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Apple ranks apps by how much revenue the app had made in the past (4 days It think it is). They don’t do by units sold; rather they use revenue to rank apps. That’s about all I know on that subject. (No clue how they would rank the free aps, maybe just by number of downloads?)
Those are just short 30 minuets on a SEOmoz tool. David is referring to the webinars they had from other people that lasted about an hour or more. They uploaded one about every month.
Example: http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/online-reputation-management-branding-for-serp-domination
Yeah, it does seem like a nifty took that could benefit us in the marketing / web design industry with communicating what we need done in a simple and understanding form.
Just as the title says, has anyone used bugherd.com for SEO purposes? I was thinking it could be used to show client changes that need to be made regarding the website.
Example could be if you are looking at a CRO prospective, you may want to change/add some graphics or text to improve conversions.
It seems like a nifty tool to show the changes you want made and to keep track of them. It integrates with basecamp also 
I think you misunderstood that way EGOL is using the word screen. He is using it like:
Screen: The evaluation or investigation of something as part of a methodical survey, to assess suitability for a particular role or purpose.
That's what you're doing, your screening websites to find mistakes / errors. Just thought I would clear that up
This is the way we bill for our time:
(1) Have a face to face or phone meeting with the potential client. You really need to have a long conversation about what the client’s wants / needs and what their expectation is. Without this, you’re most likely not going to achieve what the client's looking for and will cause major problems down the road.
Go over how the company had been doing the past (x) years. Look into their Google analytics if they have it set up so you can get a sense of traffic / conversion rate. Talk to the client about their customers and find out what "drives" the customers to your clients business. This will help with getting some keywords down.
Pro Tip: From my experience, 80% of the business owners are great at just that, overseeing their business but have a false idea of what SEO is and how it works. Make sure if they are telling you to rank for X keyword, you’re not just taking their word for it and instead actually researching what the client’s NEEDS to be targeting. Also talk in the terms of ROI and not "ranking", owners understand this alot better.
(2) From that initial meeting, I will give the client a proposal that goes over (in broad range) what needs to be done along with a "recommended" monthly retainer that is broke up in hours. Once the client is on board with us, we will create a detailed timeline (we use Bacecamp for this) that shows what we are doing to the website onsite and offsite. Yes we do the actual work
Example: If I recommend to a client that we spend 20 hours per month at $60 an hour than their monthly retainer would be $1200. I also let them know that if they want to see faster results, we can add more hours per month but this is the minimum recommendation for this particular client.
Your going to need to dig into learning SEO before the tools will be helpful to you. As Brian mentioned. Go to http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo and read that from beginning to end. This will give you the SEO basics.
Used SEOmoz pro off and on for years and this is the first time anything major like this has happened.
Do you plan on doing some kind of discount on the 2011 videos if we buy the new 2012 ones like you have done in the past becasue if you did I would buy both
"When I am commenting on blogs to get links"
Stop right there!! You should not be commenting on blogs for the sole purpose of gaining links. This in no why helps the community that you’re participating in as I am sure the comments being left are of low value. Commenting on blogs to get links back to your website is a tactic people used 5 years ago and should not be used this day in age.
Now, Blog commenting does come in handy when you actually have something with value to contribute and can show a community you know your stuff on your given Nitch. I definitely recommend using blog commenting this way to gain more exposure for yourself / brand but only if your comments really do add value.
I agree with Shane 100% but I would just like to point out something. I have read a few articles about applying the rel=author tag to websites / service / product pages (instead of just articles). From what I gathered it seems most people actually found drops in visits to their website after the Google plus picture started showing up with their SERP snippet.
It seemed users may have been skipping them because it looked like an article or blog because of the portrait image. You may want to do some more reading on this subject or if you go this route, track your visits closely.
I agree with the two posts above. Also, here is a great example of a unique, interactive inforgraphic:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-seo-project-management-jedi-challenge-may-the-seopm-force-be-with-you
Agreed, plus the answer that you marked as good really is the best answer for this question
In short, you can't.
You can have them sign contracts but even than it would be more of a hassle than what its worth to get your money if they decided not to pay.
