Welcome to the Q&A Forum
Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.
We're creating a new website for a client, and we have already started link building to the pages, including some deep landing pages.
Currently the site is blocked from being indexed - we're just concerned that there may be issues when we launch the site as there will be a lot of links pointing towards the pages from day 1.
Are we ok to continue link building?
Have you got a URL? I can't find the image.
What has most likely happened is that a spam site scraped a load of content, and uploaded the images to their websites. With good linking and tags, the picture will be able to rank.
I'll take a look at the page/image in question when you link it!
I'll look into that CSS trick. It's not hiding text, it's just indenting the text, the block level element is still on page.
I remember reading that no follow blog actually, so my mistake.
My personal technique is to use CSS image replacement to replace my first link, which is usually the logo. The style method is to give the text a negative indent of 9999px, and to set the element's background image to the logo, and use display: block; to keep the whole are clickable.
If you intent to link to all of your pages elsewhere on the page, you could opt to nofollow the navigation, as the other links will pass more relevant text.
Or another option would to be include the links as per usual, and ensure that there is a strong backlink profile to your landing pages, which will eliminate half of this problem entirely.
Aaron
As the other responses have said, although it will cost you a yearly fee to keep the website up, (minimal), it is in your interest to keep it up to keep that 7% referring traffic. Check out Open Site Explorer to help you identify the websites that have not added your new link, and contact the webmasters to ask them to change it.
Depending on your target audience, if you turn off the redirects, there is a high chance they will be able to find you if they are looking for you. I guess it would depend on the sites content, and whether the traffic was brand related or search driven.
Aaron
Vich,
SEO is an all round issue - both link bait (which will attract links) and link building (you actively pursuing links). To get you off the ground I'd recommend some of the latter.
Look at writing a couple of informative articles, creating some strong profiles on 'web 2.0' sites link Hub Pages and Squidoo.
Reply to this if you need some advice, I don't mind giving you some more suggestions 
There are so many site, tools and 'solutions' like this on the web nowadays - and too many people seem to be buying into them.
The only true way to gain good quality links is though EARNING THEM. Instead of spending time indexing poor quality links via RSS feeds and such like, spend your time creating something link worthy - something people will want to link to, such as the Social Media Guide. It ticks all of the boxes, it's from an authorative source, includes badges (for link backs), and it's easy to syndicate.
Whatever your niche is, someone somewhere is looking for a review, a buying guide, or a 101 ways to... list. I know I'd personally spend my time following these methods.
@Shehzad - This isn't meant to be aimed at you in particular! This is just my strong recommendation to all employing these tactics to swap to more natural SEO
Aaron
Please read this, from Google Webmasters Central:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40349&query=cookies&topic=&type=
"Build your site with a logical link structure. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
Use a text browser, such as Lynx, to examine your site. Most spiders see your site much as Lynx would. If features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Macromedia Flash keep you from seeing your entire site in a text browser, then spiders may have trouble crawling it. "
I've subscribed to this thread because this is something I'm interested in too, I hope someone else with a little more experience can clarify this for us both, but in the mean time have a read of the above! I hope it helps
Hmm, I've taken a look at your site, and I now realise your concern. All of the links are followed and your site looks fully index-able by the Bots...
I assume from this that the only reason the pages were not crawled was due to the lack of inbound links to your deep pages.
Bots do not necessarily crawl all pages linked to from the home page - although this is usually the case. Perhaps try writing an article about each page and submitting it to an article directory with a link pointing to each deep page. That should help!
Always split test with Google Website Optimiser as said above! The integration with Analytics is the cherry on the top for me!
Jean,
Although this does sound tempting to get a quick win, I'd advise not to go ahead with a scheme such as this. Focus more on building strong links such as the one from your SEOmoz profile (after 200 points) - and forums and blog commenting.
Getting keyword rich links are obviously the best, but you can compete with that by a number of links from pages with high domain and page authority with less keyword input.
50 Links isn't that many, so don't be put off! It also seems that now the competitor has these links they might be happy to stop link building. Link building is an ongoing process, and sudden peaks and troughs in link numbers might attract the attention of search engines 
Let me know if this helps!
Crawled by what? The SEOmoz bot,or Google Bot? In both cases, it is probably down to the linking structure both internally and externally.
As I mentioned above, I'm keen for a user generated one! I'd be willing to contribute!
Maybe it could be a feature where Users could add and then vote up and down the directory to keep it fresh, relevant and up to date. Obviously you'd have to implement something to stop spammers...
That said, I've still got a couple of good niche links from the current list
A few thoughts on that Alex.
The first is, don't set up that redirect! In short it won't help you, for reasons such as potential duplicate content, confusing to visitors, and you'll have to choose where to link to...
If you own the original .com, then this is where your main efforts should lie. Directories, happy customers, and industry blogs will be more inclined to link to your companys site if it feels more legit.
Depending on the keyword difficulty, focus on making some linkbait content, be it a free online calculator or tool, or a free PDF download, or just some standard infographis and try distributing all of this content to relevant niche sites and social media.
In answers to your questions then;
1. Hyphens in this case will not have a negative effect on your URL. I believe Google will start clamping down on hyphenated keyword rich domains, as shown by the recent google branding serps update, but the timescale and effectiveness of this is unknown.
2. Don't go the extra mile and 301 the domain, unless you're keen on building links to both sites it's simply not worth it, focus on your main domain and optimise the landing pages for your keywords.
Solar Monster
I'd be interested in seeing this! I don't think there is currently a method of doing this, as I haven't yet found out how to access historical keyword data.
Maybe like you I'm missing something, but if not it's definitely something to add to the product roadmap.
Lets hope Rand comes to the rescue!
My rule of thumb is anything visible and on page should be optimised for the users experience. If it's going to help them consolidate the knowledge that they've just got from your site then it is beneficial. It will not help you in climbing the SERPS, as link juice and other metrics does not pass backwards in a link.
Continue to push! Link building isn't easy! Vary your linking techniques, and keep monitoring your progress through software, be it a Spreadsheet or Pro SEOmoz!