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Work on my own sites... maybe that is "in-house"?

If I had the $2000 I would spend all of it on content... and if I had a steady stream of $2000 / month I would spend ALL of it that way.

Would I do it if I were your client?  I don't know.  It depends on three things....

1. Who will be making this content?  Most people can't make successful content.  At least, that's my opinion.

2. Do you have content ideas that will hit a homerun?

3. Do you have an audience who will engage with that content? (share it widely)

Do you have ALL THREE of these?  If you fail in any one  of them then you wasted $2000.

To be fair, you need certain things in place for paid links to succeed.  Those things vary by niche but are mainly based upon what is on your site and how effective it is at converting visitors into money.  Much more complex, in my opinion, but easier to pull off.

MozRank and PageRank are metrics based upon connectivity.

Neither of them tell you if a link passes value.... Panda is all about content and visitor satisfaction.

So, taking MozRank to task isn't going to be a good use of your time.

Is it still a good metric on valuable links?  In my opinion it is as good as it was at any other time... but Google is the one who decides the real value or if there is any value.

There are many opinions about this.

Photographer sites often have very little text on their homepage.  They think that is smart because it allows their work to be uncorrupted by text.  I don't agree, but they don't like it when I offer an opinion that more text will bring in more traffic.

Newspaper sites usually have enormous amounts of text on the homepage.  Today the New York Times has over 5000 words on their homepage.  The LA Times and CNN are also huge.

Today, my info site has about 2000 words on the homepage.  I know from experience (before google used "not provided") that when the site had very little text on the homepage my long tail traffic was a fraction of what it is now.  So, I have found a correlation with a lot of words on the homepage and a lot of traffic from search.

Today, one of my retail sites has about 700 words on the homepage.  That is the amount I need to tell people what they will find in the different parts of my website.   I don't worry about how many words are on the homepage and don't worry about what other people say is "best practice".   I bet on myself instead of being swayed by other people talkin'.

Now... I do listen to people like Ray-pp when he says... "I recommend adding enough content to your home page that clearly explains why someone would want to use your product and the benefits they will receive from using the product. If I can get that from your home page, then it is a successful user experience."

That makes a lot of sense.  Why would you try to sell someone half a pair of pants?

Please call all of my competitors and sell them this service.

Here is a philosophy that I have... (I am not trying to be a wise guy... just sayin'....)

I don't pay a lot of attention to the methods used by my competitors.  Instead I decide what I think will work best for me and then do it.

Right now I have pages on my site that I don't want in the search engines index.  So I have code on them as follows....

name="robots" content="noindex, follow" />

I believe that code keeps them out of the index but allows pagerank to flow through them to other pages.  I offer that here so that anyone can tell me if it is wrong.

I welcome anyone who can set me straight or anyone who can suggest a better method.

However, I am not going to look at my competitors and try to figure out what they are doing because there is a very good chance that they don't know what they are doing.  (I think your competitors don't know what they are doing.)

I have absolutely no problem with doing things differently from my competitors.  In fact I think that mimicking them is the best way to finish behind them.

I believe that if Website A links to Website B and at the same time Website B links to Website A that the links can still be valuable.  Great websites link to other great websites all of the time.  I don't think that Google will discriminate against those links unless.......

A) the websites are entirely unrelated to one another (about very different topics

B) the links are in a dumb location such as on a "link exchange" page or footer

C) the links are highly optimized anchor text

So, as long as the links are placed in a context that is valuable for the visitor these links still have a chance to carry value.

As for guest blog posting... if you have a local history site in the United States and guest blog on a site about hydraulic jacks in Germany then I think you are wasting your time.  But if both of these sites are about the local history of the same area then, in my opinion, these webmasters could very legitimately be colleagues who refer to each others work and enthusiastically share ideas with one another's visitors.

If you want people to visit your Google+ page then post it there.  If you want people visiting your website then post it on your blog.

Personally, I would be posting it on my website.  Then any visitor, links, likes, tweets will contribute to my site rather than to a Google+ page that I don't control.

A couple tips for Q&A....

