Archive for the ‘Search Engine Optimization (SEO)’ Category
New Tool Helps SEO, SEM Consultants Pinpoint Local Clients
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011The SeoQuake team, the group behind the SEMRush tools for SEO and keyword research, recently released a new tool to help SEM consultants and agencies find local clients. SEMRush Geo displays Google AdWords advertisers on a Google Maps background, enabling users to identify the businesses within any geographic area who are running AdWords campaigns.
Clicking on any businesses opens a small pop-out with additional information (which is also displayed in the left sidebar). Clicking the SEMRush icon within the pop-out or sidebar opens a new window displaying the keywords bid on by that company, and for each keyword the average cost per click, destination URL, percentage of AdWords traffic driven, percentage of AdWords costs and more. The free link displays only partial data; a Pro subscription to SEMRush (at $50 per month) is required to view all of the AdWords data, plus organic keywords, history and export capabilities.
For companies using AdWords, it may seem almost a bit creepy that there is this level of detail about their SEM activities available publicly. But it’s a good reminder for all of us that what we online is, usually, there for the world to see if one knows where to look. For SEM agencies and consultants, the SEMRush Geo tool is a prospecting goldmine. Used properly, the tool can help agencies generate new business and advertisers improve the effectiveness of their AdWords campaigns. For consultants and agencies that provide SEM services, this is definitely worth checking out.
FTC Disclosure: SEMRush provided access to their tools to assist in conducting this evaluation but did not provide any direct compensation for writing this post.
Why Modesty Matters for SEO Experts
Thursday, April 14th, 2011I had lunch recently with a long-time friend who’s a top-notch financial planner. He said something about achieving investment success that, it struck me, really applies to the SEO world as well.
“I encourage clients to invest for the long term. Trying to time the market just doesn’t work. If you’d been out of the market and missed just the ten best trading days over the past 20 years, you’d have given up half of the total return. I recommend buying and holding quality funds. I know I’m not smarter than the market.”
It was that last sentence that seemed applicable to SEO; the problem with any type of black hat, manipulative, bad SEO practice is that the practitioner believes he or she is can outwit the search engines. While your SEO consultant should be smarter than a 5th grader, don’t ever hire one who isn’t willing to acknowledge: “I am not smarter than Google.”
The history of black hat SEO is littered with tactics created by people who lacked the humility to make such admissions. Keyword stuffing, link farms, cloaking, “white text”–all of these tactics worked for a time, before drawing the fire and the ire of search engines, leading to penalties and blacklisting in many cases for site owners.
More recently, J.C. Penney saw its rankings plummet on Google after the retailer, or its SEO firm, or some mysterious force (no one seems to want to take “credit” for the tactics of course) was discovered using link spam and link buying techniques to artificially inflate search results. Google also released the Farmer Update to its search engine algorithm in February, designed to degrade results for content farming (which is a tactic, not strictly a type of site; there are SEO “experts” who apply the technique of generating a large amount of keyword-rich but low quality content to commercial websites in order to manipulate search results).
Google employs thousands of top-notch engineers, including a significant number devoted to search quality. No SEO is going to outsmart this team–at least not for long. The experience of sites like J.C. Penney, wiseGEEK and HubPages demonstrates the risk of SEO hubris.
The best SEO consultants are smart enough to know how to apply Google-recommended best practices effectively, while remaining modest enough to accept that they aren’t smarter than Google.
Best Cool SEO Tools of 2010
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011Like carpenters and cooks, SEO professionals rely on creativity, skill and the right tools to work their magic. And like a craftsman or chef, a talented SEO pro can produce impressive results even with simple tools—but can achieve even more with better, more specialized tools.
In this post you’ll find keyword tools, other SEO tools (backlink checkers, SEO analysis, duplicate content finders), and reviews of even more tools (from smart guys like Lee, Marty, Brent…hmm, why does there seem to be so much SEO talent in Minnesota? Must be something in the water…).
SEO Keyword Research Tools
Tools for Search Marketing Intelligence by ClickZ
Julie Batten reviews eight tools to help with search marketing and SEO planning, including both free (i.e., Google AdWords Keyword Tool) and fee-based (i.e., Compete.com Search Analytics) alternatives.
