SEO AMA

[Y.B.]

Hey everyone,

I am new to the forum but it looks like a great place so I'd like to start off by contributing something that hopefully some of you will find valuable.

I have been working in SEO for a number of years and have worked as both a consultant and for large agencies in NY and Cali.

If you have any questions about Google or SEO, ask away.

Also a few quick notes about me:
- I am likely the reason that ebay no longer allows you to sell counterfeit goods (happened years ago), and probably one of the first ones to start a giant trend of selling replica items on the internet (I haven't done this in years, but I made it popular)
- I built Flazzy.com a number of years ago which I sold on flippa to The National Lampoon for a small amount
- I built and sold a number of websites to LexisNexis
- I used to own the domain nsfw.com when I was very young and made the unfortunate mistake of selling it
- I am currently working on several projects/websites in the self help/development vertical

 

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[healthstatus]

1. How important is video in building authority?
2. When redesigning a site, and URLs will change, where is the best place for 301 redirects, robots.txt or .htaccess or Apache config files.
3. What is the most overlooked strategy in getting and maintaining rankings?

 

[allthatjazz]

Welcome aboard! Nice thread topic... SEO is still like magic to me

My Questions...

#1 - What's the first and most important SEO practice that immediately comes to mind AFTER onsite SEO has been optimized on a new site?
#2 - Can legitimate, quality, outsourced SEOers be found for semi-low competition keywords at a price that bootstrapped start-ups can afford? (if so, where?!)
#3 - What is the most common problem you see on established sites that is hurting rank?

Thanks for doing this!

 

[Y.B.]

1. How important is video in building authority?
2. When redesigning a site, and URLs will change, where is the best place for 301 redirects, robots.txt or .htaccess or Apache config files.
3. What is the most overlooked strategy in getting and maintaining rankings?

1. Video is just one piece of the puzzle that makes up the content marketing landscape. The goal is always to generate great content and earn links the natural way. Video is a great way to do that so long as you have an interesting video that is likely to get shared and accumulate links. Just look at upworthy.com. All they do is repost other peoples videos with some creative titles. Videos hosted on your site can also be marked up with schema/microdata which can help increase conversions to your site.

2. htaccess on apache web server...basically just a .htaccess. Robots.txt is for disallowing certain parts of your websites from being crawled

3. There is no easy way to gain/maintain rankings. It takes a lot of work. The best thing you can do is to build up your authority and remain an authority in your field, as well as publishing content as often as possible and contributing where possible. This is why it's always preferable to run a site in a field that you are interested in. It's also why a lot of people give up. They aren't interested in the topic and get bored of constantly updating their site, staying up to date on changes in the industry, etc..

#1 - What's the first and most important SEO practice that immediately comes to mind AFTER onsite SEO has been optimized on a new site?
#2 - Can legitimate, quality, outsourced SEOers be found for semi-low competition keywords at a price that bootstrapped start-ups can afford? (if so, where?!)
#3 - What is the most common problem you see on established sites that is hurting rank?

1. Assuming your site has no technical issues and all the on-page optimization is done properly, the next and most important part is authority. You develop authority by becoming an expert in your vertical. You do this by creating useful and engaging content for your readers and then connecting with influencers in your vertical. Whether you create content to be published on your own site or for other sites (like guest blogging), this is what really drives SEO.

2. It really depends on your definition of legitimate. Technically the answer is NO. However, that doesn't mean you won't get good results. I can have a lengthy discussion here about this topic, as well as white/gray/black hat SEO. When you outsource your SEO, the company will most likely just build you a bunch of content/links. In the short term, this may work well for you. Long term, you can get penalized or your competitors will outrank you with better quality content. The best advice I can give you, if you're looking to outsource SEO, is not to outsource SEO. What I mean by this is SEO really comes down to providing valuable content and gaining the authority from that content. So if you want to outsource something, outsource 1) high quality content production and 2) outreach initiative to connect individuals with that content.

3. Technical issues, especially duplicate content.

 

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[harerace]

Do you believe seo is dead? I understand SEO is still important but with Google changes they want you to focus more on quality content instead of SEO.

 

[healthstatus]

Do you believe seo is dead?

As long as there is search, people are going to work to be #1.

want you to focus more on quality content instead of SEO.

You phrased that like you think SEO is not about making good content that people want to view.

