Recommended Web Tools Archives

DIYSEO Review – SEO guide for beginners?

It is funny how things happen.

As I have gotten back to blogging again, I have been cleaning up notebooks, and to do lists. Sorting through old posts, cleaning up pages and deleting RSS feeds I dont want to read anymore.

In the middle of all that I came across the name Andy Hagans. A few years back Andy was writing about SEO and had started a business selling text link ads. So out of sheer curiosity (and throw in a little serendipity), I googled his name. Turns out he is not doing text link ads anymore, nor much in the blogging space. However, I happened to notice on his AndyHagans.com website, a brief reference to “a [new] web based SEO platform for small businesses, launched in April 2010″. This tool is called DIYSEO.

DIYSEO purports to guide subscribers through the process of helping website owners improve their SEO. I hemmed and hawwed about signing up. After the seven day trial, the cost would be $50 a month. I really wasn’t keen on potentially wasting more money. But here are three facts: I have read a lot of information about SEO. I have wasted good money on SEO tools. I have been extremely poor on implementing SEO, particularly off page optimization (I seem to think I have a pretty good handle on the on-page side of things, which, is much easier to accomplish).

So considering that a handy dandy hold my hand guide through the SEO process might be helpful to me, I signed up for the trial.

DIYSEO breaks things down by grade level: SEO kindergarten, SEO Grade school, SEO High School and SEO college. There are two categories within each grade. Each category is a to-do list of tasks to accomplish for your site. All tasks are driven towards the two big picture SEO tasks: on-page SEO (I like to call this “Structural SEO”) and off-page SEO (or link building or better yet, “Relational SEO”).

What is needed to sign-up?

On sign-up, they ask a series of basic questions. What is your website? Who are your competitors? What are your targeted keywords? Completing the two sections of the initial signup gets you passed SEO Kindergarten. In case, you missed it, there are two items you need to know before you can pass kindergarten. Which means you must already sort of need to know what you have been doing to establish your website. So if you don’t know it already, go out there and figure out who your competitors are and figure out your home page targeted keywords.

Following sign-up, DIYSEO generates a series of to-do lists. For example, under SEO Grade School/Basic Link Building, I have the following task: “Ask for links from colleagues, friends, and business partners.”
Rather generic sounding, though there are more specific tasks such as “Submit your blog to Bloggeries”. Each task is either doublechecked by DIYSEO (for example, when you click complete, it will go out and search and make sure your link is on the site they instructed). However, most tasks are labeled “self-check”, meaning they are trusting that you have actually followed through with the instructions.

Overall, I have been pleased with the to-do lists, even with the generic sounding, “no-duh” tasks. These provide reminders of the essential and sometimes forgotten tasks of SEO.

There are a few tasks I do seriously question though. Two examples should suffice. One, “Submit your site to DMOZ”. This was the first task i saw and my face fell when I saw it. Really? DMOZ? My first thoughts included: Is that site still active? Has anyone ever REALLY been included? (being facetious there) It seemed like the whole DMOZ directory thing had died ages ago and yet, this was their first piece of advice?

But, you know what? I did it. I had submitted to DMOZ years ago and never heard a thing. So, what the heck, I thought, do it again and see what happens. So I submitted and checkboxed that item as complete.

Second task I question: Confirm that the total page size of your homepage is under 100k. You know, I have toyed with the whole concept of page speed and website optimization for a long time. Here is my fundamental problem: the standards for page size and speed have not changed (or so it seems) once we entered the broadband era. A lot of the standards for speed are still based on dial-up. In today’s age of images and video and flash, it is hard to keep your homepage down under 100kb. I ran my page through two different tools. My page size is between 450kb and 540kb. Just out of curiosity, I ran DIYSEO’s homepage through the same two tools. Their homepage size ranged from 149kb to 400kb (yes I know thats quite the range, tis an issue with the tools I used, but that is a post for another day).
So is page size ultimately important? Rather, is it ultimately important for SEO? I am leaning no. (I mean, does it really affect my position in the SERPs?) Is it ultimately important as a matter of customer service? Absolutely, for I don’t want my readers to have to wait to get to content. This is a topic I want to further pursue and may post more about it at a later time.

