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Although this is a 2009 article, I still find it interesting : http://searchengineland.com/do-links-from-expired-domains-count-with-google-17811

"Buying Expired Domains: Don’t Expect Credit"

"Buying Domain & Running Web Site As Usual: Credit Likely"

Did you check with several tools that no links are getting indexed ? (Google Webmaster Tools, MOZ, Ahrefs, MajesticSEO...).

If your links are not visible on any of these crawlers, they are probably not very valuable anyway.

Matt Cutts on sitewide links : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTjN9x-by-I

A previous question about it on the forum : http://moz.com/community/q/are-sitewide-links-bad-for-seo

According to SEMrush, your website went from 600+ KW in top 20 for US in august 2012 to 150+ nowadays.

In my mind, links like http://www.freeadultwebsitesdirectory.com/stockings.html

http://kupilandia.ru/individual-order/

http://www.sexualallsorts.co.uk/xxxSextoyShop/Stockings-and-Hosiery-Tights/default.aspx

are not helping to stay out of algo penalty.

With owner permission "having your name on the site in unlinked text" seems the best to do.

I remember the penalty story of 'Web Design Yorkshire by Pinpoint Designs' - http://moz.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-google-penalty-removal

<greyhat>Need to vary anchor text if you do it :).</greyhat>

1/ Get 200 MOZ points for the removal of "nofollow" from first custom URL on profile :p.

2/ I would recommend you to read "Link Building: The Definitive Guide" ; http://backlinko.com/link-building.

I'm working with an European e-commerce; they already have a French website with a .fr domain.

They want to target the Belgium with a .be domain and the Nederland with a .nl domain.

Belgium = 50% dutch, 50% French.

Is it better to do 3 websites, one per country, or 2 websites, one per language ? Thinking to SEO, costs, VAT management, what is your opinion?

As Richard mentioned "You want any links that your content builds to be directed to your website".

I would use <cite class="_sd">http://sites.google.com // blogspot.com //</cite> wordpress.com // tumblr.com etc. only as satellites.

From what I see :

• You don't own any game / have no original content.

• You don't host any game. And when a website like "Game Jacket" is down, the game is unavailable :

http://www.loglod.org/play-game/3168-raging-steel-2

• Few or no text on the website.

Sorry if it sounds harsh, just trying to find reasons...

1/ I would buy an exact match domain for a new and short term project only. If you have a 8 yo known brand/domain, keep it and don't bother with additional domains :).

2/ Your keyword is moderately competitive according to MOZ (39% difficulty score).

To rank on first page you should :

• Get 10-15 good links with appropriate anchors text.

• Have a great text/content (2000 words+ // http://bit.ly/1bQL13C).

To rank faster, you could 301 redirect your homepage to yourwebsite.com to yourwebsite.com/antique-fireplaces-london

3/ I assume that your title, headings and ALT attributes are already optimized ~~.

SVN = 86% difficulty / 18185 global Bing search volume.

Subversion = 83% difficulty / 3164 global Bsv.

• Both keywords have the same difficulty; SVN is more searched than subversion.

One of your popular page is https://help.cloudforge.com/entries/22483742-Setting-up-svn-externals

Most people search "svn externals", not "subversion externals". For each important page, you should check what is the most important keyword, SVN or subversion; it looks that SVN is far more popular.

Good news: it will be easier to stay under 70 characters :).

There has been a lot of questions on DMOZ already. Just type "DMOZ" in search bar :p.

Just two examples :

• Some SEO tools like Woorank consider it a mistake to be not listed in DMOZ.

• If you look for expired domains at expireddomains.net, you can pick the option "listed in DMOZ" among other options like domain authority, page rank etc.

Important = yes. Essential = no. Don't be mad if you're not accepted.

To submit you site, use the search bar to find the most suitable category then "suggest URL".

Use 301 redirection old page->new page for every page; see the Google "moving your site page" https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83105?hl=en

I made a test recently with the keyword "histoire de la bretagne" on google.fr; this keyword is interesting because it is not a commercial one and the links are not manipulated.

Please find the rankings results attached.

Results 1-4 = long articles (22 000 words for #1 wikipedia), high DA/PA

But result 5 = no article, low DA/PA but still outranking better pages because the keyword is in the domain name = <cite>centre-histoire-bretagne.com</cite>

Pages 6 to 10 are better; page 7 should be in top 3 in term of quality (original content with 20 000 words) but they don't have the exact keyword in their URL !

With no or few backlinks, you can outrank a better website if you have your keyword in domain name or close to it in URL.

