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Solid advice from Ryan from an on-site (internal linking) perspective.

In terms of off-site (link building) practices this is not a simple question and probably differs per industry and SERP. You should probably go off and do some competitor analysis. View the top 10 results for the keyword you are concerned about and run each result through OSE. Look through the 'anchor text distribution' tab for each result and see how often they use that particular anchor text, how much branded anchor text they use and other keyword variations. This should give you a good idea as to what your link landscape looks like in terms of anchor text usage.

A few things I would think about:

• You already mention using 'branded' anchor text - Do this and do it often. Even mix it with your target keyword anchor text i.e. Keyword + by Brand Name or Keyword + from Brand Name. But definitely be sure to get lots of links with just your brand name or url.
• In my opinion, if you view the anchor text distribution tab in OSE for your site and Branded Anchor Text tops the list then you are in a safe postion. If you open that tab up and all you see is a list of exact match anchor text for money keyterms then you are probably at risk. Be aware that bigger more established brands can get away with more.

Is it possible for a site to be delisted for having to many links from the same keyword ?
Yes, you can definitely receive a penalty or filter via over-opitmization of anchor text and this is something very easy for search engines to spot. So be sure to vary your anchor text and keep it looking natural.

This is actually a good question and there is lots you can do, obviously the higher quality your ebook, the bigger the opportunity.

A few ideas:

1. Give it away for free, but make people share it (tweet it or share on FB) in order to gain access. This will provide you with social mentions and increased exposure which can also lead to links etc. Although to do this well you will need a good plan to seed it and get people talking and sharing intially (hopefully some strong 'gatekeepers').
   This was done successfully at clockworkpirate.com which now uses the service cloudflood.com
2. Offer it to worthwhile sites in your niche or closely related. Provide them with an embed code containing the ebook for download which also contains a link back to your site. Again, this will get you links and exposure as well as an opportunity to make relationships with good people within your industry.
3. Alternatively you could just host it on your site, and go out and tell all in your industry about it. Maybe email it to a few of the top sites telling them their users can download it from your site. If the ebook is good enough and you ask correctly, they will spread the word, link to it, share it etc.

If you already have connections in your industry you can probably just go off and start doing a lot of this stuff. If you don't, it maybe worthwhile holding off a little with the real 'high quality ebook' and go out and build some industry relationships. Get in forums, leave comments on blogs, get on twitter or FB groups and engage and interact, help people out etc.. then go and do the above as you will have the right connections to help you make this a success.

I would seriously advise staying away from ALL services like this. Some advanced SEOs still use some of this stuff but they know what to pick, where to place it, when to do it and of course, the consequences.

Some SEOs may argue that things like link wheels still work (in fact I know they do) but do not go near the ones that are offered in packages or networks like this. If you want to do a link wheel, read up about them, learn how to do it and go and make a manual one that is unique and specific to what you are trying to achieve. These networks leave footprints and Google is probably all over this already.

If you don't want to do clean, creative link building through good content then at least do these shadier link building practices manually. It's the best advise I can give you.

The first answer above should be stage 1 for you. Install Google Analytics and view which keywords are bringing traffic to you site.

However you question sounds like it is geared towards something different, like knowing which keywords clients are using for search before attempting to rank for that term. This is completely legitimate, after all why would you spends lots of time, effort and maybe $ on ranking for keywords that are not searched by the right people and do not convert!?

There is no tool out there that will gaurantee whether your specific user base is searching for a specific keyword or not or which keywords will convert users into paying customers. It sounds like you need to do some proper keyword research. I am not going to write that all out here, but I remember a good piece being here on SEOmoz that maybe worth reading (i think article 2 of 8 is about keyword research, but worth reading all parts):

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-8step-seo-strategy-step-1-define-your-target-audience-and-their-needs

Also always remember, you should know your business better than anyone else. If you don't think your clients will be searching for that kind of term then they are probably not.You maybe drawn to that term because of the large search volume being displayed to you. Be aware that depending on your niche, just sticking that large volume keyword in your title tag does not mean you will rank for it (it may require a lot of additional effort).

However there are ways of checking before optimising..

1. Do some research in your specific niche - ask past or active clients what they would search for! Nothing better than seeing what comes direct from the horses mouth! (you can then expand on their answers via further keyword research)

2. Test keywords via adwords or other ppc options. If you have the budget this can be worthwhile as you can get instant traffic for the trial keyword without having to waste time, effort or money on optimising your website for it.

This is definitely something that can be pulled off. The answer above correctly states that contacting the right person is going to give you the most chance of making this happen, as well as making it as easy as possible for them to do it.

However, a few things that could improve your chances:

• Pick up the phone, if you can speak to the right person this is better than email.
• If email, make sure your email is super polite and massages their ego. If emailing the webmaster, talk about how you like their site and mention something specific (a new article that you read recently and why it was interesting), no need for this to be long, but show you like and use their site and are not just emailing for a link never to return. If speaking with the article writer, talk about some of their other articles etc.
• State the benefits of making this link active... why should they do it? I presume your site is of value (thus the mention) so say that, say how you believe this article is still of value and how a link to your site would provide their users with a better experience etc.

I would definitely take carparts.com over car-parts.com and I would definitely take the .com over a .net (however a .com does not automatically trump a .net for rankings). If someone with a .net has a better site, better service and better inbound marketing then they will outrank you.

However .com is the most commonly used tld and having that automatically gives you an advantage. If your car parts business becomes popular and is spreading via word of mouth, it is way more likely that people will search or link to you using a .com rather than a .net.