Ok, so all that said, those two examples should not defer anyone from using DIYSEO. My only point in even bringing them up is to question whether they are of modern (2010) current SEO standard practice. I would love to hear more for the DIYSEO on those points and invite them to comment so we can all further our education.

As of this writing, I have completed 24 of my initial 37 tasks. I am close to graduating both grade school and high school. I will have to say, that having a to-do list laid out for me has been fantastic. In my case, I had already done a fair number of the tasks, so I had a head start. Nonetheless, there were a few things I learned, particularly regarding other resources.

My $64,000 to DIYSEO: What happens when I complete grade school, high school and college? Is that it? What comes next? If I pay $50 a month, what will I be paying for after all these initial tasks are complete?

There is tremendous value for the beginner in using a service like DIYSEO. Education, while putting it into practice, is the BEST way to learn. Invaluable really. Wish I had this five years ago. Though, to be brutally honest, there maybe better means for a true beginner to start with in SEO. Will post about that later.

The price is also extremely competitive. I am familiar with two other SEO “learning resources” which come at a price tag of $80 and $300 a month. DIYSEO definitely offers some level of competition to those providers. However, the price is only competitive IF the value holds over time. While the guidance is helpful now, will it be helpful three months or a year from now?

DIYSEO is still young, less then two weeks old. Look for it to grow in features over time.

If you check it out, leave a comment on this post and let me know how you found the experience.

The Golden Triangle of Search Results

Andy Jenkins and Brad Fallon have recently created a new video discussing natural search engine results.

Within the video they talk about the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is a heat map of a Google Search Engine Results page. The triangle is the area in which most people looked and/or clicked. See image below:

The video goes on to explain the importance of natural search. Check out the video, signup for the next one if you want. I am guessing Andy and Brad are about to launch a new infoproduct so just be aware of the sales copy at the end of the video series. I have not read everything they have produced (some is too pricey for me), but they generally create some very good material. Andy’s Yahoo Store Builder was the very first ebook I ever purchased and read.

Google renames Sitemaps to Webmaster Central

Google recently renamed their Sitemaps website to Webmaster Central. The original sitemaps functionality still exists but they have now added a lot of functionality to it.

Here’s the key functionality:

• Diagnostic
  • Web Crawl – errors Google found while crawling your site
  • Mobile Errors – if your site has a mobile version, errors found crawling that site are listed here
  • robots.txt analysis – copy and paste your robots.txt file to find out if Google can read it
  • manage site verification – ensure your site is verified with Google Webmaster Central
  • preferred domain – tell Google what version of your domain is the main one
• Statistics
  • Query Stats – queries that most often returned pages from your site plus queries that resulted in clicks to your site (this is interesting)
  • Crawl Stats – misnamed in my opinion. This page displays the ratio of Pagerank for all your indexed pages.
  • Page Analysis – various stats displaying what the Googlebot sees – I’m not quite sure how to best use this this tool. More on this later.
  • Index Stats – links to various Google functionality like allinurl:. Frankly, this is sorta lame. It opens up another browser window and displays the info like you would if you manually entered the command. Make the tool more robust by having this information already in the database for the webmaster to see, with stats, etc.
• Sitemaps – the area where a site map is submitted to Google, more on this in a separate post.

SEOMoz has a visual rundown of Webmaster Central.

List of obscure SEO myths

Seomoz has posted a list of the top ten obscure SEO myths.

My favorite is number six:

Search Engines were Invented by a Furry Amphibian Named “Smarmy Pete

What kills me is Rand’s comment:

I can’t tell you how many phone calls I get on this subject. Just yesterday, I had three emails asking me if I had Pete’s email address.

What?!?!?!? People think search engines were invented by a furry amphibian? I’ve read Rand’s blog long enough to trust him at his word. I still can’t believe that people think this is true. Is someone pulling his leg? Or is he pulling ours?

It seems the fine students at Eastern Michigan University started the myth of the Smeet Frog, a furry amphibian that lives under rocks.

