Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Christopher

There are pros and cons to both options.

Really, it's down to factors such as how the actual words read, brand or non-brand preferences, how it's going to be marketed, any surveys carried out...

When talking about your business/website and marketing offline, how would the web address be conveyed; "one dash two dot com" or "one two dot com".

Having a hyphen/dash in the domain name can cause confusion and memory issues for some, usually without it reads just fine in search results.

Some examples:

• comparethemarket.com
• moneysavingexpert.com
• moneysupermarket.com

Well known brands indeed, however the concept of not having to rely on a hyphen/dash can be seen here, it can and does work for some, though granted not for all.

So another option if your preferred choice is taken ( e.g. onetwo.com ) is to choose something else, such as onefive.com if you'd like an option rather than a hyphen/dash.

Obviously this depends on Branding, could be that you really need the words "one two" in there.

Bear in mind that exact match domains don't matter so much for SEO as they once did.

So a tough call, go with what you believe to be best for the combination of both User Experience and your Brand.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi there,

Maybe, it's likely that there are enough inbound links to the old domain, however it is worth checking whether the Domain Redirect that's in place is a 301 or a 302. If it's the later, get it changed to a 301 if you can.

Depending on your access to Google Webmaster Tools, it would be worth informing Google via GWT (if you can) of the change of address (domain) for the old site. This would help to speed up the full reindexing and removal of the old domain from Google's index.

Hope that helps,

Regards, Simon

Hi Brandon

If you haven't seen this already, an awesome video here on SEOmoz entitled "I'm Being Outranked by a Spammer - Whiteboard Friday" is well worth a view, it was posted last Friday and Rand has some really insightful and valuable information to share.

I would suspect, though obviously can't know, that the links from this .org site to your competitors will not be the reason they are ranking so highly. If those links are being counted, it will be a small part of those rankings, takes a lot more than 1 good link usually.

Just because it's from a .org doesn't mean that the links carry any weight, it sounds like a site with little value from the way you've described it, I'd suggest focusing on creating and distributing some valuable content rather than chasing the links of competitors.  Link Analysis of competitors is of course important, just don't worry too much about individual links, especially if they are questionable such as in this case.  With some great content, you can attract some valuable links of your own that your competitors may not have.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi there,

From how you've described it, the risk isn't worth it.  If the current site/domain is associated with unethical linking practices and has received a penalty in the past, which is likely from what you've said, then you'd be associating the negativity of that site with the new one.

I'd suggest rectifying the current site, improving the quality and making it a site that Google would want to include in it's index and rank for certain terms, then 301 that newly improved site rather than doing so in its current state.

(Public PR is only updated 3 or 4 times per year usually and is a not even worth bothering taking any notice of, the various stats in SEOmoz Pro tools such as Domain Authority and Page Authority, plus MozTrust are much more meaningful figures of which to take notice of).

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Exactly, this in itself is a great answer.

My addition (covered by Goals above possibly) is to focus on the objectives of your business.  Search kind of needs to come second here, would this potential purchase compliment your business objectives and goals!

Only you can really have an idea of the investment time & cost it may take to rank higher than your competitor for your chosen search terms.  Compare this against the cost of the domain & site purchase to factor into your decision making.

That's a superb answer from Alan.

The only thing I'd add is to also consider what the most logical and easily navigatable structure is for your website's visitors, which will likely be one of Alan's suggestions for your structure anyway as they are logical suggestions. Just make sure that you're chosen option caters well for your visitors as well as for Search.

Regards

Simon

Correct, a good point. 104 links isn't that many anyway, if it's all fine on the User Experience front, then nothing to be concerned with.

I would suggest to Avoid NoFollow links internally on your site, that indicates that the page to be 'not followed' is not an important page, this is usually not a good signal to send to the search engines.

Regards, Simon

You're welcome Shawn, glad to have been able to help

Hi Ilya

My first thought is why would those top ranking sites want to engage in reciprocal linking, what's in it for them!  If they are ranking highly, supposedly with authoritive sites, wouldn't make much sense for them to do so.  If the link was one way to them, sure, but reciprocal, doubt it.

