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Yeah, I've seen an unfortunate amount of times.

Check your on page optimization (SEOMoz has a tool for that).

Check your site architecture to see if the product page is better linked to internally than the external one.

And if it's still not fixed but it's really annoying you then do some link building. Drum up some interest int he category and the links should move the needle on this.

1. It could be natural link growth. Often when a webmaster links to you they will do so using your brand name or a URL.

2. All links to a domain increase the domain authority.  It could be that they have strong domains which outweigh the need to have exact match anchor text. This is especially true if they're big brands- think about how Amazon ranks for so many products without actually having links to those product pages.

3. That's a strategic decision that varies depending on your site's circumstances. New site with no links = build branded anchor text. Old site with lots of branded anchor text already = build some exact match anchor text (but not too much obviously).

4. Focus on branded anchor text BUT throw some love at your product pages occasionally as well. You'll probably be able to drive some long tail traffic just by virtue of having unique content on the page and as your domain authority grows this will not only increase long tail traffic but also rankings for those exact match term.

Technically - yes. It's a violation.

Currently Google won't penalize you for using a rank tracker however they do take steps to stop rank trackers working.

I would definitely bring the content onto the main domain.

As far as how to structure the folders - it depends on the content. If it sits quite naturally as a stand alone section then a resources folder would make sense.

Twitter. You only need to find one decent copywriter as they tend to hang around in groups.

And depending on subject matter you can also try hiring bloggers.

It is possible to redirect users based on UA (user agent). However Google now recommend using responsive design so if possible you'll (probably) want to do this

No.

However if all or most of your links come from resources/links pages then I would hazard a guess that you will leave behind another footprint for which you may get penalised.

As a rule of thumb you should try and be on well curated resource pages. So if the webmaster will link out to anyone for a small fee then they're probably not worth getting a link from. If on the other hand it's pretty hard to get featured on their resources list then there's more of a chance that the link will actually mean something.

Perceived value to a user is probably a more advance subject than I'm qualified to talk about but I would imagine that measuring it would involve; user engagement metrics, authority of the author, authority of the site hosting the content.

I reckon you'll be fine just changing the title tags in this case.

Yeah, that's a big steaming pile of lies.

If your site is particularly slow then expect to have your rankings reduced however 1.5 seconds is very fast page load time.

If anyone has evidence to the contrary then I'd love to see it.

Have you recently made any changes to an affiliate program or banner ads campaign?

An extra 100,000 links is actually pretty easy to come by - it could be one site with dynamically generated pages linking to you. I wouldn't be too worried about this but you may want to look into it for your own peace of mind.

With regard to your linking root domains dropping - do you have any records that show what type of sites have been removed? It could be that you had a lot of directory links which Google has removed from the index. If this drop in LRDs hasn't already led to a drop in rankings then, again, I wouldn't worry about it but you may want to look into it further for your own peace of mind.

One sitewide link probably isn't going to hurt you too much. On the other hand it's probably not going to help you too much either.

It is worth pointing out that removing the no-follow from the banner would be a violation of Google's T&Cs regarding paying for links to manipulate Page Rank.

Have you not seen a decrease in rankings/visitors from search? Or is it just a change in TBPR(tool bar Page Rank)?

If manual action has been taken against your site then you would expect some sort of removal.

However if could just be that you've lost TBPR because all your links have been devalued.

It looks like a lot of your links were from "link" and "resources" pages. This kind of link building doesn't look natural so you might have been penalized.

If you do want to submit a reconsideration request then visit this page from Google.

HI Aidan,

I'd probably avoid directories that ask for reciprocal links. Google is getting really aggressive with low quality tactics like directory submission.

For more info I'd recommend checking out articles like this one (there are plenty on the net)-

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-directory-removal-15151.html

So are you saying that you're thinking of buying a keyword rich domain name and redirecting it to your main domain.

I doubt that would pass any value.

I would guess that including the main subject of each post in the title would de-duplicate it enough.

Have you noticed any issues with the pages getting indexed?

#1 for everything is always a start.

Increasing long tail traffic is always an option (assuming you don't already have plenty of longtail traffic).

Depending on the industry it might be an option to increase traffic from referring sites or social media not to mention affiliate marketing.

Bloggers and influencers - yep. You want these people to share your content if at all possible. I've found that some bloggers won't link to your content if it's on a commercial site however a lot of them are willing to Tweet it if it is great content.

Have you considered paid exposure? Facebook ads are pretty cheap and a small Google PPC budget could be used to target interested searchers.

If it's a city guide have you considered getting in touch with whichever municipal body is in charge of tourism in that city? If it really is the best content out there then you might be able to convince them to share it.

I'd not both with PR Web as (personal opinion) it's a waste of space but agree that sharing on social media is a good idea.