http://www.limebloo.com/blog Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:12:02 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Feeds for Google Alerts: Learn How To Create Google Alerts! http://www.limebloo.com/blog/feeds-for-google-alerts-learn-how-to-create-google-alerts/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/feeds-for-google-alerts-learn-how-to-create-google-alerts/#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:12:02 +0000 TheAutomator http://www.limebloo.com/blog/?p=628 Google Alerts can be a great way to keep updated on all the latest happenings on anything you wish!

Google Alerts is quick and simple to setup, simply Click Here and we’ll walk you through it!

Google Alerts

]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/feeds-for-google-alerts-learn-how-to-create-google-alerts/feed/ 0 Senior Marketers Need Greater Accountability http://www.limebloo.com/blog/senior-marketers-need-greater-accountability/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/senior-marketers-need-greater-accountability/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:00:28 +0000 TheAutomator http://www.seomoz.org/blog/senior-marketers-need-greater-accountability Posted by randfish

I ran across this survey data eMarketer released last week and my heart sank:

Top Priorities in 2010 According to Senior Marketers 

This first chart looks innocent enough. It's when you look at the next one (from the same report) that things get ugly:

Advertising Performance Metrics 2009

As a CEO, an SEO, a web marketer and a participant in social media, this drives me absolutely crazy. The very last item on the list is "conversions, ROI, etc." If your pulse isn't pounding, you might need to cut back on the pharmaceuticals.

Absolutely nothing in the analytics world should trump conversions and ROI for "senior marketers" or anyone else who cares about the success of a company. If you're thinking in terms of time on site or unique page views as primary metrics - metrics you'd describe in a survey as being those you're "most interested in" - there's a big problem. The web as a medium is designed to let you capture data beyond number of viewers or engagement level. It lets you track return visits and actions and build sophisticated models that predict what activities will drive up revenue and earnings in the most cost-effective ways. Why let it go to waste?

Interactive Marketing Spend 2009-2014

This report from Forrester suggests that the spend on web marketing has a lot of growth, and social media in particular is poised for exceptional CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate). But, I'm tremendously concerned that if marketers obsess over metrics like time on site, unique page views and CTR, they'll miss out on the real opportunity of all these channels.

Cartoon of Senior & Junior Marketers

ROI should be the ultimate metric - it should be the most important thing on every marketer's mind for every project and every channel. I'll grant that prioritizing the projects and investments that have the highest return is challenging, and even the best do it imperfectly. What worries me is that there are marketers who may be taking their cues not from the great analytics data suggesting that, although first-time visits from social media may have low value, over time, they can drive greater brand engagement, predict higher rates of repeat visits and eventually become buyers and brand evangelists, but from the onslaught of press coverage and media attention around social networks.

If you're taking your clues about where to spend your marketing budget from the media, rather than experiments and data, get ready for disappointment. Likewise, if you're measuring the wrong thing, you'll never know the right place to spend those dollars.

The beauty of online channels like SEO, landing page testing, conversion rate optimization, email marketing and, yes, social media is that the data tells a story we can read. So long as we're willing to hear the message, we can draw the connections to find the traffic sources that cost less and earn more. We can invest in those until the ROI from them diminishes to a point where other channels become viable. But only if we're paying attention to the metrics that matter.

There have been tools, data and experienced professionals in this field, fighting these fights for over a decade now. Tragically, it seems that we're in for a long slog.

p.s. We've filled up about 600/1,000 spots for Thursday's PRO webinar on SEO Analytics - feel free to join in :-)