5 Powerful Tools For Keyword Suggestions and Ideas by BMD Media Website Design Blog
Illustrated, scored reviews of five keyword tools such as Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. The highest score goes to…
R.I.P. Google Keyword Tool. Long Live SEO! by aimClear
Marty Weintraub delivers a blog eulogy for Google’s free AdWords Keyword tool, which wasn’t killed so much as neutered in October 2010, and suggests four alternatives including WordStream. Fortunately, however, in response to massive and severe blowback from the search marketing and SEO communities, Google relented two months later and fixed the keyword tool.
Comprehensive 2010 SEO Guide to Keywords by Bruce Clay
Brent Rangen details keyword research offerings from the three two major search engines, plus the YouTube keyword tool and a couple of additional offerings.
Other SEO Tools
A tool with free and fee-based offerings for monitoring and alerting on search position, Google and Alexa ranking, server uptime, backlinks, social bookmarks and more.
A fast, free overall SEO analysis tool that checks a site for duplicate content, proper 404 error handling, URL structure, domain age, use of header tags, page load time, inbound links and other search-related attributes.
A conceivably useful SEO analysis and grading tool, but it asks for a lot of information—your company, name, email address and phone number in addition to URL, keywords and competitive sites.
I haven’t had a chance to play with this one yet, but it looks potentially very helpful. The Screaming Frog SEO Spider crawls your site and exports key onsite SEO elements (url, page title, meta descriptions, headings etc) to Excel for easy analysis. Data collected includes redirects, external and internal links, duplicate/missing page titles, image data (large files, missing alt tags) and more.
A slick SEO toolbar that enables you to instantly check a variety of attributes on any web page including pagerank, delicious links, backlinks, keyword density and domain age. What’s really tight though is the ability to run Google searches and then export the results to Excel.
The creators didn’t waste a lot of time on a fancy UI, but URLinfo is a handy collection of 113 tools for, as the site puts it, “handling web pages: finding information about it, translating it, finding related pages, etc.” Find search engine backlinks, blog site references, social media links, Alexa info, and much more, though a few of the tools need updating.
A collection of 70 free tools for link analysis, keywords, rank checking, on-page elements, social media, website speed testing, code optimization and more.
Reviews of SEO Tools
Five Free Link-Building Tools for Small Business SEO Campaigns by Search Engine Smarts
Guest blogger Lee Odden quantifies the value of inbound links for SEO and then provides reviews of five tools “for tracking inbound links (that) small business marketers can use to get a leg up on the competition.”
The Best Free Online SEO Tools by Dreamscape Design
Because “Working in SEO is very similar to working as a carpenter (why does that analogy sound familiar?), painter & decorator, builder, or a mechanic…you are only as good as the tools you have at your disposal. Bad tools lead to bad craftsmanship, and this will ultimately lead to poor conversion rates, wasted money, and unhappy clients,” James Brack reviews four valuable yet free tools for keyword research, competitive diagnostics and links building including Link Diagnosis and Link Hub Finder.
The Top 10 SEO Competitor Tools for 2010 by ineedhits Blog
Rene LeMerle supplies mini-reviews of 10 competitive analysis tools to help discover “who is out ranking you and what they’re doing to achieve the results,” including Spyfu, SEMrush and Linkscape. The list is great, the site a bit spammy; apologies if you get an annoying popup when clicking the link, I wish bloggers would realize how annoying this is and how it cheapens the experience of visiting a site, but some still don’t get it.
Tools to Predict and Monitor Competitor Traffic by The Daily SEO Blog
Sam Crocker serves up detailed reviews of nine free and fee-based tools for gaining insights into competitors’ website traffic data.
Top 10 Must Have SEO Extensions for Google Chrome by The YOUmoz Blog
Patrick Ahler supplies helpful, illustrated reviews of 10 SEO exensions for the Google Chrome browser including SEO Site Tools, IE Tab (allows you to view a web page as if you were using IE) and Google Screen Capture.
Top 6 Best SEO Tools for Google Chrome by Daily SEO Tip
On the topic of Google Chrome, Lyuben Georgiev here reviews his half-dozen favorite SEO tools such as MozBar and SEO SERP.
The MEGA List of Free and Paid SEO Tools the Professionals Use [Best of SEW 2010 #3] by Search Engine Watch
If the collection of tools above isn’t enough to keep you busy for a while, Garry Przyklenk provides brief reviews of another 20+ free SEO tools, toolbars and browser plugins, “freemium” and fee-based tools.
