SEO Tutorials, training, discussion and blogs
Archive for December, 2010
A New Years Note From Gaveltek President Todd M. Hamilton
20591 year ago
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM GAVELTEK!
We find ourselves facing a new year. How, as SEO’s, do we prepare ourselves and our clients for the coming changes in 2011? The truth is a lot of hype in SEO always starts churning about in the start of a new year, but really, the methods we employ don’t change and the standards remain the same. Sure media formats are added (think Twitter, Youtube, etc…) and perhaps even the way information is ranked may change. Despite the changes that are inevitable in the search engine optimization, our philosophy remains the same:
1. DO NOT SPAM
2. Ethical representation of your clients is paramount to their success
3. Scientific (method) approach to all research allows us to make informed decisions with accurate data
4. Test all your ideas, the web is always changing. Make sure your data snapshot is large enough to make a decision
5. Utilize other SEO’s. There is no reason to re-invent the wheel.
6. Communicating the process to your clients
7. Educating your clients
8. Accurate and honest reporting
9. Automating menial tasks is tempting, but you’ll pay for it in the end
10. ETHICS (its worth mentioning twice)
If we as SEO’s stick to the “10 Commandments of SEO” we will always be prepared for anything that hits our industry. Keep in mind that SEO changes by the minute, simply because a New Year rolls in it does not mean that rate increases. Granted the promise of a New Year inspires us to out-do the previous year and imagine all the wonderful things we can accomplish in the coming 365, but as all New Year’s resolutions are concerned, most of them end up waiting for Godot. Continue reading “A New Years Note From Gaveltek President Todd M. Hamilton” »
Monitoring Competitor Traffic
27251 year ago
Whatever industry you are in it is always useful to get a leg up on your competition. The following tools are compiled to give an idea of the web traffic your competition gets so you can compare it to yours. This is useful for two main reasons:
- You are competing with another site for advertising and you want show an advertiser why they should pick you.
- You have a good expectation of what your competition gets in order to know where you stand and where you could potentially stand.
My suggestion and other industry related conclusions recommend using more than one of the following tools to get a ballpark idea of comparison. As with all of our research and any valid scientific research, one resource of information is never representative of the whole. All the sites listed basic tools are free, for more advanced information costs may apply.
Alexa- recommended for comparing different sites traffic and monitoring general traffic trends. Good for comparing similar sites or sites within a particular industry.
Compete- recommended for reporting trends between competitors.
Google Ad Planner- recommended for data regarding the users’ of competitions sites other sites visited and keywords searched for.
Google Insights- recommended for finding most valuable keywords and long-tail keywords (keyword phrases, i.e. table tennis).
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#
Google Trends for Websites- recommended for demonstrating differences between websites.
Quantcast- recommended for researching demographics information.
SEMrush- recommended for measuring where competitors may be traffic wise as related to Google searches.
adapted from an article by a leading SEO frontman Sam Croker on SEOmoz.org.