 

[harerace]

As long as there is search, people are going to work to be #1.


You phrased that like you think SEO is not about making good content that people want to view.

oooo ;-) I was asking the OP. Anywho, I would have to disagree with you. You can't give a deadman water and I feel that's how seo is for any NEW site. You will never out rank Amazon traffic type site. POINT BLANK PERIOD . Because you can't beat them using the same key terms. With software like WordPress it allows you to focus on content rather then SEO. Which is great thing!

Depending on the key term, you can work to be #1 on Google for the rest of your life. You will have a better chance hitting the lottery.

 

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[XXDangerDaveXX]

Yury - thanks for an awesome AMA - SEO is very important to my company... My company focuses on a product niche of industrial equipment (we sell packaging items such as pallets, crates, boxes, etc).

We were absolutely killing SEO for a number of years (probably 3+ years) and in order to accomplish top rankings for a large number of our chosen keywords, we were engaged in:
Link Exchange - we used linkmarket.net in order to trade links with other sites. They would post a link on their site that had some keywords leading back to my site and we would do the same thing for them.
Articles - we would pay to have people create keyword oriented articles and we would distribute them and get them posted on 100's of articles sites. These are mostly low quality articles sites and have everything from weight loss to space travel on them so they're not what Google would consider to be "high quality". The articles had 1-2 links in them that led back to our site.
Keyword Optimized URLs - we have 10+ websites on different hosts that were optimized around our keywords and pointed back to the main website. For example, if I owned Autotrader, we had the main site http://www.autotrader.com and I also has http://www.usedfordtaurus.com as a domain that had "Used Ford Taurus" content pointing back to the main website. They would bring us traffic and also brought high quality, optimized links pointing back to the main website. These Keyword Optimized URLs also had their own Link Exchange activities going on.
These activities worked wonderfully and were were truly Top 10 in almost all of our keywords and often we were #1 or #2. These high rankings actually made it through a couple Panda updates without getting penalized.

However, around April 2013, we started to see our organic rank drop and our organic traffic from Google trickled off over a period of 6 months or so. We now have an 70-80% reduction in Google organic traffic from our peak. Google literally hates the site now. We went from 9000 indexed pages down to 3000. We went from Top 10 to Rank 60-80 on many keywords that don't even have much competition.

I've had several SEO firms working on the issue (and spent about $10,000 with so-called "experts" on the matter) but so far, there has been no improvement.
We've ceased our Link Exchange and Article Posting activities and we're focused on building unique content.
There is not a "manual penalty" on the site (checked Webmaster Tools & there is no penalty).
I'm convinced that we're under an "algorithm penalty" by Google right now, we're not ranking well for even our long tail keywords, which we should definitely rank well for.

My question to you Yury - we have a specialized case - not sure if you can help:
1) Do you believe Algorithm Penalties exist?
2) If you piss off Google and get an Algorithm Penalty - are you aware of an appeals process?
3) Do you have any suggestions on how we might go about fixing the situation and getting our ranking back?

 

[Y.B.]

Do you believe seo is dead? I understand SEO is still important but with Google changes they want you to focus more on quality content instead of SEO.

SEO is not dead per say. It is evolving. The main thing that is currently changing is the terminology, which is just a matter of semantics.

However, that's not to say that it can't die. The way Google is going, no one really knows. They are transforming from a content finder to a content publisher/distributor. It seems as if every action Google takes is for the purpose of having you sign up for adwords. My best recommendation would be to never put all your eggs in one basket, especially when that basket is controlled by Google. Don't get me wrong...seo can still drive significant traffic and revenue to any website, but it's not the only way.

 

[Y.B.]

My question to you Yury - we have a specialized case - not sure if you can help:
1) Do you believe Algorithm Penalties exist?
2) If you piss off Google and get an Algorithm Penalty - are you aware of an appeals process?
3) Do you have any suggestions on how we might go about fixing the situation and getting our ranking back?

1. They absolutely exist and WILL negatively impact rankigns
2. There is no "appeal" process. You need to clean up your back link profile and probably change direction of your current seo campaigns.
3. Are you looking to do this yourself or hire someone? (Feel free to PM me for a price quote).

 

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[HappyFighter]

I've only experienced blogging for a few months last year, but here are my questions:

1. Let's assume that I'll write 10 articles/posts a month. In average how long does it take to rank a new site on a niche with average competition?
2. Is 500 words adequate for an article/posts that will rank well with google? I've read somewhere that google seems to favor long and detailed articles/posts (around 1000+ words).

