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Hi,

this seems to be a relatively new format that Google is experimenting with that shows information from large lists as bullet points on the SERP. I suppose it is similar to sitelinks, where Google just decides for which pages and which queries they are shown. Maybe trying out different types of lists with important information (as the property listings in the example) can help you to get the listing.

How do you determine when your page was cached? It is possible Google had already cached it before, or that Google does not show you the correct date. Also, have you manually checked that your rankings have dropped, or with a rank checking tool? If only with a tool, I would doublecheck it manually. But of course it is possible that google has penalized you for the reciprocal linking. When you do reciprocal linking, make sure only to link to sites that are related to yours, and that add value to the reader.

I am getting fairly similar results for Google UK and Google US. I haven't noticed anything strange for Germany, France or Spain either, but I have been using the SEOmoz Rank checker for about two months only.

Go to Rankings, and on the top of the the right hand side you will see "Export to" with options PDF and CSV. Choose CSV and open the file in Excel (using the Text to Columns command).

Not sure, I think it just stops google from redirecting to your location's default. I have also found this page where google recommends to use www.google.com/ncr to avoid being redirected to .co.uk: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=873

I have only run a quick check now, but in my test I got exactly the same result for /ncr and /webhp (appended the &gl=us to both).

Hi,

I use www.google.com/webhp, run the search, then append &gl=us to get US results. I have doublechecked with a VPN connection to a server we have in the US, I don't get the exact same results, but they come quite close. I like to use this for a quick check. If I do a search for pizza, for example, I am also prompted to enter my US Zip code, which can then be stored and used for future searches.

Hope this helps.

Are you seeing the drop in traffic across the board, or on a few pages? Is only Google traffic affected, or also direct traffic, referrals...? If you make different changes (as in this case adding links and deleting pages), you should not just assume that one has no effect, but try to get all data possible. Also, did you redirect the URLs of the deleted pages? Have your rankings changed? Could there be any seasonal changes?

Having said that, you might very well be penalized for getting paid links if google knows about these paid directories.

I would definitely go for the contextual link from the most relevant page (I assume that this is a high quality page, and that it is reasonably well linked within the website). I believe not only that google will put more weight on a link like this, but it will also send you targeted visitors which should be easier to convert.

I agree, and if you have the article on your site, your site (rather than blogger) will profit from any links (shares, tweets...) pointing to your article.

I think there is no easy answer as both have advantages and disadvantages. Rand discusses the different options here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/international-seo-where-to-host-and-how-to-target-whiteboard-friday

I think this is a good start, and from there you will have to make up your mind. We use fr.mydomain.com, and I am happy with the set-up, as it gives you a better URL structure with less sub folders, making the site more easily indexable.