Latest Articles
On-page SEO + Off-page SEO = Wonder Twins!
August 9, 2011 By korbodo
I’m probably dating myself, but as a kid I remember watching the Super Friends fight crime on TV every Saturday morning. Of the various leotard-clad heroes, the Wonder Twins were among my favorites. With their wonder twin powers activated, one could change into anything water or mineral-based; the other could change into any animal or creature. Working together, they could keep any evil villain at bay.
It’s analogous to on-page and off-page SEO: they’re different, and they’re better together.
For non-branded keywords, particularly nouns, you’ll often see that sites like Wikipedia, IMDB and Amazon do really well. Not only do they have quality content, but lots of people agree and link to them. It’s not too surprising when they rank for searches where the match is a bit of a stretch.
For long-tail keywords, it’s even more critical to balance both on and off-page because the “big guys” aren’t a factor. Tools like PageCritic compare how the top ranked pages use a keyword phrase, often uncovering gaping holes (e.g. not using any part of the keyword phrase in the title) that will get you thinking “how the heck are they ranking?”
That’s where the off-page SEO analysis comes in. Chances are, once you run a report for that site that isn’t using the keyword phrase very well, you’ll uncover a mix of inbound links from relevant & reputable sites to the irrelevant & disreputable. You’ll also want to look at the internal link structure to see what their anchors are.
If the site is for a plumber, finding inbound links from relevant sites about home repair or local directories makes sense, whereas links from a cocktail mixology expert do not. Chances are the poor plumber has no idea those mixology links are there. So, you can do two things: 1) note all the relevant links as ones to go after and 2) if you’re an SEO Agency, use the sources of irrelevant links to find other potential “link building victims” to save! It’ll be your good deed of the day.
Next, look at the internal links for that site – in particular, look at what anchors or links they’re using when they refer to their own content. Those links are another signal to the search engines telling them what the content on the other end of the link is about. They may give you some ideas about what words you should be using on your own site’s links.
Of course I’ve been eating our own dogfood and using WebPosition’s InLinks Beta to do link analysis lately (and loving it!), but the tool is less important than taking the time to understand the competition’s strengths and weaknesses, both on-page and off.
PS, as a childhood Super Friends devotee, can someone please put together a nicely indexed list of all the things the Wonder Twins activated and turned themselves into? Please?
You asked for it! PageCritic Beta II
July 6, 2011 By Webposition SEO Team
Thank you to all our customers who sent in feedback about the new PageCritic Beta! The number one feature request we received was “just tell me what to look at!” – so we got cracking on it.
If you haven’t taken it for a spin yet, WebPosition’s PageCritic provides a wealth of detailed data comparing the on-page keyword use on your page (live or unpublished) to the top ranked pages for a given keyword phrase. So much data, however, that you told us it took too long to analyze and pull out the nuggets of wisdom to act on. Message received.
Today we’re announcing the Top Findings feature for PageCritic: a prioritized list of on-page SEO findings. We look at how much impact to search engine rankings that part of the page has, how big the gap is between you and your top 20 competitors for keyword usage in that part of the page, how highly each competitor is ranked and weight the findings accordingly.
Part of what’s so fascinating about these findings is that sometimes the message is to “back off” on your on-page keyword use, or that you’re maxed out on on-page optimization and it’s time to crank up your off-page efforts.
Here’s an example of Top Findings in action. We created a PageCritic critique for the keyword phrase “best eco-friendly bags”, using a website on the 2nd page (reusethisbag.com) and leaving the default search engine (Google.com) in place.
And here are the Top Findings (click to see full size):
What do we see? In several parts of the page, the keyword weight is much higher than the competition – most importantly, in the Body of the page. That means that for the number of words in a given part of the page, the keyword is being used at a higher rate than the competition.
You’ll see that the word “Body” looks like a link – because it is! Each section of the page has its own nitty-gritty comparison against the top 5 ranked pages for the term. Let’s dive in and see the details on this (click to see full size):
One nice feature about PageCritic is that you can simply run your mouse over the URL in the table on the right and the corresponding data points on the left are highlighted, allowing us to hone in on two points of interest – the word count and the weight. See how the word count is the smallest? And the weight is way up there? That means that although the frequency (the number of times words in the keyword phrase were found) is in line with the competition, it’s on a much smaller amount of content to begin with, pushing the weight up.