1. Use the "Email Updates" button for any question that is interesting or that might be useful to you in the future.   That button will cause a copy of all replies to that question to be emailed to you.   That allows you to see all of the replies that occur and learn a lot from other members.   This is one of the fastest ways to improve your skills and knowledge and learn who can answer the questions where you need help.    http://moz.com/community/q/how-to-learn-a-lot-from-moz-q-a

2. Visit Q&A even when you don't have a question.   Somebody is probably posting interesting stuff so pop in a couple times a week when you need a break.    If you see a question that you can answer, share your expertise.   If you do that regularly, people will remember that you are a helpful person.....  and when you ask for help you will probably get GOLD in return.

3) Pay attention when somebody comes into  Q&A cryin' and says... "Wah!   My traffic dropped."   That's how you learn about the trip wires that Google has set out to catch weasels and innocent people too.

4. If you ask a question and get two replies.  The suggestion that requires the most work is probably the better one.

A lot of designers believe that these links drive business.   The question is how much business do they drive away because website owners don't want keyword anchor text links in their footer.   The design agency wants two anchor text links, the SEO wants his anchor text links, a logo person thinks he needs a link.

I believe that a lot of website owners, who have seen their friends, or maybe one of their own websites get whacked for penguin, unnatural link, etc. penalties and be sunk in the SERPs for over a year, are now either afraid enough or smart enough to realize that a bunch of site-wide, keyword, money term, do-follow, anchor text links in their footer isn't "best practice" for the owner of a website.

Can you name any SEOs who post intelligent content here at Moz who have two money-term, keyworded, site-wide, do-followed, anchor-text links in their footer pointing to a design agency?

Added:  Just placing "Web Design by Egol" in the footer, without a link, may have positive SEO value.  It is a mention of your brand with no link and visitors who see it and want to get in contact with you can simply search using those words.

This question is asked over and over again in the SEOmoz Q&A.

"Wah! My DA is the best but my site isn't #1. WTF?"

This question rarely gets a satisfying answer and when it is answered well the person who asked the question is usually not happy to hear the truth.

This is one of the most widely used SEO tools on the internet and people don't know what it means.

Since these same questions recur so often and with such passion SEOmoz should address it with a detailed article that is obviously posted where the people who use this tool will clearly find it.

That will ensure that a good tool is used properly and so many people are not going around with their panties in a wad.

If you register blackboots.co and make it a huge success and I own blackboots.com... then I am going to enjoy a nice amount of your traffic.

If I felt that I could make a significant site for "black boots"... I would be willing to pay a good price for blackboots.com.  If I could not afford to buy it I would create a site on another .com domain.

I don't have any problem with a person submitting his website to a few directories... but if I want to beat my competitor, I will not mimic his methods.  Instead I will do something clearly superior and kick his butt properly.

If I was the boss at a video production company a good portion of the production staff's time would be spent making videos for our own website.

Video production companies are where webmasters often go when they need some awesome linkbait for their own websites.  Not only does it serve as great linkbait but it is also a great way to "strut your stuff" for anyone who visits your website.

Perhaps you don't make that type of video but maybe it would be beneficial to consider.  It could open a whole new line of business for you.

**.... is it a waste of time to share my content on Social Media? **

This is the real crux of the question.

If people see your postings on social media and click through to your website then that is a sign that you have something worth sharing.  But, it also could be a sign that you are dropping clickbaity shares.  You can check Google Analytics or Clicky or whatever you are using to monitor your incoming traffic.

If your shares are productive then you have to value your time compared to the amount of traffic and possible revenue or visibility that you are receiving from social sources.   I don't share my content on social media because I am not a social media participant with a large number of people who interact with me.  It is not a productive use of my time.  It is more important for me to write content with that time.

However, all of the pages of my site have buttons that make it easy for my visitors to share in obvious ways and many visitors do that.  I get traffic every day from social but occasionally I get enormous traffic from it.  The best thing is that my visitors are doing the sharing for me.

Cultivating a tribe of people who like your website is the most effective way to take advantage of social media.  For this to happen you must have strong sharable assets on your website.

