Most important SEO Tool

2011-07-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

1. Compete SiteAnalytics- Compete gives you accurate data of monthly uniquevisitors to a website. This is extremely useful for competitive analysis ofcompetitors, and also sizing up a prospective clients site for an SEO proposal.We have found it to be very accurate when we compare with Google analytics, orAWstats.

2. Google analytics-Every serious SEO or webmaster needs to be running Google free analyticssoftware on their sites. The point of SEO is not rankings, or page rank itsvisitors! Stop guessing and start making statistically informed SEO decisionsso that your effort can go into the things that are paying off.

3. SEOQuake Toolbar-This Firefox plugin is one of my favorite SEO tools at a glance I can see asite Page Rank, backlinks, Alexa ranking, domain age, and keyword density. Thebest part is it’s free.

4. MultipleDatacenter Search- Honestly Google does so much in the way ofpersonalized search, geolocation, etc. that it can be hard to get the straightdope on where your ranking. The multiple datacenter search will show you searchresults for multiple google data centers so you can get a better feel for yourrankings.

5. WordtrackerFirefox Plugin- If your like me you love Firefox for all the greatextensions! One such extension is the Wordtracker Firefox Plugin you can seesearch volumes for search phrases on the fly without leaving your current page.Not as accurate as Google but great for naming Blog posts and makingquick keyword decisions.

6. GoogleKeywords- The best overall free keyword research tool in myopinion. You can quickly be given hundreds of keyword suggesstions by enteringkeyword phrases, or by entering yours or competitors web address. This toolwill show you monthly search volumes for each key word or phrase, and allsuggested keywords can be exported to csv.

7. 301 RedirectChecker- 301 are useful for two reasons first so that searchengines don’t see http://yoursite.com and www.yoursite.com as two sites. Alsoif a page moves the page rank can be reassigned to the new page through a 301redirect. Make sure 301 redirects are set up correctly with this tool.

8. YahooSiteexplorer- Google notoriously under reports backlinks, and onlygives you a sampling. With site explorer you can see what backlinks you have,and even better you can see competitors backlinks, and use those sites in yourlink building efforts. The best part is that it will export to a tab separatedvalues file that can used in Excel.

9. XML Sitemap Generator-XML sitemaps are important to get your pages quickly indexed in a few minutesthis tool will index your site up to 500 pages, and generate an xml sitemap. Besure and sign up with GoogleWebmaster, Yahoo SiteExplorer, and Bing Webmaster Centerto tell these services the location of your sitemap.

10. GooglePosition Checker- With this tool you can see what position yourank in Google for a particular keyword up to the first 1,000 results.

Bonus! BacklinkBuilder- This tool searches your submitted keywords for sites thataccept links directories etc.

Make Your Email Newsletter a Must-Read for Your Customers

2011-07-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

At first the decision to publish a newsletter looks easy: "My competitorshave newsletters; therefore, I need one." Theirs come out monthly, soyours needs to be monthly. Theirs is HTML-based, so yours needs to look thesame.
Many first-time newsletter publishers make this mistake. But launching anewsletter because your competition has one is not the right reason to publishone.
It takes time, money and energy to produce a newsletter that people lookforward to reading, enjoy and are willing to pass on to their friends andcolleagues. Before you make this commitment, you should have a mission for thenewsletter and a plan for creating it on a regular basis.

The Mission

A newsletter can be promotional or marketing oriented, informative orrelationship building. Regardless of the mission you choose, you should let thereader know your intentions about the direction of the publication and stick tothat plan. Consistency is important. If you promise news and information, don'tbore the reader with sales promotions. If, on the other hand, the plan is tosend out a relationship-building newsletter 11 months of the year and thenpublish a promotional one come spring, let readers know it’s coming.
The Content

Readers are looking for timely, practical, useful information. If a companyincreased profits by 320 percent over the same time last year, that’s news!News can also be promotional. Do you have a new service or product coming tomarket, or a seasonal item? Then it makes sense to publish the newsletter atthat appropriate time.
You can also use the newsletter to build relationships with clients. Forexample, if calls are coming in about specific problems with a product, thendiscuss the problem and solution in the upcoming newsletter. This is a win-winsituation. Customers are grateful that someone is looking after their bestinterests and the number of support calls will certainly drop.
Your newsletter can be informative. You can discuss how a new technology mayaffect your customers’ or prospects’ business. Give them honest informationabout how this improvement helps them deliver better service or generate morerevenue.
Another way to pique readers' interest is to write two- and three-partstories. It's a good way to keep people coming back for more, and sometimesinformation just cannot be crammed into one issue. Don’t be restrictive. Givethe information the space it deserves.

Making Email Newsletters More Social

The Frequency

Now that you've determined you have enough news and information to share,decide how often you to publish. Newsletters need to come out on some scheduleso people can anticipate receiving them. If you publish too often, the reader’sinterest will wane or they will start considering you spam, even if theywillingly signed up for the newsletter. Newsletters can also drain resources.Writing articles can take enormous energy, and sometimes newsletter editorsfind themselves trapped in a format they must "feed." Keep it simpleand newsworthy.
A good approach is to start out slowly. Make sure there is time allocated toproduce the newsletter and it’s a good read. Perhaps start out quarterly andthen move to bimonthly. People rarely complain about receiving useful news toooften.

The Metrics

One of the best advantages email newsletters have over their printedcompatriots is metrics. When you mail a paper newsletter, it's impossible tofind out if it went straight into the recycle bin or if the recipient loved itso much they photocopied it and passed it on to numerous friends. Emailnewsletter services, however, offer many useful metrics. You can find out howmany people received the email, how many "bounced" because of a bademail address, how many people opened the newsletter, how many forwarded it tofriends, and more. These services also handle your unsubscribe requests,ensuring you are following the law when people request to opt out of yournewsletter.

Do You Know What Clicks With YourEmail Newsletter Readers?

And because of the importance of these metrics and the unsubscribe process,finding a good email service provider -- Constant Contact and iContact are twopopular choices -- is a crucial step in the creation of your email newsletter.

Serving the Reader

Finally, know your reader base. Don’t take them for granted. Find out what theyare interested in knowing or learning. Invite readers to respond. Ask for theiropinion. Let the reader get to know the editor of the newsletter. A person shouldlet their personality show through the writing. It is much easier to build arelationship if each party shares information about themselves.
Respect their time: If a newsletter cannot be read within five minutes, it’sdestined for the trash folder. It hurts, but it’s the truth. Busy peoplesegment their time with five minutes for this and 10 minutes for that. A goodnewsletter fits into that window.

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Most important SEO Tool

Make Your Email Newsletter a Must-Read for Your Customers