Monthly archive: April, 2010

SEO Tool – Pagerank Recovery Tool

April 28, 2010, by 2 comments

Heres the second great little tool created by the Virante team. This time, the tool checks for inbound links from 3rd party sites that are targeted at 404 pages on your site. Whats really great about this tool is that it not only gives you a pretty comprehensive list but also gives you the ability to generate 301 redirects for each url to the page of your choice via a .htaccess file generation tool.

The tool also gives you an idea of what MOZRank will be recovered should all of the links be fixed… nice!

Free Link Atrophy Tool

April 28, 2010, by No comments yet

Here’s a great little tool created by Virante that produces a report telling you which of your existing links have ceased giving you juice or have dipped in their juice giving abilities.

Simply enter your URL and get a list of links that need looking at. If they grey-bar or the pagerank has dropped significantly then the links need pulling as it could be detrimental to your sites SERPS and should be your first port of call should you notice a significant drop in rankings overnight.

Enhanced! Google Webmaster Tools Top Search Queries

April 26, 2010, by No comments yet

gwt 300x113 Enhanced! Google Webmaster Tools Top Search Queries

New and improved, Google have enhanced the Top Search Queries report in their Webmaster Tools to show a more Analytics style report with both keyword and click-through information.

This is great as it gives you another datasource to view CTR information.

Tip: trevorweir.com

Open Site Explorer Flawed

April 26, 2010, by 13 comments

Always keen to verify my own theories, I used my SEOMoz pro account to ask what metrics the SEOMoz team advise to use to determine the best possible source for links in a link building campaign using Open Site Explorer as the key data source. The reply was to use DA (Domain Authority) as the key indicator tho’ I had to be wary of Directories which may appear to be ranked highly without providing any real benefit.

Digging a little deeper, I’ve also noticed that when using this approach, Open Site Explorer also favours any sub-domain driven sites i.e. sub-domained blog URL’s and other such sites with the echelons of DA ranked sites being made up of these sites.

So what does this mean to the lay SEO? Well it means that unless you’re prepared to wade through tens of thousands of results, there’s still not short-cut to finding great quality links.

Heres how I get started in sourcing links from our competitors listings.

  1. Use Open site explorer to download CSV’s of all EXTERNAL links that are dofollow/301 from a big ass list of competitors domains
  2. Combine all of these CSV’s into one document
  3. Clean the list using the DATA > Remove duplicates filter in the source URL only
  4. Sort by Page Authority
  5. Highlight all PA on domains with a PA over 50
  6. Sort by Domain Authority
  7. Highlight all DA on domains with a DA over 50
  8. Sort by External Links
  9. Highlight by External Links over 100
  10. On a page by page basis quickly scan the list removing RSS feeds and other uninfluencable links
  11. Add a column for PageRank
  12. Go through each listing adding the PR for each site (n/a for grey bars)
  13. Build links where possible.

Since Open Site Explorer has an API, has anyone thought about automating this process as i’d pay for a tool that did this and more as it would save me HOURS!

Happy St George’s Day

April 23, 2010, by 1 comment

Its weird to think that before the 18th Century, St George’s day held a status equal to that of Christmas. It’s just a shame that in modern times St Patrick’s day gets more celebrated (possibly due to the vast amounts of Guinness consumed). Lets make St George’s Day 2010 one to remember and for once, be proud to be British.

Happy St George’s Day

Mark

I Spy Googles New Keyword Tool UI

April 22, 2010, by No comments yet

Another things thats not new, however it is now linked from the standard Google AdWords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal).

Note this doesn’t appear to work in Chrome!

googlekwd 1024x536 I Spy Googles New Keyword Tool UI

New Google Keyword Tool

So what’s new here?

Overall the tool feels more intuitive and I get a better sense as to how the options relate to the data. Things like filtering Exact Match terms has moved to the bottom left of the screen, trend information is shown to the right of the keyword lists and additional filters allowing you to delve closer into a niche are provided.

It says you get more information if you log into adwords, however it doesnt really show the organic search specialist anything worthwhile.

Give it a try.

I Spy Googles New UI

April 22, 2010, by No comments yet

I know its not new news, but its the first time over ever seen Googles new UI design.

google2010 1024x783 I Spy Googles New UI

New Google UI Design

So whats different?

As you can see the listings are now pulled up the page and the blue bar has been removed. The search box s larger and the search button made larger and more attached. Results numbers have moved to the right hand side and advanced tucked under the right hand edge of this panel. Some pre-built filters have been added to the left hand panel (none worked). Wjhat you cant see from this image is Google have added their standard corporate links to the foot of the page where the Gooooooooogle bar has been re-designed and theres a repeat of the search box. Font sizes have been made smaller.

