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So despite the different look and navigation you recommend migrating the whole site to a subfolder on our subdomain?

If you own this site now I would suggest you take some time to investigate branding. A standard look and navigation is desired. On the other hand, you need to be careful making changes to successful platforms.

Based on what you have shared, the likely recommendation would be to use a subfolder, but a proper recommendation on such an important topic cannot be offered in a Q&A. A SEO would need to learn about your company, your business, your niche, the site you are absorbing, etc. prior to making a decision.

All sites were potentially affected by Panda, large and small.

Panda is a group of algorithm changes rolled out over time. Each change had the potential to affect a percentage of websites directly. Even if a site was "panda-proof" they were still affected because they would have moved up in rankings as other sites were penalized.

As an example, take one of the questions asked of Google's Panda testers..."would you trust this site with your credit card information?" Google would present a group of people various sites then ask the question. Users would say yes or no. Then Google would algorithmically review the sites to locate commonalities between the sites which received a yes or no response.

If Google determined users trusted sites with a visible SSL badge more then they would adjust their algorithm to boost sites with a visible SSL badge. This change would affect all sites, large and small. Either a site has a SSL badge or it does not. Panda is a group of many such changes.

No one can guarantee a number one ranking. Some companies offer various "guarantees" but they often are vague in some areas or they offer the company an opportunity to improve rankings and if they fail the client receives their money back.

Here's the challenge for you. Many good SEOs have a full client load. They have an established history and can charge based on their time. There is no need to engage is any arrangements where profits are split or other types of pay-for-results type of contracts.

If you wish to pay for a ranking, then the pay would be substantially higher then normal SEO rates. The normal format of such an arrangement would be you pay the agreed upon rate for the work, then offer a bonus for achieving the #1 ranking.

With the above understood, it is rarely a good deal for the client to engage is such arrangements. Your interest is PROFIT, or at the very least conversions, not ranking. Some issues which may occur: you rank #1 for a low traffic keyword, you rank well for a keyword which does not convert well, your listing is not optimized for click through rate, etc.

SEO is a comprehensive process which involves all aspects of your site and business. The goal of SEO is likely to increase your company's profitability. That should be the focus of a good SEO campaign. If you are targeting specific metrics like ranking, PR, CTR, conversion rate, traffic, etc. you are likely missing out on major factors which influence your profitability.

Hi Peter,

There are many questions which need to be addressed regarding this issue.

• What search engine are you using exactly? Google.com? Google.co.uk? Google.es? Bing? etc

• Have you made any geographical settings in Webmaster Tools?

• Is your site language specific? Do you offer a single language site? Or is it divided by country /uk, /us, /es?

• If you only offer one language, which country is it focused towards?

Your hosting country is an indicator of your site's target audience. All things being equal, I would consider a site hosted in Spain to be less relevant to a US searcher then a comparable site hosted in the US. This factor can be offset by ensuring all other country-specific indicators are set properly.

Sal, if I may be blunt that is a horrible plan from a SEO perspective.

Search engines have matured. They are far from perfect, but they are getting better at filtering out sites like the ones you mentioned. The sites which make it to the first page of results (i.e. receive traffic from search engines) are increasingly becoming the authentic, legitimate sites to which companies or individuals focus their full attention. The idea of throwing up a bunch of sites and receiving traffic to all of them is dying. Why?

The penguin update is focused on eliminating sites which "built" links. Going forward you need to EARN links. The best guide on doing such is here: http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/future-of-link-building.

The idea of ranking with your domain name (i.e. buy-viagra.com) has also taken a hit. It is less effective and will likely continue to decline.

If you want to earn a living online my recommendation is to pick a single niche you love and throw all your focus, time and energy into it. If you pursue the path you are on, I predict a fiery burnout in a short amount of time.

does google detect all updated page with new links as paid links?

No.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to update an older page. For example, an article may have been written in 2010 on a given topic such as "Best Vacation Hideaways in Hawaii". In 2012, another author may write a similar article. The original article author may then offer a link to the newer article stating "for more ideas see [insert new article link].

The above is a legitimate example of why an older article may receive a new link.

With the above noted, almost any authentic technique can be transformed to a black hat tactic. Google has numerous methods for detecting pages which try to manipulate links.

If your site is small, let's say 5 categories with 7 products each, you may provide multi-level navigation links so all your products can be reached from any page of your site.

If you have a larger site, there are some other tactics which can be used. On the home page you can share a "new products" block linking to your latest few products. You can also share a "popular products" block linking to your most popular products.

On your product pages you can offer similar blocks for "similar products" or "people who bought this product also bought....".

Of course it is always helpful to earn external links to these deeper pages. Another idea is if you write any blog articles about your products you surely should link directly to them.

