Search Engine Optimization Resources
Ok lets
face it, the Internet is hype central, and it is sometimes
difficult to not get caught up in it. There are so many products out
there now claiming to be all that, but in reality a huge majority
of them are sub standard as far as I am concerned. So what
I have done is put together the resources that I have found to be the
most important to my search engine optimization skill set. I use many
of these products almost on a daily basis. These represent the cream
of the crop as far as I am concerned, and should be considered closely
by anyone running a business on the Internet. All killer, no filler!
Let
me know if you have used and can PERSONALLY endorse
a product, and I will check it out.
(Please
don't send me something that you just are trying to sell).
I
recommend you check them out for some great search engine marketing
products!
1)
Keyword Marketing
I have
put this first, as obviously this is of key importance to you because
this is why you are here! There are several tools out there that I use
on a daily basis (other than this one ;-)). Here they are.
Keyword
Count
An awesome
resource where you can type in two web addresses and it will calculate
the keyword density of the top 10 keywords on that site plus their meta
tags. This is a very useful tool if you know of pages that list highly
for your given keywords. Using this tool you can spy on their ratios
and try to mimic these to get to the top. It's free too!
Go
to keyword count!
Overture
Keyword Suggestion Tool
The overture
suggestion tool is a fairly simple, but quite powerful tool for finding
other keywords. Simple type in a keyword, and it will suggest other
keywords that people have used. Nice little tool. It is not anywhere
near as powerful as the word tracker system, but hey it's free so I
am not complaining! ;-)
Go
to the overture keyword suggestion tool!
Word
Tracker
Word tracker
kicks ass! I love this tool. This tool does all the hard work for you
in terms of keyword analysis. It finds them, and then recommend's the
ones with the most potential. This saves me a heck of a lot of time!
This is highly recommended, and should be in the quiver of any decent
search engine optimizer.
Go
to word tracker!
2)
Search
Engine Optimization Software
There is a whole bunch of search engine optimization
software around. Some of it is quite good, however (nearly) all of it
is very expensive. Much of this software is very automated, and search
engines are beginning to penalize for this automation.
However
there is some software that bucks this trend. The EasySEO software is
remarkably powerful software for a very low cost. It is a complete workflow
for your search engine optimization needs. It takes you through the
SEO process in an organised fashion, while providing powerful tools
like a keyword spy, keyword suggestion, as well as a really powerful
feature called the reverse engineer. What this feature does is analyses
the top 10 results for a given keyword or phrase, and compares the characteristics
of these. It then helps you analyse these results so you can assess
what characteristics are needed to do well on the search engines for
that keyword based on what is already doing well.
This software is only in version 1, and is only going
to get better. The cool thing is they promise that once you purchase
one copy, you will have free updates for life. More than likely this
software is going to go up in price as more features are added in later
versions so it is probably a really good time to buy now. At less than
$50 you can't go wrong!
Go
to easySEO!
2)
Search Engine Help
If you
are after search engine industry news, including some very insightful
articles, then you can't go past Search Engine Watch. I have been a
subscriber to their free newsletter for some time and is one that I
always read with interest. Well worth checking out.
Go
to search engine watch!
There are
so many ebooks out there claiming this and that. I am kind of embarrassed
in a way at the money I have spent on useless ebooks. Stuff that has
been all said before but differently.
But luckily
you don't have to buy them all, because I already have (don't tell my
wife!), and can recommend to you ones that are the best. :)
My favourite
one is a 200+ page book called "Top 30 Search Engine Optimization
& Submission Strategies For Dummies" written by Michael Wong.
He teaches you how to achieve top 30 search engine rankings using proven
optimization, submission and tracking techniques. He tells you straight
up. He doesn't muck around.
I think
what makes this book so good, is that it is based on REAL industry experience.
Not people claiming they are experts, but have really only been doing
it for a few hours a week around their day job.
Michael
has worked full time heading up iBoosts.com marketing campaigns. In
total, Michael achieved over 2,000 top 30 rankings in major search engines
and Web directories, which helped iBoost.com's traffic grow by 33%,
which represented 400,000 visitors and 8 million page views a month.
Needless to say, this guy knows his stuff and I respect his knowledge
highly.
This book
has the makings of one of those $100 plus ebooks. But luckily for us,
it is less than $50. Definitely one you should check out. My favourite!
Go
check out the search engine strategies book!
Another
good book that is also cutting edge is "The unfair advantage in
winning the search engine wars". This book is onto it's 68th revision,
and contains the latest advice and research. It is not cheap, at close
to $100, but if you are looking for an edge, this could well be it.
Go
to the unfair advantage in winning the search engine wars!
3)
Link Building
As you
may know, Google has changed the way we think about search engines.
