In July I did a review of a SpyFu, a keyword analysis tool, and ever since I’ve included some SpyFu suggestions as part of my regular SEO Advice series. One issue I’ve noticed is that some of the websites that I reviewed had no data showing up for them on SpyFu.

Sidra Condron from SpyFu also noticed and took the time to write to me:

“Hi, Evan

I just wanted to check in and see how your SpyFu trial was working for you.

It’s great that you’ve incorporated SpyFu into giving a many entrepreneurs insight into their site’s performance or position.  I’ve noticed that a few have come up as SpyFu not showing any data on their site.  Just in case there is a question about that, this is generally the rule:

SpyFu searches over 2 million terms in Google.  We capture data on the domains that rank in the Top 50 for each one of those terms.  If a domain is not recognized, it was not in the Top 50 for any of those terms, or, we didn’t find any ads that domain hosted.

I hope all is going well.

Best regards,

Sidra Condron”

I didn’t realize that their algorithms looked at the top 50 sites ranking for 2 million different terms. What it means is that if you don’t rank in the top 50 for any of their keywords then your site won’t be listed in SpyFu. I wrote back to Sidra asking for some advice on what valuable advice I could offer through SpyFu for those websites that do not rank quite yet.

She gave an interesting response:

“Hi, Evan

I was ready to point out that SpyFu can reveal where the action is when it comes to your readers’ industries.  However, it looks like you have a good grasp of that considering your advice regarding Sounds Of Rock.  Comparing keywords where he/she could improve is exactly where I was going.

But since you asked, here’s where I would take it a step further.  Google the terms that he would like to be associated with, (I went with “guitar lessons”) and pick out a handful of domains that rank well there.

Enter those domains into SpyFu. (I went with the top-ranked guitartricks.com)

Take a cue from those sites and collect not only their organic keywords, but also their paid ads.

With guitartricks.com’s results, there are dozens of paths to take for further research:

First, the organic results spotlight new terms that Brenn might never had considered.  “7 string guitar lessons” anyone?

Onto the paid ads section, I can generate new keyword ideas like with the organic results.  What’s more, I clicked on the pie icon to see a chart of its ad position distribution.  There seems to be a varying spread of guitartricks.com’s keywords’ effectiveness when it comes to ad positions.  Let’s say I want to exploit areas where they do not show up as strong in ad results.  I can download this list of keywords to Excel, sort by ad position, and focus on mid-range positioned words.  Or, maybe I use the sort function to rank by cost-per-click and/or clicks per day to help me understand where I might want to focus a campaign that I can best afford.

Those steps are basic, and many sharp SpyFu users find gold in the tiniest details revealed to them  Much like Tribbles, the information offered seems to replicate into more.  One search opens up to dozens of new ideas that lead to yet another search.  We open the door to a wealth of information, and it’s what subscribers do with it that sets them apart.”

Thank you Sidra for takign the time to write and provide me with new ways of using SpyFu. I’ll try to implement some of these strategies for future SEO Advice posts.

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Last week, I offered free SEO advice to KielJamesPatrick.com. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader Brenn Hill, from Sounds of Rock.

Brenn Hill – www.soundsofrock.com

www.soundsofrock.com

Thanks!

My Recommendations

And I thought last week’s email asking for help was short – Brenn has set a new record with his website and one word! (Tip: for those of you who want to get your website reviewed by someone, you might want to include a little more detail about it and what you want to accomplish so you can get the most useful answer possible)

1) Pick Your Keywords

It’s unclear what keywords Brenn is trying to get his website ranked for. The first keyword in his title tag after School of Rock is “Guitar lessons”. Then in the actual body of the page, guitar lessons is only mentioned once and it’s burried below the fold. You should identify the keywords that you think best represent your site, put them in your title tags and then include related content below so Google has a sense of what your blog is all about. If you don’t pick a niche to focus on, Google won’t know where to put you and won’t send you any traffic (especially when you have a 0 Page Rank)

2) Get Some Content

It appears that all of the content on the homepage consists of links out to other blogs which focus on guitars. It’s very difficult to rank in Google’s index if you don’t have any unique content of your own. In Google’s eyes you just look like a link farm point out to various webpages but not contributing anything valuable. It may be a great destination point for people interested in guitars but it’s not a strategy that will win you rankings in the search engines. Try putting some of your own descriptive content up along with the links out so you’re not taking away from the experience for your readers.

