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To be honest, I'd say that PageRank is dead. Don't even think about it. Google sometimes doesn't update PageRank for many, many months. Today, there are hundreds of other things that I'd think about before even thinking about PageRank.

Akhilesh, thanks for the questions. In general, I would think of "SEO" as not a "bag of tricks" to manipulate Google. Thankfully, that died years ago. Rather, "SEO" is a collection of best practices that help you to build an online brand that deserves to rank highly.

Here's my personal take on your questions:

Can we do link building like directory, article, press releases, classifieds, business listing, social bookmarking etc.

No. The best links today are not that ones that you directly get -- the best links are the ones that others give you. It is "earning links" and not "building them." And how do you do that? Basically, two general ways: 1. Create awesome, authoritative content on your website's topic and use social media and PR to promote it so that people will find it and link to it themselves. 2.) Build such an amazing website with a great user-experience that word will spread naturally via word of mouth.

These "earned links" are difficult and costly to get. But nothing useful ever comes quickly and cheaply. If true "SEO" were quick and cheap, then everyone in the Moz community would be millionaires by now.

We need to check DA, Alexa, Page Rank, cBlock IP before publishing any kind of Link but how much Max or Min. no. should be for consider any website like DA should be min 20-30-40 etc..

Don't worry about checking metrics. Focus on websites that are naturally relevant to you. If I publish a website about football (soccer, for Americans), then I want links from other websites about football regardless of their "domain authority." In the same way, I probably wouldn't care that much about a link from a website about cooking even if it had a DA of 90. Think like a human being, not like a machine -- in the end, that's what Google wants to do.

How can consider a natural links?

If you are asking what I think you are asking, then the links that are "earned" (as described above) are as natural as you can get.

Which type anchor text should be in any kind of links may be directory etc.

Don't think about anchor text. If you think about it too much, you will just get into trouble. Let people use whatever anchor text they want so that it will not look manipulated.

In website interlinking we should put Exact Links or no need to put any links For.ex.my website is abc.com.au then we can put link for Website Design keywords or Should be long tail keyword.

I don't understand. Can you clarify?

How can we do content marketing means we should post blog in internal website or need to create External Blog like BlogSpot, WordPress.

Put your blog on your own domain (you can use a platform such as Wordpress on your domain). If you put it on a different domain, then your "authority" will be diffused. Keep it "all under one roof."

In blog we should put any keyword link OR should be post without links.

I don't understand. Can you clarify?

We can put link on no follow website.

Don't worry about whether the links are follow or nofollow. A quality link on a relevant website may send valuable referral traffic. One rule: If Google did not exist, would you want this link? If the answer is "no," then skip it.

Why more website coming on Google first page but they are doing Spammy links like exact keywords links, unnatural links etc..

This is just my opinion, but I think fewer and fewer spammy websites are ranking highly following Google's Penguin, Panda, and other updates. Sure, Google is not perfect and will never be perfect, but it's getting better.

First, just to correct your terms. "Conversion" page and "landing" page refer to the same page. The page that pushes the visitor to do something valuable (fill out a form, buy something, etc.). It is the page on which the traffic lands from somewhere else.

So, you're asking if your website page that is pushing traffic towards a landing page have its rankings hurt because the landing page is on another domain? It should not. The only extreme possibility that I can think of is if the other domain has penalties or is somehow known by Google to be a spammer. You never want your site to be associated with such sites in any way.

But why would you structure your conversion path in this manner? Wouldn't you want to keep everything on your domain? The only reason I can think of is if this is an affiliate website. If that's the case, then you need to be careful in general. Google loves to penalize what they call "thin, affiliate websites" that really offer nothing valuable and original -- especially in terms of content -- and exist only to sell stuff. Make sure that you or your client's site (if it's an affiliate) is truly quality. Just a comment on your overall strategy -- if this is indeed the case.

Hope that helps!

I've collected a list of resources from Moz and elsewhere that should help to address your concerns:

• A Mozinar and subsequent blog post on Moz's change from seomoz.com to moz.com
• How to launch a new website
• An infographic list of things to check
• 10 Things to Check

Good luck!

Yes. That is the problem. If you'll look at Google Webmaster Tools, you'll see how often Google crawls the site. That will give you a good idea of when Google will "see" the change. Then, the search results themselves should reflect the change in the following few days.