Maybe it is these former graduates that have been emailing Rand.

On a positive note, this Library of Michigan newsletter relates a story (one page three) about 4th graders who were challenged by their teacher to prove or disprove the existence of the Smeet frog. Thankfully, they were able to put their critical thinking skills to use and discover it as a hoax.

[tags]seo, myth, frog, smeet[/tags]

SEOMoz Blog Review

SEOMoz is a helpful resource about search engine optimization. The SEOMoz blog, of all the SEO blogs, is probably the most accessible to beginners. It is clearly written and well thought through. While it may take beginners a while to get used to some of the SEO lingo, I found that the learning curve was not nearly as long at SEOMoz as it was at other blogs.

Readers of SEOMoz can expect the following from Rand and the other contributors:

A tell it like it is, no punches pulled, honest look at SEO as exemplified in this post about nefarious SEO firms. For beginners, there is no better way to learn then watching some of the debates that go back and forth about ethical SEO.

Examples of bad SEO

Examples of good SEO

Excellent commentary in general, in this case, about the world of web design

Personally, I like their forthrightness and candor. It has help me sort through the chaff that exists out in the SEO world.

The SEO world can be very confusing to beginners and SEOMoz is a good place to start.

SEOMoz is also the creator of the Beginners Guide to SEO.

[tags]seomoz, search engine optimization, blogs[/tags]

SEOmoz creates SEO Beginner’s Guide

As beginning Webmasters first stumble upon the concepts of search engine optimization, they have to deal with fascination (read: obsession) and disillusionment (read: anger). The best way to deal with either is to first read the most sane information about the subject. Enter the Beginners’s Guide to SEO offered by SEOmoz.org.

This free document (offered in HTML and WORD formats, why not PDF?) is an excellent introductory document for the SEO beginner. I read it over three times, spaced over a month, before I wrote this recommendation. I wanted to digest the information for myself before I evaluated its accessiblity to the beginner.

If the terms URL and hyperlink are foreign concepts then this guide will be too advanced. Some may chuckle at such a concept, but I have met many computer users to whom the Internet and the Web is simply a big black hole.

What exactly is Search Engine Optimization?

The guide provides an excellent definition:

SEO is the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines.

Later in the guide, this warning is given:

This guide is NOT about how to manipulate the search engines to achieve rankings, but rather how to create a website that search engines and users will be happy to have ranking permanently in the top positions, thanks to its relevance, quality and user friendliness.

In other words, for those interested in creating websites of value, this guide’s for you [sing budweiser tune here].

At the end of the guide there are three and a half pages of SEO resources that is a handy resource all by itself.

This guide is a great place to start if web development, design and optimization are interests.

SEO Myth Conversation

There is an excellent thread started at Cre8asiteFourms about SEO Myths. The first post lists the myths. Some are no-brainers, others did raise an eyebrow. The rest of the responses discuss whether or not each point is a myth. Very worthwhile and educational.

via cre8pc

Top Ten SEO Factors

Robin Good extracts what he feels are the top ten SEO factors. He pulls these factors from an article listing about 100+ items that affect Google ranking.

Robin’s Top Ten are:

1. Keyword in URL and domain name
2. Keyword in title tag
3. Freshness of Pages
4. Freshness – Amount of Content Change
5. Frequency of Updates
6. Popularity (“backlinks”)
7. Anchor text for inbound links
8. Traffic trend
9. User behavior
10. Give it time

Though just one person’s opinion, it is a helpful summary. Don’t forget to check out the larger article that these were pulled from.

Splutweb Internet Marketing Tools

Splutweb provides free tools for internet marketing and website promotion. Some of the tools are basic and are limited in helpfulness. Others provided essential automated services that truly help a website owner. Here is a list of the tools provided and a brief description of each. All these tools are available if users register. Only a few are available to unregistered users.

**Keyword Permutation Tool

This tool is used to create various keyword combinations. The best way to use this tool is to ask the following question:

Do I have a list (10 or more) of keywords for which I want to see all possible combinations?

The tool takes a little playing around with to understand how it works. The one helpful aspect of the tool is the ability to provide combinations of words that might never have been thought of before.