Nine Expert Guides to Local SEO
Friday, February 18th, 2011Any business that primarily relies on customers within it’s local geographic area—which includes not just restaurants and dentists but also some types of b2b vendors, such as IT services and of course marketing and PR firms—needs to understand the ins and outs of local search engine optimization (SEO). As with SEO generally, keywords and content matter (though for local SEO that includes geography- or region-specific terms) and links play a significant role (though key link sources are different for local businesses).
Given that, as Laurie Sullivan reports below, “70% of survey respondents view search engines, online Yellow Pages or social networks as their primary sources of local business information,” how can you make your business stand out in local search? How can you optimize your site for Google Maps? How important is social media to local search success? If you decide to hire this out, what qualifications should you look for in a local SEO consultant or firm?
Find the answers to these questions and others here in nine of the best local SEO guides of the past year.
Local Search Optimization Interview with David Mihm by Vertical Measures Blog
Elise Redlin-Cook interviews David Mihm, COO of GetListed.org, about free, paid and niche local search directories, local search ranking factors and other key considerations for optimizing local search presence.
Guest Post: 3 Tips for Small Business Local Search Marketing by My Venture Pad
Brett Duncan explains how local search works, then offers tips on using links and reviews to optimize a site and “take control of your online reputation.”
How To Hire a Local SEO Consultant by Local SEO Guide
Achieving high rankings in local search isn’t always easy, particularly for highly competitive terms in large metropolitan markets. For those seeking professional help with local SEO, Andrew Shotland provides a list of 13 questions (and the types of answers you should look for) to help evaluate local search consultants. Example: “How do you communicate your effectiveness to me? The consultant should have a system that regularly communicates what they have done, what is going to be done and when.”
How To Report A Google Maps Problem by Search Engine Guide
Miriam Ellis reports that while Google’s Maps feature isn’t perfect—nor is the search giant’s process for reporting errors—Google has at least improved the process for the latter. She explains how the Report a Problem feature works, and illustrates this with a real-world case.
Local Search 101: How to Obtain Top Results in Google Maps by Search Engine People
Speaking of Google Maps, in this post Stephanie Woods notes that “For many clients these Google map results garner more clicks than regular search results. This is a pretty big deal,” then steps through the process of optimizing your site for maps by claiming your Google Local listing, using local terms and keywords, getting listed in key local directories, and encouraging customer reviews.
Mobile And Social Dominating Local Search by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Laurie Sullivan reports on recent research showing that “70% of survey respondents view search engines, online Yellow Pages or social networks as their primary sources of local business information.” Nearly half of consumers start a local search for products or services with no specific business in mind. While only 9% of consumers rely on social networks to find local businesses, 93% of those consumers use Facebook to get that information.
7 Steps to Letting Locals Find You Online by MarketingProfs
Dana VanDen Heuvel provides a 7-step guide to getting found in local search, starting with including your city name in your website navigation and continuing through using local directory listings, reviews and social media.
Top 10 Local Search Insights for the Moment by Search Engine Watch
Frank Watson takes a look at recent developments in the evolving landscape of local search, including Google Places (“Google gives local placement in return for having businesses fill in the information and building their yellow page killer for them”), mobile, Twitter, and consumer review sites.
The Basics of Local SEO – Whiteboard Friday by The Daily SEO Blog
Aaron Wheeler posts and outlines a whiteboard Friday presentation from Danny Dover covering what’s changed recently in local search (particularly on Google) and how to capitalize on that. Included is an excellent list of the most important factors in local search (topped by accessibility and content) and local search-specific considerations like review sites and local directories.
Best SEO Guides, Tips and Resources of 2010
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011Ranking well in organic search results becomes more imperative every day, particularly in the B2B world. According to recent research, 9 out of 10 B2B buyers say that when they’re ready to buy, they’ll find you. 93% of these decision makers use search to begin the buying process. And it isn’t just low-level minions conducting searches at the behest of higher-ups; 63% of C-level executives say they first turn to mainstream search engines to locate information.
That makes optimization more important than ever, and leads to questions like: How can SEO be used in online reputation management? What common SEO mistakes are critical to avoid? How important are footer links to SEO? How can PDF content be optimized for search? How does the introduction of Google Instant change SEO tactics? What are the crucial tasks to include on site audit and pre-launch SEO checklists?