Ahh, you might say, but the #5 site has a similar weight! And you’d be right. Two things: first, the body of that page also has twice as many words along with higher keyword prominence; second, on-page SEO is only one part of a multi-faceted puzzle. Our mission with PageCritic is to point you to those areas where you are most likely to find on-page SEO opportunities – without having to review each and every competitor page yourself!
We hope you enjoy this new feature, and let us know if you have some interesting findings you’d like to share!
Learn more at WebPosition.com
PageCritic Beta Announcement
March 8, 2011 By Webposition SEO Team
We’re pretty excited to be bringing you news of the PageCritic Beta, and even more excited that all WebPosition Standard and Premium subscribers automatically have access to see it for themselves and to start kicking the tires.
PageCritic analyzes how the keyword phrase you’re optimizing for is used on your webpage. It finds the top competition for the keyword and looks at how the keyword phrase is being used on those pages, too. Better yet, you can use PageCritic to analyze pages you haven’t released yet and compare them to the competition they’ll have when they’re published. In the Slideshare presentation below, we use an example site to show you how to create a critique, and start seeing how to identify on-page optimization opportunities.
Enjoy! (Full-screen view recommended)
SEO 101: Back to the Basics
November 11, 2010 By Webposition SEO Team
Keeping up with the latest in SEO requires the same dedication demanded of those who train for triathlons. Seriously, just thinking about it almost makes you reach for a sports drink.
But professional pride drives most of us to not only stay knowledgeable about the newest methods, but to also implement them. And because search engines continually update their algorithms, we often must also adjust our efforts accordingly to maintain the page rank we’ve already worked so hard to earn…all while answering the numerous demands from multiple business stakeholders that often have little to no understanding about SEO in general. (Take another sip of your sports drink.)
Let’s be honest, modifying our strategies for whatever reason has become a reflex, but it doesn’t always benefit our overall SEO efforts. Our strategies quickly grow so complex that if they were posted to the Internet, they could rank in the Top Ten Results for “How in the world did we end up here?”
If keeping up with it all has made your strategies too convoluted, it may be time to revisit those tried-and-true SEO 101 basics that have proven effective time and time again. Offer users solid content, and optimize your keywords on and off the page. Build a site that users want to keep visiting and that other sites want to link to. The most successful SEO efforts are built upon a foundation that’s stood the test of time and changing search algorithms.
Googletestad: The Word. The Myth. The Reality.
October 11, 2010 By Scott Penrose
Several years ago, the keyword googletestad was rumored to be some sort of “SEO Gold” that everyone needed to replicate due to the volume of search activity it was seeing. And in 2006, WordTracker reported that the term was one of its most searched terms.
But let’s put the myth to rest. 
The term “googletestad” is simply a test term that Google and its partners use to verify feed availability and various other monitoring processes. Nothing more. Nothing less. An automated means sends the query “googletestad” through X number of times per hour, which is why the volume appears so high if you’re tracking it.
If you check out Dogpile SearchSpy, a live streaming feed of what users are looking for on Dogpile.com, you can still see the term every so often. If you enter “googletestad” in Google.com, you get a results page with a test ad (which is Google verifying its own ad system up time) and some organic listings about the “googletestad hoax”.
Consider this…“googletestad” is really just “Google Test Ad” without spaces in between the words, or capitalization. And sadly, although it sounds like one, “googletestad” isn’t a beer either.
Google Instant’s Impact on SEO
September 14, 2010 By Sue Spiker
SEO is constantly changing, and Google Instant will undoubtedly change the game yet again. Another of Google’s improvements for the year, Instant guesses what you’re most likely looking for as you type and displays search results accordingly. Essentially, you get predictive search results without that pesky need to hit “Enter”.
All in the name of serving up search results even faster. Which brings us to the big question – how will Google Instant affect SEO?
