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I think Google will count both filter and filters as the same search terms as they are just variations of each other. But just to be safe you might consider furnace filter because it has the most volume. Use variations of filter both singular and plural on the visible page. Google does not hold a lot of weight in the variations of these words and will display results accordingly based on relevancy and authority. Focus on getting text links with both variations of the word, you can't go wrong with that. I don't think you will need to choose two separate optimized pages since they are so closely related. I could image there would be a lot of duplicate content issues with that?

I have a client who operates 13 stores across 3 general locations. Each store has its own page with unique store information. This site uses breadcrumbs to get back to home page and a sub page listing all of the locations for that particular area.

Our homepage also has a list of all of the locations, but it is feasible for tis operation since it only has 13 locations, obviously this might not work for your model.

As far as bounce rate, the average store landing page is about 63%. Although it seems high, I believe that the user is getting the information they need (phone numbers) and calling the individual store, asking questions, directions, etc and leaving with the info they need to move on. They have confirmed that their call volume is much higher since we started optimizing and their walk in rate is rising also.

I think it's a good move to post the breadcrumbs, it offers better user experience and like you said some linkage to the rest of your site.

If you look at the source in chrome, the isn't matching color of the <title>. I think you are having a validation issue. I think its up top in the HTML section:</p> <p><span>xmlns:og</span>='<span>http://opengraphprotocol.org/schema/</span>'</p> <p>Make sure that you are using quotation marks instead of the apostrophe. So it is ="content" instead of ='content'. </p></title>

It also might be a good idea for you to place these links in context in the footer.

"This site is in association with...."

Also, if the sites are on the same IP address or C block then Google will probably figure out that there is a real relationship between the sites and the people who run them.

Also, put those links in your Google+ profile. That's another good way to give Google the signal that there is a relationship. If you're not trying to manipulate or deceive anyone or Googlebot you shouldn't have much to worry about.

To clarify- if you have two pages, one optimized for furnace filters and the other optimized for furnace filter, i would imagine you would have a lot of the same content on those pages, not to mention that you would also probably be wasting your time since Google will treat those two keywords the same since they are variants.

To answer your other question: You should probably optimize for those filter sizes also. Thats a great idea for long tail keywords.

Also, when determines whether or not you should optimize for the singular or plural version of the word, optimize it on that page based on what product you are selling. For example, if you are selling a budle of 3 filters, focus on the plural version of the pages, that way users searching for multiple filter packs won't come across a page with just 1 filter. Does that make sense?

I've never been able to find one...they must not have one? The only way I've ever found cached pages on Bing is to click the arrow next the listing on the SERP, then arrow down to cached page.

In short, domain authority is calculated from the authority of the domains that link to you. If a 49 DA is inadequate for your ranking then you will need to chase links from domains who have much higher DA than who are linking to you now. http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain-authority

Im assuming your client has online competition? Show them their online competitors and what keywords they are ranking and optimizing for. Your client will love it if you outrank their competition! You also now know that you aren't going to be wasting your time and have an end goal.

You will typically get these errors when Googlebot is unable to access your site. This usually happens when your website is down for whatever reason. You might want to check your server logs or talk to your web host and see when your website was unavailable. If it is down often you may want to consider moving web hosts.

Having a blog is definitely a smart idea. Even though you are using Open Cart, you can just create a subfolder on your host called 'blog' and run WordPress out of there. This way, your main Ecommerce site will be on example.com and your blog will be on example.com/blog. Google won't care that you're running two different CMSs. You are creating the content on your domain and as long as both CMSs are linking to each other then both your blog and Ecom site will gain benefit to any links.

Since Open Cart and WP are both open source, with the right development (or developer) you can actually tweak both systems enough to share the same template files, this way they look the same from a design standpoint. That's really another question in itself, but to summarize, yes, you should start your blog and definitely use wordpress for it if you are comfortable with it.

To add another perspective to it:

I have used buidlmyrank.com. I would say that one of the only saving graces about it is that you can create your own content, submit it to them, and they will post it on a PR 1 - 4 website with a backlink to your site. So like Marcus said its great for brand new PR 0, PA 1 sites. They allow 1 backlink per 150 words.

They also promote that if you want them to create content for you they can do it at $2.50 per 150 words / backlink. Needless to say the article is definitely worth just that. If you have great content post it on your own site and maybe consider hiring a copywriter to write an article about you then submit to buildmyrank. By all means please don't use this as your sole link building service as it won't get you very far in the long run. Consider high level directories like Yahoo, Best of the Web, DMOZ (good luck) and Business.com, and of course great content to get natural and earned links / citations. Enjoy

You can post a job on Inbound.org for $50 for 30 days. Typically, higher caliber and quality experts will view the jobs on this site. http://www.inbound.org/jobs

You can also try Odesk or Elance but the results there can definitely vary.

Hey Paul-

If you are already receiving an A grade for the page, I don't see why you would need to drop those 13 characters before it. Remember that those words can entice users to click on your site in the SERPs if it looks more attractive than your competitors. For example, look at the SEOmoz Title: "SEO Software. Simplified." Im sure simplified is not one of their major target keywords, but helps both users and search engines.

It might be a good idea for your client to get good reviews in video format. Have them contact their past customers who are happy and would be willing to review them on camera. Post these video testimonials on YouTube and embed them on the client website.

You can also have the company create an "Brand Name - About Us" video which gives insight into the company for prospects. Explain how they do business and why they are best choice over their competition. You can also ask questions in the video and encourage watchers to comment.

If these videos you create have more interaction and more popularity than the other negative video, and is relevant for the same search terms (Brand Name) then that negative video will probably drop off the first page of organic / universal results.

If you are just switching hosts and keep your site and permalink structure the same, you need not worry about backlinks. For some reason if they do change, you should 301 redirect all old articles to their new versions. If you are switching domain names then you definitely need to make sure that you do the 301 redirects as well. I just want to make sure that you have the terms correct?

If the 3rd party will allow for it, then this is definitely recommended. Most local search platforms do this (Yelp, YP, etc). But if the 3rd party will not allow you to markup your NAP on your own, just having the data consistent will be beneficial to you.

Look at other ebay/amazon stores that link to their own website. Check out the source code and see if there is a rel="nofollow" attribute appended to the a tag of the link. If it's not there, you are in good shape search engine wise.

User wise, you are definitely in good shape. Link to your company website so that you can show your potential customers that you are the best choice, especially compared to your competition. Offer them reasons why they should go with you and use testimonials to back it up. I don't think there is a downside to this

I wish I could help you with that one, I'm not too proficient in PHP. Maybe someone else with more development experience can answer?

Google webmaster tools will allow you export all of the backlinks to your site, within any page. Also, in open site explorer, by default it shows links just to one URL. Make sure you select the dropdown "All pages on root domain" and it will show you all links to all of your pages.

Agreed. You will get some good link juice to the home page. Place highly optimized anchor text on the home page to the URL you want and that will help you out the most in building authority to that page.