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Hi Joel, It looks like your question was answered by an SEOmoz associate in this other question at http://www.seomoz.org/q/seo-friendly-wordpress-templates. Should I close this question?

When you say "delete", do you mean delete it from the home button (and just use the root version), or delete the page? Keep in mind that the "index.html" page also drives the root version of the site ("www.example.com/"), so you definitely don't want to delete that file. Whether you use 301-redirects or canonical tags (either should be ok, but it sounds like the canonical tag would be easier for you to implement), it is important to use a consistent path. So, you do need to change the button link to match the canonical version of the URL. Don't do this until after you've got either the 301 or canonical tag in place.

Ok, so I don't need a 301 redirect?

i have been an active rain member for a long time. When I check my web site I can not find any links from Active Rain. I just updated my Active Rain profile and upgraded to their paid subcsitopn. Can you tell me if this blog is creating a follow link back to my web site at www.RealEstatemarketLeaders.com the blog on active rain is here. at http://activerain.trulia.com/blogsview/4529309/hud-homes-for-sale-in-tri-cities-wa

I have used almost all of these directories that you have mentioned.....they do have some positive effect imo but not that much and probably no where near enough to move you up above the bigger guys. You need to get more authorative links if you want to beat out national sites. Other than that you need to write better content than them and more frequently so more people link to you. Use site explorer and see if you can see any sites linking to them that you could get to link to you too at the very least that is a start....then look for other sites that are in your industry that can link to you. Try and get in to a local newspaper, local radio etc.  You need as many links as possible.

A quick way to check is reverse IP lookup.  I routinely use the "You Get Signal" free checker. Just from domain names you can sometimes see right away if there's a lot of garbage.  You can then just click through to sites on that server and see what they look like. That's only possible if you know the IP your site is going to be on though, and doesn't show you all the sites on a shared server, or within a C-block. Consider the host as well.  Some hosts blatantly tout their SEO value beyond typical hosting provider marketing spin for SEO as a minor service. So for example just do a search for SEO Host.  You can pretty much just stay away from every site in that search result. If you go with a top tier well known hosting provider, you should be fine. But if you do, as soon as the hosting is set up, run the reverse IP lookup. If things look suspicious, immediately contact them and request a change to a different server or C-block in their system.

I actually have a website with a blog. Currently I'm on page 1 for my main keywords. I was thinking of another way to generate new leads.  So the Social network was an idea for another project. What do you think? Is it worth it or dead end?

I have hosting on Bluehost, Hostmonster and Justhost.  Have had them for years, and have had no major issues with them.  I am pretty sure they are sister companies. On the other side of the coin, stay away from GoDaddy.  It is junk and they charge you for every little thing.

Domain Authority is definitely going to matter here, but honestly not that much. Your strength is that you can work a lot more for your local area / niche and can have a lot more local links compared to the national sites. I would find out ways to get links from local businesses, non profits and other communities and organizations. I would also suggest looking into doing some sorts of small events / meetups for potential clients to come and ask questions. You could also organize some activities / contests for kids. I would also look at opportunities to work with specific real estate communities and sponsor some of their events with gifts. You could also setup a photo booth there for people to take pictures and then provide them a digital or paper copy of their picture towards the end of the day (Print them at a local Walgreens and have somebody pick them up or if it's cost effective to have a decent quality photo printer that can handle volume). The photo op could have your URL / Brand in the background in a creative way along with the year and name of the event. Again, I think the intent is to think of this as a Brand Building Technique. Links, Mentions and Citations will come along with them.

Yes, see the link I posted above and you place it in your PHP file before any HTML or headers are outputted.

Thanks, I am looking for a legitimate way to send out online press releases that won't break the bank and that will obviously have the added benefit of SEO. So you recommend PR Newswire. I'll check them out. Thanks for the tip.

I am needing help with this same thing. Did you ever find a solution to redirecting with yahoo web hosting? TIA

Hi Joel Pages or Posts do not affect search rankings, but as Mark very well points out they differ in functionality. PAGES are for static (not tied to a date) content. Pages are like what you'd get on a regular 'ol website. POSTS are for dated content, like an ongoing blog or new items. Posts are what you'd typically think of as a blog. This article I did on WordPress for the Moz blog might help you further. -Dan

The best solution to this problem is to 301 or rel=canonical to the preferred domain ie: if a user types in domain.com you redirect to www.domain.com Make sure you do this for all domains/subdomains you have pointing to your site and add the trailing slash to the domain i.e. http://www.domain.com/ as this gets added anyway. This will stop the page reporting as duplicates, also Google will only see one version of your pages so it definitely won't jeopardise SERPS, in fact it should pack some rankings bonus' for you. The following article covers the rel=canonical solution http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/canonicalization This one covers 301s http://www.seomoz.org/blog/url-rewrites-and-301-redirects-how-does-it-all-work Hope that helps Justin

I use Dreamhost, Amazon Cloud (AWS) and Rackspace. Nearly all the stuff you'll need can be done on Dreamhost. Dreamhost is a good web hosting company.