Do you like this post? Yes No

]]> Posted by randfish I ran across this survey data eMarketer released last week and my heart sank: Top Priorities in 2010 According to Senior Marketers This first chart looks innocent enough. It's when you look at the next one (from the same report) that things get ugly: Advertising Performance Metrics 2009 As a CEO, an SEO, a web marketer and a participant in social media, this drives me absolutely crazy. The very last item on the list is "conversions, ROI, etc." If your pulse isn't pounding, you might need to cut back on the pharmaceuticals. Absolutely nothing in the analytics world should trump conversions and ROI for "senior marketers" or anyone else who cares about the success of a company. If you're thinking in terms of time on site or unique page views as primary metrics - metrics you'd describe in a survey as being those you're "most interested in" - there's a big problem. The web as a medium is designed to let you capture data beyond number of viewers or engagement level. It lets you track return visits and actions and build sophisticated models that predict what activities will drive up revenue and earnings in the most cost-effective ways. Why let it go to waste? Interactive Marketing Spend 2009-2014 This report from Forrester suggests that the spend on web marketing has a lot of growth, and social media in particular is poised for exceptional CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate). But, I'm tremendously concerned that if marketers obsess over metrics like time on site, unique page views and CTR, they'll miss out on the real opportunity of all these channels. Cartoon of Senior & Junior Marketers ROI should be the ultimate metric - it should be the most important thing on every marketer's mind for every project and every channel. I'll grant that prioritizing the projects and investments that have the highest return is challenging, and even the best do it imperfectly. What worries me is that there are marketers who may be taking their cues not from the great analytics data suggesting that, although first-time visits from social media may have low value, over time, they can drive greater brand engagement, predict higher rates of repeat visits and eventually become buyers and brand evangelists, but from the onslaught of press coverage and media attention around social networks. If you're taking your clues about where to spend your marketing budget from the media, rather than experiments and data, get ready for disappointment. Likewise, if you're measuring the wrong thing, you'll never know the right place to spend those dollars. The beauty of online channels like SEO, landing page testing, conversion rate optimization, email marketing and, yes, social media is that the data tells a story we can read. So long as we're willing to hear the message, we can draw the connections to find the traffic sources that cost less and earn more. We can invest in those until the ROI from them diminishes to a point where other channels become viable. But only if we're paying attention to the metrics that matter. There have been tools, data and experienced professionals in this field, fighting these fights for over a decade now. Tragically, it seems that we're in for a long slog. p.s. We've filled up about 600/1,000 spots for Thursday's PRO webinar on SEO Analytics - feel free to join in :-) Do you like this post? Yes No
]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/senior-marketers-need-greater-accountability/feed/ 0 iPad, iPed, iPid, iPod, iPud http://www.limebloo.com/blog/ipad-iped-ipid-ipod-ipud/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/ipad-iped-ipid-ipod-ipud/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:37:03 +0000 TheAutomator http://thesemblog.com/?p=178 Previously only one of those words was an Apple product. After January 26th, however, Apple now sells iPads along with iPods. What may be a silly name or a great name briefly caused a bit of confusion with the search engines.

IPED and IPEDS are acronyms that have quite a few results in Google, Yahoo, and Bing. But, the other spelling brethren to the iPod do not have much meaning. Because of this, all three search engines show spelling corrections for those words and typically include “iPod” search results as well. Today, we still see this for iPud and iPid. And, immediately after the Apple announcement, we saw it for iPad, too.

This was soon corrected, whether naturally or through intervention, in Yahoo and Google. Bing is still showing results for iPod when you search for the new iPad. This instance appears to show a small flaw in the search engine algorithms. How do you quickly add a new term when it had been written off as a typo?

The iPad announcement is the most recent example of this, but many web 2.0 companies experienced the same problem. When companies began to emulate Flickr’s naming convention of adding an ‘r’ to the end of their name, it also confused search engines. Is Snappr a service, or is someone looking for a lawn mower. This is especially apparent when services first launch, which is exactly what we witnessed with the launch of the iPad.

What does that mean for Search Engine Marketers? It means that Google may have a bit more to say about brand names then we would like to think. Is the new product you are launching or marketing a typo for something else? Then you may want to think about a name change. Of course, a strong product can overtake the ‘typo’ designation as they iPad has done in Google and Yahoo, but you may not have the marketing gusto and hype power that Apple carries. If you have flexibility in the name, then do your homework.

It may be time to add “Googleability” to the traditional product naming guidelines. Not only do you need to distinguish your brand from others, but you need to have a brand that isn’t even a close spelling of another product. If I sold a product called a “pespi,” I would be in a world of pain trying to market it online.

We would like to keep the search engines out of these types of processes, and they want to stay out of them as well. Google’s vision is to “organize the world’s information.” No part of that says anything about governing or changing that information. The unfortunate truth is that online marketing is growing rapidly, and to keep up you need to capitalize on the traffic that Google and the others can drive. So, pick your product names carefully, and market the heck out of them.

]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/ipad-iped-ipid-ipod-ipud/feed/ 0 It’s a Feeding Frenzy for Keyword-Rich Domains http://www.limebloo.com/blog/its-a-feeding-frenzy-for-keyword-rich-domains/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/its-a-feeding-frenzy-for-keyword-rich-domains/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:33:55 +0000 TheAutomator http://www.seomoz.org/blog/its-a-feeding-frenzy-for-keywordrich-domains Posted by MichaelC

It's a well-known fact in the SEO world that Google shows enormous favoritism in its rankings to domain names that contain one or more of the keywords being searched for. If your domain name is a close match to the search keywords all glued together, it's as easy as fishing with dynamite to get on page 1 of the SERPs for that search phrase. While some (like me) might argue (like, against Rand) that it's a flaw in the algorithm, it's not a bug--Google deliberately favors this kind of match. If the search is a company name, well the reasoning why [that phrase] .com should rank #1 is obvious...and for everything else, well...it's pretty reasonable for Google to presume that a site named, for example, www.lightbulbs.com is probably pretty much about light bulbs. Whether it's the BEST site for light bulbs is of course another story.

