Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Thanks EGOL - this is very useful.

I regularly try and revert back to previously answered questions for information. I've bookmarked your link. Thanks!

In my view it still has a large influence (although Google has stated this is diminishing).

Short term strategy - go for the second domain.

Long term strategy - go for the first. You'll create a better/more memorable 'brand name' and eventually Google's algorithm changes will reduce the importance of keywords in the domain name. You'll be able to get good SEO results, it will just take a little longer.

Hi Chris,

Your on site optimisation seems pretty good. However, when I ran your site through OSE and looked at the number of domains linking to your site, well you'll see the issue:

http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/anchors?site=www.canadafloraldelivery.com%2F

You need to work on building more links. 47 overall linking domains isn't that many, I'd try and build that number up.

Thanks

Hi,

I think the overall design is pretty good. My advice would be:

1. Your homepage title tag seems too long
2. You seem to be spreading your targeted terms on the homepage too thin. Based on title tags and bolded text, you seem to be targeting: Sports Monitor, Sports Betting Forum, Handicapper Websites, Sports Handicapping Monitor, sports betting social network, sports betting forums, sell sports picks, sports handicapping scams etc. I'd try to just focus on 2-3, start ranking well for those then go after some secondary terms
3. Your choice of anchor text for links to inner pages seems a little odd. E.g. for http://www.line.com/sports-handicapper-rankings I assume you'd want to rank for something like "Sports Monitor". Thus, you should link to that page with the term "Sports Monitor" on the homepage, not "Accurate Sports Handicapping Monitor". The link to the http://www.line.com/sports-handicapper-websites is worse - it's using anchor text "Web Design Skills" which is not what you want to be ranking for on that page.
4. Some of the inner pages don't seem to be finished (title tags, meta tags etc) - e.g. http://www.line.com/sports-handicapper-rankings. Also, for that page are you trying to rank for "Sports Monitor" or "Sports Handicapper Rankings"? (or both?) I'd double check the URLs you are using.

Hope that helps!

Edit: I'd also add a better footer with basic internal linking structure. Even something like what SEOmoz has on this page is better than what you have with just the copyright info.

Hi Alan,

OSE lists all links, both followed and nofollowed. A good, natural looking link profile is vital for any website, so if you have say 80-90% followed links and 10-20% nofollowed links it's not going to hurt your site at all.

Having said that, don't go around forums/blogs simply looking for easy-to-get no followed links. Google will frown upon this.

OSE is just a tool to identify backlinks, social metrics etc. It's not encouraging nofollow links, just finding them.

Hi Saeed,

Don't bother with the Hubs or Squidoo. Focus your efforts on creating great content for your own site and blog.

I noticed the blog - http://giftbaskets4kids.blogspot.com.au/ - is quite spammy looking and probably not content that is going to get shared. What I would do is create a Christmas gift guide on your site with several different categories and pages, and then go about creating a plan to write great content for your site and blog that will promote these gift ideas.

When writing content for you blog, make sure it's going to be useful to the customer. Don't be afraid to link to outside sources.

Thanks

I'm not exactly sure if a Google + page does gain authority with age, but is there any harm in starting the page now and getting a 2-3 month jump on building relationships/networks with others?

If you are thinking about doing it, why not just do it now? Plus - there's some great resources out there, particularly in the SEO industry. I've learnt a wealth of information in the 1-2 months I've been on Google +. Just my 2 cents.

Hi Joel,

A very broad question but you've basically got to do 2 things:

Bounce Rate - Ensure your search terms closely match up to customer behaviour. If they search for "Washington Real Estate" you have to ensure that the page they land on matches what they would typically expect to find on that page. Your site must have an effective layout and present info in a way that is useful to your customer. If they land on the page, you want them to then visit subsequent areas of your site (be it for sale, for rent, info about the area etc).

Time on site - This is coupled with bounce rate. If you create quality landing pages with quality content on the rest of your site, you'll be seen by customers as a resource in this area, and they'll likely stay on the site for longer searching for more information.

Basically, quality content and a quality user experience.

I've used textbroker before with good results.

As with any service like this, you get your good and your bad - so start with a smaller project and if they are good, bookmark them and they are usually very keen for more work.

I've had a lot of on-site content written through this site.

Hi John,

A ticketing website seems like an ideal niche to generate some great content directly from your customers. Offer them the ability to rate past shows/events, share what they are going to, discuss artists/sporting teams etc. This will not only deliver A LOT of unique,relevant content to your site, it will encourage users to become part of the 'Ticket Trail Community'.

This will make the site rank better, and it will become more 'sticky' - in that users will want to regularly visit to interact with others with similar tastes. A win win in my eyes.

Thanks,
Brad

| MozPoints: | 1001 |
| Level: | Authority |

Well done Francisco! You've personally given me top-notch advice before, so thanks on a personal level.

Agree with Sean. If you were a user and searched for 'Stainless Steel Cookware Set with 4 Saucepans' and that product no longer became available, would you rather land on a 404 page or a 'Cookware Set' or 'Stainless Steel Cookware' type category page?

Hi Duncan,

Am I going crazy or is there no link to your blog? I assume it's http://www.eacsoft.com/blog.aspx? (from your SEOmoz profile).

Got a few questions regarding this:

1. How experienced do we have to be?
2. When you say results, are you mainly talking SEO, or other mediums too?
3. How will the interviews be used/shared? On your blog or through other mediums?
4. You're conducting goto meeting type interviews, will they be published in spoken or written format?

Thanks,

Brad

I'll second Get Elastic - fantastic blog with some great articles. Look out for their montly wrap-up which contains a wealth of informative links.

GManSEO - check out the list from here: http://www.invesp.com/blog-rank/Ecommerce

Good start but I would add the following:

1. Start following people/pages in your niche with high authority. Slowly start joining in the conversations, sharing information and encourage others to engage with you
2. Encourage friends and colleagues to start using Google +. Hopefully they'll join, engage with others, and start following you.
3. Link to your Google + page (and any other social media accounts you have) from your Twitter/Facebook/SEOmoz user profile/Rapportive etc accounts - anywhere you can possible connect with others

Hi Udara,

Google and OSE use different data. OSE uses the Mozscape index to provide a general overview of a website, it's backlinks etc. The domain and page authority is independent of Google's ranking algorithm.

You can find out more about OSE here: http://www.seomoz.org/help/open-site-explorer-faq

Thanks

Hi Karen,

You have to go to 'Ask a Question' - http://www.seomoz.org/q/ask - and at the very bottom under Privacy click on "Private: Make my question viewable by staff members and moderators only."

You get one private question per month if you are a pro member.

Thanks,

Brad

From personal experience, if you share on Google Plus it gets indexed much much quicker.

I suggest starting a personal profile if you don't already have one and sharing on G+, plus other social media channels.

I tried out a '5 custom articles for $5' type thing just because I was a little bored one afternoon and wanted to see if they would actually deliver. To my surprise, they delivered the articles within a few hours and they were all unique (I checked copyscape). The articles were written in a strange manner, when loaded into a word doc every 5th or so word was underlined so that it appeared like it was incorrect spelling. A little dodgy.

I wouldn't actually use this service for anything useful. Key rule for anything on the net: if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Work on building meaningful relationships and that way you'll get FB likes in a natural way. And you'll be able to engage your fans and get some benefit out of the relationship, not just 1000 meaningless likes.

Free directories still have their place IMO.

If I were you, I'd have a look at aboutus.org and read a bit more on this page - http://www.aboutus.org/DoFollow. Quality links from a quality domain.