Another thing that you can do to facilitate social sharing is to be sure that you are showing your best, most highly sharable content with all of your visitors.  Obvious links to your most popular content, your most often shared content, what's hot today content can trigger content consumption and sharing.

Learn what content is winning for you and then play your strengths.

I am new to seomoz forum  and this is my first query. Even i asked this query in many forums, i didnt get the right answer.

Sometimes you can get the right answer but not realize it.  Usually the "right answer" tells you to do very difficult things.

Since 2yrs i am doing seo for my site. even i am following all the white hat techniques and doing every submission manually.

It sounds like you are submitting to directories.  That does not work very well these days.

Also one of my sites recently got disappeared from google. I have checked all the pages listed in google for my site's major keywords. I didnt find the site anywhere. Can u hep me why this condition wll happen and what to do to overcome such issues?

It sounds like you are not doing "white hat".

Why don't you tell us exactly what you are doing to promote this site and we will tell you what you should stop doing.

What are the techniques i need to follow to increase site visits?

Build a great website that lots of people will enjoy visiting and find valuable.  This takes a lot of work.

After you have that then share it with others through facebook and twitter.   Share it with bloggers in your topic niche.

I have always been taught that external links really hurt your site and that basically 1 outbound link cancels out 1 inbound link because they balance each other out.

I am going to refrain from making comments about your teachers. 

If everybody linked to nobody the web would not be 'The  Web".  You know that.  Google knows that.  So you should be able to conclude that linking out is good.

The question that you should be asking is... "Who am I linking to?"

Let that be your guide.

My rule is to link out generously and often.  But always do my best to link to sites or to content that is either superior to or complimentary to my own.

An article with abundant links out to high quality sites on the same topic is a richer resource than the same article with zero links - and I think that google will rank it higher.

But, if the Pope sends me a great article with a link to a payday loan site then I will hit the delete button.

I would place this blog on the primary domain.  Then all of the value from links that hit the blog will help power the primary site.

I believe that the job of the SEO is to ask the client "where do you want to be visible" and inform them "where you can be visible".... then let them know that visibility there will never happen unless they have content that positions them for the target keywords.

So, I would let them know what it will take to be visible for some of their important keywords.

I would pick a couple product categories that....

• you will be selling long term

• you are able to write about from deep experience

• you receive numerous customer questions

• your customers have lots of repeat orders for consumables and accessories

Then I would start writing detailed product guides and publish them on my own website.  Make this a library of information about those products. How to select, how to use, how to repair, interesting things that people do with them.  Make this the best guide to these products on the web.

Start with a single product category and offer a newsletter.  Then, when you add a couple of pages to your guide, send them to these people.  Focus on information about the consumables and accessories.  Announce new products and show how you use them.

These are personal opinions... you will find lots of people who disagree...

Google still gives a good bonus to exact match domains in the search results.  I own several and believe this is true.   They will not automatically rank you for highly competitive money keywords.  You must still work there - but not quite as hard.

Lots of people think that EMDs get an unfair advantage in the SERPs.  These are people who purchased their domain late, want to buy cheap, or just don't understand that prime domains are just like Main Street real estate in a prosperous town.  If you are willing to pay the obscene price you will get all of the benefits.  I go after them.  I want the EMD for my important sites.

Lots of people talk about the EMD penalty... they are full of beans.   What they think is a penalty is the EMDs not getting quite the full bonus that they did in the past.   Now, if you publish crap on an EMD, that EMD will not perform well - just like publishing crap on any other domain.

Lots of people think that a partial match domain gives a big bonus in the SERPS... I'd say don't waste your time unless you have a brandable slogan or name.

Conversion rates can be higher on exact match domains.  That is my experience.

It is easier to get cooperation from other people if you own an important EMD.   The EMD can give you immediate credibility even if undeserved.

Most importantly... owning the EMD gives me mental energy.  If I owned baloney.com then I would be the big baloney and build the best site around for that topic.  This mindset is more powerful than any SEO.

There is a website...  http://whichtestwon.com/

They show the results of lots of testing.  There you can look at two different versions of a page and find out which performed better.

If you view lots of their tests you will slowly start to get an idea of what types of change can be effective , although there will always be results that surprise you.