**Page Rank Tool

Enter one URL per line and discover the page rank for that URL. It would be helpful if these URL’s could be stored. Splutweb could then send out an email upon every Google Toolbar Page Rank update that would include the Page Rank of all the URL’s entered. Such functionality would make the tool infinitely more useful.

**Keyword Analyzer Tool

Enter a keyword and an optional URL. This tool will return the top 50 websites on Google for that keyword. If the optional URL is included and IF it appears within the top 50, Splutweb will display on a seperate line the postion and page rank of that URL. Useful for seeing a list, on one page, of the top 50 “competitors” for that keyword.

**Keyword Domain Tool

The keyword domain tools is similar to the keyword analyzer tool. The Keyword Domain Tool does not display pagerank. However, it does display the top 100 URL’s for a keyword. If a website holds multiple top positions for a keyword it will display all its positions on one line. Yet another way to find out top competition.

**Pop-up Generator Tool

Interested in creating simple slide down pop-ups? This tool will help generate the code. I am not a fan of pop-ups, but others may find it useful.

**Keyword Tracker Tool

This tool is one of the more powerful tools offered by Splutweb. Enter a keyword/keyword phrase for a particular URL. Splutweb will store the keyword and URL. Once a week Splutweb will check the position for each keyword. If the position has changed, Splutweb will send out an email. If the position has not changed, no email is sent. This tool only checks keyword position on Google. What is EXTREMELY handy about this tool is the hands off approach. Enter the data and then simply wait for the emails. No need to login, no need to buy software to do the job. Automating this process is a definite help. It took me a while to warm up to this tool. I find that I am beginning to rely on it more than some of the other tools, free and purchased, that provide the same info.

The tool keeps a historical record of the websites position. This information is displayed in a line chart along with the individual dates and positions listed to the side.

This tool does make this part of “webmastering” easier.

**Pages/Backlinks Tracker Tool

This tool tracks the pages that have been indexed by Google for a specific URL. It also tracks the backlinks to an URL as found by Google. Again, once the information has been entered, Splutweb will provide a weekly email if the status has changed. Very useful. Eliminates the need to manually check such statistics.

**Deadlinks Check Tool

Splutweb will check for deadlinks on the entered URL. THe main problem with this tool is that it does not cascade. Entering the main URL for my site does not force the tool to check all pages underneath this URL. It will simply and only check the links on the main URL. The tool is useful for checking the main pages of a website, but is limited in providing full site checking.

**Backlinks Checker Tool

Tracks whether reciprocal link exchange partners are maintaining your link on their website. Many tools do this, however, this one is free. It is a bit of a process to manually enter all the information, but once it is done, the automation take over and you don’t have to worry about it. An email will be sent out once a week telling you the status of each link.

Nuggets from Aaron Wall’s interview w/ Jim Boykin

Here are the nuggets from Aaron Wall’s interview with Jim Boykin, founder of WeBuildPages.

Recommended SEO Reading:

Search Engine Fast Start by Dan Thies
this is free for subscribing to the SEO Labs Newsletter.

Google Secrets by Dan Sisson
$70

SEO Book by Aaron Wall
$80

Linking Matters by Ken McGaffin
Free

Key Quotes:

You have to turn your site into a resource and get Real Links from within your neighborhood…
so making good resource sites is what needs to be done today…

Every day I say a few times over the phone “It’s Links Over Time – not tons of links at once”, and “It’s not the number of backlinks, it the position in the Neighborhood that matters.” You’ve got to get links from the right places.

Find who’s linking to your competitors, and get links from them

I believe getting 100 links from outside the community are not worth as much as 10 links from within your community, so if you’re seeking links, where do you want to put your efforts?

Read the entire interview.

Organic SEO Wiki – Excellent Overview of SEO

Organic SEO is a new website that explains the basics of SEO. It is set up as a wiki to ensure easy reading.

This is an excellent resource for an individual just learning about SEO. Most of the articles are brief and still need to be filled out, but they still provide a very good introduction.

via SEOMoz.org