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Matt Cutts with Google has publicly stated (as has John Muir here) that 404 and 410 errors are treated the same and won't hurt you algorithmically. But there is clear evidence that it can impact usability and customer experience.

In your case, the 410 permanently gone error code is the appropriate status to be returning in your situation. The pages aren't returning, ever. My experience shows that Google tends to drop 410 pages from the index almost immediately, whereas it can still take days or weeks for 404s to completely fall out of the index.

However, usability in your case comes into play. 30 days seems a pretty DRASTIC cutoff date for content (except in the case of finite classified ads, event listings, etc.). You may want to eliminate one hard-and-fast rule and look at this issue from a more flexible viewpoint. Can some of these 410's be redirected to more appropriate (read current) resources via 301s? How about link equity? Are some of these redirects actually worth salvaging and redirecting to more related long-term resources via 301s to salvage link equity?

Finally, bounce rate, time-on-site, and general usability continue to become more important from an algorithmic standpoint. One of the things I do internally with my sites and those of my clients is track the 410/404 error traffic on specific URLs and make sure that if these pages are still being searched for and/or visited that I am mindful of the site experience. First impressions do matter...especially on 404/410 pages.

I hope that helps. Good luck!

If you have access to a country-specific TLD (ie .com.au for Australia or .co.uk for the UK) and you are trying to target that country's audience then absolutely, you should be using a country-specific TLD. Google already automatically geotargets these for you and yes, you get a clear algorithmic ranking boost for using them over something more "generic" that you physically geotarget yourself within Google Webmaster Tools.

For example, if I'm attempting to target Google Canada (Google.ca) and I want to provide the best algorithmic ranking potential for my site right out-of-the-gate (based solely on a domain level), I'm going to choose a .ca domain over a .com domain every time. All you have to do is browse the country specific indexes yourself to see this in action. As you correctly pointed out, even a low-authority country specific TLD routinely trounces stronger generic sites or subdomains that have been individually geotargeted. And yes, as you stated, coupling a country-specific TLD with in-country hosting is just a smart practice since it reinforces a clear geotargeted preference. The more signals the better in that regard.

Bottom line: if you have access to both the country-specific and general TLDs, allows go country-specific. It's the recommended best practice.

I hope this was helpful. Good luck with your future efforts!

To be blunt, it's unrealistic for you to expect to receive the one thing you need to recover from Panda in this forum: a detailed site audit to identify all PANDA triggers.

If you are serious about getting to the bottom of the issue, I'd recommend scheduling a penalty consultation with a professional.

What is clear from your graphic is that you did appear to be hit by EITHER or BOTH Panda 21 or the EMD update which was pushed through in September. You also have made what appears to be substantial changes to your on-site content and your backlink profile.

However, that doesn't tell I or any SEO professional for that matter ANYTHING about these metrics (all of which are incredibly popular on Panda-afflicted sites):

• bounce rates greater than 60%

• average site visIts of less than 90 seconds

• slow page speed times (or pedestrian scores on the Google Insight speed tool)

• a very weak backlink profile (with a PR 1 and a DA of 23, I'm sure this is an issue)

• a lack of social signals (check out http://howmanyshares.com/, your totals are pretty low)

• your current attention to on-page content and user experience

Further, we also don't know if you used the Disavow Link Tool correctly, Disavowed the RIGHT links, or fully identified the internal linking issue you "think" caused the problems.

Only a full site audit by an independent is going to find full answers to the above.

Finally, I can't find you ranking ANYWHERE for the phrase "travel tips Thailand" which is your EMD domain. So explain to me again why you don't believe you were affected by this update as well? Or have you always not ranked for your own domain?

That's my two-cents. Definitely consider going the professional route. Google has already pushed through TWO Panda updates/refreshes since September. So if you haven't noticed an improvement since then, you clearly still have issues to work on.

Good luck and Happy Holidays just the same!

Klarke hit it briefly in his reply. The problem is that you were "artificially" achieving your previous rankings and traffic by means of paid links. Those links are what Google was using algorithmically to value your site for ranking purposes.

When you received the manual links notice from Google (you were discovered using paid links) Google placed a filter on your website AND discounted those paid links. When you removed those paid links to recover from the manual penalty you also FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED the backlink value and overall algorithmic strength of your site in the process.

Bottom line: when Google removed the filter from your website you were left with a much reduced backlink profile that no longer had its previous ranking strength. The result? Lower rankings.

Further, there have been over a dozen algorithmic Panda, Penguin, EMD, Top Heavy and other assorted  updates by Google during the course of 2012. Any of them could have also adversely affected your sites' natural ranking profile.

If you haven't done so, head over to the www.panguintool.com and compare your site accordingly against the more notable updates. That will allow you to pinpoint if and where you were affected so you can make necessary content or backlink changes as needed.

I hope that helps. Otherwise, drop me a note for a full penalty site audit and we can go from there.

Happy Holidays and good luck!

