Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Since it seems like this migration (what did you migrate your domain from and what did you migrate it to?) was well planned, it seems like you would have been versed in how long these things can take in Google.  3 months? Not really that long, actually.  Did you do any optimization at the same time? If you did, (not that you should overlap such things) that could add to your down t time.  Best plan of attack at this point--give it another three months and find something else to occupy your time other than you domain.  That link building best be top notch.

Hi VT,

Keep in mind that when page A is linking page B (either internally or externally) it is the first link to page B that shows up in the html of Page A that lends any link juice to page B. The rest don't count for anything as far as SEO.  Often that link is in the menu or breadcrumbs, rather than in the page copy. That said, while it's nice to keep the anchor text to internal resources tight, the ultimate impact of that anchor text on internal resources isn't that great.

Lots that we know about has changed in the past 4-5 years as far as google and seo.  Many other factors that we don't know about your site and your competition may have changed, as well.

Do you know if you've lost any backlinks?  Have you changed any content?  Have the pages been re optimized  in the meantime or has it just been sitting there?  Few, if any sites can last 4 to 5 years without being re-optimized.

Do understand that a lot more goes into determining search results than just indexation of the words on a web page.  Certainly, G uses those words to understand what search terms the site is relevant for but other factors are in play too--like authority, as in your site's authority and that of your competitors.

Among other things, authority takes into account the site's age, backlinks and engagement history and those are factors on which a new site can't easily out-compete older, more established sites--even if the older sites are not dialed into exactly the same search terms.

Alan,

I have feeling that if you have to ask that question and your thinking starts off in the under $500 range, you may have a hard time understanding or recognizing why the actual cost for what you're looking for is going to be so much higher--and what you will actually be getting for your money. In any case, you should be prepared to sign a year agreement that binds you to pay a  total yearly sum and that stipulates exactly what your contractor is going to achieve for you.  Absent that, one or both parties is very likely back out early because of misunderstandings of what is being provided and/or what is required.

Linkbuilding is by no means a causal engagement--the future of your company/website is at stake. Just as you would educate yourself for any major investment by your company, you should be very, very well educated on the topic of linkbuilding before investing your company's money in it.

Hi SmithCarona

I'm quite sure there was a smith corona that bounced between family members in my household when I was young and in my mind, the brand name, and typewriters seem inseparable. The problem, as you're recognizing, is that to Google, they're almost inseparable too.

Those "typewriter" links are not going to help you rank for "label" searches. The authority all those links give you is to die for but the fact that they are off topic means that authority isn't doing much to help you rank for your label-oriented terms.

I'd say you have a long project in front of you of seriously cataloging those existing backlinks and wrapping your arms around creative ways the company and website could make use of some of them and even seriously considering disavowing many of them.  Maybe seek out a consultant who developed a lot of experience back in the Penguin algo change days because a lot of what you will need to do will require that skillset and toolset.

Andrew,

If you are asking your question in terms of SEO (vs usability) keep in mind that when there are several links on a page to the same external resource, only the first one of those links carries any SEO weight. Also, if a page contains important info for the visitor, it should be linked to from numerous pages on your site.

Conversal, it would be helpful if you could provide a couple of search terms that you think the site should be showing up in the search results for but isn't.

That sounds a bit simplistic to me.  My first questions is what value are you providing these local businesses that makes it worth them linking to you? Just a landing page? On your site?  Will those pages rank? Most certainly not above theirs.

There's nothing wrong with building community and contacts within your local area of business but spend your time on something that's actually of value to them and, ideally, a common audience. Don't be discriminant; identify local businesses that compliment yours and delve into ways you can jointly generate interest. I If you focus on stuff their audience will tune in to, those other local businesses will be more receptive to joining you online.  It's all about the audience anyway, right?

Ask yourself what makes the leaders in your niche "important"?  What is "importance" in your niche? The answer is going to revolve around "discussion".  What is it about leaders in your niche that makes your target audience discuss them/their product/their brand and how do others learn about those discussions?  That answer is going to revolve around "content".

Important sites are what populate the top of the search results and they didn't become important without discussion and content. You need to create some of that for your site/brand/product.  The way to start is to figure out what they're doing to create it and do the same for yourself.

