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Another good question. Probably hiring someone outside to optimize their site would certainly point to their knowledge of the need of SEO. I would say that you would have to preface with, "Other than when you built your website, have you ever..."

Experience would agree with Phil in that the number would be small. Most businesses we speak with believed they just needed a website and the world would flock to their door. I think that is good news for those who are all in for the SEO business

Even with a phone survey you would likely need to improve your question. We talk with companies every day who are quick to point out that they already do SEO. Typically, what they point out is that the person or company who built their site did SEO. Originally, we never intended to build websites are were careful to stick to SEO and SEM.

Unfortunately, whenever we were dealing with a client who had someone hosting or who they called when they needed something done to the site, we were always dealing with a person who "knew" SEO. So, the client was using SEO. But, the site would be an SEO disaster, there would be no local presence, and they did not know how to login to Google Analytics.

So, who uses it is not really a question that can be answered to provide any actionable data. I would think you would need to ask specific questions around basic SEO, after developing a framework as to what would or would not constitute knowledge of SEO that would equate to use of SEO. (And then probably a final question of given what you know of SEO, are you currently utilizing that in your business today?)

Good question

We manage a lot of sites that are around pharmaceuticals and lawsuits. I was checking a couple of the sites around the keyword: Actos Lawsuit using the keyword difficulty with serp analysis. Our sites have done very little Adwords except for first month about a year ago and we have always ranked well and the client is very happy with the results.

Tonight I notice a site that is http://wikilawsuit.org/drug-recalls/actos-side-effects-bladder-cancer-actos-lawsuit/

They are ranked fourth on Google. Our url which is http://actos-lawsuit.org/ is ranked 9th?? Frankly there are several sites ranked ahead and when you look at the parameters all the way across some we are killing. But Wiki, everyone is killing  and it is still fourth. I ran it in OSE and the metrics came back better, but there is at best 3 to 4 real links out of 30 domains. This is a commercial site with a contact form in right sidebar and my guess is they are selling leads to lawyers. So they are about as Wiki as Hooters.

That said, we see all the talk about quality links and I am seeing a lot of sites with few quality links and lots of junk links. Should we still believe it matters? Or, is it that it matters when the sites are huge (JC Penny), etc. but not if the site is under some critical number of poor links?

Looking forward to a moz Fest on this.

There is one other possibility and that would be the "canonical redirect." If your site is PMA (only one I saw with PA 21 in serps), when you put www.yourdomain.com in you get a page auth of 33 to go with your DA 21. But, when you put in the root without the www, ( yourdomain.com ) you get a PA of 18 and your linking root domains drop a bit.... from 42 to 1.

In WordPress, with any of the SEO plugins we have used (All in one, Genesis, etc), the canonical redirect does not happen. You have to do it in the .htaccess file. There are plenty of good directions for how to: query .htaccess redirects. Or, there are several gurus around moz who can post directions here..... (I'm not one)

My guess is that when you do this, you will see a change in short time (few weeks at most).

You have a decent list to start with and here are a couple of suggestions: If the client is national, all the networks have a website. Contact the interviewer and see if they can bet you a link there as you have stated and if local business or one with locations in varying venues, contact the affiliate stations seeking info for linking to them and,,,,,making sure they have yours as well.

If you have a customer list, now is a great time to get the link out via an email that comes back to your YouTube feed on the site.

Do you blog? Does the client blog? Get it out there.

If it is in professional services, offer it to varying sites within the discipline: for example physicians and the interview is about a new treatment modality - American Cancer Society, etc. AMA organ, Journal of Pulmonary Medicine, etc.

Hope this helps.

I think most people who use OSE find that it will take 4 to 6 weeks typically to see new linking root domains. One issue many have as OSE has some links it does not show for whatever reason. On the whole it is a good tool, but you are not going to see all linking root domains based on my experience.

An example would be one of our managed sites: actosassistance In OSE it shows only 8 linking root domains while in Yahoo Site Explorer it shows 17 (of which 5 are actually one root domain and the differing urls are listed as roots). Before the OSE update, Dmoz showed as a link to this site and no longer does. It still links to site and shows in Yahoo Site Explorer.

For most of the SEO tools on the web I find they are like sailboats (if you've sailed it makes more sense): there are fast sail boats and cruising sail boats and variations in between, there are no fast cruisers. So, in getting a sail boat you have to make compromises. With OSE, the compromise to me is I get quality data in DA, PA, mozRank, mozTrust, and links along with CSV download, etc. I just don't get to see every link.

As to pinging, etc. I do not think it is necessary. Like with any indexing, the more/better links you get, the sooner, more frequently you will be spidered. I would suggest the SEO for Chrome extension so that you see more of your links as it shows Yahoo, Majestic, OSE, etc It might provide more of what you are looking for.