However don't be put off completely by hyphens, then can still work. car-parts.com is still potentially an ok domain name. I think when Rand refers to spammy domain names he is talking about 2 hyphens plus! Like www.cheap-car-parts-boston.com. Again, please remember that people are more likely to search for and link to a domain without the hyphen, another advantage. It is always annoying to tell people about the hyphen when discussing a domain or website, so try and avoid if possible.

Ryan, I think we are on pretty much the same page (although I would consider the site depending on circumstances).

I don't think you would run any chance of being penalized by having your site listed here as a standalone. If you went and did a million of these, then maybe.

For me, the site is AUS related, has 400+ unique roots into the domain and has over 6000 pages indexed. If this was a US scencario I would say it has less value, however, international serps are (most of the time) less competitive giving more value to links from places like these.

The original poster should remember I am not saying i would 100% get a link from here, but I would consider it based on my individual situation and after researching further into the site like I recommended earlier.

100% agree with this. Depending on the size of the site I would also try to make sure you don't have any dupe content anywhere and that you have unique meta tags across pages (again, depends on size of site). As you never know where traffic may come from and what surprises are in store.

Then super focus on the sections of the site you feel are valuable, conquer and repeat.

The steps you are taking and the answers above are pretty much spot on.

The only thing not said here which will be worth doing is getting in contact with important webmasters who link to you and getting them to change the links to the new URL. Depending on how many links you have and their value I would not necessarily do this for all links, but definitely the powerful, important ones and the easy ones i.e. Social profiles you may have created.

Something else which maybe interesting to try is getting some quick social signals out to your important URLs once they go live. Tweets etc.. just something to think about.

Hi, without looking directly at the directory in question I am going to say MAYBE.

If the directory in question does not charge for links, but charges for the 'review process' (like BOTW for instance) then there maybe some value for you. However, this means you may pay for the review and not end up getting a link if you do not pass the approval process. As Ryan said above, if you are straight paying for the listing, then it is probably not worthwhile.

Other things to take into consideration:

• Does the directory have a strong domain authority?
• Is the directory relevant or is it just another 'do it all' directory?
• What category do you want to place your listing in and is that category or page indexed?
  (i think Dr Pete discusses it here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/wheres-the-love-dmoz)

Now, after taking a quick look at your specific directory I am going to disagree with the straight 'No' in the answer from Ryan. Here is why:

• If your site is to do with Australia or based there then this maybe worthwhile to you
• The site has an ok back-link profile in terms of numbers (I have not looked at the quality of the links, I would do a quick review of the top links in OSE if I were you)
• Their 'about' page and 'Submission Info' looks pretty legit/solid. Although I am not sure about the 'Review Fee is refundable, if your site will not get accepted'

Choosing whether or not to take a link on this site really depends on your site and your exact situation. If the site is fairly new, in or about australia and you are struggling to get links, then this maybe an ok place to start. It also depends on your budget and time (you maybe able to afford better more legit directories, or maybe your time and money can be better spent on other link building tactics).

If I were small and looking for quick, easy initial links for my Australian site then this directory would be an option for me.

Hi Dan,

I would definitely recommend doing this. Forget SEO for second, it is great for users! If you are talking about a certain producer on the homepage and you have a full page deeper in your site about that producer then providing your users with a direct link to that makes perfect sense.

For sure, you should listen to some of the advise given above. Vary up your anchor text when linking to that page from different pages or sections of the site, but most importantly keep it natural and provide your users with the best experience possible.

I believe you can find a number of articles here on SEOmoz explaining tests run on how Google only counts the first anchor text it crawls to each specific URL. So if you homepage navigation is crawled first and features anchor text A, then the anchor you use further down you page does not really matter. Make it good for users. Here is an article by Rand from 2008 although I am sure there are newer ones: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/results-of-google-experimentation-only-the-first-anchor-text-counts

Hi guys, some good answers above, however in regards to Panda I do not believe link building is directly connected. Are links from Panda hit sites as valuable as they used to be? That is still being debated and I am yet to see any clear tests on it. Although commons sense tells me links from pages Google deems poor should have less value!

However you can read a little about it on question 3 here: http://www.sugarrae.com/link-development/link-building-with-the-experts-2011-edition/ (although it is worth reading the whole article!)

This is actually a best practice IMO. If that page for whatever reason is duplicated somewhere else (could happen a year down the line) then you automatically eliminate the issue of dupe content and are already providing a directive to Google on which page is the original and which page to count.

Hi,

We have a client who just sprang a new project on us. As always, they went ahead and did some stuff before bringing us into the loop!  (oh the joy of providing SEO services!)

Anyway, i'm pretty swamped right now and need some extra brains on this. Basically the client had www.examplesiteA.com online for many years (an affiliate site which had built up a strong brand in the industry).

They have now decided to turn this affiliate site into a full blown service platform and so with the new site being built they 301'd the whole thing over to www.examplesiteB.com - this is where they want all the old affiliate content to be hosted. So essentially examplesiteA.com is now examplesiteB.com and a new site is being placed on examplesiteA.com - still with me?

So this has all happened and a brand new website is on examplesiteA.com and the old examplesiteA is now sitting exactly as it used to, but on the examplesiteB domain.

The 301 redirect has been removed and the new examplesiteA seems to have been crawled, but the homepage is not indexed. When you search for examplesiteA, examplesiteB is the top result. Now they are similar domain names and to be fair I have very little data at this point i.e. I don't know when the 301 redirect was removed and it maybe that this all fixes itself with time.

How is link equity effected now that examplesiteA.com was 301 redirected to examplesiteB.com and cached in this way, but now the 301 redirect has been removed and does not exist? Would link juice have been diluted throughout the process?

Obviously if we had been in on all this before anything was implemented we would have done things differently. Interested to hear what others would do coming in at this point.

Thanks and look forward to the advice!