The net result of the world realizing that Google works this way is pretty predictable: mass buying of keyword-rich domains, and trying to turn those into top rankings and monster-sized site traffic. We're seeing three tactics here:

  1. 301 redirection of keyword-rich domains
  2. content-rich doorway pages on those domains
  3. moving existing sites onto those domains

Before we dive into each of these in detail, let me throw out an example to help make all the details make sense. Apologies in advance to whoever actually owns these domains--y'all can just relax and think of this as just a free citation to help your local search :-)

Example: let's say your company is "xyzsignals.com", you sell cell phone repeaters, boosters, antennas, etc.

  • page 1 of the SERPs for "cell phone repeaters" is dominated by domains with those words in the domain name
  • being the devious and knowledgeable SEO that you are, you buy these domains: www.cellphonerepeatersystems.com, www.cellphoneboostersystems.com, www.cellphoneantennasystems.com

FYI, it's not necessary to add hyphens between your keywords; search for "web hosting" and see how well the non-hyphen versions rank. Also, hyphenated domains may be a red flag as many spammy domains have been built this way over the past few years.

OK, first up to bat: the quickie: buying the domains and 301'ing them to your site.



You buy these existing domains--perhaps they already have a bunch of juicy links to them. You HTTP 301 redirect everything from those sites to your main site, www.xyzsignals.com. Cool, right? Free link juice, immediately!

Not so fast...Google's ahead of you on this, and is looking for people who do this purely for SEO benefit. Matt Cutts is pretty clear on this in this video.

If you buy a domain, and immediately change the owning organization name, address, technical and admin contacts, etc., you can pretty much count on getting busted on this. At best, the sandbox....at worst, penalties.

If you're clever about it (I can't really tell you what to do, it's black-hat, but it's bloody obvious!) and avoid getting spotted as a domain buyer, keep in mind also that you'll likely have to move the domain to some new servers, which may in itself be a signal (when combined with registrar info changes) that the domain is no longer owned by the same organization, and perhaps past links shouldn't be counted as votes and hence flow PR.

Let's say you're smarter than the average bear, and get past that....what can you expect in terms of SEO results? Well, you're not going to see the keyword-rich domains in the SERPs, you'll see your own site. And you might think about the conversion effect of showing an URL with the phrase that matches the search phrase, versus showing your company name. My guess (and experience) would lead me to say that www.cellphoneantennasystems.com will get more attention from the searcher (hence clicks) than xyzsystems.com, presuming of course they searched for "cell phone antennas".

As well, there's some thought in the SEO community that the juice passed via 301s may decay over time anyway.

Lastly, let's say you're going all out and have bought 20-odd sites, each matching a target search phrase. Will Google spot a pattern if you redirect 20+ sites all to your 1 principal domain? If not today, probably soon...

On to Door Number Two: Content-Rich Doorway Pages


For each of the keyword-rich domains you've bought, you build light content, with a link/call to action that sends users off to the main site. The idea:

  • the doorway domains will rank well
  • users will click on them in the SERPs as the URL and title both will closely match their query phrase
  • users will click the link on the doorway page to get to the main site

Most likely you will make it visually obvious to the user that the two domains are the same company (despite different URLs); the more black-hat approach is to make the doorway page appear to be a "review" site that recommends the main site, but of course, I wouldn't suggest such nonsense here.

The concern about buying the domain and changing the registrar info (and hosting ) all at once applies here as well. Tread softly....and slowly.

Once out of the sandbox (if you fall in at all), the doorway domains will rank really well for the key phrase, with proper on-page SEO and very light link-building needed.

So, is this black-hat? ask yourself: is there any reason to do this (for the human user) OTHER than search ranking? Does it honestly add value? Will it be detected automatically? Probably not....but...

If you're very successful at this, your competitors are likely to notice; you should BET on one of them submitting a manual spam report to Google; think about how you're going to explain to a Google engineer that you are doing this for some reason other than search rankings trickery.

A Beige-Hat Suggestion: if you go this direction, choose your main products and build a real site for each that offers Wikipedia-like information on each class of product, so that what you have is a generally useful resource for someone looking to buy a product like what you're selling; then, be upfront and put a "sponsored by" link to the section of your site that focuses on that product class on each page of the site; as well, a link on each page in the text to that same section.

You might create a mini site for each of those products, and talk about the pros and cons of the various types of each. Let's say on one page you're talking about the roof-mounted directional antennas - you could say on that page "At XYZ Signals, our most popular roof-mounted directional antennas are the ACME 3 antennas" and link both "roof-mounted directional antennas" and "ACME 3 antennas" to your main page for ACME 3 antennas.

Last, but not least: buying a keyword-rich domain and moving your entire site




This move isn't for the light-of-heart, even though it's pretty white-hat. You're still going to have issues with the sandbox, and to avoid this, need to execute this tactic over several months. Danny wrote a great post with all the details on how to move a domain a little while ago.

Consider putting up some light content on the new sites and watch the SERPs for a month or so to be sure the new sites are not sandboxed. Then, move all of the pages from your original site over, and 301 each page to the exact corresponding page on the new site EXCEPT the home page.