Just one thing to keep in mind though: Google itself says it will not always show your desired meta description. It may highlight different text excerpts from your site based on the search query and other factors.

My apologies -- I think I was not very clear. Here's what I mean. You have two search activities going on:

Someone not in Greece looking at non-personalized search results for Greece for keyword X. This will give you one set of results.

Someone in Greece doing a search for X. The results will still be based on that individual person's own search history. Even if there is no Google account logged in, Google still has information on prior searches and more for that IP address, browser, and probably a lot more. So, the search results will still be "personalized" to an extent.

Now, I would imagine that if the second person would also use non-personalized search results for Greece, then the results should be very similar.

Does this help?

Thmavri, I do not work for Moz and cannot speak for the company, but I thought I'd respond.

It is impossible for anyone -- me, you, Moz, or anyone else outside of Google -- to know exactly how a given website is ranking with 100% certainty. Even using URL parameters and other methods to incorporate non-personalized results for a certain geographic area is not going to be completely accurate. All ranking tools can only give good approximations at best.

The reason is that there is really no such thing as a "website rank." Google is aiming to deliver the most-relevant results on an individual basis for each person based on search history, device, location, Google+ activity, time of day, and countless other factors that we don't know. In short, every individual person will see different search results.

So, I'd use your ranking tool of choice to get a good estimation of a site's ranking. But don't depend on it 100%.

The easiest way is to rebrand as a completely-original word or phrase so that people would only ever write (or search for) that word or phrase in reference to your company.

The other major way would be to use schema code on your website to "tell" Google exactly what you are: a business in Sweden (and not a town in Minnesota) so that there is less confusion on the part of the search engine. I'd start here.

Good luck!

I think your canonical tag is not formatted correctly. Here is Google's guide.

You have:

Google says:

In theory, I don't see why that would make a difference, but I've always seen the tag elsewhere and use it on my sites as per Google's version. If that doesn't work, then Google's page linked above has alternate ways to define the canonical URL. Good luck!

I would not use a .eu domain if I were you (or probably anyone else). It's too big and generic of a target when Europe is full of so many countries and languages. I'd recommend it only for a site such as Eurovision. Now, there are three ways to do it.

**1. Separate root domains.**This would be creating and using example.be and example.nl.

2. Separate subdirectories/subfolders. Take your main website at example.com and configure its targeting (in the meta data and Google Webmaster Tools) to either Belgium or the Netherlands. Then, create a subdirectory/subfolder for the other country (example.com/nl/ or example.com/be/) and configure its targeting as well.

3. Separate subdomains. This would be creating nl.example.com and be.example.com

SEOs and digital marketers will argue forever over which one is best. I'll point out some general differences and points since I don't know your specific situation.

• Separate root domains and subdomains are essentially entirely-separate sites in Google's eyes. This is good to use when you have a lot of specialized content for each domain's target audience/country/topic. It's also usually easier to use different design templates on different domains and subdomains. The bad side is that links pointing to one domain or subdomain will probably not "benefit" the other one.
• Keeping everything on one domain in a second subdirectory/subfolder can be a lot more simple to manage. Plus, all links to everywhere on the domain generally "help" everything on the domain. However, you will often be limited to using the same overall design template.

Since you cannot create country-specific content, I'd create one website and use a secondary subdirector/subfolder (number two in the main list at the top). Google says the duplicate content is not a problem as long as it is clear that the two versions are each targeting a different location.

As to why your current .nl website is not performing, it's impossible to say without taking a look at it. First, review this page of introductory guidelines and the related links. Some more detail from Google. A Webmaster Support question.

For more information on international strategy, I'd suggest this post by Moz Associate Aleyda Solís. Good luck!

I'll use Moz as an example. Category page: http://moz.com/blog/category/technical-seo (so, your first thought was correct)

Personally, I agree with and use this approach because it makes logical sense from a hierarchical standpoint. As you go down from the home page to a blog page (or any section page) to a category page to an individual post, the focus becomes narrower and narrower. So it's more intuitive for Google to understand what your site is all about.

I hope that helps!

