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Search Competition Tools to Use – Do it Right!

On January 15, 2010, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Measuring the success of competitors using your keywords is a must. Known as competitive analytics, the process looks closely at what differences there are between their search engine optimization strategies and your own. Where some businesses let themselves down is the area that determines who their competition is. Just because another business is in [...]

Measuring the success of competitors using your keywords is a must. Known as competitive analytics, the process looks closely at what differences there are between their search engine optimization strategies and your own. Where some businesses let themselves down is the area that determines who their competition is. Just because another business is in the same niche doesn’t necessarily mean they are competitors. When it comes to search engine optimization, they are only competitors if they are targeting a similar set of keywords to you. Your competitors are those placed above and just below you in the search results for that keyword.

On the flip side, it is important to understand who you business competitors actually are. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen companies not properly identify their competition. Just because you are in the same industry does not mean you are a competitor. If you have an established company that has a great reputation and brand and if you starting out then, I would think twice about considering them your direct competitor.

Now lets switch back for your competitors in the search engines. If they rank above you, why? Do they have more links, or better quality links than you? Are their pages well written using known SEO techniques? By analyzing what they are doing successfully, you can determine which areas need more work on your own pages. By analyzing those behind you, you can determine where they are improving and what strategies you need to undertake to maintain your position.

Here is a good list of SEO competitive research tools that I recommend:

1. Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics – Yes, these are 2 of the best free tools on the market. Before you can look at your competitors, I would look at and analyze your own website. Organic search visitor data and the amount of inbound links.

2. Compete – Compete has become a great and industry standard for competitive research that goes beyond SEO. They offer tool and several anayltics products that are truly excellent. I would recommend Compete to any marketer or business owner at every level of experience.

3. SEOmoz – If you are not going to hire an SEO expert or search engine optimization firm to help you with your SEO, I highly recommend SEOmoz. I consider SEOmoz to be advanced and is excellent for the marketer or business owner that “gets” search engine optimization. If you are a beginner then, I would look elsewhere. SEOmoz offers a full suite of tools including the competitive research aspect.

4. Link Diagnosis - Here is a good tool that combines some other link data, I think it pulls in data from Yahoo and Bing as well.

5. SEO Book Firefox Tool - Very good plugin to install on Firefox that gives some top level data about your competitors as you search. This one is a must use…I switched from the IE web browser to Firefox when I found and started using this tool.

Another important point here is to always remember to check your own analytics to determine which keywords are delivering visitors and conversions. Make sure you undertake a competitive analysis for those keywords as well. You may not be targeting them, but if they are delivering traffic, don’t let your competitors overtake you and steal that traffic away. Those phrases possibly rank well – can you improve their rankings and maintain that advantage? Competitive analysis is all about measuring your competition – just make sure you are assessing your competitors correctly.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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Link Building Sources That Are Important

On January 8, 2010, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Everyone keeps telling us links are very important for our ongoing search engine optimization efforts. Some of these types of inbound links are obvious but some are not so obvious and could still generate both power and visitors to your website. It is important to understand all the variety of different types of relevant [...]

Everyone keeps telling us links are very important for our ongoing search engine optimization efforts. Some of these types of inbound links are obvious but some are not so obvious and could still generate both power and visitors to your website. It is important to understand all the variety of different types of relevant links that you are capable of achieving over time.

Here are some of the most important types of links to build to your website:

1. Press Releases: Press releases are a very important ingredient to any online marketing campaign. Links embedded into the press release can generate very useful links for your website from other industry related sites. If it is a really newsworthy topic and other websites pick up the information it will be even more beneficial in generating new pathways to your website.

2. Articles: Articles used to have a bit more weight to them but they are still very important. The right types of articles could very easily get picked up on other industry leading websites leading to very good links and a steady stream of highly targeted website traffic.

3. Profiles: Website profiles usually only give you one link but that one link is a very important link. Whether it is from Facebook or LinkedIn the links let the search engines know that you are serious about growing your business in many different areas online.

