Welcome to the Q&A Forum

** I think you would be better of building a blog on your website and building original content there.**

YES! I totally agree. Start using the best content on YOUR own blog.

1 directory submission to BBB will probably be WAY more effective than 50 wack article directories.  Also look into joining the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce if you are in OC. Real companies join those organizations. Google knows that. Also, spammers won't want to spend the money to do that stuff.

What Wil Reynolds Real Company Shit video from Mozcon: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/2012-mozcon-videos-are-here

I use the BBB as a source of credibility. I have used Yahoo Directory, but I made zero sales. It helps if your site is new because it's a follow link. The BBB has made 1 sale for me so it paid for itself for the year.

I wouldn't waste any time for SEO purposes on Angie's List if it's behind a login. But I would look at it as a source of revenue. It's just like craigslist. I don't post on Craigslist for SEO purposes, I post on there to get business. Forget SEO rankings; it's about money in the bank.

Read this: http://searchengineland.com/interview-google-search-quality-rater-108702

It what Google Quality raters look for in websites. I don't think it'll have an effect all all. You're not changing the URLS or the content. You're just changing the NAV and the look and feel. Build to convert more visitors. Have money prepared for an Adwords campaign in case your rankings go down.

I heard Matt Cutts say the same thing.

Remember that when doing 301s, not all the link juice is passed. Matt Cutts also says that.

This is a great question. I think maybe you should start ramping up your content so that once your site is ready you can come blasting out with some great content. What I am saying is keep your blog posts as drafts and then launch once the site is ready.

Personally, I wouldn't link or share a default WordPress theme.

Check GWT. You may have to 301 redirect the index to the /. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. Check the SERP and see which one you are already ranking for. If / is in the SERP, then Google has already chosen which one to display. Also check GWT under Duplicate Titles.

I don't know if you'll find any listing here specifically for NZ, but we mozzers use this list: http://www.seomoz.org/directories

I hope that helps.

BTW, as for paid directories, maybe you can get join a professional organization like a chamber of commerce (we have that here in the US).

If you're going to participate in a community, do it to be part of the community, not for links. I don't really post my website here on SEOMOZ, but people do contact me to give me work.  Besides, most forums that I have seen have nofollow links because they don't want to get spammed.

One other thing, look at GWT for those links. You can use OSE, but it's not as good as GWT.

I use Facebook Comments on almost every webpage on my site. Yes it's an iFrame, but I stick my URL in the Facebook Comments so it counts as a link and people are "talking" about me.

Here's my proof. Run OSE on my contact page: http://www.shipoverseas.com/us/contact-us.html I have 57 FB Shares and 0 Likes (because I don't have a Like button on that page).

Then run OSE on my home page: 68 Shares 167 Likes.

Google knows that people are "talking" about me on my contact page. But in reality it's me slapping my URL into the reply.

My point is "if" you are trying to turn FB comments into HTML with noscript to rank higher (because that's what you're really trying to do), you don't need to do it. Write kickass content and more people will leave Facebook Comments and keep slapping your URLs in there.

I think I should write a YouMoz Post about this.

That's the video I was looking to post but I couldn't find it. Thanks!

I never really do link exchanges unless they are part of a blog post. Also, I don't link to sub-par websites or unrelated websites. It's okay to link to another site and they link to you. One example is I have my BBB Membership page point to my site and I point many links from my site to that single BBB Page.

Look at the site you are going to link to and ask yourself, "Can this potentially cause a problem in the future? What's the risk?" I have turned down MANY sites wanting to link exchange, but if they are willing to write a high quality guest blog post, then I'm fine with it whether I get a back link from their site or not.

What this video on Matt Cutts and consider your question answered. (m.example.com)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY9h3G8Lv4k

Whoa, there are way too many images above the content. This image should be a table http://www.drycleaning.com.sg/images/Laundry-Dry-Cleaning-Rates.jpg. If I remember correctly, Google looks at the l x w of images of ads and

s and may think there is not enough content above the fold. Your content is way too far down the page.

Just a question, why Copyright 2004-2014 in the footer and not Copyright 2004-2013?

We don't know exact what Google does to rank websites. I think it's a good thing doesn't let us know the algorithm.

I think link building through guest blog posting should only be one thing you should do. How about leaving testimonials on other websites? I have used that successfully especialy with companies that use our service.

I'm a little confused about what you are trying to accomplish, but I'll give it a shot.

If you have a website that you want to ONLY rank in Spain, go to GWT > sit configuration > settings > Geographic target > Spain. "IF" you do this, nothing on this site will show anywhere else except in http://www.google.es/. "IF" you are trying to sell property in Spain to an American, then don't do this because you're listings will never come out in Google.com.

If you are having a duplicate content problem, then rel=canonical it using a plugin in your CMS. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/rel-canonical-html-head/

I wouldn't worry about being scraped. My sites get scraped. SEOmoz gets scraped all the time. I your case, I would do two things. 1) Build the table and immediately resubmit that page in GWT. 2) Insert a row at the bottom of the table and put anchor text so if anyone does scrape your site, they point a link back to you. Or another approach is to insert a top row in the table and make an image saying something generic like "Singapore Dry Cleaning Services". Have the image on "your" server and/or make it link to your home page with the alt tags like alt="Singapore Dry Cleaning".

SEOMOZ List - yes, but only related ones

GetListed - Yes

Squidoo - NO

I really don't worry about it that much. I recommend to just do what is best for your customer and focus on conversions.

I literally copied and pasted from the SERP one of my pages. This is for the KW phrase "Ship car to Germany".

Shipping Car to Germany from USA - Save money shipping autos to ...

<cite>www.shipoverseas.com/us/ship-car/.../shipping-car-to-germany.html</cite>Shipping car to Germany from USA. Departure & Arrival Ports, Documents, Duty Tax. We ship cars for private individuals, active US military,and tourists.Notice that the keyword "Ship" is not in the title, but the related KW "Shipping" is. If I change the title tag to "Ship Car to Germany", then my rankings may be affected a little, but that's going to depend on where the competitors rank in Google's algorithm too. Now that I look at this, I have to change my title tag and description because I have better content on my page.

I would rel canonical it too.

Use those General Directories if they include your a section for your industry.

Squidoo - turned to crap because of article marketers re-spinning content. Got HAMMERED by Google. I'm not putting my clients in Squidoo.