 

[Y.B.]

Let's assume that I'll write 10 articles/posts a month. In average how long does it take to rank a new site on a niche with average competition?
Is 500 words adequate for an article/posts that will rank well with google? I've read somewhere that google seems to favor long and detailed articles/posts (around 1000+ words).

1. This is a difficult question to answer, as there are too many variables. You can write 10 posts and Google will index them. As far as getting good rankings for them? They better be extremely good posts that other people like, share and link to. The old saying of build it and they will come doesn't work any more. It doesn't matter how many posts in a month you publish, what matters is the quality of them and how you market them.

2. Google does prefer longer and detailed content. The 500 words guideline is used by people just looking to game the system for SEO purposes, not by quality publishers. Find some authoritative and well ranked competitors in your area and take a look at what they are doing.

 

[harerace]

What is your theory on Google letting Rap Genius off the hook? Shouldn't they be punished like everyone else?

 

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[Y.B.]

What is your theory on Google letting Rap Genius off the hook? Shouldn't they be punished like everyone else?

Now that's an easy question. Technically they should be punished like everyone else but Google can't treat large websites the same way. Google realized a long time ago that they are hurting themselves if they punish large sites for a long period of times. Assume repgenius is punished and someone goes to Google and searches for "rap genius" and rapgenius.com is nowhere to be found? This looks really poorly upon Google because now they're not providing you with the quality results you want. Google's philosophy is that they try to provide users with the best experience. If a user can't find a brand/company they are looking for because they have been penalized, that's not a good experience for the user.

 

[harerace]

Now that's an easy question. Technically they should be punished like everyone else but Google can't treat large websites the same way. Google realized a long time ago that they are hurting themselves if they punish large sites for a long period of times. Assume repgenius is punished and someone goes to Google and searches for "rap genius" and rapgenius.com is nowhere to be found? This looks really poorly upon Google because now they're not providing you with the quality results you want. Google's philosophy is that they try to provide users with the best experience. If a user can't find a brand/company they are looking for because they have been penalized, that's not a good experience for the user.

Ahhh I see. Illegal Growth Hack to the top and now your untouchable ? Ycombinator man o' man.

 

[englandrm]

Hi Yury, it's good to see another SEO in the forum. As for @XXDangerDaveXX, the very best thing I've read for penalty recovery is from Moz at http://moz.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-google-penalty-removal ; It walks you through the entire process. If you aren't recovered after the first run(assuming you're going after the right penalty), it's a matter of rinse and repeat.

I've had clients who've recovered after a month of work, and others who have taken over a year. It all depends on how severe the penalty is, and there's always that chance of luck when appealing to Google (Reconsideration Requests). Even if you're using the Disavow Tool, it can take several reconsideration requests to get approved (that's where the luck comes in with the manual review).

As for everything else, Yury you've given out some excellent answers. It sounds like you know exactly what you're talking about. Thanks for starting the AMA and giving back to the forum.

~englandrm

 

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[Y.B.]

Hi Yury, it's good to see another SEO in the forum. As for @XXDangerDaveXX, the very best thing I've read for penalty recovery is from Moz at http://moz.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-google-penalty-removal ; It walks you through the entire process. If you aren't recovered after the first run(assuming you're going after the right penalty), it's a matter of rinse and repeat.
I've had clients who've recovered after a month of work, and others who have taken over a year. It all depends on how severe the penalty is, and there's always that chance of luck when appealing to Google (Reconsideration Requests). Even if you're using the Disavow Tool, it can take several reconsideration requests to get approved (that's where the luck comes in with the manual review).
As for everything else, Yury you've given out some excellent answers. It sounds like you know exactly what you're talking about. Thanks for starting the AMA and giving back to the forum.
~englandrm

Thanks englandrm. One thing to point out from your message is about the reconsideration request you mention. Dave mentioned that he did not receive a manual penalty so there is no reconsidering to request.

 

[englandrm]

Thanks englandrm. One thing to point out from your message is about the reconsideration request you mention. Dave mentioned that he did not receive a manual penalty so there is no reconsidering to request.

