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On-site optimization only "qualifies" you to "appear" in a SERP. Ranking in that SERP is an entirely different and separate process and a Heck of a lot harder to pull off.

Hey John, I'm going to try to go through all of your answers, one by one: 1. Can it hurt us to blog at a high volume (4 blogs per day) in an effort to include all of our keywords and attach them to state and city specific keywords (ie. "keyword one" with "keyword one city" and "keyword one different city")? Yes, if the articles end up too short or too similar. 4 posts per day isn't necessarily a bad pace, it's just the quality of the writing that can get you into trouble. I don't know what your service is, but, do you need to have a variation for every city? I work for a business that provides city-specific services, but we write blog posts that are relevant for the whole nation, then have pages describing what we offer for each city. We do have some location-specific content, but most of our blog posts are not. Here's the way I'd figure it out: when people are looking for a given keyword, do they usually use the city name? When you search for the keyword without the city name, does Google return map results? If the answers are no, you can write one article that isn't location specific, and Google will rank it in all locations. **2. Is it more valuable to blog only a couple of times per month with deeper content, or more times per month with thinner connect but more keyword involvement? ** Totally depends on your industry. And company. Deeper content can rank for more keywords and has a better chance of getting inbound links, but it can limit the keywords you target. You really need to think about ... (next question) ... 3. Our customers are forced to use our type of product by the government. We are one of the vendors that provide this service. Because of this our customers may not care at all about anything we would blog about. Do we blog for them, or do we blog for the keyword and try and reach partners and others who would read the content and hope that it also ranks us high when our potential customers search? You should write content that appeals to whoever makes the decision to use your product. How often does the government choose whether or not to provide your service? If there's any chance at all that you could eventually lose your contract, write content that appeals to the people who choose vendors. How can you make their decision to work with you easier? Write articles about how your service solves their problem easily. Interview some government officials. Make it clear that you understand them. Also, write about whatever your company is knowledgeable in, so it's clear that you're the thought leader in your space. If it's really unlikely that you'll lose your government contract, or the government track doesn't work, I'd just focus on the last part: what knowledge does your company have that others don't? OKCupid, for example, got great links through their blog, which showed in depth analysis of how we date (making it a great purchase for Match.com, who, alas, stopped blogging). Pinterest developers have a Tumblr called Pingineering that talks about how their engineering team tackles big data issues (granted, this isn't on their site, but they're not struggling for links or rankings). 4. Is there an advantage/disadvantage or does it matter if we have multiple blog authors? Nope. Go for it. Hope this helps! I wasn't able to be very specific without knowing your specific industry, but this should point you in the right direction. Let me know if you have any questions! Kristina

I agree with what Chris said tags are primarily there for users. They should not be indexed they are there to allow people to navigate your site more easily if you index them you will get  duplicate content issues.

Hey John, Hmm, what a strange answer this is: Answer In regards to the hashtags, you can either use them or if you prefer only the related keywords to be used, that works as well. Also, you can follow the tips I have shared in my previous email. I am totally in the dark about why Google would even mention this. Maybe I've missed something

Hi John, So, what you are talking about is called Containment Information. Google says: Containment information indicating that your business is located inside another business (whether or not the businesses are part of the same organization). Not acceptable: "Chase ATM (in Duane Reade)", "Apple Store at Stanford Shopping Center", "Benefit Brow Bar - Bloomingdales", "Sam’s Club Tire & Battery (part of Sam’s Club)", "Geek Squad (inside Best Buy)" Acceptable: "Chase ATM", "Apple Store", "Benefit Brow Bar", "Sam’s Club Tire & Battery", "Geek Squad" See the full guidelines here: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en Regarding your URLs, I would go with domain.com/city-street Regarding keywords, this is tough because you are talking about so many locations. Typical advice looks like this ...but only if you have the resources to build a good, high quality page for each of the 1700 locations. If you do, I'd focus on service + city + regional terms and synonyms on the pages. I might suggest, given the size of this client, that you hire a good Local SEO to consult with you, to whom you can show the actual business in confidence. The goal would be to have them confirm GMB eligibility, actually looking at your client. There can be nuances to that our community might miss, not looking at the actual business model. Investment in an hour or two of consulting with a top notch Local SEO would seem a wise investment to me, given the very big scope of the project. We have a list of trusted Local SEOs here: https://moz.com/learn/local/trusted-providers Hope this helps!

Deacyde, Your response about the user was good. You spend days and days researching keywords and sometimes you get lost in the weeds and forget what the whole thing is all about.

Using the Moz bar I know that I am doing those technical SEO pieces much better than they are. All of the reasonable explanations seem to go in my favor. Just still confused.

Load time isn't that much, same domain redirects only take 16-25ms. I would be more concerned with cross domain redirects.

I really appreciate the responses. Good to know I am on the right track. It helps to have confirmation so that I can make a case with the Executive team.