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Hi Diane.

I did notice hubpages offered an ad revenue sharing program but I did not review the details.

With respect to adding additional links, there are many factors involved and Google does not publicize their algorithm so we are left to made educated guesses and report on various test results.

My recommendation when working with external article publishing sites is they offer the two benefits mentioned above. They allow you to expose your site to an established audience which you may otherwise not reach. Also they provide a link to your site. The primary value I seek from the link is to broaden my site's backlink profile. The actual value of the link, and of multiple links from the same site, is highly debatable. We do know the value of most sitewide links is very low, so the theory "the more links the better" is not necessary true.

If you offer a second article on the same site, that second link would likely offer some value to your site. The link's value would likely be increased if it was from a comparable site where you have not previously published an article.

Forget about Google for a moment and think of it from a pure exposure perspective. If site A offered to publish your article and expose it to their 10k readers, that is great. When it is time to publish a second article, you can either share it with site B and their 10k readers or site A. The advantage site B offers is you can raise your brand awareness and gain traffic from a potentially new group of users.

Stylistic changes, such as your social media icons, can be good or bad depending on how your visitors perceive them.

If you had a Star Trek theme site, you could stylize your icons to look like Star Trek badges. If your users fall in love with the look, that could lead to your site being mentioned and linked to from other related sites, and even graphic design sites. Your users may like the look so much they decide to click on them more often.

Alternatively, if your visitors disliked the icons they could be used less.

This design decision really isn't much different then any other design decision you could make for your site. At the highest end, you can create a design that is so loved, others either pay you to use your design, or you share it free and receive links based on the design.

We recently took on an established Australian SEO company with a top 5 ranking on topseos.com.au...

I am afraid to share that topseos.com is not a credible place to go for a reference related to SEO. In short, any SEO can pay money, jump through a few hoops and buy a top ranking there. Here is a link to one of many articles which discuss the problem: http://searchmarketingwisdom.com/2010/06/topseos-continues-deceptive-practices/

My first question is what do you think about using these SEO contractors as our in house SEO team.

I have mixed feedback to share. I have used oDesk in the past. The only task I consider using it for in the future is content creation. Writing an article has a very clear beginning and end. The process can be monitored closely. In most cases, the worst that can happen is a bad article. That is not the case with most other SEO tasks.

If you received a referral from someone you trust, that is outstanding. To me, nothing beats a trusted referral. If you have a solid understanding of the parameters surrounding the referral, I would take it for sure.

My second question is whether its a good idea to use a SEO company and in house SEO team together?

An excellent solution. I have provided SEO services using this approach on numerous occasions. Often the company has resources which can perform various tasks under guidance. It is important to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the SEO. Do you expect them to train your employees? If so, be sure the SEO is aware of this expectation. The level of effort to train others is significantly higher then simply performing the work.

A few closing thoughts:

• Hiring an SEO is like hiring any other professional. Would you simply open the phone book to look for a doctor or car mechanic? Referrals are ideal. When you cannot find a referral from someone you trust, the next best practice is research. In your case, you have a good amount of industry knowledge and it sounds like you can separate an authentic SEO vs one of lesser quality.

Be sure to ask who exactly will be performing the work. Many companies "sell" SEO services but then outsource the work, often to individuals that you would not hire first hand.

• Be clear on your goals. As a business owner I had one clear goal: profit. All the rest of the terms you will hear: ranking, traffic, PR, DA, conversion rates, etc. are all a means to an end. That end is profit. The goal is to grow your site in a profitable manner.

• Have reasonable expectations. When I begin working with a new client, it generally takes a minimum of 90 days before results can be seen. Many companies will share it takes 6 - 12 months. Either way, white hat SEO takes time, but it is built to last.

• You specifically mentioned "off-site optimisation" which I presume you mean mostly link building. You need to be exceptionally cautious in this area. In my experience most links built are either low quality or black hat. Free directories, blog commenting, etc. rarely offer any value and often are deemed by Google as "inorganic". A penalty for "inorganic" links is the most severe penalty a site can earn. Google has a clear expectation the bad links are to be removed which is very hard, very time consuming and often impossible. It is the most expensive penalty a site can receive. It is my strongest recommendation be sure you only build authentic links.

Good Luck.

Definitely.

Studies show a strong correlation between facebook activity and web traffic.

Any time you can get positive exposure for a website, it's a good thing. A facebook page offers an opportunity for others to learn about the business. That page is their personal PR zone. You want to take every chance you can to educate visitors about your business.

You can only do a limited amount with a facebook page, so get them over to your website where you have complete control over the environment, offer better details and earn sales.

I am guessing you are looking for sites to use as examples so you can emulate your site after them? Each site is unique for various reasons. In general I would recommend wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sudan  Things to notice:

• the URL is not technology dependent (i.e. no .php or .html after the page name)

• the URL matches the page's title

• the URL is a flat structure

• the page's title is a H1 tag and is the first content you see on the page

• on most wiki pages, the very first words of the wiki article is the page's title. You will also see the page's title repeated several times throughout the article, and in various forms. In this example you see "South Sudan", "Southern Sudan", etc.

