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Your site load times - seem good from a UX perspective, so not sure if just a page speed tool is gonna do much for you on the SEO front.

Also just adding social, does not mean it will work

Overall (without really looking into your site at great detail) I would say the "fundamentals" are correct - Just as you said, focus on generating more high quality content relevant to your niche (not necessarily just about grinders)

I think this is one of those tough social niches, as generating buzz about grinders might take some real thought! (lol what the heck is a grinder!) But definitly think you would be in the realm for some whitepapers and technical documents that could get some good pickup in your industry if well written, engaging and informational.

Your name is earthsaver, Is your equipment green? That could be a roundabout route you could take - instead of just trying to talk about Grinders themselves as products.

From a purely SEO perspective - your best friend and associate is research!

http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

PS. Not really a SEO killer - but alot of your scripts and CSS are inpage - this could be why Brent suggested page speed - as having this code adds load time, and it makes it sometimes more difficult on G-bot - but I would not loose to much sleep over it if this is something that cannot be easily fixed at this point (but could become an issue at times of heavier traffic loads)

One thing from a marketing perspective- the Message on the Homepage is not clear, what a grinder is and what it is used for - but I would assume this may be because if you are looking for a used grinder, LOL you probably know what it is!

Look Here -

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986

This goes over the exact methods of getting rel=author to work -

It seems your are trying to connect a Brand Page as an Author - Which is not accepted yet

(I am assuming this, due to Brand Pages only have the link sections you have described)

Make sure your are using personal profile for author - then your brand page would use publisher

The reason is probably -

Giving someone blanket advice that is only partially helpful is not good...

So he waits a week, and has done no research into what may have caused this, what then? Panic?

I would fully agree that panicing is the wrong idea, but so is sitting around doing nothing, as an agency - it is very easy for a person to say - just wait it out, but as a consumer what does that mean - sit around and do nothing, or proactivlely begin researching the possible causes?

So I would think a more correct answer IMHO to someone who is new to the game, would be...

Don't panic, but don't be complacent - Begin researching your tactics over the past years, your link profile your on page seo ect.. so in a few weeks IF it does not "Magically" clear itseld you can have a clear actionable plan to begin responding - two weeks of no money coming in could mean death for a business.... So why would you not begin researching while "wating"

I also do not think the "dust" will settle, this is an ongoing battle, and will be for some time to come - so waiting a few weeks on a site that = livelyhood is not a smart decision either

IMHO of course

The best is not "I told you so" it is a lesson in general, that slow and steady wins the race....

There is some falacy in business that has been perpetuated that the analogy work smarter not harder is somehow true, and a longterm winning strategy.

In most areas of business working harder AND smarter is needed...

and SEO is one of those areas for continued growth, and to alleviate the sleepless nights of worry if that "Last Tactic" will be the straw that breaks the camels back

Not sure if i could have worked in more metaphors in there

Completely Relative to Usage...

If each one of these sites all has unique content - and not just a bunch of doorway domains with EMD's

Then there is probably no issue at all - BUT

If you are creating some kind of linking scheme - then this will not be as effective, and in this current climate could be looked at as a "network" and incur a "second look" from a human. (depending on its size)

Basically if you are doing it for any "manipulatory" purpose then it COULD be bad for all - but if this is just a bunch of sites relevant or irrelevant to eachother or sites needed for business purposes, there should be no issues.

Hope this Helps

Hi,

please back up your .htaccess before attempting

Redirect match might work, but only if you are redirecting all to one - Keep in mind the initial directive needs to be changed to your specific scenario, as well as the destination URL

RedirectMatch 301 ^page.php?id=(.*).htm$ http://www.example.com/content/$1.html

Or you could do it one by one -

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=1$
RewriteRule ^page.php$ http://www.example.com/content/page? [R=301,L]

Or here is a link to a resource (I HAVE NOT TESTED OR USED) but gets lots of good feedback, for helping you make easier work out of hundreds of dynamic redirects

http://www.mbstrategic.com/02/301-redirects-for-dynamic-urls-to-static-pages-with-htaccess/

Hope this helps

PS after a seconf look, your initial attempt might work, you just need a condition which would be similar to

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^id=1$

Sure;

I am not sure what the incorrect page is, so below is an EXAMPLE ---- if you want to send me by private or on here, both old and new URL's I can complete the code for you

So EXAMPLE WOULD BE;

Be sure to back up .htaccess first !

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

Redirect 301 /example/example.html http://www.corect-page.com

Hi,

As Mark says a "Knee Jerk" reaction to a Google "Talking Point" is usually a bad idea in the Search Engine World -  Not saying it is not important to listen to Google, but also have to take what they say with a grain of salt, and understand they have there own business to run with motives ect...

With that being said, Mark is correct - The way you have it is actually good for Search Engines and User Experience - As a consumer (and Search Engine) personally i think it would be better to get someone to the correct, quality non duplicate content "Landing Page" that has specific info for a specific query... Not a generic "Home Page"

So the way you have explained your information architechture, you are on the right path - the key is to just make sure you are not using "manipulatory" tactics to elevate your pages...

But as to what Google's term of the word manipulatory is, i think is opening more and more for interpretation by Google..

