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Paul, OSE is no-where near as complex as Google's algorithms and can only rank links in a relatively simplistic manner. Although it's a very good tool for getting an idea of what's going on, there are so many other contributing factors that Google will use that just can't be included in OSE. For example, the directory links may be ranked highly in OSE because it's algorithm looks at all the links going into the directory and determines that it's probably quite a good source. Google however may have penalised the same directory (something OSE can't determine) and so any links from that directory may in-fact be worthless. When using OSE, I tend to use my gut instinct as well as the stats to tell whether a link is worth anything or not. If a link looks particularly spammy then it probably looks the same in Google's eyes. Also - it's worth remembering that OSE's index is much smaller than Google's, therefore although most of the decent links will be in there you may not be able to see some awesome links that your competitor has, simply because they're not in the OSE index yet.

I have seen changes like this where it appears that a competitor has been spurred by being pushed out of the number 1 or 2 spot to take a look at their optimization for that particular term. Something else that could possibly affect just one keyword is the mix of anchor text in your link profile. There is some great discussion of this in the latest Whiteboard Friday - [Beyond Exact Match Anchor Text to Next Generation Link Signals.](Beyond Exact Match Anchor Text To Next Generation Link Signals - Whiteboard Friday "Beyond Exact Match Anchor Text") It might be worth taking a look at your link profile to see if there is any obvious difference in the mix of terms for the keyword that has changed. Hope that helps, Sha

Usually you only want one plugin trying to do the same thing at the same time, so two plugins for SEO can often cause problems and conflict with each other. I've heard good things about Yoast's plugin, but haven't used it myself. Similarly, you only want one caching plugin. My personal opinion is to try not to do too much all at once with this site. Get comfortable with creating a few pages before trying to add every fancy-looking plugin you can find. Have a regular contact page and ditch the inline contact widget and see if that reduces the number of errors. Remove the Quickbar. Remove the tag cloud that shows the stuffing of zip codes. Remove the RSS feeds of local news. Focus this site on computer repairs. Put up useful articles about how to do some basic maintenance on your computer, that type of thing.

Will a home page link from a PR8 chinese site help me? Will my site be penalized? Maybe yes, maybe no. If the link isn't devalued by search engines, then yes it will provide some help. What kind of devaluation can happen? 1. The link could be completely devalued if Google suspects the site involved is receiving or making a payment for the link 2. The link can be partially devalued if it is a footer link or otherwise not used in content (i.e. a list of links) No one except a current Google or Bing employee who decides to break the company's NDA (non-disclosure agreement) can properly answer your question. In other words, we are guessing. What we do know is Google is a very intelligent entity with some of the best minds on our little planet working to ensure their results are not manipulated. What makes sense is Google locates sites which sell links and then adds that site to a penalty list and devalues all of their links. This could have already happened for the Chinese website you are considering. None of the SEO tools you depend on such as Open Site Explorer have any idea if a link has been devalued, so you simply see a high DA/PA site. My recommendation is instead of trying to manipulate the system with such an effort, why not put that same money towards legitimate efforts? Even if your link does work for now, it can be devalued tomorrow or a year later. When it happens you will wind up back on these forums asking "why did my site drop in rankings all of the sudden?" We see it all the time. If you have money to burn and desire improvement, some suggestions are: if you really want links, focus on the few accepted directories who offer links with value: BOTW, Yahoo, BBB, Dmoz. Also consider any niche directories for your industry. spend the money on trust symbols which add value to sites such as Verisign, TRUSTe, organizations like GBB.org, etc. Also consider any niche symbols related to your site. hire an SEO for a site analysis. Most sites have opportunities on page. Improve your site so it naturally ranks better. On page SEO is half the battle. hire a quality content writer. Most SEOs agree "content is king". Even for those who disagree, they understand content has a big impact on your rankings. Look for "best of the web" content, not just average internet content invest in graphics. Improve the look and feel of your site. Make it an award winning site to where it is discussed by graphic designers and other sites about how amazing your site appears. Create an infographic for your niche which others will naturally link to create a useful widget which your site's visitors can use and will offer a backlink hire an expert to write or officially review an article. Articles written by doctors, attorneys and other experts add credibility to your site. hold a content and give away a prize. If the contest is performed correctly, you can gain a lot of social media and other attention. create videos for your site. Quality, original media can make a big impact. This works for images as well. You can pay a SEO to perform quality link building as well. Rather then hiring a permanent SEO, you may wish to hire a dedicated, intelligent college student who is capable of learning SEO basics and your niche. Let's say your site is a health food store. This link builder can then read the overwhelming number of health blogs and forums daily, offering comments and feedback as appropriate and occasionally linking back to your site with helpful information. The list goes on but the point remains the same. There is a huge number of quality, white hat methods to grow your site in a sustainable way which provides real value and will last for years? It doesn't make sense to pay for links which may offer no value at all to visitors and may offer no value to you either.

