Website SEO Analysis Tool (From Microsoft!)

OK, I know you’re sceptical, but I think you’ll find this really useful.

Microsoft have a Search Engine Optimization Toolkit, which allows you to run reports which identify any errors with content, code and any on-site SEO issues.

It will scan through your site to identify the following types of error:

• Canonicalization
• Uppercase letters in urls
• Missing/duplicate/short/long title tags and descriptions
• Broken links
• Duplicate content
• Slow pages

What I really like is that you can save that report & re-run to compare. Meaning that once the amends have been made, you can check through quickly to see what’s been fixed, what’s still broken and any new errors that have appeared.

The installation of the tool is a little cumbersome (you need to install the Web Platform Installer, then the IIS SEO Toolkit); and the format of the report isn’t beautiful – but you can easily export to a spreadsheet to add your commentary/recommendations in and style up.

More info here: Microsoft SEO Toolkit

Edited: July 13th, 2010

Google Caffeine Diagram And The Salmon Terrine Algorithm

I love Google’s diagram explaining how their latest indexing system works. The old system was organised in layers, like a salmon terrine, while Caffeine looks like a cyclone rave of mess. I suppose that’s the difference – Caffeine is faster, and more sporadic to account for news, blogs and real time updates, as well as rich content from books and video.

“The image below illustrates how our old indexing system worked compared to Caffeine:”

via Official Google Webmaster Central Blog.

While I can see why they opted for the catchy name Caffeine rather than ‘Cyclone rave of mess’, I prefer ‘The Salmon Terrine Algorithm’ to the rather boring title ‘old index’. Never mind… at least there’s a little angry looking man to brighten the old one up a bit.

Edited: July 12th, 2010

Big Chip Award Winners

Last week, the company I work for, PushON won the Big Chip Award for ‘Best Use of Search’ – the event is the most prestigious digital award ceremony in the North West, and is judged by experts within the industry.  The category we entered, ‘Best Use of Search’ encompasses both Pay Per Click and Organic Search Engine Marketing.

It was for a project very close to my heart – The Little Greene Paint Company.  I’ve worked on this account from the beginning, and we’ve worked closely with their web development team to implement changes which give them the best possible chance to rank in search engines, and also convert the traffic they receive into sales.

I’m happy to say, that since we entered the competition – a number of significant further improvements have been made – for example, the launch of The Little Greene Blog, improvements to their paint finish listings, and a development which is soon to launch – a tagging system for paint colours which helps people find related paint colours, types of colours or styles (helping users find what they want both from search engines & when they are on the site).

I feel that this year, we got the groundwork right, and I’m looking forward to the progress over the next year, where we can work on some exciting and engaging projects which will help push the brand forward online.

Edited: July 2nd, 2009

Referral Programs To Publicise Your Website

I’m pleased to have recently been accepted to Blogrush, which is a referral program for bloggers. I say “pleased”, because this is my second attempt!

Initially I was disheartened that I didn’t cut the mustard, but the filtering does mean that the chances of links to poor quality blogs shown on your site are reduced. And to be honest, I hadn’t published many quality posts at the time of my first application.

I’ve been a member of ‘my blog log‘ for some time. This is a similar service, which has been recently bought by Yahoo. I have to say it does generate traffic and subscribers from people with a similar interest. It’s quite nice to see the faces of your readers too!

So far, I like Blogrush – some of the links in the sidebar have sent me to some interesting blogs, in particular this one from Unlocked Profits – How To Get Free Web Site Traffic In 2008. My New Years resolution will be to write some guides for work’s website available for download…

If anyone has any opinion let me know…

• Is it easy to use?
• Does it generate traffic or subscribers for you?
• Do you think it looks spammy?
• Have you used other services to better effect?
• Is traffic not important for your blogging?

Edited: January 11th, 2008

Using MySpace friends to promote bands and business – Social Media Optimization

Friendr.net has just launched; Friendr.net has been worked on by Virtuaffinity website developer Jim Neath.

This is a new social media optimization tool, that helps people add MySpace friends to their profiles.

This tool is useful for people who use their MySpace profile to promote their business or band, without spamming the typical MySpace users who purely use it to contact their friends and associates. MySpace is a great tool for keeping in touch; but spamming can be a problem.

As Social Media Optimization is relatively new, and the scope of Web 2.0 projects is constantly increasing, best practices and Social Media Marketing etiquette will also evolve.

Here are a couple of suggestions from an article by Kent Lewis of Search Marketing Standard:

• Respect the community
• Building and maintain a consistent and robust profile (or brand)
• Engage in the community by commenting, contributing and sharing regularly
• Don’t include blatant self-promotion
• Don’t post biased information
• Don’t breaking community rules
• Don’t spam

Learn more about Social Media Optimization from Wikipedia, or a brief summary of it from PushON Online Marketing specialists.

Edited: April 23rd, 2007

Top Content Improves Search Engine Optimisation

ContractStore has re-launched their site; this is a great example of well written, relevant content which can act as search engine food, increasing search engine rankings and also as a great resource for users.

The site is an E-commerce store offering free business templates, and also premium contracts which can be downloaded and used for a fee.
The descriptions have been enhanced to be relevant and to include important keywords for the site, whilst still being nice for a user to read.

Edited: March 13th, 2007