As a SEO strategist here at LocalVox, I work with many different types of businesses on improving their rankings and page optimization. While every business is unique and we use different SEO strategies for every client we work with, there are a lot of good free SEO software and tools that you can use to analyze and optimize your website. Living in New York, one of the questions I get asked a lot when I meet someone new is “what do you do for work?” When the person asking is a marketer or a local business, the second question they ask is “What are the best free SEO tools that I can use to be #1 in Google?” I’ve gathered the best SEO software that I recommend to marketers and local businesses that will improve your page optimization and help you rank higher in Google. One of the first things I recommend local businesses do is run a free SEO report and identify mistakes in their directories. By running this free SEO report, you will see how your business is shown to customers in top directories (like Bing, Yahoo!, Foursquare and Yelp, to name a few). You may be surprised how often basic things like a business’s name or phone number is incorrect on these directories (60% of directories have incorrect information while 92% of customers expect accurate information). After you have run your free SEO report, you can either go through each directory one by one and fix the mistakes or work with an online marketing firm to do it for you. One of the pros of working with an online marketing firm is that they will automatically monitor your directory listings for you so you don’t have to continually run reports and fix errors. If you’re wondering how fixing directory errors will help you rank higher in search, let’s take a step back and analyze how search algorithms work. Search algorithms determine how high (or low) a website will be ranked based on multiple different factors, one of which is consistent information on many different sources around the web . Having correct and consistent information on directories will signal to search algorithms that your business is authoritative and will therefore give it more weight (vs. a business with incorrect and inconsistent listings).

Matt Cutts dropped the hammer today on people that are guest blogging for links. Matt Cutts “I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company.” Downfall of Guest Blogging SEO He shows the following email: Here at SEJ we get 20+ of these same type pitches daily. It’s annoying. We are a site run by guest bloggers, though we’ve tightened up our guidelines to only accept the best posts out there. I, much like Cutts is really getting sick of all the crap out there. Cutts later explained “… stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy. In general I wouldn’t recommend accepting a guest blog post unless you are willing to vouch for someone personally or know them well. Likewise, I wouldn’t recommend relying on guest posting, guest blogging sites, or guest blogging SEO as a linkbuilding strategy.” So if you don’t get what he’s talking about. If you’re willing to have someone blog on your blog for you, they better produce good content and be a credible person. You’re staking your reputation and the reputation of your blog on them. I’d imagine that it will harm your blog/website if you have crappy content or crappy authors on it. Moving Forward First, SEO isn’t dead. Guest posting isn’t dead. Our lives aren’t over. If guest posting was your main strategy for getting SEO links, you may want to re-evaluate what you’re doing. Guest posting is NOT dead and can be a very good source of links, but more importantly interactions that drive REAL people to your site. Create amazing content and links that will help inspire people by it’s content. That’s what’ll really help your SEO. That type of SEO will never die. I’m positive that Cutts isn’t bashing on all guest posting but more on people that are only guest posting for a stupid link. Seriously people, stop guest posting for links. Guest post cause you’re now infront of a unique audience that you can teach something new too. Teach and inspire them. Show them something they haven’t seen before. Be a real part of a new community to expand your personal brand. Focus on HIGH-QUALITY and not lower/garbage posts.

Developed by Barracuda and provided free of charge to marketers and SEO agencies globally. The Panguin Tool enables you to see the impact of Googles various algorithm updates on your organic traffic (search for Panguin Tool to find us in position 1). One of the things we do as an SEO agency when analysing a given website is to examine the organic/natural traffic that Google sends through from ‘Google searches’. When we see spikes and dips in traffic along the trend line, we need to know why it has happened so we can replicate the spikes and reduce the dips. One explanation for these deviations can often be Google itself altering its algorithm and hence the way in which websites and webpages are categorised and ranked. Via Google Analytics we have access to our organic Google traffic data, and thanks to SEOmoz’s Google Algorithm Change History we have a documented timeline of the major Google updates. Would it not be great if we could see the two together? Well that is exactly what our tool does. Once you log-in to the tool you will be able to see your Google organic data from the last 12 months, overlaid with some vertical lines which represent the different Google algorithm updates. By simply rolling over an update you can see what Google was trying to target and then examine if your website may have been affected or not. Since we launched the Panguin Tool on September 6th 2012 it has been well received and has attracted some good comments, support and social buzz, particularly as a method for presenting data in a visual way. At Barracuda we continue to enjoy innovating and contributing to our industry.

