Two SEO Goodies

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RJD

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First, Website Grader:

Website Grader is a search engine optimization tool that analyzes websites to see if they are up to scratch with search terms, and ensures online marketing effectiveness. Website Grader takes into account traffic, social ranking, Technorati ranks, Google Page Rank, Alexa ranks, inbound links, delicious bookmarks and pages indexed in Google to provide a comprehensive look at what websites have been up to. The system analyzes meta keywords, page descriptions, domain registration information, headings, images, the last time it was crawled by Google, and how many RSS subscriptions in Bloglines and grades it accordingly out of 100.

(tip from Download Squad)

Second, also fron Download Squad, At the Top of Google:

I haven't met two small business owners in a meeting where one doesn't ask how to get his or her site to the top of the Google search results list. There are transparent reasons for wanting to be first: you get more clicks, your business seems important, clicks convert into business, and your Internet traffic can skyrocket. What's the magic formula for getting to the top?
 
Website Grader does provide some interesting metrics. I was interested in it when it first came out, but this article from Graywolf's blog proves again why no automated tool will replace an experienced human SEO.

As a measurement tool for the separate metrics, it's ok. The grade, however, is meaningless. The only grade that matters is SERPs :)
 
liked it Rich - and it showed me a couple things I went and immediately changed - one was my overuse of the H1 tag. Nice tool for what its worth. And I need more work on completely losing the darn font tags.

I agree with Ryan but finding a good one (keyword "experienced") amongst all the offers you get with the is about like finding a needle in a haystack - unless you can afford to hire Bruce Clay or the like.

Thanks - I bookmarked it.

PS my "grade" was dismal - still got more to learn - the darn target moves so frigging often.

Something else interesting I read in the last few days is the meaningless of the recent google slap - most sites are still pulling the same SERP's as before - it may well be nothing but show with their toolbar.
 
Hiring a good SEO isn't that bad. If you don't want to pay $10k / month for Greg Boser's SEO skillz, or $1,700 / mo for Bruce Clay's minimum fee to manage your PPC campaign ... you can look at SEOmoz. Last I heard they billed $400 / hr.

Dang ... I'm cheap! I need to get me a beard and a blog so I can bill at those rates, too!

As you & I had talked about previously, the PageRank hit was meaningless fearmongering. It's meant to scare people away from link trading - and to disrupt the link marketplace. What's done for me is highlight who I should not buy links from :) Anyone who did not have a PR dip isn't on Google's radar yet.

Ryan
 
Repeat after me "thou shalt not buy links from anyone but google".

Or they'll kung-fu you, in an internet sort of way.

PS I made a mistake about 5 years ago to participate in a link farm, and those friggen results still exist all over the damm place. No I think they were dated 2000.

I once used animated gifs for a bit too, and I still have a page on my site that HAS MUSIC! Check it out http://www.inbloom.com/jb.htm
 
No music for me ... What's it supposed to play?

Aw crap - it got broken somehow - it used to play purple haze and I see the link is still in there.

Maybe I had a brief moment of sanity and deleted the file or something. Strange - it plays in my editor of choice (Front Page, you know) but not on the web.

oh well, just imagine it. I can.
 
The only grade that matters is SERPs

Nope. Sales is what matters. I don't spend additional time trying to dominate SERPs. I spend time trying to build sales. Does that mean most of what I do would not receive a 100% grade from SEO Pros? Absolutely! Do I care? Not a bit. There is a human aspect you have to project online that no magic formula of keyword density and title length can measure, and that's the very aspect which makes site visitors comfortable enough to want to buy from you.
 
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i think rjd is correct. what everyone should be doing a lot more of is A-B testing on conversion (ie surfer to buyer) rates. what good is getting a customer to land on your page if it doesn't appeal enough to him or her to buy? it's kinda a black art to work on conversion ratios.

google analytics makes it really easy to track conversion rates for different pages, and then write a simple script in your index.htm to send customers to different landing pages 50% of the time.
 
RJD,

You're bang on. I was guilty of the same thing I accused Kawasaki's tool of being: too focused on numbers.

Site usability (incl the A/B & Multivariate testing that 12bux mentioned) is a key component of SEO. After all there's no point in driving traffic to a site that can't convert, and there's no point in having a great site that no one can find.

Ryan
 
Site usability (incl the A/B & Multivariate testing that 12bux mentioned) is a key component of SEO. After all there's no point in driving traffic to a site that can't convert, and there's no point in having a great site that no one can find.

Problem is, you can't always accurately measure conversions. What do you do about the brides to come back time and time again to browse your photo gallery? They buy once, offline, but may visit a dozen times or more. It's a big sale, but only a single sale. We know they visit a number of times--they tell us so.

Or, a family making arrangements for a loved one's funeral? With today's dispersed families, we may get 3 or 4 people all perusing our website, looking for different ideas and pieces. They'll finally settle on their set, then call us. Again, we know the sale was brought in by the website, and all the brothers and sisters were looking, but we can't relate the sale to 1 or 5 or 8 visitors.

Conversions are something you can measure easily, but they're not the full picture of what your website is doing for your business.
 
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What did they say to put into the RSS feed? You don't want RSS just for the sake of having RSS. Having an RSS feed of new products would be a good idea, but I would make sure it's something you don't have to keep up manually.
 
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