Result 9 is a university with crazy backlinks, good alexa rank and some social engagement; but their website has 0 SEO; URL = bibnum.univ-rennes2.fr/items/show/336

In my opinion, Google still pay serious attention to URL keywords and you should optimize yours.

Hope this help!

photostream

1/ I would buy an exact match domain for a new and short term project only. If you have a 8 yo known brand/domain, keep it and don't bother with additional domains :).

2/ Your keyword is moderately competitive according to MOZ (39% difficulty score).

To rank on first page you should :

• Get 10-15 good links with appropriate anchors text.

• Have a great text/content (2000 words+ // http://bit.ly/1bQL13C).

To rank faster, you could 301 redirect your homepage to yourwebsite.com to yourwebsite.com/antique-fireplaces-london

3/ I assume that your title, headings and ALT attributes are already optimized ~~.

Did you check with several tools that no links are getting indexed ? (Google Webmaster Tools, MOZ, Ahrefs, MajesticSEO...).

If your links are not visible on any of these crawlers, they are probably not very valuable anyway.

According to SEMrush, your website went from 600+ KW in top 20 for US in august 2012 to 150+ nowadays.

In my mind, links like http://www.freeadultwebsitesdirectory.com/stockings.html

http://kupilandia.ru/individual-order/

http://www.sexualallsorts.co.uk/xxxSextoyShop/Stockings-and-Hosiery-Tights/default.aspx

are not helping to stay out of algo penalty.

1/ Unnatural inbound links message does not lead necessarily to a loss of rank and a loss of traffic. Even SEOmoz.org got the same message and lost nothing (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/googles-unnatural-links-warnings). I had the same experience for a flash game website.

2/ If you actually lost ranks/traffic, you have to show your good will and give something to Google. I suggest you to use Open Site Explorer and to look for low authority linking domains.

Example : last URL = www.cheapautoexpo.com/tag/coupons/

You have 4 links on the same page - deals365.us did the same. A click = a pop-up. This looks like a bad neighbourhood.

You won't lose much by removing this kind of links. Keep a track of all the links you removed. In this case :

http://www.cheapautoexpo.com/Lifestyle/verified-online-promo-codes-for-discounts-on-apparels-shopping/

http://www.cheapautoexpo.com/News/get-discounts-on-concert-tickets-through-with-ticket-spot-coupon-codes/

http://www.cheapautoexpo.com/Education/revolution-prep-promo-codes-coupons-to-learn-sat-act-at-affordable-price-online-/

http://www.cheapautoexpo.com/Lifestyle/get-expedia-promo-codes-coupons-to-have-cheap-tickets-for-travel-and-hotels-/

It will show Google you did a serious work.

3/ If you can't remove the links manually, ask the webmaster to do it. In most cases he won't answer if this is a spammy website.

Then consider using the disallow tool : https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main?pli=1

4/ I would recommend you to do the same for all the low directories... and the link suggested by Google : http://www.allworldlinks.com/k/317277/online-free-coupons.html

5/ Pinpoint Designs had the same issue and wrote and article about : http://www.seomoz.org/blog/lifting-a-manual-penalty-given-by-google-personal-experience

In the reconsideration request, they mentionned :

• Who we were and what we do
• Why we believed we had been hit
• What we had done to rectify the issue (a link to the Google Docs file was attached)
• How we knew it wouldn't happen again
• An apology
• My name / contact details

They also tried to improve the quality of their website (do you have good content on your website or just coupons ?) and to get better links; they started a blog and wrote guest articles.

6/ To get better links, I suggest you to use open site explorer on competitors to see their most authoritative links. Most of time, you can also get the same link if this is a directory or a blog taking guest posts.

7/ Last but not least, Google spam team is human. Your reconsideration request depends of the employee who will deal with it... You can never be sure of the result.

Good luck ~~.

I checked the top in Google US for Lifestyle Magazine. They ALL have lifestyle or magazine in their domain name or in their URL.

http://www.lifestyle.org/

http://www.lifeandstylemag.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle_magazine

http://www.nashvillelifestyles.com/

http://www.lifestylesmagazine.com/

Etc.

Without an EMD/PMD, it will be harder for you to rank. if I look page authority/domain authority, the 5th/6th rank is possible with a good net-linking work.

As far as i'm concerned, I would not repeat Magazine twice in your title :

"Lifestyle Magazine No Magazine Subscription Required"

Once + website title would be better not only for SEO but for CTR.

Brian Dean wrote: "Outbound Link Quality: Many SEOs think that linking out to authority sites helps send trust signals to Google."

In another article, he explained that he generally links to 4 authority sites in his articles.