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I use DYNO Mapper exclusively. It is the best dynamic Sitemap Generator that I have used so far. I have used powermapper & slickplan in the past, but I like DYNO Mapper because it has some cool extra features like content audits capability and inventory display. It is also integrated with Google Analytics and displays this data on each page of the sitemap. watch?v=kjFBnQCoxjI

Thanks - I will double-check those. The mark-up should be fine, but will go through everything again just to be sure and make sure a sitemap is added through Bing Webmaster tools. Thanks.

Just ask yourself one simple question: why am I adding this page to my site? Problem solved. If the answer is to provide more information on some specific topic, then you have a keyword, the topic. If it is to advertise a new product or service, then you have a keyword, the product or service. If you don't know the answer to the first question, ask yourself this question: do I already have a page with similar content on my website? Would this add anything new? If you aren't adding anything new, don't add the page. You don't want to cannibalize your keywords with multiple pages targeting the same topic. As far as keyword selection, there you go. To make sure they are optimized for a keyword, simply make a checklist. Is the keyword in: title? alt tag? h1 tag? strong tag? That's about it.

Are they paid directories? If so, probably not worth it. There are very few directories out there worth paying for. So many free ones you can get decent links from, just worry about those. Only pay for a directory if you think it can actually bring you quality traffic. Never pay for perceived link value as it's usually very low anyway.

I've been a pro member for about 6 months and I've only just discovered Q&A! I must have seen it before - just didn't register. Looking forward to using this forum a lot in the next few months.

You probably already know this but there's a FF plugin called Google Global which you can use to search from other places if you wanted to check the differences easily

Thanks Steve!

Thanks for your responses Alan. Since these are client sites, it is our policy to seek permission before sharing information about site status. I will do this and provide some examples once permission has been obtained.

Yeh, linkjuice I'd say is worthless. However I'd still do them regardless of the low / no linkjuice, its just links to the site and you'll get picked up on yahoo and bing. still, and I'm sure Google will notice them and count it as something even if its only a very small amount of juice, its better than nothing.

Thanks guys, I totally forgot seomoz has it on a sub folder!

Hi there, I am actually in the exact same situation as you are in for 2 of my clients, but they are doing a re-design not for conversion issues, but just updating the site and moving it to a cms. I got the client to map out all the new pages so we can put all 301 redirects in place, especially for pages that will no longer exist, we make sure we point them to the right category page. Also we try to contact as much of the webmasters from where we have links from as possible to point the links to the new url, because you don't want your links to lose value due to redirects. Keep an eye on Google WMT after you made the migration to make sure no errors come out I guess, I don't see much issues with site migration if you can keep urls the same but you never know.

Will google actually be penalizing me for just targeting one keyword, hence the lower ranking?

huh? A you  asking..... "If people use the backbutton to go back into the SERPs, will that reduce your rankings?"   My bet is YES.  But I have not heard clear statements from Google about that. Anybody know where we can read or watch what Matt Cutts or another inside person has to say about that?

Great explanation.  Thank you!