Almost exactly two months ago, Google lit the blogosphere on fire by releasing an Internet browser. Personally, I blogged that it was a direct attack on Microsoft and served no other purpose but to get everyone talking about Google.
However, I gave it a shot. At first I tried to use it exclusively, but it lacks the ability to use add-ons such as themes or plug-ins.
In our Google AdWords class, we teach how to use Google AdWords to advertise in many places. The two most common are:
Throughout the entire class, I constantly remind everyone that you should ALWAYS create separate campaigns for each. Google makes it very easy to “just check this box” to advertise on both search and websites.
Don’t fall for it!
Lately, people have been discussing in our Hippo discussion group how to determine who links to your competitors. So I want to show you the tool I use.
But first, why is important to know who links to your competitors?
In case you have not heard, a major part of the Google algorithm is based off of off-page factors. In other words, they look at links from other sites to determine if they should rank your site.
So how many links do you need to rank well? The correct answer is “More than your competitors”. Remember, as I wrote earlier, don’t chase Google. Chase your competitors.
Given those two points, you need to go build links. Conversely, you could actually remove links from your competitor and it would have a similar effect. In other words, you can go get six links, or take three links from your competitor and have them link to you. Same effect.
This is easier said than done. However, if you can figure out who is linking to your competitors and why, you may be able to not only get some ideas, but you could actually call or reach out to the owners of those links and explain why they should link to you instead.
So how do we do it? In the discussion group, a couple of online tools were listed, namely Link Diagnosis and Backlink Watch. Both were recommended by Ty and are online web-based tools. They work good, especially for the price – free!
But I prefer SEO Elite. Here’s how it works…
(The screenshots are small, but you can click on them to see more.)
You can choose the site you want to review links for. Then choose which search engines to use to find the links. Lastly, you choose what additional information you want on the report (Google PR, Age, Whois info, etc)
Then, you can review the results…
I tend to sort by Google PageRank and investigate the top ones to see if I can imitate (or steal) the link.
The only bad part is that it is not free. The price for SEO Elite is $167 and you can buy it here. Please don’t be turned off by the long scrolling copy. (I hate that too.) It really is a good product.
Today I want to offer a special “Thank You!” to everyone who has been inquiring about our SEO, AdWords, and Blogging classes. I really appreciate your interest and I feel I owe you an explanation of why there are no classes scheduled right now.
But first, I want to mention how greatly I enjoyed the classes from September 29 to October 3. I forgot to get a picture of the students as I have before, but the turnout was fantastic. As always, there was a wide variety of backgrounds. We had web developers, web hosts, entrepreneurs, marketers, and employees – all learning these valuable Internet marketing skills.
But now it is October, and I’ve decided to take a break from teaching for a few months. Here’s why.
1. I’m a little behind in some client work and really need to focus on keeping them successful, especially during these tricky financial times.
2. November and December are holiday months and it is typically tricky to fill classrooms while everyone is traveling and vacationing.
3. I am doing some extra volunteer work (50 hours) during October.
4. I am starting to work on some new classes on Social Media and New Media. (I’m really excited about both those topics.)
5. I want to start creating a regular podcast by the end of the year.
6. Jason and I are working ferociously on creating a new e-commerce website. (We’re just getting started, but it will sell housekeeping carts.)
Note: I’m documenting what we are doing and hope to have an upcoming class (or webinar) on e-commerce best practices.
7. Jason and I are attending a conference in November in NYC. This is due to point 6 above.
So given all of the above, our next set of classes will start up in January. I’m sorry if this is inconvenient to any of you, but I promise that the classes will continue to get better as we fine-tune and improve them.
I’ll post the new 2009 schedule soon, I promise.