Welcome to the Q&A Forum

This is the code you want to add to your /htaccess file: #Options +FollowSymlinks Options +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch RewriteEngine on rewritecond %{http_host} ^domain.com [nc] rewriterule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [r=301,nc] redirect 301 index.html http://www.domain.com/ This will make it so http://www.domain.com/ is the correct link for your site. This should not result in any redirect loops unless you already have redirects in place.

I don't think so either, but you never know. Simple enough test to run to see if Google recognizes a "follow" or "dofollow" tag, simple enough test to run that's for sure. If it is hardcoded in the link code it will override any external nofollow tag.

Having keywords in a page's URL improves its relevance for that specific topic, and getting links from topically related pages is ideal. However, in order to be a really good link the content on the page itself and the rest of the site must also be related to the topic as well.Then there are factors such as page authority, domain authority, and anchor text. So the URL of the page that the link is on is not itself a powerful ranking factor.

Thanks for the response. However, second question: I've not received an unnatural links warning in Google Webmaster Tools. Should I still clean up links I don't like the look of with Link Disavow? Or should I go with Google and do nothing?

If your image link is FOLLOW, the alt tag may pass link value. But it seems that text links have a value slightly higher. That at least is what I have observed. But put the alt on your images you are linking to your site is essential.

There are myriad factors involved in geographical search engine rankings, including links from ccTLDs (other .uk or .au domains), localized language usage, settings in Google Webmaster Tools, etc. Your competitor simply has better metrics for .au than you do.Go get some clean .au links.