Retain your original domain and use it for a "corporate info" site; link to it from the new domain and vice-versa.

Finally, use the backlinks analysis from Open Site Explorer to find the important sites that link to the old site, and ask them to update their links to point to the new sites.

Technorati Tags

, ,

Do you like this post? Yes No

]]> Posted by MichaelC

It's a well-known fact in the SEO world that Google shows enormous favoritism in its rankings to domain names that contain one or more of the keywords being searched for. If your domain name is a close match to the search keywords all glued together, it's as easy as fishing with dynamite to get on page 1 of the SERPs for that search phrase. While some (like me) might argue (like, against Rand) that it's a flaw in the algorithm, it's not a bug--Google deliberately favors this kind of match. If the search is a company name, well the reasoning why [that phrase] .com should rank #1 is obvious...and for everything else, well...it's pretty reasonable for Google to presume that a site named, for example, www.lightbulbs.com is probably pretty much about light bulbs. Whether it's the BEST site for light bulbs is of course another story.

The net result of the world realizing that Google works this way is pretty predictable: mass buying of keyword-rich domains, and trying to turn those into top rankings and monster-sized site traffic. We're seeing three tactics here:

  1. 301 redirection of keyword-rich domains
  2. content-rich doorway pages on those domains
  3. moving existing sites onto those domains

Before we dive into each of these in detail, let me throw out an example to help make all the details make sense. Apologies in advance to whoever actually owns these domains--y'all can just relax and think of this as just a free citation to help your local search :-)

Example: let's say your company is "xyzsignals.com", you sell cell phone repeaters, boosters, antennas, etc.

  • page 1 of the SERPs for "cell phone repeaters" is dominated by domains with those words in the domain name
  • being the devious and knowledgeable SEO that you are, you buy these domains: www.cellphonerepeatersystems.com, www.cellphoneboostersystems.com, www.cellphoneantennasystems.com

FYI, it's not necessary to add hyphens between your keywords; search for "web hosting" and see how well the non-hyphen versions rank. Also, hyphenated domains may be a red flag as many spammy domains have been built this way over the past few years.

OK, first up to bat: the quickie: buying the domains and 301'ing them to your site.



You buy these existing domains--perhaps they already have a bunch of juicy links to them. You HTTP 301 redirect everything from those sites to your main site, www.xyzsignals.com. Cool, right? Free link juice, immediately!

Not so fast...Google's ahead of you on this, and is looking for people who do this purely for SEO benefit. Matt Cutts is pretty clear on this in this video.

If you buy a domain, and immediately change the owning organization name, address, technical and admin contacts, etc., you can pretty much count on getting busted on this. At best, the sandbox....at worst, penalties.

If you're clever about it (I can't really tell you what to do, it's black-hat, but it's bloody obvious!) and avoid getting spotted as a domain buyer, keep in mind also that you'll likely have to move the domain to some new servers, which may in itself be a signal (when combined with registrar info changes) that the domain is no longer owned by the same organization, and perhaps past links shouldn't be counted as votes and hence flow PR.

Let's say you're smarter than the average bear, and get past that....what can you expect in terms of SEO results? Well, you're not going to see the keyword-rich domains in the SERPs, you'll see your own site. And you might think about the conversion effect of showing an URL with the phrase that matches the search phrase, versus showing your company name. My guess (and experience) would lead me to say that www.cellphoneantennasystems.com will get more attention from the searcher (hence clicks) than xyzsystems.com, presuming of course they searched for "cell phone antennas".

As well, there's some thought in the SEO community that the juice passed via 301s may decay over time anyway.

Lastly, let's say you're going all out and have bought 20-odd sites, each matching a target search phrase. Will Google spot a pattern if you redirect 20+ sites all to your 1 principal domain? If not today, probably soon...

On to Door Number Two: Content-Rich Doorway Pages


For each of the keyword-rich domains you've bought, you build light content, with a link/call to action that sends users off to the main site. The idea:

  • the doorway domains will rank well
  • users will click on them in the SERPs as the URL and title both will closely match their query phrase
  • users will click the link on the doorway page to get to the main site

Most likely you will make it visually obvious to the user that the two domains are the same company (despite different URLs); the more black-hat approach is to make the doorway page appear to be a "review" site that recommends the main site, but of course, I wouldn't suggest such nonsense here.

The concern about buying the domain and changing the registrar info (and hosting ) all at once applies here as well. Tread softly....and slowly.

Once out of the sandbox (if you fall in at all), the doorway domains will rank really well for the key phrase, with proper on-page SEO and very light link-building needed.

So, is this black-hat? ask yourself: is there any reason to do this (for the human user) OTHER than search ranking? Does it honestly add value? Will it be detected automatically? Probably not....but...

If you're very successful at this, your competitors are likely to notice; you should BET on one of them submitting a manual spam report to Google; think about how you're going to explain to a Google engineer that you are doing this for some reason other than search rankings trickery.

