Archive for February, 2010
Charting your SEO Progress
In SEO it is important that you are able to monitor the progress of your site. Whatever your metric of success is, without some measure of growth it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of your SEO efforts to date.
So what should you measure and how should you gain those statistics? Well, one obvious way [...]
Whiteboard Friday - 5 Things You’re Not Doing (But Should Be)
Posted by great scott!
This week, we’ve got a couple of newcomers to Whiteboard Studios! Our very own Jen Lopez and Danny Dover (whom you should know well thanks to Jen’s Meet the Mozzers post) are pinch-hitting for our globe-trotting CEO. Let’s all give them a big welcome.
We did a PRO Site Review Webinar last week and noticed a few SEO issues that are all-too-common. So, in this week’s Whiteboard Friday, Jen and Danny will walk you through five common areas where people often make mistakes, and explain quick fixes that can help you improve, including bot blocking, courting the Linkerati, identifying problems using Top Pages, analyzing conversion rate, and addressing canonicalization.
Here are the charts Danny referenced in the video:
Courtesy of WebsiteOptimization.com
Also, if you’d like to learn more about tracking first-touch attribution in your analytics, Whiteboard Friday alumnus, Will Critchlow, wrote about it here.
Addition: Rand wrote a more in-depth post about the use of robots.txt vs. meta noindex, follow here, which can help shed some light on the subject.
Are You Taking Your Content Seriously Enough?
Many of us are inclined to prioritise our work. This is particularly true when we are snowed under with work and don’t have the time or resources to cope. A situation that many website owners find themselves in at one time or another.
So where does everything fit in then? What should be first and what [...]
Meet the Mozzers!
Posted by jennita
Over the past few months, we’ve announced a number of exciting changes here at the mozPlex. Some of those include becoming focused on our software, new SEO tools and a cultural change with our TAGFEE Tenets. With that, we’re committed to being transparent and authentic and feel we’ve done a great job keeping the SEOmoz community up to date on many of these changes.
However, one area we’ve been slacking is in ensuring that our community knows who we are, as a team. There are many mozzers who mainly work behind the scenes building tools, or providing excellent customer service to our members. Along with our shift from consulting, we’ve had a few organizational changes and people’s roles have changed. Additionally we have a number of moz Associates that help contribute to the blog and provide expertise in Q & A.
We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our team, and ask you to get to know us a little better. There are a few new mozzers that may even surprise you! This is an exciting time for us and the community and we’re excited to introduce ourselves. Each mozzer was asked to provide their title, social media accounts, top moz moment (tools created, blog posts written, etc.), then I asked them to answer a few fun questions. So without further ado, I’d like you to meet the mozzers.
Development Team
Every team plays an important role to the success of SEOmoz and our tools, but the development team is key. Without this group we wouldn’t have the suite of amazing tools that we have to offer our members today. Browse through the developers and see who has worked on your favorite tool, and learn more about the people behind the scenes.
Ben Hendrickson Sr Software Engineer .jpg){kind=logo} moz Moment"From the day I started building the Linkscape prototype to the day we launched the first version was about 10 months. I think that project went well." |
Chas Williams Software Developer moz Moment "I work mostly on Linkscape these days. I wrote the code for anchor text distributions and the new views for OSE, so the OSE launch was a proud moment for me :)"
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David Joslin Systems Engineer moz Moment "Since starting in August I have worked to improve our uptime significantly through monitoring, tuning, and application fixes. " |
Jeff Pollard Lead Web Developer  moz Moment"I make sure your website experience is a wonderful one! :)"
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Kate Matsudaira VP Engineering moz Moment"Helping bring SEO tools and technology to the next level" |
Ken Woodruff Senior Architect |
Nick Gerner Senior Engineer moz MomentNick Leads SEOmoz API development and is currently working on solutions for historical Linkscape data tracking. |
Phil Smith Developer moz Moment"Working on sooper-top secret project"
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Roger Mozbot Needs No Title moz MomentStanding on a crate in order to be as tall as Googlebot.
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@bhendrickson
David on LinkedIn
Nick on FacebookMarketing Team
Now that we are focused on our SEO tools, the consulting and marketing teams have been combined. There have been a number of changes in roles and we’re now more focused than ever on getting our products launched, participating and leading our amazing community, and creating excellent content for our readers. Take a peak at our new Marketing team!
Danny Dover SEO Specialist moz MomentDanny is at least half full of SEO know-how |
Jen Sable Lopez Community Director moz MomentHaving worked remotely for 9 months, I LOVE being in the office.
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Joanna Lord Director of Customer Acquisition & Engagement moz Moment"My focus is on introducing new audiences to our awesome resources and SEO tools. " |
Scott Willoughby Director-Conversion & Retention Marketing |
Product Team
The product team leads the path to ensuring that the products being built meet the needs of our customers and they manage the projects from inception through deployment. Essentially they make sure we’re all doing our jobs. 
