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Based on the above recommendation, I've added ~200 words of content to the homepage via a flyout. Two weeks have passed and I'm still ranked at the bottom of page two for my keyword "Philadelphia wedding photographers" despite having Moz domain/page rank similar to the top listing. I can't seem to figure out what's wrong...I appreciate any further suggestions!

KLLC, As always great content is the way to go when it comes to link building.  My suggestion is create great content, and then repurpose it for other mediums.  Once you've created a killer video for example feel free to submit it, over a series of days, to all of the video sites such as VIMEO and YouTube.  Then write about your award winning video, do a press release about it that you can submit to a PR Web and maybe even offer a guest post on another website talking about your video. That's just one example of how you can link build using all of the strategies that you mentioned.  In the end even as Parvesh mentioned it shouldn't be about getting links, but about getting links on sites that are relevant to your niche.

I've heard of a number of webmasters lately who saw a big jump in traffic after the last Panda update.  Some of them attributed it to their own site making a recovery, and many feel that they did better because their competitors got affected by Panda. I feel that Google is getting better at identifying long tails and that is good for sites with good content!

Yes they are on the same server. These are sister sites that have been live and up for about 7 to 8 years. They get decent traffic, which is directed to our main sites. They were not necessarily set up for link juice. But, until last week, the links were showing up in webmaster tools. I'm assuming that Google is just doing some clean up, since they were not giving them link value anyway. Just wanted to make sure that was it and not something else I should be concerned about. We do outside link building to legitimate sites, and do get good results. Just seeing if anyone is seeing the adjustment from Google from sister sites.

If you’re doing blog commenting for the sole purpose for gaining thinks than you should stop. This is just spam and does not contribute to anything. Now, commenting on blogs can be a really good way to connect with other people in your industry and get your name out there. This also works well if you want to become a guest blogger on a site. Start commenting on their blogs with useful insights and you can gain a personal relationship with them. Other people might also start following your blog because of your helpful / informational comments.

In the industrial sector, directories are still being used with much success (companies like ThomasNet, MacRAES and Globalspec still create high quality leads). However, over the last 5 years or so (like Ryan's wine example) they are becoming more of informational portals that also has a directory component to it.

At the start of the year they appeared within 24 hours. Now some do not appear at all such as those associated with ratings.

Hello Robert, Thank you for your input I agree with you, EGOL whether intentionally or not did provide a great example of GREAT content just by answering my question.

Yes you could do this (but dont expect from large companies). Reciprocal linking is not bad, just dont expect so much credit from Google compared to something where you have to work to get a link. Dont forget companies who break the rules dont necessarily get penalised straight away, but one day they might be bitten. If you do everything as white hat now then you will see the benefits for years to come, not just this year.

There's so much that's dependent on context. For example if you're a design agency and you want to get guest post links from other design sites then it's pretty easy to put together a roundup of "Top 35 Most Beautiful Examples of X" that will get published by a lot of medium weight sites and be worth the two hours you spend putting it together. On the other hand if you want to be featured on powerful sites that are going to drive referring visitors and boost your brand reputation then you're going to have to put more effort in. I would say that guest posts are good for monthly reports - they give you guaranteed links. If in doubt you could always dip your toe in the water and outsource. There are plenty of people who will gladly do guest posting for you and it's pretty cheap (sub $100 per link if memory serves).

Directory submissions are a form of link building that may have worked before. Even before the Penguin update, directory submissions weren't helping much. You should try to get listed on the following directories: DMOZ (if that ever happens!) Yahoo paid (build trust) joeant, BOTW If there are relevant directories to your business, I would look at getting listed there as well. More to get your name out there for people that are interested in you services. Other than that, I wouldn't waste much time adding my domain to directories. They are not worthwhile links. If this was helpful, I would appreciate a thumbs up or a good answer

Thank you, I'm trying it.

Hi, I don't think so that Google consider that links as a same links because if you have get back-links by versatile keywords then it consider it as a different but if Google gets links from same domain for same anchor text then it might be possible that Google count that links same.

Hi Debbie, Ideally each webpage would rank for 1-2 keyword targets. So if your homepage and sub page is ranking for the same term it could mean that the on-page optimization is geared towards the same terms (there is also the chance that Google will see both pages as similar and choose to rank only one - however from your description I don't think that's happening at the moment, so more of an fyi for now). If you want to widen your reach in SERP's I'd first recommend targeting 1-2 specific keywords per page (so title tags, <h>headers, body copy, alt tags etc). Once you achieve rankings for these terms to further widen your reach, and without diluting the ranking you have gained I'd recommend adding more content rich pages to your website that target additional keywords.</h> I'm unsure where or how your anchor text links sit and how they have been contributing to your rankings but if your homepage has dropped to number 22 wouldn't you want to try improve that ranking over the sub page? Also, have you thought about doing link building (from external sites linking back to you)? It can help build your rank for target keywords. Good luck, Davinia

Thanks

I'd say we can only guess... There are so many variables here. Guest posts may go down the archive and thus the link value may be decreasing. Or possibly there are some flags - which would be not a smart idea though because I see dozens of blog who nofollow links with no intention (because of installing a new WP plugin. So honestly, I don't have the answer.

You make connections with editors any way you are able. Following them on social media websites, commenting on their blog, and in this case you'd be very interested in this: http://www.wired.com/services/feedback/letterstoeditor Of course, they probably won't appreciate spam. Only get in touch if you are genuinely sure what you want to promote is worth their time. It's more of a proactive cause, than retro. Don't expect the editor to add in a link post-publishing unless it's critical.

Thanks Simon this is a great way to pitch.