Rockin’ SEO Blog - SEO Tools

SEO as a Search Engine Scamming device, according to Fox News

This week, Fox News which is one of the most well-known news and television broadcasters around, reported that SEO is being used as a tool to scam search engines which resulted to many SEO practitioners vehemently defending themselves against being called scammers. The controversial news article appeared online last August 17 in an article titled “Top Online Marketing Jobs To Leave You Friendless”. A lot of rebuttals to the text were made and the most dominant of all was the fact that the term which was being described in the article is not SEO but typo-domaining.

Viral SEO storms created by one woman

Who could have ever thought that one woman who has a one page website has the ability to create SEO storms on a daily basis? Sounds impossible right? But if you look at the background and context of this story, you will soon get rid of all your second guessing. Brenda Piddy is a spy photographer who stands at the side of Death Valley every single day in hopes of getting shots of new vehicles before anybody else gets them much to the dismay of the auto manufacturers.

SEO + SMO = Perfect marriage

It’s quite obvious that if you’re reading this weekly update that you’re already familiar with SEO or Search Engine Optimization. On the other hand, SMO stands for Social Media Optimization which is a new tool being used to make your site adaptable to be viewed on Social Media sites. The combination of both tools will definitely bring your website to a whole new level because you will be taking advantage of two platforms which are search engines and social media.

The importance of website validation

One of the most overlooked angles to SEO is website validation which is basically an evaluation of your website to make sure that it doesn’t have any errors. Some SEO practitioners are too caught up with the thought of making their website fare better in the rankings that they don’t care whether or not their website is filled with errors. This article argues that website validation is very important. The bulk of website evaluation comes from the website design itself which is a very important component of SEO.

Seven reasons why Twitter would work for any business

The majority of people usually think that Twitter’s only purpose is for socialization purposes only and for keeping up with your network of friends. But Twitter can also be used to help out your business. In this article, seven reasons are given out as to how Twitter can work for your business. These seven reasons include: building and expanding your network so that you will have the ability to build more relationships, top of mind awareness with customers and prospects, to learn more about anything and everything, listening to what people are saying about you, learning more about the competition, transforming your customers into raving fans and developing your customer service to be lightning fast.

Updating your social media profile

Most of us just create our social media profiles at the beginning where we become members of the site and most of us usually forget about it and leave it as it is. But let me tell you that updating your social media profile is very important especially if you want to attract more people to your profile. There are many ways wherein you can add fresh content to your website and one of them is to use Hellotxt to do it for you. Hellotxt is a free tool that you can use to help you in updating your profile in social media sites.

How to build a vibrant online community?

WordCampDallas 2009 was formed to be a venue for SEO and SEM practitioners and hopefully would serve as an aid to make things easier and take advantage of different tools that will make SEO and SEM more effective. The 7 rules for creating a vibrant online community is given out by Cali Lewis and her audio visual presentation can be viewed from the link provided above.

Getting to know the social media platforms

The highlights of this article are building your own social media platform by evaluating the success of the existing platforms, creating a plan in three key steps and understanding the whole picture of social media platforms so that you will have a better grasp of working your way around them. The six steps that you should undertake are: understanding the benefits of social media, incorporating the social media success factors, developing and utilizing a 2MCE process and identifying the different platforms.

Increasing your landing page conversion in 7 easy steps

There might be a million and one reasons why your landing page conversion is not improving but the main one that you should look into is the quality of your landing page itself. Most of us are guilty of incorporating every data and information in our landing pages that it looks way too cluttered which would definitely diver the attention of our potential customers. In this article, seven easy steps are given out in order to increase landing page conversion. These steps are: calling actions to matter, having digestable content, minimizing choices, keeping it simple, avoiding lengthy texts, envoking trust and avoiding too much marketing speak.

Determining if your business model is in line with Google

In every SEO campaign, various Google tools undeniably takes on a huge chunk on the project’s implementation and execution. But this does not mean that the tools that Google offers when it comes to SEO is free for all. Contrary to this popular belief, Google actually has a lot of strict rules and regulations that you have to follow in order to use their tools. One wrong move can possibly have you banned from doing business again with the famous search engine. This is the main reason why determining if your own business model is in accordance to what Google sees as acceptable is an important thing to consider. One of the main pet peeves that Google has is towards affiliates, especially those in AdWords.

Reasons why journalists will write about your website

The author of this article is speaking from his own personal experience after his website had been featured in the New York Times which is a great feat for someone who is considered as a small business owner who owns a little known website. He gives out different reasons why journalists will write about your website and the reasons are as follows: the need to create a list, the need for a seasonal story, making a follow up on a big story, writing about a competitor, writing about a particular group, citing an example for a nationwide trend, example to illustrate federal legislation, the need for expert comment and featuring an award winning person.

Tools for Google Caffeine

In this blog post, different tools that you can use for Caffeine are give out. These tools include: Google Caffeine Bookmarklet, Plug Caffeine into Firefox Extension, Ranking Checker, Google vs. Google Caffeine and Google.ie and Google.de vs. Caffeine.

