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Please let me know you would like more questions answered or if I did not answer the question in full. Respectfully, Tom

Hi Boodreaux! Have you migrated to https? If you havent migrated to https, then you should have that in your immidiate backlog. Did you know that last week there was a massive algorithm update? Your site could have been hit. Here four of the best articles about that. Grab a cup of coffe and read them so as to understand whether you were hit. Analysis and Findings From The August 1, 2018 Google Algorithm Update – A Massive Core Ranking Update - GSQi Google's August 1st Core Update: Week 1 - Moz Blog Google’s August algorithm update strengthens as roll-out continues - Sistrix The August 1, 2018 Google Update strongly affected YMYL sites - Marie Haynes Hope it helps. Best luck. GR

if you didn't build the links or earned them through good content and you don't feel they are good. Always better to just disavow them. Even more so if they are .ru sites as I am sure your site is not in Russia

I guess the reason of this can be the latest algo update, I read that many forum users had detected fluctuations in their ranking  this week. Some are happy with the results and some are not. I'd wait for 5-7 days and see the outcome. My websites are stable so far.

I think you mean Wistia.com? "Going viral" usually happens naturally. People want to share your video because it is that good/funny/shocking. What is your video of? How does it relate to your business or website? What is your end goal?

Traffic, yes, SEO, no. Search engines cannot "read" videos very well, unless you have a very robust video sitemap, which each of these sites like ABC news, also uses. (It's unlikely they'd do that.)

You are right on. It can be very, very expensive. Don't get me wrong, I love Wistia. I'm a Wistia customer myself. I just don't think it's right for every client/video/goal. Use YouTube. Use YouTube analytics to find out what websites embedded your video. Perform outreach to those websites, asking for a link crediting you as the resource. Make sure the YouTube video is embedded on your website and the actual video description links to your website, to verify proof of ownership.

I hope I understand what you are asking and that you are looking to do this yourself at a low-cost, not looking for a company to do it for you.  If I am understanding you correctly, I'd start with Google Analytics and their Expirements to improve goal conversions. It's found under the "Content" tab on the left of your analytics profile.

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We strongly suspect that canonical tags lose a portion of link "juice" just like 301s do. Otherwise, they could be abused.

Hi Boodreaux, There are numerous reasons this can happen. Remember that the linkscape index is only updated once a month, so the results you are looking at are not based on "real" time stats. That's the first thing to consider. Also, if you are an- e-commerce site or selling a product, did you have a promotion that was in place that recently ended? I've seen sites move up and down just from free shipping offers being turned on and off. So I would look at whether or not the offer or content on your homepage (or the page you are comparing) has changed at all. Some other things to think about: What is your bounce rate and how has that changed over the period of time ranging from when you were #2 to when you moved to #5? I have seen sites move down when their bounce rates increase. One last thing to consider: Were there any inbound links from new agencies, or high-profile, high-authority pages that have dropped off? I have seen a company get featured in a magazine like Wired.com and bump up because of news events, and then settle back into a lower spot after the news cycle passes. Okay, maybe that wasn't the last thing. How new is your site? Did it launch within the last four months? While it may be an Internet myth, I do think that brand new sites discovered by Google and other search engines get a little "bump" in their rankings when they first come out. Then, there is some settling that occurs. This could also be a factor if your site is new. I know this doesn't give you any hard answers, but I hopes it's encouraging and helpful. Dana

Thanks Devanur.....I have a much better understanding now! Appreciate the input. Boo

Just another one of Googles nice little perks proving that they might just like us SEO's Cheers!

I didnt' mean links to put on my site.  Is that what you were thinking.  I mean getting other sites to link to me.  You gave me some ideas though. Real Estate sites Storage CPA's etc. Thanks! Poo

Hopefully we can find out what is going on.  Not sure how my strongest links are not showing up. Alexa has me with 24 links.

Hey Boo, Sorry for the confusion. The issues with Open Site Explorer definitely wouldn't be the cause of any issues with on-page reports, since those tools are separate. I would need some more data in order to fully look into the issue, such as the old on-page reports. I'm going to create a ticket in our support system so that you will be able to send me any attachments you might have and so that I can send this to our engineers more easily, if necessary. Once I create the ticket, you will receive an email with the necessary information to access the ticket and you can reply to me there. Thanks, Chiaryn

Definitely a great long term strategy!  Both velocity and acceleration will be a welcome addition to our new site! Being new I wanted to get a few quick links out there.  The domain authority for the PR company is in the 90"s and mine is only in the 20's...right now.  I was thinking it might help in the short run a little. My blog is not going to be in place for another 4-6 months so maybe I can do this as a precursor just one time, although after reading your comments I am inclined to do much more research and am leaning towards not doing it. Thanks for your feedback!

The more I've worked with search engines, the more you get used to the occasional 'blip' in your rankings. The Bing/Yahoo algorithm seems to yield particular inconsistent rankings as well. I would suggest that if you were out the top 50 before and now, ignore the sudden great rankings and work on your on-page and off-page optimisation. Bear in mind Yahoo & Bing share data and Bing (as with Google) uses social signals, so up your social media game and interaction (in a non-spammy way). No easy route to the top I'm afraid, just hard work, but work done in the right direction

I'm biased towards a flattened architecture with fewer directories. I think it can help with click-through and makes more sense from an organizational point of view. To be fair, with the exception of #4, I've seen real-world examples of all of these that rank and perform very well. If this were a vote, I'd vote for #2. Consider how Yelp organizes their URLs using the following example listing for a dentist in Seattle. http://www.yelp.com/biz/randall-broom-dds-seattle The above example is actually a hybrid, because the /biz directory is actually a category, but so is "seattle" which is appended to the end of the URL. Whatever you choose, make sure it's consistent and follow a logical navigation and linking structure, so that both search engines and users understand where they are at all times.