Welcome to the Q&A Forum

I agree that this job posting is unlikely to attract top applicants.

They will likely conclude it's a screwed up company they wouldn't want to work for.

You are asking for too much.

I agree with the suggestion of more focus.

I still find the new version extremely difficult to read.

Size matters. The font is still much too small. And there is too much wasted space in the design.

The whole trend in design seems to be to super big fonts.

See these examples from Precision Nutrition and Distlilled.

It's now happened three times in three days: I get unsolicited email (apparently harvested from my Moz profile) that invites me to try a new product or contribute to a new site.

The senders are completely unknown to me. The emails are full of hype,  sketchy on details and poorly written. They have all the hallmarks of phishing scams.

But on further inquiry the emails seem to be legit.

I nonetheless feel entitled to confess my extreme exasperation. When did sending unsolicited mass email of the "Dear Colleague" variety to perfect strangers become acceptable business practice? It's always struck me as being beyond the pale and beneath contempt. Why would anyone try to launch a business which such dubious and unsavoury  tactics?

Am I missing something here? Or becoming a fuddy duddy?

I suppose I could remove my contact info from my MOZ profile, but I have found it useful in the past.

What surprises me is that people would contact me "out of the blue" to ask for free help without making the slightest attempt to cultivate a relationship first.

Am I wrong?

I agree with the above and would add my own experience.

I've had good results with the format www.widgetservices.com/location 1, www.widgetservices.com/location 2 etc.... all accessible from a drop down menu entitled "Locations and Clients". Each location page talks about the people who work at the location and has some mini-case studies and testimonials. The actual product descriptions, the same in each location,  are elsewhere.

I also build links to the individual location pages. Each location page, in text and tags, is also optimized for the not only the main location but a few of the closest cities.

Note that this is a regional business with only 7 locations. YMMV.

I agree.

Giving money to blackmailers is never a good idea.

It only encourages more blackmail.

I would explore every other option.

I've had the same experience as James.

The conventional wisdom is "Anchor text links from press release sites don't count, and Matt Cutts said so."

This suffers from the defect of being doubly untrue.

1. Such links do sometimes count

2. Matt Cutts never, ever said: "Anchor text links from press release sites never count." It's pretty much an urban legend that ought to be featured in Snopes. Matt made two off-the cuff remarks years apart to the effect that he wouldn't expect certain types of links to count in certain situations. These have now been taken completely out-of-context  and repeated ad nauseum to attribute to Matt  a statement he never made.

It's mind boggling.

Whether a press release strategy is the wisest use and best use  of marketing dollars is another question entirely. There are both SEO and branding considerations.

My take: it's another tool in the toolbox, and is right for some situations -- but not others.

Don't forget to make sure the translation is well done.

See my blog post.

Are you any good at what you?

How wil the prospective customer benefit form hiring you?

Do you have satisfied customers ?

Who is your target audience?

You need to hit as many of these crucial points as possible. It's hard! Writing meta descriptions is a bit like writing haiku.

Mentioning both the free assessment and free trial may be a mistake. It's a mixed message that is overly complicated.

Maybe something like:

Thousands of satisfied customers love our over- the- top IT support. Find out why during your free trial. May we delight you?

or:

With over 30 years experience, we delight customers with our over-the-top 24/7 IT support. Ask for a free trial today.

Great answer, missing only SOJCA.

You can remove the links from PR Web press releases, even after publication. No need to disavow unless they have been picked up by other sites and do-followed.

That said, I seriously doubt they can get you into trouble...unless they are part of a sustained pattern of misconduct, say dozens or hundreds of press releases from spammy press release sites (not PR Web, which is reputable.)  Your backlinks from PR  Web may even be helping.

There is much confusion on this subject. Two general and casual remarks Matt Cutts made years apart have been taken out of context and widely misinterpreted. The conventional wisdom seems to be that all backlinks from all press releases are always and everywhere useless or harmful.

This suffers from the defect of being untrue.

And it's s just as silly as saying:

"All directory listings are useless -- or harmful."

or

"All guest blogging is useless -- or harmful."

or

"All infogrpahics are useless -- or harmful."

Life is complicated. Context is everything.

And much depends on your overall link portfolio.

I considered this possibility, but given the incompetence of the request (wrong URLs) and the some quick Google research on the person who sent the request (novelist/copywriter)....

...my guess is that sheer incompetence is a more likely explanation.

Looks like the company in question hired the wrong SEO....

...and then hired the wrong person to try to mitigate the damage.

Unless I'm missing something, having gotten into trouble... the company in question is not doing a great job at link removal.

Here's an email my client received:

Hi Webmaster,

I work for xxxxxxxxxxx and our site has recently been penalized by Google for an unnatural link profile that violates Google's Quality Guidelines.  As part of an effort to get back in their graces, we are removing all links to our website so we can start fresh.

We are making changes to our site to build better content for our audience. I am contacting people who have linked to us in the past to remove any doubt that Google views the link or anchor text as overoptimzed or unnatural.

Therefore, I am respectfully requesting that you remove all links to our site on xxxxxxxxxxx including:

xxxxxxx That says xxxxxxxxxx and goes to xxxxxxxx.

I appreciate your past efforts to link to our content, and I am excited to launch our improved content very soon. We understand that this request takes time and effort, but we would sincerely appreciate your help.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.  If you could be so kind as to respond that you have removed the link, it would really help out with my efforts. Thank you in advance!
Best Wishes,

xxxxxx

All the details and URLS in the email were wrong. After much back and forth, we tracked down a single link from an infographic -- which I removed.

But is removing all links really the best strategy? Does it ever make sense?

Little known fact: Roger's antennae  have invisible extenders that reach above the clouds.