Hi James, There are a number of things that can affect results - A few of the things that may be influencing your conflicting results include: It is my understanding that SEOmoz Rankings are based upon non-personalized and non-regionalized results I believe that SEOmoz take into account embedded local results if they appear, but do not include them if they appear in a 6, 8 or 12 pack. There have been recent anecdotal reports that searchers using the Google Chrome browser are receiving vastly higher ranking results than those seen in Firefox and IE. If you feel that there is a problem with your Rankings Report, the best thing to do is to email the Help Team (help [at] seomoz.org) and ask them to take a look for you. Be sure to provide them any information you have regarding manual checks and results from other tools. Hope that helps, Sha

This isn't really an seo suggestion, but if you want to make a little more money on your site, you can always sell some "justin" fan paraphernalia/art/shirts... etc

Thanks for taking the time to answer guys... "take the time out to highlight the slightly different features of each product and put each of them on a different page." I would if I could the differences are minor, sometimes only about the product size. I am more concerned about user experience, adding them on different pages will overwhelm the site with very similar products. Each page typically has 4 product variations I know its not ideal but is there any reason why I cannot pick one of the variations and leave the other 3 out?

hi i have a question related to this but havent got answers yet i have purchased a lot of different domains and realize now that many of them have backlinks from pornsite and maybe even spamming sites. will that effect the sites i am about to link to? i give you an example i purchase domain abcdef.com which has over 1.000.000 backlinks from different sites, all from adult to spammy - many of them also good I put a simple wordpress blog on abcdef.com and write an article about sexdating or sextoys and link to fx. sexshop.com and sexdating.com which are also adult sites - will this help the ranking for sexshop.com and sexdating.com or will it hurt them? thx

My advice for keyword research is too not just factor on exact match and broad match, you need to factor in other forms of research to supplement your data. You need to remember this data is only a guide from Google Exact match data is in no way an accurate determination of what traffic the specific keyword gets. MY advice it the following - Split up excel into the following: 1. line Exact 1. line Broad 1. line other research 1. line competitive analysis for the term. You need to pull information from various sources, do not rely only on Google. Kind Regards, James Norquay.

I would recommend dropping the .html / htm extensions from both URLs. The first URL is quite long and has too many folders. I am concerned the page requires too many clicks and/or you are stuffing too many keywords in your URL.

Hi Martin, You might find it useful to take a look at the Linkscape Update Schedule in case timing is a factor. I believe Rand outlined the recent changes to the indexing rationale in this webinar Using Open Site Explorer to Uncover New Marketing Opportunities , but if you still have questions then as Brian suggested, it may be a good idea to lodge a ticket or email the Help Team. help [at] seomoz.org. Hope that helps, Sha

While there are generally a number of different ways to do the same thing, you are definitely doing things right.  Its a lot of hard work as I am sure you know, but in the long run and over time you will see benefits from your efforts. Regarding having links of others on your site.  You bet, there is definitely some benefit to having some  outgoing links.  Keep up the good work!

Hi Will, The time required for installation and testing could vary according to whether there are compatibility issues to resolve on the server. As an example - if we were to install an updated version of Wordpress for a client, that could be a 5 minute job, but the new version requires an updated version of PHP on the server and the age and configuration of the server may require patching (or even moving to a newer server) in order to install the correct version of PHP. Then, with all of the software updated and the new version of WP installed, we would need to check and test the installation to ensure that the template is still good and nothing has broken. So, a 5 minute job could easily turn into a 1 or 2 hour job and the need for the additional work will only become known when the installation is attempted (sucks to be us sometimes!) For this reason, most web development companies will probably quote you a minimum of an hour to do the work. Having said that, the hourly rate you have quoted would be considered extremely high by our company. I hope that helps, Sha

You can change the setting in your google preferences if desired.

Oh, nothing definitive. Just makes sense to me that a duplicate video track footprint would be seen as a duplicate video. Have not tested this myself though.