Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Oh LOTS of people do.  I just don't see the point these days.  I mean I'll admit I have one directory that I paid for years ago that gives some juice but I don't think everyone just gave up on directories by any means.  Haven't you gotten the annoying emails and calls about how some company is going to make your site appear high up on Google only to find they create a subdomain on their site of your page which they already have a gazillion victims fallen for it, and then they proudly state, we'lll get you into 100 directories.

The thing is, anyone can make a directory with a domain name and a cheap or even free hosting account with the click of a button.  Most shared hosts have directory software.  I guess the thing is how you define directory.   Is it a site that is just dedicated to links of all categories that anyone can submit and get into?  The free ones that allow any site are awful.  We are long past the days of directories.  Thats why we have search engines.  I learned the hard way myself and would hate to see someone else spend time and money  on directory links.

Google has shown time and time again that  an engaging, well-built site with fantastic content and natural links are the key to success. Do you ever go to random directories to find a site?  Now if its a directory for a specific topic and the owner chooses who they accept, and they don't have a ton of outgoing links, then thats a different story.  I think of those as more of just a page on a site with some links that are relevant.

I don't think I've ever used a directory to find a site...only to find places for links.  Sure I had some success, but eventually they all were deindexed or had very low PR/DA/PA/MOZTrust and had to remove them.  There are a handful of expensive ones but seriously why would anyone use them?  I've never gotten any traffic from these directories.  I do think there is one left but its very small and relevant.  http://siliconshire.org/  It's a very nice looking tiny site for a tiny city featuring the handfull of computer repair places in Eugene, Oregon and Springfield, Oregon which has a low population.  (Was number one in 3 months for all my desired keyterms, thats how small), but moved away.  THat's useful because Google doesn't have a list of specific businesses for a small town like that.  Plus it looks cool.   I just found a second one and the title is "The not so evil directory, but when you go to it its nothing but apache errors." lol

I think its all in how one defines a directory.  There are spam directories that are after money or worse yet require a backlink to get in and sometimes also money, and there are directories that are small and serve a purpose that a search engine doesn't do.  I snagged an awesome domain recently waiting in the wee hours and planning on turning it into somethlng similar.  A small site that is dynamic for ONE business category in a small city (hair salons / barber shops).   Mine also will have reviews and an algorithm and not cost a dime to get in.  I plan on doing it Google style and having a clearly marked 3 link only box at the top that is highlighted and marked  they are paid for ads space.  I'll only allow 3 though and if someone wants in they have to outbid that business and the business only can buy 3 months at a time if others are waiting to pay.  I find that ethical because its marked, not overdone, and eventually I plan on selling the domain most likely.  I also have options to sort by price or by review.

I know its a service I'd use as Google places shows only a handful of businesses and most reviews are faked. (it appears that way anyways.)  But I think thats more like a review site then a spam directory site only after money, and users only after PR/PA/DA/MT.

Or if you consider review sites like Yelp a directory in the same ballpark which I personally don't. I consider it a review site that is unethical that needs some serious work, I had someone attack me on Yelp with totally fake accusations which took almost a year to clear up.  Yelp then would take my REAL reviews that I didn't even ask clients to do or mention and put them in the filtered section.  But in a way Yelp sticks to one category...businesses and it has something different than most traditional directories...reviews.   FINALLY after they noticed both reviews were written exactly the same grammar and even used my personal name they removed them, but still kept the real reviews hidden. Regardless it's still a vital site for marketing but when someone says that I took their money in two posts written the same way and I had to get a lawyer and a year of time to clear it up thats just wrong.  You can read online hundreds of people complain that once they paid Yelp their real reviews that were good of course came out of filtered state.  That's so wrong and not cool.

Sorry went on a tangent.

Directories I think are totally useless as well.  Although some of my best backlinks are from high quality diretories that are relevant, but those are difficult to find.  For example I plan on making a directory in a city I lived in that would be just like Yelp but have ideas on how to make it more legit and it's for a specific topic for a specific city.  I'll have a tiny Ad box up top just how google does that is clearly labeled for those that pay, but the rest is based on reviews and my own algorithm.   It lets people find out where the best place to cut their hair is and they can also sort by price and location.

I'll likely do manually unless I can get API access for free as its not a huge city_ but a great domain I managed to snag in the middle of the night. Reviews are checked for authenticity like if they are really in the location or is going to be things like how many reviews they have on other sites.  How many stars will have very little "juice" over how many.  Do they have a website and what is their Alexa ranking?  And if Moz allows API access for free (If not I'll just check manually over a slow period.  I'll use Moztrust and domain trust as main factors.  The reviews on the site of course will play a key part as well.

Wow did I go off topic, sorry but paying someone in say India to get you into 1000 directories is not only money wasted but harmful.  Yet another example of Google sticking their head in the sand about blackhat SEO coming back.  They have stated many times that buying links is very bad.   Whats to stop a competitor?

That said, always ask yourself, are people going to this site and really going to click my link in the directory?  Use links only if its useful and relevant to the user.  They are worthless if nobody clicks them and is the whole point of links in the first place...to get traffic not to trick search engines.  Everything I've seen about listing in the really expensive $400 or more directories is pointless nowadays because, when was the last time you used one?   Yelp (which I HATE) is the only example I can think of other than search engines local listings.

Don't worry so much about links.  Worry about KILLER content.  People love mascots, flat simple designs just like this site.  Focus on quality not quantity but release content on a regular basis.  I think adding one piece of good content such as an article a week (on the same day especially) is a good strategy.  Don't let people con you into guest blogging for links and a lot of the directories require you link to them to get in.

