hey guys,

I have a pressing query that's really puzzled me!

I've just been going through Google Analytics and noticed that there has been a complete drop off of all my organic visitors from May 7. All other traffic mediums are unaffected so there is no issue with the Analytics code recording visits.

I haven't received any penalty and my rankings have actually improved in the last month. This is proper bizarre. Any ideas?

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Hey there,

Does anyone know how I can add another Google Places listing to the following account? The company now has two stores so I'd like to get both listed.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/107389046695957843430/+FinsahomeCoUk/posts

I've tried using https://www.google.com/local/manage but that only appears to let you add a minimum of 10 locations?

Hey there,

I was wondering whether you could help me out on the following;

One of our clients has a Google places listing that we created for their business but it appears to be being blocked - or at least conflicting - with an old listing.

As such, Google appears to be showing the old listing with an outdated URL and company name - rather than the new one. Does anyone know how I can go about removing this listing or showing that the newer one is now more relevant?

Unfortunately, I don't have the logins for the old places listing.

Old listing; https://plus.google.com/105224923085379238289

New listing; https://plus.google.com/b/114641937407677713536/114641937407677713536

I always thought they were essentially the same thing myself but appears there may be a difference?

Any one care to help me out?

Cheers!

Hey guys,

I'm working on a relatively new client and have noticed that all the initial rankings that we have point towards a sub page rather than the home page. Only a branded search appears to bring up the home page which seems really strange.

Any ideas?

Home page; www.geraldmiller.com

Sub page (ranking); www.geraldmiller.com/dwi-dui-defense

I'd need to hire a "good PR person" to get a press release out? Seems a bit extreme.

I can write the PR in co-operation with the client. What I'm looking for is somewhere to place/promote it.

I'd agree with Keven, there is nothing wrong with directory submissions as long as they are relevant and manually reviewed by an editor. Also look into local and niche directories that suit your site business.

The problems with directory submissions for me begin with mass submissions where the work is outsourced or automated - I cant see you getting any value from this.

There is a great list of decent directories right here on moz, with a guide.

Often you can get a feel of the quality of a website from just looking at it.

Does it look professional? Would you be proud of hosting your content there?

Another thing to take into account is the user interaction that a website receives. A website may have a high DA but if the articles have no comments or social shares then it's unlikely the content is particularly credible. On the other hand, sites with lesser DA but interaction through comments and social shares is much more appealing to me.

Although I agree with the bulk of what you mention, and indeed it would seem there are some spam notes in the post, I would not go as far as to say 'it gives no ranking benefit'.

I say this as a few sites i've amended the h1 on, have seen very slight improvements, not this could also be down to the fact i'd also looked at the content on those sites at the same time, however, I would not discount the fact the h1 'might' of helped in some small way.

I also point to a video, a couple of years old I know, by Matt - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgy3Oc9zfOw

Who suggests they may still help, again, the video may be outdated - but perhaps worth noting.

The jury is out on whether they add much benefit, however, I would not discount them altogether and categorically state they have no benefit. Based on the tests I've run, and a number of others have run, such as http://cbutterworth.com/do-h1-tags-still-help-seo/, then i'd say it could still help, even in a small way.

The more things you do correctly, the better?

Egol is correct. This doesn't sound like a company i'd want to be working for yet alone paying money to look after my online interests. One good point of this company is you, in that you are wise enough to instantly spot the flaws in what was asked by the manager and in what was promised by your head of dept - no doubt in a panic.

This not only puts unrealistic pressure on him/herself but also on the employees reporting to the manager. All in all i'd take Egols advice and bail.

It sounds like its all too desperate based on lack of knowledge. Things arn't going right, so they pluck a figure out of the air and promise to hit it - they should be asking the guys for a brainstorming session to pool ideas and generate some realistic goals to acheive.

Hitting 600+ could be possible, as mentioned if the search volume is there then why not? But how will it be achieved, where will the visits be from and will they add value to the business(s)?

This could be an opportunity for you within the company to demonstrate your understanding of the situation and current landscape and prove your worth. Or seriously consider moving on.

Id agree with Lynn.

To deliver not only rankings long term, but to develop traffic that counts, then you are much better off spending time researching and structuring a piece of content that is of actual value to your sites potential visitor.

It looks like you will be spending time churning out content because you have a timeline to fill, with the sole purpose of structuring a link profile - from sites that have been overdone with this type of strategy.

Think about what is useful to your visitor, what can you create that they can engage with and share naturally? What will add value to your site? What will drive people to visit your site and share your content?

Come up with a solid content strategy for your own site, if its good enough, you will start building links without even trying - and in doing so, ensure your site stays clear of any updates to algorithms that may target the very sites your trying to gain links from.

Hey guys,

One of the sites I'm looking after took a hit with their rankings (particularly for one keyword that went from 6/7 to 50+) post-Penguin in May. Although, after cleaning-up the link profile somewhat we started to see some slow and steady progression in positions.

The keyword that dropped to 50+ was moving upwards in advance of 20. However, a couple of weeks back, the keyword in question took another slide towards 35-40. I therefore wondered whether it would be best to submit a reconsideration request - even though the site did not receive a manual penalty.

The website has a DA of 40 which more than matches a lot of the competitor websites that are ranking on first page for the aforementioned keyword. At this stage, I would have expected the site to have returned to its original ranking - four-and-a-half months after Penguin - but it hasn't. So a reconsideration request seemed logical.

That said, when I came to go through the process on Webmaster Tools I was unable to find the option! Has it now been removed for sites that don't receive manual penalties?

Possibly this:

Hi,

Bob here from the ** * * and I wanted to drop an email to you and compliment your site. Nice layout, good info, good resources.

I was looking around at a few different sites for product/service information and I thought your's was one of the best.

That being said, I also noticed you guys have some great content related to product/service.  I currently work for a company that maintains a website that offers product/service, www.domainname.com.

We are a nationally recognized, reliable source for product/service on the web and I was wondering if you'd be interested in exchanging/advertising via links between your site and mine?

If not, thanks for the time and keep up the good work!

Thanks,
Bob

Might be a silly answer from me here, but have you logged into your Yahoo account to see if the listing is live?

I took some PA/DA metrics and rank date for my target keywords before signing up to the directories. I re-checked a couple months later and noticed decent increases in PA/DA and steady rank improvements, so i'll say signing up to both was a good move - but hard to say which directory contributed to the improvementes, whether it was one of or both.

But yes, I liked BOTW, much easier than Yahoo to get the listing approved and live, and cheaper to boot.

er, contrary to some posts on here i'd say that yes, it still does play a (small) part in the overall mix.

Getting a listing in Dmoz no longer has the impact it once had, and getting listed can take an age, so submit to it and forget about it.

Most of the manually edited directories can still play a part, and more than anything getting listed in directories is a natural process for any website.

If you have already visited the moz list and submitted your site to them then good work, as long as you worked towards getting listed in directories that are specific to your industry then a job well done.

Keep moving along with your day to day seo efforts and submit to directories as and when you find a good, relevant one.

Further more, as you have probably already seen on the moz list and by reading other Q&A posts there are some paid directories such as Yahoo and BOTW (others are available) that for me have proved worthwhile when submitting to, and I did see a ranking increase as others have in the weeks after I submitted to them.

Moosa is right, again, if using wordpress install the yoast SEOplugin: http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/

As well as enabling you to handle your on page seo, you can also handle your redirects and robots.txt files through the plugin.