Welcome to the Q&A Forum

A mixture of questions and discussion

Question 1. can the following two pages be considered duplicate content

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/gardenbeet/product/deer-head-wall-art

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/1/1/219933-deer-head-wall-art-by-garden-beet.html

• both pages are indexed and both pages have different meta - aimed at different search combinations

Discussion

The search for 'deer head wall art  gardenbeet' is generated by my PR company - we have done loads of print advertising for this item yet the sheer mass and volume of noths.com stops my store http://www.gardenbeet.com/garden-wall-art/58-deer-head.html from obtaining the number one position.

All is fair in the business world  I suppose BUT the original marketing machine for noths.com was claiming that they were assisting  the small business owner. I paid them over £600 to join and now they compete with me head on. Stupid me I suppose.

Let this be a key learning for those toying with the idea of investing in their own SEO or a 3rd party selling platform.

Ho hum

Conrad - I would not proceed with the subfolders

You started asking this question due to your positive experience in Australia. I suspect your experience has more to do with a less developed e-commerce market than a strong SEO strategy

I have worked the last 3 years in the UK  and am now working on australian domains - the level of competition does not compare

unique content for all your sub folders - then enjoy the strength of your domain

May 26, 2011Matt BurgessContent Coordinator at Tourism Queensland

I'm facing a similar situation. I recently asked Tiffany Oberoi (google) at the SMX Conference in Sydney whether she suggested taking our respective TLDs and moving into a subfolder format (ie. example.com/au, example.com/nz, example.com/uk etc).

Her response? Stick with the TLDs. I don't think the geotargetting option in GWT is as reliable as it's made out to be.

Flag01<a class="image-button add-response-button"> </a>

Perhaps your success is to do with less competetion in the aussie  market place - I have noticed that websites in australia can get in the top 3 positions with very poor onsite optimisation and few links - of course it varies from industry to industry but I would analyse the backlinks etc of the other aussie websitesfirst -

try elance, peopleperhour, people from various countries will bid to do your work ....you may want to drop the term 3rd world -

I recommend tweetdeck ......start following topics that are of interest like .....mens clothing.....then....if anyone complains about their boyfriends clothes offer them a discount/freebie etc....try and solve a problem for your potential customers......

....also see tweeter as an opportunity to build B2B relationships with other designer retailers - people who are into designer clothes are often into designer home living accessories ....@gardenbeet would be happy to tweet interesting design stories from you.....who are your designers? ...tell us a stroy on your blog..tweet it ...and then @gardenbeet could tweet it....

my blog category pages began to rank higher for key converting search terms than my main website  - not good - sales dont happen on my blog.

So I stopped the indexing of my category pages....guess what happened?..my website is back to position 1 BUT my blog traffic reduced by half.....so consider EGOL's warning prior to making a decision

mmmm - maybe but I suspect there is paid linking and deliberate sculpting going on - Garden Beet is more active on social forums relating to gardens than one of its main competitiors

however in support of your argument  I recently witnessed Garden Beet shoot from the dark unseen ranks of 54 to number 8/9 following a tv campagin on a related term - but yawn yawn - the page is now hovering around 20  -

thanks EGOL - well best get sculpting I suppose

As the garden season begins to wane I notice yet again how my ranking for some garden specific terms - eg ' garden tealight holders' start to rise again.Since I am doing nothing much I can only assume that my competitors have moved their focus to more winter based merchandise.

Does anyone have a good understanding of how some websites are able to acheive high rankings during peak season only?

I am assuming they are buying advertising (with the follow) for say 3 months before the season peak and manipulating internal linking to direct link juice from one section of the website to the other.

Is this strategy risky. Has Google ever made mention of this issue?

If you have the resources and you are a well known brand its great to have both the generic and the real person.

But if your brand is relatively unknown, resources are limited and you are wishing to promote your company I would be using the logo. I use my company logo for Garden Beet. Many in my tweet network have got to know me over time and use my name on tweets as well. That has its own set of problems and benefits.

Nevertheless it loads easier to create connection with a person than a logo. I know I prefer a person to a logo - but that is not meeting my longer term goal of trying to get my brand - Garden Beet -  known.

hey thanks stephen....i'll send you a link when its sorted ..do ya wanna enter?

ah well yes i made it up!! so should clarify- umm i hope i am not in breach of some advertising rule

.Article Jam
Mix your article into our roadside garden and make it a story.

Its simple.

Take up the story from where the last story stopped. Fun creative segues encouraged.

•Story can  promote whatever you want – it can be factual or pure fiction.
•Shall be between 400-800 words.
•Each story must mention Gulliver. He is a man who is 42 and lives adjacent to the M25. He is always in the backgarden and everyone can see him from the M25. His garden beet grows well. Gulliver goes indoors every fifth article.

•You are only allowed one contextual link in the last paragraph.

Political, romantic, comedy, poetry, curent affairs are all welcome. Feel free to mention news events, Google announcements, Facebook campagins, whatever.

What is the best way to post an article jam - i think it will appeal to article writing people who are kinda bored with,  well,  writing content?

ha ...maybe but guess what ??? I have had 5 requests for articles in the last 4 hours ........maybe people are just lazy !!!

ahh ..people who ask for links are probably not the people reading my blog...which is where I ask for the blog submsisions ...but having said that I have had a blog submission heading on the top menu since february - the text only changed today - it use to make a strong plea for articles...

..all my submissions come through networks i have established ..usually tweeter ...so perhaps i am not on the radar...........

ha Shelly love your segue - now this is an interesting issue indeed - a garden as an investment - yes - all for it - a garden can be an extension to the living areas of a house....there has been a transition in people's approach to outdoor space and the spend - totally in my niche - would love it -

felicity@gardenbeet.com

ok - so you also reakon its black hat  -

what i am trying to do is 'make the trade happen' - if they wont write it - well my counter offer is 'you pay me and I'll write it'