Danny Sullivan’s SEO & SEM Q&A Session Via Twitter

Last week, I took questions via my Twitter account (@dannysullivan) about SEO issues and more broadly about search marketing overall. I thought it would be useful to compile them into a post. Here you go!

Question: rebecca_morrow what’s the best thing to say to clients who don’t want content on their home page?

Answer: tell clients home page without text is like blank business card 2 search engines. most important page, so don’t waste it

Question: feedia top thing to do when starting a new blog for SEO?

Answer: if starting new SEO blog, i’d try to cover an area that existing blogs don’t do already, to stand out. be unique in content or voice

Question: mattcleveland do you believe the recent algo change boosted brands?  myth or reality?

Answer: think google vince update did boost brands because they are authority sites. said more here

Question: si1very in your opinion, is Google increasingly using things like Bounce Rate in ranking sites/pages?

Answer: think clickthru from results more important than bounce rate see here google may measure traffic & more see here

Question: senatorbolton Where do you see things going for SEO since G and spammers are making it nearly impossible to get the money keywords?

Answer: think seo has plenty of value beyond “money words” & there are opps with vertical search for small players. video especially

Question: MrMunchWeb Have you ever 301 redirected an old domain to new domain? How long did Google take to apply old SERPs to new domain?

Answer: i’ve seen 301 from old to new domain happen in days. look at seattlepi here lots new domain listed only days later

Question: Onlineshoes_ce Is the 100 link max on 1 page recommendation a hard and fast rule?

Answer: you can have more than 100 links per page see @mattcutts here it’s just a rough guide

Question: joachimv Small Biz often niche and local specific. Best way to SEO for local search and maps search for biz w/low traffic sites

Answer: local biz should claim listings & optimize title for targeted keywords. lots more tips here and here

Question: EdWords How would you do SEO for a web page which is an application (= javascript, images & practically no content)?

Answer: if page is more an application using javascript than HTML content, find way to add some text and also look to build links

Question: darylbryant is it ok to use CSS to display content higher in the code? If so what is the best way to do this? Thank you!

Answer: think less issue these days for copy to be “higher” on page. if position with CSS, remember search engines won’t see that.

Question: onehappyguy here’s one – should u use nofollow internally? Ps, u need # tag maybe #seoQs :)

Answer: @mattcutts recommends nofollow pagerank sculpt see here but notes there’s opportunity cost see here i agree

Question: wikito is using the css display function: display – none bad for SEO, will google ban you for that?

Answer: if you’re using CSS display none to show content to search engines that users don’t see, yes, that’s still risky

Question: JMaultasch @dannysullivan how does Twitter’s reliance on URL shorteners impact it’s power to change search results? are spiders valuing those links?

Answer: tinyurl, is.gd, bit.ly 301 redirect so should give link credit. to test use this give url untick autofollow 301 or 302?

Question: Mach2_br Hi. How can video content help SEO (ex: Google Univ. Search) and bring more organic visits?

Answer: pick top term. amount of video content “competing” is far less than text – and vid flows into regular google. so big opportunity

Question: jeffperkins what’s the most effective way to rollout 301 redirects on a large ecommerce site to minimize the impact on current positions?

Answer: ideally do a rewrite rule to take any old pages on your large commerce site to new pages using 301s. see here

Question: gsharma @dannysullivan Which one you think SMBs should pay more attention to – high volume keywords or long tail?

Answer: SMBs should go for both high volume and long tail terms. focus key sections of site on hi terms; build good content 2 tap long tail

Question: ibjhb @dannysullivan How much does the frequency of content changes affect SEO?

Answer: new content can get query deserved freshness boost but just updating content doesn’t do much that i’ve heard

Question: mercylivi @dannysullivan Overuse of nofollow creates red flag in Google? Does over optimization penalty exist?

Answer: if page had all nofollow, that would be odd and might stand out. with seo, best all things in moderation