Check out the 4 new & 8 upgraded SEO Tools and the brand new WSA directory! Almost 4 months after the previous release, our team is proud to announce the launch of the next version of Web SEO Analytics toolbox and the brand-new WSA Directory. The new Professional Toolbox The next Generation of the Toolbox that now includes new professional SEO Tools and a powerful upgraded API, offers a complete solution for all the key steps of developing a successful Online Marketing campaign. From Diagnostics to Planning and from Execution to Monitoring, the upgraded PRO Pack offers one of the most complete solutions on the Market. By making all the required additions and updates our Toolbox has evolved and now covers exactly the needs of both Online Marketers and Webmasters . The main focus of the toolbox is to help Web Professionals and site owners to Analyze their current campaigns, Strategize & adopt a winning action plan and Monetize their traffic by improving their Conversion Rates, by increasing their Online Sales and by offering better services to their clients. The 4 new tools that have been added in the toolbox are: This is a tool developed especially for SEO Copywriters that want to increase their search engine traffic by optimizing their pages, articles and blog posts with the right terms. This tool simplifies the time consuming task of keyword research providing a list of relevant and popular terms that are related to a particular query along with all of their statistics such as the Relevance, the Keyword Popularity, the number of Search Results and the Search Volume. This tool is designed to link the vital SEO tasks of Keyword Research and Competition Analysis and to speed up the Keyword selection process by screening the Keyword List and by excluding the terms for which we can not achieve first page positioning. The Keyword Difficulty tool will help you select the terms for which you have a good chance to rank and give you information about which of the submitted pages is the strongest and thus more likely to achieve good rankings.

If you are not ranked at the top, you are loosing business This data shows that the majority of searchers will click on the top result in Google for the keyword phrase they are searching. From there the clicks fall off drastically. If you are not on page one at all, your business is not even in the ballpark. Lets Do The Math In this example say that your keyword phrase is “emergency dentist melbourne fl” which receives 170 searches per month on Google. With a number one ranking you can expect to have 60 extra visitors to your website each month. If your average net revenue from a customer with an emergency dental need is $500 that is a potential $30, 000 net revenue that your competition is taking in. At position number two the figure is $17, 000. Position number three is $8, 500. From there your web generated revenue quickly goes to zero for this keyword phrase. The difference can be staggering for your business. This example applies to any business that has potential traffic from searches on Google. Whether you are a dentist, hotel, restaurant or any other category you most likely have the opportunity to cash in on free traffic from Google. What We Will Do For You We push your keywords to the top of Google, plain and simple. We are not a web design company or a one stop shop for all things web. With this single minded focus we are able to deliver the results that actually matter when it comes to revenue generation from free search engine traffic. Many businesses make the mistake of not focusing on rankings but rather the visual or “cool” factor of their websites, only for very few potential customers to land on their site because they have no keyword rankings. We have worked with a wide range of clients across many different markets, but the principles remain the same. You want more traffic to your website and less to your competition, and that is what we provide. The only question that remains is would you like to just survive or thrive? A Word About Who We Work With We work with companies that are up and running already, with quality products or services and simply want to move ahead further and faster than they currently are. We do not work with brand new businesses, adult websites, or low quality products or services. ROI Put your money to work for years to come. Our Search Engine Optimization is geared towards the future. It’s priced so that you can make an excellent return on invesment and is strong enough to last. Partnership You will always be able to reach us, we provide our personal cell numbers and emails so that you can reach us when you need to. We are an organization with a face. Reports We provide monthly reports that track the progress of your rankings in Google. If there are updates in the search industry we will make you aware of those, as well as provide feedback that can help your business. Ingenuity In order to stay on top of the dynamic nature search engine marketing we are members of a worldwide SEO think tank. Ensuring that as Google changes we change with it, giving you the latest cutting edge marketing.

