2010 February + Agent SEO

For February, 2010

#1920: 7 Things The Godfather Can Teach Us About SEO

Posted: February 22, 2010 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 201 views // View Comments

"You come to me - on this, the day of my daughter's wedding - and ask me to do SEO, for money?!?"

The Godfather Trilogy is easily my favorite set of movies of all-time – desert island movies easily. Today, I thought I’d get creative and try to figure out different things that The Godfather movies can teach us about SEO.

Here’s my crack at it:

Orders come from the top down. Much like the Corleone family gives and follows orders from the Top (Vito Corleone) down the the bottom (Willie Chichi), you should approach your SEO campaigns from the Top (Homepage) down (Subpages).
The homepage is your most important page in terms of ranking ability, and should be optimized first.

…

#1902: You Have 5 Bullets in Your SEO Gun…

Posted: February 18, 2010 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 182 views // View Comments

Never thought you'd see a Clint Eastwood reference in SEO, right? I've found a way - rock on Clint!

Here is a question that was posed to me recently by a client:

“If I only had five bullets in my (theoretical SEO) gun, what do I fire at with those 5 shots?”

Almost by accident, this client forced me to be tactical on the spot (while also creating illusions of old Clint Eastwood or John Wayne cowboy flicks). The client’s question got me thinking. If I had only five things that I could do for a site to enhance it’s SEO, what would I do?

I mean really – what are the top 5 core tactics (as they…

#1804: Total Visits Aren’t the Only SEO Traffic Measure That Matters

Posted: February 15, 2010 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 414 views // View Comments

Analyzing all traffic factors can help you to understand your traffic and optimization efforts, no matter how muddy the picture may be.

When you are trying to break down a site’s analytics, what is the first thing everyone looks at? Chances are most people will say ‘Total Visits’. This is probably the reaction that most people will have, and it is generally a good way to get a quick snapshot of how your site is doing.

However, if you look at total visits alone in a vacuum you’re not allowing yourself to see the whole picture – and potentially doing yourself a tremendous disservice. You can look at the cover of a book and still probably be able to dechiper what it…

#1803: Gathering Better SEO Baselines for Measuring Future Results

Posted: February 11, 2010 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 220 views // View Comments

Yeah, I made a 'Slingblade' reference in an SEO article. Wanna fight about it (kudos to whoever gets this 2nd reference)?!?

In my last article 5 Ways to Measure SEO Success, I described several different methods of establishing the measurements you need in order to determine if an SEO campaign is successful or not. Despite the general variance in the different success metrics, the one constant was an absolute NEED to develop baseline metrics from which to compare future measurements of things like traffic and rankings.

Measuring hard baseline statistics is an absolute MUST. Should you ever wish to show success, you’ll be hard-pressed to prove it without actual (unquestionable) data to support your…

#1801: 5 Ways to Measure SEO Success

Posted: February 8, 2010 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 780 views // View Comments

"Great success!" - Borat

One of the biggest issues with running effective Search Engine Optimization campaigns today is the muddy waters that often surround whether or not the campaign is successful or not.

If you work for an agency, you’ll know about the rampant skepticism that usually accompanies the industry. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to be able to convey success through hard statistics rather than allowing a client to take your word for it (which often causes clients to cancel swiftly).

Additionally if you’re managing your own SEO, you’ll need to be able to analyze hard facts in order to determine where…

#1789: 10 Tips for Copywriters

Posted: February 5, 2010 // Author: Robby Herbst // 281 views // View Comments

So far, this is the first guest post I've allowed on this blog. However, I feel that you're in good hands as Robby Herbst - an amazing SEO Analyst & Copywriter at People To My Site - makes his Agent SEO debut.

A few days ago, I received a message from a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design who wanted to know if I had any advice for future copywriters. I provided her with this list of tips that I’ve learned over the past couple of years:

#1: Always be reading, writing and learning

By absorbing anything you can lay your eyes on, you can expand both your vocabulary and knowledge of the English language. It’s also an excellent way to diversify your writing style – by helping you…