A Beige-Hat Suggestion: if you go this direction, choose your main products and build a real site for each that offers Wikipedia-like information on each class of product, so that what you have is a generally useful resource for someone looking to buy a product like what you're selling; then, be upfront and put a "sponsored by" link to the section of your site that focuses on that product class on each page of the site; as well, a link on each page in the text to that same section.

You might create a mini site for each of those products, and talk about the pros and cons of the various types of each. Let's say on one page you're talking about the roof-mounted directional antennas - you could say on that page "At XYZ Signals, our most popular roof-mounted directional antennas are the ACME 3 antennas" and link both "roof-mounted directional antennas" and "ACME 3 antennas" to your main page for ACME 3 antennas.

Last, but not least: buying a keyword-rich domain and moving your entire site




This move isn't for the light-of-heart, even though it's pretty white-hat. You're still going to have issues with the sandbox, and to avoid this, need to execute this tactic over several months. Danny wrote a great post with all the details on how to move a domain a little while ago.

Consider putting up some light content on the new sites and watch the SERPs for a month or so to be sure the new sites are not sandboxed. Then, move all of the pages from your original site over, and 301 each page to the exact corresponding page on the new site EXCEPT the home page.

Retain your original domain and use it for a "corporate info" site; link to it from the new domain and vice-versa.

Finally, use the backlinks analysis from Open Site Explorer to find the important sites that link to the old site, and ask them to update their links to point to the new sites.

Technorati Tags

, ,

Do you like this post? Yes No

]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/its-a-feeding-frenzy-for-keyword-rich-domains/feed/ 0 Web Analytics TV #5 with Avinash and Nick http://www.limebloo.com/blog/web-analytics-tv-5-with-avinash-and-nick/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/web-analytics-tv-5-with-avinash-and-nick/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:49:00 +0000 TheAutomator tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580069.post-1542619384654322520 Google Analytics Google Moderator site and we answer them.

Here is the list of this week's questions. You all are keeping us on our toes!

In this episode we discuss:
  • Tracking online conversions and success for small, local, businesses
  • Tracking the number of times a visitor converts in one visit
  • How the e-commerce conversion rate can be greater than 100%
  • How you can change the duration of Google Analytics campaigns
  • How you can differentiate between paid and organic search in Google Analytics
  • What is the recommended % balance between branded and category terms
  • Why is time spent 0 for visits with 1 page/visit
  • Why unique visitor numbers are higher than visits
  • How visits and unique pageviews are calculated
  • Would survey and qualitative help measure "engagement" ?
  • How to best track mailto: links on your site
  • What are the best practices for using virtual pageviews, event tracking and custom variables?
  • How to see dimensions and metrics by location
  • Where to find custom variables reports Google Analytics


Here are links to resources we discussed in the video:

We hope you found episode helpful, and we'd love to hear your comments and have your questions. Please use the comment form below.

In case you missed them, here are our previous videos:

Episode #1
Episode #2
Episode #3
Episode #4

If you have a question you would like us to answer, please submit a question or vote for your favorite question in our public Google Moderator site. Avinash and I will answer your latest questions in a couple of weeks with another video. We can't wait!

Please add your thoughts about the Q&A via comments below. Thanks!

Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics Team
]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/web-analytics-tv-5-with-avinash-and-nick/feed/ 0 The End of Consulting: A New Partnership & Our Focus on Software http://www.limebloo.com/blog/the-end-of-consulting-a-new-partnership-our-focus-on-software/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/the-end-of-consulting-a-new-partnership-our-focus-on-software/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:59:20 +0000 TheAutomator http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-end-of-consulting-a-new-partnership-our-focus-on-software Posted by randfish

Today I have two very big announcements. First, SEOmoz is exiting the consulting business to focus exclusively on our software model. And, second, we have an expanded partnership with Distilled (new US site: Distilled LLC), who'll be taking over many of our consulting clients and opening offices here in Seattle. I'm going to talk briefly about both of these below, then add detail on why we're so bullish about the SEO software market.

SEOmoz started in 2004 as a blog where I could post my struggles and learnings about search engine optimization. By 2005, the business was taking real consulting clients under the SEOmoz name. In 2007, we launched PRO membership, our self-service SaaS product and by the end of the year, PRO was 50% of our revenue. As I noted in the post on our venture capital process, that number has grown dramatically (to 85% of revenue) and in 2010, our goal is to make it the sole focus of the company.

As part of our exit from consulting, we've worked hard over the past 6 months with Distilled (note how Will Critchlow has been in a lot of Whiteboard Fridays of late) to help take over our existing clients and transition the handling of consulting leads. As part of this, we determined that Distilled could do the most good by opening an office in Seattle, WA. Duncan Morris is out in Seattle this week (and yes, we're making him watch the Superbowl next Sunday) to help scout locations and begin hiring. If you've got SEO experience and are in the Seattle area, please drop them a line!

What Does this Partnership Mean?

