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Rand explains this on these two posts:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-maybe-changes-how-the-pagerank-algorithm-handles-nofollow

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-says-yes-you-can-still-sculpt-pagerank-no-you-cant-do-it-with-nofollow

Here is a recent article from July 5th:

http://jymtarrant.com/nofollow-dofollow/

It will all depend on how your site is setup and what type of server.  Can you give us more detail on that?

Are you sure that those spammy links are what is helping them rank?

I wouldn't drop to their level, but focus on white hat marketing.  And if you want links, create a new campaign targeted on building solid relationships for the good links.

It may not be right now, but Google is slowly rewarding better content sites.

I track the "Full List of Link Metrics" on me and my top 10 competitors monthly.  And I also keep track of the "Anchor Text Distribution" and track link to root ration.  (Search SEOmoz for some good info on that)

Great information.

I didn't know if you export OSE's data for tracking purposes.  Every time SEOmoz has an update, I download all the info into an Excel spreadsheet to track monthly.

Besides PR (not really for SEO purposes) how do you track the site.  Are you utilizing http://www.opensiteexplorer.org ?  How are your numbers there going.  Google's PR isn't really a good number to use since it is only updated about every 6 months.  Focus on SEOmoz's tools for more accurate reporting.

Great!  Then focus on the .br and redirect the .com

If they have a ton of links (going out?), most likely it isn't worth it.  The DA is low.  What is the PA?

if you are going to do it, I would start out with an existing post link (as long as there aren't a ton of other links) to see if you get any juice.  And on that page see what the PA  and MozTrust is.  And just track that for a few months.

Links per page - http://www.seomoz.org/q/max-of-recommended-links-per-page

Rand explains this on these two posts:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-maybe-changes-how-the-pagerank-algorithm-handles-nofollow

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-says-yes-you-can-still-sculpt-pagerank-no-you-cant-do-it-with-nofollow

Here is a recent article from July 5th:

http://jymtarrant.com/nofollow-dofollow/

Why don't you want to use a 301?  If you are truly restructuring a site, then you will need to use 301s.

There are a couple of posts about this topic.

http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/44720/site-restructure-urls-301s-inbound-links-already-301d

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/301-redirect-or-relcanonical-which-one-should-you-use

Here are my top 10 blogs to follow:

1. http://searchenginewatch.com/ - Search Engine Watch
2. http://searchengineland.com/ - Search Engine Land
3. http://www.seomoz.org/blog - SEOmoz
4. http://www.seomoz.org/ugc - SEOmoz Users
5. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ - Google
6. http://mattcutts.com/blog/ - Matt Cutts
7. http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/ - VWO, Great A/B Testing Blog
8. http://conversationmarketing.com/ - Ian Lurie
9. http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/ - Bruce Clay
10. http://www.seobook.com/blog - SEO Book

Yes, there are many, but I find it easy to setup RSS feeds into my Outlook and skim through them like emails.

The best way to do this is to have a separate domain, not subdomains, for each country.  And if you use the Country's ccTLD you can have the same content without being penalized. (make sure there are little difference such as currency, etc.)  I would also Geotarget each domain accordingly.

I would stay away from all those types of programs.  Even if you only have to pay $9.99 for 1,000 submissions, it will do more harm then good and most likely you would only see a few links.

Focus more on Quality links.

We have also seen the same minimal numbers.  But it was very interesting to dive in and start to investigate.  I have been reviewing all sections in both Analytics and GWT.

It will be interesting to see which pages are receiving the most clicks vs. impressions.

Honestly, we just need more time and data.  Not too much activity as of now.

Yes, so many 404's is bad, but it all depends on how long Google has seen them.  If too many you may find yourself in Google's 3 month ranking hole.  First you should set up a 301 and try to redirect as many as possible to relevant pages.

Second, use Google Webmaster Tools and start removing the bad urls from their index.

Might be a lot of work right now, but you have to clean them up asap.

Due to the fact that we aren't in the #1 position, (dropped from #5 to page 2 - You have to love Devs and IT), our heads have hired a SEO Audit/Consultant company to review everything we are doing.

I would like to post some of the things they are telling us to do, in which I don't 100% agree with  and would like some other professional feedback.  Especially since their site isn't marketed very well.

http://www.trupanionpetinsurance.com Disclaimer: (this site was a complete nightmare when I started a year and a half ago. Yes, there are many issues that still need to be addressed.)

Breadcrumb Trail

They have asked us to implement a Breadcrumb trail on every page, where the final page is the only H1 Tag.

1. Are breadcrumb trials important for SEO?  (I know they are helpful for Users, but SEO)
2. Are they important for Search Engines to track back for structure.
3. Any thoughts about them?

Similar question asked in February : http://www.seomoz.org/q/how-important-are-breadcrumbs

I would have to agree with Damien and Thomas.  Local SEO is an excellent integration with your national SEO campaigns.  And as Thomas said, don't change your site to focus on local.

Due to the fact that we aren't in the #1 position, (dropped from #5 to page 2 - You have to love Devs and IT), our heads have hired a SEO Audit/Consultant company to review everything we are doing.

I would like to post some of the things they are telling us to do, in which I don't 100% agree with  and would like some other professional feedback.  Especially since their site isn't marketed very well.

http://www.trupanionpetinsurance.com Disclaimer: (this site was a complete nightmare when I started a year and a half ago. Yes, there are many issues that still need to be addressed.)

Website Restructure

I agree we totally need to restructure our website.  I have no idea what the previous SEO guy was thinking.  The new SEO company is telling us that the structure is a big part of SEO.

1. I don't believe so, but besides a little loss in 301 juice, is there any other downfalls?
2. Are there any real benefits?

Similar question asked the other day (and answered by me): http://www.seomoz.org/q/don-t-want-to-lose-page-rank-what-s-the-best-way-to-restructure-a-url-other-than-a-301-redirect