Google Analytic Certified

Posted on 03. Mar, 2010 by Rachel Perry in Analytics

Studied, tested and passed… After using Google analytics with sites and clients for quite some time now I thought it was high time I become fully certified. I started by looking up what others were saying about the Google Analytic test. I read a few blog posts and forum pages and they convinced me to just go for it so I dove straight into Conversion University.  At first I was just going to gloss my way through but I decided instead to be a good sport and watch every video in there, it took hours BUT it was worth it. I learned quite a bit, even from the sections I thought I knew! They packed a lot of good information into that university.
Once I was done with the vidoes I went straight to the testing center and pounded my way through it. So what was the test like? The specs of the test are simple

• Time Allocated: 90 mins
• Required Passing Score: 75%
• Number of Questions: 90
• What you get from the test: A cool Google certificate showing you are authentic and the right to claim you are a Google Analytic certified individual.
• Expiration Date: 18 months from test date

My Personal Opinion of the Test: It had a lot of application questions, which makes it more difficult but more fair at the same time. I wouldn’t even try the test if you haven’t watched the Conversion University videos, they hide a lot of good information in each video. When you study for the test don’t gloss over anything especially if you don’t really understand what Google is saying, odds are if you do that is what will be on the test.
The biggest thing I gained though from taking the test is just getting a better idea of where to look for answers to client problems. Even if in a few months if I don’t remember the exact name of the cookie Google embeds or how to write Regex character for character I have a base to go off of. I have a better idea of what analytics can do and I can use that to think of new solutions. All said and done I would recommend that any SEO professional should take the challenge, or at very least go through the Conversion University.

Contacting Bloggers and Guest Posting

Posted on 14. Nov, 2008 by Rachel Perry in Blogging, Search Engine Optimization

Links are the foundation for a good SEO campaign and so it is important to be willing to work for them. Search Engines want to know that your site is worth something to someone else and one of the ways they track that is how many incoming links you have to your site. A creative and effective way to get a variety of links is to appeal to the blog-o-sphere.

Contacting bloggers is a powerful tactic, it can be a win-win situation for both parties. Many bloggers are looking for new good and intriguing content.  A good strategy is to approach them with and ask if they would be willing to trade. You write some good content for them using the skills you know if they would let you post a link or two in that post. The blogger is getting new and good content and you are getting some high quality links.

There are definitely things you shouldn’t do when contacting bloggers and by studying those we can better learn what we are suppose to do.

Never Send a Mass Email:

Mass emailing may save you time in the initial work it takes to send out emails but your response rate will be so low it won’t be worth your time in the end. Remember bloggers are really people with time constraints, goals, dreams and are putting some hard work into their blog. They will be able to tell that you really haven’t spent much time on their blog and that your offer was sent to hundreds of people. They won’t feel a desire to respond.

A better way to contact a blogger is to spend some time on their site, read their posts, and get to know their style. Then tailor your message to them as an individual person. Acknowledge their work and what you liked about it; also refer to something specific that they have done on their blog.

Never Just ask for a Link:

Blogging is a business just like your ecommerce business or corner grocey store or the consulting company you own. You wouldn’t just let someone advertise on the side of your business, or in your newsletter, or on your employee’s shirts for free. A blogger isn’t going to include your link on their site just because you asked. They have to feel at least these 3 things first

1. There has to be obvious value for their readers
2. They have to feel that there is a personal benefit for them (whether that is a comission on sales, broadening their resources for their readers, or even an exchange of resources. For instance if you want a link on their site offer to put one on your site.)
3. They have to feel recognized. Bloggers work hard at what they do and they want to be appreciated for those efforts.

Never Start a Conversation with How Good your Company is:

Nobody likes to hear how good you are until they know you like what they do. If you start your letter out with statements all about you and how you are amazing a lot of people will just skip over the email and move on to something else. Acknowledge their strengths and what about their work attracted you to their blog. Then proceed to explain to them how a partnership would be beneficial.

How to Find Blogs in Your Industry:

Go to one of the following blog search engines and type in some industry specific phrases.  You should be able to find quite a few that write about your industry.  Don’t forget to search for blogs in related industries as well.

1. technorati.com
2. blogsearch.google.com

Wrapping Up:

Contacting bloggers takes a lot of one on one effort but it is worth your time because of the link value it will give you. Who knows, a blogger may even be willing to post about you, your business, or review a product you offer allowing you to be introduced to all of their readers.

Any questions?

Internal Linking Structure

Posted on 13. Nov, 2008 by Rachel Perry in Search Engine Optimization

A good philosophy to run a site by is ‘If you want to be ranked by Google make it easy for Google to know who you are and what you are about’. One of the major ways in SEO to do this is to optimize the links within your own personal site. There are 3 major ways to accomplish this and they all hinge on the idea of clusterizing your keywords, so be sure that you have your words into clusters before diving too deep into this strategy.

