Need to check inbound links pointing to your website?
The best - and easiest - tool to use is Yahoo.
Go to www.Yahoo.com and enter link:www.yourwebsite.com
Within the Yahoo results, change the "Show Inlinks" option to "Except From This Domain" to get an accurate count of inbound links to your website.
Tip: Why not use this tool to check inbound links to your competitor's website?
Today, for the first time in nearly 18 years, I will actually drive to work.
While it's not a big deal for millions of Americans who commute to the office every day, I've had the luxury and privilege of working from home. No rush hours. No traffic jams. No worries over bad weather.
Until today.
After 13 years as an independent software consultant and trainer, I founded Purple Trout, LLC - a search engine marketing firm - nearly five years ago. For over three years, I operated Purple Trout myself before bringing on employees, freelancers and contractors. As business continued to grow, I continued to add staff.
Crammed into the lower level of a tri-level home, desks were pushed next to desks; power strips were filled, and circuit breakers were maxed out. We were, literally, sardines and we prayed that no one came to "work" with a bad cold.
Conferences were held in the kitchen; employee interviews were conducted at Starbucks and I actually hosted one webinar in my bedroom because space was limited.Warmer weather allowed us to move outside from time-to-time and have lunch while watching deer, squirrels and birds in the backyard.
It worked. We made it work.
Over the weekend, Purple Trout, LLC moved into its new offices on Monmouth Street near Newport on the Levee in Newport, Kentucky (just a raft and a paddle away from downtown Cincinnati).
While the two-story building is a little bit larger that what we really need, it gives us room to grow; room to host meetings, interviews and small conferences. We have room to spread out; room to think; room to have a private telephone call and room to cough without everyone worrying if you have a new flu strain.
It hasn't always been easy.
The usual start-up problems haunted us from time-to-time: long hours; contracts; deadlines; pleasing clients and fighting off vendors. Of course, there were ice storms (when I'd worry about a power outage) and a hurricane in the fall (yes, in Ohio) that forced us to work from a local library.
It's been worth it.
So, today, as I open the door to our new office, I will have a mini celebration in my brain. Working from home has been great, but now it's time for this fish to grow and move into a bigger pond.
But first I'll need to find a place to park.
Have you had the opportunity - or desire - to check out Microsoft's new search engine Bing?
Sigh.
The reviews are in and no one seems to think it's any big deal. Bing is Microsoft Live with a fresh coat of paint.
Microsoft is pumping $100 million in an advertising campaign, but does that mean regular Google users will switch to Bing? Or will some Yahoo users crossover? I seriously doubt it. Everyone is trying to catch up.
I did read one prediction: Bing will become a powerful e-commerce and shopping search engine.
We'll see.
Another tool you can use...
Your website needs an XML sitemap (which I like to call "MapQuest for search engines"). You can find one of the best XML sitemap generators at http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/.
Four steps.
Free.
A no brainer.
Ready for another cool - and useful - search engine optimization tool? How about a bunch of them?
Let's go back to www.seobook.com for a host of tools you should be considering.
Once there, take a close look at:
Note: These tools work with Firefox only.
My only complaint with SEO Book is the constant and annoying pop-up dialog box. Get past the sales pitch and you'll be fine.
Why hire Purple Trout?
What we do works.
Want to learn more? Ask for a FREE Search Engine Optimization Analysis of your company's website.
Over the next couple of months, Purple Trout, LLC will be introducing some new search engine marketing services to its clients and prospects.
Nope, we are not re-inventing the wheel here, nor do we have "top secret" information from Google so that we can make Top 10 ranking promises.
However, everything we offer will continue to involve search, search engines and search results.
We're excited. Our team is excited and some of our test clients are excited as well.
Stay tuned!
Over the next few months, I'll share with you some of the best - and FREE - SEO tools on the Internet.
If you know of some tools you like, let me know and I'll post them here (and give you credit as well).
One of the best, SEO tool websites - hands down - is SEO Book. Great website with several useful SEO tools. You can find them at www.seobook.com.
Purple Trout, LLC, a Search Engine Marketing company located in Cincinnati, Ohio, is offering a free, online webinar focusing on the basics of Pay Per Click campaigns in Google and other search engines.
The webinar – “Diving Into Paid Search” – will be held on Thursday, May 21, 2009.
Steve Phillips, President of Purple Trout, LLC, and Ilona Vijnik, Project Director, will provide an overview of PPC; how to set up a campaign; budgeting, and how to manage and maintain your Pay Per Click campaigns.
The webinar will take place from 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. EST. Admission is free.
To register, visit www.purpletrout.com/seminar.html.
For more information, please contact Steve Phillips at (513) 885-5000 or steve@purpletrout.com
About Purple Trout, LLC:
Purple Trout, LLC is a Search Engine Marketing company located in Cincinnati, Ohio, specializing in honest and ethical SEM techniques to obtain higher rankings for company websites in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines. For more information, visit www.purpletrout.com
Yes, Google recently updated its search engine, but don't push the panic button.
If you haven't heard the news, don't freak out.
It will be OK.
Here's the scoop:
According to Google, the first new change users will notice is a small blue "show options" link in the light blue bar above the first page of their search results. By clicking the link, searchers can choose to separately view results that are videos, reviews, forums, etc. Or, they can sort the results by time. For example, choosing to review results published within the last 24 hours, the past week or the past year.
One of the options is called "Wonder Wheel" which offers a visual representation of suggestions.
So far, so good.
The second change in Google is called "rich snippets" which is information Google scraped from the Web (note: Yahoo already has this feature).
Third, Google will introduce data-scraping tool called "Google Squared" which will be available later this month. Here, Google will present info in square tables rather than in a list of search results, so users can quickly compare information on products or research topics.
"Unlike a normal search engine, Google Squared doesn't find web pages about your topics. Instead, it automatically fetches and organizes facts from across the Internet," according to Google in a company blog post.
Google also introduced a new application for the Android phone operating system called "Sky Map" which allows users to hold their phone up to the night sky and get an annotated image of the constellations.
See? The sky isn't falling after all.
Keep working on all the correct and important SEO elements, such as content and search and don't let an SEO "guru" blame your poor rankings on this update.