  • Distilled will continue to contribute regularly to the blog, Q+A and WB Fridays on SEOmoz (we've dealt with the fact that their accents make every piece of advice sound more credible)
  • We'll continue to work jointly in organizing the London and Seattle PRO Training Seminars each year
  • Distilled will be helping the SEOmoz product & engineering teams to design, build and test great tools and software (thanks for the help on OSE!)
  • Our internal SEO team will be transitioning to focus on product & content development as well as marketing for the SEOmoz site (we're like the cobbler's children over here and that needs to change)
  • SEOmoz's active consulting contracts will be 100% complete by June of 2010; however, we'll continue to provide informal service to non-profits like the United Nations & Seattle Children's Hospital.
  • We'll be recommending Distilled to many of the folks who ask us for consulting (when there's a good fit), but will NOT be changing our protocol of continuing to suggest companies on our Recommended List

Why Software?

In the late 1990's, companies who wanted detailed reporting on their visitor analytics turned to consultants for sophisticated log file analysis or individual installations of code to track data. At the same time, the field of email marketing was dotted by thousands of individual, hard-to-scale, non-standard solutions. Today, SEO is the same way. Whether you're an external consultant or a in-house operator, you're almost certainly mashing up dozens of web-based tools, possibly with home-grown software and self-built spreadsheets to produce an SEO process that works. While many of us have found ways to do this effectively, there have been no platforms of SEO software to set the standards. That's what we're trying to change.

At SEOmoz, we believe that the promotion of ideas on the web needs to be simplified and that it starts with SEO. Small and medium businesses, web-based startups and consultants of all sizes need tools to help make their lives easier and processes that track important data for them, identify actionable metrics and report externally the missed opportunities and competitive landscape we all face. Just look how dollars are spent in the search marketing sphere:

SEM Spend vs. Traffic
(sadly, no 2009 numbers yet, but the distribution is likely very similar, though spending now exceeds $14B)

Now compare that to where growth is expected in online marketing over the next few years:

Top Priorities of Marketers in 2010

This summer, SEOmoz will be releasing our new software platform (and in the meantime, there will be plenty of other releases including an update to Open Site Explorer, a new Keyword Difficulty tool, a dramatically upgraded mozbar and more). We hope you'll join us for this exciting journey.

p.s. I also wanted to call out Jon Henshaw's terrific post on software vs. services. After working hard to develop this partnership over the last few months and transition out of consulting, we couldn't help but ponder the old adage of great minds thinking alike. :-)

Update from Will: My post on the deal is now live as well over on the Distilled blog.



Do you like this post? Yes No

]]> Posted by randfish

Today I have two very big announcements. First, SEOmoz is exiting the consulting business to focus exclusively on our software model. And, second, we have an expanded partnership with Distilled (new US site: Distilled LLC), who'll be taking over many of our consulting clients and opening offices here in Seattle. I'm going to talk briefly about both of these below, then add detail on why we're so bullish about the SEO software market.

SEOmoz started in 2004 as a blog where I could post my struggles and learnings about search engine optimization. By 2005, the business was taking real consulting clients under the SEOmoz name. In 2007, we launched PRO membership, our self-service SaaS product and by the end of the year, PRO was 50% of our revenue. As I noted in the post on our venture capital process, that number has grown dramatically (to 85% of revenue) and in 2010, our goal is to make it the sole focus of the company.

As part of our exit from consulting, we've worked hard over the past 6 months with Distilled (note how Will Critchlow has been in a lot of Whiteboard Fridays of late) to help take over our existing clients and transition the handling of consulting leads. As part of this, we determined that Distilled could do the most good by opening an office in Seattle, WA. Duncan Morris is out in Seattle this week (and yes, we're making him watch the Superbowl next Sunday) to help scout locations and begin hiring. If you've got SEO experience and are in the Seattle area, please drop them a line!

What Does this Partnership Mean?

  • Distilled will continue to contribute regularly to the blog, Q+A and WB Fridays on SEOmoz (we've dealt with the fact that their accents make every piece of advice sound more credible)
  • We'll continue to work jointly in organizing the London and Seattle PRO Training Seminars each year
  • Distilled will be helping the SEOmoz product & engineering teams to design, build and test great tools and software (thanks for the help on OSE!)
  • Our internal SEO team will be transitioning to focus on product & content development as well as marketing for the SEOmoz site (we're like the cobbler's children over here and that needs to change)
  • SEOmoz's active consulting contracts will be 100% complete by June of 2010; however, we'll continue to provide informal service to non-profits like the United Nations & Seattle Children's Hospital.
  • We'll be recommending Distilled to many of the folks who ask us for consulting (when there's a good fit), but will NOT be changing our protocol of continuing to suggest companies on our Recommended List

Why Software?

