SEO and Organic Search Engine Optimization

I’ve had numerous requests to post a synopsis of what makes organic search engine optimization the preferred route to go when building site traffic. While organic seo doesn’t easily lend itself to a quick description (the complexity is what sets it apart from antiquated SEO methods), I put together a brief description.

Organic SEO recognizes the fact that older SEO models don’t work anymore. Instead of aiming for an overnight (and temporary) boost, the organic model uses keyword analysis, strategic inbound linking, on page SEO and a campaign tailored to each client website in order to reach a high position within 90 days and have the site stabilized and firmly entrenched in its higher position within 180 days.

What are your thoughts?

Internet Marketing Maturity Models

I came across this great search marketing maturity model by ION Interactive and decided to capture all of the available 'maturity models' in one place: search marketing, seo and web analytics.

The benefit of a well-defined maturity model is that it gives practitioners a common framework by which to assess their organization, benchmark it against others, and develop a plan for improvement. Often, there is not just one achievement associated with a particular level, but rather a series of capabilities across several dimensions.

Search Marketing Maturity Model:

Ion Interactive offered this image as a “open source” project so feel free to offer suggestions. Everyone in search could benefit from a common frame of reference that systematically slices up the complexity of search into a logical, unbiased maturity model.

SEO Maturity Model:

This SEO Maturity Model above from Search Enginuity will give you an idea of what makes up each level or stage of the SEO maturity model. Most importantly, this model will show you what to look for within your organization, and how to make the leap to the proceeding stage.

Web Analytics Maturity Model:

Another way to 'read' Gartner's web analytics maturity model presented by Bill Grassman at eMetrics San Francisco is to analyze the vendors themselves in comparison to what they data they can provide. Google Analytics is a level 1, most of level-2 and some of level-3 type of tool. Omniture will cover you up to most of level 4 if you use Test & Target, Discover, Genesis and imports/exports. Level 5 goes beyond web analytics (think Davenport's "Competing on analytics").

Enjoy:)

The Most Powerful Website Directories

A while back I wrote about the top 35 Website Directories for Link Building. As a follow up to that post, I found a great article from Paul Teitelman on the Top 25 Most Powerful Website Directories many of which weren't included in my original list. There are a number of great suggestions in the comments as well.

I thought I would post a few of my new web directory favorites below:

1.) Family Friendly Sites
2.) Incrawler
3.) Ally Web Directory
4.) Kahuki
5.) Greenstalk
6.) Rakcha
7.) Goguides
8.) Biz Lightenment
9.) Enquira
10.) The Librarians’ Internet Index
11.) ALS Links
12.) Info Listings
13.) Skaffe
14.) Premier Business Directory
15.) Dmoz Zilla
16.) Data Spear
17.) World Site Index
18.) Most Popular Sites

Now, if you are looking for the means to find 'do-follow' links, you'll enjoy reading more about the top do-follow link finding tools. As we all know another important factor in link building is analyzing the competition. Check out this link analyzer tool or try a free trial from one of the most popular SEO tools in the marketplace right now - Market Samurai!

Have any favorite directories of you own? Add them in the comments and I'll append to the list!

Update:
A good friend suggested these two additional link building resources:

1. Strongest Web Directories
2. How to find .edu links

PPC Management for Firefox Download

There are all sorts of Firefox plugins available for Internet marketers. If you're a search marketer specifically, this PPC Management toolbar should be a included in your 'Firefox must have add-ins'. Note* As the name implies, this tool is more for the PPC manager not the client due to the requirements (which you'll see below).

So, why is this toolbar a must have?

Here's a quick run-down of everything this tool offers:

• Keywords Estimate Tool
• Keyword Suggestion Tool
• Site Keywords Tool
• Account Statistics Tool

Double Click this toolbar for your stats to update - it may take 60 seconds to update depending on the size of your account. The data you see will be for today only.

Right click to see the tool menu and drill down into your account level statistics.

Clicks: Total number of clicks accrued today

aCPC: average Cost Per Click today

Cost: Total spent today

Conv: Total number of conversions accrued today

C/C: Cost per Conversion today

So, what are the requirements?

-FF 2+ preferred but still works for versions 1.5-3.0.*

-AdWords Client Center

-AdWords API Tokens

Tip: Your statistics might take 60 seconds or more to load depending on the size of your account. If you still do not see data, you may need to restart FF and test your credentials again.

How to Install the PPC Management Firefox Addon?

Upon download, Firefox should automatically recognize the extension and install it.

If you get any errors:

Right click the logo, click ’save link as…’, after saving you can scan it with any Anti-Virus program, then open Firefox. In FF, click file -> Open File -> Find the file and open it -> Install

Every Google Homepage From 1998-2007

Take a trip down Internet-memory lane with every Google-homepage from 1998 to 2007!

Track SEO Rankings with Google Analytics

So, there are many ways to tracking keyword rankings. There are paid tools like Web Position-which was recently blocked by Google for a short period. There are free tools like Exact Factor - but the tool is limited to 9 keywords it can track. Market Samurai, one of the hottest SEO tools available is also a viable option for tracking keyword rankings. Because of these reasons as well as others, it makes sense to track rankings at the source - Google Analytics. I originally found the idea behind tracking seo rankings with google analytics at Yoast.com but decided to repost with some additional detail based on the questions I had while trying to implement.

So, the first steps are to setup a filter in Google Analytics. There will be a total of 3 filters needed to implement this Google Analytics SEO tracking. Filter 1 and 2 will take care of filtering out everything other than organic traffic. The 3rd will provide the tracking filter. This is important: you will also have to create a new profile to apply these filters to otherwise it will screw up your main profile's tracking! Now, onto the filters!

Filter 1: Google Analytics SEO Keyword Tracking

This filter will allow only Organic traffic into the profile. Create a new filter, choose filter type "custom filter". Then choose the "include" option, set the filter field on "Campaign Medium" and the filter pattern on "organic". A screenshot is below:

Filter 2: Google Analytics SEO Keyword Tracking

The second filter tells Google Analytics to capture traffic from Google, Yahoo and MSN. Create a new filter, choose filter type "custom filter". Then choose the "include" option, set the filter field on "Campaign Source" and filter pattern on "googleliveyahoo".

Filter 3: Google Analytics SEO Keyword Tracking

Set up the 3rd filter as an advanced filter like so-->


The SEO Keyword Ranking Results:

After a while the "User Defined" report will look like this (ignore the language):

What you see are not the actual rankings, but the number of the first result of the page the keyword was on. So when you see 20, it means the keyword was on the third page, and a 50 means the sixth page. (Yahoo and Live Search will report 21 and 51 in stead of 20 and 50).

There were a number of questions in the comments surrounding about not seeing a number but only "(page: ): it means the keyword was on the first page - a good thing:)

Got any additional tips? Suggestions? Share in the comments!

You can also read about advanced 3rd party PPC tracking with Google Analytics, Google Analytis 101 and 10 tips to get the most out of Google Analytics for additional tips.