Good call. Definitely missed that, even though his questions were all based around that. In the past though, I have submitted them without the message in WMT; just to be sure there wasn't a manual penalty.The algorithmic penalties can be tricky to identify, but by looking at past/present landing pages and as much keyword data that's available, you can get a better idea.

You also want to think about duplicate content. Of your 9,000 pages, were all of them unique both on and off your site? Copyscape would be a cheap way to check all this.

PS> I'm a fan of the Disavow tool. You want to try and remove as many low quality links as possible upfront, but what most people find is that all the spammy SEO sites from the past get no response. Keep things organized, show it to Google, and use the tool. Again, even if there isn't a manual penalty; it's worth taking these steps for proactive reasons and the chance that it can bring you back within the "normal" range for your incoming links/anchors.

 

[mlk]

What do you think of networks like Sape?

Is it more or less safe/useful to throw in a couple of (expensive, not spammy) links from such networks to established sites?

 

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[englandrm]

What do you think of networks like Sape?

Is it more or less safe/useful to throw in a couple of (expensive, not spammy) links from such networks to established sites?

Not to hijack the thread, but figured I'd offer my thoughts. In general, networks work. It doesn't matter if it's Sape or another, it's just a collection of high authority sites that can be leveraged for better rankings.

When you go with Sape links or any big network for that matter, you increase your risk for a penalty. You don't technically control the links (if you stop paying you might get removed). You don't control the content. And you don't control the other sites that are being linked to. There's too many factors out of your control that can get your site penalized, even if it is established. If you read any SEO news sites, you'll see tons of stories about networks going down and established sites getting penalized. Even if you aren't taking the cheap route, there still is a big risk associated with links you don't control. - IMO you're better off without them than with them.

As I said above, networks work; when they're done right. A proper network is a group of high authority, highly relevant websites that you control. You control the content, the outbound links, the anchor texts and you can leverage the size/shape of the site to your needs. In general, it's going to be more expensive setting all of this up than just hopping on a network; but the added control is hugely beneficial.

For a network guide, check out Becker at http://source-wave.com/white-hat-seo/ . He's actually the one that recommended The Millionaire Fastlane , and got me here in the first place.

 

[Y.B.]

What do you think of networks like Sape?

I would agree with @englandrm

Also you can take a look here:
http://searchengineland.com/did-google-just-penalize-another-link-network-sape-links-150843

Google knows about Sape which is more reason not to use them

The safest way is to build your own network which is time consuming and can be expensive depending how you go about it

 

[XXDangerDaveXX]

Hi Yury, it's good to see another SEO in the forum. As for @XXDangerDaveXX, the very best thing I've read for penalty recovery is from Moz at http://moz.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-google-penalty-removal ; It walks you through the entire process. If you aren't recovered after the first run(assuming you're going after the right penalty), it's a matter of rinse and repeat.

I've had clients who've recovered after a month of work, and others who have taken over a year. It all depends on how severe the penalty is, and there's always that chance of luck when appealing to Google (Reconsideration Requests). Even if you're using the Disavow Tool, it can take several reconsideration requests to get approved (that's where the luck comes in with the manual review).

As for everything else, Yury you've given out some excellent answers. It sounds like you know exactly what you're talking about. Thanks for starting the AMA and giving back to the forum.

~englandrm

We DO NOT have a manual penalty so it appears to be an algorithm penalty. Interesting enough, I had lunch with a guy today for a little pow-wow and he has a company that deals in t-shirts (lots of them). At any rate, they're in the SEO game too and were engaged in a lot of the low quality but keyword specific link building that we were doing as well. They also saw a penalty and were pretty severely punished as well. Their penalty started in November 2013, so they've been only gong through it for 3 months. I've been in the weeds for 10 months but only noticed it / took action 7 months ago.

Things we have tried:
disavow file - disavow some of our crappiest inbound links - this did not seem to have an impact on organic rank
robots.txt - allowed the bots to crawl and index our images folders - previously this was disallowed
Identify Duplicate Content on Website - we identified some key areas that had duplicate content and removed the duplicate content
Added Link Rel tags throughout all pages to make them more SEO Friendly
Added an updated Sitemap but only could get 4700 pages out of the free online Sitemap tool used, the developers are working on a comprehensive sitemap that will be auto-updated, that's not done yet.

The above items have been done within the last 4 months and we have not yet seen an improvement in organic rank.