Hi Nick,

Finding quality blogs on your own that accept guest blog posts can be difficult. I'd recommend instead you check out http://myblogguest.com and www.guestblogit.com initially. Both are the leaders in this niche and will provide you a way to connect with "quality" sites offering guest blogging opportunities.

Both sites require registration, have robust communities and resources, and cater to both guest blog writers and site owners looking to supplement their content creation by connecting with quality guest blog content.

I've used them regularly, recommended them to clients, and they do provide e-commerce site targeted opportunities. That's where I'd start.

Good luck and Happy Holidays!

When we do the social media "buzz" campaigns you outlined above, we don't limit ourselves with just one site. Specifically with regard to video content it's a NO-BRAINER that you want to get that content on your site whenever possible. Again, the whole point of social media is to drive "buzz" in the form of social mentions, traffic, comments, and incoming links to your main site - all of which work to "push up" your entire site content by making your pages "stickier" and increasing your site visits. The best vehicle to do this is through a blog.

Take your YouTube video example, sure, you can submit that through a channel you control (YouTube), but you would then want to immediately embed that within a blog post on the client site that in turn is SEO optimized with bookmarking buttons (we like Digg Digg if you are on Wordpress). This will allow your blog audience and outside traffic to virally distribute the content for you directly from your blog.

Next, you take that blog post (containing the video) and you push-it-out through all your social media profiles (Twitter and Facebook specifically). The more established the account (power users are key) the better, but even new accounts will lead to dofollow links into the blog post which will help push the video virally. And don't be afraid to ask for comments, and RTs and likes. We do, and it works just fine.

And again, in a post-Panda world it's all about content. If you are doing a viral video campaign that is going to generate comments and trackbacks, then that is content you need to be including on your site. Why? Because this is the very definition of the type of User Generated Content (UGC) that Google is just EATING UP!

Finally, remember that YouTube is nofollow. Why waste any links the video may  generate on YouTube when you could push the same content out on your own site and blogs and capture all that link equity for yourself? That's what we do and very effectively.

That's my two-cents. Good luck with your promotions.

Google image optimization can be hit or miss. But honestly, VERY few people actually spend the time to implement the suggestions Google tells you to implement.

For example, have you reviewed the detailed video and resources on this question directly from Google here:

http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175538

In your question, you didn't mention keyword-rich file names or ALT tags on the images. By far the TWO most important optimization guidelines in my opinion and which Google mentions specifically above. Some other considerations to take into account when optimization images are the following:

• the context around the image

• internal anchor texts linking to the image galleries themselvers

• external anchor texts/links coming into the image galleries

• making sure to specify the height and width of the images (this definitely helps)

• adding an image SITEMAP to your site listing all your images

I do ALL the above and can't say I've ever had an issue with my image galleries or those of our clients NOT getting indexed. But who knows, we "could" just be getting lucky?

Hope this helps. Good luck!

How new is the online retail store you are working with? I ask because what you have described is VERY common with new sites. It's normal to see indexed URL fluctuation counts, even large fluctuation counts, occur in the first few months of a site as Google works to index the URLs "appropriately."

It's also worth noting that in a post-Panda world Google has really TIGHTENED UP what they choose to index. If a majority of these URLs lack unique compelling content, are just aggregated content from other sources, or suffer duplicate content issues, that will certainly impact Google's decision to include them accordingly.

Unfortunately, what YOU value as good content doesn't matter much if Google doesn't share that opinion. I'd strongly recommend you review the pages that Google is NOT indexing and note similarities. Most likely, all your pages aren't "worthy" of current indexing by Google and as it slowly shifts down deeper into your pages it's making the determination as to which of your pages deserve listing consideration and which do not.

As to how to combat this...work to create QUALITY content that sets you specifically apart from your retail competitors. Make sure as well to REMOVE any questionable or thin content. This type of content can bring down an entire domain post-Panda.

Sorry I don't have better advice. Good luck with your retail site this holiday season!

You can link to a sub-page if you want but the WHOLE point of your question (which is how I read it) is that you wanted to concentrate on improving your client rankings for the keyword "computer page" tied to their home page. That means generating as many "unique domain" links into your home page for that anchor text from external, related pages.

But again, to promote a "diverse link profile" you want to vary that anchor text. Hence my first answer.

To the best of my knowledge G only counts the first link on a page as a "Vote" so my thought is to only include the single link with the keyword anchor text.

That's my understanding as well. When confronted with multiple anchor text variations, both linking back to the same uniform page, Google counts one of them. Usually the FIRST one they spider (the one higher on the page).

In your case, I'd try to "vary" the incoming anchor texts as much as possible. If you've got 150 unique pages to work with, choose several different anchor texts and have them link back to either your home page or better yet, an interior page you are looking to move competitively. You want as much "link diversity" in your anchor text distribution as possible.

In your example, I'd use any or all of these anchor text variations for the root keyword "computer repairs:"

"low-cost computer repairs"

"computer repairs service"

"computer repairs company"

"computer repairs (your site)

"computer repairs near (your city)

etc.

Hope that helps. Good luck!