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This video by Matt Cutts is quite (strangely) explicit: Cross linking to the others site's country/language versions is not a problem, and should not be considered a cross-linking scheme thing; It is better, though, not using the footer for those links, but the classic flags/country names selector. A good alternative for solving this problem is creating a page with all the links to the other versions of site, as the Apple site does (but, please, don't take into consideration the bad geo-targeting Apple is using in term of International SEO, in that sense it is not a great example). Why is that kind of page useful? It is because you can suggest it as the "x-default" URL in the hreflang="x-default" mark-up (here what Google says about this so forgotten tag).

I think Anthony's idea on this is a good one and would be worth considering. I guess it depends on how many of these you have rotating at any one time and how many URLs you therefore have to maintain. My thought on it would be to create a custom 404 page for your site that is a more pleasant landing page than regular 404 pages are. It could provide a nice apology that the content the link took them the person to is no longer available and show a number of anchored links for where the visitor may like to go to next, e.g. where to view other promotional flyers or other pages on the site which may be important to the visitor. By doing that you provide a better visitor experience. Here are the recommendations from Moz's page on HTTP status codes. I think these make a lot of sense: ----------------------------- When visitors reach 404 pages, they should be given navigational options so they do not leave the given site. Web optimized 404 errors pages should contain: notification that the user has reached a page that does not exist a search box a easy to understand navigation system so the user can potentially find what they were orginally looking to access a link to the home page ----------------------------- I hope that helps, Peter

I'm guessing the companies on the Moz recommend list are going to be a bit above the project scale and budget for this (and most) similar inquiries. I think this video about "How to Find a SEO Company" will be much more helpful. There are a lot of great SEOs out there. There are also some bad ones. As with any industry, sometimes, you get what you pay for. Sometimes you pay for the brand/recognition...but I would avoid going really cheap, as you don't want to hire someone who will potentially cause harm to your website. Watch the video above and best of luck.