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Many thanks Chris.  This was the kind of thought process that I was going down but just wanted to check before we were accused by Google of spamming the same video in multiple locations.

There are sitewide links to http://www.whitby-holiday-cottage.com/ and http://www.northyorkmoorscottages.co.uk/ in the left navigation. I would not do that.  I would have a page on the site that received traffic from those links and then one link on that page to the other domain.

During my past years on SEO, I've seen cases with a 5% - 10% delta (negative) during the first 3 days. And about 3-7 days the traffic increased a lot. If you do the 301 redirection correctly I think that you can find the same numbers.

The ultimate truth here is much more important a consideration than which version you go with.  IF you intend to build a highly trusted site with highly trusted off-site signals, and truly unique content that's highly focused and deep enough, either domain variation will work just fine. If you are stuck on the belief that an exact match or exact match variations are a golden ticket, you are just as likely to see the site suffer Google's recent Exact Match Domain (EMD) devaluation regardless of the domain you choose, because no matter what, SEO best practices need to be implemented. I will, however, agree with James in regard to the "perceived" value of a ".com" domain vs. a ".net" domain as well. There is a certain value in a ".com" from a user perspective in general, and that needs to be considered.

Thanks Dana, I just needed a bit of affirmation really - which you certainly provided. I believe the brand anchor should be segmented under the umbrella - the difficulty is getting an accurate % that may correlate with rankings across multiple niches - a bit of an algo chase admittedly(well a small part of it anyhow!) I survived thanksgiving this year! I hope that you didn't feast on any relations.

You are very welcome. Happy Thanksgiving!

Be patient Sam, you don't want to do too much too soon raising more flags with Google. As long as you're getting good citations for your places listing, it should be a matter of time before you regain your position. Since you did have the top positions in the past i'm assuming you followed all the best practices to optimize your places listing.

THis is what we call "reputation management" I would first make sure to build some social media accounts and get them to rank under you site.. ie. Your Site:www.yourbrand.com LinkedIn:www.LinkedIn.com/yourbrand Twitter:www.Twitter.com/yourbrand Google+:www.Google+.com/yourbrand Facebook:www.facebook.com/yourbrand These social media accounts would need to be active and used everyday posting relevant stuff and adding relevant people. There are many things you can do for reputation management, it can be challenging if the site you are up against has a strong site. Here are some useful references: http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/category/19

Will check out that link. I really hope it doesn't take 2 months. Thanks. Dino

I have used both UBL (3 years) and Yext for about 7 months. In the beginning I saw nice results with UBL. After UBL makes initial insertion, it seems to be very passive. I am not seeing great results in the last 12 months with UBL. I think they may have become complacent. I too have seen the duplication issues. Yext really does a nice job with real time updates. Running a special promotion works very well with Yext. the reach does not seem to be as broad with Yext as UBL. We struggle with Google merging our moving company Admiral Movers, www.admiralmovers.com & our records management company Admiral Records Management, www.admiralrecordsmanagement.com. They occupy the same block, but we except mail at the main location for Movers, because we do not want anyone wandering around the records center. They are two separate corporations, separate ownership, website, phone number & employees. Right now neither is showing up on Google (formerly Google places) +. If anyone can offer advice here, we are beyond frustrated. We are currently investigating Ecinity for both businesses. I have heard some good things about the service. Also a little leery that it is a beta. I appreciate any input & guidance. Follow up on Ecinity, it is working nicely.

I could not have put it better myself you that the nail on the head. The quality press releases are the backbone of what most quality journalists write about. If I'm in the plastics business and looking for release liner and flexible packaging happens to post a story about W & H upside down building a new water cooled extruder I will most likely see it is sourced from a press release that was put out by W&H without those press releases that journalists don't really have a reliable source to base their story on. The example I gave is a real thing that happened to me when looking at blown film extrusion lines a niche business. I think press releases are a fantastic way to get links and source material. Check out PRWeb and pit them against newswire for pricing. Sincerely, Tom

Now would be a great time to do some blogger & site outreach. You can also use the exposure for a big social media push, and of course, a landing page featuring the designs would be great to drive ppc traffic if you use it. "As featured on" is your new favorite phrase for awhile, I guess.  Congrats to the client on the feature.

One other thing came to mind overnight.  I think that the API had some limits with regards to follow/day.  That might make an API reliant app less useful for some purposes.

Sounds great, hopefully we provided some helpful information. Good luck with the migration!

Years ago I paid $1500 for keyword rich, two-word.com and it has worked out really well. However, if I had it to do over again I wouldn't.  Now I think a unique, brandable domain name with one of the keywords in it for $10 is a better choice. example: 2-word keyphrase:  abcde-efghij.com unique/brandable: abcdeworld.com Regards, Sam

Yes you are correct. By adding the "+1" right next or underneath your ad, people who like it will able to visit your Google+ page.

Thanks for getting things rolling Daniel! Sorry, I didn't explain..."how should people win" is one of the things I want to brainstorm. whether they win based on a judges decision, or a random draw is something that we can figure out when we know what the contest involves. The client is giving away a suit and a dress forever and ever. Also I should have mentioned. they don't have a bricks and mortar store, they're an online-based store. I like your ideas! They will help to get a bit more engagement, which is what we're after here And yes, what a past you do have!

Thanks Dana. I do ads on Facebook but was not aware of stumbleupon's option. I will look into it. Appreciate the time you took to comment and for the links Brett

Hi Donford, no, no, no - I find your answers very helpful. Thanks for that. We are in a discussion. Maybe other people have also ideas, which way might the best for a Hotel in a remote area without addresses! My competitors are branding but with less success agains the non-branded pages with local name in the address. I was now considering to use subdomains like: "hotelname.location.com". Might this be an idea to mix both ways? And before I forget: There is another problem. The branding itself with the name of the hotel. The name is already 10 letters long and it is not valid anymore on domain search. Need to be very creative today to solve this