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Cheerd Don

The obvious problem would be that their website address hasn't been verified and linked to their Google + profile... Linking them together in GWT and Analytics would help too. After checking those things I'd check other settings, like use Google + as site.

Yandex holds onto about 60+% market share in Russia for Search Engines and a few years ago (2013) was only one of four countries to where Google was not number one for market share. (http://returnonnow.com/internet-marketing-resources/2013-search-engine-market-share-by-country/) As was said above, they also provide some tools similar to Google like Email, Docs, etc... and also provide a webmaster tools section for site owners similar to Google as well.  (I don't believe there to be a cost associated with the Webmaster Tools.) It also has been quite successful on unlocked Android phones in comparison to other SE's in other regions around the world. One of the caveats that help really project Yandex to the top of Russia's SE use is the ability to parse through the Russian language differently and some would argue, better than Google.  It also claims to not utilize links in their algorithm due to the high volume of linkspam in Russia.  More about the nuanced differences has been published online but a high level article can be found here: http://www.semrush.com/blog/publications/5-advantages-yandex-google-russia/ If you are not trying to work within Russia deal with Russian then Yandex should not be of too much of a concern. The nuanced differences never hurt to learn though and these region specific SE's such as NAVER and Baidu are going to become more important in the future, or that is my guess at least, as the populations expand.  But hey, I am not Nostradamus either.

thank you Sam. I'll look more closely at the alternates. I thought I had covered the bases there but I see, like anything, there's going to be a learning curve to get the most out of the service. Thanks again for the response.

As Marie and Gary have said, there are a lot of legitimate reasons why a site would acquire a high number of new inbound links naturally. Even if those sorts of links prompted Google to manually have a look at the backlink profile, this sort of activity isn't going to hurt. What Google is looking for with backlink acquisition is unnatural patterns, so if you were to add 1,000 links to a backlink profile of (say) 1,500 links, with no discernible media attention, content creation or seasonality, you'd be breaking a pattern of link acquisition (or the lack thereof) and possibly trigger attention. Google is incredibly good at pattern recognition, for obvious reasons. If a pattern changes, there has to be a reason for the change. If they determine that the change was manipulative an unnatural, that's where you run into trouble. Echoing what others have said about link building using directories - I can't endorse that as a link building tactic at all. Get listed where appropriate for reasons other than SEO (are you a local hairdresser in Everett, WA? Getting listed on a site about service providers in Everett is absolutely fine). The sort of directory-based link building that was common and fairly useful for "volume" in ~2009 is no longer a good idea. You'll show up on sites like these without effort (people seeking to fill out directories they run), and shouldn't worry too much about those sorts of links, but it's not advisable to seek them yourself.

Ron, There are WordPress plugins that allow you to serve content based on geolocation. For example, the "Custom Content by Location" plugin comes to mind http://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-content-by-country/ Alternatively, outside of WordPress, you can use PHP code to determine the user's location and then serve them up separate content. There's a sample of that code here: http://www.adviceinteractivegroup.com/how-to-display-unique-content-based-on-geolocation/

I appreciate everyone's input. This was very very helpful ;)!

I appreciate your taking the time to answer this.  If it is helpful I found out that the Google carousel is most often populated from pictures on relevant Google + pages. Thanks again for your input!

I agree with peter, This tool by Google Labs is a better option but the tool you mentioned is also ok!!

if you can get Yoast I would recommend him. Web dev Studios is fantastic you might want to consider a high-end search engine optimization firm as a company to work with along with a developer. For instance distilled.net seer interactive portent Internet marketing ninjas evolvingseo some other developers in WordPress Gregreindel.com you may want to speak to local search experts you can find many of them at getlisted.org http://www.myseolabs.org/ is a good place to start. All the best, Thomas

Hi Ron, I would use the content you had planned on using with slide share and simply use a video format. People can either pause or even better there are some things from Wistia  that will allow you to create a portion of video with voiceover than work exactly like a slideshow allowing the visitor to click left or right for the next segment.  this way you are assured to get links Wistia is the only company I know of that has built-in Video SEO Creating video site maps so you can create something that will rank very high in Google. I would use this lab's method of syncing or you can use the playlist method in the second or third  URL is really your choice. http://wistia.com/labs/speakerdeck/ or http://wistia.com/labs/chapters/ Third URL contains a different method but I believe the first link is the best method. http://wistia.com/product/playlistgoing As far as your NAP I believe that is best answered in this URL however I will do my best to describe it. What they have said is essentially it does not hurt to have that content available it might be useful so you might as well have it showing. http://moz.com/community/q/local-seo-how-much-additional-information-to-fill-out-beyond-nap I hope this helps, Thomas

I did not know that Keri! Years I did not know that! Great advice

Hi Ron, Structure might not be as important in terms of what to tag.  Mark up for different posts yes, its encouraged to have the appropriate one for each page post or otherwise: http://schema.org/LocalBusiness I am not sure if you were looking for anything more special than this but this is as special as it gets in terms of local seo markup Hope this helps