Okay, this is a start. Roger's antennae  allows him to draw power from the sun do he can read really fast.

But what are his other superpowers? And could be beat Spiderman.

I ended up with a box of SEOMOZ swag. (Thanks! As to how this came to pass...I shall draw a veil, as they used to say in Victorian novels.)

My upstairs neighbour Max, age 5, enjoys a rich fantasy life and is very much into superheroes and costumes. Naturally, he ended up with a lot of the Roger stickers.

Alas, I was unable to answer all of Max's  questions.

When he asked: "What does Roger do?" I replied:

"Roger makes your computer work." Pretty good, I thought.

But then Max asked:

"What does the antenae do?" I was kind of stumped.

Then it got worse.  Max asked what Roger's superpowers are and if he could beat Spiderman. I tried to change the subject. Max wasn't impressed.

What are the answers?

Enquiring five year old minds want to know!

I completely missed the "valuable content" including the tutorials the first time around. I spent 10 minutes on the site -- about 9 minutes and 45 seconds longer than most people will spend. Which highlights the problem. The good stuff is buried. The initial impression is of a very dubious site.

It is not at all clear what the purpose of the site is at first glance. So users are forced to try to find out who created it. But they will fail because the information is not there.

**Constructive Suggestion: **Include a Mission Statement near your logo. Something like: "Your independent expert guide to website hosting." (If that's what you're doing.)

**Constructive Suggestion: **Completely reorganize your navigation and UX. Eliminate extraneous material.

The most important page on any website of this kind is the about page. You don't have one. See this article on About Pages. (Note: by de-cloaking, I simply meant revealing who you are on page.)

Try looking at this website by my client Jon-Erik Kawamoto for an example of a good About page that establishes the site owner's credentials. The site also surfaces valuable content. It uses a blog format and the right hand column sorts content by category and also recent highlights.

The other part of the right hand column includes some affiliate marketing stuff.

Along the same lines, take a look at this site by my former client Jon Goodman. There is a wealth of free material, along with some premium products and affiliate promotions in the right hand column.

Constructive Suggestion: Try highlighting your best tools and content on the home page, perhaps in promtional boxes.

You asked for brutality, so here goes:

The site looks, feels and smells like a scam.

The fatal flaw is the anonymity. No sensible person would ever attach any importance to buying reccomendations  that come out of nowhere from an anonymous nobody.

Worse, this garbled, illogical and contradictory disclosure is deeply buried in  a footer and confirms worst suspicions:

"This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider."

---

I'm not saying affiliate marketing is always and everywhere wrong. But first you have decloak, publish valuable content free, and then be much more transparent in your disclosure. The basic pitch is that you would never jeopardize your reputation by recommending  anyting other than valuable products you use yourself.

Right. In a previous life, I headed the news dept. of a TV station.

I would regularly get calls from clueless PR people who asked the question: "Did you get my press release?"

What I always felt like saying (but usually was able to restrain myself from saying) was:

"How the hell would I know? And please F&*% off and die a slow painful death. We receive hundreds of press releases every day and 99.99% of the time it's a waste of our time to have even the most junior staff member read them. You have cost me time and money -- and how dare you? I resent it, I hate you, and I have now made a mental note of the idiot company dumb enough to have hired you. BTW, I'm wondering how this call even eneded up being routed to me. Something went wrong."

Sheesh.

I get them every day. But this one takes the cake. It's from a woman I met once in my life on a long run with my running club. That was two years ago. Now she wants me to endorse her -- even though I know nothing about her professionally.

But wait, there's more. She's not much of a runner. As it happens, I know a thing  or two about fitness -- having edited a fitness magazine and worked on websites for many top fitness and nutrition pros. The idea of an MSW doing fitness programs for people with medical problems raises all kinds of red flags.

She sent this Facebook IM:

Hi Daniel - hope all is well! I was wondering if you can share my page with your friends, with the following message (or something similar). Thank you so much in advance!

My friend XXXXXX, MSW, has been running XXXX Personal Training for the past 18 years. She specializes in exercise programming for people who have medical problems, everything from heart problems to chronic pain conditions. She works on site in her clients' homes in midtown and downtown XXXXXX. Please contact her if you know anyone who would benefit from her expertise.
http://www.facebook.com/pagesXXXX
XXXX Personal Training
We specialize in helping people who are experiencing medical issues incorporate exercise into their treatment plan. We work as a team with all other professionals involved in your care, whether that is your medical doctor, naturopath, physiotherapist, osteopath, chiropractor, massage therapist, or...
Page: 141 like this

[note from SEOmoz staff: we ask that you keep this post TAGFEE and not include specific names, URLs, or phone numbers in your response. Thanks!]

B to B is tough. But there is always a way. Is there a trade magazine or website you can identify  ?

If so, the secret is cultivating relationships with the editors. You might start by following them on Twitter and perhaps answering questions. Or you could comment on blog posts.

The idea is that when you ask to do a guest post or send in a press release, it won't be your first interaction.

For one B to B client, we started with a target list of about 10 websites and publications. Initial results were disappointing: no response or rejection. But last week, we kinda hit the jackpot. A guest post was accepted and they asked for a whole series on other topics. And one of my client's experts  will be doing some related webinars.

Another often neglected idea is speaking engagements by company executives. I actually look at the SEO value of trade shows and even local business roundtable sites and make suggestions with those in mind. Another client is a graduate student and fitness expert. i suggested he arrange a lecture at his own university that would be listed on the university website.

And what about profiles of company employees? It doesn't have to be the usually sucky profiles of Mr. Big. A sales or customer service rep who has been with the company for years often has great stories to tell about the changes he's seen. Write this up for your own blog, them send it to your new trade pub buddies. They will often do their own interview and story.

Hope this helps.