4. Forums: Most forums are very old so the links you could get from them will help your business in a great way. Not to mention the traffic you could generate from being active in a forum is sometimes very surprising. Many of the older forums have a great deal of activity and if it’s a forum dedicated towards your industry than you should be there regardless.

5. Local Profiles: Don’t think because you want to take your business international that listing yourself in the local places and directories isn’t important. The links will let the search engines know that you have a physical address connected with your business helping grow your trust factor.

6. Blog Comments: Leaving intelligent related comments behind on your targeted industry blogs is very helpful. Many of the links appear in Google webmaster tools all while driving highly relevant traffic to your website.

6. Industry Associations: Local online and offline industry associations are a great way to build trust with your website visitors. Often many times association memberships include the opportunity to have profiles and links to your website. This not only helps with link building but builds highly relevant visitors to your website.

These are some of the most important link sources you should have as part of your long term link building efforts. Remember it is important to diversify your approach so you never want to be top heavy on any of these efforts. Keeping your links balanced and growing is the name of the game.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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Tracking Back Links: How Do You Do It?

On December 30, 2009, In SEO, by rustybrick

There is an excellent thread at HighRankings Forum on the topic of how you should or could track one’s link building efforts. The topic in this thread started off about how to track links accrued due to a link building contest. However, the topic moved into how to track link building efforts for a site in general.

Many are of the opinion that no tool can accurately measure the links acquired over time. Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer and the various other tools, to many, are not that accurate. As Rosemary said in the thread, “one month Yahoo would show 10,000 inbound links and the next month only 300.” It is hard to rely on tools that you don’t know how it works and when there is a bug, you cannot fix it yourself.

Others say that when they build links, they store the information in a spreadsheet to report back to the client. I have seen this done. I am a firm believer that if you are hiring a link building company, they should provide you with an organized means of knowing what links they acquired for you, from where and when they acquired them. I have said this before, so I say it again.

Others in the thread said they just gave up on collecting and monitoring this data.

How do you track your back links?

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.


There is an excellent thread at HighRankings Forum on the topic of how you should or could track one's link building efforts. The topic in this thread started off about how to track links accrued due to a link building contest. However, the topic moved into how to track link building efforts for a site in general.

Many are of the opinion that no tool can accurately measure the links acquired over time. Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer and the various other tools, to many, are not that accurate. As Rosemary said in the thread, "one month Yahoo would show 10,000 inbound links and the next month only 300." It is hard to rely on tools that you don't know how it works and when there is a bug, you cannot fix it yourself.

Others say that when they build links, they store the information in a spreadsheet to report back to the client. I have seen this done. I am a firm believer that if you are hiring a link building company, they should provide you with an organized means of knowing what links they acquired for you, from where and when they acquired them. I have said this before, so I say it again.

Others in the thread said they just gave up on collecting and monitoring this data.

How do you track your back links?

Forum discussion at HighRankings Forum.


http://www.seroundtable.com/

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Blog Post from 2007 Makes Top 2009 List

On December 29, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

This is the time of the year when every blogger in the world looks back at the year and creates a top 10 posts of the year blog post. Marketing Pilgrim published its top 10 list of 2009 and I was just as surprised as Andy Beal to discover that one of the items on [...]

This is the time of the year when every blogger in the world looks back at the year and creates a top 10 posts of the year blog post. Marketing Pilgrim published its top 10 list of 2009 and I was just as surprised as Andy Beal to discover that one of the items on the list was a post from 2007. How did that happen?

The post in question is this post on Google offering cheap online file storage. Let’s perform a little forensic SEO analysis:

That accounts for over 95% of all searches for that key phrase. How many searches is that, exactly? According to Google’s external keyword research tool, there are 46 searches per month for that exact key phrase. That’s not much, but consider that most searchers are going to clickon that top listing, 46 times 12 equals 552 additional visitors from a Google SERP. But that’s not a lot in comparison to Marketing Pilgrim’s overall traffic.