At a high level, SEO is based upon 3 factors: website architecture, content and site promotion (i.e. links + social media).

With any site, but especially a large one, it is critical every aspect of your website architecture is solid. There are tons of design issues which, once resolved, help a site to rank better. A few quick examples:

• are coding errors or site speed issues interfering with the way search engines crawl your site?

• do you have an automated process for internal linking? (i.e. like Wikipedia)

• do you offer users the ability to sign in with 1 click from their social account?

• do you have a mobile website?

• do you offer solid social engagement? comments? etc

The above are just a few sample questions. Anything which can be done via code should be perfect on a large site like yours. The changes effect every single product offered on your site.

Next, evaluate your content. How good is it really? Good is not good enough, and neither is great. You need "absolutely fantastic" and "best on the web" content to rank at the top. Being unique is only the beginning. Be "engaging". Offer detailed pictures of not only the products but images of the products being used. Allow users to share their experience with testimonials / comments, etc.

The second choice would be recommended.

It is common for site owners to publish more pages in an attempt to rank for more keywords. An example I can think of related to directions:

Article 1 - How to clear cache in Firefox 13

Article 2 - How to clear cache in Firefox 12

Article 3 - How to clear cache in Firefox 11

...and so forth. The directions are all the same but in an effort to target individual keywords the site owner generates numerous pages. Search engines view the pages as duplicate content.

Next, site owners attempt what you are suggesting...hire writers to change a few words around to make each article appear unique. This tactic does not help improve the quality of your pages and therefore does not help users. It is simply an attempt to manipulate search engines. It often does not work. If it does work, it may stop working after a time as search engines get better at filtering such techniques.

The suggestion I would make is to forget search engines exist and write the clearest, best directions ever written. Offer images, details about things that might go wrong, etc.

There are countless software solutions for PHP sites.

If you have a WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or other similar site check their extension directory. For example, WP offers a plugin called PS Auto Sitemap.

A popular generic sitemap builder is http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/. As you shared, it is free for a limited number of URLs. You pay a bit and can lift the URL limit.

Is this helpful? If not, please share more details on exactly what your needs are or why these solutions do not work.

I understand the logic behind blocking removing the variables. They are a lot of extra links on the page which some webmasters might prefer to manage.

What I would prefer is to reform the link so it was something like: http://noahsdad.com/treadmill-training-progress#replytocom=22729

I am guessing the "respond" portion of the URL acts as if someone pressed the reply button which seems unnecessary. If someone clicks the link whether in search results or otherwise and is taken directly to the comment, they should be quite happy. If they wish to reply they can hit the reply button.

Google ignores anything after the # character in a URL. Therefore Google would see these as simply a link to the page which should already be indexed.

Perhaps you can ask Yoast about his thoughts.

Regarding the new pages instead of posts idea, do you have a link to share?

Regarding the comment url, the page with the comment should be fully indexed either way. By changing the link, you are helping search engines better understand your site. The comment links do not represent a new page or new information.

Google clearly understands WP sites exceptionally well. I am confident you can choose various options and they will still understand those links represent comments. With that said, I would still go with Yoast on this one.

Actually, SEOmoz does it too. Take a look at their blog comments.

Is the eCommerce site Shopify SEO friendly?

It depends on how you define "SEO friendly". Have they taken some steps to improve SEO? Yes. Would I ever build a business site on that platform? No.

The nice benefits are you can get your site up and going quickly and they offer excellent hosting.

Aside from the financial expense of needing to pay monthly for the service, there are far too many limitations from any hosted solution. There are tons of SEO optimizations which are desirable but cannot be made due to you having no control over the software nor the hosting environment. Sure you can change title tags and some other changes, but that is not close to enough.

I would recommend WordPress + the eCommerce plugin or Joomla + VirtueMart over Shopify. I mention these two specifically because they offer a nice balance between a cart and a site. If you only need a cart, there are several cart solutions available.

If you do go with Shopify, be sure to get your SEOmoz discount: http://www.seomoz.org/pro-perks

There are many possibilities. The best best would be having a SEO consultant experienced with diagnosing penalties take a look at your site. If you wish to try and resolve the issue here are the first steps:

• Are there any other keywords affected?

• Have their been any changes made to the page which was the target URL for that keyword? Have their been any other changes made on your site related to that keyword? For example, adding a new article or page using that keyword?

• What changes have been made on your site in the past 60 days? Include any coding changes, hosting changes, Google Analytics or WMT changes, etc.

• Have you, or anyone on your behalf (employee, SEO consultant, web developer, etc) violated any of Google's Guidelines? Built manipulative links, hide keywords using CSS tricks, etc.