Best bet: If you’re doing ongoing services, do a monthly retainer and have them pay for each month upfront (that’s what we do). Almost all of our clients are set on monthly retainers at the beginning of each month.
If you don’t do much on-going work, you can always ask for 50% upfront and 50% at the end or even the full amount upfront. The biggest thing to do is get to know your client first. If you get the gut feeling that it’s going to be hard to collect then (a) don’t even bring them on at a client or (b) get the money upfront.
There is a lot I can say on this subject but I am going to sum it up in one sentence.I know it’s a generic answer but that’s kind of a generic question
Google can and will penalize (punish) websites for breaking any of their rules that they deem worthy of doing so.
The font you choose for the website will only display if the user has that font on his/her computer. If they do not, the web browser will default to another font. In almost all cases you should use one of the Generic fonts listed in the link below. Website speed will not be affected.
There is no "secret sauce" in SEO, Just hard work and knowing what you’re doing. If your blog is not well established I would look into guest blogging with other blogs in your industry so you can build up your name / followers.
If you’re doing blog commenting for the sole purpose for gaining thinks than you should stop. This is just spam and does not contribute to anything.
Now, commenting on blogs can be a really good way to connect with other people in your industry and get your name out there. This also works well if you want to become a guest blogger on a site. Start commenting on their blogs with useful insights and you can gain a personal relationship with them. Other people might also start following your blog because of your helpful / informational comments.
Also, Page Rank is only updated every 3 months.
If your using a 301 redirect, there is no need to use the Rel=canonical tag. However, I would like to point out that the rel=canonical tag is basically made for this type of situation where your CMS is creating multiples of the same page. So adding a rel=canonical tag looks to be exactly what you’re looking for.
(1) Some reports don't take into account the Rel=canonical tag even though its there but it seems good to me.
(2) I would recommend a 301 for an /index page to your domain (www.davidclick.com) instead of a canonical tag.
Check out Joomla.org. It’s a great CMS and they have tons of extensions. Look under their multimedia category in the extensions and I am sure you can find what you’re looking for. Lots of them are free and the paid ones don’t cost much at all.
It makes no difference if you go with the WWW or the non-WWW version but once you pick one, stick with it. On a personal level, I like to stick with the www since I noticed people that are not to "internet savvy" tend to think everything is always www.
Example: A person might see an ad for your website that has example.com instead of www.example.com. If I didn't know better, it would look like it's a simple spelling error and they forgot to add the www. in front of it.
Just the way I see through the eyes of people who are not educated with the web
Yeah, CMS like wordpress likes to create pages for the same page.
Fix: Add the rel="canonical" tag into the section of the main page you created. This will tell Google that this page if the original and the rest are copies. That will fix your duplicate content issue.
Example:
You can read more on the rel=”canonical” tag here http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394
Waiting for Google to re-index those pages should be just fine.
You worded that much better than I did, lol.
This is basically what I was trying to say in my posts below. Bruce, I hope this helps you understand the issue a bit better.
As long as the pages that users enter any type of private / secure information is SSL (https), than you're fine. Alternatively if you want to have your entire site https, that’s fine also.
I agree, just stay away from this all together
Lets see if I can explain this a little better. I fully understand what’s going on here but I think you have some confusion. I understand that you only created 1 page but whatever content management system your using (Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal, etc.) has created multiple versions on the same page.
/blog/page/4/
/blog/page/4/?level=album&id=0&sortby=caption&sortdir=ASC
/blog/page/4/?level=album&id=14&sortby=caption&sortdir=desc
/blog/page/4/?level=picture&id=143
/blog/page/4/?level=picture&id=147
/blog/page/4/?level=picture&id=166
/blog/page/4/?level=picture&id=171
/blog/page/4/?level=picture&id=213
/blog/page/4/?level=picture&id=52
/blog/page/4/?level=picture&id=87
You see all those URLs you posted, they are all separate pages created by your CMS from that 1 page you created. Since the URLs are different, Google treats them as individual pages. Now, if you were to add the rel="canonical" tag:
Google will then know all those other URLs are just copies of the original page and this will solve your duplicate description issue.
