I want a sure way to know this ...person....did what they are telling their client they did.

Perhaps someone has more creativity then myself but I do not know any means by which you can be 100% certain a sitewide 301 is implemented without seeing the file on the server. The "file" varies based on the server type. As you know, for Apache servers the .htaccess file is the right one.

Even if you saw the .htaccess file, it is possible for another file to overwrite the command. The way I always have verified is by looking at the site itself. Check the home page and a few other pages. If they are all 301'd properly, then I presume the developer performed their job correctly. It would actually be a lot more work for the developer to attempt to fool you by 301'ing part of the site but not all.

I also suggest ensuring your site's www or non-www standard appears correctly in your crawl report.

Is my assumption that if a 301 was done in .htaccess, there should be no www showing in Google Site:?

That is not necessarily true. If you have a site which shows mixed URL results, then overtime the results from a site: search will be standardized, but it will take time as Google needs to crawl each and every page of the site and see the 301. Also if any page is blocked by robots.txt for example, then Google may not see the 301 for that page and still list the old url.

If you changed the Google WMT preferred domain setting, then it is true you will only see one version of the URL. I would specifically advise you NOT to change that setting in this case as it may cover up the developer's issue which you are trying to locate. As for now, you can wait 30 days and perform a site: search. Investigate any bad URLs you find.

Hi Alison.

Your issue is common and no, there should not be any problems IF you properly configure both sites as follows:

1. Set your geographic target for the .com site to US and the .com.au site to Australia. This is inferred but it is best to specify in your case.

2. Use the language meta codes in your headers. EN-US for the US site and EN-AU for the Australian site.

3. You already mentioned using the correct currency on the Australian site. You also should ensure all other units of measurement are adjusted. For example, miles vs kilometres, etc.

4. Spelling should be changed as appropriate. For example, center vs centre.

5. Word choices should be adjusted for Australian culture. Australians might say "Prices are much dearer" where an American wont understand what that means. In the US one would say "Prices are much higher".

Your hosting is fine from a SEO standpoint as long as the pages load quickly. I have worked with people from Australia before and there is a noticeable difference in page load speeds, especially when working with detailed images such as large images of smiles and teeth. I would recommend using YSlow, PageSpeed or other tools and determining your page load speed from Australia. If it is slow, consider hosting in Australia.

Yes.

Google and Bing are two independent companies which offer search results. If you wish to optimize your performance in Bing (Bing + Yahoo) then you should register with Bing WMT.

What an incredible reply. This would be a great SEOmoz blog article!!

Hi Shelly,

The entire idea of "getting social" is generating content that others WANT to tell their friends about. You didn't mention your business type so I will use Will's as an example. He runs a menswear (fashion) site. I would keep an eye out on fashion related news and magazines. When you see a star wearing a hat, shirt or any other item which is either being offered on your site, or has a similar product offered, it's time to get social!

If Tom Cruise is wearing your shirt, then reference the image of him wearing it and write an article about it. Don't write your average "I need a 500 word internet article" blurb, but instead go for making the best article ever written! Try to be catchy, engaging, informative, etc. "Tom Cruise Knows Fashion" is a possible title. The content could contain something like "Do you want to dress like a star? You may want to buy something from the xyz line proudly offered by mensfashion.com".

When the article is done, be sure the social icons are in place and publish it. The next step is to let the world know about your article. It's up to you to decide how to best publicize the article in a quality way without seeming spammy. The twitter and facebook pages of fashion magazines, channels like E!, etc. are all potential targets.

@Will, I believe most of the above works to answer your questions as well.

could you define social bookmarking?

Social Bookmarking

What you are asking about is relevancy. If you write an article on the topic of "old silver coins", if your page is perfectly optimized for that key phrase then your url, title, links, content will all use that phrase. Your page is still relevant for "silver coins" but all the pages which are optimized for "silver coins" will beat you assuming the other factors are equal.

When you perform a search for "silver coins" on Google.com, over 13 million results are returned. 90% of people do not look past the first page so the reality is you are competing for the top spots on the first page. If your result isn't on the first page, it doesn't really matter much.

The bottom line, yes your page would be relevant for "silver coins" but most likely it wont be relevant enough to make any meaningful difference.

You are on the right track. The link value from your existing pages must be saved.

Prior to offering a further reply I would like to ask a couple questions:

• how are your currently URLs coded? As an older site I presume your page URLs end in .asp?

• will your new design also be in asp?

What I am trying to determine is, will the new site require new URLs. If your current page is /rome.asp and the new page will be /rome.php then the URL will change so both your new site and old site can co-exist at the same domain. This process will be helpful for staging a transition.

PS. My recommendation for URLs would be to use friendly URLs which do not show an extension (i.e. /rome) but that is not the present focus.

I was also looking for a social sharing solution earlier this year. I researched AddThis and ShareThis, and decided to go with AddThis. I've been very pleased with that decision.

AddThis has fantastic customer service. Each time I posted a question in their forums, a solid answer was provided within hours. AddThis also offers URL tracking, access to 300+ social sharing networks along with fast, responsive updates. When Google+1 was introduced I went to their site and they already had it set up and ready to work with their system.

I probably sound like a salesman. I am merely a satisfied customer who is very pleased with their service.