Hope this Helps!

Hi,

If needed - this is the .htaccess code to help fix this issue; (Make sure and back up .htaccess before making any chages)

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomainhere.com [NC]

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomainhere.com/$1 [L,R=301]

The above code would redirect all traffic from non www to www version of your site fixing dup content issues in that regard

Source ;http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

PS Spaces between lines not needed (funky formatting here)

Hope this helps

Hi,

I am not sure about time, but most the forums I saw people were wainting over a month -

Google Says

If you think that a sitelink URL is inappropriate or incorrect, you can demote it. Demoting a URL for a sitelink tells Google that you don't consider this URL a good sitelink candidate for a specific page on your site. Google doesn't guarantee that demoted URLs will never appear as a sitelink, but we do consider a demotion a strong hint that we'll try to honor when generating sitelinks.

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47334

I think it is just a waiting game - Or you could probably just 301 that 404 URL to a correct one?? This would probably be the quickest path to resolution

hope this helps

Two ways of looking at this -

Enough from a User Experience point of View is in my opinion, what is needed to convey the message, whether it be with Words, Images or Design Elements. So it is completely dependent

If you are asking from a purely SEO standpoint, I am not sure there is a precise answer, but me personally from experience - if you are building a page you would like to rank well for a specific term no less than 350 - 1000 words - but I think this is completely relative - maybe if you put more about what the purpose of this page is, this might help others to understand what this page is about - and might be able to give a better "best practice" answer, as a page about a specific product would have less than a page explaining the many uses of a product line ect... And putting 500 words on a homepage might be bad for UX , but might be better for SE's - So intent is also a large factor

Hope this helps

Shane

by hit, do you mean de-indexed or just bumped down aggressively?

Cause the ones you gave seem to be affiliate sites, with thin content, and light design elements, so I can definitely see how these could have been devalued.

Here is the reason I am pretty sure it is not a "Hack Penalty"

First, I am not sure that exists - Google cannot interpret if you have been hacked or not, only if their is malicious intent on your site due to or after the hack.

And as to your password being readily available.. anyone could create a site like this, with passwords, and without google going through each page on the web like this, they would not know if it was real or not. (it is also very easy to brute-force or rainbow a commercial host)

This creates a whole new realm for Google as web avenger, as well as SERP integrity protector.

I am just not sure the password release could be involved.

UNLESS!

A penalty was leveraged against justhosts ENTIRE commercial subnet, due to a issue that was caused due to this password release.

But I do not think you or the sites would be singled out due to the password release, only if something bad enough happened that got Google's attention..

BUT then i believe you would be de-indexed, not de-valued.... (blacklisted)

hopefully this opinion was clear as mud

Hi,

Google Alerts is always a free, interesting option for creating many alerts

http://www.google.com/alerts

but If you are looking for a proactive tool that actually allows for the tracking and responding then you would be looking more for Brand Managment or Reputation tools

http://www.chatmeter.com/benefits/review-management

Hope this research info helps!

Hi,

There were recently quite a few major changes that affect the way the algorithm looks at common SEO tatctics meant to manipulate rankings, no matter the color of "hat" used.

My personal suggestion to you would be to keep pressing on, creating great quality content on your site - sharing that content in the Social realm - and trying to distribute great quality content to related blog sites.

Keeping in mind the need for a natural portfolio of not only anchor text links, but standard URL links and Brand Links.

Shane

I believe they are coincidental...

I am not sure Google would take action on the entire Subnet range, for a password breach.

I believe it is only when malicious intent is found or suspected, and the release of passwords was not a malicious act in its own.

Check your Webmaster Tools for Malware messages, and see if there are any other messages. As say, you might have just fell victim to the latest round of quality checks from algorithm -  You may have just been bumped -

The idea of first making sure you are protected - then trying to get some fresh content and social signal/links is probably the route I would take.

Shane

Hi,

In regards to google, I think the best source of determining this would be Google

http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=79812

To answer your question though, Google states it should be

There could be other search engines who prefer it the other way, but switching it around in my opinion would not help with rankings or keywords anymore than

the

Now Bulloogle.com, that is something I can get behind

all BS all the time, you never know what you will get!

Never Seen BS tags before, is that a way to rank higher in Vanoogle?

I would not sorry

I am a convert, I like the way search is going. of course there are gonna be bumps along the way, but I think the social integration is a better way to connect people. We have already shown our predisposition to loving this mentality of online communitites, so i think this is just another stepping stone to the new social "It"product.

I also like geolocation, I think as an SEO/Internet Marketer it makes my life more confusing and more confusing to clients/employers, but as a general user I think it is definitely on the right track to helping people get with local resources, as well as brands, which i thinks makes for a more informed consumer.

just my 2 cents

My Initial Reaction with all the new reports and studies coming out on the Importance Social going forward -

Would be to say the Social Benefits, heavily outweigh the loss of PR to external sites..

But then again, also in PR as I understand it, the difference between .0001 and .001 in PR CAN be huge in the determination of placement..

So I think it is a give and take....

But both positions cannot be ignored **NOW  **BUT I most definitely agree that Vinnie's take on it is a more longterm approach, than hoarding page rank...