Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Matt,

Do you know of any drawback by implementing both 301 re-directs along with placing canonical tags on the landing pages?

Or is this overkill?

Regards,
Gary

Why is it that many sites that are ranking in the top page of SERP's are not using the .html extension?  It seems that all the experts in the field of SEO are not using them.  Do they know something we don't?

Keri,

We are in the process of building a mobile version of the website along side of building a whole new site.

Thanks for the response.

The website has a lot of SEO issues.  I just took the contract on two weeks ago and we are in the process of rebuilding the website.

For sure we don't want to loose any of the inbound links pointing to the home page or other pages for that fact.

I agree with you as far as taking advantage of the home page and placing content on it. I will be trying to convince them to do so.

The challenge will be in changing the url's for each page without disturbing the inbound links currently pointing to url's like this one. (This is a current live url)

http://bobbyvans.com/Bobby_Vans_Steakhouse/46th_%26_Park_Avenue.html

The site currently has serious canonical and duplicate page issues.

Thanks for the answer.  I have the same mind set as you. I'm under the impression that you can rank deep pages higher than your home page.  This is a somewhat unique situation as we are trying to rank 10 locations under one sub domain.  It's not your typical one location SEO project.

With this all said I'm going to try and talk my client into adding some content on the home page.

Just a side note.  This restaurant chain has locations outside of New York City so it wouldn't be practical to have the home page Rank for "new york steak house".  Besides New York City they have locations in DC, Long Island and JFK.  Isn't the proper SEO strategy to rank the individual pages/locations?  If I'm correct in my assumption then why is the Home Page that important?

Donnie,

I agree it won't hurt.  The home page is one of many pages.  Can't you focus SEO efforts on the other pages?  Won't search engines spider and index the other pages within the website.

I realize no content on a page is bad for SEO, do search engines give more importance to home pages than other pages in a site?  Can you not focus your SEO efforts on other pages?  Why does it have to be the home page?

After all, at the end of the day is it not pages that rank?

The Home Page is just one on many pages on a website.  Can I not focus my SEO efforts on the other pages and get them to rank for chosen keywords?

This restaurant is a chain.  The plan is to setup a separate Google Places page for each individual location/page and market the locations individually.

In other words the goal is to rank individual pages within the site.  If someone does a search query for "best new york steak house" or "steak houses in new york city" why can't one or several of the interior pages rank for that term?  Does it have to be the home page? The Home Page is just one page within the site. Isn't it true that pages rank not websites per say?  Is the Home Page more important than any other page?

I guess my real question is does Google give more importance to the home page than other pages on a site?

Thanks
Gary Downey

If a home page has no content will it hurt the sites ability to rank?  The interior pages will have content but not the home page. (See attached image)

My client does not want content on the home page as he feels it will take away from the look and feel he wants to achieve.

This website is actually 10 sites or locations in one as we intend to market each location (a total of 10) separately.

In reality the home page is a doorway page to each separate location.

I'd like feedback if possible as to the necessity or not, of content on the Home Page of this or any website. Will the lack of content hurt on the Homer Page hurt with SEO?

Thanks
Gary Downey

bobby-vans.jpg

As an agency that manages multiple accounts should I have all my Google Place accounts under one account or should I create a separate account for each client with a unique username and password for every client?

Thanks,
Gary Downey

Thanks a million Miriam.  Great articles.

I now have a handle on it.

All The Best,

Gary

How does a website get listed in the satellite version of Google Maps?  I have clients that are ranking number 1 in the pack 7 with Google Places and local SEO but they don't show up on the big map.  Click on this link to see what I mean

http://connect7.biz/google-maps.jpg

I have circled the listings in red.  How are these businesses getting listed in the satellite version of Google Maps?

Thanks
Gary

I don't pay for this I use the free version, have you tried http://www.semrush.com/

Thanks Keri.  Makes sense.

I need help with my link building efforts so I have started to search around for companies and/or freelance contractors to hire.  I always ask for examples of sites they are working on.  In many cases the number of inbound links are high (9306) compared to the number of root domains that are linked to (143).  Or as in this sample (120792) inbound links compared to (157) linking domains http://www.shortsalesafe.com.  How can this be?  To me the only logical answer is "link farms" or some other form of black hat magic. Am I right in my assumption, or is there another logical answer for so many links with so few linking domains.?

Thanks

Gary

Currently I track all my clients sites under one Google Analytics account. Is this a good practice or should I setup a separate account for each client?  My concern is that if I every had a problem with one website could it effect all websites under the same account?  An example would be that one of my clients decides to start linking to some spamy websites that are sandboxed by Google.  Could this hurt my other accounts? Can one rotten apple spoil the whole bunch under the same account?

Thanks All!
Gary Downey