Bottom line, nobody uses directories.  If you do your keyword research first, and then write engaging content you'll get natural links.  You could also link bait by writing an INTERESTING article  / content about a really great site they might pick up on the link and link back, but I'm not a fan.   I'm more of a fan of creating a widget of some kind that you encourage users to put on their sites, but even that I think nowadays is a bit sketchy as the anchor text or alt tags will be the same.

Plenty of tests have been done to show that nothing but fantastic original content mixed with knowing how to write tags properly with the best keyterms, will get incredible rankings, even in cases where backlinks haven't come yet.  Remember SEO isn't just about ranking it's about getting relevant traffic.

I like to pretend that Google staff is always sitting behind my shoulder watching.  If you feel like they would say uhhhh "how is that useful to the user." Don't do it!   You can buy great content online as well, or what I prefer is to write / make the content and hire a quality writer to edit it that is SEO savvy.

Content is king and also you'll get social media traffic from great content as well...which in turn gets links.   Remember REAL and legit Google Plus reviews with the user hopefully also +1ing your Google plus page has shown to help a lot more than expected.  Always remind happy customers that if they have a Google account that it helps if they add you to their circle, give an HONEST review, and get the red +1 pressed helps a lot.  Of course tie your Google Plus page to your website, and make SURE to make some unique posts on the Google plus page.  I promise it helps.  There was a Google staff member that was fired a while back for  blogging how valuable Google +  is or rankings.

Facebook and other sites are useful as well.  Think content and getting relevant traffic and the links come pouring in my friend.  Best of luck.

I forgot one last thing.  A great way to find ideas for content is to use Reddit, the trends tool on this site, Google Trends, and Google News.  Reddit being my favorite.  Example if your site is about virtual reality, search Reddit for Virtual Reality and you'll see whats hot right now.  Twitter too to a lesser extent.

Fantastic answer, and also happy to hear the advice.  Thats the thing....I was DOMINATING 2 or 3 years back by adding content to the site that was mediocre at best.  Just adding content that was half decent all day and everyday eventually would get an unexpected gems, but only around 12 I would want to keep if that.  I just assumed 301 redirecting the pages is the only safe way as losing content would hurt the value of the site, but you'd hope Google would understand the pages aren't helping and its not about fresh content but about relevant, engaging content. If it wont hurt my rankings  I'm going to only transfer the gems none of which I can think of were the guest posts.

Some were alright but nobody ever clicks their links.  I look at links now as:

1. Is it relevant to the user not just to attempt to get better rankings. Are people really going to click it and be useful to them.

2.  The content better be darn good (although I"m not ever doing guest posts with  a followed link again EVER, hopefully no link at all unless its relevant to the user. Maybe if someone wrote a REALLY good article in the future on say  for example the new hottest gadget, I'd let them link to an Amazon affiliate link for that product.   Is that okay you think?  I mean it does help the user.

I also have to take into consideration that links take the user away from the site.  Taking a year off, and spending the last month on MOZ and listening to every SEO podcast I could get my hands on, I decided to learn how to make infographics, non-cheezy mascots, that are interactive usually and animated, and try to hook them in at the head of the page right away.

I also plan on buying high quality internet marketing writers to edit the most important aspects of the site.  I really am looking for someone that is good at hooking people in.

Most importantly the service itsself is a tough one as its a volunteer based site that people think is fake so get a high bounce rate.  I need to get people speaking with the volunteer right away.   I need to have a call to action quick and prove that its credible and real.   Thanks so much for your help.  Very appreciated.

VERY helpful.  My only question is I have hundreds and hundreds of articles....So I just keep them and remove the links?  I'd say 15% of them are guest posts and they have followed links.

I'm at least going to no follow but I sortof made a promise to these people to give them a link and feel like a jerk. But the link is not valuable because its not getting clicked.  Thats the whole point of links in the first place is to get traffic not trick search engines.  I'm at least going to no-follow but actually I should really remove the links huh?  Maybe contact them and explain that its hurting both of us.

Only like 3 or 4 pages on the blog are really popular.  Its the actual chat page that gets all the traffic.

Maybe I could redirect the links in sets?   Also another problem, the domain I have to switch to, is very old and good name.  I can't keep the current domain because the site turned into something else on its own.  (computer repair services business in Oregon, to volunteer based computer help site.

Is it wise to 301 a few articles at a time (the most important and the least important?)  Also I don't want to be accused of plagiarism.   A lot of the articles are lame topics too.  What does one do in this situation?  Thanks SOOO much.  I'm sure you'll get the "best answer" judging by your first post.

I was just about to ask the same question and about to do a 301 redirect myself.  Mine question is should I use www. or just http://site.com?  I know its not good to have both as it could be cited as duplicate content, but what do you all think?   My site is ***techhelp.fake     (not really .fake and its not a TLD or whatever.

Currently hosting a site I'm planning on moving to a new server ASAP, 301 redirecting and have a domain that has nice authority and very old.

On the current site I need to clean up the blog.  I have a few questions actually....

1.  I'd like to remove most of the blog articles as I want the new site to be very high quality, but isn't it dangerous to do a 301 redirect to the same page for all these articles?

2.  I want to focus on the new site as the current site has too many issues but still managing to hang in their.  is highly outdated yet I don't want to spend a ton of time on the site before the 301 redirect.  With the Pigeon and Panda 4.0 rumors being released soon, I want to get the new site completed ASAP.  Do you think it's better if I fix the

3.  Would removing cloudflare make things better or worse with the crashing of my site due to high traffic (mainly spam on the blog.)

4.  My best article by far is outdated, but should I waste time updating it before redirecting or should I just get the new site going?

I did way too many guest posts thinking content is king, but at least checked the outgoing links Domain Auth, Page Auth, and MozTrust in OSE, but first off I'm going to remove a page that mentions I'm looking for guest bloggers.  I tried to keep the posts relevant but at the time you could get away with

5.  Anything I can do to slow down these spammers on Wordpress?  I noticed most of them are checking for vulnerabilities but I'm keeping it up to date, have caching setup.

