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Hi Dave, Yes you can test conversion tracking...its the first thing I do when launching a new campaign.  You will need to go to Google.com, search for a keyword, click your text ad, and perform an actual conversion on your site.  I recommend performing this test for each individual conversion page on your site. Use a different keyword for each conversion page. This way you can verify each thank you/conversion page has the AdWords conversion tracking code installed correctly.  Wait until tomorrow (There is a 12-24 hour delay in AdWords conversion reporting), and verify AdWords and Analytics are reporting each conversion was tracked. Hope this helps Branden

Ciaran, Starting from scratch to rank for a  term like "heart attack" would be quite an endeavor for a seasoned SEO with a client who had a fairly substantial budget, let alone for someone new to the discipline. Not that it can't be done, but knowing enough to inform the client what it will take and what might be more productive options for their practice is part of being and SEO.  It sounds like you're working on coming to grips with that knowledge at this very point. Starting out, I'd recommend a couple of things: Do an advanced Open Site Explorer report on your client's site and then do a comparative OSE report against some of the other sites that rank on page one for that term.  Then do another report comparing your client with other sites even further down in the results to get a sense of where the client might be starting from and what they would need to do to get to the top.  Installing the Mozbar can be helpful too. Moz has another tool that you might find handy--it the keyword difficulty tool  and be sure that you've read through their How To Do Keyword Research  guide, as well.

Dave, I think you're on the right track with the KPI you have listed. We have been making a shift towards removing all keyword data provided by Google Analytics (thanks (not provided)!) and focusing more on landing pages. We still monitor keyword rankings but we try to tie our efforts into the landing pages reports when discussing progress with our clients. As in: "We are targeting X Keyword on Y Landing Page. X keyword's ranking has improved while organic visits to Y landing page have increased". Now it is difficult to get that granular for every keyword/landing page combination, however providing a couple of examples will help show the impact of your efforts and hopefully calm down a client who's seeking #1 rankings for every keyword as soon as they sign a contract! Hope this helps and good luck!

Hi Folks, Cheers for the feedback but there seems to be a lack of a consensus on the actual effects a 301 will have. I am well aware of the impacts of not having a nominated preferred domain and its not the question I was asking about. As mentioned above this is an inherited issue, I would never let a site go live without having the preferred domain set along with a host of other settings. In relation to the last question I was trying to assess if there is a "standard" in using the www. subdomain. As in is this in Googles guidelines or is it a strong suggestion to have www.<yourdomain>.com as the destination address instead of <youdomain>.com?</youdomain></yourdomain> Dave

Hi Guys, Cheers for the feedback, much appreciated - for a while I thought I was loosing my mind or just being a n00b. I have inherited the Power SEO Suite rank checking tool so at least I now have a consistent perspective on the rankings but I would like to use multiple sources so I will look into the Advanced Web Ranking software you mentioned Karl. Im in a similar position as yourself Allen with Google being the primary focus. Dave