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What Russ is talking about here is spot on. If you're not using "micro-sites" to test and rank you're not going to be able to keep up with the other guys. How are you going to test new methods and learn if you're scared you might enter a "gray" area with google?  Technically, ANY manipulation of Google by manually building links elsewhere is "gray".  SEO, in a sense, is inherently "gray".  So, to claim that your SEO tactics are 100% white-hat is a challenging statement to defend.

Hi there,

When I did a redesign a few years ago, I had it in my mind that site links in 3 or 4 columns at the bottom of the home page, and every other page, would be good for SEO.  Having links to interior pages using keywords and phrases from the home page and all that….

I think this might now be outdated thinking?  As long as there are some links from the home page to important interior pages to pass link juice that is what matters?  Google might not even looks at links in the footer?  Is this correct?

Thoughts?

Thanks so much!

Hi there,

We have a content  database as part of our site and I noticed that the way the database is loaded with new content, it means that the URL’s for these pages are really long, around 100 characters or sometimes more

http://www.xxxyy.org/knowledge-base/documents/word1-word2-word3-word4-word5-word6-word7-word8

Is there a suggted maximum character length for a URL?  Kind of like for title tag where I max out at 69…

Should I truncate the URL’s or at least reduce the numbers of words in them to something less spammy?  Does that make a difference?

Thanks!

Hello,
When I do an OSE back link analyses of some sites that are listed in some directories we are considering, for almost all the directories and companies in them, the directories are listed in the OSE report, listed as followed, and usually have decent domain rank and page rank.

So this means that the link from the directory is obviously being picked up by OSE and it’s listed as a followable link. My question is just because the link is picked up by OSE does that mean that the search engines value it too?  Or could Google see the link ok but throw it out of the equation, presumably because it does not “like” the directory?

Hope this makes sense
Thanks!

yes, thanks, I mean the traffic from specific links. e.g. How important is the traffic that flows down the links, or is the link itself all you need to worry about - even if there is Zero traffic from the link

So we know that links from highly ranked websites, pages with high DA, PR etc, matter.  What about the traffic on these links?  Do Google and others look at the traffic on the links and factor that into the algorithm?  What do people think about this?

Just wondering about this as don’t see it talked about much….Thanks

Thanks, the pages I am looking at seem to be new pages on a site, with no links into them, hence have a really low PA.  But the DA is really large for the site....so wondering how good and valuable these links are...

Does anyone know if it is still worth it  getting a link from a page on a site with a really low Page Authority  - say a news page on a site that has an SEO Moz tool bar PA of  just 1 or 2, but the domain of the site has a high DA like say 83

Is this worth getting??

Thanks

Incidentally  - the page I am trying to rank for is still appearing for another key word phrase - it’s just for the main keyword phrase that it has disappeared out of Google!  But for another related key phrase the page is at number 2!

I've had the same thing – an important keyword for an important page, that was getting up to around 30-35 place in google and I thought would go higher - all of a sudden, baam - off the charts and can't even find it listed at all!  Nowhere to be seen, not even in top 100 when I do a private browser search.

All other pages on the site have been steady, and / or inching up.

I did 301 some broken links from various pages I found in open site explorer to this page around this time, so might that have caused it??  Only about 20 or so, and the links were all related somewhat to the page, so I thought doing that would be the best thing - but now I think  I might have messed up...

Should I do a re-consideration request to Google - can you do this for just 1 page?    As I say, all other pages seem fine.

Alan, why woudl too many inbound links targeting the phrase in question be a problem?  I thought inbound links with the anchor text you are targetting is what you should be doing?  Thanks!

I have found a bunch of around maybe 20-30 directories that we seem not to be in, and that seem like they might be worth it from what I am reading…

My question is  - is it a problem to submit to this number of directories all at once – i.e. within the same week or 2?

Or should I think about spreading the submissions around a month or 2?

Just worried that Google etc might through a flag with a bunch of submissions all at once…

Thanks

Thoughts on ScrubTheWeb.com and SearchSight.com ?

would directories like these be a good idea?  We are a b to b company...

Thanks!

Hi there,

I just started using the pro tool 6 weeks or so ago.   I have done all the on page optimization I can and am starting to think more about building links to my site.

What I want to know is how important are directories as part of this link building program?

Should I treat doing an audit of what directories we are in, identifying what ones we should be in, and actually signing up for these ones as an important and vital part of the link building program?

So basically how important are directories?  We are a b 2 b business if that helps.I am kind of assuming directories are (still) important and that we should spend some time on this, but just wanted to get some expert thoughts on directories, approach to use etc etc.     I reckon it should be easier than other link building, as we can at least pay a fee and get in the directory, so it’s less a case of someone doing us a favor as other links sometimes seem to  be….

If a site has a bunch of 404’s that are basically old URL’s that no longer work and point to pages or documents that don’t exist anymore -  Can someone clarify if it’s a problem when fixing a bunch of these 404’s to point them all to the home page?

so if there is not really anywhere else that is applicable for the old broken URL, is it really a problem to 301 old pages to the site home page?

I have read some different things on this recently on some different sites, so I just wondered what the latest thinking on this was….thanks...

What are the characteristics of a Google penalty - i.e. how do you know by looking at the rankings for your keywords?

Do all keywords that you had previously ranked for fall from say top 5 to nowhere?

Do you disappear from SERP for a branded keyword?

Or something else??

Basically how do you know if you have been penalized?

Thanks

So for the past 3 or 4 weeks or so I’ve been making some on page tweaks for keywords that we should rank for, implementing all the keyword recommendations, and  getting “A’s” in the report card for page optimization in the Pro tool, and also doing things like fixing a bunch of 404’s that I found ….so I thought I was doing a bang up job…

My rankings for some keywords were generally trending (slowly) in the right direction, but this morning I see that 2 important keywords that I had been working hard on, and which had trended from around 40 to in the high 20’s in rankings, has now dropped out of top 50 altogether….

I’m a little dispirited, and now wondering if I did something wrong?  Any thoughts or recommendations?   Is it normal just to drop out of top 50 when you were in the 20's or 30's?

Thanks!

Anyone  know if its important that the target keyword is used AT THE START of the meta description, or is it enough that it is anywhere in the description...?

I have a few big ones that are at the end of the description and I was wondering if I should move them up to the front...

Thanks!

Hi All,

So once you use OSE Tool to point you in the right direction of sites that might be able to give you links, what are the best practices for then reaching out to the website?  I get that you need to give value in your request for a link and offer something of value – but what else to think about??

Ie Call them, email them, email who?  Follow up with phone call??? Do you just use the standard contact form on their website?  Presumably you need to track all this, just do it in a spreadsheet?

What do you say in the email?  Do you offer them a link (if you can?)

I guess it’s a thing that sounds easy enough – go get a link – but I would imagine that people who have done this enough with some success can maybe share some of the things that particularly worked or did not work…

At the moment it just seems a daunting  / time consuming task  - even thinking of getting an intern to help do all this – pros and cons to that as well???

Thanks for your time!

So I have spend around a month or so with on page optimization on 25 -30 or so pages and keywords/phrases, with some half decent results…still hoping there is more to come…

I reckon now it’s time to look at getting more inbound links with Open site Explorer… Every time I look at it though I get a bit of a head ache…!

Can anyone say or point me in the right direction how I should really start using Open site Explorer ?  (I have the PRO tool)

Thanks, sorry its such a simple question!