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First of all, for the benefit of the discussion it's worth pointing out that the Googlebot will ignore the CSS code and read whatever is in those tags. Using tags like "display: none" and other similar ones will not by itself result in the Googlebot sounding the alarm.  It is sophisticated enough to recognise that many web designs use the tags for a better look at the website and UX experience. Where it might start getting angry (and you won't like it when it's angry) is when it finds links within the tags - particularly those that point to completely irrelevant webpages and/or spammy ones.  If that happens, it's quite a big no-no, as it will think you're trying to hide these links from Google for nefarious reasons.  Similarly a whole bunch of content that could be duplicate and/or is being used for keyword stuffing etc would also sound the alarm. Provided you avoid that, I wouldn't worry about using the tags, as it can be useful for a number of reasons.  Worth remembering, however, that the Googlebot will crawl and see whatever is hidden in their anyway.

The bulk of your main content needs to be above the fold. This is the same area where your h1 tag should reside. You can certainly see this with many ecommerce stores. i.e. "h1" "content here" try to link to two inner pages if you can for additional content that cannot be fully explained on this page. Also try to have a 1 or 2 % keyword density in a 200 word paragraph. You should be set. *Keep your keywords in your h1 tag and title tag to the left!"

If you are asking for stuff related to seo of your site don't miss. title meta description

To update a little about the issue. The only safe way of measuring the effects of the international characters I have found so far is the google webmaster tools, in the search querys section. There one can find the ranking position for a specific keyword. Unfortunatelly, Google treats both differently, are not the same. In my case it is a small difference, 5 positions for a specific combination. Thanks for your answers! Daniel

There is no formula of winning! I am working for a real estate industry and can tell you the fact that quality of content impact the most when it comes to rankings for long tail keywords. I think a content between 500 to 1500 words are fine but if you are going to make it too long without any good level of interaction for readers (i.e images and videos) then i personally don't think it will help you increase rankings and traffic.

Hi Ali, While the contributors above make great points, it may be helpful to look into some resource info for more details.  This won't provide you with a quick answer, but I found this book quite helpful in discussing issues on the discrepancies.  Brian Clifton goes into quite a bit of detail in, "Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics".  He addresses the points from the contributors above and quite a bit more. best of luck.

What analytic tools do you use? We currently have Google Analytics, but I'm familiar with KissMetrics & Crazyegg, do either of those make this process easier to measure?

How is your transfer page working, technically - it seems to be resolving as a straight 200 for me. Those transfer pages are usually where affiliates start to get creative (they might 302, for example).

Yeah, I think Chad has the bases covered - sharing an account is really only an issue if you don't want Google to know that the two sites are connected. For example, if you're cross-linking a lot of sites, you might want to keep their ownership as separate as possible. Most of those cases are at least gray-hat, though, and often Google has other cues. In general, sharing an account is no big deal. Sharing the same IP address has some minimal risks (in the past, if a site on that IP was penalized, it could cross over), but even that seems to be going down over time. Now that we're running out of IPv4 addresses, shared hosting is a lot more common. Personally, I still like unique IPs whenever possible, but sharing a host is no big deal. I guess the only other exception would be from an engineering standpoint. If you were running two sites for reliability/up-time (in case one went down), then sharing a host would defeat that purpose. That doesn't sound like what you have in mind, though.

Good to see you got it worked out! And thanks for marking the question "answered" so others can spot it. Paul

I was using it and didn't really appreciate the functionality.  I switched over to using dublin core meta data plugin, i think that is also what the plugin is called.  Once configured you are able to put in whatever you want as metadata and I find it easier to do.  Hope that helps.

I have not ever personally used it, but honestly, I would say it is probably not the best idea. I think it would detract from your other marketing messages, which would cost you more than you gain. That is IF anyone uses it to link to you anyways. In all of my years, the only way I have seen people copy and paste things from sites is embeddable widgets, or cool type things. In tech industry (which you said you aren't in, lol me either..), then it MAY would be worth considering. I would recommend going a route like Search Engine Land does, and offer a lot of social engagement instead (which these days are becoming valued a lot like links) If you were still going to do it, then I would recommend doing it SUPER non-intrusively  as in, don't come across as begging, or forcing them too. Maybe even just add it in the mix of "share" options, in a box similar to Search engine land's. Also, if you really want them to do it, then you will probably have to incentivize it, but hey, people will do anything for cash these days. Including copy and publish a link. XrMx9

I would.... put the links in the top nav and place adsense at the top position of the left nav.

I think that doing a redirect is a lot more risky than just putting the new design out there to see what happens.

Thank you Keri for taking the time to look at my site. I was not aware of the nova site on my domain...and will have it removed.  Additionally I will research the "wildcards" issue and determine the best way to correct.  I'm reading that unless I intend to block pages from the Googlebot (which I am not) there is no need to have a robots.txt file? It appears the source of the original problem points towards a DNS issue with my host GoDaddy.  I will advise when I know for sure so that others who encounter this problem may be helped.

Hmm, it sounds very fishy eh. They won't build equity into your site, they want to build a site they control, they are spreading disinformation about ranking tools. To me, this is a just a small step away from: Give me your lunch money or I will beat you up! Not cool. Marcus

a) Is it OK to post a description & title & links on those 20 pages that are the same? (duplicate - but account for less than 5% of total on-page content)" I would make them unique, if you're building out these pages just rewrite the tags it's too easy to not do. nofollowing is always safer for your site. if the other site is not requesting the links to be dofollow, then nofollow them and protect your site.make the link open in a new window so you're not kicking the user off of your site widget is good because it keeps people on your site longer and lowers bounce rate. Probably better for conversion rate too so it's you've getting a cut you want to implement whatever method will convert better.