The basic theory is that as you go down a website's hierarchy, the more you go from short-tail, general themes to long-tail, specific things. Here's the rough idea:

• Home Page -- very general short-tail
• Blog (or other main section page) -- general and short-tail
• Post Category (or a section subpage) -- specific and long-tail
• Blog Post -- very specific and long-tail

Basically, items like blog posts should ideally be the best sources of authoritative information on very specific topics such as a post each on "international seo," "e-commerce seo," and "b2b seo." All of these posts could be within a category of "seo strategy" for which the category page would aim to rank.

As far as click-through rate -- it depends on the keyword. You should aim to give whatever will address the user intent behind a given search query. The more that the query is very, very specific, the more that it should probably be targeted by a specific post. The more that it is a general, informational query, the more that users may want to be taken to a collection of posts.

Now, I wouldn't know what to suggest for your website because I have not seen it. But I hope this helps!

I would use traditional PR to earn mentions of and links to the infographic. Basically, go through this process (it's the short version):

1. Who are the people that would like the infographic?

2. What publications, blogs, and online sites are read by those people?

3. Pitch your infographic to those media outlets (and, when relevant, to the best specific reporter or blogger at those outlets).

Of course, it's more difficult than that. Each of those steps can take a lot of time. But proper PR can work wonders if you do it well. For more information, I'd suggest looking at this Moz post of mine of the topic. Good luck!

Yes, you can. In the section of the page, put a line of code like this:

rel="canonical" href="FULL EXTERNAL URL" />

Based on Google's own statements and SEOs' research, here's what we can say:

1. A page will not rank more highly just because it incorporates Google+ authorship.

2. However, a search result may have a higher click-through rate because of the photo and associated Google+ authorship within the result. (Results with markup tend to have higher CTRs than those with only text.)

3. Google+ authorship can improve branding (and thereby CTR) -- but only if the individual author is a brand himself or herself. An SEO article with, say, Rand Fishkin's authorship helps a lot more than authorship from some "Bob Smith" that no ones knows and who has a very small Google+ following.

4. The more that a site is active on Google+ in general, the more that the site will tend to appear in personalized search results of people who have followed or "+1"ed that site on Google+.

Now, here's where it gets tricky. A top Google executive said at SMX West (I was there) that Google is looking into what doing could be termed an "AuthorRank" in the future. The theory: If Google deems an author to be a credible authority on a given topic, then that person's content will be more likely to rank for searches on that topic. However, this is all hypothetical at this point. It may or may not happen.

The brief exchange:

DS: On authorship, there is no author rank, but could that become a signal?

AS: Possibly it could.

I hope this helps! My recommendation: Build the brands of both your company and individual staffers/contributors on Google+. I personally think this will be the best action for the long term.

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, I'd take a look at the linkbuilders in Moz's list of recommended companies. Good luck!

There is so much I can say, but I'll try to be brief.

1. Focusing so much on keywords is SEO from five and ten years ago. Don't worry about keyword percentage in the text -- write text for humans, not search engines. Just sprinkle the keyword a few times naturally. If I were to read your page, I should not be able to tell what keyword you're targeting. Moreover, focus on the user intent behind the search query. What exactly is the person looking for when he or she types that query? Make your page the best resource for whatever that happens to be.

2. What's your link profile? Are you building links with exact-match anchor text? If so, that's a big no-no today. The other site may have more earned links (sites are linking to him or her without him or her having to do much of anything directly).

Here's the general process that I would recommend for anyone:

1. Build a great website with a great user experience that is the best resource for your industry or sector.

2. Publish the best content on your given topic.

3. Use social media and PR to promote the website as a whole and the content individually.

4. Repeat indefinitely.

5. See rankings, traffic, natural links, sales, and more increase naturally over time.

Without even knowing you or the competitor, I'm 99% sure that he is doing this process better than you at the moment.

Diego, thanks for the question. The issue is complicated, so I'll try to summarize point by point.

Ideally, they would want to have the community in a separate domain. This domain wouldn't have the logo of the brand. This community wouldn't promote the brand itself.

First off, I have to question the brand strategy. WHY does your company not want to the community to build the brand directly? A good, positive online community -- when run well -- can do wonders for a brand over the long term. Hey, just look at how much people love Moz just because of the community. I see no benefits to your company's idea -- and I see a lot of negatives.