Doing great keyword research is like being a fisherman. Reeling in the big profits takes knowledge, a Speedo, and a thermos. Whether you like it or not, keyword research is at the core of pay-per-click marketing and SEO practices. If you aren’t bidding or using the right keywords, short- or long-tail, then you could be selling yourself short on your potential success. And wouldn’t you rather reel in a big whale shark instead of a few sardines? (You can obviously tell I don’t know my fish very well.) See, doing good keyword research is like being a seasoned fisherman, casting his net at the right place, at the right time. So whether you’re looking to patch up the holes in your current keyword selection net, or expand the size of it, consider this article a potential algal bloom of profits. By now you should know that the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is no longer available – Google has folded the tool into Keyword Planner, a combination of the old keyword tool and the Traffic Estimator. Now, you need an AdWords account to get keyword suggestions from Google. But Google is far from the only keyword game in town. In this article, we’ll look at my eight favorite keyword research tools, plus some fancy tricks you can use to get a wooden peg leg up on your competition. Some are free, and some are not (but well worth the money). So without further ado, let’s take you from being like this guy... To this guy. 1.) WordStream’s Keyword Tool (free) The WordStream keyword tool allows you to target certain niches (groups of related keywords), gives you further suggestions, and also allows you to group them based off of a common theme for easy ad group launches. This keyword research tool gives you 30 searches for free, after that you’ll have to sign up for their WordStream Advisor to use it additionally. Hidden bonus? You get a free 7-day trial on top of the 30 free searches you already did! 2.) FreshKey ($20 software) Though not free, FreshKey is my #1 go-to keyword research tool that allows me to see beyond the regular Google Instant suggestions and predictions that appear when I start typing things in on Google. Not only does it give you new keyword ideas, variations, and synonyms, it also sorts the keywords depending on popularity. Instead of just getting four new keywords from the Google suggestions drop-down, you can now potentially get an unlimited amount of keywords if you keep adding small letter variations like a, b, c, d, etc. to the end of your keyword root.

What’s your SEO approach? Are you a do-it-yourself SEO or did you hire an SEO consultant? DIY SEO can be great because it is a whole lot cheaper than hiring an SEO professional. And even better, since you are your own SEO expert, you are in control of everything. On the flip side, DIY SEO can also be very time consuming and it can lead you down a dark path of destruction without you ever even knowing. It can also give you a false sense of security and make you believe you know enough to be effective, when in reality you know enough to be dangerous. The Case of Harry, the DIY SEO Over the last week I’ve been talking with a guy named Harry about his blog and upcoming website launch. Harry was connected with me via a mutual acquaintance, so I’ve been reviewing Harry’s activities and giving him free advice. This is something I typically do not do, but I like our mutual business partner and I believe in Harry’s project. Harry has an ultra secret website project and he has been blogging in an attempt to drive initial traffic and drive interest in the big reveal. Harry knows his competition and he has an idea what he’d search for if he were a potential visitor to his future website. Harry even put those words into Google to figure out the highest volumes. Harry, like many others I speak with, thinks he is fairly well prepared. After all, he has his 80 or so keywords in hand, he’s blogging regularly, and he is considering keyword density within his posts. Heck he’s even content tagging and sharing his posts via Facebook and Twitter. He is making progress with inbound traffic, yet none of it is actually coming through his blog posts. By why would this be the case you ask? He’s doing everything right isn’t he? No, not really. Harry’s intentions are excellent. And as a person, I think Harry is pretty darn cool. He is trying really hard to read up and SEO topics and learn from SEO experts. Harry is the average wannabe SEO expert. Although in Harry’s case, he is actually spending a significant amount of time trying to learn SEO and he has picked up a lot of information on SEO basics.

To monitor a search engine algorithm closely, you need to operate near and over the boundaries that you know. Inevitably, you take the risk of receiving penalties from search engines. I keep close ties to ex-clients in industries known for their less ethical approaches, just to see what does and doesn't work. Not surprisingly, all the old black hat tricks I used to play keep working. Making the Wrong Page Rank Related articles Influencing the SERP ranking of one's competitor might be hard. Influencing which page on their domain ranks is much easier. If the wrong page ranks, they're likely to miss a conversion. This is a trick derived from a specific search engine reputation management (SERM) tactic. Instead of pushing a negative result down, you can replace it by a neutral/positive page on the same domain. This way you don't have to match all the domain related factors before focusing on relevance and page importance. The new result replaces the old one, thus removing a negative result from the top 10.

