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I try to apply TAGFEE as much as possible. Here are just a couple for biz:

T - show my clients what I'm planning on doing, how we do it, and advantages and disadvantages of going in a certain direction.

A - To me, this is just being me as opposed to some faceless logo, website, or trade name.

G - I try to spend as much time as I can offering free info, advice, help.

F - Like most of us, I probably need more of this. I try to integrate "fun" into proposals, discussions, posts, etc.

E - Some people are naturally better w/ empathy than others. For me, a lot of it comes down to communication. If someone (colleague or client) seems off, find a way to ask them what's up w/o putting them on defensive.

E - Listen. Learn. Teach. Do these things well and you might just be able to get yourself "above the noise."

I was never much of a gardener.

4. Work hard the right way. Have patience.

I think both sides of the earlier responses have merit. However, successful link requests are less about brute force and more about thinking strategically. First, in my experience, unsolicited emails of any kind are a total waste of time, or at least extremely inefficient (not to mention very annoying). Not a good way to start a relationship.

Think about your link requests more like business relationships and less like a sale. Would you spam your colleagues? Your boss?

How do communicate with other professionals? Use that as a template for thinking about how to contact link targets. And don't call them link targets ; ).

I'd start here: Categories should say what your business is (e.g. Hospital), not on what it does (e.g. Vaccinations) or things it sells (e.g. Sony products or printer paper). This information can be added in your description or as custom attributes. Categories should not contain location-based information (for example, Dog Walker Los Angeles is not permitted). Only one category is permitted per entry field. Do not “stuff” entry fields with multiple categories. http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&cbrank=3&cbid=-wzuex3urz26r&ctx=cb&answer=107528&src=cb I'd also see what google search suggests. Here are some possibilities: Moving companies Movers I'd also consider adding descriptions or custom attribute (if applicable): Moving truck rental Moving boxes Moving supplies I don't think there's a lot of value in repeating singulars and plurals. My 2 cents.

Solid advice. Spend the majority of time focusing on your content. Spend the rest of your time getting in front of an audience who is ready, willing, able to link to and further publicize it.

Great question. It really depends on the directory. As a general rule, if the directory is advertising that is "sells links," those links are likely to be valueless, or potentially even detrimental.

On the other hand, directories that have fees for "editorial review" (i.e. dir.yahoo.com, etc), are less likely to have that problem.

Generally speaking, if a directory is specifically relevant to your site (i.e. content and/or geography), the directory will likely have more value than a general biz, or non-relevant directory.

I also like to stick to relevant directories with DA equal to or higher than the site that I'm submitting.

In my humble opinion, the value of submitting to a large number of low quality directories, as well as, article directories, is very low if not non-existent.

However, if you find higher quality directory links in your competitors' back link profiles, they may be worth the investment.

Well, in terms of keywords in the domain, historically, in my experience, that has been a great benefit. However, there has been talk that this will be dialed down soon.

Is it your intention to inter-link the sites?

There doesn't seem to me to be any additional benefit of spreading the reviews across multiple domains. At least not based on the example as given.

Just got the email. You really put the 'G' in TAGFEE with this one. Let me know if there's anything we can do to pay it forward (aside of course from the usual singing of your praises).

Thought these might be useful in this discussion:

https://www.distilled.net/resources/optimize-your-serp-snippet-ctr/

http://www.catalystsearchmarketing.com/how-rich-snippets-can-improve-your-ctr

https://moz.com/blog/video-seo-post-rich-snippets

https://econsultancy.com/blog/61990-the-value-of-rich-snippets-and-structured-data/

My experience, they have an enormously positive impact.

Hi Laura,

First, I would recommend that if you're syndicating/distributing your content, you should find ways to avoid posting duplicate content in multiple places (or at least use the canonical link attribute).

There are several ways to auto-post depending upon your implementation. The easiest way, IMHO, is with RSS. However, if you choose to distribute with RSS, you should implement something that alters your content to keep it unique.

The truth is that the most effective way to distribute / syndicate your content is by hand. However, there are several Wordpress plugins (if you use wordpress) and software applications (like SubmitEaze) that can help you automate the article submission process.

Again, my advice is to modify your content and syndicate/distribute/market by hand.

I look at this problem like this. First, identify what your target keywords are. Then, identify who your competitors are for your keywords.

This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but my response is that if a directory is relevant, industry-specific, reliable, etc, it's probably worth completing a profile there.

On the other hand, if it's a general biz directory, looks like it exists for the purpose of SEO, doesn't appear highly for relevant searches, etc, it's probably not worth the time.

Grouping sites under the umbrella of "directory" it's pretty vague. After all, http://house.gov/ is just a directory. But it probably isn't what you think of as a directory when you think of internet directories.

Will submitting to directories hurt you? In most cases I would say probably not. Unless you're hitting the real bottom of the barrel.

It's more of a matter of resource allocation.

Hope this helps.

Based on your description, I'd go Wordpress.

Really both. On the one hand, the value of building many links on the same domain diminishes as the number of links on that domain increases. However, in my experience, this doesn't start happening until you're talking a lot of links (think footer links & blog roll links).

Going after the new domain will increase the domain diversity of your back link profile, which is really important.

Also, are we assuming that both domains are of equal authority?

My advice would be to continue spending time building links on domain #1 and start investing time into the more difficult domain #2.

I wouldn't look at number of links on a page in a complete vacuum. Disclaimer, I haven't reviewed your site. Keep in mind that your site's authority matters in terms of how a search engine will Carl your site (length of time, number of pages, etc). Are all the links on your pages getting crawled and indexed (gwmt)? Have you tried testing whether a page solely linked from a page containing many links, from a link after those links, gets crawled? This might be a better indication of whether you truly have too many.

Why is it so difficult to get management to accept the fact that managing a website is an ongoing and constantly changing process that involves research and experimentation?

+1 for competitive analysis. Show your client what their competitors are doing and what impact their efforts are having. In my experience, even if they don't quite "get it", they will be forced to acknowledge that their competitors are, and that can be enough to drive them to understand this. Especially when you can show changes over time.

First, spend some time auditing technical aspects. Be sure you're not "getting in your own way" by doing something technically unsound (duplicating page titles, robots.txt problems, etc).

I also suggest dedicating a majority of resources to content. It would be helpful to know a little more about the nature of your sites.

After content, I would dedicate the remaining resources to link building in the form of getting your best content in front of the right audiences. That's your most efficient shot at acquiring new links, shares, etc.

While I generally agree with Alan above, if you're going to do recip links, I'd try to work them into the context of your site on different pages.

I don't see a Q & A feed subscribe button. Am I missing it? Seems to me that being able to receive updates when new questions are posted would be useful.

Be Thematic. Find themes that apply to your subjects. Try to relate to more popular related "stuff".

Here are some quick examples:

1. Toxic Waste Removal - Work in references, images, video of The Toxic Avenger: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090190/

2. Steel Erecting - I don't know if this is too loose, but Transformers came to mind.

3. Household Plumbing - Perhaps create a mascot, "Bobby The Hot Tempered Boiler".

Ok, so these might not be the most well-thought-out examples, but I think you get my point.