Knowing the basics of SEO before trying out the fancy stuff

Most newbies in SEO will want to try on the fancy stuff at first before learning the basics. This is a kind of thing wherein you leap first before you learn but you always have to keep in mind that sticking to the basics is important especially if you’re just starting out with SEO. This article gives out different tips that you can use in order to master the basics first before you turn it up a notch. The following tips given out are: avoiding JavaScript or Flash navigation, keeping your site’s architecture as flat as possible, staying away from the parameter’s URL, using internal links and treating sitemaps as your friends.

IYP SEO Rankings Report for 2009

The Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) is a common source for SEO rankings and the author tried to lift the top ranking SEO sites for 2009 in this article. His methodology for extracting the results are as follows: searching Google, querying in a specific format, each of the top 10 ranking was in reverse order and the points for each site are added up. The results of this ranking test yielded the following sites in the top 5: Superpages, Citysearch, Yelp, Yahoo Local and InsiderPages.

Are search engines spying on SEOs?

One of the most controversial issues to bombard SEOs is the possibility that search engines are spying on SEOs by lurking in SEO forums. In these SEO forums, the SEO practitioners can initiate link buying or link exchange with other people. Spam is also being monitored in these forums.

Headlining your Social Media campaigns and articles

It all starts with your title or headline. More often than not, if you have a headline which is truly eye catching and easy to read, you will have an easier time attracting and luring people to go into your site. In this article, there is a total of 102 proven ideas that you can use for this purpose.

Link baiting 101

Link baiting is probably the most famous and most used link building technique. Compared to other link building techniques, link baiting is probably the most ethical and accepted way of gathering links for your website. In this article, links to 45 link baiting resources are given out in hopes that people will have an easier time doing this process.

Steps in creating an authority blog

In this article, a total of 10 steps are given out as a guide in building an authority blog. The steps are as follows: creating a winning difference, teaching people, having a pillar content, using headlines and hooks, making friends, putting money in your list, never neglecting SEO, giving Google a helping hand, investing in a high quality blog theme and looking after your followers.

Social Media questions that you need to know the answers to

The author of this blog post being a facilitator for Social Media seminars and presentations have a lot of knowledge when it comes to the most common questions that people have in terms of social media. Some of the most common questions being asked are: if we open up to comments, won’t people criticize us?; what different sites should we participate in?; how many interns do we need to carry out the project?; and what is the exact return of investment in social media?

Backlink research and checking will surely pay off

Backlink research especially if done with your primary competitors will surely yield results that you can use to your own advantage. In this article, three issues are being discussed which are: practical uses for competitive intelligence, research methodology and fun data points for your niche research. In doing competitive research, you are doing the following things: comparing yourself with your competitor in a quantitative way, finding out if the domain that you are in is worth the price that your paying for, finding out which of your competitors have a strong sense of brand management and assessing the relationships of your competitors.

Guide to creating effective title tags

The title tags are probably regarded as the most overlooked part of your SEO campaign. Every SEO practitioner should know that title tags are also important in SEO and in this article, several ideas and guidelines are given so that title tags can also be effective in implementing SEO. Some of the benefits of title tags are keeping SERP listings in the website, simplifying things for networks and reinforces the branding component. The steps that you should take in creating effective title tags are adding keywords first, using action words and using keyword variations.

Reporting your competitors

In a recent SEO conference, one main question that was raised by someone in the audience was what to do if ever your competitors are buying links and taking an unfair advantage over you. Well, the solution is simple, you can report them to the search engines. The key thing that is being stressed in this article is the fact that search engines are not your friends. Search engines are businesses and they do every act that they can to earn more money. Basically, in the SEO world, nobody would like a rat and karma will be out to get you if you do tell on someone. Like the famous saying goes, to each his own.

Things that you should know about the Bing and Yahoo merger

Just last week, the news that the search engine segment of Yahoo will be powered by Microsoft hit the social media air waves. The main things that are being discussed and are in the process of being finalized include the following: the deal will last for 10 years, Bing (Microsoft’s search engine arm) will be the source of all Yahoo searches both organic and paid and the whole deal is expected to be finalized in a 24-month period. In turn, the biggest changes that are in store for SEO include: focusing on Google, acting on Yahoo services now or switching to another search engine and optimizing for Bing so that you will be ready once the project enters its implementation phase.

The consequences of ignoring social media

This article basically talks about the different things that companies should realize when it comes to social media. It all boils down to the fact that ignoring social media makes you mute. Without social media, companies are better fitted for the long run. Everything that we do on the internet is concerned with social media, if you are one company or website who does not use this tool, you will surely get behind from the rest of the pack.

Site architecture is important too

Everyone who knows something about SEO will surely know that content is considered king in SEO. But a new ideology is now being employed by practitioners and that is the fact that site architecture is also an important component in any campaign. Site architecture is the more technical side of SEO and it surely helps with the overall layout and design of not only SEO but the whole website as well. In improving site architecture, the first step that you can do is to get to know the different problem areas in your site and find ways on how to improve them.

