Any chance we can see the site? Matt's completely correct regarding Bing Webmaster Central, I'd start there.

Also:

1. Submit an XML sitemap. Any errors that pop up during the processing of the sitemap will help you diagnose the problem.
2. Check your log files. See if BingBot or MSNBot show up in the logs. If they don't, then your site's not getting crawled.
3. Check robots.txt - any chance the site's outright blocking them?

Generally, I've found that folks coming from internet marketing programs aren't that well prepared. That doesn't mean they wouldn't be good employees! It just means the schools do a lousy job of prepping them.

When I interview them, I use the same kinds of questions I ask anyone: Basic logic stuff, HTML, communications abilities, etc.

But definitely never accept college-level training in 'internet marketing' as a sign someone's better-prepped. And if they're trying to tell you their certificate (whatever that is) is a sign of how competent they are, that's just a sign that they're still pretty naive. Not the end of the world, but they're still beginners.

No way. Google may care about DNS repoints, but that's something else entirely.

Google barely cares about shared IPs and 'bad neighborhoods' at this point - so I doubt the IP address matters. Plus, we have several clients using hardware load balancers that do exactly what you describe, and it doesn't hurt them.

My rule of thumb: If the directory would be a great place to have a presence if Google didn't exist, then do it. Otherwise, I tend to steer clear, post-Penguin.

I'm late to this particular party, but here's an approach that's worked for us  helped a friend in reputation management crises:

First, you need to get some indexed content for the phrase you're going to insert into suggest. I'll go with "Gibble Gibbet".

1. Add a page to your own site;
2. Or even better, find a phrase for which you already have indexed content.
3. Either way, get some Twitter/other social traffic going to ensure it stays indexed.

Now, you need to get some search volume:

1. Don't think of this in terms of directly generating search volume. Instead, think of this as a social engineering experiment.
2. Determine what phrase you want to show up in search suggest. I'm sticking with "Gibble Gibbet".
3. Create a test on a service like Amazon Mechanical Turk. Tell everyone involved you need them to tell you the first 2 results they see when they type in "Gibble Gibbet".
4. Send out the test to 5,000 or more people.

Depending on the term, the search volume around it, and the competition among different queries, this should get you what you're looking for.

Not that I've ever done this.

It was a friend of mine.

I would precisely describe the image. If it's a picture of a doctor taking someone's blood pressure, the ALT should be "doctor taking someone's blood pressure". Don't insert the brand name unless the image contains it, or the person in the image uses the brand and the text below it is their testimonial.

A better rule is to make sure it reads well. Don't focus on ratios - that's a huge mistake.

That said, I do recommend that you:

1. Make sure you use the phrase that folks search for. If you sell 'running shoes', don't write about 'athletic footwear'.
2. Make sure your writing is structure and styled so that your key phrase fits in naturally: When you write, you shouldn't have to force the key phrase into the page. It should end up in headings, captions, etc. because it makes sense. If that's not the case, double-check that you're writing the right thing.
3. Check the grade level of your writing. I use http://www.readability-score.com/ most of the time. Grade level can impact bounce rate, which can impact rankings.

Hope this helps

I prefer www, because folks will generally tend to use that version when they link to you. It's reflex.

But you can check this. Run Open Site Explorer for both versions of your domain.

If more people link to you using 'www' than non-www, use www and 301 redirect the non-www to www.

If more people use non-www, do the reverse.

Ooooh, that feels all wrong.

Seems to me .htaccess would block visitors that you may want. And while Google may obey the directive, they may also misinterpret a referrer-specific directive as cloaking.

If you want to get the same effect, here's what I'd do:

1. Change the page to which the offending links point. Have it say "This page is gone, but you can get the information you want here" and make that a link to a new page.
2. Set up your server to return a 410 code when folks visit that page.
3. Set up a new page with the old page's content, so folks can click from the old to the new, but visiting bots and browsers get a 410 code and dump the page.

That will get Google to de-index the page in a hurry.

Another option: Simply add noindex, nofollow to the targeted page.

But I like the 410 option, because that should break the authority flow and has the best chance of giving Google what it wants, short of removing the link.