Find the answers to those questions and many more here in more than two dozen of the best guides to SEO tips, strategies, techniques and tactics of the past year.
SEO Basics
SEO: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners by KISS Metrics
Neil Patel provides an excellent and largely non-technical guide to SEO success, from keyword research and content development through meta tags, search-friendly URLs and link building.
Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide 2010- Plain Speak on SEO by WorkingPoint
For those without the time, inclination or webmaster jargon knowledge to read Google’s 32-page SEO Starter Guide, this blog post nets it out: choose the right keywords (based on your market knowledge, not so much what keyword tools tell you), optimize your site, pursue quality links, and unless you have such expertise internally—hire professional help.
SEO 101: Defining the long tail by Conversation Marketing
Ian Lurie lucidly explains the meaning of “long tail” in search with simple and compelling graphics showing that while individual “head” terms may get management salivating for top rank position, it’s the less sexy but more specific 3-word and longer queries that collectively generate more traffic and a much higher conversion rate.
What Is SEO, Really? by SEO Book
After providing an explanation of SEO, brief history of the discipline and recommendations on how to learn modern SEO techniques, Peter Da Vanzo concludes that SEO isn’t only about rankings—but it isn’t just about money either.
You WANT Rankings, But What Do You Really NEED? by Search Engine Guide
Frequent best-of contributor Stoney deGeyter elaborates on the “key components to a well-rounded optimization campaign,” including keyword research, website architecture, copywriting, on-page optimization, analytics and more.
Advanced SEO Tactics, Techniques and Considerations
The dangers of ranking No. 1 on Google by iMediaConnection
***** 5 Stars
Drew Hubbard quantifies both the value and risk of high rankings. On the value side, getting your site ranked #1 on both Google and Yahoo/Bing means you’ll attract (on average) 40% of ALL organic search clicks for that term. On the risk side, however, carefully choose which terms you really want to rank for. People search for different reasons. Ranking highly for an informational—rather than transactional—can end up drawing a ton of traffic to your site and putting a big load on your servers for no real business benefit. Ranking for high-conversion keywords is far more important (i.e. profitable) than just showing up well for high-traffic terms. Still, considering all of the worries that might keep an SEO pro up at night, this one is probably pretty low on the list.
How to optimize page Titles and improve click through rates by Web SEO Analytics
Vasilis Vryniotis runs through the basics of optimizing titles for search: make them brief, descriptive, attractive and branded, with the most important keywords up front.
25 tips to skyrocket your search engine rankings by Socialmedia.biz
Karan Singhal offers 25 tips that may not “skyrocket” your site’s rankings but should help, among them: understanding your target market and how they search, using internal linking with anchor text, utilizing keyword-rich URLs, and keeping your site’s content fresh.
12 Amazing SEO Infographics by HubSpot Blog
***** 5 Stars
Kipp Bodnar compiles an outstanding, highly bookmarkable set of SEO infographics suitable for printing out and posting in a highly visible location. Examples include the SEO Order of Operations (grab and include with the post?), SEO vs. PPC stats, and the ROI of SEO.
Search Marketing in a B2B World – PPC and SEO by SlideShare
Magnus Nilsson guides b2b marketers through search optimization in this online presentation, from recognizing the differences between how buyers search at home versus at the office, and how different types of business buyers search, to using analytics to measure what’s really important.
Do You Make Any of These 10 Simple SEO Mistakes? by KISS Metrics
Kristi Hines details 10 common SEO mistakes and how to correct them, such as focusing on link quantity over quality and not creating compelling, linkworthy content.
SEO Raises Awareness and Reputation Better than PPC by MarketingSherpa Blog
Adam T. Sutton reports on MarketingSherpa research showing that more marketers view SEO as “very effective” than PPC at increasing brand/product awareness (42% to 34%), improving brand/product reputation (29% to 19%) and improving PR (27% to 6%). For many if not most companies, PPC and SEO should both be part of the marketing mix; but it’s important to recognize their differing and often complementary strengths.
The Business Of Burying Internet Search Results by NPR
Noting that “The Internet can be a hostile place, with powerful companies paying handsome sums to hide negative content in Google search results…Unseen battles are waged every day to protect and destroy brands and reputations,” Peter O’Dowd demonstrates how companies and political figures are turning to content marketing and SEO to push negative mentions of them off the front page of search results.