In the late 1990's, companies who wanted detailed reporting on their visitor analytics turned to consultants for sophisticated log file analysis or individual installations of code to track data. At the same time, the field of email marketing was dotted by thousands of individual, hard-to-scale, non-standard solutions. Today, SEO is the same way. Whether you're an external consultant or a in-house operator, you're almost certainly mashing up dozens of web-based tools, possibly with home-grown software and self-built spreadsheets to produce an SEO process that works. While many of us have found ways to do this effectively, there have been no platforms of SEO software to set the standards. That's what we're trying to change.

At SEOmoz, we believe that the promotion of ideas on the web needs to be simplified and that it starts with SEO. Small and medium businesses, web-based startups and consultants of all sizes need tools to help make their lives easier and processes that track important data for them, identify actionable metrics and report externally the missed opportunities and competitive landscape we all face. Just look how dollars are spent in the search marketing sphere:

SEM Spend vs. Traffic
(sadly, no 2009 numbers yet, but the distribution is likely very similar, though spending now exceeds $14B)

Now compare that to where growth is expected in online marketing over the next few years:

Top Priorities of Marketers in 2010

This summer, SEOmoz will be releasing our new software platform (and in the meantime, there will be plenty of other releases including an update to Open Site Explorer, a new Keyword Difficulty tool, a dramatically upgraded mozbar and more). We hope you'll join us for this exciting journey.

p.s. I also wanted to call out Jon Henshaw's terrific post on software vs. services. After working hard to develop this partnership over the last few months and transition out of consulting, we couldn't help but ponder the old adage of great minds thinking alike. :-)

Update from Will: My post on the deal is now live as well over on the Distilled blog.



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]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/the-end-of-consulting-a-new-partnership-our-focus-on-software/feed/ 0 Google Analytics Even More Global http://www.limebloo.com/blog/google-analytics-even-more-global/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/google-analytics-even-more-global/#comments Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:21:00 +0000 TheAutomator tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580069.post-7291696835464605057 Today, Google Analytics is available in 6 more languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Greek, Lithuanian, Slovak and Vietnamese, bringing the total to 31 languages. It's a large cross-functional effort to localize the product, and we're so proud to welcome these new languages and users!

We also now have over 150 Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAACs), from every major region (US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific) and over 35 countries! Chances are, there's one near you.

GAACs are our partners; each has been vetted by an internal team here at Google. They are experienced Google Analytics experts (and often, also SEM, SEO and testing specialists) who are available for anything from hourly consultations to training to advanced implementation and analysis.

It's been amazing to see the growth in the analytics industry over the past few years, and as usage and the analytics dialogue scales internationally, our product, team and ecosystem are scaling right along with it.

Posted by Dai Pham and Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team
]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/google-analytics-even-more-global/feed/ 0 Annotations Now Available In All Accounts http://www.limebloo.com/blog/annotations-now-available-in-all-accounts/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/annotations-now-available-in-all-accounts/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:08:00 +0000 TheAutomator tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580069.post-6241862004418031414
In December, we announced the phased roll out of Annotations. It's now available in all accounts! Thanks for your patience and enjoy!

Here's a fantastic video on Annotations. You've asked for it for so long, and we hope you'll use it to great effect to better work in concert in your company, using phrases like, "Add it to annotations," or, "It's in annotations." If anything of note happens, log it there. Go tribal with your knowledge.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team
]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/annotations-now-available-in-all-accounts/feed/ 0 Whiteboard Friday – Optimizing Topic Pages http://www.limebloo.com/blog/whiteboard-friday-optimizing-topic-pages/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/whiteboard-friday-optimizing-topic-pages/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:09:56 +0000 TheAutomator http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-optimizing-topic-pages Posted by great scott!

This week we're pleased to welcome Marshall Simmonds, CEO of Define Search Strategies and Chief Strategist for the New York Times, to Whiteboard Studios. Whether or not to use topic pages--and how to use them effectively--is a topic of some debate in the SEO world. Well, who better to ask about it than the guy in charge of SEO strategy for the NYT and About.com, two of the topic page-iest sites on the web?

If you're using a topic page strategy, or you've considered it, watch this week's Whiteboard Friday. Marshall breaks down how and when they can be effective, pros and cons, as well as expenses and advantages to the strategy.



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]]> Posted by great scott!

This week we're pleased to welcome Marshall Simmonds, CEO of Define Search Strategies and Chief Strategist for the New York Times, to Whiteboard Studios. Whether or not to use topic pages--and how to use them effectively--is a topic of some debate in the SEO world. Well, who better to ask about it than the guy in charge of SEO strategy for the NYT and About.com, two of the topic page-iest sites on the web?

If you're using a topic page strategy, or you've considered it, watch this week's Whiteboard Friday. Marshall breaks down how and when they can be effective, pros and cons, as well as expenses and advantages to the strategy.