Hope this helps.

This is one of those that I am not sure has an exact answer: If per your example the urls beyond this are all linking to ABC123.com and are all the same xyz123/bettys, /susies, etc. I do not think initially it would hurt. I do believe at some point say for clarities sake at 100 there will be no additional benefit. (The root domain is not changing) Frankly, I doubt it would add much at all to a strong and established site.

If each of the urls is a site one thing that will draw attention will be whether or not they are on the same IP or C block. So if you have 1000 low PA sites linking to your strong site and the IP addresses are all the same or the C block is all the same I think you could potentially be causing yourself a problem. How big? I don't know.

Best of luck.

EGOL - I always appreciate your answers.

A question arises with this: If NearlyKeyword.com purchases Keyword.com and 301's each url to the new site URL's (Keyword.com redirects now to NearlyKeyword.com) does it increase the aggregate value in a one to one addition assuming all links and content are different (obviously this is a stretch and there are other factors). If no, then with two similar ECommerce sites as above, similar content, similar on site optimization, etc. what would one transfer to the other? Would it even be a 5% increase in domain or page rank?

If the Domain name is the only change and there is a cost that would not be recouped for say 3 to 4 years, is it even a reasonable idea? Could they not insure that they have good keyword use in the urls and spend the money on other SEO, etc. and be better served?

I do think the keyword domains rank a little easier for exact match queries, but have not seen a significant conversion increase one to the other when I am comparing multiple sites under my management all targeting the same keywords.

Good question. Good answer EGOL.

Hope this helps. We occasionally run into an issue where someone who is unscrupulous creates a business listing in Places around a client business name. What we do is have several people put in a permanently closed notice with Google (since we have a couple of locations that are 500 miles apart it helps I think). Click on edit this place and mark Miami Fishing Charters as permanently closed. On comments put "this business has no physical location here any longer if it ever did" or words to that effect.

Utilizing this methodology we have had them removed. It does take a while at times though. I do think someone marked them closed, etc. in the last few minutes......

Good luck.

We did a non E commerce site in late July/early August. Client had home page PA of 42 and DA of 38. This was to an entirely new domain. It took about 3 - 4 weeks and he is at same as before. (Not always the case, but this was 99.9%)

I would make sure that in the changeover, if someone new is handling new domain they have correctly handled the canonical redirect. Especially if there is any issue around web site and compensation, etc.

Good direction from IPIN and the rest of your question can be answered by http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain

Assuming you have 5 links from http://NewBoots.com, and they are all different (brown-boots.newboots.com, blue-boots.newboots.com, etc.) this would show up as 5 links from one linking root domain.

Page Rank is a measure to identify how strong a page is competitively based on links, etc. Here is the definition location http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/page-authority

Almost any definition question you have can be found using the moz search bar.

Best,

I checked out your threads and a few of the sites that were wondering about Panda issues and just do not see it as a Panda issue. (If Google announces something today please disregard

I looked at several where they mention their sites and could see how they could fall as they were not even paying attention to the basics of on page optimization and links were not in the least associated with content. So, I think those type sites tend toward what I have just discovered is Pandamonium: A group hysteria around what Google is doing that helps to evade what we, as SEO professionals, are not.....

Sorry,

Ryan is really on point here. We have a myriad of sites we manage and it is always interesting when we are surprised early on to find that a recently (one or two months) indexed site is moving up quickly in the rankings. Invariably, it is around queries that are much less competitive.

An example would be oil recycling, antifreeze recycling, etc. Sites we put up for a company that collects, processes, and recycles hydrocarbon waste streams practically rocketed to the top in multiple locations. When you looked at the sites they were competing with, the reason was obvious: they had not been touched in a long time and there were few of them.

With attorney sites, try starting a new mesothelioma site and getting to the top fifty on any main engine even with excellent back links....... And, please, take a tranquilizer if you are in the least impatient.

In reality, it mirrors any endeavor: Where there is a lot of competition, at the top there are some smart competitors.

Thanks Keri,

I caught this later and should have edited. As to the original though.....how many times can you say rediffMail......

To me, this type of content - and this one by using instructions does it better than most - with the constant keyword repetition is just a poor way to try and gain ranking.

As an entrepreneur who can honestly say that SEO, SEM, etc. is not my first rodeo, I can certainly understand where you are coming from. We want to know that everyone has "skin in the game." That in and of itself is not bad thinking. Certainly, you have had an employee who did not have skin in and you were wishing you had devised a better pay plan when they were not producing. I can tell you it has happened to me a few times.