Thanks!

Why not convert the PDF to HTML yet still have a download PDF button for clients if desired?  Heck there are lots of free tools to do this, but check the code.  Or you could just use an ALT tag which aren't just for images but for objects.  Not sure if PDF's with ALT tag give much link juice, and if I HAD to keep it as a PDF, I'd convert it to a compressed JPG file and use an ALT tag so that Google knows what the object is and keyterms.

No problem man. I'm not an expert but obsessed with internet marketing and coding. This site is fantastic once you really explore and use it, nothing beats it in my opinion.  I also really like SEO podcasts.  The best ones being "SEO Podcast Unknown Secrets of Internet Marketing" and on webmasterradio they have SEO 101 and a couple others.  I just download them all and listen while in car.

Things change on a daily basis and its a great way to keep up yo date and get ideas.  Sorry to go off topic, but I learned that Keyword research is so vital in the beginning before development.  Then it's content is king., You make killer content and the links will come naturally.  Only get backlinks if its relevant and if you think people would click it..(if you have the opportunity.)

I'm working on adding directories to my site, but modern ones with reviews and maps.  I LOVE scripting (mainly in bash) but found it all such a hassle getting API's..eventually it costs money or right from the beginning.   Sure you could scrape but that violates their terms and not a good idea.

I'm trying to figure out an algorithm myself as I want it to be legit, but will have a small Google ads-like section up top that is clearly labeled as ads.  If you figure out a good method other than manual please let me know.  I doubt Alexa cares if you view their site a few times a day through a textual browser but still...I want to do it by the book and its one of those things where its probably faster to do manually anyways I just love automation.  Wish API's werent required so darn much, but understand it thanks to stupid spammers. Ruins it for webmasters looking to get good content.

I know Google has announced they prefer hyphens to underscores  ( website.com/this-is-better)  (website.com/this_is_not).  Personally I think it depends on the situation and  agree to not overdo it.  With longer URL's its hard to read with no spacing.

Not sure I'm following you, but I don't think it's ever a good idea to have different micro sites hosted all on the same host with the same IP.  Why not build up the domain authority for ONE domain.  I remember herding Google not liking the new subdomain craze too, but that was just on a podcast.   Sorry I don't understand your question better.

I tested smaller sites too though, and I expected you were going to say it was the cache but keep in mind I ran the non SSL version first in that example so why in the second test RIGHT after with SSL it's slower even if it was cached.  By the way even when clearing cache or testing on one of my many shell (ssh) accounts and one VPN in New York even, same results.   I tried with w3m as well.  I hear you, but I think it's incorrect to say that HTTPS can and usually does slow down most pages although its a very small difference.

I'm just going by experience and tests, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt as you seem to know more about setting up networks and SSL/TLS than I do. Sorry if I seemed like a jerk, I just find your conclusion surprising.

It's actually good news for me as I'll be needing HTTPS soon for a site as I will be accepting payment.  I already knew the difference is miniscule but personally I still think for most if not all servers implementing encryption is going to slow it down a little bit.   The client visiting the site and the server have to go through extra steps. How could it not take longer?  Even if it is a small amount, you really think HTTPS is identical in speed to HTTP (if setup correctly on a LAMP (Linux Apache MYSQL PHP) server.  There are more calculations going on.  Encryption/Decryption takes time...even if its done well...its like pure math.  I am a total idiot (no sarcasm) and I can't fathom how you think its a myth....

Uhh most servers run on Apache not crappy Microsoft server. I can tell you know more about networking though and not saying I'm 100% certain...more like 60% but I can literally see the results myself right now:  I just did a test myself:

I did wget on http://www.google.com and its 0.01s seconds for http and 0.04s for https....  I didn't even modify the timing to be more specific....

[ <=>                                   ] 19,425      --.-K/s   in 0.01s

2014-08-19 22:19:44 (1.26 MB/s) - 'index.html' saved [19425]

unknownlocal-7:~ unknown_device$ wget https://www.google.com

--2014-08-19 22:19:58--  https://www.google.com/

Resolving www.google.com... 74.125.224.48, 74.125.224.49, 74.125.224.50, ...

Connecting to www.google.com|74.125.224.48|:443... connected.

HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK

Length: unspecified [text/html]

Saving to: 'index.html.2'

[ <=>                                   ] 19,376      --.-K/s   in 0.04s

2014-08-19 22:19:58 (501 KB/s) - 'index.html.3' saved [19376]

Yes just not on all pages.  NSA only uses it on pages where encryption would be helpful.  Not all sites set up the server to allow HTTPS even if you type it, but with a simple extension you can for those sites.

If the server has port 443 open its safe to assume they have HTTPS enabled on at least some pages. You are right though I can't get state.gov's homepage to use HTTPS. So yes state.gov DOES have HTTPS/SSL just not on all pages.  Do a port scan with nmap  (sudo nmap -A -v state.gov)   You'll see 443 is wide open bud.  Look:

Starting Nmap 6.46 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2014-08-19 22:01 PDT

NSE: Loaded 118 scripts for scanning.

NSE: Script Pre-scanning.

Initiating Ping Scan at 22:01

Scanning state.gov (72.166.186.151) [4 ports]

Completed Ping Scan at 22:01, 0.09s elapsed (1 total hosts)

Initiating Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 22:01

Completed Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 22:01, 0.05s elapsed

Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 22:01

Scanning state.gov (72.166.186.151) [1000 ports]

Discovered open port 443/tcp on 72.166.186.151

Discovered open port 80/tcp on 72.166.186.151

Increasing send delay for 72.166.186.151 from 0 to 5 due to 11 out of 17 dropped probes since last increase.

SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 43.30% done; ETC: 22:02 (0:00:41 remaining)

Increasing send delay for 72.166.186.151 from 5 to 10 due to 11 out of 11 dropped probes since last increase.

SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 50.65% done; ETC: 22:03 (0:00:59 remaining)

Completed SYN Stealth Scan at 22:02, 76.38s elapsed (1000 total ports)

Initiating Service scan at 22:02

Scanning 2 services on state.gov (72.166.186.151)

Completed Service scan at 22:02, 6.18s elapsed (2 services on 1 host)

Initiating OS detection (try #1) against state.gov (72.166.186.151)

Retrying OS detection (try #2) against state.gov (72.166.186.151)

Initiating Traceroute at 22:03

Completed Traceroute at 22:03, 0.03s elapsed

NSE: Script scanning 72.166.186.151.

Initiating NSE at 22:03

Completed NSE at 22:03, 6.22s elapsed

Nmap scan report for state.gov (72.166.186.151)

Host is up (0.082s latency).

rDNS record for 72.166.186.151: web2.dos.iad.qwest.net

Not shown: 995 filtered ports

PORT     STATE  SERVICE    VERSION

80/tcp   open   http       Apache httpd 2.0.63 ((Unix) JRun/4.0)

|_http-favicon: Unknown favicon MD5: 0713DD3D30C35F2474EFAA320D51F3C9

|_http-methods: No Allow or Public header in OPTIONS response (status code 302)

| http-robots.txt: 1717 disallowed entries (15 shown)

| /www/ /waterfall/ /menu/ /navitest/ /g/

| /documents/organization/*.htm /documents/cat_desc/ /documents/backup/

| organization/revisions organization/193543.pdf organization/193546.pdf

| organization/193567.pdf organization/120733.pdf organization/120738.pdf

|_organization/124827.pdf

| http-title: U.S. Department of State

|_Requested resource was http://www.state.gov/index.htm

81/tcp   closed hosts2-ns

113/tcp  closed ident

443/tcp  open   tcpwrapped

8080/tcp closed http-proxy

Device type: storage-misc

Running (JUST GUESSING): Netgear RAIDiator 4.X (98%)

OS CPE: cpe:/o:netgear:raidiator:4

Aggressive OS guesses: Netgear ReadyNAS Duo NAS device (RAIDiator 4.1.4) (98%)

No exact OS matches for host (test conditions non-ideal).

Uptime guess: 56.674 days (since Tue Jun 24 05:51:59 2014)

Network Distance: 1 hop

TRACEROUTE (using port 8080/tcp)

HOP RTT      ADDRESS

1   22.27 ms web2.dos.iad.qwest.net (72.166.186.151)

NSE: Script Post-scanning.

Read data files from: /usr/local/bin/../share/nmap

OS and Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at http://nmap.org/submit/ .

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 94.63 seconds

Raw packets sent: 2136 (99.048KB) | Rcvd: 48 (2.300KB)

Myth?  Lol it's testable with curl, wget, lynx, or links. (pretty much any textual browser).  I've said its an unnoticeable difference and BARELY slows it down....but it does...and yes Man in the Middle SSL attacks would be done more in a rogue wifi setting.

There are so many attacks on HTTPS not just injections.  Also some lame old internet filters wont block the HTTPS equivalent of sites.  I agree that its more secure than using HTTP, and I agree the speed difference is minor but a myth??? That's a bit stretching it.

I take that back more I think In a lot of ways HTTPS can make situation for webmaster less secure and not more secure.  There are many attacks on HTTPS sites you can do that you can't on regular HTTP.  Many people set it up wrong and get a false sense of security. Clients see the lock and think "Oh this site is secure I don't need to practice good security practices."

Also the fact that it's so easy to crack HTTPS even remotely I just don't see it justified unless we get proof that it really helps rankings.  I personally like catering to the user more than the search engine.  If your blog has sensitive content (I'm sure it does as it probably has registration and login / logout), then it makes sense but there are so many attacks..  http://breachattack.com/ was a popular one back in 2012.

You really think its a good idea for a site with 6 pages ALL static to invest in SSL/HTTPS instead of content?  Please give me a link showing one study that shows how much better a site is likely to rank with or without https and I'll shut up.

Please read the rest at: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/how-secure-https-today

More and more vulns are found everyday....We only know about the non zero day vulns and exploits.   There are new attacks coming out every few weeks.  Look at this link which is from March 2014 and the new attacks. http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/03/07/1711215/https-more-vulnerable-to-traffic-analysis-attacks-than-suspected

1. Break into any Certificate Authority (or compromise the web applications that feed into it). As we learned from the SSL Observatory project, there are 600+ Certificate Authorities that your browser will trust; the attacker only needs to find one of those 600 that she is capable of breaking into. This has been happening with catastrophic results.
2. Compromise a router near any Certificate Authority, so that you can read the CA's outgoing email or alter incoming DNS packets, breaking domain validation. Or similarly, compromise a router near the victim site to read incoming email or outgoing DNS responses. Note that SMTPS email encryption does not help because STARTTLS is vulnerable to downgrade attacks.
3. Compromise a recursive DNS server that is used by a Certificate Authority, or forge a DNS entry for a victim domain (which has sometimes been quite easy). Again, this defeats domain validation.
4. Attack some other network protocol, such as TCP or BGP, in a way that grants access to emails to the victim domain.
5. A government could order a Certificate Authority to produce a malicious certificate for any domain. There is circumstantial evidence that this may happen. And because CAs are located in 52+ countries, there are lots of governments that can do this, including some deeply authoritarian ones. Also, governments could easily perform any of the above network attacks against CAs in other countries.

In short: there are a lot of ways to break HTTPS/TLS/SSL today, even when websites doeverything right. As currently implemented, the Web's security protocols may be good enough to protect against attackers with limited time and motivation, but they are inadequate for a world in which geopolitical and business contests are increasingly being played out through attacks against the security of computer systems.

