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We recently replaced a high traffic online service with a new one that now resides at a new URL. We redirect the old site (https://subdomain.mysite.org) to a static page announcing the change (http://www.mysite.org/announcement.html) that links out to the new online service. The SSL cert on the old site is valid for two more months and then would cost $1K to renew. We'd like to measure traffic from the old link over the next two months to see if it's worth renewing the SSL cert to keep a redirect going. If I go into GA, filter the "announcement.html" page and set the secondary dimension to "referral path" I'm not seeing any traffic from https://subdomain.mysite.org. Guessing this is part of the "(not set)" group. First thought was to have that go to a unique intermediary page to log the referral, which then redirects out to the announcement page. Is this considered spammy or is there another way to track referrals from the https site that I'm not considering? Thanks.

I'm using Moz Local for a few clients right now with good results. Was talking to a friend about using it for one of her web clients and a new scenario came up. The client does waste management and has a dozen locations in/outside of a metro area. She's been "trying to get their listing on Google Maps" without luck. After some probing, it turns out their main address for operations is in the metro area they are targeting, but they don't have waste facilities there and wanted to prevent customers from coming there. They actually use a PO Box for their contact information on their website and make no mention of the main address. Looking to see if anyone agrees with my proposed solution: Claim Google My Business listing for the main address in the metro area they're trying to optimize for. Use Moz Local to clean up their main listing (after a quick check, it's a mess) for the operations address. Update website contact info to include the main operations address, and make specific mention of which other addresses customers should/shouldn't go to for dumping/picking up equipment. So, the recommendation would be one Moz Local account. I figure no need to do listing for all of their other locations since they're just waste facilities controlled by the main listing. Does this seem like a plan?

I have a client who targets a particular city, and up until now has had his physical location in the suburbs of that city. This April 1, his office will have the city address he has been targeting. I have spent a lot of time over the past year claiming ownership of all local directory listings and consolidating addresses as he has moved several times in the past 5 years. Looking at this as an opportunity to get the official USPS address he will be using and use the exact same address for everything. So many different variations out there right now for him. Wondering if it would be ok to start promoting the new address before the April 1 move and also when to start with the directory listings. Also, have held off on purchasing the yahoo directory link because of the suburban address but reconsidering this as of April 1 as well.

I work for a non-profit who has always had the luxury of being a monopoly when it comes to the service we provide. Without getting into the boring details, we have an international audience that needs to get certified through us to continue their educational pursuits in the US. Easy as it gets in terms of SEO. Now, we have a for-profit venture based on our existing verification services where we offer those same services for international organizations. After a lot of research, we haven't been able to find someone else out there similar enough to be considered a direct competitor - at least to the point where I could look at what they're optimizing for. My question is this: without a clear-cut competitor to identify and analyze, where should we start for keyword research?  We think we know how people would find us, but analytics data for the better part of a year shows all traffic as brand-related. Fortunately, we have many long-standing relationships with international organizations, so obtaining links has come naturally after linking to the new venture from our home page, news, SM, etc. But as far as providing our editorial staff - who, up until now, had never been concerned with keywords - a place to start for keyword research so they can then employ a basic SEO checklist... where would you start?

Starting a redesign for an attorney who is currently using WordPress with an old framework that is no longer being supported, so I'm going to install a new WP and start from scratch. The site consists of about 30 static pages (practice areas, attorney profiles, etc.) and they write about 5 blog posts per month. I've always differentiated between posts and pages for WP sites I've done in the past, but this time around I thought it might be more clean (less files, and easier for their webmaster to make routine edits) if I just brought over the static pages as posts. However, the recent webinar on the Yoast SEO plugin mentioned using the month/day in the permalink structure for posts to avoid duplicate content issues. That would go against how I was thinking of setting it up, because I would have just generated the URL off the page title and make a separate category for "pages". Just wondering if anyone's used posts as pages before. While this seems like it would make things easier for the webmaster, I'm not sure it maximizes potential for SEO. Thanks.