Evaluating link building

The first line of this article says it all, link building is considered as the most important and at the same time most misunderstood part of SEO. Different tips are being given by the author so that link building will be an easier task for SEO people. Some of these ideas include: making sure that the high quality links are a passing variation of valuable key items, using Yahoo’s site explorer to investigate links, using SEOMoz’s linkscape to test links, and never ever chase a page which has more than 50 links.

Clicking and Linking in Twitter

In Twitter, the main trend is to follow different persons around in this social media site, but the main question lies, why should you follow someone on Twitter? Following someone on Twitter is a good tool that you can use especially if you want to increase the traffic in your site. This article offers the best thing that can be done in order to do this and that is to offer something that is value added to your potential followers.

Google’s knowledge of the different websites you own

This article discusses the possibility that Google might know the different websites that you own even if you don’t register all these sites with this specific search engine. With all the different tools and programs that Google has, it certainly has the power to know which owns what in cyberspace but this is one issue that the company is pretty mum about.

Using Press Releases to get quality backlinks

The primary intention of press releases is to disseminate fresh information about your company or website, but now it is also being used as a tool to increase back links in order for your site to gain more popularity and traffic. With press releases, you reach a wider audience than what you typically have. If you don’t have anything new to write about when it comes to your company, focus on writing about new information in the industry that you are in. If you still can’t think of what to write about, you can come up with a good story and then spinoff a press release about it.

Using Online PR to build links

In connection to the first article, in this blog post using online public relations in order to build links for your site is the main topic. This is especially important for small businesses who do not have the right amount of resources to spend for their advertising and promotions. In this blog post, small businesses are being encouraged to use the internet in order to promote their site and business and gain more links which would increase their site’s ranking.

Dissecting your link intentions

More often that not, people who are building links for their site are lost in the main intention, or worse, do not have any intention why they are doing such. In the SEO game, it is easy to think that the more links you have the better and you will be sucked in to that mentality especially if you want to get ahead of the SEO game for the wrong reasons. This blog post dissects the main intent on why people want to gain more links. Ultimately, the blog digresses saying that the intention would be left to the best interest of the main engineer of the SEO but the search engine who only looks for the algorithm in any website would turn a blind eye on the intention of link building whatever it may be.

Yahoo and Microsoft search deal?

This weekend we saw the possibility of Yahoo scraping off its own search engine technique and possibly leasing off its main rival’s technique. Many people are asking for the main reasons why Yahoo is doing such a thing. Evidently, the people from Yahoo said that using their own technology costs a lot of money and they decided that leasing off from another power search engine will be a more feasible option for their company. The deal has not been closed yet but both companies are looking at early 2010 as the time line for inking the deal.

Vince Update

It’s been almost a month since Google has submitted its Vince update to its UK users. In the Vince update, it is stated that Google will be looking at these four different factors which are: trust, authority, reputation and pagerank when it comes to looking at websites. This actually squashes the belief that Google also looks for the brand popularity that comes with the website and that this factor can greatly affect the ranking that a webpage will have.

Getting technical with SEO

Most SEO practitioners will try to shy away from the technical side of SEO arguing that this job can better fit the computer scientists or engineers who have more knowledge about it than them. In this blog post, different technical tips that you might find useful are given out. These tips include: ensuring that the site has a reliable hosting platform, using geo-targeting, getting familiar with server response codes and redirects and site architecture amongst other things.

Are you an SEO predator?

Predatory SEO is characterized by being cutthroat, deceptive and dishonest. This blog post sheds light on the widespread presence and continuing grasp of predatory SEO in the internet. Basically, the author tells us that the people should be vigilant enough to know whether or not the website is saying factual SEO facts or not.

Using trends can help your website

Every little thing that is connected to the internet is subject to change. Even the SEO techniques that we have are subject to change. This blog post stresses that using trends in your website can help your business stay afloat and even prosper. The main benefit of SEO is that you can pinpoint exactly what specific month or time is the peak season and you can use this information so that it can work for you too. Different avenues where in you can see the current trends that you can use include Google AdWords Keywords Tool and Google Trends.

Top SEO blogs that you can use

There has been many ‘Top SEO Blogs’ articles out there that you probably lost count all in all. But this particular list is different from every other list because the blogs listed in this one is personally handpicked by the author and he swears by them. Different blogs included in his list include: Search Geeks, SEO Peeps, IR Watching, SEO Bad Asses, SEO Collectives and many others.

Designing a better landing page

Again, one of the most often overlooked parts in your SEO site is your landing page. Most SEO practitioners often disregard this part because they think that search engines won’t bother in checking this part of their webpage. But contrary to popular belief, your landing pages are extremely important in increasing your site’s rankings. Basically, there are four basic things that you can look out for in a landing page and these are: research, design, copy and testing and modification. Different tips given out by the author of this blog post in order to improve your own landing page include: knowing your visitors, putting up images, building your visitors’ trust and knowing exactly what your visitors are looking for.