Yes I am.  On Nsa for example go to their apply now page....its mandatory https.  You can also manually type https:// on any page for almost all sites that have it, or just download httpseverywhere like I do, which makes it so that ALL pages on NSA.gov for example are using SSL /TLS encryption through HTTPS.  It does slow down sites but we are talking micro seconds here.

Ehhh actually most major sites use HTTPS....Just some not on every page.  I use a plugin called HTTPS everywhere that forces sites to use HTTPS on pages they don't require https. (but only works if they have it already).  Banking sites use it, Google uses it, Facebook does, ummm actually alll major sites do.

Tr opening an untouched browser like Safari or Opera and go to the top sites.......So far everyone of them uses HTTPS.  HTTPS isn't a bad thing, it does raise security, and if setup right it doesn't slow down the site that much to worry about, I just personally think its not needed for most sites and I doubt Google is going to give that much juice to people that run out and setup HTTPS/SSL for no reason other than rankings.

Check out http://www.alexa.com/topsites

Even the homepages all are using HTTPS.  Chrome doesn't show the http/https part so thats probably why you don't think most sites use it, but almost all the major sites do...You are right with Moz not having it though.  And a lot of sites have it but not for all pages.  I agree with you too that it's not worth the investment unless you need a higher level of security.

Moz.com is my second favorite competitive link finding tool, but I used a Windows SEO program (dont think I'm allowed to mention the name.), and it was fantastic. Third favorite is plain old Google.

The program I used would  crawl for hours and hours and also have the database from other users.  I found all kinds of incoming links to competitors sites I never would have thought existed.

But yes the tool here works and is worth using. (OpensiteExplorer)

You can also get a very, very basic backlink profile on Google by searching: link:www.site.com  which for me brings up 314 sites that all link to the site www.site.com.  Bing|Yahoo (Microsoft bought out the search part of Yahoo so the results are the same.), has same feature as well but their database has way less sites but still for sure worth using as I sometimes find they don't hold back as many links like Google does.  (Bing uses same syntax as above:  link:www.moz.com)

Wait nevermind I take that back.  Bing now has whole tools dedicated to finding backlinks.  Nice http://www.bing.com/toolbox/link-explorer   Remember dealing with them you are also dealing with Yahoo.  As terrible as both the sites are, they still have a huge part of the search market.  Personally I think someone needs to stepup and make another search engine. (Maybe Apple?) that uses their own algorithm.  I'd try Bings new backlinks tool!!

As for Google they hold back most incoming links, but here are some for the site you posted:

• Program and Portfolio Management Role | Gartner ...

  <cite class="_Ed">www.gartner.com/technology/.../program-portfolio-management.jsp</cite>Even though program and portfolio management (PPM) is a growing area of need for many organizations, the results it delivers often don't live up to ...

• Gartner Identifies China's Top 10 Strategic Technology ...

  <cite class="_Ed">www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2764217</cite>Jun 11, 2014 - A new report from research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc. identifies the top 10 strategic technology trends that CIOs in China should consider in ...

• Gartner Acquires Software Advice | Gartner Acquisitions

  <cite class="_Ed">www.gartner.com/technology/about/software-advice-acquisition.jsp</cite>Software Advice helps buyers choose the right software, offering detailed reviews, comparisons and research to assist organizations in finding products that best ...

• Big Data | Technology Research | Gartner Inc.

  <cite class="_Ed">www.gartner.com/technology/topics/big-data.jsp</cite>Big data - information of extreme size, diversity and complexity - is everywhere. This disruptive phenomenon is destined to help organizations drive innovation ...

• CIO Role | Gartner Technology Research & Events

  <cite class="_Ed">www.gartner.com/technology/research/cio.jsp</cite>IT strategies for many CIOs in 2011 aim to redefine the essential elements of IT from infrastructure, to cost structure, to people, to processes. These strategies ...

• Welcome to Intellisys Technology

  <cite class="_Ed">www.intellisystechnology.com/</cite>We are a global Information Technology solutions company. We help organizations address their business challenges effectively through IT. Through our proven ...

• 100+ sources that every innovation professional should know.

  <cite class="_Ed">www.boardofinnovation.com/.../100-sources-that-every-innovation-prof...</cite>by Nick De Mey  - Apr 16, 2012 - Running innovation projects is hard. By definition you're doing new things so you can't rely on old habits and routines. If you and your ...

• Vorsicht, heiße Luft: Die IT-Luftblasen des Jahres 2013 - Gulp

  <cite class="_Ed">https://www.gulp.de/.../Vorsicht-heisse-Luft-Die-IT-L...</cite>Translate this page Es ist weniger heiße Luft in den IT-Trends als in den letzten Jahren: Die 411 Umfrage-Teilnehmer haben nur zwei der zehn Zukunftsentwicklungen eindeutig als ...

• บริษัท คลาวด์ คอมพิวตึ้ง โซลูชั่นส์ จำกัด

  <cite class="_Ed">www.ccs.jasmine.com/</cite>Translate this page HOME. Welcome to CCS. บริษัท คลาวด์ คอมพิวติ้ง โซลูชั่นส์ จำกัด เป็นบริษัทในเครือ บริษัท จัสมินอินเตอร์เนชั่นแนล จำกัด (มหาชน) ...

• IT Vision@2015 | California State University, Northridge

  <cite class="_Ed">www.csun.edu/it/vision2015</cite>Cal State Northridge engaged in a collaborative campus process in 2010-2011 to create IT Vision@2015, a campus digital master plan. Much like the campus ...

• [PDF]

  Enabling actionable analytics for mobile devices - Journal of ...

