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Private Message Ok, should of been obvious

Sha, what does PM stand for? Am I missing somthing?

just a point, you dont need to do a 301 in the .htaccess file.

I work with Microsoft Technolgies, and we dont use them, .htacces is a linux appache thing

Thwe SEO Toolkit sees the same probnlems as Bing sees, you need windows and you need to install IIS  (add features) first
http://www.iis.net/download/SEOToolkit

Remove it.

301 will take care of it, but it should nmot be there.

also it is worth mentioning, that sitemaps that are incorrect will get ignored by SE's, I knw that this is true with
Bing buy talking with duane forrester, it the updates dates dont add up, the links give 401''s and the lot, they will start to distrust it

Not quite sure I understand what you want to check, but as long as one 301's to the other it does not really matter. it may take some time for SE's to catch up.

Are you saying you want to check if it is resolving correctly?
in IE click F12, and then select Network and start capturing, you will see if its useing a 301, or a useless 302.

If you want to prove to your client that the developer is not on the ball, do a scan with the SEO Toolkit and show the results, if you dont have windows too install it on, i will do one for you.

Good to hear, I am glad you perservered

how does not having many links send you from top to bottom for my bussiness name?

Nick if you find my last post I show that i created a second site, with no content just a link to the first site, with no links, and it ranks on the first page for the business name.

Sure the linking sucks, it has over 500, but a lot are signitures from microsoft forums.

I apoligize if my answeres sound a bit abrupt, but the last post sunk into the same debate.

but remeber it ranked number one for my business name for the past few years, now almost last.

Long tail terms where i am the only one to have exact match, i am the very last result. I dont care if othes have better linking profile than i do,  having the same words spread thoughtout your page, but about a different subject should not rank you above the exact match.

I never did rank well for the compeditive keywords, but i was still in the top 10% of results, now i come absolute last, not near the bottom, the very last result.

Even if i was always last, you would wonder why the test site i made ranks on first page, with no links.

i asked google and they say there is no MANUAL action taken agaiinst my site.

Lets asume you rank #1 for your business name, tomorrow you are last, and I suggested that you need more links, would you accept that as an answer?

Nick i have been though all the check your links and your on off page stuff, i dont want to get stuck in that debate again. I am no novice, its not a case of my wanting to rank higher and being disapointed, its case of a dramatic change of rankings. when you come almost last for your business name from first a few moths ago when i last checked. to come last for a term you are the only one in the world to have the exact macth, its more then a few broken links or so.

Yes the no-index stuff is a good point, but i checked all that, I have no no-index or no-follow tags at all, i have the basic robots.

I must also add, that I have destroyed the evidence and made a new site in my panic, i have also 410ed the whole sub domain

Gianluca, i had doubts myself as i have anouther sub domain that does not seem to be affected (hard to tell). but i just read on the google forum about someone who did have a simular problem or should i say thinks he has.

no its not, you do lose a little from 301 redirect but very little

Well Google collects our data, why should you not collect theirs.

Put a button on your web site but dont make it easy to find, add some small print including your terms of use, and a disclamer that if search engines dont want their data scapped they can opt out by pressing the button, make them fill out a few forms, verify themsefls, make them wait 4 weeks then send them a no-reply email that does not address their concerns properly, so they have to go thought it all again.

I prefer the non www, as www is not nesasary, but that aside.

Yes they do differentiate

just 301 redirect one to the other, and you will be ok.

I mentioned my problem a few nights ago, but since then I think I may have found my problem. I have a site that was never really promoted to any great level, but for the main keywords I could find it in serps with out clicking though too many pages. I came up first for the company name in both Bing or Google.

Recently I finally decided to promote it and did a bit of a ranking check. First I still come up first for my company name in Bing, but in Google I come up 900+ out of 1000, virtually last. For my main keyword, the title of my site and optimized well for, I come up last, absolutely last. For long tail terms from my home page where I am the only site in the world to have the exact term, I come first in Bing, and absolutely last in Google. I don’t do black hat, but I thought I must be flagged by Google and I asked for reconsideration, they replied that no manual actions had been taken again the site, and referred me to the usual Google guidelines.

It was very frustrating, I then had a thought, I had a long forgotten sub domain that had a load of duplicate content, it was a load of Microsoft documentation and other dev stuff from other sources, rss feeds and the like. Nothing sinister, but duplicate all the same. I am now thinking that this maybe my problem. I have 410’ed the whole sub domain as the site has not been maintained for some time anyhow.

Does anybody know of simular, sub domain causing loss of ranking for root domain

Just of the top of my head, get a expert in the field to answer questins on the forum for a night. If you dont have many users, aim low to start with.

Once you get a bit happaning then you will gain links from people linking to posts.

Yes correct, did you try the other formats?

Yes but still not as good as promoting the one site.
You seem to like the local idea, so go with that, if at some stage you think its the wrong stratigy, you can always stop promoting all, and concentrate on the .com only

Wrong place, go to diagnostics, then look for fetch as googlebot

Yes it will, but when you have so many sites, how to get the links.
Getting quality links is hard.

What is best, getting 100 quality links each for 5 sites, or 500 qualitty links for 1 site, i think the latter.

so we have a trade off, more links, or the benifit of local?

Toss a coin

Try this in robots.txt, I did not think that Google allows wild cards but i just read that they do.

Disallow: /*mode=vote*

or

Disallow: /*mode=vote

or

Disallow: /*mode

Then try in Google WMT to read with googlebot to see if it works.

The first in the list seems right to me, but I have seen others do it the other ways.

Sour comment Sites do not rank pages do, I understand what you mean, but it is a bit misleading.

I am sure Rand has preached about site theme helps you rank, but my point is that links do help you rank, having relevant pages pointing to your ranking page helps, exteranl or internal, make sure your linking is clear as to show the search engine what page is the the imporatnt one.