Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Sarah,

I have been using this tool: www.spyfu.com , specifically their recon files application to do competitive key word research.  Once I extract key words form this report I use their Keyword smart search tool.

Hope this helps,

Ron

I came across this tool: http://whereisthefold.com/

I would like to add this to my bag of tricks but want to see if anyone has actually taken the time to verify that this tool presents an accurate representation of where things are placed on different screen sizes?

I would appreciate any input.

Ron

I think you are referring to long tailed keywords. So instead of "exterminators" you might say "Portland organic exterminators".  This more detailed phrase targets your customers while creating a phrase that people are going to actually type in.  With the hummingbird update using natural language and descriptions as well as citing places in your area if you are a local business has become increasingly important.

This is really a question of labor versus value.  You can use tools as well as contact other sites that have bad links and disconnect that way.  It can be done but it takes a lot of time.  If it is worth the labor cost do it.  If it is not, don't

it really depends on whether or not you are using Google Authorship.  You cannot really attribute your work to more than one company per Google Pus account.  If you are blogging personally I would set up your business blog with attribution to your business Google Plus account.  otherwise I do not think it really matters.

I put key words in as it cannot hurt.  If it gets a few more leads per year why not :).  As far as the previous string goes I think these comments are truly silly as there are many good tools to figure out the key words you are targeting without the meta key words. So if "why not" is a good enough justification then you should do it.

I agree with Jonathan.  I would also look at the quality of links as all links are not the same.  You may want to use Spyfu recon files to look at the specific content your competitor is ranking on.

Steve, What are you trying to accomplish with this type of directory? Ron

Jonathan,

From the screen shot I am not exactly sure what you are referring to.  If you are looking at how the web site is broken down into sections you might want to look into the Yoast Plug in if you are on Word Press as well as Google Webmaster tools. If you are referring to the Google listing on the side of the screen shot you need to get your company set up with Google. If you are needing to get these directories set up I might suggest Getlisted.org.

Ron

My web development company (Everbearing Services) moved all of our clients off of Godaddy several years ago because of performance and security issues.  There are several other good web hosts out there.  The one that I feel is a true gem is one called Zippykid which only hosts word press web sites. They also provide security and malware scanning automatically.  They also do all the patches and updates you might need.

They use Rackspace as their back end infrastructure.   If your web site is not on Wordpress you might consider these guys.  I have read in other posts that a provider Firehost is really good.

I have not seen any good reports on Godaddy lately.

That is my two cents if this helps. If you do not get your questions answered here and need any further help on this feel free to call me tomorrow or Monday.

Ron

To have or not have breadcrumbs does not affect SEO directly it affects it indirectly.   Part or what is monitored when a site is ranked is the user experience.  The analytical way that this is monitored is through your bounce rate, exit rate, time on site and your visitor flow.  Anything that makes these stats better and improves your user experience is going to improve your rankings.   So even if you don't have breadcrumbs but have very good navigation that eliminates the need for bread crumbs you will have the same positive effect on your SEO.  So it is not this type navigation in particular that is important it is providing the best navigation for your traffic.  Happy traffic = good rankings

Hope this helps,

Ron

I like the first one.  That being said I would recommend that you use an AB/multivariate testing tool like Optimizely to measure and test which landing page is better for conversions.

I would define your goals and budgets.  You need to ask them if they are members of the Google engage program.  This is kind of a square zero level of competence(almost anybody can get in if they know enough to join)

I would discuss how they are going to measure success as well as what activities they are going to do to manage the key words.

You should pay around $100 per hour for a qualified person.

You really need to integrate the blog to get the full benefit of the inbound links and associated traffic.  Non standard structures do tend to trip up the search engines so I try to stay within normal parameters.

I really like the tools from Spyfu. I use their recon files software all the time.

You might consider setting up a dedicated landing page for the white paper and requiring an e-mail and name to download. You could use pay per click to drive leads and collect their contact info when they download.

If you are set up in directories that offer coupons consider setting up a coupon that allows leads to download the white paper.

Did you write alt text descriptions for each image?

It does not help but I am experiencing the same thing.  It seems like they are doing an update or something.

I agree with the others.  If you are a local rather than national company I might suggest some off page local SEO. This might help considerably.

Joe,

In the SEO area you want to have clear goals and objectives. What you want is someone who can look at your situation and articulate a clear plan with specific goals.  If they cannot do that you do not want to deal with them. You need to determine what the measurable increase is that you will get and agree on it.  If the SEO tries to tell you that they have some "special method" that does not follow the normal rules run for the hills ;).

While the link building itself is not hard(mainly boing) it is very time consuming.  After the base links like Google and Bing, Yelp, Citysearch, etc are done your SEO may need to do link research to determine appropriate links.  This can be very time consuming and does require some skill. A realistic price for good quality links is between $20-$30 per link (this should be the average anyway).

I would also check reviews as well as the Better Business Bureau to see if the SEO has any complaints.