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Why do about half of the business directories on getlisted.org want a personal profile when creating/claiming a business listing?

Why would a medium to large business need personal profile content on the listing?

Interesting. So you were ranking well on a hosted platform.

I've not suspected low prices.

I have suspected stock status though.

Edit Add - I would think either of those factors though would be relatively unreliable.  The cheapest prices may not always be in-stock. Conversely, it may say in-stock and come to find out once you place the order you find it's out of stock because the merchant doesn't have live stock status.

Your eCommerce software may automatically update your sitemap with new product url's.

In Volusion for instance, you just add the products and the sitemap is updated and crawled by Google.

We've got 15,000+ skus and don't add large volumes of products on a regular basis.

When I add new products I typically add them in GWT and submit them.  Generally, they appear in 2-3 days and more quickly than site crawls - especially if its a deep product.

The best feature IMO of the keyword tool was the keyword suggestion element.

I guess Google doesn't want to give up too much for free.

I'd also like any good ideas!

I've wondered and posted the same question here myself.

Last year at the time, feedback from reliable forum users was that there was no conclusive data to suggest that geo-targeting hurts national serp results for non-geotargeted keywords.

There are a lot of brick and mortar stores serving local and regional that would be hurt by this.

How do your domain and page authorities compare to those who are ranking well nationally?

Here's another thought...

Stock and prices can fluctuate dramatically throughout a day. Considering how often Google cache's a page the snippets would be even less reliable.

Hi Angie. There's a lot being said about social influence and SERPs right now. Although I can't answer your question specifically, I can wonder logically why Google would flirt with +, likes, shares etc as an indicator of relevance, trustworthiness or reliability etc.

Facebook likes are already abused by outfits offering incentives for "liking". Curious to watch this evolve.

Hi Jen,

I've not been receiving any email updates for responses submitted. Was that feature turned off for this post or is something amiss in my settings?

I'll add also that some of our geo-targeted keywords rank well nationally when the competition is not relatively strong compared to other keywords.

True.

I probably change prices on 5-20 products a day - relatively small compared to our volume of products.

For sale prices we leave the main product price static and put a lower value in the sale price section so the software can calculate the "you save" amount.

The sale price is not cached because the main price is pulled in the snippet.

There are so many variables that if it were a factor in the algo I would think it would be very, very small.

I was doing real well until I read this: "Ive noticed the developer's used about 18 per page" Multiple H1's are one thing, but excessive, spammy, abusive, irrelevant H1's are another.

Why in the world is he even bothering with an H1 tag if he's got 18 of them? Ask him, "What are you telling the bots with your H1's - 18 different things or the same thing 18 different times?" No wonder the value of the tag has declined so much since its inception. That volume of H1's is what Cutt's is referring to in his 2009 video.

Our CMS site auto-generates a header H1 tag when enabling optimization for mCommerce. So, when I put an H1 on the page for categories and products, the page has multiple H1's. I'd like to have one but will live with 2.

First off, thank you members for your input. Since the dust appears to be settling I want to share my thoughts since I solicited yours.

1. Why the post: Because I believe it matters. We should always be improving our filters to see through the smoke and fog. Consider the audience. People are developing their knowledge and sharpening their skills at something that is difficult to learn and lends itself to shortcuts and gaming. Here's an example this morning of a member trying to tune the quality of his filter.

2. Why the headline: To get eyes on post (see above). In my opinion Rand's credibility was attacked as well as the principles he promotes. Add Edit - it is the first time I've ever seen Rand countered, called out of touch an considered irrelevant. I thought he was a Unicorn.

3. My allegiances: I have none. I don't know VC and I don't know Rand. Aside from his freshness post, I've never read VC's work. My only brush with Rand was a Moz forum smack-down for being unkind to jennita regarding the use of H1's.

4. Regarding VC's post: It lacked focus (it tore down without building up), wreaked of anti-establishment sentiment, smacked of an-axe-to-grind and winked at gaming the system.

5. Regarding best practices: I try to use and promote them and will always lean-in to those who do the same.

Thanks again.

Brand Labs does excellent work but you may suffer some sticker shock.

I recommend contacting Convergent 7.  They are right around the corner from you, are very experienced with Volusion sites, they know development and SEO.

Then, I'd also suggest joining their Volusion forum where you'll find a lot of seasoned expert Volusion merchants.

**Anybody who is lazy enough to harvest that info is lazier than smart.  Not a threat.   And, I believe in the theory that imitators come in second. **

Bravo.  A competitor is gonna look at those 5-20 meta keywords and do what?

Hi Luke,

As you can tell, it touched a nerve. I was looking for the moz link to a thread regarding this same issue and Alan (one of the Gurus) said multiple H1's can affect engines differently and if I remember correctly he made reference to a negative response from Bing.

Until H1's achieve the lofty status of meta keywords, I will continue to treat them with some importance and approach them with best practice.

I'll listen for the rumbling coming from your direction.

Good luck.

I wouldn't spend my time deleting them as its a waste of time since Google ignores them.

If I'm working on SEO or other page elements and want to do some housecleaning I get rid of them.

On all current SEO practices, meta keywords are completely off the to-do list.

I'm not sure you can cover every angle or scenario.

We've found our data to be reliable enough to make good decisions.

I think the feedback form is a great idea because what folks want in a dashboard is subjective.

I bypass the dashboard and go straight to the order page.

When I want to look at stats and trends I go to those respective pages.

If I could make a styling suggestion, allow the users to decide the default page (go to page upon opening) if possible.

Indeed. I'll keep you on my short list.