Engaging with authoritive site owners/publishers and building up a relationship over time can lead to a one-way link from them, usually much more valuable than a reciprocal link.

I'd suggest spending your valuable time on tasks other than reciprocal linking, the benefits are not usually worth it these days.

Create high quality content that others, including those highly ranking sites, would want to link to, then distribute that content well, seed it, engage with others about it, sure, that's a more effective way to acquire those all important authoritive links that matter.

If you haven't already read it, a relevant blog post here on SEOmoz entitled "Proving Trust on the Web" is well worth a read. One of the topics mentioned is Links.  Time spent Building Trust to help obtain those all important valuable links is usually far more productive and beneficial than participating in reciprocal linking.

Regards

Simon

Spot-on answer from Brian.

So long as everything is done properly (such as correct URL mapping, 301s rather than 302s...) in a timely fashion, then you may even experience a zero drop in rankings and visitors.

With regards to inbound links to your current/old URLs; for any valuable links, try to get those changed so that they point directly to your new URLs, so that none of that link juice is lost through the redirects.

Regards, Simon

You'll need to check the source code, as you'll be changing redirects rather than removing them, redirects will still be in place.

rel="canonical" href="http://noahsdad.com/story/" /> is a current Canonical.

rel="canonical" href="http://noahsdad.com/story" />  would be the new Canonical ( without the / )

Yep, some Canonical tags are being used.  Will need to change the canonicals if you change your redirects ( removing the / ) unless it's automated that is.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do

Using the  /  at the end when linking;  if it matches the URL being linked to, then absolutely.  If it differs to the URL being linked to, then it's linking to a different page essentially.  Best to choose one method and to stick with it for consistency, whichever that ends up being.  Usually, without the  /  is the better option.

You're right, with redirects, link juice is passed to the page being redirected to, however not 100% of it.  Usually varies between 60% and 90%, as a guide, so some loss for sure.

With those new pages and redirects from last night;  have you considered using the Canonical tag?  Sounds like it's something that your website would benefit from using.

Here you'll find a **Guide to Canonical Tags**and here you'll find a Post & Discussion on 301 Redirects vs the Canonical tag  which will explain everything you need to know about Canonicals.

Regards

Simon

Hi there,

You have a fab website dedicated to your son and his amazing progress, you must be very proud of the little chap.

Your question;  there is some tidying up required moving forwards.

An example of a good redirect that you have is:

www.noahsdad.com/  is being 301'd to  www.noahsdad.com

You apparently have 23 other pages being redirected from a version without  /  at the end to a version with  /  at the end, e.g. http://noahsdad.com/story  301'd to  http://noahsdad.com/story/

The main issue with redirects this way round (non / pointing to a page with / at the end) is that with inbound links, the vast majority will point to pages without  /  at the end, so you'll be loosing some link juice through the redirects.

However, you already have many links pointing to your pages with a  /  at the end, some of this link juice would be lost if those pages are redirected.  Though looking to the future, it could still be worth doing this sooner rather than later, so long as you try and request that your most valuable inbound links kindly have the  /  removed from the link, a time consuming process.

So an option is to remove the redirects that are in place, then 301 redirect the URLs with a  /  at the end to the corrosponding URLs without the  /  at the end.

You'll also need to update your sitemap.xml ( http://noahsdad.com/sitemap.xml ) to remove the  /  at the end of URLs once the 301 redirects are in place.

Over time, the URLs with a  /  at the end will disappear from search engine indexes.

So it's a calculated decision to make really, whether or not to change your Redirects around.  It will likely result in some ranking drops (and more importantly, some visitor reduction) in the short-term, however would likely be more beneficial to do so in the medium & long term.

I hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Duke

Thanks for the further info.

As the objective is to not rank better for brand terms, so rather it is to rank better for Non-brand terms, then it doesn't make any sense to focus inbound links on brand terms within the anchor text. That can be counter-productive towards those important Non-brand terms.