Hello Simon,

There are potentially dozens of areas which can be focused upon to improve your site. A few quick tips:

1. For your logins, offer users the option to log in with their social accounts. The ability to register and log in with a single mouse click using facebook or other accounts is an excellent user experience. Most users do not like to remember new user names and passwords for every site.

2. Get social! Your home page has no social indicators. Set up a page on the major social sites (twitter, fb, g+, possibly linkedin and/or youtube) and offer to connect with users on your site.

3. You presently offer a "Submit a Link" page. Generally speaking, that is a very bad idea. If you provide follow'd links to other sites and they are penalized, you can be penalized too. Be very careful who you link to. Additionally these links can be viewed by Penguin as manipulative.

4. Your content is very thin. The longest post I noticed was not even 300 words. I am not suggesting you add any fluff to your content but rather to ensure each page is informative and genuinely helpful to users.

5. Discuss related topics of interest? For example, what about the different dialects of French? French is spoken in Quebec but it is not the same as what is spoken in France. What about famous French people? etc.

Chris and eyepaq shared good viewpoints. I will build on what they shared and offer a modified approach.

If you were to start a new company "Joe's Plumbing, Painting and Plastering" then here is the approach I would take:

• On day 1, there would be a /plumbing page, /painting page and a /plastering page. These pages would offer detailed information about the services offered.

• Over time, after a few projects were completed in a given area, you could create a /plumbing-chicago page. That page would share details about projects completed in the given area. Add pictures, addresses and other details. Testimonials work great too! Any details to offer rich information specific to that area. I would not recommend moving in this direction unless you can offer a quality page.

The images you shared are perfect. Thank you.

Based on those images, it appears your site has been hit with two manual penalties. I am sorry to share the bad news.

The first manipulative links warning came on April 18th which was before Penguin and before Google was handing out "warnings" which were not penalties.

Your reconsideration request specifically states "some or all of your pages" violate Google's quality guidelines. This notice clearly involves a second issue not related to links. Both of these issues need to be resolved. I would recommend approaching each separately.

I cannot review your site's content fully but even a quick search indicated your site is duplicating / "spinning" content from another site. It could be the other site has taken your content but whatever the issue, it needs to be worked out.

Which of the below two sites has the original content and who copies / spun whom?

http://www.aluminumeyewear.com/gatorz.aspx

http://risqueattitude.com/sunglasses---hats-gatorz.html

I have worked with dozens of sites penalized for link issues and I have never once seen a notice state "some or all of your pages" violate the quality guidelines. That notice is sent when there are on site issues.

I would welcome the experiences from the community to see if anyone else has experienced anything differently.

You can always address the link issue first and then submit a Reconsideration Request, then proceed from that point.

the term is used as the name of the page in the URL.

Can you please show where that is occurring? The full URL to the page is "http://theboardgamers.co.uk/". In Google.co.uk you rank #1 for the term "the board gamers". You should recognize "board games" is a different keyword.

the H1 tag at the top of the page is an exact match

I believe you are mistaken. You are using an image in a H1 tag. Please refer to this Q&A: http://www.seomoz.org/q/would-you-use-images-inside-h1-tags. Even if Google was to consider your ALT tag as the H1 text, it would not be an exact match. An "exact match" is exactly as it sounds, a perfect text match. Any changes, includes the change of tense, plurality, spaces, etc. would affect the search results.

Any advice on this one? As an eCommerce homepage I obviously can't go writing paragraphs full of information about board games. The people visiting aren't looking/needing that (on my site).

There is a variety of methods to improve your relevancy in this area. Just a few to consider:

• you have a rotating banner at the top of the page. You could replace it with a banner that is helpful to your users and search rankings. One possibility would be a background with the following HTML text "All your favorite board games in one place! The Board Gamers"

• your image names and alt tags should probably be reviewed

• you can focus your home page on your brand, "TheBoardGamers" and provide a "Board Games" page

• You can offer a short snippet of text describing your site

I clearly need to add a block of text/content somewhere but I find it hard to think what to write without doing it for the sake of getting keywords in there.

It is great you are including your users in the thought process. They should be first and foremost in your mind.

http://www.seomoz.org/q/why-is-this-site-ranking-so-good

http://www.seomoz.org/q/so-what-on-my-site-is-breaking-the-google-guidelines

http://www.seomoz.org/q/do-you-think-this-is-hurting-me-seo-efforts

There is a bit of history with your site that you might wish to mention. I believe there are even more Q&As as I recall looking at your site more then once. Have you acted upon all the advice previously offered?

You currently rank #4 in Google.co.uk for Jigsaw Puzzles. What exactly is wrong?