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]]> http://www.limebloo.com/blog/whiteboard-friday-optimizing-topic-pages/feed/ 0 Launching the SEOmoz Free API and Enough Power to Build Open Site Explorer http://www.limebloo.com/blog/launching-the-seomoz-free-api-and-enough-power-to-build-open-site-explorer/ http://www.limebloo.com/blog/launching-the-seomoz-free-api-and-enough-power-to-build-open-site-explorer/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:58:00 +0000 TheAutomator http://www.seomoz.org/blog/seomoz-free-api-and-enough-power-to-build-open-site-explorer Posted by Nick Gerner

The launch of Open Site Explorer last week opens up a lot of link data, filters, and anchor text to a much wider audience than we've ever had before.  In that same vein, today we're announcing our new and improved SEOmoz Free API.

Any registered (it's free) SEOmoz member can visit our API Portal and get an API key that gives you access to:
  • Data for any URL in our index including
    • Domain and Page Authority
    • mozRank
    • total link count
    • external, followed link count
  • The first 500 links to any page, sub domain or domain
  • Filtering on those links: 301s, Follows, External, etc.
  • The first 3 domains linking to any page, sub domain or domain
  • The first 3 anchor text terms or phrases in links to any page, sub domain or domain
You're welcome to use this data for private or publicly-facing purposes. We already have a variety of partners integrating this data including:
Check out some sample code and applications on the wiki.

Our idea is that getting this data into the hands of webmasters makes everyone better off: we're excited about our new authority scores, marketers are thirsty for metrics, and users of all kinds of tools are better off with a deeper look at real data.  The free package will keep you covered up to a million links per month that you're free to use for any purpose from consulting to building an SEO campaign management suite.

API Cartoon

In addition to the free API (which I think is quite powerful already), we're expanding our paid API offering. The paid API includes everything above, but also includes:
  • Additional metrics:
    • number of domains that link to you
    • mozTrust
    • number of links to all pages on your domain
    • and more
  • A deeper look at links, way beyond the first 500 (first 100k for each sort per page, domain or sub domain)
  • Plenty of sorts on links:
    • domain authority
    • page authority
    • linking root domains
  • Way more anchor text terms and phrases (up to 100k per page, domain or sub domain if you've got that many)
This is exactly the same API powering Open Site Explorer.  So if you think OSE missed a feature, or should include other data sources, you can build it over again and do an even better job :)  If you do, drop me a line and I'll take a look. We'd love to share partner apps on our wiki, Twitter, the blog, and elsewhere.

We don't even have an attribution requirement. Although, we have a tasty 15% discount if you do cite us as a source ;)

To sign up, just contact us, and we'll start the process.

EDIT: The paid API is available outside of a PRO membership.  A PRO membership buys the tools, and content, and sweet sweet badge.  The paid API is extra.  Of course, the free API is both free and full of awesome.

Do you like this post? Yes No

]]> Posted by Nick Gerner

The launch of Open Site Explorer last week opens up a lot of link data, filters, and anchor text to a much wider audience than we've ever had before.  In that same vein, today we're announcing our new and improved SEOmoz Free API.

Any registered (it's free) SEOmoz member can visit our API Portal and get an API key that gives you access to:
  • Data for any URL in our index including
    • Domain and Page Authority
    • mozRank
    • total link count
    • external, followed link count
  • The first 500 links to any page, sub domain or domain
  • Filtering on those links: 301s, Follows, External, etc.
  • The first 3 domains linking to any page, sub domain or domain
  • The first 3 anchor text terms or phrases in links to any page, sub domain or domain
You're welcome to use this data for private or publicly-facing purposes. We already have a variety of partners integrating this data including:
Check out some sample code and applications on the wiki.

Our idea is that getting this data into the hands of webmasters makes everyone better off: we're excited about our new authority scores, marketers are thirsty for metrics, and users of all kinds of tools are better off with a deeper look at real data.  The free package will keep you covered up to a million links per month that you're free to use for any purpose from consulting to building an SEO campaign management suite.

API Cartoon

In addition to the free API (which I think is quite powerful already), we're expanding our paid API offering. The paid API includes everything above, but also includes:
  • Additional metrics:
    • number of domains that link to you
    • mozTrust
    • number of links to all pages on your domain
    • and more
  • A deeper look at links, way beyond the first 500 (first 100k for each sort per page, domain or sub domain)
  • Plenty of sorts on links:
    • domain authority
    • page authority
    • linking root domains
  • Way more anchor text terms and phrases (up to 100k per page, domain or sub domain if you've got that many)
This is exactly the same API powering Open Site Explorer.  So if you think OSE missed a feature, or should include other data sources, you can build it over again and do an even better job :)  If you do, drop me a line and I'll take a look. We'd love to share partner apps on our wiki, Twitter, the blog, and elsewhere.

We don't even have an attribution requirement. Although, we have a tasty 15% discount if you do cite us as a source ;)

To sign up, just contact us, and we'll start the process.

EDIT: The paid API is available outside of a PRO membership.  A PRO membership buys the tools, and content, and sweet sweet badge.  The paid API is extra.  Of course, the free API is both free and full of awesome.

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