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If it is done professionally then do it, because it is still a good way to promote your web presence as well as generate high quality backlinks to your site and provide additional traffic. Penguin update was designed to target spam links only, so if you are not spamming then you are safe. You can achieve a lot with social bookmarking if it is submitted to the correct social news sites and targeted sites for your specific niche/audience.
Hi Alan,
Here is one great SEOMOZ article on choosing the right domain name.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name
I would suggest the following tips for your domain:
1. Try to stay with .com and do not use hyphens
2. Shorter domain name is better
3. Must be easy to type and memorable
4. With keywords related to your website
5. Need to have commercial appeal
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Just as Russ said, you really want to be consistent in your URLs. Forward slash in your case is just the correct and newer format of your URL. Canonicalization is responsible for forcing forward slashes in your URLs. Since 301 redirects are vital to proper SEO and improved rankings, I would not consider this as an issue.
Hi Ryan,
Google will always be going after any different SEO methods sooner or later. But you are correct that the Penguin update is designed to penalize anchor text links, but only if these built links are not related to the niche or there are duplications of those links created by some sort of auto software. Anchor text links for blogs/forums are still the major SEO components. If done manually and related to the niche, then there should be no issues. Nevertheless, I totally agree with you that earning links from others is much better and safer method than building links.
Above example of anchor text is just to show Hans how links can be created for blog comments or forum pages where there is no link tool.
Just to add to others... when you start creating your backlinks, make sure all your links are related to your niche and to your keyword phrases. bloggerlinkup.com is a good start to find your niche. Use only white hat techniques and don't use spam methods. You can easily create 5-20 manual links per day on a regular basis.
Most important part is to use the anchor text. Below example shows how to create a link with the anchor text.
/* Put your target keyword here" */
I hope this helps. Good luck!
Just like Kyle said, you could be hurting your website's Google rankings with these 301 redirects. You will also have a bigger chance of being penalized if some of your URLs have some identical content. Your question also pops up in another SEOMoz question: http://www.seomoz.org/q/can-penalties-be-passed-via-301-redirect
Joel, it is hard to say, because every site has its own unique design, content, on-site and off-site SEO methods... If you are talking about full maturity then it is probably around 2 years for Bing, but just like I mentioned before - it all depends on your website. Here is a few articles directly from Bing:
Domain age will be a big factor in Bing SEO, but most of the known off-page and on-page SEO methods will help in all known search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Many SEO experts just perform SEO for a website and not for a specific search engine. If you concentrate on the website then search engines will follow.
In most cases branded keywords consist brand name, so in your case both Blue Widget and Blue Widget Company are branded keywords/phrases, unless these are patented names of some other company.
There is no exact time after which a site will get out of the sanbox affect. It can be 2 or 3 months, it depends how many quality link you are building on a monthly basis.
Just like Kyle said, you could be hurting your website's Google rankings with these 301 redirects. You will also have a bigger chance of being penalized if some of your URLs have some identical content. Your question also pops up in another SEOMoz question: http://www.seomoz.org/q/can-penalties-be-passed-via-301-redirect
In most cases branded keywords consist brand name, so in your case both Blue Widget and Blue Widget Company are branded keywords/phrases, unless these are patented names of some other company.
Hi Alan,
Here is one great SEOMOZ article on choosing the right domain name.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name
I would suggest the following tips for your domain:
1. Try to stay with .com and do not use hyphens
2. Shorter domain name is better
3. Must be easy to type and memorable
4. With keywords related to your website
5. Need to have commercial appeal
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Domain age will be a big factor in Bing SEO, but most of the known off-page and on-page SEO methods will help in all known search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Many SEO experts just perform SEO for a website and not for a specific search engine. If you concentrate on the website then search engines will follow.
[This response edited by SEOmoz staff. This answer is a copy of http://www.ecreativeim.com/blog/2011/03/google-panda-change-seo-impact-on-ecommerce-sites/ and the answer below has been truncated to respect the copyright of the original author]
Google Panda algorithm change could have consequences for many smaller eCommerce sites — or even large ones that haven’t been putting in their SEO time. Unfortunately, far too many eCommerce sites run afoul of things that Google considers low-quality content, especially eCommerce sites with a very large number of products.
Google webmaster tools can be your first stop for your sitemap. Most of indexing is done between 2 days to 3-4 weeks. Depends on the quality of your website and work that was done for on-site and off-site SEO. What you can do for faster indexing? Submit manually your website to all search engines and do social bookmarking for your website. Site structure and popularity of your website are the main factors. Also, if the your domain name has some good history to it then index process can actually take just a few hours.
Just to add to others... when you start creating your backlinks, make sure all your links are related to your niche and to your keyword phrases. bloggerlinkup.com is a good start to find your niche. Use only white hat techniques and don't use spam methods. You can easily create 5-20 manual links per day on a regular basis.
Most important part is to use the anchor text. Below example shows how to create a link with the anchor text.
/* Put your target keyword here" */
I hope this helps. Good luck!
While bad backlinks should not have a major impact on your search ranking, there are still a few ways to get them taken down.
1. Delete any links you may have created by logging into old user accounts and getting rid of forum signatures, website information and personal profiles. If you created links in a hurry, you may be unsatisfied with them once your site begins generating natural backlinks.
2. Build good links by sharing content with other publications in your niche and encouraging readers to do the same. The more good backlinks you have, the less important your old backlinks will be.
3. Contact the owner of the website that currently hosts your bad links. You can usually find contact information on the website, but may need to use a "WHOIS" search to determine the actual owner.
4. Request removal of the bad backlink. Most webmasters are more than happy to remove an old link.
5. Bad links do not affect your search ranking as much as good links. Because links are generally outside of your control, you should not receive penalties for bad backlinks unless your site is breaking spam rules.
[edited by staff to add that the source for this is http://www.ehow.com/how_8586529_rid-bad-backlinks.html]
Hi Ryan,
Google will always be going after any different SEO methods sooner or later. But you are correct that the Penguin update is designed to penalize anchor text links, but only if these built links are not related to the niche or there are duplications of those links created by some sort of auto software. Anchor text links for blogs/forums are still the major SEO components. If done manually and related to the niche, then there should be no issues. Nevertheless, I totally agree with you that earning links from others is much better and safer method than building links.
Above example of anchor text is just to show Hans how links can be created for blog comments or forum pages where there is no link tool.
There is no exact time after which a site will get out of the sanbox affect. It can be 2 or 3 months, it depends how many quality link you are building on a monthly basis.