I'm late to this particular party, but here's an approach that's worked for us  helped a friend in reputation management crises:

First, you need to get some indexed content for the phrase you're going to insert into suggest. I'll go with "Gibble Gibbet".

1. Add a page to your own site;
2. Or even better, find a phrase for which you already have indexed content.
3. Either way, get some Twitter/other social traffic going to ensure it stays indexed.

Now, you need to get some search volume:

1. Don't think of this in terms of directly generating search volume. Instead, think of this as a social engineering experiment.
2. Determine what phrase you want to show up in search suggest. I'm sticking with "Gibble Gibbet".
3. Create a test on a service like Amazon Mechanical Turk. Tell everyone involved you need them to tell you the first 2 results they see when they type in "Gibble Gibbet".
4. Send out the test to 5,000 or more people.

Depending on the term, the search volume around it, and the competition among different queries, this should get you what you're looking for.

Not that I've ever done this.

It was a friend of mine.

I prefer www, because folks will generally tend to use that version when they link to you. It's reflex.

But you can check this. Run Open Site Explorer for both versions of your domain.

If more people link to you using 'www' than non-www, use www and 301 redirect the non-www to www.

If more people use non-www, do the reverse.

My rule of thumb: If the directory would be a great place to have a presence if Google didn't exist, then do it. Otherwise, I tend to steer clear, post-Penguin.

Any chance we can see the site? Matt's completely correct regarding Bing Webmaster Central, I'd start there.

Also:

1. Submit an XML sitemap. Any errors that pop up during the processing of the sitemap will help you diagnose the problem.
2. Check your log files. See if BingBot or MSNBot show up in the logs. If they don't, then your site's not getting crawled.
3. Check robots.txt - any chance the site's outright blocking them?

Ooooh, that feels all wrong.

Seems to me .htaccess would block visitors that you may want. And while Google may obey the directive, they may also misinterpret a referrer-specific directive as cloaking.

If you want to get the same effect, here's what I'd do:

1. Change the page to which the offending links point. Have it say "This page is gone, but you can get the information you want here" and make that a link to a new page.
2. Set up your server to return a 410 code when folks visit that page.
3. Set up a new page with the old page's content, so folks can click from the old to the new, but visiting bots and browsers get a 410 code and dump the page.

That will get Google to de-index the page in a hurry.

Another option: Simply add noindex, nofollow to the targeted page.

But I like the 410 option, because that should break the authority flow and has the best chance of giving Google what it wants, short of removing the link.

Generally, I've found that folks coming from internet marketing programs aren't that well prepared. That doesn't mean they wouldn't be good employees! It just means the schools do a lousy job of prepping them.

When I interview them, I use the same kinds of questions I ask anyone: Basic logic stuff, HTML, communications abilities, etc.

But definitely never accept college-level training in 'internet marketing' as a sign someone's better-prepped. And if they're trying to tell you their certificate (whatever that is) is a sign of how competent they are, that's just a sign that they're still pretty naive. Not the end of the world, but they're still beginners.

No way. Google may care about DNS repoints, but that's something else entirely.

Google barely cares about shared IPs and 'bad neighborhoods' at this point - so I doubt the IP address matters. Plus, we have several clients using hardware load balancers that do exactly what you describe, and it doesn't hurt them.

A better rule is to make sure it reads well. Don't focus on ratios - that's a huge mistake.

That said, I do recommend that you:

1. Make sure you use the phrase that folks search for. If you sell 'running shoes', don't write about 'athletic footwear'.
2. Make sure your writing is structure and styled so that your key phrase fits in naturally: When you write, you shouldn't have to force the key phrase into the page. It should end up in headings, captions, etc. because it makes sense. If that's not the case, double-check that you're writing the right thing.
3. Check the grade level of your writing. I use http://www.readability-score.com/ most of the time. Grade level can impact bounce rate, which can impact rankings.

Hope this helps

I would precisely describe the image. If it's a picture of a doctor taking someone's blood pressure, the ALT should be "doctor taking someone's blood pressure". Don't insert the brand name unless the image contains it, or the person in the image uses the brand and the text below it is their testimonial.