Adam Feldstein Director of Product Management moz MomentCurrent Focus: 1) Ship a new version of the mozBar. 2) Something much bigger (that I can’t talk about yet) |
Ben Huff Product Manager moz Moment"I focus on herding cats. Recently that included getting Open Site Explorer out the door, safe and sound. I’m currently working on doing the same for the new Keyword Difficulty tool." |
Matt Heilman Art Director moz Moment"I make SEOmoz look good"
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Operations Team
Who keeps the company working like a well oiled machine? That’s the Operations team of course! They jump in and help with any aspect of the company as needed and are often our customers first point of contact. Without their magic touch the office would be running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Thanks for keeping us from running into each other!
Arden Turnbull Customer Service Manager / Office Coordinator moz MomentArden keeps our customers happy! |
Christine V. Director of Operations moz MomentI do my best to increase the staff’s level of happiness and productiveness, much like Tattoo on Fantasy Island. |
Sarah Bird Chief Operations Officer moz MomentI own legal, financial, HR, and generally help make everything run smoothly. I also champion the Marketing Department and the SEOmoz API. I love my job. |
moz Associates
This is an amazing group of experts from across the search marketing industry. We’re priveledged to have this group contributing to the blog, helping with Q & A and providing insight for new products. It sorta feels like we’re showing off… because we totally are!
Cindy Krum CEO & founder of Rank-Mobile - Denver, CO |
Duncan Morris Founder and CEO, Distilled - London, UK |
Jane Copland SEO Consultant, Ayima Search Marketing - London, England moz Moment"I’ve written a couple of successful blog posts for SEOmoz (I worked as a full-time employee at SEOmoz from 2006 until 2009). My favourites are: Don’t End URLs in .0, What Rand and Jane Write When They’re Drunk, the follow-up and A True Story. It’s about hookers." |
Kate Morris Kate Morris, Search Engine Marketing Consultant - Austin, TX moz Moment"My favorite blog post on YouMoz was Paid Search: Detaching From an Agency, which is what got me speaking on my first panel at SMX East 2008." |
Lindsay Wassell Q & A - Tampa Bay, FL |
Michael Cottam Principal, Michael Cottam SEO Consulting - Portland, OR, Canada moz MomentI like this one, and it seemed to generate a pile o’ comments: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/its-a-feeding-frenzy-for-keywordrich-domains |
Peter Meyers President, User Effect - Chicago, IL moz MomentThe post: SEO Cheat Sheet: Anatomy of a URL My most popular post on my own blog (by a longshot) is 25 Point Website Usability Checklist. |
Richard Baxter Director / Founder SEOgadget.co.uk - London, UK moz MomentHmm. I like writing about tools you guys do - Like this and this and pretty charts on ranking factors using Linkscape data like this. And I really like talking about Microformats. |
Rob Ousbey Search Marketing Consultant, Distilled - Seattle, WA (soon to be) |
Sam Crocker.jpg) SEO Consultant, Distilled - London, for now! moz MomentI’m pretty new to the moz crew but I was pretty pleased with manning up to take on a "doozy" for my first Q & A and think I found a good solution to the problem |
Tom Critchlow Head of Search Marketing, Distilled - London Baby. moz MomentMy most loved SEOmoz post was this one, mainly because of it’s sensationalist headline… Headlines ftw. My proudest SEOmoz contribution was speaking at both the Seattle and London pro seminars in 2009 and getting some really positive feedback and comments. |
Will Critchlow Co-Founder of Distilled, UK & US - London, UK. Though anywhere rainy appears to do. moz MomentTaking credit for lots of things done by our team, I’m probably most proud of the London PRO seminar in October last year. My personal favourite post, mainly for the title (just google "space monstering") is this one. |
Boss Team
Last, but definitely not least we have our co-founders Rand and Gillian. They may very well be the most well known of the bunch, but I bet you didn’t know Rand used to be a black market Pokemon dealer! Without these two, we wouldn’t be the team we are today.
Gillian Muessig President/Co-Founder moz Moment"I’m the corporate evangelist and international voice for SEOmoz. My role is to connect the the SEOmoz community with the SEOmoz team and to spread the SEOmoz brand to new audiences and markets." |
Rand Fishkin CEO |
Thanks for taking the time to get to know us!
Getting More from Your Meta
Meta descriptions are one of those things that can be easily glossed over. They don’t have any bearing on the appearance of your page and their influence on your overall ranking could be called into question. But the fact is it does have an effect and it will help you draw in visitors.
You see, rather [...]
Spam Free Search?