  <cite class="_Ed">www.journalofcloudcomputing.com/content/pdf/2192-113X-2-15.pdf</cite>Oct 1, 2013 - Lee et al. Journal of Cloud Computing: Advances, Systems and Applications 2013, 2:15 http://www.journalofcloudcomputing.com/content/2/1/ ...

• 10 estratégias tecnológicas en 2014 y por qué - ChannelBiz

  <cite class="_Ed">www.channelbiz.es/.../10-tecnologias-estrategicas-en-2...</cite>Translate this page Jun 11, 2014 - Gartner explica que la convergencia entre movilidad, redes sociales, cloud y datos creará diversas situaciones donde será importante para ...

Yea one of the newest Google updates punished sites with duplicate content.   Ebay is a perfect example.  You don't see them in the SERP often at all now, because they cannibalized themselves with duplicate content, especially on categorie pages that have tons of duplicate content.  Every page should have at least some unique content.  Sure you can use canonicalization but it can be tricky and personally I feel it's better to elimate duplicate content whenever possible or at very least don't have duplicate pages.    Add content to a page if you have to.  (Source:  From a famous SEO podcast I won't mention unless its allowed.)

On all the SEO podcasts and another SEO forum the general consensus was it's not worth it unless your site wold benefit from encryption.  HTTPS also slows sites down a tiny bit, which is likely a factor in Google's algorithm.  I think any site that takes private info like credit cards, SSN, or even logging in and logging out if there is potentially really personal data stored in the site, they should have HTTPS, but not the cheapest certificate you can find!! Nice that it should give a little boost to domain authority though.

Also HTTPS has its issues.  It's very easy to hack in many forms.  (I learned a man in the middle trick in school as proof of concept.)  Also a lot of people don't have a working CMOS battery so their date and time goes off by years causing certificate errors.  Not to mention other reasons people sometimes get certificate errors even though the site paid the bill and its working for everyone else.

My guess and from the SEO experts I've heard from, it's probably not going to give much of a boost.  Highly recommend if the site has sensitive data though because then you kill two birds with one stone, but going out and buying a dedicated IP, then buying the expensive SSL cert,  it's like around $80 to $200.  I would love to see some tests though as if it really does help a lot then I'd invest.  But keep in mind it does slow the site down a tiny bit.

Personally I think one of the best things to do right now (after proper keyword research and planning) is building killer content.  Also, getting Google Plus reviews and +1's has been getting my attention.  So much so a VERY famous SEO podcast asks for it every episode and raves about how much it helps, backed by tests and by ex Google employees.  NEVER do fake reviews.  Personally I think it's wrong to even ask for a good review, I just tell them it helps out a ton and to please be totally honest.  I also ask if they can +1 me and add me to their circle.

SEO is all about content especially right now. Build an excellent site with great content that engages the user and you will get natural links and surely better rankings.  I like to pretend Google Staff is always looking over my shoulder and actually read their TOS and try to remember and understand everything. lol

Everyone focuses on unnatural link building which is such a bad idea or at very least a waste of time and money. That's because (my theory) if you are buying links but nobody clicks on them, Google sees the link as pretty well worthless.  I've noticed Google not caring as much about the "no follow" tag?  Anyways people seem to forget that links should come naturally by building great content.  On sites that use No-Follow as long as you think people will use the link the worst case scenario is you get more traffic.

It's like people forgot that incoming links are for getting traffic to the site not solely for ranking which most people don't do correctly the black hat way anyways.   Just my two cents.  I'm no expert by any means just obsessed with internet marketing for some reason.

I totally apologize.  I only said that because I've only seen women doing video gigs.  Most feminists consider me one, although I don't.  I believe in total equality, I"m very feminine myself, and HATE how women have and still are being abused all over the world.

Where I disagree with a lot of feminists is the language police political correctness stuff. Also you can see the videos beforehand, and sellers can have addons.  I've seen one fivverr gig to get mentioned on a national radio program....but you could pay him up to $550 and get like a 10 minute commercial.

The women on fiverr (in the demos at least) look professional, and not picking them because of their attractiveness, but because of their ability to read something and make it seem natural.

But yea sorry for the comment.  I was tired lastnight and normally wouldn't use the word "chick".  It's a thing in southern california, but at the same time I wish people wouldn't make such a big deal about words.  That's what gives them so much power.

I love the contest idea for the slogan.  I just am torn because I want to engage the user right away.  Also let me explain...the site is already a somewhat successful site that I have to 301 to a new domain.  (It started as just a business page for my computer repair services in Oregon, but turned into something else entirely that is already built.  I have tons of subscribers and fans and stuff.  But I'm making  a KILLER site design wise, but mostly it will stay the same.

With the editing I wasn't talking about anything too fancy.  The articles I wouldn't care too much if its by different writers.  I'd actually probably do them, as I've gotten much better with articles.  (Take my time and take lots of screen shots and been better at coming up with ideas people will like.)

I'm also thinking about asking my stepmom (she's in marketing) and a family friend.  I"m worried with the contest that someone might steal my text or ideas.  Probably paranoia but just being careful.  Thanks for being so blunt and not beating around the bush.  I love this forum because people don't tend to tell white lies to make us feel better, but rather tell us what we need to know.

Of course, not a problem.  I was super tired and messed up some of the wording, but I think you understood what I meant.

One really important factor also is checking sites on Alexa.   Alexa is a site that has for years trying to map out the most popular websites in the world.  Please check out http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/scamanalyst.net

How popular is scamanalyst.net?

Global Rank 

414,999  (They are currently roughly the 414,999 most popular site in the world. They were a lot better and down 382,500 ranks!  (Google, Facebook, and Amazon for example are probably in the top 3)

Rank in United States 

160,626    Here is scamanalyst.net's USA rank.

Alexa Traffic Ranks
The global and country traffic ranks show how popular a site is relative to other sites.