It has become really important that we get linked to from sites that
are popular so that it will push your page rank up on Google. The more
relevant and popular the site, the better it will help if obtaining
a high ranking on search engine's like Google and Direct Hit. I asked
myself one day, how can I find these sites easily, and how do I get
a link off them? I was completely blown away when I discovered a software
product called Arelis 3. This was like a dream come true for me (hmm
perhaps I am spending too much time on the computer :-)).
But seriously,
this is all that and more. I will try and sum up what this software
does. It essentially goes out and finds all the people that you NEED
to get links off by looking at your competitors sites, as well as your
own. But this is only where the fun starts. It actually streamlines
the whole process by putting all the information that you need into
the right spots in template files (which you can add to) so each e-mail
that is sent out appears totally personal. Consequently increasing your
chance of receiving a link back to boost your traffic. I can't give
it justice here. You really need to check it out for yourself.
It's not
super cheap (around 100 dollars) but it has saved me so much time it
is not funny. It is an investment that I have received major returns
from. This is one you can't ignore.
Go
see arelis 4!
4)
Microsite Miracles
Have you
ever heard of microsites? Microsites are extremely targeted 1 page websites
that rank incredibly well on the search engines. Google especially loves
them!
You can have incredible success with these, and are
well worth checking out to add to your SEO quiver. Plus the e-book is
at the right price!
Go
see microsite miracles!
5)
Mini Site Building
Mini sites
are a bit of a buzz word recently. I generally don't like buzz words,
but in this case, I think it is justified. Mini sites are small websites
that are set up to specifically target a niche market. The two most
common uses for mini sites are for search engine optimization, and for
affiliate programs.
Mini sites
are used by developing small focused sites that target specific keywords
which then are a funneling visitor's through to another site. This site
is either their own, or many times just sites that people are an affiliate
for. There are MANY people making good money by using these mini sites.
There are a couple of good ebooks out there on this subject. They mostly
cover the same sorts of things. The best one I have come across is written
by a smart Australian by the name of Phil Wiley.
Go
to mini site profits!
If you
are going to have many mini sites, you need to cut down costs. My costs
were mounting up with hosting and domain expenses, so I did a lot of
research on the best way to handle these costs.
Firstly,
I started buying my domain names from Go Daddy. They offer domain names
for only $8.95 and have an excellent administration area.
Go
to go daddy!
6)
Inktomi
Quick Submission
If you
didn't know it already, Inktomi power many of the major search engines
like including Altavista, HotBot, iWon, LookSmart, MSN, Overture, Slider,
and whatUseek. Instead of waiting months to get listed, you can get
a guaranteed Inktomi listing in 24 hours for under 40 dollars. Since
they power many of the other search engines, it is well worth it in
my opinion.
Go
to inktomi now!
7)
General Web Marketing Products
There are
an unbelievable amount of web marketing products out there. I am almost
ashamed at how many of these products I have been suckered into buying.
So many of them are way overpriced at best, and just plain wrong at
worst.
However
there are a few that I would recommend. They are reasonability priced,
and deliver or over deliver on what they promise.
Make
Your Site Sell
This was
actually the first e-book I every purchased (it has recently been updated).
Consequently it is the book that I compare all others too. Perhaps this
is why I am so hard on all other e-books. If you haven't read this book,
I would say there is a high chance that you are way behind the eight
ball. There are now several other books that he has written that are
also great. Everyone who does business on the web should read this book.
It changed the way I approached my business on the web. A MUST have.
Go
to myss!
ROIBOT
ROIBOT
is one of the most undervalued products on the web. For only 17 bucks
a month, you get access to many services that you would pay more than
that for individually. Some of these include Autoresponders (powerful
marking tool - discussed in MYSS), web page spy, web page monitoring
service, newsletter server, search engine submission (use carefully),
expert advice and many others. Probably the most important is the ad
tracking service. This is great if you are running advertising campaigns
and what to realise the return on investment of the campaigns. Like
I said, you would pay more than 17 dollars a month for just one of these
services, let alone all of them. Definitely one to check out.
Go
to roibot!
Making
Money from Affiliate Programs
Affiliate
programs are a powerful way that people make money from websites. There
are people around making tens of thousands of dollars every week using
this strategy. There are also many who are making nothing. If you are
interested in keeping up with the latest on affiliate programs (and
making money on the Internet generally), then I recommend you sign up
for Allan Gardyne's famous free newsletter at his web site Associate
Programs Dot Com. He is a really nice guy, and I value his wisdom highly.
Go
to associateprograms.com!
Autoresponders
are such a critical tool in marketing products these days. You are
able to get your offer in front of a prospect many times over by
using email campaigns through these autoresponders. There are so
many out there. It took me a long time to actually find one that
I liked. I tried paying a monthly fee, I have tried free ones, and
I have even tried very expensive ones. The pick for me and the one
that I use personally is AdTrackResponder Pro. This has so many features
and can control all your campaigns despite being on different domains.
Really one to check out, and very good value!
Go
to AdTrackResponderPro!
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