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Strange I didn't notice that. (Maybe due to the fact I didn't have that many blogrolls to have significant impact). The only way to find out is to test it.

Ah, here's an interesting topic. Do you think Google will use social media for cross-referencing their signals and validating rankings or any additional hints?

There are two factors which may influence which one is picked:

• Links: which version is more linked to (internally and externally)
• Discovery: which version was discovered first

I normally don't fight Google on the version they choose (unless there is a good reason for that) and set the preferred domain in GWT to the one Google already has indexed. I usually just search for domain with no extension or brand to see which version comes up.

There is no way you will be penalised. You would however potentially confuse search engines as to who the content originator is and delay the ranking for the intended page. So as EGOL says it's best to use short snippets on the home page that lead to the full blog post.

Soon to be updated to 2011 version: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

Blog rolls are great when used as they should be, keep the title, but as soon as you start seeing strange mix of websites in there (casino, custom essays and life insurance) better stay out of it for it could turn nasty on you.

But there is one problem EGOL, not all SEO people are creative. Extraordinary content and assets could be staring you in the face, but if your Goggles are tuned to technical settings you will miss the most obvious opportunities out there.

Under ordinary circumstances I would just go ahead and do it, however lately I am seeing an increased activity of Google taking action against link manipulation. I would put proper disclosure on the landing page explaining why users are seeing it and if you do get in trouble it's a very simple explanation to Google.

If you, however, trigger an algorithmic filter then the solution is to nofollow all the links and wait for Google to pick it up.

If you don't want any dramas to start with use nofollow straight away.

I don't always vote in favour of exact match domains but in this case it's an obvious choice. If you target a single phrase with an exact match domain with few links pointing to the site - the reward can come quickly and with relatively little effort. I have seen some chases where the main term was so competitive that it took a month or two of link building before the top spot was reached.

If it was me though I would have the both. My real site on an older, trusted domain and a promotional satellite site for the exact match domain.

I just bumped into this video and found it immensely entertaining:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeiu8afEOOg

(horrors of a world without Yahoo! Link Data)

What were you up to at the time this video was recorded?

Externally hosting images will not be a major problem and ALT text will be seen as part of your page content.

And this is what I see on the oldest domain in the world: http://symbolics.com/ ???

I hate what internet has become.

At 1200 posts it should have equalized already. I would check to see that Google can crawl forum content properly - what if it cannot due to technical issue or perhaps need to login to see posts and replies?

Are you seeing any considerable changes in your rankings since forum went live?

I see what you're saying I would be concerned too. Google is pretty good at figuring out what's a forum and what's main site content and will separate those two for different types of searches (though occasionally blending them). What I am saying is that your normal pages will rank for usual terms and your forum content for different type of search query. One thing strikes me though... is your forum empty? If not, then its topic should reflect the topic of the website - right? So that should not be a problem.

Good point.

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SEO advantages and disadvantages are minuscule. If you are already going through trouble of rewriting URLs make them nice and neat with hyphens. Google also recommends to use them as separators so you cannot go wrong.

Not really, though it does extend your URL a fraction which has a minimal impact but also makes your URLs longer and less aesthetic (and shareable).

For best results use: how-are-you.html

Spaces turn out to be how%20are%20you.html