Just for fun. But if things get much worse it might be good for utility as well 
SEO Chrome Extension - Comprehensive View of Page and Domain Data
Posted by neopunisher
This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
After Nick announced the free Linkscape API, I decided to write a SEO extension for chrome. I wanted to focus on all aspects of SEO and not just linking (like some other extensions) as well as a fast clean UI. I organized data from the page and external signals into 5 categories: External Page Data, Page Elements, Social Media, Page Terms, Server / Domain Info, and Suggestions as well as enhancing some common SEO related sites like Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer and Google Analytics
Install the SEO SIte Tools extention and see for yourself… it’s only one click and you won’t be disappointed.
External Page Data shows domain metrics link links and rank
- Linking to page and domain from Yahoo
- Page Authority, Domain Authority and links from SEOmoz
- Alexa popularity (with graph) links
- Google index date and PageRank along with domain trends
- Dmoz listing and compete.com data
Social Media pulls shares and bookmarks from a number of places
- Page Diggs and Domain Diggs
- Recent tweets about the page along with total number of tweets
- Facebook shares, likes and comments
- Reddit points
- Delicious bookmarks
Page Terms displays relevant page elements to SEO
- Meta Robots
- Meta Description
- Anchor tags and follow attribute)
- Header tags (H1-H5)
- Bold/Strong
- I/Em
- Meta Keywords
Server / Domain Info checks the domain’s IP and country and displays it on a map along with registrar information and WhoIs info
Suggestions gives helpful on-page SEO suggestions about title tag, links on page, meta description, meta keywords (hey it can’t hurt)
Page Terms (still a work in progress) performs term extraction and lets you do keyword research with Google’s keyword research tool
It also has ability to enhance Google Webmaster Tools with links anchor text, if they are followed links and mozRank (or PageRank) of linking pages
Adds Social media reactions to Google Analytics page details with Facebook shares, likes and comments as well as Delicious bookmarks and Diggs
It also adds the link and anchor text info to Yahoo Site Explorer with mozRank (or PageRank)
It is still being developed so I would love any feedback you could give me on it…
Some future plans are:
- Keyword search volume in Webmaster Tools
- Indexed pages in Google, Yahoo and Bing
- Improved keyword research tools
- More site suggestion information
- StumbleUpon share data
Get the SEO Site Tools Extention Now
Get in touch with me on twitter I’m @cartercole and follow me for updates of new releases (but if you install the plug-in it will automatically update) [highly recommended]
SEO Hampshire: The Importance of Location in SEO
You might have notice that I’ve already rather unsubtly provided an example of how you can better improve your site’s strength in your immediate locality. There are examples of this all over the Internet, most of which are a little more subtle and better phrased than the title of this post. A website doesn’t need [...]
SEO Hampshire: The Importance of Location in SEO
You might have notice that I’ve already rather unsubtly provided an example of how you can better improve your site’s strength in your immediate locality. There are examples of this all over the Internet, most of which are a little more subtle and better phrased than the title of this post. A website doesn’t need [...]
How to Get the Most Out of Your SEO
Posted by willcritchlow
The good news is that tomorrow (Wednesday 24th Feb), at 8.30am PST (11.30am EST / 4.30pm GMT), I am going to be joined on the next Distilled conference call by Richard Baxter as we discuss "how to get the most from your SEO". The even better news is that it is totally free (as long as you register in time).
If you would like to join us on the call, simply register on the Distilled site and you will be sent instructions to join the conference (which will be handled by gotomeeting / gotowebinar).
Previous calls have been more technical and have been essentially presentations that I have delivered with a slide-deck. I did one on SEOmoz tools and one on how to be an Excel ninja - both videos are available on the Distilled site.
This one is going to be a little different. Rich should need little introduction. With a strong background in in-house travel SEO followed by founding his agency, SEOgadget, he is not only a true guru of keyword research and large site architecture, but also has experience on both sides of the client / agency relationship. He also spoke at the London PRO training seminar last October (thanks to foliovision for the photo):
Rich and I plan to let you into a relaxed chat. We might pull up the occasional website or slide but fundamentally, it’ll be a little like sitting in on a live whiteboard Friday (on a Wednesday, without a whiteboard, or Rand!).
The conversation is likely to be pretty free-flowing - in many ways it will lead on from my WBF conversation with Rand about choosing an SEO consultant - but I can’t guarantee exactly what we will talk about! We are intending to cover:
- the best tasks to keep in-house vs. outsource
- combining SEO effectively with PPC, PR and marketing
- integrating SEO into other processes (e.g. development, business development)
- how to get the most from your agency
- how to keep an eye on your agency and avoid bans and penalties
- how to be a great SEO client and get even more out of your agency
We hope to have you there. We will be taking questions - both on Twitter (hashtag: #optimalSEO) and via the chat interface in gotowebinar, but if you have anything you’d specifically like us to cover, feel free to use the comments below to chime in.