The reasoning of this approach is to not interfere in the way of the community users and also the fact that the branded traffic acquired doesn't end up buying at the store

I don't buy this premise. There are times when direct sales are not the best Key Performance Indicator (KPI) of a certain marketing tactic. An online community builds a brand for the long term -- the KPIs may be metrics such as reach and more rather than direct sales resulting from community traffic and posts.

I'd read or watch this Whiteboard Friday -- it's on content marketing, but the idea is relevant. Few people see a piece of content and buy. But that's not the point. The more that people see the content time and time and time again, then the more likely it is that they will remember you when they do want to buy. It's the same idea in advertising: no one buys Coke because of an ad that they saw yesterday -- they buy Coke because of the ads they have seen for their entire lives. Likewise, no one is going to buy after reading a single community post. But the more that people engage and engage and engage with the branded community, the more likely it is that they will buy in the future. It's a long-term play.

Ideally, they would want to have the community in a separate domain.

Do you mean an entirely-separate root domain or a subdomain of the main root domain?

Either way, the same argument below applies.

I am concerned because the brand is not that big to have two domains separated and lose all the authority associated with one strong domain. I would definitely have everything under the same domain, store and community, otherwise we would have to acquire traffic for two domains.

You are correct. As much as Google likes to say that subdomains are treated the same as root domains, most of the data we've seen suggests otherwise. It's best to keep everything under the same root domain. If someone links to a community post or discussion and it's on a subdomain or another domain, then the main website will get little benefit.

Point: However, there are two times when a subdomain (or another root domain) may be better:

1. Creating a part of the website that will be less secure than the main website. Common example: A website has very confidential information, so they add a blog by putting Wordpress on a subdomain because Wordpress is less secure.

2. Very different design. It's a lot easier to have a completely-different design on a subdomain rather than in a subfolder on the main website.

Still, I'd suggest putting everything under the same root domain whenever possible. I hope this helps!

1. Can we author tag our own custom product descriptions or will goggle not like this?

Google will not like it. Google's guidelines on Google+ Authorship state the following (see the last two paragraphs especially):

What kind of pages can be used with authorship?

Good question! You can increase the likelihood that we show authorship for your site by only using authorship markup on pages that meet these criteria:

• The URL/page contains a single article (or subsequent versions of the article) or single piece of content, by the same author...
• The URL/page consists primarily of content written by the author.
• Showing a clear byline on the page, stating the author wrote the article and using the same name as used on their Google+ profile.

Can I use authorship on my site’s property listings or product pages since one of my employees has customized the description?

Authorship annotation is useful to searchers because it signals that a page conveys a real person’s perspective or analysis on a topic. Since property listings and product pages are less perspective/analysis oriented, we discourage using authorship in these cases.

I highly suggest using rel=author only on pages and/or posts that have individually-authored content such as blog posts and white papers.

2. If we do Author tag it will Google spank us and damage our SEO or because it fresh and custom advance are SEO?

It may, but we don't have a definitive answer on that. I'll refer you to this post by Dr. Pete on declining levels of authorship in the SERPs and why Google might be doing that in response to abuse of the authorship tag. Basically, I'd suggest following all of Google's guidelines and NOT use authorship on product pages or descriptions. Unfairly or not, if you want to play in Google's yard, you have to abide by their rules.

I don't know much about the various types of affiliate software, so I'll leave that to the experts. But I can tell you what Google says (at least publicly) about the "SEO value" of links on the sites of your affiliates.

At an SMX conference, Matt Cutts (Google's head of web spam) said that Google essentially knows how to "handle" the major affiliate networks but that affiliate marketers may want to add nofollow tags just in case. (See the YouTube video.) What does "handle" mean? I would suggest that it's Google's aim NOT to have such affiliate links pass "credit" to the original site because Google views them essentially as paid links or links that are not placed naturally and editorially. Cutts suggestion to use nofollow is a way to stop this from happening for any smaller affiliate network that Google might not know about.

Short version? I'd be highly skeptical of any claim that affiliate links help your "SEO." Sounds like snake oil. Given enough time, I project Google will become good enough that any link that is not 100% earned (rather than built) through good old-fashioned marketing and PR will not help websites (and may, in fact, hurt them).

Moz also has a good post here with some affiliate SEO suggestions and further commentary on the issue.