3) SpyFu Recommendations

Unfortunately SpyFu doesn’t recognize SoundsofRock.com and can’t provide us with useful data but I did do an analysis of the keywords guitar lessons versus guitar news:

Guitar lessons costs between $0.39 and $0.95 per click and gets between 11,900 and 15,000 clicks per day

Guitar news costs has no results.

If your goal is to rank at the top of the search engines then it will be much easier for “Guitar news” because it is searched so infrequently and you can get there even with your low Page Rank (with a little work). If you’re hoping to drive serious traffic and make money from your AdSense ads (the apparent business model on the site), then you’re in for a battle to rank for “Guitar lessons” and will need to update your content and get more high quality links to your site.

Good luck Brenn!

Readers, what do you think about Sounds of Rock?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Last week, I offered free SEO advice to Sylvia Manor. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader Michael Alahverdian, from Kiel James Patrick.

Kiel James Patrick – www.kieljamespatrick.com

The site is www.KielJamesPatrick.com – A high end fashion accessory

My Recommendations

While Michael’s email wasn’t as informative or detailed as some of the others in the past, I still thought it would be worth looking at his site as it is in serious need of SEO help.

1) Use More Text

To get ranked in Google you need to have at least 300 words of content on your page. Your homepage only has one paragraph of text on it and you have 94 words in there – not nearly enough to be seen as a content-rich site in Google’s eyes. I understand that it’s a fashion business and you need to show the product as well as get your branding across but you need to get people to the website first to sell them. Try to make sure that each of your pages have at least 300 words so you can start driving more search engine traffic.

2) Choose Your Keywords Wisely

If you look at your title tag it reads: Kiel James Patrick – The Kiel James Patrick official site… People know that you’re the Kiel James Patrick site because that’s your domain name and you have your logo at the top left of the page. You should put your keywords closer to the left of the title bar and then make sure to include the keywords further down in the body of your text. For example, you could focus in on custom made wristbands – put it right at the beginning of your title tag and then include it in your webpage text.

3) SpyFu Recommendations

Unfortunately SpyFu doesn’t recognize KielJamesPatrick.com (yet!) and has no keyword research for the website.

Good luck Michael!

Readers, what do you think about Kiel James Patrick?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Last week, I offered free SEO advice to Home Warranty Reviews. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader Kevin Yapjoco, from the Sylvia Manor.

Sylvia Manor – www.sylviamanor.com

Hi!

Here’s a site I developed and I need your thoughts.

http://www.sylviamanor.com/

Thanks!

Kevin Yapjoco

My Recommendations

1) Use Your Keywords

Judging from your title tag, you are trying to rank for the keywords Boutique Hotel and Bacolod City. You do a good job of mentioning Bacolod City multiple times on the page (three times) but you only mention boutique hotel once. A good rule of thumb is to use the keyword every two paragraphs. Don’t keyword stuff and put in boutique hotel just for the sake of it. You should use it so that it makes sense to the readers and will help drive traffic from the search engines.

2) Add More Content

It appears that you have a very simple website design with a limited number of pages (facilities, reservations, etc). If you want to drive more traffic you should consider writing keyword-themed articles and posting them on your site. For example, an article about Bacolod City would be useful and you can mention some of the local restaurants and attractions. It’s a value add to your guests and will help drive Bacolod City related traffic to your website. Think of the different keywords that your target audience would enter into Google and create content around those keywords so you can get a greater share of the search engine traffic.

3) SpyFu Recommendations

According to SpyFu, here is how you rank for the important keywords for your site:

• #11 bacolod hotels
• #12 bacolod hotels
• #16 bacolod city map
• #17 bacolod city
• #17 bacolod city map

All of your results are on the second page which greatly reduces your visibility compared to being on page one. Get more links to your site, especially from other Bacolod related websites. Because they will be relevant links to Bacolod City, your ability to get on page one will be greatly increased.

Good luck Kevin!

Readers, what do you think about Sylvia Manor?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Two weeks, I offered free SEO advice to SkinB5. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader Krupesh, from Home Warranty Reviews.