Alternatively, you can play around with your CMS to get it to stop creating these extra versions of the same page. (Not recommend unless you know what you’re doing)
I would read this from Google before implementing any type of "hidden text". Just a heads up from a SEO consultant. I would never recommend using any type of hidden text.
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66353
It looks like your CMS (Content Management System) is creating multiple pages for the same page (happens all the time). Add the rel="canonical" tag into the section of all non-canonical versions of the page.
Example:
You can read more on the rel=”canonical” tag here http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394
I think your wanting to know why you have to add the same keywords to both the rankings page and the on-site page and why they don't just auto-populate each other. Unfortunately I don't have the answer for this as that’s the way SEOMOZ setup the software.
Basically what Facebook says is you can’t run a contest on your page but you can use 3rd party aps to do it. You also can’t notify the winner via Facebook.
Here are a few sites that use 3rd party apps to conduct a “contest” that is legal with Facebook (I am sure there are more and free ones, just search around). Some of these, you can use “gateways” which makes it so users have to “like” you page before they see your content. Great for contests that giveaway prizes for users “liking” your page.
http://www.wildfireapp.com
http://www.shortstack.com
http://fanpageengine.com
www.pagemodo.com
http://woobox.com
I agree with EGOL 100% on this. When I first started learning SEO I went to different forums and browsed the threads for hours. I joined SEOMOZ and read everything and watched everything I could get my hands on.
Eventually when I felt I had a good base, I created a website about a hobby I was into at the time, something that I was passionate about so it would keep me interested. That’s where I really started to learn SEO. After starting that site, I could pinpoint sections I was lacking and ask specific questions to the SEO community and do more research on it.
In my honest opinion, $3,500 is WAY too much since you can find anything and everything to need to know about SEO for free. Just need the motivation.
Thanks,
I do agree that giving away our service for free is probebly not the best way to go.
Thanks Brian, I did read that in their terms and it seems as long as you use a 3rd party app (like wildfire), its fine to do, just can't announce the winner on the page. We do plan on using some type of 3rd party app when we launch our giveaway.
forums.seochat.com is a great one.
Does your call to action have to be 100% the same for all you pages. Can you mix it up a little?
Mark is correct, Landing pages for lead generation if defiantly ok to do. Thumbs up
First thing I would look at is Cache time. I see that one be different on a lot of the website speed tests.
tools.pingdom.com/ is one of my favorites!
So I have been toying with the idea of creating a twitter / Facebook / Google + Giveaway. Users will just have to like/follow to enter and a random person will be drawing to win the prize. Seems like a solid and easy way to gain followers and such.
My main concern is lets say I go the straight up "cash" route and giveaway $250 to the winner. While anyone would love to have a free $250 and I may get a lot of likes and followers, I’m sure most of them would not be interested in my company or services. They just want a free $250 (who wouldn’t).
I’m been trying to think of other things to giveaway that people would still love to get but attract more people that would be interested in my services, any ideas? I was thinking maybe the winner could get free SEO for their website for 3-6 months or something like that. Something that people might actually want.
I highly doubt they intentionally tried to target the word "here". More likely is the links they produced was something like (to see blah blah blah, click here) and “here” was the link to the site. Probably a bunch of spam.
Social has/is becoming a increasing factor in rankings and will only become bigger in the future. I would strongly recommend getting into the social aspect. As for the "paying" for likes and such, defiantly stay away from that. Social is not all about trying to get higher in the ranking but about Brand Recognition and Reputation, Communicating with your fan base, customers and clients.
I know businesses that get around 50% of their customers from social networks such as Facebook and twitter. Its defiantly worth getting into and from what I have seen in the past 2 years, it’s no longer an option.
Sounds to me like you just need to wait until Google crawls your website again.
It’s hard to tell since I can't see and compare both sites that you're talking about but that could very well be a contributing factor. It’s no secret that Google is putting more and more weight on social signals such as likes, followers, and social interactions. It sounds like that site has good social interaction and is getting rewarded in the rankings by Google but I can’t be 100% since I can’t compare the two.
This is stright from Google Webmasters:
We'll do our best to algorithmically determine an appropriate canonical page, just as we've done in the past."
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394
Hope that helps