• Learn more about Alexa's Data
• Traffic Metrics FAQs

Unique Visitors and Pageviews
The number of people who visit this site and the number of pages they view. Site owners who install the Alexa Certify Code on their website can choose to display their Certified Metrics, such as Monthly Unique Visitors and Pageviews, if they wish. Coming soon, estimated metrics will be displayed for many sites if Certified Metrics are not available.

• Learn more about Certified Metrics
• Certified Site Metrics FAQs

How engaged are visitors to scamanalyst.net?   (Results below) Meaning :

How engaged are visitors to this site?

How engaged are visitors to this site?
Engagement metrics help you understand how interested a site's visitors are with the site's content. The metrics are updated daily based on the trailing 3 months.

Bounce Rate (%)
Percentage of visits to the site that consist of a single pageview.

Daily Pageviews per Visitor
Estimated daily unique pageviews per visitor on the site.

Daily Time on Site
Estimated daily time on site (mm:ss) per visitor to the site.

Bounce Rate

81.10% 15.00%

Daily Pageviews per Visitor

1.30 11.33%

Daily Time on Site

1:19 10.00%

Just to compare to moz.com.  It's roughly the 25 most used site in the world!

How popular is moz.com?

Alexa Traffic Ranks

How is this site ranked relative to other sites?

Global Rank 

256 25

Rank in United States 

199

Alexa Traffic Ranks
The global and country traffic ranks show how popular a site is relative to other sites.

• Learn more about Alexa's Data
• Traffic Metrics FAQs

Unique Visitors and Pageviews
The number of people who visit this site and the number of pages they view. Site owners who install the Alexa Certify Code on their website can choose to display their Certified Metrics, such as Monthly Unique Visitors and Pageviews, if they wish. Coming soon, estimated metrics will be displayed for many sites if Certified Metrics are not available.

• Learn more about Certified Metrics
• Certified Site Metrics FAQs

How engaged are visitors to moz.com?

Bounce Rate

50.40% 8.00%

Daily Pageviews per Visitor

3.42 12.10%

Daily Time on Site

3:52 9.00%Oh and yep I was right, Google is number 1.  It's just one factor but does tell you a lot. You might also find this useful http://biglistofwebsites.com/list-top-websites-like-scamanalyst.net   It's a list of 100 sites that are most similar.  (Remember nothing is totally 100% accurate, but it still gives you a very good estimate.)

Thanks lots of good information.  I'm really just talking about someone to write a couple sentences.  I have other people that are affordable that can do the editing.  The person I'm looking for would not be more than 500 words.  I have editors and because its just a slogan and intro sentence I'm looking for from an expert, and I'd be writing everything else, then have a family member that happens to be a writer / producer to help edit my text for free.  I already know my keyterms...This is a site that is moving from another site that has been up for around 4 years so I know what I'm doing SEO wise (not an expert) but I suck at writing.   Hard to find a decent writer.

My bad. I misunderstood and misread.  Thanks for the update.

Yes, but how does that help him get the old data he needs? Crawlers shouldn't know your traffic unless you install the code they give you or verify some other way.  Find it to be a crawler causing the problem unlikely unless I misunderstood the problem/question.   I sure hope they have a Linux host (most are) and can just check the apache logs while Google Analytics takes a few days to update.

What webhost are you using?  Most keep analytics software enabled by default or at least lets you turn it on.  (While you wait for Google.)  Analytics are a key part to SEO so I use awstats (free), and webalizer.  With most hosts if not enabled its as easy as clicking a button.

Depending on your host, you might be able to get the raw log info, but most hosts don't have this option unless you paid for a fancy account which allows root shell access, but maybe not it differs from site to site.

Google Analytics will only show 1 visit if you are the only visitor even if you refresh the page or come pack.  It saves your IP address and hardware profile most likely is the method they use. Make sure you change Google Analytics to display as far back as possible.

scamanalyst.net Looks half decent, but I don't know  if it's the whole algorithm.  I think you'd have to pay for API's but could scrape valuable data from Google, like how often the sit-ins updated.  How old  is it and how many years are pre-bought.  How many reviews do they have on common review sites, and also factor in if they are good or bad reviews. (I'd do it as a separate variable.)

Lastly, they have sites like ripoff report.  You could write a script with their permission (and all sites mentioned), that scrapes how many listing on the site.  (The more the worse.)  I'd focus on review sites like Yelp (even though I hate them, Google, and even social media.  (How many  likes,etc.)

I think you could do a better job, but cool site.  Surprisingly accurate if that really is their whole algorithm.

Best way  to manually find out if a site is a scam is to Google the site and check its normal SERPS...then I'd search:  the site.com scam and see what comes up.  I'd also Google the site.com reviews.  I ALWAYS do this before purchasing and I always check how long they have been in business.

The site is fairly new but it's over a year so not bad.  If a site is just registered using a cheap domain extension that should set off HUGE bells and whistles.  It is a .net site which is pretty much equal to .com so you are good on that end.  Hope that was of some help.

Updated Date: 26-apr-2014

Creation Date: 24-may-2013

Expiration Date: 24-may-2015

SO they only bought the domain a little over a year ago.  That would be something I'd use in my choice for sure.  Remember that sites like ripoffreport have a lot of competitors and jerks.  Sites like the one you posted are a good tool,  but manual is always the best if possible in my opinion.

I"m actually doing a very similar project.  Is  this going to be for one of your sites?  The answer depends a lot on that.

Thanks more good advice.  I ran into a lot of the american writers that are retired and old, and don't know about internet marketing yet want an arm an a leg. I know the keyterms I want to optimize for.

Really my focus right now is just a way to explain my site (Which is unique idea and have competitors, but none are doing exactly what I am.

