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I agree with EGOL. That is a lot of external links to include sitewide. The presence of the word 'Sponsors' may also make it look like they are paid links.
Consider simply creating one 'Sponsors' page on your site, and including a nice link to that page in your footer.
It's hard to decide if you are contributing to their problem. I'd definitely advise them to discontinue their use of the junk network and remove as many of those links as possible.
Sometimes, something as simple as trying to export them in a different browser (chrome, firefox) can work better. Give it a try. If not, email help@seomoz.org to get an answer. That would get you the best possible answer.
If you have concerns, I strongly recommend using Google Search Console to test URL use cases against your existing robots.txt file and before you do potential edits.
Page Authority is just a marketing metric made by Moz and won't update until they re-run their index, which I believe is still on a ~monthly timeline. Just because Moz says a page temporarily has a PA of 1 doesn't mean Google sees it that way.
If you have a good reason to change a URL structure, feel free to do it as long as you have 301s. Do not change your URL structure for small, un-needed reasons, such as cramming a slightly better KW variation in the URL.
I agree with the other people. An hour sheet isn't necessary. I can "try to build links" for 20 hours and not get much accomplished. Clearly not what you are looking for.
I also would be weary of someone who says they will "build you 15 links" or whatever number is promised. As EGOL mentioned, they may have their own blog network, pay for links or any other number of tactics you want to avoid. Remember, 1 good link is better than 20 bad ones.
It really is a tricky business. A good link builder can offer no guarantees. They can however keep working hard until their client is happy or until they deliver results.
Ask to see some of these things instead:
Hi Steve,
I believe what you are really looking for is something like Linkstant. http://www.linkstant.com/
Instant notification when a new link is built to your site. I haven't used it personally, but it is made by some Distilled peeps, so I think it would likely work well. I am going to install it on my site as well, and see how it goes. Also, it's free.
Their plan to use canonicals is a great approach.
If each page has unique and valuable information related to the specific topic, I would absolutely not consider that to be spam. If each page is just a bunch of keyword-rich text and offers little value, then yes, I would consider it spam.
Besides Alexa, mentioned by eyepaq, here are some tools to consider:
http://ahrefs.com/labs/domain-comparison/
All of these are traffic estimations to a point. You can look at a few and probably come to some accurate conclusions on how things are trending, but not actual accurate numbers.
Unfortunately, you're in a tough spot here. Google no longer gives you the ability to have demote specific sitelinks. When it comes to page titles, Google often rewrites them as they see fit. You cannot prevent them from ignoring or editing a specific page title.
I have seen the following two things have a major impact on Google's decision to alter existing title tags.
Best tactic: Track branded mentions and make sure they link to the pages you want.
Other tactics: Guest posts, product reviews, relevant directories, broken link building, etc are all fine. Just don't rely on a single one. Mix it up as much as possible.
I understand the desire to rely on one tactic. Often, you find one that "works the best" so you want to keep going back to that well. Do your best to utilize all tactics, and be sure to do your best to give people a reason to link to you. Great product, great customer service or great content can all work.
For #1, you could do some simple queries such as:
Feel free to mix up the keywords to get the results you want. Then, export the Search Results and begin to filter in excel.
For #2- I think this would just lead you on a long, wild chase without yielding a ton of results. Not sure how much time and manpower you have to put towards this.
One thing I've been enjoying lately is using Followerwonk to find Bloggers on Twitter who write about your subject. Good post here for more info:
http://www.johnfdoherty.com/link-prospecting-with-twitter-tools-and-apis/
There are so many strategies to consider listing. Perhaps, you could take a good look at these two resources and see what fits into your timeline.
You do not need to make sure the login page is the only page that exists on https. Just make that page automatically redirect to the https version. Other pages can render in both http and https versions, just be sure to link internally to the one you want and make sure you have proper canonicals set.
This is just a login page with no SEO value/competition for this branded, specific page. Do not worry about sitemaps, and all the extra details. Just 301 the page to https and keep an eye on the rest of your pages to make sure they remain as is.
Paid links are always a gray area. Yahoo Directory and other authoritative directories have always been out there over the years as a recommended spot to get a link, despite costing money.
My recommendation: Go for the link if you think it's a good site and may send some traffic your way.
One or two obviously paid links that all your competitors also have, isn't likely to cause an issue for you. If this is a tactic you are intentionally abusing and have a lot of paid links-- then you are going to be at high risk.
I'm sure others might disagree with my response...
This isn't going to be very helpful for your immediate issue, but you need to move the site away from the current website provider. Having a successful website is going to require the ability to have total control over it when you want it. It doesn't have to be expensive, but you need to have the ability to do the things you want to do.
I would not be worried about the different URLs. Almost all url shorteners 301 to the destination URL and pass link juice. Even though the shortened URLs are different, they would all be passing the juice to the same spot.
SEOmoz associate Gianluca would be a great person to talk to. If he personally can't help you out, I'm sure he could recommend a few other options.
Are you going to have valuable category page at /bands/ or /wedding/ and /wedding/bands/? Using subfolders can be great for filtering in analytics, analyzing indexation as well as for the users who want to view things at a category level.
Consider what makes most sense for your users. Are they looking for a type of band first or by location first? I would imagine that I would want to look in my location first, then move on to the type of band. In this case, you might want to consider building your directory path to be samhillbands.com/charlottesville-va/wedding-bands/ or something similar.
Great piece of advice on looking into building your own URL shortener. Not only can you guarantee it will be around, but you can potentially put some branding in there and stand out amongst the ow.ly, bit.ly, and t.co links.
Hi Thomas,
I think the key to promoting a blog online is to build some online relationships first. If you just set-up a twitter page and a facebook page, you will essentially be broadcasting to no one.
Create your accounts and interact with the people who you want to read your blog posts. Comment on their blog posts, help them find useful articles, thank-them for sharing something interesting. Get them to notice you and to become friends. In return, they will take a look at your content and share it if it is worth sharing.
I've had way more success interacting with people than just submitting a post to a site. If you are not a part of the 'community' on the platform you are sharing on, your post/tweet/submission will get very little attention.