Items still pending:
Reduce the length of our URLs & reducing the keywords stuff that we currently have in our URLs
Get a full Sitemap & upload to Webmaster Tools

 

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[englandrm]

We DO NOT have a manual penalty so it appears to be an algorithm penalty.

A few quick questions:

Is there any organic traffic coming in from Google? (or other search engines for that matter)

If yes, can you see some of the keywords that are bringing them in? What about the landing pages? Any patterns that emerge?

Did you try and get any links removed, or just go straight for the disavow file? (The disavow file is more of a recommendation to Google of what links not to count. Even though you don't have a Manual Penalty. It's worth spending a few minutes on a Recon Request).

Have you looked at your backlink profile? Are your anchor texts way out of proportion (you want to do this on a page level)? And are certain pages receiving more links than others? And are certain sites linking from a ton of pages? (sitewide links, such as in the footer or sidebar)

Is Webmaster Tools reporting any other errors?

>

Is your site ad heavy on the top? (Is there a big image or slider near the top, or a couple of them). I remember about a year ago I had a client receive that penalty. We rebuilt the site, and his rankings returned.

And not to discourage you, because it's great that you're taking action to get your site recovered; but the steps you've taken aren't IMO going to help recover. Most of that stuff can be done for under $100 and a few hours of someones time. Those are all decent practices for your website, so it's not time wasted.

First you need to identify the problem. And then you need to take care of the cause.

 

[healthstatus]

Keyword Optimized URLs - we have 10+ websites on different hosts that were optimized around our keywords and pointed back to the main website. For example, if I owned Autotrader, we had the main site http://www.autotrader.com and I also has http://www.usedfordtaurus.com as a domain that had "Used Ford Taurus" content pointing back to the main website. They would bring us traffic and also brought high quality, optimized links pointing back to the main website. These Keyword Optimized URLs also had their own Link Exchange activities going on.

Make sure these sites don't share a template footprint, don't share a google analytics or webmaster tools account, and if you have not used privacy on your domain registrations, Google will know they are owned by one person, and this is penalty area. Google also publicized that keyword URL's would not get an extra boost as they had in the past. So you could have a case of a penalty, or a case of things just don't work the way they used to. From your description things point more at penalty.

 

[bkypes]

What books would you two recommend for someone who is looking to gain a solid base knowledge of SEO?

 

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[englandrm]

What books would you two recommend for someone who is looking to gain a solid base knowledge of SEO?

SEO is constantly changing, and there's a wide range of techniques ranging from White Hat to Black. Most books on Amazon get dated quickly, so it's better to check out more "live" choices.

Off the top of my head are a few links.

Moz Beginners Guide: http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

Neil Patel Traffic: http://www.quicksprout.com/double-your-traffic-in-30-days/

Neil Patel Conversions: http://www.quicksprout.com/double-your-conversions-in-30-days/

And one more by him: http://www.quicksprout.com/university/

All of these are free, no opt in resources. Definitely worth reading.

Hope that helps. ~englandrm

 

[bkypes]

@englandrm, thanks! I'm reading through the guide on Moz right now. I'll have to read over the rest over the weekend.

 

[XXDangerDaveXX]

A few quick questions:

Is there any organic traffic coming in from Google? (or other search engines for that matter)

If yes, can you see some of the keywords that are bringing them in? What about the landing pages? Any patterns that emerge?

Did you try and get any links removed, or just go straight for the disavow file? (The disavow file is more of a recommendation to Google of what links not to count. Even though you don't have a Manual Penalty. It's worth spending a few minutes on a Recon Request).

Have you looked at your backlink profile? Are your anchor texts way out of proportion (you want to do this on a page level)? And are certain pages receiving more links than others? And are certain sites linking from a ton of pages? (sitewide links, such as in the footer or sidebar)

Is Webmaster Tools reporting any other errors?

>

Is your site ad heavy on the top? (Is there a big image or slider near the top, or a couple of them). I remember about a year ago I had a client receive that penalty. We rebuilt the site, and his rankings returned.

And not to discourage you, because it's great that you're taking action to get your site recovered; but the steps you've taken aren't IMO going to help recover. Most of that stuff can be done for under $100 and a few hours of someones time. Those are all decent practices for your website, so it's not time wasted.

First you need to identify the problem. And then you need to take care of the cause.