Internal Linking Strategy #1: Content Linking

If you own a blog, inter-linking within your posts is an excellent idea. Every post you write watch for the keywords you are focusing on. If you use a keyword in your post link that word to the landing page URL you are trying to rank for that phrase. Blogging with your keywords in mind will increase the power and effectiveness of your blog and the generation of new relevant links will increase your power within your given niche.

Also outside of blogging it is beneficial to strive for that same form of linking with in the general content of your site.  Any article or content page that you create can link phrases within the text to other landing pages that are focused around ranking for those phrases.  These links help tie all your content together, allowing Google to understand better what your site or blog is all about and more specefically, what each page/URL is about.

Internal Linking Strategy #2: Navigation Bar Links

On the navigation bar of your site is a great place to add optimized links. For instance one of our clients operates an ecommerce site that sells tool parts. Their key phrases are phrases such as ‘DeWalt Parts‘, ‘Makita Parts‘ and ‘Bosch Parts‘ (I just used method 1 for external links to my clients site, but you get the idea). Orginally their navigation bar was a series of image links of the tool brand logos. Although this enhanced the look of their site to the user it decreased its effectiveness in Google. Image links are good for the use-ability of a site. Just make sure you include text links beneath the image so that Google can read what your links are about. And don’t forget to "nofollow" those image links.

Internal Linking Strategy #3: Footer Links

On every site you have the ability to add links to the bottom. These links will show up on every page in your site and are known as footer links.

When you have your clusters formed, choose the main phrase from all of your main category pages to include in your footer links. Here is a good example that we added for one of our clients:

http://www.cmoe.com/

Creating internal links within your blog and site will increase your site’s search engine exposure. Starting with these basic tactics is a great way to optimize your site. If you have any questions as to how or what internal linking is just add a comment below this post. Also if you have any other methods that have worked for you let us know, we would love to hear what has been successful for you.

4 Ways to Get Links Today

Posted on 28. Jul, 2008 by Rachel Perry in Search Engine Optimization

Links are key to a good SEO campaign. It can be difficult to know where to start though because there are so many different avenues to explore. Linking increases the power and influence of your site faster then any other tactic in SEO, so its importance is undescribable. Here are some quick ways to immediately start your linking campaign. These tactics aren’t an all inclusive list and they are only the beginning of your strategy but they will help.

Create A Squidoo Lens- With Squidoo you are creating an outside site that is sending your site an incoming link. Therefore the more time you take to create a lens that has quality and good volume content the more power your Squidoo lens will carry, meaning the more power your incoming link will have. Now you can take 15 mins and whip up a lens with a few paragraphs containing a link or two to your site. However that incoming link won’t carry as much power as if you created a lens that actually gets traffic. Don’t go overboard and spend more than an hour, but take the extra time to create a quality, topically relevant lens which in turn creates you a quality link.

Submit to the D-List- The D-List is a list of blogs that have Do-Follow link value in their comments, meaning when you comment your name can become a link to your site. Courtney Tuttle offers a list of do-follow blogs, there is a list of links to these blogs there so it is easy to click down the list and make comments. This is a valuable resource but must be used with caution, don’t spam through comments. Go in, genuinely read their posts. Then use the keyword you are trying to rank for as your name and put your sites URL in the website box. Make a comment that adds to the post. This will not only ensure that your link is left in their comment section (instead of removed as spam) but it will also build a positive reputation around your keyword link.

Write an Article- With an article, you are writing the content that will go on another site, meaning it will be relevant content that will point back to your site. Write an article on one of the keywords you are trying to rank for. Make it completely relevant and interesting and then link one or two of those keywords to pages on your site. Then submit the article to a variety of article directories.

Submit to Unspun- Unspun is a site where users can create their own ‘Top 10’ lists and then vote on which item in the list is #1. The lists vary from topics like the” Best Skin Care Products” to “Hardest Disability to Overcome” so you are more than likely to find a list that fits your topic. The 2 coolest parts about unSpun are one; if you don’t find a list that fits your topic then you can create one. And two, you can add your link under the item on the list that fits your topic. On the actual list page the link is no follow but if you click on the item in the list it will take you to a page where your link has followed value. It can take some time for this page to be seen by Google but every link counts so it is worth the 5-10 mins it takes to add your URL.

Link building isn’t impossible, it can just be difficult to know where to start or where to try next. These 4 ideas are just starting blocks but they can help get your site ranked, indexed and become more appealing for future link trades.