Various SEO Tools...

Free Reciprocal Link Checker / Manager Tool:
ClickSentry link tool I have not tried it, but it looks cool.
(thanks for the Scoop)

Free PageRank Tool:
yet another one. DaveN says you should run it through a proxy.

Article Submission Spreadsheet:
Recently a guy named Zoran read my ebook and is trying to rank well for stuff like Search
Engine Positioning Firm
. He submitted articles to a bunch of sites and created a free XLS articles checksheet which shows over 70 sites where you can submit articles. Thanks Zoran :)

A while back I made a much shorter article list.

Adobe Partners with Yahoo!
Yahoo! Search to power Adobe Acrobat

Food for Thought
another interesting DaveN post

Obligatory SEO Motivational Poster (Funny?): Many SEOs spend too much time at the computer (well at least I do). Thus I designed and framed a wonderful deluxe collectible limited edition motivational poster...which reminds me to do stuff like exercise and see the sun.

Feel free to use it if you need some motivation :-)

Motivational Poster.

there are lots of other good motivational posters on the market as well...

How to Promote a Golf Site:
Make a fun game...
(thanks to John)

Cloaking Q & A, Deep Link Ratio Tool, Untitled Document

AdSense Tool
SenseTool I have not tried it out, but it is free and looks neato...

Cloaking
a Q & A with Fantomaster

Backlink Update
Google did one yesterday.

Me Too:
the new Yahoo! Search sure looks familiar.

Deep Link Ratio:
When links develop naturally interior pages of a site acquire numerous links. Sites which have a ton of deep links usually have a broad range of refering websites and good traffic. This free deep link tool queries Yahoo! to look at the percentage of backlinks which are deep links.
(link from Tara via Danny)

Untitled:
Gary Stein talks about the keyword untitled (and gives my ebook a good review...thanks for that Gary).

I think something like Untitled Document or Untitled Page would be a cool name for an SEO firm.

Audio Clip:
I was on another marketing show recently. I feel weird being listed on sites with guys like Bob Bly or Jack Trout...I still have a ton of learning I need to do...luckily for me guys like those write awesome books I can read.

While peaking at Seth's blog recently I saw that Malcolm Gladwell has just wrote another book. <--- runs off to buy it...

If Blink is anything like The Tipping Point then it will probably be in my top 5 favorite books.

How to: Automate Reciprocal Link Exchanges

How to: Automate Reciprocal Link Exchanges
I am not normally a fan of automating link exchange contact emails, but Doug Heil (also known as Ihelpyouservices) points out a "refreshing" link exchange request email that did a good job of fooling him. Arelis is one of the more popular reciprocal link exchange software programs.

Ineedhits.com Search Readiness Report

I need better img alt tags & more on topic inbound links!!! please link to this site ;)

I got my Search Readiness Report PDF report back from Ineedhits.com

$30 is not a ton to spend for individualized report so I did not expect to get a ton out of the report. I would say if you are new to the web it might be well worth spending $30 on the report. They really only need to find one thing wrong or teach you one good tip to make the report worth its price. One thing I would recommend to improve the report is to give 1 to 10 type scores for each element of the report versus yes or no results.

Beware of 1P.com: Traffic Power now 1P.com

SEO Consultants reports that they believe Traffic Power has purchased the rights to and is now using 1P.com...Just in case you are wonder who Traffic Power is, here is a prior post titled Traffic Power & Cold Call SEO.

The original Traffic Power brand has a good bit of tarnish to it...I was wondering when they would adopt a new name.

SEO Roadshow

Just a reminder to everyone about the upcoming SEO Roadshow conference in London. It is free, but by invite only.

If you can make it to London next week, need an invite, and are super cool just send me an email and I will see if I can invite a few more people.

The 80 / 20 rule
Well sort of... ComScore search results for July show that 20% of searchers do 68% of the searching.

Branded Search ROI
Google exec David Scacco spoke at the ChannelAdvisor summit. Among Andy Beal's notes of his speech were the following #s

28% of Google searches are for a "product name", 9% are for a "brand name" and 5% are searches for a "company name". "Brand" keywords also have a 8x higher ROI than generic keywords

Google Adwords and the Lost Art of Copywriting

Tens of thousands of businesses, large and small, use Google Adwords and Overture Match (from Yahoo!) to advertise their products and services on the Internet. ... There are many variables, but SEM professionals have focused heavily on the importance of "keywords" – to the extent that entire sub-industries have sprung up to show clients how to create lists of keywords! What has been overlooked, in our estimation, is the good old art of copywriting itself – how you write the ad. ... After all, an ad is an ad whether it appears in a newspaper, a magazine, or on Google or Overture. You've got space for a short headline and a brief description – briefer on Google than Overture, but at least Google doesn't truncate your listing, as Overture does. Given how little space you get to work with, and the fact that you have no visual opportunity, it is crucial to create compelling, snappy ads. Unfortunately, the vast majority are nothing of the sort. Most of them look like badly written classified ads – and that's the main reason most of them will deliver poor click through rates and disappointing results. source: BusinessKnowledgeSource.com

Frequently direct ads that are focused on the customers needs and wants use easy to understand language and are the best performing ads. Many classified ads are tested over and over again...against the rain, the day of the week, the season, etc. and they continue to reappear because they provide exactly what the consumer wants. Most flashy magazine or TV type ads are not tested anywhere near as deeply...if they were, more of them would become the boring ads that speak directly to the consumer.

Three Way Linking: Good or Bad???

What is 3 Way Linking?
Some webmasters own multiple sites and try to build up one of their specific sites by offering link exchanges from their other sites. In doing this they add a link to you on their other site and get you to link to the main site they are trying to build up.

What Benefits Exist in 3 Way Linking?
Citation analysis works well in academic environments but kinda falls a part in a commercially driven direct marketing environment (which is what the web is).

Many search algorithms may be able to detect link trading as an artificial means of boosting the popularity of both sites and discount the value of these links.

By doing a three way link from sites hosted on different servers a webmaster can build link popularity without the search engine being able to detect the link trading as easily.

The Problem with 3 Way Link Exchanges

Most people engaging in 3 way link exchanges are doing it with the express intent to manipulate search results. This typically means they are trying to make automated bots think their ideas are better than they are, and are willing to do deceptive things to do it.

There are legitimate reasons to do three way links, but most of the three way link partnerships I have been offered are not worth touching with a 10 ft pole.

The real problem is that if their two sites are not connected and they are primarily working to benefit the link popularity of their main site then it does not really hurt them if the site linking to you gets banned. If those sites get banned then they parse no link popularity to you.

In doing this webmasters can agressively market their high margin websites while keeping them somewhat shielded from the dangerous effects of their aggressive promotion.

In fact many marketers might set up 20 or 30 or more secondary sites to echange links with.

An Example 3 Way Link Technique
Some people will set up a bunk directory and ask for you to link back to one of their partner sites. In doing this they get links that would cost them thousands of dollars a month for making an investment which is sometimes less than $100.

They do not mind linking out to somewhat crapy sites because they are getting tons of free marketing for 5 - 10 minutes worth of work each day. I have recently seen more and more directories partnering up to promote more and more sleezy high margin pharmacy and debt type websites.

3 Way Linking: Moral of the Story
If you are trading links with a debt reduction site on your personal hobby site to list in a directory of some sort it is not a fair trade.

Many other sites will be suspicious of you and not want to trade links with you if you have shady off topic links on your site.

If people you do not know want you to trade three way links you should do a bit of investigating before just saying yes.

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