Help Us Help You!

Now that Peter Da Vanzo has joined the site, we have another writer and can spend a bit more time on the blog. In the past some of my most popular blog posts came out of feedback from readers. What topics would you love to see us cover?

Nearly any SEO/PPC/blogging/internet marketing questions are fair game (although we won't do site reviews, or explain specifically why site X is ranking or why site Y does not rank).

Published: September 7, 2008 by Aaron Wall in publishing & media

Comments

shuwix
September 7, 2008 - 11:20pm

more about minimal tuning - google likes and dislikes.
Sometips to slightly pimp out each site.

cbiggins
September 7, 2008 - 11:23pm

I would personally like to see how best to optimise community based sites where content is not controlled. Forums, for example.

VizionQuest
September 7, 2008 - 11:41pm

How about an easy way to create and assign different sidebars so they match the content on a given page. I was thinking this would enable better relevancy and targeting. I've been looking for an easy way to do this (via a WP plugin) but no luck so far. I don't want to have to mess with manually coding it. Any ideas or can you suggest a plugin that can create multiple sidebars that can be customized easily via widgets, etc.? Thus you could set sidebar1 to be for the homepage, sidebar2 for posts, etc.

designrandom
September 7, 2008 - 11:52pm

A couple of things:

1) Multiple title tags
(This one is a specific question, rather than a subject in general):
This seems to be a black hat method from a few years ago, but I've recently used this on a website (by accident!) and the site now ranks better than ever. I'm wanting to know whether I should remove the second title tag, or leave it alone... Which will have worse consequences?

2) Automation
How can you automate some of the really repetitive tasks in SEO? I'm a big fan of tools such as rank checker, and would love to find out about similar tools for other tasks, such as competitive research.

3) Speaking of Rank Checker, I would love to see additional posts on this - I cannot for the life of me get the schedule function to work with this tool - I would love some tutorial posts that could help out with such tasks.

4) Local SEO:
More tips on local SEO, and SEO for small businesses.

5) SEO Business:
I love reading about the business side of SEO, such as handling clients, how to pitch for SEO work, what to charge etc. You have a 'freelance SEO' category in the archive, but it's empty... is this the kind of content you are considering for this category?

corey
September 8, 2008 - 3:22am

do you ever use the obscure meta tags such as author, publisher, coverage and copyright?

i use xenu to check for 404s but on a few of my database driven sites the scan really hammers the server. is there a better way?

locomo
September 8, 2008 - 3:44am

Google's competitive ad filter - do you have good strategies for using this to increase your CPC?

I've seen various lists of websites posted online - are these worth blocking?

tonyellison
September 8, 2008 - 6:54am

Aaron & Peter:

I would like you to expand, in no particular order, on the following topics:

a. Large eCommerce Site Architecture

b. Keyword Cannabilization

c. Duplicate Content

d. Webmaster Tools and how to leverage them

e. Secrets of The Trade (Friday Give-it-Up Session)

f. Keyword Research

g. Measuring SEO/SEM Success

h. Link Building Strategies

Richard
September 8, 2008 - 9:42am

Marketing. Your unique talent is seeing the world from a different angle, and the different angles are what interest me. The nuts and bolts of SEO can be picked up anywhere, but the changed mindset is fascinating. Perhaps a bit like you see Seth Godin? You can come out of one of his books with a different take on the world, and that's worth a million dollars.

use-ip
September 8, 2008 - 1:34pm

Can it be a problem to have too many 301 redirects?

How many is too many?

Is there any way to tell when a redirect is no longer required?

(my ecommerce software url rewrite has created a fair few random urls; for each one I spot and correct I have to redirect the previous url)

Jboo
September 8, 2008 - 2:41pm

Hi Aaron and Peter,

I'd like to know more about the the aging filter in Google and how to determine whether a site is affected by it. I'd also like any information you can offer on why some sites gain complete authority in a niche when they have less links (and apparent lower or equal quality links) than another site. Is it site age or other factors that determine this, and can the site be overriden as an authority by another?

I'm sure any tips you cover will be great, and I look forward to them.

P.S. Welcome Peter!

yet another ben
September 8, 2008 - 3:20pm

Hello Peter and hi Aaron,

More general ideas...

Articles on in-house SEO, such as managing your managers expectations, day-to-day challenges around SEO.

Articles on freelance/consulting SEO's. How best to approach a proposal, your first meeting, training, reporting, etc...

Thanks,

Ben

ryanerisman
September 8, 2008 - 3:24pm

Peter's first post was great. Would like to see it taken to an even more local (city) level. ie: What tips can small businesses such as a "Huntsville painting contractor" or a "Daytona Beach dry cleaner" implement to ensure success.
Thanks!

September 8, 2008 - 6:28pm
Mark R.
September 8, 2008 - 7:54pm

I wouldn't mind seeing more info about Google Base, how best to optimize for it, why it shows up for certain keywords and not others, etc. Why it might have showed up for a keyword at one time and now is gone, etc.

I also wouldn't mind learning more about how to get site links to show up on Google if you are the top result even if the keyword doesn't exactly match your name. i.e. say your URL was "bluewidgets-r-us.com" and you are number 1 for keyword blue widgets and have site links showing for the search "bluewidgets-r-us." Can you get site links showing just for "blue widgets" and if so what is the best strategy to do so. My guess is keep building links and good content about the blue widgets but if you have any other strategies, I would appreciate it.

GlobalFusion
September 9, 2008 - 7:44am

I'd love to see more testing and research not only to put to rest several of the so called SEO myths, but to explore new strategies too.

alexjc
September 9, 2008 - 1:03pm

Hi,

I have a site that is the best in its niche; most active, most links, most relevant, lots of great articles, etc. I've got all the other stuff down; marketing, promotion, etc. I've put in some low-level SEO efforts too.

However, I'm still losing out on my primary keyword against Wikipedia, and another well established site with the keyword as the domain.

What could I do to move to number #1?

Alex

websitedesigner
September 13, 2008 - 5:05am

Just wanted to welcome Peter to the team, it's always great to have more to read about on SEO. Also as for posts I'd like to see more on link building stratiges.

Add new comment

(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.