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Great add Joseph! Totally agree with you that there is much more to it than just creating quality content from the link earning perspective. I was just making the point that focusing on your sites DA & PA shouldn't be the focal point of one's efforts. I could have elaborated more but I appreciate you doing so! Cheers!

Heeeeey James Brown!! (In my James Brown voice)

I think you are on-point with your questions. Below are the elements I would address in the order which I would address them (not necessarily by importance).

Page Speed Optimization: Being that I don't know the page speed, page size, requests, etc., I would say if you can get the requests down as close to 40, page size down around 500kb and your page speed down to 1.4 seconds or less, you should be able to close the book on that aspect. This of course will ensure the users will have a fast experience and not get hung up.

Mobile Responsive Design: Based on GA data, if you have a significant amount of mobile users I would DEFINITELY get a mobile version of the site so these users can have a better experience.

Blogging / Link Earning: Blog, blog, blog!! Do this the right way (relevant, well written, targeted to your audience) and you will be building links at the same time.

HTML Validation: Fix any/all errors/warnings

404 Errors: Redirect any 404 errors that exist on the site. Also make sure you have a custom 404 page in case any new ones pop up moving forward. This helps direct users to the appropriate page.

CrazyEgg.com: I would definitely get this set up. Since you are a Pro member, you get to try it for free for 90 days. Why not?

Hope this helps you out!!

There is no real need to use all those domains. Build the trust and authority with your primary brand URL. Maybe use "some" others if there is any real value but 500, jeeze!!! That will be a ton of work and I think you'd be spreading yourself too thin.

The best plan of action IMO is to focus on properly optimizing and building the TRUST for the company's branded URL. Forget all that old school "microsite" nonsense

Acxiom, Localeze, and Infogroup are great. You can also use: https://getlisted.org and yext.com to find more listings. just make sure your NAP (Name Adress Phone)  are consistant.

Also make sure you only list your business in relevant directories or do not post.

Lastly you can use a list of directories from SEOmoz: http://www.seomoz.org/directories

Hey Ruben!

We have several eCommerce sites that only have the SSL on pages that "need" to be secured like the checkout pages, etc. I am not totally buying into all the SEO value of the HTTPS just yet. And honestly doubt I ever will.

IMHO I don't feel that all pages of a site "NEED" to be secured. To me it just doesn't make sense and we have plenty of sites that are ranking #1 for competitive terms that only use the SSL on checkout. Hope this helps!!!

I would stay away from this approach! Super spammy. Like David mentioned above, leave comments to engage with the author about the article itself. There are far better ways to get valuable links these days.

Here's a great article from Neil Patel on building links. Maybe you'll find some takeaways from it.

Hope that helps Cheers!

I agree with you KelG. I don't think it would be wise to do since "everything" will be changing. You may end up wasting a lot of time and creating more work once the site launches. You may need to redo a LOT. We like to work SMART, not HARD!

We are working on a similar project here and have been compiling all the data, strategies, ideas, etc. so that once the overhaul is complete we can then begin to implement. This way we are not just going through the motions.

However, as I'm sure you already know, there are other aspects you can focus on during this time like social media and whatnot. But that may get tricky too if you are linking to the site since the URL's may ultimately change.

Good luck tackling this mongoose!!

Not a chance in the world that this is of any value to you Jordan. iwriter.com is great or also check out textbroker.com

Hey Glenn!

Very interesting. I acn't imagine that is how it is supposed to be. I am on the $99/mo plan so I am not able to see exactly the issue you are referencing and was going to recommend you read this page but... it appears that page is busted at this time. Maybe a fellow Mozzer can get that into the hands of a developer asap =).

Have you tried contacting Moz directly to ask? If not, I'd recommend you do that. Might get you a solution quicker. Good luck with it though!

Hey Deacyde!

I'd be happy to take a peek and see if I can identify any opportunities that you may have overlooked. Any particular reason why you chose (or the client chose) to use Big Commerce?

Send me over the link so I can take a look!

Ha haaa!! No thinkLukeSEO, you aren't trippin'!

Yes, while gaining links by commenting on related blog articles may improve your rankings, they are still just low quality links. Depending on who you are up against in the SERP's and the competitiveness of the keyword you are targeting, this method may or may not move the needle. If this method is working in your scenario, I would be willing to bet that your competition must also have low quality links pointing to their site. Or very few links.

If you want high quality links you just have to dig deep, research and create valuable, high-quality content on your site that your target audience will find valuable. Share it, do outreach and make sure it can be found! Though these type of backlinks are harder to achieve, when you get them they are worth more than a hundred blog comments. At least in my experience this has proven true.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a spam-free internet to browse and find reputable sources for all of our search queries? Sadly that just isn't the case today. But we can dream, can't we! LOL

Cheers Luke!!

Yes. Using OSE you can research the link profile of the URL and see if it has ALL followed links (which would appear unnatural) or if it has a good mix of both followed and no-follow links (appearing a bit more natural). You can always look further into the inbound links of course (using OSE) to see just how "natural" they are (or aren't).

But you will have to use your judgement on that end. We use linkdetox.com to dive further into link value but I'm sure there are other great tools out there too.

Yeah, if you remove that noindex from the home page it should fix your issue. Afterwards you should use Screaming Frog to test it and make sure it can be crawled. Hope this helps you out!

Hey EGOL! Thanks for responding. Good, I was hoping it wasn't the same process used to update DA/PA ha haaa

I'd be off the map for a good while if that was the case =P Thanks again!

Nice! That's what this community is all about! Glad we could help

If you are using filezilla that video should help you get everything sorted out. Best of luck!!

Hey there! I agree with Justen, sitewide links offer little to no value and could potentially do more harm than good. I would find somewhere else to place the link(s).

Not sure if you've already read this but here is an article that can help you learn more about MozTrust & MozRank Score

Although this article is from 2011, Dr. Pete does a great job explaining thin content.

Hope these help!! Cheers

I agree, the order is a non issue here! My standard MO is to immediately argue and disagree with developers but this time... your guy is right. ; )

Agreed Donna! It would be nice if Screaming Frog did that but it doesn't. I'm not sure of any existing tools that would do that.

You can run each site from the SERP through Screaming Frog to get all that data exported but that would take a good amount of time!

Thank for for jumping in Kristina!

I am still not seeing the conversation bubble using the latest Chrome browser (version 59.0.3071.109)

I had a similar issue a few years back using Firefox and was able to resolve it by disabling my browser add-ons one by one until the feature worked again. Do you think I should try disabling my chrome extensions to see if that fixes it? Funny I only made the switch from Firefox to Chrome because of how buggy the Moz toolbar was (in FF). Look at me now lol

Any help is much appreciated!

Hey DLG! Great question...

It won't hurt to resubmit but i guess it just depends on "how often" you make changes.

There was a thread on this about a year ago, take a look. Hope this helps! Cheers