Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi, all. I'm working in an unfamiliar area here, so I hope someone can tell me if I'm out in left field.

I am building a sub-domain called http://test.mysite.com, so that I can upload a client's still-under-construction site while working on it. When completed, it'll go up on his server, replacing his old site. Obviously, I want to ensure that it doesn't get indexed while it's on my test platform.

A friend suggested that I password it with htaccess and htpasswd, since we can never be certain the SEs will obey site directives.

My question is, what do you think would be the best (and hopefully, simplest) way to accomplish this?

I'm no code-monkey, so "simple" is a big plus!

Doc

By the way, the platform will be Wordpress CMS.

As has been mentioned elsewhere, subdomains are, for SEO purposes, considered to be totally separate sites. I cannot see any logical reason for separating two sites unless they are totally unrelated.

For example, if you have a corporation that owns a mining concern and an electronic manufacturing concern, then it might make sense to have them both as subdomains of the holding company's main website.

But for a company that provides a product, and has a separate division to service related products, then I think that using folders would be greatly preferable, from an SEO standpoint.

If you're unable to accomplish what you need with Artisteer, then Headway may be an ideal solution for you. I agree wholeheartedly on Yoast's SEO package, BTW.

I have not used Headway, but a good friend of mine, that is a coder, was a die-hard Thesis fan... until he tried Headway. While he has no problem tweaking the code in Thesis to accomplish what he needs, he has been quite vocal about Headway being more secure and more user-friendly to the novice coder. Coming from him, that's mighty high praise. FWIW.

I haven't seen a sitemap.php in a long time, Sha. Certainly Google could  read it if they want, but whether they will or not is the question. I would be inclined to doubt it.

If he says that it's generating a sitemap.xml, but none is present on WMT, then I would respond that one of two things is happening:

1. It isn't generating the sitemap in an xml format at all, but only in php, or

2. For some reason, the xml version is either not transmitted, or not received.

The only other possibility that comes to mind is that perhaps the conversion from php to xml is not tagged in a fashion to be recognized as an xml file, and WMT is detecting it as php and assigning it that status accordingly. I suppose that could happen, particularly if he is using an outdated plugin or if of his own coding, the conversion is faulty.

I'd be interested in hearing what you ultimately learn on this.

Hi, Kevin-

Without knowing a little more about the niche and the services, it's difficult to give a definitive answer. But I think that in most instances, I would be inclined to simply concentrate on fleshing out the pages that deal with each individual service, all contained within one site. In that fashion, I think you'll gain more authority to the site, while still focusing on each service as needed.

Jared-

I think it's quite possible that one of the factors that played into the lack of response is that a fair amount of research is required. With comprehensive research, a spreadsheet and lots of graphics, you're asking for a piece that is definitely a cut above what many typical freelancers find themselves asked to provide.

I have found some outstanding copywriters on textbroker, and I have no doubt that you can find several there that can and will meet your standards. I would suggest that you might get more response by simply soliciting a writer that is willing to do more than just basic research, and then "interview" two or three of the most promising candidates. Ask them for samples that required a similar level of workmanship. Sure, you'll get a few that can only claim to be fluent English-speakers with their fingers crossed or are simply not up to the task. But IMO, since you're looking for quality work, you'll need to invest some extra effort in your search to qualify the respondents.

Get 'em interested, then thin the herd.

I would think that unless the various sites are very closely related, that you'd be better off with individual accounts, but I can see how there would be benefit in consolidating, say with various geo-separated sites on the same theme (Denver real estate, Colorado Springs real estate, Aspen real estate...)

Supposedly, a tool is in the works, but frankly, I wouldn't expect to see it terribly quickly. As I understand it, schema.org's new "standard" is somewhat of a kluge - made up of many different others. As such, the validation process will be more complex, and more easily subverted by tons of potential issues.

To further complicate things, part of a schema.org validation would be looking at html5 as well, which can't be validated as a single markup. Instead, it's a kluge too. Interesting times ahead, I think.

Hello, Jared-

EGOL's suggestion is a good one, if you're looking for content. However, I would differentiate between content and SEO copy. If content that is entertaining or informative will accomplish what you seek, then finding a niche blogger might be your best bet. If, however, you're looking for content to help get your site ranked for specific search terms, then I think you really need to consider an SEO copywriter.

And even further up the food chain, you'll find content strategists, that will tailor optimized copy to your specific needs, whether that be reputation/authority management, organic search or more. Obviously, the further up the ladder you go, the higher rates you can expect to pay.

Josh- I'm of the opinion that there is no tool in the wild that is consistently accurate, in any regard, including detection of 404 errors. There are a number of things that can cause one tool to detect an error, while another won't. Personally, I compare the results of all the different tools I use, and hopefully find a consensus. Failing that, I double check with them all, and look for consistent results. If nothing changes, you may just have to "consider the source" and decide in which tool you have greater confidence.

Not much help, I realize, but sometimes that's just the way it is.

I think what he says is often less important than what he doesn't say.

As the defacto Google spokesman to our industry, he's in a tough position, and I think if you're fair, you'll admit he does a good job for Google, and provides good info to us. You just have to read between the lines a little. I've yet to ever see Matt caught in a lie. More often, people are to quick to hear what they want to hear.

SearchCap- As Kristy said, the digest version.

SEO by the Sea- Bill stays on top of patents, which helps future-proof your sites.

SEO Book- Aaron stays on top of SEO goings-on.

If you want to keep trackbacks enabled, but don't want to deal with the spammers, another option is Simple Trackback Validation with Topsy Blocker ( http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-trackback-validation-with-topsy-blocker/ ).  That plugin will stop 95-99% of spam trackbacks by comparing the IP addresses. As Alan says, it's nice to know right away when you get a new link.

As for a small loss of link juice, Joe's response is one I would agree with. But in terms of keyword ranking, EGOL is spot on. There are many right and wrong things that could affect ranking in either direction. The sort of breakdown you're talking about deserves an experienced hand to get it right.

Interesting, MWD. I would have thought that PR would flow through a redirect to a sub domain. Now you've got me concerned. By any chance, can you point me to a source that explains that in more detail?

If all your dealers are running your copy on their sites, verbatim, that could be a piece of your problem... certainly worth looking at. It's not uncommon for an affiliate to out rank their principal even though the principal had the original content up for a year or more prior.

Another thing worth keeping in the back of your mind, as you chase this down - sometimes we don't drop in the SERPs because we dropped, but rather because someone else ROSE.

As was said, a high quality link from a non-relevant site still brings some value with it. If you want to play it just a bit safer, you might try presenting those links as some "partner" sites that provide your visitors with "special rates" or "discounts", when they are visiting you. It might not hold any water in an algorithmic analysis, but in a human review, I suspect it would help.

In my opinion, there's nothing greyhat about those tabs, Mike. The mouseover makes it quite obvious that it's a navigation link, and in reality, you're not even taking the user to another page. I wouldn't hesitate to use it myself.

Your terminology of "one-way" and link "exchange" would seem to be in conflict. Since it seems that you're not really talking about one-way, but actual link exchanges, I'd echo what searchpl says: be really careful. In my opinion, the risk is far greater than the potential reward, and you'd be better off acquiring true one-way links.