Over time, Google Instant could change how we use search by offering a wider variety of search results faster, enabling us to refine our searches more quickly. And because the end goal of driving web traffic remains the same, logic dictates that Instant may also change how we get our own webpages in front of users’ eyes.
If your webpage is already optimized for specific keywords, Google Instant won’t change your search engine rankings for those terms. But because it displays the most likely search phrases and top results, optimizing for those additional keywords may become standard. For example, start entering “fitness equipment”. By the time you hit the letter “n”, a different keyword, “fitness magazine”, is already being predicted – as is the first page of “fitness magazine” search results.
“Fitness equipment” isn’t even suggested until you enter the entire term “fitness”. So, if you’re in the fitness equipment business, users can easily get sidetracked before your primary keyword is even suggested. If it’s appropriate for your business, you may want to consider additionally optimizing for “fitness magazine” as well.
One thing is certain. Whatever comes down the pike, adapting your SEO strategies will be critical to your website’s longevity and ultimately, your success. Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam Team, summed it up quite nicely when he stated, “I’ve said it before, but SEO is in many ways about change. The best SEOs recognize, adapt, and even flourish when changes happen.”
Watch the announcements:
Sept 8, 2010 – Google Instant Announcement at SFMOMA
Sept 7, 2010 – Eric Schmidt Speaks at IFA in Berlin: “Never under estimate the importance of fast”
Social Media Spam: The Dark Side of Networking
September 9, 2010 By Sue Spiker
It’s so easy to go overboard implementing the social media part of your link building strategy. Yes, actively participating is essential for growing web traffic, but too much of the wrong kind of participation can result in you being blocked by users and banned by search engines. All for one simple reason.
No one likes a spammer. And no one wants to be a spammer, but in your zeal to expand your online presence, you can easily cross over to the Dark Side and not even know it. You can, however, help yourself stay on the straight and narrow if you remember two key basics.
It’s still person-to-person. At the other of end blogs, posts, comments and tweets are living, breathing people. And when you respond, you’re engaging in a dialogue with them just as if you were talking over coffee. But if you respond solely to generate links, people will resent your blatant self-promotion, especially on their sites. And it doesn’t take long before that “Block User” button starts looking really good.
You gain a more faithful following and well-respected online presence by posting on-topic, helpful responses that offer value.
Search engines have rules. And not paying attention to their clearly defined lists of specific activities such as link exchanges and cloaking can earn you a PageRank penalty, reduce your search engine ranking or get you banned altogether. They also offer contact information so that people can report spam – yet another reason to engage people in a genuine, respectable manner.
So before your next post, tweet, comment or status update, ask yourself, “Does this add value to the conversation or is it just another advertisement?” If the Twitter bird looks at you with judgment in its eyes, it may be time to rethink your social media strategies or shift some energy towards other aspects of your SEO efforts.
Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO)
September 2, 2010 By Sue Spiker
Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) is an effective and often overlooked extension of SEO. But, it’s actually an opportunity to support the content you’ve (hopefully) already worked so hard to optimize. And even extend that content’s visibility.
According to comScore’s May 2010 figures, “U.S. Internet users watched nearly 34 billion videos in May.” That makes VSEO a tremendous opportunity to:
- Drive web traffic
- Boost brand identity
- Add life to your web presence
- Connect with customers
- Showcase your expertise
- Build authority within your industry
And because YouTube “accounted for the vast majority of videos viewed”, creating your own YouTube Channel is an obvious place to begin your own VSEO efforts. YouTube tags and indexes posted videos to show up its own search results based on much the same information that search engines use to index webpages to show up in their results. Entering the right titles, tags and descriptions increases your video’s chance of being listed in the search results for YouTube and the major search engines.
Like every other aspect of your strategy, VSEO requires a carefully thought-out approach to effectively generate user interest, go viral and drive traffic to your website. And while your own Channel may not generate huge numbers, you can still increase your web presence simply by posting easily-searched 2- to 3-minute videos. So while you’re implementing general SEO strategies, consider video search optimization as a way to increase your web presence and web traffic.
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