Home Warranty Reviews – www.homewarrantyreviews.com

Hi

My website is http://www.homewarrantyreviews.com

I could use your advise. I have this site online for about an year, but haven’t been successful in in improving page ranking yet, although I have good content and useful rating info not available anywhere else on the web. This site is about home warranty – blogging and user generated reviews.

Thanks

–
Krupesh

My Recommendations

1) Write More Content

You rank #1 in Google for Home Warranty Reviews but considering your domain name is HomeWarrantyReviews.com, this isn’t much of a stretch. According to the article category listing, you only have 21 articles posted on your site. You should really focus in on writing more frequently. The more quality content you have, the more chances you have of ranking in Google for your pages. Also remember to make your pages have at least 300 words of content. Even if you only write two new articles per week, if you do that for the next year you’ll have over 100 pages of new content for your site that will get picked up by Google.

2) Get More Links

You’re in a very difficult industry to rank for and, judging from the number of Google Ads on the site, you’re trying to capitalize on this by selling ad space. If you want to compete for keywords other than “Home Warranty Reviews” you’re going to have to get more links and a higher Page Rank. Right now your home page is a PR 3 but many of your articles carry a PR of 0. It’s going to be hard to rank in such a competitive field if you don’t have any Page Rank. Get involved in forums, write press releases, submit to article directories and engage in other link building activities to get your individual pages ranked higher.

3) SpyFu Recommendations

According to SpyFu, you only rank on the first page in Google for three other important keywords: ge home warranty, home warranty policies, and fidelity home warranty. It’s time to kick up your content into high gear and get more incoming links so you can get a few more pages up in Google’s index!

Good luck Krupesh!

Readers, what do you think about Home Warranty Reviews?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Last week, I offered free SEO advice to Technogumption. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader, Michelle A Davis from All You Need Business Services.

All You Need Business Services – www.yourbusinessservices.com

Hello Evan,

I am not sure if you are still giving this advice for SEO, but I am in need of help! I just don’t have the funds to pay someone to assist me but know that if my website was up to the correct standards I could bring in money effectively through my site. Hopefully you are still giving advice!

Best Regards,
Michelle A. Davis

My Recommendations

1) Pick a different primary keyword

Virtual Assistant seems to be the primary keyword that you are targeting as you’ve listed it multiple times on your homepage and bolded it. You’ve done a great job in writing relevant content and not just keyword stuffing but virtual assistant is just too competitive a keyword for you to rank with. Using Google’s Keyword Tool you can see how competitive certain terms are. Virtual Assistant is maxed out on competitiveness so you might want to consider a less competitive key phrase such as online secretary, online administrative assistant, or virtual business assistant. They don’t get as many searches but you stand a much better chance of ranking for those keywords.

2) SEO consistency, 300 words

Each page you create should be consistent in the keyword you are trying to rank for. As an example, you use Virtual Assistant multiple times in the text on the home page but you don’t have it in your title tag or have an H1 tag with it. You should also make sure that each page has 300 words of text on it or more. It’s harder to rank in Google if you don’t have enough text on your pages.

3) SpyFu recommendations

A SpyFu analysis revealed that the top competitors for the key phrase “Virtual assistant” include the International Virtual Assistants Association, Wikipedia, Entrepreneur.com, Monster.com, and vadirectory.net. These are all big players that will be difficult to surpass, especially since your site only has a Page Rank of 3. Regardless of which keywords you end up choosing you should also get more links to your site to get that Page Rank higher and increase your chances of rankings.

Good luck Michelle!

Readers, what do you think about yourbusinessservices.com?

After a series of posts discussing strategies from SES Toronto 2008, I’m now turning the attention back to you for the Internet Marketing posts with more SEO Advice! In May, I offered free SEO advice to Boycott Software Sweatshops. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader, Tom from Technogumption.

Technogumption – http://www.technogumption.com/

Hey Evan,
The community consulting concept is a great idea. I would love for my site http://www.technogumption.com to be featured.

Thanks,
Tom Beaton.

My Recommendations

1) Homepage Title Tag

Your homepage has a Page Rank of 4 and will have the best chance of ranking in Google for important keywords. Your title tag, however, for the homepage simply reads “Technogumption”. Technogumption is not a popular keyword (at least not yet!) and you’ll already rank at the top because you own Technogumption.com. You should put some of your important keywords up in this title tag to help drive Google traffic.