Brand is one of many factors when it comes to Search, which you seem to know already. The more brand mentions and links on brand terms, the more authority that brand acquires, in theory.

However that doesn't necessarily benefit Non-brand search.

So all-in-all, my advice is to focus link efforts on a natural blend of Brand and Non-brand links, catering for both is important.  Don't worry too much about changing existing branded links to non-brand, instead, focus on both types of links and anchor text moving forwards.

With best regards

Simon

Hi Michael

Assuming this is Google PageRank that you're referring to, I'd suggest not paying much attention to it.

This is because it's only updated usually 3 or 4 times per year and is the public PageRank that Google occasionally publish, not Google's up-to-date internal PageRank for websites.

• There are alternatives that are more significant and meaningful, such as SEOmoz's Domain Authority, Page Authority, MozRank and MozTrust.

A really useful resource on SEO Ranking Factors is "The Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors" over on Search Engine Land.

Also, check out the "2011 SEO Ranking Factors" here on SEOmoz.

Making use of the SEOmoz Pro Tools to help with ideas and strategy to increase your website's authority signals will be far more beneficial than focusing on PageRank.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi there

Changing the anchor text of inbound links that's already optimized for your non-brand target keywords will risk in reducing your rankings for those keywords; obviously depends on factors such as the quality of those inbound links, competition...

If you are already ranking top for your brand, then this doesn't seem like a worthwhile exercise to do, unless Brand is everything to your business.  If your brand is not ranking well, then by all means go for it for some existing inbound links.

If you can identify any inbound links on anchor text such as 'click here' or 'visit the website' then by all means try to get that anchor text changed, if the link is worth it.

In most cases, I'd suggest focusing on acquiring new relevant medium & high quality inbound links (natural links that is, not paid) with a variety of relevant anchor text, including both brand and non-brand.  This would be time better spent compared to changing existing links that may not help to achieve your goals;  increasing the number of relevant visitors to your site.

Hope that helps,

Regards

Simon

Hi Bob

Some great advice from the guys already.

Don't be overly concerned about your domain name, exact match domains don't carry as much SEO weight as they used to.  Is more important to have a clear, logical URL structure that compliments your content strategy.

As the others have said, focus on creating and distributing fantastic content, that's unique, fresh, topically relevant, interesting, Valuable content and distribute it via all appropriate methods, such as social, universities...

Becoming an Authoritive figure on your topics of speciality is key, try some guest blogging also and participate in relevant forums.

Regards

Simon

I agree with Stephen, as per the 2nd part of my answer; ask the question as to whether your social activity will be sustainable once started and if the time needed could be better spent on other important tasks, at least for a while.

Hi there,

To answer your real question, "How do small businesses use social media, without being annoying?"  ~  I have 5 tips for you.  It's by no means an exhaustive list, it's just 5 to consider and to start with:

1. Be engaging, don't simply broadcast, one-way conversations are annoying and won't encourage that many to actively converse and engage.

2. Content,  in order to have something worth communicating about, you'll need some great content, whether that be website based content or purely social content.  Having something interesting and topical to share and engage about is critical.

3. Join existing communities,  before being able to realistically build any social community of ones' own, become active in relevant existing communities, whether those be LinkedIn groups, forums, guest blogging... Becoming known and perceived as an authority in your chosen specialist areas can really help.

4. Don't be too opinionated,  by all means share your knowledge and views, just be careful not to force them on others, as that can easily become annoying.

5. Enjoy engaging socially,  if you enjoy engaging with people in social circles and get some satisfaction and value out of it, then chances are others will also.

An important point to note as to why some don't do so well when it comes to social online;  a lot of small businesses (and even large & medium ones) start out really well intentioned with their social networking initiatives, not realsing just how much resource it takes to be regularly, consistently engaging socially online and to focus on the reasons for being social in the first place, the social objectives if you like.

It often starts out well then becomes less and less regular with reducing value, purely because of the amount of time and resource it takes to participate in and be successful in social networking.

I hope all that is of some help to you,

Regards

Simon