I guess tags are there because they fulfill a function, but if they aren't useful for your users it shouldn't be a problem to erase them, as long as you take the necessary measures not to get tons of nasty 404s, although if what worries you is duplicate content, you could just noindex the tag pages, I think most SEO plugins for WP have this option, else it shouldn't be hard to include the noindex tag in tag.php or whatever file generates it's pages, then you wouldn't have to deprive your users of an useful function (if that's the case, off course).

About your question of Google's preference, I'm not aware of it, but couldn't it be because there are many internal pages linking to tag pages and also with the same anchor?

Hey,

There's a great Whiteboard Friday which I think covers those questions and more:

Which Link Metrics Should I Use? Part 1

Which Link Metrics Should I Use? Part 2

Check it out!

I don't know if there's a definitive answer on this, since it's effects wouldn't be easy to measure, but if you think about it, it makes sense that it should be taken into account to some extent, and if not, at least users would be able to learn about your site.

Off course, as regular links do, I guess it would depend on the context, relevance, and reputation of the page where the mention takes place.

Also, from a branding point of view, it would be positive (again, depending on the context), it seems one of the functions of the new SEOmoz Fresh Web Explorer is precisely to find out about mentions.

Check out this post where they carried out an experiment about the subject and also cite Matt Cutt's reponse to the question (although very old): http://dejanseo.com.au/seo-experiment-with-non-link-references/

Yes, you can't actually vote for the product, they just include hReview-aggregate which is intended to show an average of user votes, but since there's no implementation of a voting system it seems they're just filling out the blanks by themselves..very similar to what I saw in this other site I was telling you about.

The link doesn't work for me either, but if as you say the markup is hard-coded (not real users voting), I did see it a while ago, the boost lasted around two weeks, then as Kevin points out it backfired (site got penalized) and they removed it, although it wasn't probably the only reason since they were implementing many other 'tricks' at the time.

You'll find contradictory information on the subject and some SEOs will advice not to include stop words in the title, however, if as you say, the keyword set you're targeting explicitly contains it, I would still include it (i.e. wouldn't remove 'for' from 'homes for sale').

Now if we're talking about a high number of stop words that aren't particularly useful or descriptive, maybe it would be best to exclude them, especially from the URL (.i.e. 'a small guide of the black sea for you' could be better off with an URL like /black-sea-guide/).

IMO, I guess the best practice would be to use the title/URL that better describes your content and makes more sense for the users you're trying to engage.

This answer might help: http://www.seomoz.org/q/trying-to-de-mystify-google-places-google-local-google-plus

You could merge those two if you want, just do a bit of research first. and Schema.org mark up really helps!

Try this: http://www.google.com/business/placesforbusiness/

You can also use microdata and submitting your location to G+ helps too!

Well, I'm not sure since I'm not familiar with that plugin, try it's documentation or just googling it.

A quick search shows relevant results, even a thread by the plugin's author referring to the issue with the title and the other plugin you are using, but I guess it would be a lot better to create an actual page, at least for your index.

You should be able to set different titles and descriptions as they are different pages, or are you generating the English page with some kind of automatic translation or plugin?

Try to set the titles directly from WordPress instead of the ALL in one SEO plugin and see if that works.

Concerning the ?attachment_id= page, it shows an empty page with the blog title.
This is generated by WP when you link an attachment (an image for example), one solution would be to make sure none of your attachments are linking to it's attachment page or just not linking at all. Another could be to upload an empty file named 'attachment.php' to your WP root directory with a noindex tag and/or redirect it to your home page.

Here's another solution you could try: http://www.lancelhoff.com/wordpress-disable-image-attachment-page-links/

See if it works.

Yeah, those are some of the 'official' pages, but they don't seem to provide so much info.

There are lists provided by individuals or keyword research companies (i.e. wordtracker's) but they will usually be segmented for a specific search engine, it's country, language, the time it was built, etc., etc., maybe that's why you don't see congruence between them.

Here you'll find a few more resources: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2066257/What-People-Search-For-Most-Popular-Keywords

Google's Keyword Tool also gives you an estimate of the searches for a term over the past 12 months, and you can segment by country, language and industry (if you leave this one blank you're supposed to get the most searched terms) although is not very reliable.

But I'd guess the best would be for you to conduct your own research based on the specific audience you're targeting.

Some places you can check:

Most popular keywords on search engines

The Bing Top Searches of 2012 Report

Also check **Google's Zeitgeist **where you can filter trends by topic and countries.

Well, they may be other ways, but one seems to be to get the Journeyman status in the Q&A:

Level: Journeyman
mozPoints: 200-999
Benefits: "Nofollow" is removed from the first custom URL on profile

http://www.seomoz.org/dp/mozpoints

Well, that's a broad question, so I guess you're also looking for a generic answer.
Here are a few links to get you started within SEOmoz:

Beginners guide to SEO

5 Ways to Improve Your Ranking Signals

What is Page Authority?

Make sure to also check the Whiteboard Fridays category, where you'll find many amazing videos full of useful information and tips!

Good luck!

Email went through fine here, try again!

It's called PageRank sculpting, it seemed to work fine for a while long ago, but Google keeps changing it's interpretation of 'nofollow' links (PR just vanishes at the link or goes through anyway before disappearing, in any case not helpful for sculpting PR),

Probably the best way to sculpt your site would be linking to non essential pages only when strictly necessary or using the 'noindex' tag for those pages, you can read more about it on the following links:

Google Says: Yes, You Can Still Sculpt PageRank. No You Can't Do It With Nofollow

Link Consolidation: The New PageRank Sculpting

If you don't want your pages to be included on the SERPs you can use the noindex meta tag,check here for more information.

Hello dear, we could discuss it over dinner if you'd like (insert seductive emoticon here).. 8-)

No really, what's the issue? Is there another Branagan?

Cheers!

It sure does have an impact, but you probably wouldn't want to "calculate" it, just keep it natural and focus on the user, as long as you do that and you're not trying to manipulate the search engines you should be on the safe side :).

Check point three on the following video:

10 Myths That Scare SEOs But Shouldn't

And remember Google is good at semantics, so even if you feel the need to repeat a concept, you can do that providing a richer user experience without having to worry about specific terms.
Hope it helps!