• the wiki content uses consistent anchor text to link to other pages within the site. For example, anytime you see "landlocked country" in this wiki article, or any other one, it is a hyperlink to wiki's "landlocked country" page.

There are no hidden secrets here. It is about taking all of the SEO basics found in the Beginner's Guide to SEO, then applying them consistently throughout your site, along with providing great content which is up-to-date. If you do that, you will find your website on page 1 of search results.

I could also suggest the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/, but you cannot copy them as their methods will probably not work for you. For example, they have over 400 links on their home page. They have a DA and PA of 100, which allows them to support that many links. If you were to copy them thinking "well NYT does it and they are successful" it would simply not work for you.

This topic is a popular one. If you use the site search, you will find numerous other Q&As discussing this matter.

In brief, it would be best to keep your blog on the same domain as your main site. There are many reasons for doing such. One is the links you earn will then help the overall domain authority of both your blog and main site.

Sean is right. Earning the #1 spot on Google is the first step. You need to constantly focus SEO in order to keep your position. The SEO algorithms are constantly being adjusted and these changes may have a positive or negative on your site, and the sites of your competitors.

You also need to understand that everyone else on the first page would like to take the #1 spot from you, and they hire SEO specialists with the specific instructions "do what is needed to get the #1 spot".

You have opportunities for improvement on your current page. Focus on your SEO and you can get the #1 spot back:

• Your current title for the "used-cars" page with is in the #2 spot is: "Used Cars for sale in Pakistan, Find Used Suzuki, Toyota, Honda and more | Pakwheels". A lot of that can be moved to your description. I would recommend either "Used Cars | Pakwheels" or "Used Cars for sale in Pakistan | Pakwheels". Too many words in your title dilutes the importance of your key words.

• In your footer you of your "used cars" page you offer a link to another "used cars" page. It is actually the same page but the URL is different and you have not added the canonical tag to your pages. Unless you have went in to Google WMT and specifically set up your parameter settings Google may not handle this well. You should be very consistent with your links and anchor text.

• You use the H1 tag 3 times on the page. By design, the H1 tag is meant to be used once per page. The other tags should be H2 or something different.

There are other opportunities but these are just a few that stood out for me. Good luck.

Thanks for the URLs Paul.

The two examples you offered are two unique websites. I looked at the IPs of both sites and they are completely different. The WhoIs site registration information is completely different. The web design of each site is completely different. The NY site is a wordpress website while the other site seems to be based off a basic site template. Without reviewing the content, there appear to be two completely unique websites.

When I look at the content provided on these pages, it is not duplicated at all. One site has a video, the other does not. They even have different addresses and phone numbers. Even under scrutiny these sites have the appearance they are completely unrelated. If these two sites represent the same company, they certainly did a good enough job of differentiating them to earn them both a place in the search indexes.

The Link Acquisition Assistant is a SEOmoz PRO member tool which provides that information. Try these searches in Google

real estate + "submit site"
real estate + "submit url"
real estate + "intitle:directory"
real estate + "intitle:resources"
real estate + "directory list"
real estate + "inurl:list"
real estate + "intitle:list"
real estate + "inurl:directory"
real estate + "inurl:resources"
real estate + "add url"
real estate + "submit url"
real estate + "suggest url"
real estate + "suggest a url"
real estate + "submit site"
real estate + "submit a site"
real estate + "submit your site"
real estate + "add a url"
real estate + "add a site"
real estate + "add listing"
real estate + "add your listing"
real estate + "submit a listing"
real estate + "submit listing"
real estate + "submit your website"

Hi Guy.

The issue you described is known as cannibalization. Each page on your site should be optimized for one or two keywords or phrases. Any change at all to the phrase would be seen as a new phrase. For example "French property" and "French properties" are two different phrases.

With the above in mind, I would recommend examining your site to ensure the following:

• each page should have a primary focus. The page's title, header, and content should support that focus. One example of a site which executes this concept very well is wikipedia. Example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Navy

• each instance of the keyword phrase should be used as anchor text to link to the proper target page. A good example of this method is offered once again by Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_military. Notice when the phrase "French navy" is used, it shows as a text link to the French navy page.

• ensure there is not any case where the same phrase is used to link to multiple pages on your site. If you use "French property" to link to the property landing page once, then ensure you never use that identical phrase to link to any other page on your site.

Google will view anchor text as a strong indicator as to which page from your site should be listed for a given term. When the same phrase links to different pages, it causes confusion and your ranking on the phrase will suffer. When your site does receive a listing for a given phrase, the wrong page may be indexed as well.

I strongly recommend paying for advice - and make sure the individual has done what you are trying to do.

It's unfortunate but the SEO industry does not have any proper credentials. There are TONS of SEO "experts" who may have a nice website, office, etc. but are quite frankly lost in the world of SEO. There are SEO professionals today who charge clients to update their meta keyword tags and advise clients to buy links.