Links contribute to importance and are evidence of discussion. You can check on who and where those discussion are taking place using open site explorer - its free.  What's happening on those pages with links and why was the link created? Can you come up with a similar reason for people to link to you?  Type the name of your top competitors into google and use the results to see who's mentioning them. Follow their twitter feeds and facebook pages and see what they'e doing there.  Follow the people who are following them and work on creating something that your new followers will discuss.

In the end, it all comes down to "know your competitors well and your audience even better". Work on making that ring true for yourself and an understanding of the content you need to create will come naturally.

Success often takes a long time.

Gaurav,

Moz's domain authority is designed as an effort to mimic Google's pagerank.  So if  your pagerank goes up, things are working for you.  Pagerank gets adjusted every few months. In the mean time, your rankings can go up based on the work you've done whether you see your pagerank move or not.

Your competitors are never finished adding content and optimizing their sites, which means you're never finished either.  You can't afford to sit and wait for the next google PR update, you have to keep working on your site.

Paulius,

It doesn't much matter what any of us have to say about this--it has more to do with what the person who would want to link to, or share any, of those articles has to say.  That's because, before Google really gives a hoot about whether you wrote six of one or a half dozen of the other, it wants to know if anyone actually found the articles worthwhile. I'd recommend that instead of asking us, go out and research the folks who would be reading your article as well as the ones who could likely link to it and ask them.

If you did that, they may say "You know  Paulis, we really don't need another article on Rhassoul clay, there are already a bunch of them out there." Or, they may say, "You know Paulis, I've read everything out there and what I still don't know about Rhassoul clay is ........."  Or,  they may say, "If you researched and wrote an article about the ancient trade routes the clay was carried to culture outside Morocco, I would definitely link to that from my blog."

In either of those cases, It wouldn't really matter how long the article was, if it was well written and engaged the audience.  One share or one link to an article of 50 words is worth more than an unshared or unlinked article of 5000 words.  Words are cheap. Shares are what you're going for.

It may help  them rank better (by virtue of all listings being consistent) but there's no guarantee.  Not sure why it says that in the q and a.  Perhaps just omission of the fact that a single location business can use it too.

Another way to ask that question is "Is it worth $84 to for a little help getting all of your listings in local data bases all lined up and consistent?"  Or, " What might happen sites without consistent NAP info across all the databases the next time google updates its local algorithm and can I be doing anything now that might be helpful?"

You absolutely can do it yourself without paying for it. I've used numerous services in the past (for clients) and when moz started it's service, I didn't hesitate to use it--it was far less expensive and a lot easier to understand. If the the $84 isn't too much for you to do, I'd say it's worth it.

Call me batty, but in 10 years and a bunch-load of clients (usually agencies), I've only touched a small percentage of sites.  I write up the changes that need to be implemented so that designers/webmasters/programmers can either cut and paste what's necessary or have a good understanding of the changes that are necessary, and then I review once they're finished.  If they do have questions, I help them by phone.

Thought should then turn to the original decision made to hire that SEO firm and how a similar decision could be avoided in the future.

Jacob,

All this is is just a block of keywords someone stuck on hoping help rankings back when the was redesigned around October of 2012.  But since that paragraph is on every page, and because it's in the header, it's having little, if any impact on rankings. The value of headers and footers and blocks of text that repeat on all pages throughout the site are discounted in terms of the relevancy they provide to any one page.  "Juice" comes from off-page back links so that's not at issue here.

Don't bother moving it to the footer. It's probably worth revising and using only on the homepage but don't expect that to do amazing things for your rankings.

Christina,

It's ridiculous that the SEO says what they do is secret. It's also ridiculous that they demand access to the site, else the changes won't be made.  It seems like an easy enough solution though--if they want the business, then they send you the changes to incorporate, otherwise, the job goes to someone else.

Google Places is now Google My Business (I think---they keep changing the name of it) and those listings are each tied to a person's Google+ profile.

Go to the individual's G+ profile under which the initial google business page was set up and create a new G+ page for the new location. Doing so will require that you verify the new location's business name address, and telephone and give it a listing on Google maps.

Derrick,

"Domain authority" is pretty much a term that Moz coined back around 1995 as an alternative to Google's term "pagerank". Essentially the two describe the same thing and Moz's tools evolved since then as a means to quantify the factors that make up pagerank/authority.  Moz's  tools are a good place to start wrapping your arms around the strength of a competitor's site as compared to yours.