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Our main term "NLP" has stiff competition. I should note here that, although, most people are local, we are an international training company and the big term is "NLP".

If we made a second site, do you think google would penalize us for using almost the same graphical layout? Both sites would link to the other, this is done so users can find all of our sites.

Hi Ryan,

Your suggestions are always excellent. Let me give you a little more information to see if we need a new domain or not.

We just started providing services in UT, we've been in California only for 13 years. We're planning on slowly shifting over so that we have full workshops in both places

The owners are hesitant to recommend a new website. They have registered the name "the NLP and Coaching Institute" and it would be great to stick with that.

It's kind of challenging, but how do we make a transition. We don't want to confuse people. Is a new site the only option? I guess we could use the same design to create another site, but I don't know what Google would think of the same design on 2 very related sites (that link to each other, the owners have always had an "Our other sites" link in their menu for user convenience).

We wouldn't use any duplicate content and thus wouldn't be able to use any of our extensive articles. I don't see how a new domain would work without a big expense. We're always going for that big keyword "NLP" and it would be a shame to split our strength up. We need an internationally strong site and the articles took years to put together. Perhaps we could put a blog in the new site for more unique content, that would help.

What ideas do you have, Ryan?

Hi,

Our company

nlpca.com

is in 2 locations. It's doing really well in San Francisco, California

But we've opened a 2nd location in Salt Lake City, Utah

The problem is that our site is all about San Francisco, California. Utah is just as important as San Francisco to us and we need to start tailoring to both.

People from Utah say they are confused because our site is so tailored to California. Even our domain name is the keyword "NLP" combined with the state initial "CA" for California. A new domain is not an option.

One thing we are thinking of doing is changing our header to say "The NLP and Coaching Institute and the NLP Institute of California". It would say both of our company names and hopefully the first would catch the Utah people.

But I don't think it's just our banner.

Can you take a look at our site and tell us how to tailor to both locations and keep our current working optimization for San Francisco, California?

Thanks!

Good response. That helps. Yes, I will use gut instinct. There's one thing, though - I don't want any new sites. One of my requirements is age. Does that change your response? Also, where do you absolutely stop? PA 25? PA 20? I'd like to have a stopping place to rely on.

Hi,

I'm link building with Open Site Explorer. I'm really picky in get links from only high quality sites.

When do you stop going down the list of possible backlink providers because the page authority is too low.

I usually stop at 40, but what do you do, why, and what does it depend on?

Yes, Brad I would like to know too.

Wow, I will keep that in mind EGOL

What a nice thorough answer, thank you.

John, I don't think your images got posted right. I'm curious what they are.

Hello,

Quick question.

for the term

"NLP" and the site nlpca.com

I'm analyzing backlinks of competitors. Is wikipedia a competitor, or are competitors only sites like mine. I'm thinking that if someone links to wikipedia they wouldn't necessarily want to link to nlpca.com

Thus, should I still analyze wikipedia?

Thank you.

HI Alex,

I thought image filename was only useful for getting into Google Images, has that changed?

Hi,

I"m moving forward with link building for nlpca(dot)com and here's my plan

I know my industry, keywords, and this site very well so I'll start by:

1. Analyze Top content for top 10 competitors and see where the links are currently going. I'm assuming a competitor is someone similar to me and not sites like wikipedia in this case

2. Make a spreadsheet for all of the worthwhile links that I find by using OSE and the top 10 competitors, places where if we're good enough we can get a link on that page. See what they're linking to

3. Use (1) and (2) to discover what stelllar targeted content to build

4. Use infographics, a blog, and articles to build targeted content to request a link from the people in (2)

5. building out facebook, twitter, and Google +1 for the site is coming too.

Your thoughts? I'm completely open to improvements via feedback.

Hi,

Could you look at

nlpca(dot)com

and give me feedback and hints about the on -page SEO of our site, as well as any suggestions of link building strategies to move us up to first for the head term "NLP" as well as the long tail

Thank you,

Bob

Hi,

I'm creating an infographic for nlpca.com

We're thinking of doing it on "What is NLP?" This is the most common question, and "What is NLP" it's a small but good search term

There's not a lot of statistics if we do "What is NLP?", but there are drawings about the different parts of NLP.

What recommendations do you have? I still need to go through all of our competitors' info and look at the content of competitors and make sure we've got the right topic

Thanks.

Hello,

For both ecommerce and sites that sell services, I've seen a lot of people recommending a blog for SEO.

Should this blog be inside or separate from the main website for the most results?

I can see how adding one to a site would create more unique content and an opportunity for link bait, but perhaps there is a reason to have a blog separate from the main site

Thank you.

These 2 links are great resources. I'm actually going back over them.

Thanks again.

Thanks Ryan!

OK that's clear, that is kind of what I was wondering. So how exactly do you contact a site that covers your niche- do you use phone or email? What exactly do you say? What works?

So what factors should I keep in mind when looking at links for link building for ecommerce:

1. DA/PA

2. Relevancy of content (whether the site has at least 1 section that is related in subject matter of my site)

3. Likelihood of being able to solicit a link

4. anchor text I could possibly get

5. If it's going to take adding content, how hard the content will be to make that will attract a link

Ryan, have I covered everything I should be thinking about here?

Thanks again, you are such a good resource.

Hello,

Our nearest ecommerce competitor has quite a few links from article directories like ezinearticles.com and similar sites.

I know these sites are bottom of the barrel in SEO, but I've been thinking of writing a few 500 word articles and posting them on some of the strongest of these article directories.

Maybe I'll stick to ezinearticles.com since I only like to get links from sites that are going to stick around. What do you think - which of these article directories going to be here for the long term?

Mainly what I'm asking for here is a top 5 list of the best article directories, or perhaps a better article marketing strategy.

I loved that whiteboard friday on Article Marketing. I'm going to watch that again.

Thank you.