Does Tier linking that's currently effective and soon may be penalized and discovered later by the big G?

Neither domain name option is a very good idea. I'll explain why in a second, but first I'll answer your actual question. Although there might arguably be some slight advantage in having an exact-match domain of the form Name.TLD as opposed to a domain with additional keywords alongside the name, that advantage is probably negligible. Google algorithm updates, as I understand them, withhold that exact-match-domain advantage until a website has many other reinforcing signals of authority. (Their goal has been to downgrade spammy, low-quality websites.) Whichever domain version you might choose, Google will find the brand name CUJO mentioned all over your actual website and in the referring links. Those signals will be plenty for search engines to pick up on and hence plenty for SEO, and I'd expect them to overshadow the tiny difference between the 2 domains. Your choice shouldn't be based on SEO. Stop trying to please search engines, and start paying attention to your actual human audience. Really, your decision ought to be made based on the memorability and first impression of the domains. Is the extra keyword in .COM better than a name without that extra keyword in .IO? For humans, that is. Either way, you'll run into competition from CUJO.com. And that's a potential problem. Another problem would be pronunciation ambiguity. Spanish and English speakers will see the name very differently, based on that "J". Spelling isn't altogether clear either – Koojo, Kujo, Coojo, Cujo? The main problem I see, however, is that Cujo is a murderous dog in a Stephen King novel. Since most searches for Cujo will aim at that meaning, your site will be perceived by Google as usually irrelevant in comparison with searchers' intentions. And that doesn't help SEO.

If you got 5000 sites to link to your site using the same keyword you'll likely be flagged for spam and attempting to manipulate the search results. That is an old-school attempt at SEOing a site that Google and the other search engines have already developed algorithmic answers to. There are three aspects to building up your search rankings. 1) On-Site Optimization: Your site has to be coded in a way that is search and mobile friendly. You need to optimize your content for searcher's topical interest's (keywords), and give your visitors a great on-site experience by focusing on usability issues. 2) Content: You need to create and publish awesome content that fills the needs of the audience you're trying to reach. Write blog posts and create other forms of content that answer questions, provide tips, and map out solutions that truly illustrate that you are an authority on the topic. 3) Social Engagement / Links: Links are an important part of the algorithm, but getting a bunch of sites to link to you using keywords is the wrong approach. You need to be engaging on social media and (to a far lesser extent) socializing your content above. But the more you engage, the more others will socialize your content for you, which is where authority is really built.

immediaC has built and deployed more that 3000 website and mobile apps since 1998. Here are a couple of ideas for you to establish your credibility and built trust fast: 1 . Go do some pro bono for your favorite charity or non-profit. (We work with the local theatre, a few non-profit sports clubs and a food bank.) 2. Your own website's speaks volumes about your ability. Make sure it totally rocks. 3. While your teams previous work might not be part of your company's official portfolio, you can talk about their specific industry experience and success. 4. Work your networks. People buy from people they trust. Virtually every company out there is concerned about their online strategy, and how to be effective online. It is overwhelming for many businesses. They want a trusted expert. The people you already know, and the people who already know your team, are the easiest to establish trust with. Start with them. Happy to do a call with you if you like.

Hi, Your site is a Q&A so I presume that every time someone create a new Question it will generate a unique URL for that. Indepentend if you have or not an answer you want Google to crawl and index your site as quick as possible to start to analyzing the new page and bring traffic to it. The best way to expedite this "re-crawling" is to use a ping service that you can trigger after your user answer the question. PS: If you site is updated frequently you shouldn't have a problem with crawling, because Google usually identify this type of website really quick. Drop me a call is free for this week. Best,

Google's official stance is that they are "roughly equivalent" and recommends to do what is technically simpler to implement (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MswMYk05tk). With that said, I'd recommend a directory over a subdomain. Doing this consolidates signals to a single domain, which should then theoretically build more authority for all pages off of that single domain. This consolidation of authority results in rank increases, which have been documented here: http://moz.com/community/q/moz-s-official-stance-on-subdomain-vs-subfolder-does-it-need-updating. A subdomain would split signals from the blog and the rest of the root domain content. So while Google "says" they're roughly equivalent, SEOs have seen tangible evidence that sticking to a single domain can be beneficial. If you're able to go with www.iconery.com/editorial/, I'd choose that. Hope this helps!