I would trust free advice from EGOL or Alan above the paid advice from many other "experts".

Your SEO strategy depends upon your desire. You stated your wish to "improve my rank for couple of terms". Everyone wants to improve their ranking. The question is, how bad do you want it?

If you wish to maximize your ranking on a given page, you will focus one keyword or phrase. Your page title will focus that same phrase along with your H1 tag. Your content will also begin with that phrase.

There is nothing hidden or ingenious here. It is pure SEO basics applied. The site that executes best on this process is wikipedia, which is a large part of why they rank so well on so many terms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C

Example article on Vitamin C

URL: www.mysite.com/vitamin-c

Title: Vitamin C

H1 tag: Vitamin C

Article: Vitamin C is an essential nutrient......

Thanks Steve.

My reply bothers me because I can't get the spaces between the sentences to stick. I even tried on a different pc and the dang thing doesn't like spaces. Oh well.

I thought your reply was spot on and I thought to help out a bit with some specifics.

The "something special" was comprised of a few things, each of which I value highly:

• a personal congratulations from Rand

• a phone call with Rand where he certainly went out of his way to make me feel special

• an as of yet unknown surprise package which should arrive any day. I am hoping for a dart board with Roger's image so I can use it whenever the Q&A gets glitchy or a piece of software doesn't function correctly.

• and a complimentary pass to either MozCon2012 or one of the Distilled Conferences. Since I live in California and I love Seattle I chose the MozCon2012 option. I am very excited about taking this trip next year.

Cheers!

You seem to be looking for a magic number. There isn't one. Or if there is, no one knows what that number is.

I suspect there are numerous factors and considerations including the source of the links along with your domain's authority.

Google does not make this information public, and for good reason. If we all knew that 100 links in a month is ok, but 101 is crossing the line then SEO would be a lot easier, wouldn't it?

Actually your site is built on the www subdomain. Your main URL is www.labadieauto.com. Your blog is on a separate domain, your root domain: http://labadieauto.com/blog. There are absolutely no internal links on your site's home page except for a single link to the home page itself. By all appearances, you are offering a one-page website.

To fix this issue move your blog to www.labadieauto.com/blog

Do the search engines kind of test you out at a higher ranking for a short period of time?

Yes. New pages will commonly receive an artificial ranking boost for a short period after they are discovered. Google loves new content and rewards it. It makes sense from a freshness perspective and also it adds a little balance in that new pages don't have any backlinks so they are otherwise at a disadvantage.

The process you are describing is doorway pages. Google penalizes doorway pages and you will certainly be discovered.

Doorway pages can easily be discovered simply by the fact you all link to the same site. Using the same template, common IP address, common registration information, etc are all other possibilities as well.

Your issues are not duplicate content nor varying the template, it is a clearly black hat technique which will lead to a penalty on your site.

It is my understanding that once Google or another SE has indexed your page and the linking page, the link would be immediately established and any juice would flow immediately and completely. I have never encountered any discussion of an aging process with regards to the time it takes for a link to achieve maximum effect.

I have seen discussions which discussed the theory that an older link had more value then a newer link, but those theories were discredited.

It may take a couple months for the Linkscape to see the link and your moz toolbars to update, but you should be able to see the link in GA.

** mine is a purely B2B site, so Twitter and Followerwonk (and social media generally) are of little to no use to me**

I think we have discovered the root issue. You clearly do not appreciate the value of the tools such as Followerwonk. SEOmoz is a b2b site, right? It's audience is website owners, SEOs, etc. Their 150k+ twitter followers is just one example of how social media is exceptionally valuable to b2b sites. I have clients who participate in even more pure b2b niches such as bulk electronic parts and they benefit from social media.

I believe a great deal of SEO is just snake oil

In the past, low quality link building offered incredibly boosts in search rankings. Accordingly, anyone who could build a link called themselves an SEO. The industry was flooded with low quality providers. As Google and Bing evolve, many of the low quality providers are leaving for other industries. The reality is quality SEO is and will remain dominant for many years to come.

If you continue to hold on to your beliefs, I would recommend you cancel your subscription as you are wasting your money. Spending money on a service where you do not recognize the value and think of it as "snake oil" is clearly a waste. But don't expect to hold your rankings. Over time, some of your competitors will recognize the value of SEO and overtake your position in SERPs.

In a competitive market you should only target one keyword per page. Once you earn the # 1 ranking for your target keyword, then you can consider broadening your reach. Until then, you are climbing the ranking mountain. By adding additional keywords you are weighing yourself down and making it harder to make that climb.

Try searching Google.com for "sacramento real estate" and comparing the results to "sacramento california real estate". Intuitively you would expect the results to be the same, right? They are not.

Now try again searching for "childrens book" and compare the results to "childrens books". Again, the results are different.

It is challenging enough to climb to #1 for an exact keyword or phrase. The next challenge would be to rank for slight variations of that phrase such as the plural version or a more clarified version.