Basically its a complicated idea with a lot to explain.  I'm almost thinking just having a video with audio and pay some chick on fiverrr to read the script so that way I could make it longer. (OPTIONAL of course, nobody likes video that just plays.)  Honestly though I think it would be better to explain in text form.  My explanation would be 5 paragraphs, because I'm way too detail oriented and have trouble knowing what is the important aspects to say and what aren't.

I guess my question now to all of you is where is the best place to find this person.  I now totally agree they need to be an internet marketing writer (but an expert).  Like really whats holding the site back is  my intro slider.  I want a slogan. and a VERY brief explanation as to what the site is about and why it's different.  I want to engage the user from the start.  If it's allowed if anyone knows a person (that I could look up and everything.), please message me their info...or what site would you recommend?

Very good answer.  I actually wasn't going to propose paying by the week and would be per project, was just kindof giving my budget if that makes sense.

You think it's realistic to find someone that is REALLY good, to only do a catch phrase sentence, slogan, and maybe one or two more short sentences? Would $120 be unreasonable?  I mean I'm talking like 100 words here tops.

I need to find a writer that is SEO savvy yet great with

1. Hooks (like hooking the user in.  This site for instance has "Inbound marketing is complicated. Moz's software makes it easy".

2. Editing -  Someone that is again SEO savvy, and doesn't mind editing my text.  (Focused mainly on the text for the site right now, articles will be later.)

3. Explaining something complicated in a simple way that engages the user.

Anyone have any suggestions?  Maybe even someone they use / used?  Or which site do you all like best for finding a writer?  I registered at textbroker.com but maybe need to look harder...just wasn't seeing anyone that matched that criteria.

My budget isn't high, but I believe in paying for quality, so even if I have to pay a high rate for excellent work, they'll also have to be cool with me only doing a page here and a page there every few days or so, as my writing budget for my new site is only $50-$120 a week right now.

Right now I think I only have 36. What is a good amount of pages to have?

Any ideas on  ways to add relevant pages to my site? I was thinking about starting a message board.

Also, I have a free tech support chat room, and was thinking about posting the logs somewhere on the site.  Does that sound like a good idea?

Thanks.

Thanks. Great Response.  I actually have been asking to do guest blogs on many sites and a few have allowed me.  Do you have any other suggestions on what types of links to get besides blogs or directories?

Hi there,

I was wondering if it's worth investing on buying blog reviews for me site, by using sites like buyblogreviews.com?

I've been making sure the blog sites are relevant and has good rankings, and not too many outgoing links.  I also make sure they write about something interesting related to my site, that should get people's attention and gain more traffic.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Thanks!  I'll try and have them changed / removed. I'm thinking thats why Google is ranking me much worse all of a sudden.  My site is 14 months old, and the directories do make up the bulk of my backlinks.  Do you know if this is a huge problem?

I manually listed my site in a few hundred free directories, two paid directores (Joe ant $40, and dirmania $12), and 50 directories that require a reciprocal link ( I paid for a cheap service that gets around having to do the reciprocal).

I made the big mistake of having the title and the description for these as the same or very close to the same...is this a huge problem?  Should I have my site removed from the free directories or just let it go?

I've since stopped focusing on all the directories, and considering saving up to get in Yahoo directory.  Working now on getting legit and relevant links from .edu sites.

Hi,

I've been struggling to get followers on Google Plus and Twitter, and recently stumbled upon twiends.com.

It offers an easy service that allows you to get twitter followers very quickly.  Is this considered black hating?  Even if Google doesn't consider the followers as valid, am I likely to be punished if using their service?  Even if it doesn't help rankings, it is nice to have lots of followers so that they will see my tweets which has the potential to drive more traffic to my site, and give awareness to my business.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks for the reply.  Has some very good info on press releases.    My only question is, is it a good idea for me to link to the press releases on my home page? Is it standard for businesses to link to the press releases, or do they just let clients find the press releases on Google.

Thanks again.

I just created my first press release at prlog.org using the free account, which lets you have one outgoing followed link.

Question:  Should I link to my press releases from my web site?  I made the mistake of doing link exchanges in the past, and worried Google would detect it as a link exchange.  It would be nice to link to the press releases on my site while still getting the benefits of having an incoming link from a site with PR 6.

Is prlog.org a good site for press releases?  Is there another one you recommend that is free or inexpensive?  Is there any benefits to using multiple press release sites, with different content on each site?

Thanks!!!

Thanks so much!  Such a well-written and helpful response.  I will stop with the link exchanges and save up for Yahoo Directory.  Really appreciate it!

Thanks so much for your response! Very helpful. I wasn't sure about getting into Yahoo directory, but will save up and do it.  I'll stop with the link exchanges.

I posted on craigslist for professional writers and have had a ton of responses. I want to get really good articles on my site so that people will want to link to me.

I operate a computer services company in Eugene, Oregon called "Eugene Computer Geeks".  We do a lot of web design, and need incoming links to my site very badly.

Lately I've been asking clients if they would link to me, but they almost always ask for a link in return.

If we exchange links, does Google penalize my site?  Would the incoming link be better for SEO if I'm not linking back to the other site?

ALSO

Is it possible that manually submitting my site to free, yet relevant web directories would hurt my rankings?  It's not a big deal to me if it doesn't help my rankings, as I see a benefit to having my site listed, but wanted to make sure there wasn't a chance that it would hurt my rankings. As far as I know all the directories are free from SPAM, porn, warez, or anything like that.

Thanks!

I talked with customer service and it has to be an issue with facebook which is not allowing me to add the page.  I really don't want to have to start over and loose my 61 likes, but will if thats what it takes.

Thanks Rand!  Yea,  I thought it was the privacy settings, but I switched them to public a couple weeks ago.  Really appreciate your help, and will send them an e-mail.

Thanks so much. You couldn't have answered my question better.