Working with content folks on a new section of our website. Developed a new logo for this section of the site, and they want to incorporate the style of it into all of the page headings. The only way to pull this off is to use images for H1's. (Without getting into unnecessary detail, they have to be images - too precise to try text over background images.) I made everyone aware of the importance of H1 text for SEO purposes, but they really want these images. When I first attempted SEO back in 2003, I recall doing a site using CSS image replacement along these lines: Widget Page #example {
    background: url(../images/example.gif) no-repeat;
    text-indent: -5000px;
     } That was nearly 10 years ago, and they definitely ranked for the H1s at the time which led me to believe it worked. Anyone know if this is considered an acceptable practice today? I read some other threads about enclosing the image in tags and relying on the ALT text, but that doesn't seem to be a good option.

Working with a law firm with a well-established website that wants to build a separate website for their affiliate title insurance company. Currently, they only mention this company (and list a phone number) on their Real Estate page under Practice Areas. Although the affiliate company doesn't have a website, their location and phone number are listed in tons of local business directories. I'm currently working on a law firm site that was just built, and the process of getting that one listed in all the directories has been time consuming, so I'm guessing this new site will be much easier, since all I'll have to do is claim ownership of the current listings so I can add a link to the new website (and add additional info to make the profile complete). Would I be correct in assuming this will be a much easier link campaign? As for new site setup questions, they will obviously get some strong links coming from the existing law firm site. Should they host this new site on a different server so the SE's give more power to the law firm links? Is there really a value to reserving the new domain for 3+ years right off the bat? Any other suggestions welcome. Thanks.

I'm submitting a law firm's site to the Yahoo paid directory. The location of the firm is in a suburb of the large city for that region, and that suburb is so small that there is no option for it under Cities. Obviously, the client wants to target the large city, not the suburb they're located in. Wondering if it's OK to submit the site to Yahoo under the category of the large city if the business is not technically located in that city. The address is clearly listed in the footer and on the contact page. Might Yahoo reject the submission for that, or will their editors realize there's no listing for the suburb and allow it?

So I'm working on a law firm site and looking at the links for pages in OSE. For practice areas, the links to each practice area are in the left hand menu on every page of the site. Can anyone help me with this question: Example: http://www.comitzlaw.com/personal-injury/car-accidents.html When I plug this URL into OSE, it only shows one linking page, www.comitzlaw.com/practice-areas.html, yet there is a link to this on every other page in the site. When I plug in a random competitors page, www.lesagelblaw.com/Personal-Injury-Overview/Car-Accidents.shtml, it does show all the internal pages linking to it. Since I'm not using a flash menu or javascript, any ideas as to why no internal links are showing up in OSE? Even when I plug in the main URL for the home page, it only shows 4 other internal pages linking to it, yet there is a link on every page. What am I doing wrong?

One of the first things I did after signing up for the 30-day seomoz trial is analyze 3 competitor's inbound links from external sites. On the Competitive Domain Analysis page, I was able to obtain links from more than half of the sites identified as their top links. All submissions were approved between 9/13 and 9/28. Now, a month later, under the Competitive Comparison section, I only have one external followed link, while the competitors have hundreds. For Top Pages, the only page that shows up is the root domain, comitzlaw.com/. For two of the competitors, 7 out of their top 10 links are from pview.findlaw.com/. I have a link from the same site, confirmed as of mid-September, yet it doesn't show up. Any ideas? I must be doing something seriously wrong.

Still trying to understand siloing and how it relates to displaying links in the navigation menu. I'm working on optimizing a site for a lawyer friend. His site consists of 4 top level pages - index, attorney profile, practice areas, and contact. Then, there are 2 folders that contain all the 2nd-level pages for his 2 practice areas - personal injury and business litigation. The website in question is www(dot)comitzlaw(dot)com. From what I read about siloing before taking the 30-day SEOMoz trial (which I really like so far, by the way), I set the main (left hand) menu up as follows: The 4 top level pages only display the "collapsed" navigation menu, which only links to the index pages for personal injury and business litigation. Go anywhere in personal injury, and all pages link to the "expanded" personal injury navigation (links to auto accidents page, wrongful death, motorcycle accidents, etc.) but the "collapsed" business litigation section and vice versa for business litigation's links to personal injury. I did this because, as I understand, it keeps the practice area links on topic (like in a car sales example where you want a Ford section linking to Ford pages and Chevy pages linking to Chevy pages). Just wondering if anyone thinks I have this set up right. Wondering if the home page should display the "expanded" navigation menu instead or if all top level pages should show the expanded? Appreciate any thoughts on this. Thanks.