Search engine Optimization can be done in a variety of ways. It’s flexibility and boundaries are almost limitless. There are two popular ways or methods to do SEO and they are called the ‘White hat’ method and the ‘Black hat’ method. You are either of the two or you’re in between. I’d like to keep my posts simple and short so that the newbies in this particular profession would easily understand. For this post, I would focus on the black hat method. First things first, why is it called ‘black hat’? I’m sure all of us have played MMORPG games in our playstation when we were kids. There would always be a ‘black mage’ character somewhere in the game. Black magic is known as the darker side of the arts. It is used to destroy, hurt or kill (compared to white magic). The term ‘black hat’ has been derived from this concept. Why? Because the black hat method is used to hurt some websites (and sometimes even your own) in order for you to gain Google juice. It all used to be legit but then some people started abusing these practices – and now it is generally frowned upon by search engines and the SEO community at large. Now if you get caught using these dark arts of SEO, you run the risk of getting your website banned from the search engines – which will probably hurt because 89% of the people use search engines to explore the internet. If you get banned from the search engines it will also hurt your brand, which you are most probably trying to build. Reputation is vital in the internet these days. That’s why there’s such a thing called ‘Online Reputation Management’ and ‘Search engine reputation management’ – 2 services (which I do provide by the way. Hehe.) Some of the Black hat practices: Keyword Stuffing Keyword stuffing is the art of packing keywords into your site even when it’s not making any sense anymore. It greatly lowers user-friendliness and information reputation and quality of your site in exchange for temporary increase in rankings. But I think Google now detects this one in a matter of days. Invisible Texts Using invisible texts is simply putting some keywords with the same color as your background so that it would be invisible to the site visitors. Doorway Pages Doorway pages are webpages or a collection of webpages that are merely put up as a dummy. This is done for search engine spiders to crawl links and keywords for the main site (which the doorway page would most probably point to). Usually, the users would never see or find these pages. These are just SOME of the practices that a black hat SEO practitioner uses. There are so much more. And even now, new ones are in development.

Today at the PRSA 09 conference, it was a packed room for TopRank CEO (and author of Online Marketing Blog) Lee Odden who gave a presentation on SEO for Public Relations. He started by explaining why SEO is/should be important to PR Professionals. In a 2008 Journalists Use of Search Survey by TopRank, we discovered that 91% of journalists use standard search to fulfill a component of their job whether researching a story or locating a subject matter expert. With journalists writing for more channels and with less resources making your content visible within search is critical. Here are Odden’s 10 SEO Tips: 1. Number one thing to do? Magic answer is that it depends on the problem. However, if you choose one item to tackle make sure your website is crawlable. If the site isn’t crawlable, then really nothing else you do in terms of SEO will matter. 2. Understand and Optimize PR Tactics The content that is likely already being created as part of the PR campaign is low hanging fruit in terms of SEO. Optimize the following content with keyword phrases (or those terms that journalists might be searching) to help your content become more visible: Press Releases Letters to the editor Online Newsroom Media kits Corporate blogs White papers Webinars/demos Newsletters Real world interviews published digitally In addition, Odden introduces the audience to the idea of Micromedia Optimization. Now that tweets and soon status updates are being integrated into the search engines, it’s important to optimize the content regardless of the channel. 3. PPC vs SEO for PR SEO is long term, part of a content process and contingent on content and links over time. PPC is on-demand, pay to play and an alternative to natural listings. If you have something you need to draw attention to right now, PPC is perhaps the more viable option as you can have ads live within minutes. 4. Keyword Research In order to optimize your existing content, a list of keyword phrases needs to be developed. Here’s how you build the list: 1. Brainstorm phrases 2. Import to a keyword research tool –Google Keyword Tool –Google Insights & Trends –WordTracker –Keyword Discovery –SEM Rush