The Problem with Footer Links in SEO by WordStream Internet Marketing Blog
Lior Levin writes that footer links generally don’t carry much weight with search engines: “Since the webmaster has heavily devalued the link, it only makes sense that the search engines would as well.” While footer links have valid purposes, important links should be placed more highly, and prominently, on the page.
We’ll Stop Screaming “Relevance” When You Start Listening by Search News Central
Gabriella Sannino demonstrates the centrality of relevance to search results by stepping through the process of optimizing a single page, from keyword targeting and meta tags to content development and link-building through guest posts or bylined articles.
The Art and Science of SEO Site Audits [Best of SEW 2010 #10] by Search Engine Watch
***** 5 Stars
Adam Audette outlines an extensive checklist and process for performing SEO site audits, including on-page and off-page factors, reporting, and audit tools.
Twitter & Facebook links affect SEO on Google and Bing by Web SEO Analytics
Another noteworthy post from Vasilis Vryniotis, this one detailing how search engine are using social signals to impact rankings and what type of information the search engines attempt to glean from links in social media.
Fundamentals of PDF Optimisation for Search by Bruce Clay
Explaining that “Properties to a PDF are what meta tags are to a web page,” Aaron Egan demonstrates how to use text, properties, tags and navigation to make PDF documents as search-friendly as possible.
The SEOmoz Internal SEO Pre-Launch Checklist by The Daily SEO Blog
Aaron Wheeler outlines critical (e.g., title tag, URL structure, image alt tags) and “worth double-checking” (robots.txt file, H1 tags, images optimized) SEO tasks to complete prior to launch. Danny Dover elaborates on this SEO “cheat sheet” in the accompanying video.
Google Instant and SEO
Google Instant: Fewer Changes to SEO than the Average Algo Update by The Daily SEO Blog
Rand Fishkin pulls data from a variety of sources to show that the introduction of Google Instant had only subtle impacts on search behavior.
6 Ways to Ensure Better Rankings in Google Instant by Search Engine Journal
Kristi Hines here offers a half-dozen tips for ranking better in Google Instant, though most are just good solid SEO practice regardless, such as thinking like searchers, keeping your online reputation clean and producing content in a variety of formats—not just text.
Google: Complexity is Good! by SEO Book
***** 5 Stars
Aaron Wall posts an entertaining and informative rant on how the increasing complexity of Google search (incorporating personalization, social signals, video results, Google Instant, etc.) has also led to a proliferation of bugs. A quote that every SEO should print out in a large font and tape up on his or her wall: “Sometimes you don’t rank because you screwed up. But sometimes you don’t rank because Google screwed up.”
SEO Planning for 2011 by Search Engine Watch
Eric Enge reviews some of the most impactful changes for search optimization in 2010 (e.g., May Day, Caffeine, Instant) and identifies four key factors SEO practitioners will need to focus on for search success in 2011.
SEO for Bing
SEO Tips for Bing by MarketingProfs
With Bing now accounting for roughly 30% of organic search in the U.S., John Pring provides timely advice on how to optimize for this search engine and differences from Google; while backlinks, pagerank and fresh content matter less to Bing, many of the same factors (keyword research and density, an XML sitemap) apply.
SEO for Bing: Don’t Ignore It by Search Engine Watch
Stating that “Google is absolutely watching Bing’s every move, and search marketers should be doing the same thing,” Adam Audette predicts that Bing’s market share will grow and provides several general (e.g., clean code, quality content) and specific (use XML sitemaps and keep them up to date) tips on optimizing for the #2 search engine.
Google Webmaster Tools and SEO
Beginner’s Guide to Google Webmaster Tools by KISS Metrics
Neil Patel (again) provides an outstanding primer on the functions and use of Google Webmaster Tools, from adding your site and uploading an XML site map through sitelinks, settings, identifying your best external links and keywords, and much more.
Google Webmaster Tools 101 by ClickZ
Ron Jones explains how to use Google Webmaster Tools to diagnose SEO problems and make improvements in different areas (HTML, internal links, keywords) to optimize overall website performance.
Related Post
40 (of the) Top SEO Guides, Tips and Resources of 2010 (So Far)
