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I know what you mean and I agree but the distinction lies when the directory charges for there time to review your listing and site.

so it isn't technically a paid link

Just like how could Google penalize you if you sponsored your local football team and they gave you a banner on there site as part of the deal.

I will give it a go John thanks for the advice.

Ah reddit my next project

I am interested to hear if someone has really nailed it on Stumbled upon.

Example - logged into Google analytics and gone - Oh my Goodness I just got 1000 views from Stumbled upon.

The problem is no directory is ever going to contain reams of pages full of excellent content.

Definition - A book listing individuals or organizations alphabetically or thematically with details such as names, addresses, and telephone numbers.

So from another point of view - Google's How can Google rank a directory....

Out going links has to be massive - If the directory does what it says on the tin and contains site links in the correct category I don't see the problem.

I have always neglected this site and its use. It files alongside digg and so on as -

"I will give it a go next week"

So I have recently spent a lot of time using this and WOW was I impressed its a great tool for -

Link building

Traffic generation.

As I am new to it are there any more experienced users that can provide some great tips for its use. The sorts of things I will figure out in 3 months time

After 28 long years of wait this year I finally made it to the United States of America. I grew up on "The A Team" , "Knight Rider" and Mcdonalds cheese burgers from 2 years onwards.

I am as American as a English person could possibly be.

It wasn't until I arrived in Florida and spent two weeks in the great country that I understood the difference in the minds and mentality of people. People were nicer ! People on the whole had a can do mentaily.

If your a success people congratulate you for it . Unlike the UK....

Plus people were not scared to make a fool of themselves... (People jumping up and down at traffic lights with advertising boards)

Now to my question -

I loved it so much I want to go back and I figured me and my wife and 3 year old may have a extended break next time where I can work on vacation maybe over a month or so.

I would love to get to know as many SEO's and people based in the USA as possible please and introduce myself etc.

Hey who knows maybe SEO Moz can change my future (fingers crossed)

Thanks to all the people that get in touch !

I suppose Ryan the problem is how does one classify something "spammy" as with all these things it can be sometimes quite obtuse and a few directories will fall in a potential grey area.

But by and large dodgy directories are easy to spot.

Common sense rules...

Go for the new business pages -

http://www.google.com/+/business/

Its well worth getting into using this and also think about the use of the button across the site to help with rankings as I expect them to become more and more important.

I think the answer has to be - How do you judge what is and what isn't a crummy directory.

1. If the directory gives a full check of all inclusions.

2. The site doesnt contain out going links to - Viagra, Cialis etc (you get the picture)

3. Joe Ant - Good right ?

4. How relevant is that directory to your industry so lets say I sell Football kits. Look for sports and football related directories. Listing your webpage on a directory that is related to pharmaceuticals when you sell football kits is bad right ?

USE Common sense and logic when you land on the directory look for the warning signs..

Don't use directories as your main source of links but a few good ones on a link profile in my opinion can be good. It adds to the diversity of your link profile.

how important do you rate the title attribute on images. I have found this combined with a Alt tag to provide Top 3 positions for images -

title="Free Web tutorials"

how do you explain the ranking of images on competitive terms. What would you say is the most responsive way of improving image rank.

also you mention declaing the image size what do you mean exactly by that.

What techniques do you use for the optimisation of images on Google.

Alt tag , image title

Surrounding text

Anyone tested actual linking to the image url and not the page url. I have achieved hundreds of top listed images but when it gets competitive what is the most useful technique you have used.

Thanks

I didnt mention Joshua I started out doing adwords before seo back in 2000. Its nice to hear other people using adwords to quantify SEO. I know many SEO's who treat Adwords like some "expensive" devil and constantly talk it down.

great plan Joshua have you ever maybe used exact matches on your adwords when you already have an existing list of keywords from a client.

I am aways being my worst critique and constantly looking to improve.

Thats how you become a winner right !

something I feel I can improve on is Keyword analysis and targeting. I would really appreciate hearing stories of other SEO's on here , gaining an insight into the techniques you use and how your keyword analysis has evolved as time has gone by.

Thanks in advance.

the real time news feed style in which we all use the internet these days. How do you think this new change is going to effect things ?

“This is the result of them saying we need to find a way to more effectively get fresh content up,” said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land and an industry expert. “It does help with the issue of people thinking, ‘Wow, if I need to find out about something breaking, I’ll go to Facebook or Twitter for that.’ ”

Is google reacting to a massive loss of traffic volume from Facebook and Twitter ?

I also ask the question would Facebook benifit from some form of built in search engine or would this never happen ??

what concerns me is rival seo companies checking our back links.

Is it possible to make your site un readable by the back link checkers such as open explorer ?

Or would it have a negative effect on search engine rankings.

Sorry I have been in the business for 10 years and it has never crossed my mind. Figured I would say that before I get all the "I can't believe you don't know that" type comments

I have a customer that has asked me to find out the best way to move forwards with foreign languages.

He sells Jukeboxes in the UK and has found recently that a large number of his customers are coming from abroad due to the financial climate.

So he wants to appear on the first page of google in Russia, Arabic countries, French speaking countries and China.

Whats the best route ?

Add pages to his current .co.uk site or look at purchasing domains for each country. Then submitting them to each google.

So Google.ru etc.

Thanks