There are related keywords that could account for additional traffic. But let’s move on. Why does this post have such great search rank in the first place?

  • The title of the post includes the key phrase
  • There is one outgoing link that includes the phrase “online file storage”
  • There is another outgoing link with the phrase “buy online file storage”
  • Yahoo! reports 93 inbound links to that blog post (and a lot of them are from Techmeme, each one counting as a highly relevant and authoritative aged link

I don’t think you can point to any one factor as the reason for high rankings for this blog, but a combination of factors – the Techmeme links being big influences. And speaking of those, do you think that Techmeme could account for a high volume of traffic to this blog post for Marketing Pilgrim?

When it comes to ranking for keywords long term, it’s important to consider the important factors – relevance, authority, age, and long tail keywords.

This Marketing Pilgrim post ranks well for one keyword that is a long tail keyword, which means less competition. And that can sometimes make all the difference.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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The Most Important SEO Tip For 2010

On December 27, 2009, In SEO, by Nick

As we head into a new year (it’s 2010 already?) I thought I’d discuss the most important thing about SEO. It used to be keywords. Back in the day, before Google, when webmasters wanted to ensure that pages ranked well enough to receive top rankings in the search engines of the day, you just had [...]

As we head into a new year (it’s 2010 already?) I thought I’d discuss the most important thing about SEO. It used to be keywords. Back in the day, before Google, when webmasters wanted to ensure that pages ranked well enough to receive top rankings in the search engines of the day, you just had to know how to use your keywords correctly. Then Google came along.

Google changed the SEO game from a strictly keyword-based on-page optimization rule to a combination of on-page factors and off-page link building strategies. From 1998 to about 2003 the most important thing to consider for SEO purposes were your inbound links.

Even after 2003, inbound links were still important, but you had to go about your link building efforts in a different way. Quality of links rather than quantity of links became more important.

Starting in 2005, your social graph became even more important. And I believe that social graphs will become even more important in the future. But that’s not the most important SEO factor for 2010.

So what is?

In 2010, the most important thing you need to know about SEO can be summarized in one word:

    Diversify!

That’s it. Diversify. Don’t just focus on one thing. Stretch out and move your SEO in multiple directions at once. Universal search and mixed media are not going away. They will only become more influential as the search engines learn to rank the various media available to them. YouTube is one of the most important web properties now, as is Facebook. To truly take advantage of the best SEO opportunities you should be branching out into multiple streams of search engine optimization including videos, viral marketing, podcasting, link building, social media, real time, and whatever else pops up between now and then.

The search engines of the future will be multimedia portals. It’s time to start thinking that way.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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WhiteBEARD Friday – Give and Ye Shall Receive

On December 18, 2009, In SEO, by great scott

Posted by great scott!

Ho-ho-ho! Merry Winter to you! In a very special Whiteboard Friday we’ll look at the new model for attracting lots of inbound links: giving back to webmasters.  Nowadays it’s not always enough just to have great content. You’ve got to give the linkerati value–something that will incentivize them to link to your site.  Rand Fishclause discusses how this new model works and then, next week, we’ll give you 12 link strategies of Christmas just in time for you to open them under your tree and put into action for the New Year.

SEOmoz Whitebeard Friday – Give and Ye Shall Receive from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.


Just a quick reminder that today is the final day to get the new Advanced SEO Training Series: Tips, Tricks & Tactics at the special launch pricing of 20% off + free shipping!

Do you like this post? Yes No

Posted by great scott!

Ho-ho-ho! Merry Winter to you! In a very special Whiteboard Friday we'll look at the new model for attracting lots of inbound links: giving back to webmasters.  Nowadays it's not always enough just to have great content. You've got to give the linkerati value--something that will incentivize them to link to your site.  Rand Fishclause discusses how this new model works and then, next week, we'll give you 12 link strategies of Christmas just in time for you to open them under your tree and put into action for the New Year.



SEOmoz Whitebeard Friday - Give and Ye Shall Receive from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.





