Hi Nakul,

Yes - the whole address is in the footer

Roughly 1,700 products (not sure how many pages that is)

The majority (probably not all) have the city/state target in the title

As far as Geo data is concerned, if I understand you correctly, Analytics Sources organic search and search engine optimization  queries show keywords with and without the city and or state. The overwhelming majority of keywords shown with city or state include the store's name. This store has been here 20 years.

I submitted to Dmoz but I can't find us on it.

Thanks Nicholas. Sorry, I'm not familiar with the x-pack. What is that - the top 7 or so local listings that appear before the organic search results?

Also, when doing keyword research, should I include the city/state in the keyword?

Should this keyword search be done in AdWords or somewhere else such as Google Insights?

Sorry for the barrage of questions.

I use our city/state in the majority of our title tags and consequently we do very well locallly for the majority of terms on our ecommerce site.

I'm wondering however, if this "localized" optimization will inadvertently affect our keyword rankings outside of our city/state?

If a keyword query does not include our city or state, would Google interpret our titles as less relevent and therefore move other results ahead of ours?

The city/state is last in the string on the title:

Blue Widgets - Our Company in City, State

Thanks for any insight.

You've got some social channels working now...but Pinterest is a missing element and is taking off like lightning.

Do plenty of research (in Keywords, Analytics and SEOmoz) before you start making changes to your homepage, so you'll be making informed decisions. Your get a quote section is taking up a lot of valuable homepage real estate. You might consider creating a banner link to a quote page and use that space for beneficial content. You can create links to your quote page from just about anywhere, so it shouldn't be hard for people to find.

Good luck. Resist the temptation to panic and start grabbing at straws. Be methodical about your changes.

I will always defer to Egol. Proceed with carpet bombing for 6-8 months, then conduct In-Page Analytics and re-consider aforementioned approach.

You don't need the word "patches" on all those links. Users will know those are patch categories and don't need to read it. Having "patches" in those links is not what is going to bolster your homepage optimization for keywords such as "custom patches" or "custom embroidery patches" etc. A good homepage title and homepage content will do that for you.

I'm guessing your site is relatively new and may not have much domain authority (I may be wrong). If that is the case, pare down the volume (10-15) of links on the homepage to the categories that generate the most business for you: ie "sports patches" "business patches" etc. You'll get better juice distribution to those important pages if there are fewer homepage links.

Once you pare it down, create a left nav link to the rest of your patches - basically a landing page with the rest of the links to the other pages.

Interesting. I didn't know anything about this - affecting the sender and receiver. I'll do some more digging. Thanks for shedding light on this for me.

Hi Dr. Meyers. Thanks for the note and the link. I understand the first part of your response. However, I don't fully undertand the second part. How will an incoming affiliate link create duplicate content for me (the recipient of the link)?

I use H1 tags on category pages. Typically, category pages have short tail keywords and could use some reinforcement.  I could use an H1 tag on product pages in the descripton area, but haven't found it necessary since its in the title and product names are typically long tail.

I don't know how prevalent it is, but I've not heard of using an H1 tag on a product name. I'm not suggesting its wrong or would hurt anything. We rank well for products. I just don't use the practice myself and don't see the point in it.

I understand they don't want to use the product name in an H1 tag in the product description, but rather on the product name at the top of the page. There's no problem with tagging it in the description, I just don't know why it would be done on the name itself when they have a title tag for that.

Here's how they would set it up:

Insert Product Name Here

.

Thanks Tom. I've never heard of anyone putting an H1 tag on a product name and wouldn't do it myself.

So the only reason someone would put an H1 tag on a product name is because they are clueless, correct?

Why would you put an H1 tag on a product name? I came across this in another forum and thought I'd float it here.

He's shortening the url from johnsmithwidgets.com to johnsmith.com. Literally, the first part of the url is a name. Very bland and generic.

His long url is established, has decent page and domain authority and good natural link profile.

He purchased the short domain and I don't know how he intends to use it. I just think he wants to have the short version available for user convenience.

Ideally, wouldn't he want links to continue to his long domain?

Suppose I have a long url on an established site and created a shorter version of it so it is easier for people to enter directly and click. I 301 the short version to the long. I don't think there is much concern for people linking to the long version pages, but will there be a tendency for people to link to the short url instead of the long for the domain links? Will I not benefit as much from links to the short vs the long? Thanks.

It also supports Google's "above the fold" algorithm update. Get your relevent content above the fold (links too). Think of the fold as the area of your monitor that you can see without scrolling down the page. That's why the top of page 1 pays the money and value diminishes as you go down the page.

Google ran a series of tests last year where AdWords in the right space on the page alternated with space at the bottom of the page. We structured AdWords to be at the top of the page on the right and were pissed off when they moved our ads to the bottom of the page. We wanted our ads to be seen without people having to scroll down the page.

Granted there's a lot of different monitors and Webmaster Central has tools for testing how pages look, but consider your own browsing habits.

People tend to take the path of least resistance (and viewer patience is growing shorter and shorter as the months go by).

Well said Oracle.

If you're the origin of the content, you should keep the credit (authority) on it as age of the content is a factor. That's why fresh content is good. When a manufacturer's new content comes out, we hustle to get the content up as quickly as possible so we reap as much benefit from "freshness" as possible.

Having said that, I've seen some of our manufacturer sites well below us in the rankings largely because their SEO isn't so hot. Some manufacturer's/distributors don't put much emphasis on SEO for various reasons.

If you're doing some good SEO, with your brand in your domain and originating the content, you should be in great shape.

Does Google interpret Affiliate links as paid links?

If so, can Affiliate links harm your rank if they are not properly tagged with a no-follow?

Thanks.

Thanks Tyler. What's a sandbox?