2) Posting Frequency

I see that you posted from January until April of this year and then stopped. What happened? If you want people to subscribe to your blog and Google to come back often you need to continue to post new information. Posting fatigue can easily set in for new bloggers. You don’t need to post almost every day (as you were doing when you first launched it) but you should identify a posting schedule that you can stick to and then… stick to it! Even if you’re just posting once per week you can build your blog credibility and not feel overwhelmed by the time commitment to the blog.

3) SpyFu recommendations

I put Technogumption.com into SpyFu but they couldn’t find your domain yet however the search was logged and will most likely be included in the next data set.

Good luck Tom!

Readers, what do you think about Technogumption.com?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

Two weeks ago I listed SpyFu as one of the top tools that business owners can use to help them make money online. It was one of the suggested links from Epiar’s Ken Jurina.

After the post I was contacted by Sidra Condron, Director of Marketing for SpyFu with the following message:

Hi, Evan

I read your description of Ken Jurina’s presentation at SES Toronto, and I wanted to drop and note and say “thanks.” I know that you weren’t able to include a reference to everything that he covered, so we appreciate your inclusion (even more!) of SpyFu in your summary.

We just launched UK services, and we’re prioritizing some other capabilities for the near future, so we are really excited about even more things to come. Thanks again for the mention and all the best to you!

After a few emails back and forward Sidra gave me a three month subscription to SpyFu to check it out and showcase some of the features to YoungEntrepreneur.com readers.

I just started my subscription today and upon logging in I immediately noticed their list of Top 100 lists. In the lists they give you information such as the Top 100 SEM Spenders (if you’re looking to target potential advertisers), the Top 100 Most Expensive Keywords (CPC), the Terms with the Most Clicks per Day, the Top 100 Ad Buyers, UK vs. US Keywords and Websites, and the Most Changed Keywords and Websites.

Here are the Top 5 Most Expensive Keywords (CPC)

1. Conference calling companies – $51.66 CPC
2. Purchase structured settlements – $51.48
3. Home owner secured loan – $50.36
4. Mesothelioma patient – $50.23
5. Austin texas dwi lawyer – $50.03

Imagine what the conference calling companies must be making from their online campaigns if they can afford $51.66 just for a click!

I’ll report back when I’ve had some more time to play with the program. So far it seems to be an extremely valuable tool for keyword research. I had run across SpyFu in the past but never paid attention to it until the SES Toronto presentation – I’m glad I found it again!
Has anyone heard of / used SpyFu before?

Two weeks ago I talked about my favorite presenter from SES Toronto 2008, Ken Jurina (this is a picture of Ken with Google Guru Matt Cutts). Ken is the man behind Epiar, a search engine optimization service company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. As I mentioned two weeks ago, with only 15 minutes to speak Ken listed off a new tool almost every 30 seconds and gave web entrepreneurs a fantastic list of SEO-related resources to add to their arsenal.

I’m pleased to now share some of the results from Ken’s presentation:

Firefox Extensions – www.getfirefox.com

Pros:
•Tools work right within your browser
•Very quick, very powerful, and very free

Critiques:
•None – critiques usually resolved with extension updates

Cool:
•Audit a clients site live: SE Issues, opt. improvement
•SEO Extensions: SEOpen, Search Status, SEO Links, Groowe Toolbar, Customize Google
•Others: PDF Download, AI Roboform Toolbar for Firefox, Search Keys, IE Tab

Cost:
•FREE

URL for Extensions:
• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/

SpyFu – www.spyfu.com

Pros:
•great competitive insight on PPC & Organic
•works in browser, quick & thorough.
•free stuff is good – though you can subscribe for more

Critiques:
•busy interface
•not intuitive as to what a particular button/tool does

Cool:
•dashboard: charts and data mash-ups

Cost:
•Some free options / additional subscription options

Browsershots – www.browsershots.org

Pros:
•works right within your browser

Critiques:
•Very slow gathering screen grabs
•May timeout when selecting multiple browsers

Cool:
•Can toggle screen size, flash, javascript, java and color depth.
•Great to see what your site looks like without manually
downloading and viewing all browsers.
•Fun if you’re bored.

Cost:
•FREE

What are your favorite SEO Tools?