Welcome to the Q&A Forum

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

And also remember that you will want your more important links towards the top.  And I would keep your links to a minimum per page.  It all depends on what you are doing.

I would also speed up your crawl rate with Google in GWT.  Yes, you can remove certain pages, but Google will need to re-index all the other pages that use to link to them.

It would all depend on if you want to focus your SEO in Brazil, http://www.google.com.br/.  If that is the goal, then use the .com.br.

I guess we would need to know a little more about what your plans are.  You may be able to utilize both even with similar content.

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.

Interesting.  Would you recommend that most people add that meta?

Googleon and Googleoff tags are commands for the Google Search Appliance

I would say that it all depends on how they are currently ranking.  If you are just in the beginning stages of SEO, then I would say go ahead and make this step.  But if the site is already doing well then I might hold off.

There was a great answer about here: http://www.seomoz.org/q/website-restructure-good-or-bad-for-seo

Restructuring allows you to organize your content into "Silos" and eliminate some of the unnecessary links through JSON objects, iframes, and nofollows (some debate there on which is optimal).

The Downfalls: There will probably be a 30-90 day dip in traffic but if you do page-to-page 301's it won't hurt nearly as much. Anytime you change URL's you are likely to see some inbound links drop off, but that happens when the pages don't change, so it's going to be minimal. Sure, 301's might drop some of your PR during transfer, but only a minimal amount according to matt cutts.

The Benefits:  Organizing your content into silos and pruning cross-category links will allow you to control the flow of pagerank and anchor text much more effectively. Bruce Clay has a huge amount of resources on this, and they even cover it on their blog.

Will it be painful? Yes.

Will it be worth it? Yes.

Google's PR doesn't mean anything to SEO.  Use Open Site Explorer to really evaluate the site.  (They could have just purchased that domain with a high PR). I would also spend a bit of time and evaluate the other links you would be grouped with.  Again, if they are quality sites in your industry, then that may be alright.  But if they are just a bunch of spammy sites, then keep away.

Just tried it.  All good.

Yes, they are bad.  Keep away and focus on good quality links.

If it is a reputable directory with good DA (Domain Authority) and PA (Page Authority) and relevant to your site, then go ahead.  Google's latest updates are really focusing on quality links from quality sites.

In the long run it will do more damage then good.

It's still there. Click on the left under "More Search Tools"

I would utilize Open Site Explorer and spend some time evaluating each link.  (unless you have 1,000's of them).

Make sure none of them are spammy sites with low MozTrust and keep only the ones that are relevant to your site.

And since you mentioned link partners, I would also evaluate all the incoming links.  Interesting how when the site was taken down for a couple of months it actually jumped up in rankings.  Sounds like this happened because some bad links where removed.

Thank you both for the feedback.

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

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.

I guess the main question is, but what if you have to?  Best way if you have to change structure.

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

I haven't checked in a while, but yes, today I do notice that us and most of our competitors PR has changed.  Some dropped, some increased.  Seattle, Washington, USA

Google's PR is pretty much for visitors, and not for SEOers.  Focus on the DA of the site, and then the PA of the page.  If the site has a good DA, then the page should follow as long as it isn't garbage.

Make sure the site is still ranking well, because you don't want to have their bad juice get passed over to you.

This is a great post about links. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-wikipedia-model

Hope this helps.

You have a lot of links on all of your homepage.  I wouldn't use the same keyword or variations, but focus on the main keywords, and focus on your link architecture.

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.

Will someone give me a good definition of "Link Landscape", or a great article on it.

I would also check out www.wistia.com where you can also track stats for the video.

"Remove Page From Search Results & Cache"

I would focus more on your Site Architecture.  Focus on clicks from the home page.

There is a great article about it here (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/site-architecture-for-seo), along with a link to Rand's video on Site Architecture.

I would also recommend http://trunk.ly/ and http://www.yelp.com/

Ross Hudgens' blog seems very informative.  Thanks for letting us know.

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.

So which is better for SEO, Tweets or ReTweets?

We have a tweet button on our blog which seems to work pretty good.  But I have noticed a few sites that instead of tweeting, they have a ReTweet button where you are actually ReTweeting an original tweet.

Any thoughts?

Keeping the same look and feel, the easiest way to integrate the H1 into the design would be in the "Define your Brand" section, add the h1 tag into the text on the left, and use css to design it so it looks similar.

I don't believe so.

Google Webmaster Tools => Site Configuration => Crawler Access => Remove URL (tab)

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.

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.

I would keep the title clean and focus on the main "apple", the one that has the most search traffic.  But then focus the site on the other variations or types.  Focus on the content, anchor text links to the page, h1 & h2 tags, etc.

SEOmoz's Title Tag - Best Practices for SEO: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/title-tag

Carlos,

There is a great thread you should read about this topic: http://www.seomoz.org/q/can-you-push-too-many-urls-via-sitemaps

As for me, I would recommend creating multiple XML sitemaps where you can track which urls are bing indexed and to also control the submission quantity.  You don't want to publish a ton of urls at one time.  For the urls that aren't in Google's index, I would no index them for now and slowly submit a small group on a monthly basis, along with different XML sitemaps for tracking.

You have to think as if you were Google, is the content you're submitting valuable and new information?  There is no way that 1 million new pages is so valuable or new that isn't already out there.  A nice steady submission stream will give you the best results in the long run.

I hope this helps.