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Hi,

A client site has had very poor link legacy, stretching for over 5 years. I started the campaign a year ago, providing valuable good quality links.  Link removals and creating a disavow to Google have been done, however after months and months of waiting nothing has happened. If anything, after the recent penguin update, results have been further affected.

A 301 redirect was undertaken last year, consequently associating those bad links with the new site structure. I have since removed the 301 redirect in an attempt to detach this legacy, however with little success. I have read up on this and not many people appear to agree whether this will work.

Therefore, my new decision is to start a fresh using a new domain, switching from the .com to .co.uk version, helping remove all legacy and all association with the spam ridden .com.

However, my main concern with this is whether Google will forever cach content from the spammy .com and remember it, because the content on the new .co.uk site will be exactly the same (content of great quality, receiving hundreds of visitors each month from the blog section along) The problem is definitely link related and NOT content as I imagine people may first query.

This could then cause duplicate content, knowing that this content pre-existed on another domain - I will implement a robots.txt file removing all of the .com site , as well as a no index no follow - and I understand you can present a site removal to Google within webmaster tools to help fast track the deindexation of the spammy .com - then once it has been deindexed, the new .co.uk site will go live with the exact same content.

So my question is whether Google will then completely forget that this content has ever existed, allowing me to use exactly the same content on the new .co.uk domain without the threat of a duplicate content issue?

Also, any insights or experience in the removal of a 301 redirect, detaching legacy and its success would also be very helpful!

Thank you,

Denver

There doesn't appear to be any analytics tracking code on the page you are trying to track?

Hi,

Welcome to the wonderful world of SEOmoz!

The site seems to have a decent approach to SEO. Although its always worth reading the beginners guide as mentioned.  I'd also agree with Ryan regarding the multiple entrances to the site, although i'd use a 301 to do this rather than canonical. I'd recommend re-directing the site to the www.allianceconcretepumps.com/ version. Have you verified webmaster tools yet? You will find this very use full indeed and can also select in webmaster tools which site version is displayed i.e. the www.allianceconcretepumps.com/.

What I did notice is that some images are missing alt text (the descriptive image text used by screen readers/search engines), one example of this can be found on your home page - the image in the 'May part specials, another is the images in 'featured concrete pmp' and 'testimonials' at the base.

If you view the site as googlebot (download the moz tool bar, you will be able to do this easily once the moz toolbar is installed), then look at the page you can see that some potential seo value is lost by not having the alt text added in. Viewing as google bot will also highlight other potential areas for improvement.

personally, i'd also see your meta description tag as being overly keyword rich, try to make this a little more engaging and descriptive rather than keyword stuffed.

You could also do with building some links with some varied anchor text from a broader range of root domains. Check out some of the blog post on SEOmoz for link building tips.

I agree, directory submissions should cost no where near that, and the effort and cost far outway the benifits IMHO. Anyway, just a thought on the paid directories you mention - costs can be cut further if you do go down this route by applying to become an editor of a directoy such as Joeant , if accepeted, you can then get a free listing!

Hi,

Welcome to the wonderful world of SEOmoz!

The site seems to have a decent approach to SEO. Although its always worth reading the beginners guide as mentioned.  I'd also agree with Ryan regarding the multiple entrances to the site, although i'd use a 301 to do this rather than canonical. I'd recommend re-directing the site to the www.allianceconcretepumps.com/ version. Have you verified webmaster tools yet? You will find this very use full indeed and can also select in webmaster tools which site version is displayed i.e. the www.allianceconcretepumps.com/.

What I did notice is that some images are missing alt text (the descriptive image text used by screen readers/search engines), one example of this can be found on your home page - the image in the 'May part specials, another is the images in 'featured concrete pmp' and 'testimonials' at the base.

If you view the site as googlebot (download the moz tool bar, you will be able to do this easily once the moz toolbar is installed), then look at the page you can see that some potential seo value is lost by not having the alt text added in. Viewing as google bot will also highlight other potential areas for improvement.

personally, i'd also see your meta description tag as being overly keyword rich, try to make this a little more engaging and descriptive rather than keyword stuffed.

You could also do with building some links with some varied anchor text from a broader range of root domains. Check out some of the blog post on SEOmoz for link building tips.