Just a quick reminder that today is the final day to get the new Advanced SEO Training Series: Tips, Tricks & Tactics at the special launch pricing of 20% off + free shipping!

Do you like this post? Yes No

http://www.seomoz.org/blog

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The Best Free Backlink Tool On The Planet

On December 4, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

SEO tools are a dime a dozen. They are also essential for your success online. If you want to develop a successful SEO campaign then you need to take a look at the tools that you are using and make the best use of them.
One of the best free tools online is Yahoo! Site Explorer. [...]

SEO tools are a dime a dozen. They are also essential for your success online. If you want to develop a successful SEO campaign then you need to take a look at the tools that you are using and make the best use of them.

One of the best free tools online is Yahoo! Site Explorer. It’s a simple tool really, but it is powerful when used correctly.

The obvious benefit to using Yahoo! Site Explorer is the ability to list your websites and check your inbound links. There are a few other free tools that do this so well, such as Google Webmaster Tools, which I highly recommend as well. The drawback (and benefit) to the Yahoo Site Explorer backlink tool is that it lists all the internal links from your own site as well as inbound links from other sites. You want good internal links, of course, but if the majority of your inbound links are links from your own site then you need to do some additional relevant link building (which should be on going and natural anyway).

But don’t just check the inbound links for your own site. Yahoo! Site Explorer also allows you to check the links of the sites that link to you. You should definitely do this. By looking at the links pointing to the sites linking to you, you have the ability to see what authority those sites are passing on to you. You can also follow those links to see if the sites are linking to you too. This is actually a good way to find new places that might be a potential way to market your company, website and to get a highly relevant link that will produce visitors.

Finally, Yahoo! Site Explorer can be used for competitive research. You can enter an URL of a domain you don’t own and check the links for it as well. Highly recommended. By knowing who is linking to you and who is linking to the sites that are linking to you, you get a full mental picture of your link portfolio and the authority that your links are passing on to you. Yahoo! Site Explorer is very good for that, so be prepared to spend some time! :)

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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Is Social Bookmarking A Form Of SEO?

On December 1, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Social bookmarking has become a part of an every day routine for many online marketers (social bookmarking websites such as: Digg, Stumble Upon, etc.) But search marketers submit content to social bookmarking sites for different reasons. Some online marketers, I’ve noticed, emphasize the search engine optimization benefits of social bookmarking. Others, on the other [...]

Social bookmarking has become a part of an every day routine for many online marketers (social bookmarking websites such as: Digg, Stumble Upon, etc.) But search marketers submit content to social bookmarking sites for different reasons. Some online marketers, I’ve noticed, emphasize the search engine optimization benefits of social bookmarking. Others, on the other hand, emphasize the social connectivity aspect of the practice. Which is right? To be sure, social bookmarking has SEO benefit – and it also has the benefit of social connection and networking. But which is more important?

I think, personally, they are both important. It is very important to your business that you meet new people with like interests and that you help them while they help you. That’s one aspect of social bookmarking. But it’s also important to build inbound links to your website and social bookmarking can do that for you. But you should realize that not all social bookmarking websites provide dofollow links. Some of the best ones, in fact.

When it comes to social bookmarking, you have to decide what values are important to you. Know what those values are and how they can benefit your business.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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Tips for Redirecting An Old Domain Name

On November 27, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

If you are planning to move an old website to a new domain name then conventional wisdom says to redirect the old domain name to the new so that you can capture visitors still attempting to visit that old website. Sometimes I do recommend going against this conventional wisdom, but there is one instance when [...]

If you are planning to move an old website to a new domain name then conventional wisdom says to redirect the old domain name to the new so that you can capture visitors still attempting to visit that old website. Sometimes I do recommend going against this conventional wisdom, but there is one instance when redirecting an old name just doesn’t make sense. If your old website isn’t getting any traffic, or the traffic that it does get is so small that you can’t justify the $10/year expense to hold onto it, then you might as well just let the old domain expire. The exception in this case is if the domain name is one that you want to hold onto and you plan to develop later for re branding purposes. Otherwise, a website with no traffic or low traffic isn’t going to benefit you with a redirect.

