Welcome to the Q&A Forum

I just don't understand.  If a question or an answer is decent, I give people a thumbs up.  I don't think I've really seen anyone else give a thumbs up.  Why not?

Simply put, it's a tag that solves a problem.

Problem: Dynamic web pages get into trouble with duplicate content - Google will see a completely different page if the URL is changed in any way.

For instance, Google sees these as two different sites:

www.site.com 
www.site.com/

Just the trailing / will make Google index the page twice - which required much more resources to index all of that duplicate content.

So, the rel="canonical" tag exists to tell Google which version of the content to index - thus enabling less duplicate content.

All you need to do is add the rel="canonical" tag before the tag of your website, and you're good to go!

Does this help explain it?

I get it, I get it... but how much AMAZING content could an air conditioning repair company create?

Yeah, I absolutely agree with Josh.  Thumbs up, Josh!

Hi, Ray,

Typically, directories don't often sort by alphabetical order; they allow the user to choose how they view the results, or, they sort by showing the paid listings first.

With that said, here's what I usually look like when starting a new project & choosing a domain:

• Is the domain name brand-able?
• Can I have keywords in the domain?
• Do I have the option of buying a domain with a high Page Rank?

Right now, having keywords in your domain is a pretty significant factor, but there have been rumors of Google changing it's algorithm to put less weight on the keywords in domain.

If I was in your shoes, I think I'd go with "AUCheapFlights.com" just because it's brand-able & it has keywords.

I hope this helped!

I always have used www.LiquidWeb.com as my hosting company - their customer support just rocks!

They don't do designing, however.

Can you give us some more information on what you're looking to do?

I'd say that I'd have to disagree with, "No point registering keyword rich domain unless it's a short lived affair."

Why is that?  I completely disagree.  Most of my successful websites all are based around keywords, and I've had them for years...

No, I could be wrong, but I don't think that's not how rel="canonical" works.

Rel="canonical" just needs to be at the top of your web page, before the section of the website - you don't actually add it to a link.  It tells Google that if it sees your content elsewhere on your website somehow, to index that copy only.

With that said, social media is a tough place to start.  To be honest, I usually start my social media campaigns with my email marketing list - do you currently have a decent sized marketing list or customer base?

From there, sending out RELEVANT information to your social media platform should be the highest priority.  I started an entire website to talk about how social media marketers and SEO marketers are silly and spam their lists - which ultimately makes social media marketing an up hill battle.  AdFailBlog.org

What you should really do is focus on interaction and relationship building - build a community of people who know, love, and respect your company and your brand.  You can do this by participating actively, not spamming, and by providing super high quality content that they'll love.

I hope this helps!

I always agree with domains with keywords in them for sure.

I think I know what you're asking.  Basically, using a "read more" type situation where the content is on the website in the code, but not visible to the user until they click on that area.  Is that correct?

If so, the answer is no, it does not devalue the content at all, and you shouldn't be penalized for it.

Matt Cutts discusses this topic in this video:

UpK1VGJN4XY

That's good news!

I always keep a completely separate browser that I don't use, and when I do searches and experiments, I always clear the cookies and make sure I'm not logged in.  That way, Google is giving me generic results instead of personalized results.

I'd suggest opening a different browser, or downloading RockMelt or Safari, and testing the search there.  If it still doesn't show, then hopefull it's gone for good!

I would disagree with both of the responses below.

To be honest, what I would do with $200-$300 per month is hire a data entry person.  I would then train this data entry person in link building and pay them about $10 an hour.  I would also recommend keeping this person in the office because link building is super tedious - submitting to directories, participating in forums, participating in blogs, requesting links, etc. The not-so-moral person might spend their entire day on Facebook instead of actually working on the links

From there, I would suggest having you work on the content - business owners always produce the best content - and your link building will perfectly supplement your activities.

I created a PDF - will it pass PageRank?

The "too many outgoing links" (less than 100 links per page) was originally created because Google could only index 101KB of a page, and so they needed some sort of rule that would help it's users.  However, this rule is no longer in place, and the guideline has been removed.  I would suggest you don't have 50000 links on a page, but your website looked fine.

Wow, I love your website - can you send me an email to alhallinan@gmail.com with some info?

Ah, certainly interested.

Yup, I would absolutely email them to remove those links.  If there's any risk whatsoever, I would ask for the links to be removed.

No, there's no harm in hiring a third party to do link building - however, I tend to shy away from third party link builders because I can't confirm their tactics.  I can only ask them questions to try to understand how they're adding links.

What I generally do when I'm focusing on link building is hire an intern for minimum wage, instruct them what to do, and monitor the results.  That way, I know exactly how links are being built, and I can maintain the quality assurance.

It might not make sense in all situations, but rankings are too important to me to neglect quality for cost.

Wow, way to give an absolutely excellent answer. I wish I could give more than 1 thumbs up!

Steve,

What do you mean, "Good luck" with the SEO package from PRWeb?

Thanks,

-Andy

Also, you have some characters in your title that shouldn't be there, like "&" and the such.  I would try to keep those out of the titles as much as possible.

I would also start becoming heavily involved in social media because I think social media is going to be the SEO of the future...

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOVE LOVE SEOmoz, but their "Link Directory" (www.seomoz.org/directories) is a bit deceiving.

I was looking for a list of DIRECTORIES that Moz recommends, not a bunch of places where you can pay for advertising.

On top of that, it also lists dmoz as one of the spots to get links from, but have you ever actually ever been able to get a link from dmoz? I know I haven't, and we've been trying to get a link for years.

Anyone else disappointed in this list? Does anyone have a good list of directories?

-Andy

P.S. I love you SEOmoz! Don't hate me for this critique!