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As far as I know, Google isn't case-sensitive so the two queries would be treated as identical.

Yes, fix the links. As Anthony says, there has been a lot said about 301s passing only 90% of link juice, and why accept only 90% when a couple of days work can get you 100%? Even if the 90% thing is all rubbish (I believe it may be but, Mr Cutts did say 301s 'don't pass as much juice' (I am paraphrasing) so there probably is something in the 90% thing.

Good tip, thank you

Hi Purple Indigo,

If I can, I'll try and actually telephone the person I want the link from - this way they can't bin my enquiry out-of-hand without reading it! It is much, much easier to get the link you want if you can speak to the person (if the person runs a business local to me, I'll try and meet them for coffee to ask!) If I can't speak to a link prospect, I will email them. These have a lower success rate than the ones initiated by phone.

We haven't created any link bait for our sites. This is mostly down to a lack of resource. I can't ask for a designer/writer's time for something that may not work. But, having said that, we do create a ton of regular advice articles (I work for a mortgage broker specialising in landlord mortgages) and these get linked to naturally (but there is no control over these links, but they are still very nice to have!!!)

What are your preferred methods?

Amelia

I honestly don't think the fundamentals have changed that much from when I started out in SEO about 10 years ago. Yes, some link building techniques have become toxic and some onsite practices too, but SEO in it's most basic form has not changed. We are still trying to make sure our site is the best match for the search queries we want to rank for. And, the way we get there is still the same - on-page techniques backed-up by quality links from relevant sources.

No black and white animal ever spoiled my rankings and I believe it is because I have always erred on the side of caution. Sometimes, I've been desperate for links and come close to making poor decisions though! I always compile a list of links before I start actually trying to build them and I always look at the list afresh the next day. If something gets in due to me feeling a little desperate, I can always take it out the next day when I'm thinking more clearly!

To be relevant in 2014, you must do the same as you should have been doing in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.... etc. That is to say,. you should be reading Google's webmaster guidelines and make sure you don't do anything against the 'rules'. You should be creating content that people actually want to read, to watch, to listen to, to gaze at.... It's not easy getting this right but I've found a good way of making sure my content resonates with my target audience is to read forums to get an idea of the sorts of things people are worried about/interested in or talking about online.

You may find it does the opposite of what you intend if your visitors don't use social media - they'll feel left out of the party and nobody likes that! There are many many reasons why someone would choose not to be on social media, and forcing them to have an account just to read an article is never going to work - they'll just leave and find the content elsewhere on the web.

Check analytics to see how socially engaged your visitors are. If they are, then I'd test it as a tactic - it may not work for long though, because it's the sort of thing Google doesn't like ('Don't do as I do, do as I say!!!!')

I bet Mr Cutts is thinking of a way to thwart your plan as I type this

Good luck whatever you do, and please let us know what the outcome is!

Amelia

Hi All,

My developer has asked me some questions that I do not know the answer to. We have both searched for an answer but can't find one.... So, I was hoping that the clever folk on Moz can help!!!

Here is couple questions that would be nice to clarify on.

What is the actual address/name of file for news xml.

Can xml site maps be generated on request?

Consider following scenario: spider requests http://mypage.com/sitemap.xml which permanently redirects to extensionless MVC 4 page http://mypage.com/sitemapxml/ . This page generates xml.

Thank you,

Amelia

I think you'll need to create a new Google account for the MCC, then you can create as many child accounts within the MCC as you like

One thing though....

You say in your original post that an agency has been managing your dental Adowrds account - so surely this account still exists and you should be able to take control of it? I would try and do this if you can so you can compare your PPC against what the agency ran for you.

If it is an in-house CMS I see no reason why you can't make your developer do the work to get it exactly how you want it. Otherwise, what's the bloody point in having a bespoke CMS?

Devs will nearly always say things aren't possible when they are. It's a constant battle. I know because I've battled it before.

I should say that I am not involved in this battle currently -  our current dev is incredibly accommodating and just does everything I ask - believe me its a breath of fresh air and makes a massive difference. I have a situation where stuff our old dev said was impossible have suddenly become so!

Haha Looks like Branden beat me to it with the same advice!

Hi Erik,

You need to set up a 'My Client Center' account and link your adwords accounts to this. This will give you completely separate reporting etc. Link below explains it:

http://www.google.com/adwords/myclientcenter/

If you get stuck, just phone your Google account manager! (Log into your adwords account and click on 'Help' in the top right hand side and then choose 'phone' and it'll give you the phone number for your country).

Good luck

Amelia

Hi,

It sounds as though you have done everything right.

BUT - (this is a bug-bear of mine) Google doesn't display breadcrumb rich snippet info on https pages.

Also, some directories won't link to https pages (not ever seen this as a major issue because it's usually the spammy directories that do this)

Amelia

Thank you - we are doing competitor anaysis, but I hadn't thopught of compiling a list of common directories. Neat idea!

Thanks again for responding

Thanks - we're doing this already... I was just hoping to find some general ones as well... Hoping that someone else had done the work for me LOL.

Thank you for responding

Yes, try looking at the server response. Screaming Frog will tell you this.

Hi there,

You can use your robots.txt to noindex the incorrect URLs, then via webmaster tools you can request to have the incorrect pages removed from Google's index. (Webmaster Tools > Google Index > Remove URLs). There is a help document here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/59819?hl=en

Good luck!

Amelia

I've found WN before and thought it looked quite good due to the domain authority. However, like you say, it's just a scraper.

Hi,

I'm looking for some decent directories. I was just wondering if anyone knows of a big list of good ones?

If you have a list on financial / money related ones that would be absolutely fabulous but I know that is moon on a stick stuff...

I'm just sick of the naff ones!

Thanks,

Amelia

PS - I DO have other link building methods besides directories.

Copyscape.com will tell you if you have duplicate content. If you have a big site with loads of pages I'd buy credits or you'll have difficulty because it only lets you check a few pages per day (I can't remember what the limit is). With the paid version you can upload your xml sitemap (s) and it'll check all the pages in that file. Then the report will highlight the bits of copy that is duplicate.

Moz analytics.

Just being curious... What do you make of Moz analytics? Personally I preferred the old 'pro' version and always go back to that - it seems more user-friendly to me.

Thanks for your help.

Amelia