A few quick questions:

Is there any organic traffic coming in from Google? (or other search engines for that matter)

If yes, can you see some of the keywords that are bringing them in? What about the landing pages? Any patterns that emerge?

Did you try and get any links removed, or just go straight for the disavow file? (The disavow file is more of a recommendation to Google of what links not to count. Even though you don't have a Manual Penalty. It's worth spending a few minutes on a Recon Request).

Have you looked at your backlink profile? Are your anchor texts way out of proportion (you want to do this on a page level)? And are certain pages receiving more links than others? And are certain sites linking from a ton of pages? (sitewide links, such as in the footer or sidebar)

Is Webmaster Tools reporting any other errors?

>

Is your site ad heavy on the top? (Is there a big image or slider near the top, or a couple of them). I remember about a year ago I had a client receive that penalty. We rebuilt the site, and his rankings returned.

And not to discourage you, because it's great that you're taking action to get your site recovered; but the steps you've taken aren't IMO going to help recover. Most of that stuff can be done for under $100 and a few hours of someones time. Those are all decent practices for your website, so it's not time wasted.

First you need to identify the problem. And then you need to take care of the cause.

1) Yes, we still have organic traffic from Google. March / April 2013: 10,000 Google Organic unique organic visitors per month vs Current 2,500 Google Organic unique visitors / month
2) Keywords - Google doesn't disclose traffic from Organic keywords anymore, I do know that a lot of people do organic search for our brand name / website name, and of course we rank well for that term. However, we do TRACK our organic rank and I have some before / after data. Additionally, we have keyword data from our CPC campaigns and from Bing & Yahoo search we can still capture that data so from that, we can probably extrapolate some data. I haven't been able to discern a specific pattern with the keywords other than a downward trend.
3) Traffic trends before / after penalty - I did an analysis where I compared landing page data before / after the reduction in traffic. Our website structure is this: Homepage > Category > Sub-category > Item Pages. Additionally we have Blog Page and General Info Pages (like Contact Us, etc) Here is the Landing Page Summary Data from that Analysis (before penalty / after penalty for a 30 day period):
Homepage 1444 (19% of traffic) / 527 (18% of traffic)
Articles 407 (5% of traffic) / 20 (1% of traffic)
General Info 87 (1% of traffic) / 28 (1% of traffic)
Item Pages 632 (8% of traffic) / 240 (8% of traffic)
Category 30 (0% of traffic) / 13 (0% of traffic)
Sub-Category 4683 (63% of traffic) / 2043 (71% of traffic)
My conclusion: All pages have been punished equally.
4) Disavow file - the SEO firm handled this - I think they went straight to the disavow, there were some links from foreign websites, unlikely to be removed since the sites appear abandoned or of a very poor quality.
5) Backlink profile - yes, we had a disproportionate amount of links with the same keyword string. "Natural" inbound links would either vary keywords or just have a URL or website name in them. I had let our linkmarket campaign run for a long time without modifying the anchor text so something like 60% of our backlinks use the same keywords, so Google can identify that as "unnatural link building".
6) Webmaster tools reported some URL errors apparently caused by user tracking data (404 errors - example: equipment.php?user_id=251&productId=339 - where the correct URL would be equipment.php?productId=339 so some type of session specific data is causing some URLs to be indexed that shouldn't be indexed. Not sure how to fix that.
Also I had discovered a tool in Webmaster Tools that identified some duplicate content area. I addressed those areas and just went back to re-audit the site for duplicate content in Google Webmaster Tools but I couldn't find where that tool exists now.
7) We do not have any ads at all, we are a commercial website. But your question about a redesign does have some merit. Around the same time as our downturn, we launched a new version of the website. The new version was built on a new technology platform but utilized the same exact design, same exact site structure, and same exact visible & meta text & keywords. However, our URL structure did change. We put 301 redirects in place for our most critical pages but the URL structure did change. The URL structure became more complex and also the new URL structure had more keywords in them.

 

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[MyronGainz]

If I am a local professional business (i.e. lawyer, accountant etc.) is engaging users and enticing content still they best SEO practise? Google maps?

I feel like when you search for a local business, specifically a professional service, Google quickly turns into a directory with map listings and whatnot.

 

[Lakeview]

I have a new website with a brand new forum. Target audience is industrial manufacturing plants maintenance departments promoting a resource for services they have a need for. What steps would you take initially to get activity on a new forum and improve SEO for that kind of website?