How long you’ve had the old domain does make a difference, however. If it’s a ten year old domain then it’s valuable even without the traffic (though a domain that old likely has a good stream of traffic). If it’s a fairly young domain then redirecting might not make sense.

Another consideration is how many links you have pointing to that domain name. If you’ve engage in a strong link building campaign and you have several thousand inbound links to that domain, but those links aren’t generating traffic, you might still consider a redirect. Many links sit in a dormant state for months or years before they start sending quality traffic. That’s because a new website has not built up its reputation yet, but as it grows and increases its own reputation among its target audience, that audience will come to trust it more and visitors will click on that’s website’s links more often. So just because you have links that are not generating traffic today does not mean they won’t be generating traffic a year or two years from now.

Even when considering whether to redirect your traffic from one domain to another, you’ve got to think long term. In most cases, a redirect can be beneficial, but there are times when it won’t hurt you to let your domains expire.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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How To Build Links For Bing

On November 26, 2009, In SEO, by Nick Stamoulis

Link building is one of the most important tasks for any webmaster or marketer that is looking for long term search engine optimization growth. Google has taught us all that. But what about Bing? Now that Microsoft has waged a third quarter blitz to gain some competitive advantage against its arch nemesis, the folks in [...]

Link building is one of the most important tasks for any webmaster or marketer that is looking for long term search engine optimization growth. Google has taught us all that. But what about Bing? Now that Microsoft has waged a third quarter blitz to gain some competitive advantage against its arch nemesis, the folks in charge of indexing websites at Bing want to make sure we all understand the best practices for building inbound links to our websites.

The good news is it’s not a far cry different than building links for Google. The bad news is it’s not a far cry different than building links for Google.

Let me explain that. First, a little snippet from the Bing blog:

Bing’s position on link building is straightforward – we are less concerned about the link building techniques used than we are about the intentions behind the effort. That said, techniques used are often quite revealing of intent.

That’s pretty much Google’s take as well. Rather than focusing on good technique versus bad technique, the search engines are more concerned with why webmasters perform certain tasks. That’s why one technique may work well for some webmasters, but get other webmasters flagged for spam. So how does Bing know whether you have good intentions or bad?

That’s the same question that many people have been asking of Google for several years now. And the answer is just as muddled as the answer for good technique/bad technique.

Again, from the Bing blog:

The webmasters who create end user value within their websites, based on the needs of people, are the ones who will see their page rank improve. So where does that value come from? Content. Good, original, text-based content.

In essence, all good link building starts with good content. That’s true for Bing and Google alike.

It’s refreshing to see Bing get serious about link building quality. That hasn’t always been the case. I think the people at Bing have spent a few years studying Google from the inside out. As a result, they’ve modeled some of their own indexing and ranking practices on Google’s policies. The result for Bing is a better search engine and more respect from the SEO community. So what about link building for Bing? What makes a good link?

Well, from their own blog, here’s the bucket list:

  • Seek links from relevant sites
  • Seek out high authority websites
  • Stay natural

The same old message we’ve heard from Google, right? Yes.

And to answer the How question, here’s what Bing says (again from the blog):

  • Develop your brand
  • Let relevant industry people with blogs and websites know of your website
  • Publish optimized online press releases
  • Do some article marketing
  • Participate in blogs and forums
  • Build relationships through social media
  • Create an online newsletter
  • Write a blog
  • Join some industry associations
  • Become a trusted expert in your niche

Sound familiar? If it does then it’s probably because you’ve been listening to what the folks at Google and the thousands of SEOs (including me) have been saying about link building for the past ten years (or five years at least).

The good news is, Bing’s list of link building best practices is the same as what we’ve all been saying for some time now. The bad news? Bing isn’t being particularly innovative here. But then, they shouldn’t be.

http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com

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