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Question2: I have recently moved down from #3 to #4 on Google. The site that has gone #3 we will call domain1.com
But he has another website also - domain2.com which isnt hosted - it is held on a sub domain of domain1.com - for example domain1.com/domain2/widgets.htm etc etc.
The strange thing is, domain2.com is now on the 2nd page of Google already! Even though it's merely being web forwarded to a sub domain - however, it is on 'Links Manager' and so too is domain1.com So domain1.com actually has links manager running for it's links page, but another links manager running on a 2nd links page (that of domain2.com)
My thinking is that Google is ranking domain1.com high because it thinks its one giant website, with lots of links pointing to a subdomain as well. Domain1 and domain2 do link to each other in the Links Manager, therefore when Google searches domain1.com, it goes through all of domain2.com as well (domain1's subfolders).
I have about 4 times as many incoming links than domain1.com yet it's listed higher than mine.
So - What do you think? Should I offer people in my business the chance to have their website 'webforwarded' and hosted in one of my subfolders? Example - www.widgets.com/rob/widgets.htm
Question3: Domain1.com has it's web address as the very first part of it's title.
Example - instead of Widgets - Click here for Widgets ... it says ... www.widgets.com - click here for widgets.
Could this work in their favour? Obviously the keyword needs to be in the URL but do you think it makes a difference?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Steve
2) It's about quality (i.e. PR, anchor text, number of other links on the page etc.) of incoming links as well as simple number of links.
3) Little difference. If you're targeting "keyword" then the ideal title or link anchor text is "keyword", not so good is "a load of waffle with the word keyword somewhere in it", probably "a load of waffle with the word www.keyword.com somewhere in it" is similar as keyword is still parseable, "keywordsomethingelse" is no good as keyword is not parseable and "something else" is no good as keyword isn't there at all.
:)
#2: "...because it thinks its one giant website,"
That's not necessarily a good thing. I don't know that I would advise that approach. For one thing, it would limit all of those "sub-sites" to a maximum of only two pages listed for any search out of all of them combined (again, because it's all considered one big site)
#3: I don't see any benefit in listing the URL rather than just the keyword in the title (unless people will be searching for the URL!) I will hold off on the standard advice for optimizing titles for now, as the new update seems to have cause a major change in this particular issue, and may now even cause a DROP in rankings for a good keyword-rich title!