So what do I think about it?

I think its a step in the right direction if you’re trying to compete with Bing who will shortly be using a sidebar to pull in comparison information and provide other integrated search functions.

On a bragging note, its nice to see my sites featured 1, 5 and 6th :)

Volcanos, Flights and Confusion

April 18, 2010, by 1 comment

I was supposed to be going to a well deserved relaxing all-inclusive holiday to Fuerteventura last Friday however the Volcanoes in Iceland appear to have different ideas. I thought it would be funny to document just what went down as I’m sure in the months to come i will be able to look back at the last 36 hours and laugh… just not right now.

Thursday – approximately lunch time
Had a joke with the girls in the office that I didnt know if my passport had expired.

Thursday – 5pm
Listened to Radio 4 heard about Volcanic eruptions in Iceland causing havoc with flights. Told to check with airline to see if we’re still flying.

Thursday – 6pm
Last minute dashing around trying to buy a beach towel which was needed after reading a review on tripadvisor.com that stated there wasn’t enough sunbeds at the  hotel and that you needed to get up early and stake a claim to enjoy your spot in the sun.

Thursday – 7pm
My gf showed up and laughed at my checklist of items being packed in my luggage and turned house upside down looking for my NHS card which is needed to get treatment overseas.

Thursday – 8pm
Checked with manchesterairport.co.uk to see if the flight was cancelled…nope says its still flying.

Thursday – 11pm
Checked again with manchesterairport.co.uk, it appears they stopped updating the site at 10pm WTF!

Friday -4am
Alarm rings I rush over to the computer to check flight details. BBC News and other sources state that everything has been grounded, i check with manchesterairport.co.uk and it says it’s sill flying.

Friday – 4.15am
Try to call the specific Manchester Airport on the phone number suggested on their website… not open until 9am (helpful!). Try to call airline… not open until 9am (helpful!). Scoured Internet for any additional numbers.

Friday – 4.30am
Located a non-descript number for Manchester Airport and got through to a woman who said the flight had been cancelled.

Friday – 9am
Tried to call airline… engaged.

Friday – 9.05am
Tried to call airline… automated answer, told to call different number… rung off WTF!

Friday – 9.10am
Called travel agent, told they’ll take our details and get back to us with any news.

Friday – 9.20am until 11.30am in 5 minutely intervals
Calling airline… get engaged tone.

Friday 11.30am
Went to get some supplies for breakfast. Ate bacon butties.

Friday 11.50am
Get back , my GF has called the travel agents again and been told that the flight has been cancelled and that we’ll know more at 6pm.

Friday – 12.00
Calling airline… get engaged tone. Call airport parking company and told we can move our booking by 30 days free of charge.

Friday – 2pm
Visit brothers to fix his email, set up his new phone and move his contact across. He’s supposed to be flying BMI today and is experiencing the same difficulty in getting information.

Friday – Approximately 4pm
manchesterairport.co.uk stops updating the online flight timetable.

Friday -Approximately 4.30pm
thomascook.com updates their alert page telling people that the deadline has been moved back to 1am.

Friday – Approximately 5.30pm
thomascook.com adds a statement telling us we can either opt for a refund or reschedule our holiday within the next 30 days.

Friday – 7.30pm
Go to local restaurant to have a slap up holiday style tea… Yum Seabass.

Saturday – 8.30am
Wake up, shower, get dressed, head off to Bury to visit travel agents before the rest of Fridays passengers do to try and arrange new holiday.

Saturday – 9.30am
In travel agents. All Thomas Cook resorts are fully booked so can’t move flight. Find a new destination and upgrade for £5.45 (bargain) to a 4 star hotel with apartments on all-inclusive nice)…searching tripadvisor.com on my phone while the agent is recommending hotels to make sure we don’t get stuck in a $#1!hole, looking at pictures of the resort on Google Images and finding the location using online maps. Told to disappear while the travel agent tries to contact Thomas Cook to arrange refund.

Saturday – 10.30am
Call back at travel agents, no luck they can’t get through either. We leave the £5.45 in good faith and go shopping in Manchester.

Saturday – 5.30pm
Call from travel agents to confirm booking we just need to go in tomorrow to sign the paper work.

Saturday – 7pm until 11pm
Order curry from takeaway, get plastered on Jack and Coke.

Happy Birthday To Me

April 5, 2010, by 2 comments

I’m 34 today. I’ve not opened any presents yet so lets hope for something nice from my GF and family :)

Google Translate for Animals

April 1, 2010, by 1 comment

Now this is obviously an April Fools joke but theres got to be someone out there whos been sucked in by it lol.

google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/translateforanimals/