In the context you mentioned of having someone after hours who works for you and is provided a sales incentive it begs a couple of questions: First, you are on SEOmoz and many people own companies but many are employees who work fulltime for companies. I would not want one of my employees taking a midnight gig for a potential "100K" payday due to it impacting their performance for which I am paying the 941 wages, bonuses, vacation, and health care. The reasons are obvious. Beyond the obvious, these employees learned at my company and we have ways of doing things that we believe to be proprietary. It becomes too tempting to borrow here or there (an example would be if they have access to multiple software programs we license and use them because they are used to using them). And, if I then found that they got the opportunity through SEOmoz, I think I might have to go for a really long run.....

In my opinion, you are better served finding a good firm and having them first assess the situation and let you know what they can or cannot do and the costs.Having worked in a situation where I ran a company on two occasions for a small base pay and percent of profits, I would not do that again. The main reason first: the argument is pay for performance - the reality is either they cannot afford you or they do not value you if you have any track record at all. In both cases the companies made more profit than ever before and, amazingly, there were reasons the profits would be less than promised.

If you search out several firms and interview them as if you were interviewing your successor, you should be able to find a good firm, with a good track record, and a diversified group of referrals that they have worked with over time. I know for a fact on SEO moz there are more than a few. Then, do as has been suggested and be very clear about what the milestones are so that you can monitor exactly what is happening and the results that are being achieved. Also be aware that sometimes as entrepreneurs our expectations can be overblown so be clear with the firm so they know what they are getting into.

If however you find that person who will moonlight for a share of the profit, remember that you can still lose and lose big. If you get 6 months down the road and realize they are never going to work out and you have wasted the time, it will be a year before you can retool. What will be the opportunity cost for that??? What would you have been willing to pay in retrospect to have done it otherwise?

I wish you luck.

Make sure you do the url to url wherever possible. If you don't, you won't know in a couple of weeks based on my experience. (One of the best pieces of SEO advice ever came about that very issue. When we went back in and changed each url to 301 within days we saw DA and PA go up!). 
I look forward to hearing your progress.

Robert

Good question Bonprix. My most recent experience was with a law firm that had a previous site several years ago and 301'd and then hired a developer recently to build a new site. Due to change in url structure and menus, etc. it was necessary to 301 from the one they had to the new. I have no answer on link juice other than thinking it through a bit. If the first redirect was set up several years ago and the new one is recent, I do not think you will see to much of a loss assuming it is done correctly. Here are my suggestions:

If using a CMS, do not use an extension and instead use .htaccess file. Here is tutorial suggested in Google webmaster tools: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/htaccess.html

Make sure you do a 301 for each url and not domain to domain.

I would then go into webmaster tools and let Google know which domain you prefer from a canonical point of view. Here is the link for that: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=44231

If you do all of this you should be able to capture as much of the link juice as possible.  I also noted recently that a client's developer had done a 301 redirect for the canonical and chose to redirect the www to the non www. The non had a PA of 1 for the homepage and the www had a PA of 27 for the homepage. If he had simply redirected it the opposite way, he would not be waiting or worrying about link juice. So check that rel=canon is there and check each domain for PA so that you have best outcome.

Good Luck

Well put by Vitalscom. He went to the site, looked it over, and diagnosed the problem. This is just overkill with keywords, etc. Follow the advice given, make the content readable, etc. for example: http://www.cardiffhypnotherapy.com/Anger-Management-Therapy.html

In the first paragraph there are two sentences with three internal links (anger management therapy appears twice, anger management classes once) back to the same page where the links are all for the purpose of stuffing keywords/links into the paragraph. In the first three sentences you say the same phrase five times and the titles before and after those three sentences are also Anger Management Therapy.

Here is what a response to this question would look like using the same methodology of writing:

SEOmoz Contributors Answer Questions

SEOmoz Contributors Answer Questions about the questions you have regarding SEO because SEOmoz Contributros Answer Questions to help you. If you have questions about SEO, SEOmoz Contributors Answer Questions quickly and efficiently.

SEOmoz Contributors Answer Questions if you Have Questions.

OK, would you really want to read that????? Think about it. Content really is king. Content really is king. Content really is king..... Just kidding there

Good Luck, Good Question,

Thanks for responding Jason (your pic looks like it was taken in a rain forest).

As to traffic in Spanish for our clients product/service there is enough to put up Spanish language. As I said in reply to Ryan, I am going to have one site for the main with both English and Spanish. I would ask this: you said if considerable Spanish searches you would do one English and one Spanish, why? (Just interested in the reasoning on any SEO) Frankly, I think you could be right as much as I think doing one with both languages could be right.

I think on the whole this is a good answer and is what I was about 90% prepared to do. On the dialects it is a bit less tricky than the Castilian versus Mexican or American Spanish. The population in San Diego, Texas, etc. is going to be predominantly South American and all use essentially the same dialect. But, your advice is good advice for anyone not familiar with the language differences.

Thanks for the help, as always,