circusboy - 9:39 pm on Nov 13, 2006 (gmt 0)

Webdude;

is this service something only your client does?

Without letting the cat out of the bag, let's say the client is a 'national online plumber's referal service', where local plumbers sign up to be listed locally in the client's national online database.

So, unless my client optimizes a page for 'plumbers in Tampa', they have no chance of being found. By NOT having - or penalizing - this page, it is a disservice to:

a) web searchers doing LOCALIZED searches for these services (which is proven to be vast majority - makes sense), because they won't see this full list of licensed plumbers in Tampa - user value
b) the various plumbers in Tampa who signed up to be listed
c) my client, who has a great business model, providing a referal service for busy plumbers who aren't marketers

Now, if a searcher just searches 'plumbers' we're cool, and rank well, but the VAST MAJORITY (90%) of searches are LOCALIZED long-tail searches.

So, is it not natural to grow pages for markets that you serve? And, just because (through research) you just realized this now, you should be penalized for handling it all at once?

Is it not natural for a caterpillar to realize it's time to grow, cocoon itself, and then re-emerge as something completely new and much larger? Should the new butterfly get penalized because the bird grows more gradually?

I totally see your point(s) - which is why I've been losing sleep. We're taking a chance here, and we're banking that Google has enough sense to know that 'natural' comes in many forms. If not, there's always the reinclusion request - LOL!