Keeping an Eye on Your Competitors with SEJ Tools

I shared once a tip on how to track (and compare) competitors’ rankings with SEJ Tools. Today I am looking further at the feature that allows to watch your competitors grow to timely learn what they are doing.

There’s one nifty feature inside SEJ Tools called Competitor Manager. It allows to easily compare your site with your competitors and offers a few other handy options.

The tool can be found when you hover over DASHBOARD menu tab:

The first thing to do is to add your competitors to the list which is very easy: just click “Add Competitor” link and copy paste the domains of all your competitors (one per line).

You can also allow SERPs tracking for all of those you add in bulk. This means that after you add your competitors, you can track his rankings at SERPs tracker:

After you add your competitors, give the tool some time to collect the data. After it’s done, you will see the following SEO-relevant info in the table (that will allow you to compare all the domains against yours at a glance to see how well you are doing):

• The quality score of each domain (based on the Quality Analyzer);
• The Google PageRank of the home page;
• The pages in Google and Yahoo indices (based on Google’s and Yahoo’s public SITE: operator);
• The backlinks to the the home page (based on Google’s and Yahoo’s public LINK: operator).

From there, the competitors can be easily added or removed from the SERP Tracker. Additionally, clicking on the Research link for any competitor will take you to a domain result in the Research Assistant.

You can also export your competitors to a CSV file or remove them from the table:

Clicking on a competitor will take you to its related website record in the Website Directory:

Competitors can be tagged to better organize and filter them (to tag your competitor, click tiny tag link next to its domain in the table).

Source : http://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-keep-an-eye-on-your-competitors-with-sej-tools/20336/

 

5 SEO Wins & Sins Questions With Joe Laratro

Effective search engine optimization is equal parts art, science, and EXPERIENCE, so I sat down with industry veteran Joe Laratro to get the dish on what matters most in SEO. Joe is a recognized and leading expert in the Search Engine Marketing industry, and regularly speaks at industry events like Webmaster World, SMX, and Search Engine Strategies. He sits on the advisory board and is the lead moderator and speaker for PubCon.

1. What are the most common mistakes newbie SEOs make?

Search Engine Optimization has changed over the years. I would say there are three distinct generations of SEOers: the meta taggers, the link builders, and the social media marketers. I have seen newbie SEOs try to choose one path for optimization. For long term success all areas and disciplines of Search Engine Optimization need to be addressed and made part of the ongoing strategy.

Another newbie mistake involves trying old and dated spam tactics. I do quite a bit of teaching for the Industry. I am always surprised when someone hints at cloaking, or using white on white text. When I think about it, where is the history book on SEO? Newbie’s need a resource of what not to do and how to learn from the mistakes of Webmasters / Marketers / SEOers of the past.

2. On the flipside, are there common mistakes that experienced SEOs still make?

I think to some extent experienced SEOs can make the same mistakes as my first point in question one. We cannot pigeonhole ourselves into only doing one type of SEO. Site architecture, optimized growing content, and natural link building are essential for success. I have seen SEOs that just focus on one area. If we look at link building, it is possible to rank for keywords without ever optimizing the main site. But will that cover the hundreds if not thousands of keyword variations that might drive traffic to that Web site? No.

Benchmarking, analytics, and tracking SEO changes are more common problems. Clients come back and ask what SEO accomplished for the Web site? The numbers should be easy to prove – increasing search referrals and increased number of keywords driving those referrals. This has become even more important since Google’s announcement in December of 2009 of full time personalized search results.

The last mistake that is fairly common does not happen because of the SEO professional. This problem lies in communication and tracking between marketing departments and technical departments. Unfortunately SEO work gets overwritten without anyone’s knowledge. It can be days, weeks, or even months until the issues are identified. Each department claims the other speaks Greek. Finger pointing flies, but the real loser is the Web site. SEO’s have to monitor their implementations.

3. What are 3 things marketers can do RIGHT now to improve their organic rankings?

• Have a solid technical infrastructure that is search friendly
• Have an ongoing content development plan to add new and useful content to the Web site
• Have a link building plan in place: target directories, social media sites, and related Web sites

4. What are the 5 most important elements of an effective search optimization practice?

• Write great subject based content – optimize the basics: title, meta description, alt tags, H tags, and links (anchor text)
• Make a link building plan, stick to it, and monitor it’s growth (hint – social media sites should be a large part of this strategy)
• Consider the value of internal linking when it comes to keywords and anchor text (navigation and in content links)
• Make sure the Web site is registered with Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, and Bing Webmaster Central. Regularly review for issues and new insights.
• Monitor Analytics for keyword performance and trends

5. After implementing an effective search optimization practice, how soon can marketers expect to see changes in the SERPs?

Search Engines have become very adept at listing fresh content. The Search Engine Marketing community used to say wait 90 days to see the results. Some changes can occur much more quickly now. Personalized search also throws a large monkey wrench into seeing changes in the SERPs. I suggest monitoring Analytics for natural search growth and occasionally spot checking positions.

Source : searchenginejournal.com