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I would think that buying AdWords for your brand name would be a good/affordable solution until you outrank that video. Benefits are:
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.
You are right in that you would be better off having your blog in sub-directory rather than in a sub-domain.
Sub-domains are very close to being considered the equivalent of a new root domain. For example, Wordpress.com and Blogspot.com blogs come automatically registered with a new subdomain. There are hundreds of thousands of these blogs, but only a few actually have any authority despite the authority of their root domain.
When you create content on your blog in a sub-directory, your inbound links to those posts will help the authority of the domain you are on. So links to www.example.com/blog will help you out much more than blog.example.com.
It really just depends on the content of those pages. If its simply just address and phone, no way! Good localized content will help for sure!
Right- I can see that. You can always remove it from your places account tho. The other profile will still have access to it, however. So make sure that they know any changes they make will overwrite anything you do.
Rent mailboxes / addresses from executive suites in that area. They usually cost $25 per month. Add on a phone number with the local area code as well if possible. Don't use Google voice. Have all of the mail and phones forward to your main phone and address.
Create Google Places profiles for each using these addresses. Optimize them with unique business information. Verify these profiles via phone or address. (Most likely address) For the URL for the profiles, have them go to specific pages (which is the next step).
Create dedicated pages for each location. Create optimized content for each. Use Schema.org or hCard to markup the addresses. Make it consistent with your Google Places page.
Create local citations in local search platforms and local directories for all of your locations. Make sure the business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent with the ones you've purchased. Use distribution services and citation checkers like Localeze and GetListed. Get reviews to your Google places page. LEGITIMATE REVIEWS!
I have done this successfully with two clients now. Penguin won't really let you rank for them now organically, but locally you definitely have a shot.
The best way will be to ask for the login to the places account. You can however, claim the profile under your account as well.
Login to Places. From your dashboard, click "Add Another Business" in the top right corner. It will bring you to a page where you can enter the business phone number. Direct link here: http://www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=en-US&gl=US#phonelookup
If the Places page is already claimed, then the business should show up. Select the business you want, fill out the information, and then PIN verify the business. Once verified, it will show up in your Places account.
1. It really depends on your site. I usually send it to the home page if it's a local site with 5-20 pages.
2. If the links are in the same category, the only downfall would be that pagerank is split up to your two different pages. It's good for users and crawlers though.
3. Stick to high quality directories (dir.yahoo.com, botw.org, business.com), you'll spend more, but it will be worth it. Combine them with some niche directories and natural link building and you should be ranking with little problem on a moderately competitive keyword.
I recently started a discussion on Google+ and thought I would get some feedback from the SEO community.
https://plus.google.com/106060287111641282262/posts/Hpak5R6uY47
This article suggests that Google Search Plus Your World does not improve search quality for users. When a search is performed, I can imagine that results would be skewed to Google+ content and +1s from people in your circles. Doesn't this mean that if you only follow not-so-influential people who share and +1 not so quality stuff that your new "world" results are just going to be low quality? Doesn't this mean that SEO and traditional linking methods are dying? This would mean that the bigger chains will have more advantage just like what happened after Panda. How does the small business compete with this?
Any insight would be of super appreciation.
Site age could also have a lot to do with it...also, is your anchor text the exact keyword you are trying to rank for?
I am assuming you are trying to rank against the first results www.cplc.ca
If you look at the links in open site explorer, you can see that this website has targeted exact match anchor text from pretty high domain authority domains (in the 50s and 60s). You can see all externals links pointing to that domain here:
Your backlink profile isn't as diverse and targeted as theirs. Try looking at their links and try to get the same ones pointing to your targeted page, which looks like your home page.
Hope this helps!
try using "redirect 301 old.html new.html" that is the traditional way using a 301 with an .htaccess file.
Double check your file names wherever you are setting up the redirect. The first URL in your original post 301s to this URL:
http://www.meliacaribetropical.com/en/index.htmlmelia-caribe-tropical-announces-fall-promotion.html
See how there is more after the first .html? Looks like you might have just accidentally misspelled your end locations
These are redirecting, but they are redirecting to a page that is not there. So the result of your 301 ends up as a 404.
Are you using your .htaccess file to perform 301s? If otherwise, let us know so that we can further address the problem. If you can, copy your .htaccess file contents here.
Thanks for your response. A few weeks ago we actually posted the pictures right on the page. This page is indexed / followed- everything. Google hasn't penalized the site or anything like that. If anything, it is helping his visitors by showing his work. So I guess until Google can "see" the image, keeping them on the page will be the best option. Thanks!
Maybe what you should do is add the rel="canonical" attribute on your page/thread to the corresponding Yahoo answers page. This will certainly tell Google who the "original owner" is. If you want to block from search engines also, keep the noindex and also block Googlebot in robots.txt for that sub directory.
I actually have used BuildMyRank. The good thing about it is that it's affordable, the bad thing is that the links are usually very low quality. Some of the links do have pass a high PR, but the quality of the content isn't very good. My advice is if you are going to use BMR, write your own content and have them distribute it. Otherwise, having them write the content for you will give you poor quality articles!
It looks like what you are missing is links from other sites. Anyone can launch a website and make it relevant for any keyword or keyphrase they want. But even the "perfectly" optimized page won't rank in Google without any links pointing to it. Links give your site authority. According to OSE, your site has one external link. If you're new to SEO and link building, some easy ways to get some links right off the bat is to check out the SEOmoz Link Directory. Submit your site to the most relevant directories in the most relevant category. Don't submit your site to every directory here, it's not meant for that. Plus. you'll go broke.
Also, check out the link building category on the SEOmoz blog. There are a ton of articles from the staff, associates, and members of the community who post literally hundreds of creative ways to get others to link to your site. It's good you have a blog, use that as a link building tool by creating good keyword rich content that your users and prospects will find useful. Add some social sharing features to help get the word out there.
I wish there was a magic button for link building, but there isn't. It is what separates the wheat from the chaff in the SEO world. But at least you are in the right place! Good luck!
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.
I don't think it would be a good idea to claim all of these profiles. Google will most likely just suspend your account. Claim only the best one with the most/best reviews on it. On all of the other duplicate profiles use the "report a problem" link and choose the "place has another listing" option. In the comments, give Google the direct URL to the claimed profile.
I am unsure how they will handle reviews for this, but at the very least you'll have a starting point with the best profile these previous "SEOs" did.