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use the rel=canonical on the main page/s to show that they are the original/source/master page of the content. See this helpful guide: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/complete-guide-to-rel-canonical-how-to-and-why-not Don't forget you can also tell Googlebot to ignore certain URL parameters to prevent them being indexed and treated as duplicate content. "If your site uses URL parameters, some of the parameters may be unnecessary for page navigation. Asking Google to ignore these parameters can reduce duplicate content in Google's index and make the site more crawlable." This is done through Google.com/Webmasters - Your Domain - Dashboard - Settings - Parameter Handling.

That's one of the things I was wondering about Nick - how much other (i.e. non-browsing behaviour type) personal information does Google et al gather? Another type of information is things like  the UK Companies House maintains information of registered companies (including registered office address etc.) - could that be useful for local ranking? (BTW I'm not sure Companies House info is relevant, but there may be other sources that are).

1. Create 301 redirects from any of the old pages to their equivalent new pages - this tells Google that old content has moved from www.abcdomain.com/page1.html to www.abcdomain.com/category1/page1.html for example. Do that for every page. If there isn't an exact match for the old page - redirect it to an equivalent page where possible. (You can get a wordpress plugin to manage your 301 redirects - if you want to manage/monitor them - but modifying the .htaccess file is better. You might want to create a spreadsheet or list based on an existing sitemap perhaps of the old url structure and the new one and cross reference them and mark each one as redirected as you create your 301 list for the htaccess file. 2. Resubmitting a new xml sitemap in Google.com/Webmasters may help the changes get picked up a little quicker. 3. Advise the client that 301 redirects can take a few weeks to properly kick in in terms of Google giving them back 90% of the authority they had previously - so you are likely to dip in the rankings for a bit - however, the better optimised site will eventually offset that and take it beyond where it was previously.

Thx for sharing your perspective. I need to look into this more. We are just launching our new local campaign.

Thanks this is the kind of 2nd opinion I was looking for

I have a sitemap.php on my sites. The file contains the php code which generates my xml sitemap. It is perfectly standard and common practice. The question for your programmer is, where is the output xml file located? A sitemap program will output the file to the same location each time it is updated. He should be able to provide you a link to the file. I would advise the URL to be placed somewhere like mydomain.com/sitemap directory. If a deeper directory is preferred, then add the location to robots.txt. Either way it cannot hurt to update the sitemap in Google WMT. With that said, it is not necessary to do so as long as you can confirm Google is getting the information.

I am a business owner and have multiple services. So I can give you my recommendation from my experience. Maintaining multiple sites is a PITA. One problem is you have one company name but two websites for it, or if you do have a different company name for each, how will the phone be answered. Sure, you can get around that but there a many other inconveniences, like multiple business cards etc.. or with one physical location will only allow you one google-local entry. The main page has a main h1 heading at the top  listing the services ie   "Epoxy Flooring, Concrete Resurfacing, Stone Restoration serving Delaware" What I did is Summerize each of my services on my main page with h2 headers followed by a paragraph below the heading optimizing the text as best I could. The h2 headers and paragraphs are formatted in 2 columns by 3 rows (6 services) on the main page as try to dilute any top to bottom bias. What's very important is what EGOL said about cross services ie cross selling, Its much better to expose your customer to all  your services.

Higher QS means you get more clicks for the same amount of money. Too many people accept automated suggestions to up the buy. They should focus on improved QS first. It's all a matter of well the trigger words, ads, and landing page relate to each other.

We all feel your pain. Looking at the local landscape of SEO firms in our market you see a lot of this. Ryan and Dignan99  have it right I think.  Five or six great links will overcome all the spammy stuff. Look at great content ideas.  Do a day of out of the box thinking about on site content that will draw a crowd. Use the standard content ideas to start  ( Tips, Forums, Contests, Opinion, events).  You need real sites to notice you and real traffic to overcome the less imaginative but prolific 4000 links to a url crowd. In my experience it takes components of at least three for this type strategy, meaning not just the content, but the distribution of it, and the  promotion of it. All three areas have to be good.  Where throwing together a bunch of low quality sites is a component of one thinking.  Low quality linking and SEO (Like most things I suppose) are symptoms of taking the easy road, and the course of least resistance. So,  not only can you write some great content ( or have a professional do it)  that will draw some attention, but you can also promote that content through ad words for a short period, and face book ads, with a very targeted campaign to the bloggers and movers and shakers in the Industry. It's the old my blender can blend an i pad thought process.  I bet if you really find something interesting and unique to demonstrate on the site, promote it well, and distribute the information in a thoughtful targeted manner, you can and will out rank the dark forces.

Classic.  Well maybe he shouldn't change anything if he is currently ranked #3, but I assume that is due to the strength of his domain, stupid.com. All of this talk about bacon reminded me of a couple of fellows here in Seattle who come out with a new bacon product every year, and to promote they also come out with some type of bacon art. May I present to you, Bacon Kevin Bacon: Bacon Kevin Bacon

Best long term answer is beat their content. Another solution is to beat their links, but you are one panda-style update away from losing any questionable links. There you have it in two clear sentences.  The methods and the risks. Thumbs up!

Hmmmm...."feeding data to Google with rich snippets" Not sure how much importance Google would attach to reviews on a company's own website. I can say that I've had great success with authentic customer reviews posted on  Yelp, Google Places, Handyman review sites, etc... it's a very difficult, hand crafted approach that takes a lot of time and effort. But it's paid off.

You need to decide on a single URL structure to your website. http://www.mydomain.com/hello http://www.mydomain.com/hello/ http://mydomain.com/hello http://mydomain.com/hello/ The above four URLs could lead to the exact same page depending on how your site is set up. This would cause confusion for search engines. Which page do they index? Also, when someone links to your site, the links would split between the various URLs so your backlink power would be divided. The solution? Make a choice, then 301 or canonicalize your site based on that choice. If you decide you want the "www" version with the trailing slash, then the canonical code for your page would be: Adding this code lets search engines know which page to index and to consolidate your links to that page. With respect to your keywords, in general you wish each page to focus 1 or 2 keywords. I try to ensure they are used about 4 times on the page. If you see 33 keywords on a page you may be targeting too many words, or using them too often. It could also be that everything is just fine. It depends on a few factors.

Hi Steven, this is a difficult one to crack, pointing out the exact reason for that category page not showing in the tools is not as easy, but I do see some issues with your site that might be affecting the flow of authority: yes, Architecture. You have: http://www.minespress.com/ (Home) http://www.minespress.com/category/printed-products (Category 1) http://www.minespress.com/category/printed-envelopes (Category 2) http://www.minespress.com/category/business-envelopes (Category 3) http://www.minespress.com/products/10-business-envelopes (and the product) I see what you are trying to do, but you have a long road to let the user get to the product,this is what I would do: http://www.minespress.com/printed-products/business-envelopes/10-business-envelopes/ http://www.minespress.com/promotional-products/key-tags/house-stress-ball-keychain/ I think that having a category called "printed envelopes" its just redundant (is there any other kind of envelope?) Maybe consider linking to the most important categories from the main navigation. Also on a side note: Please check this http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development The idea of controlling link juice by using no-follow is not useful anymore. nofollow-graph.png