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bober

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Hi,

I came across these seo tools seomz & majesticseo. I'm just wondering do you / online companies use seo tools such as these? If so what tools would you recommend? or should I just do my own seo work & stay away from these tools...

Majesticseo is interesting in that you can analysis your competitors links, filter out links that are of no real relevance & just concentrate on the most important links.

*Basically what I'm asking are the general online marketing professional community using tools that I just don't know about? (like trade secrets as such). (BTW I don't/never have work for an online marketing company).

Thanks.
 

mneylon

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I've tried a few of them. They can be helpful at identifying issues and ways to make changes and improve
 

link8r

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They can be useful. Especially when you work on large sites or realise that even a small site can have hundreds of links, elements, images etc that could be broken.

The only problem is, quite often, that not all the links are returned by search engines when you search on a domain name - I have some clues as to why.

The thing about the link checkers - and the very reason I don't use them - is that it assumes its about quantity, and it assumes that they're all good (good/bad - not meaning that they could be harmful!). IF you have links from clients, suppliers, independent bodies - those are often the best links - unidirectional, relevant and authoritive. Software can't create relationships like that!
 

bober

New Member
ok they seem like positive enough feedback, thanks. Think I might give seomz a bash - they have a free 30 day trial :)
 

Satanta

New Member
..tools that I just don't know about? (like trade secrets as such).
If there are any 'trade secrets' being used, you can be pretty sure nobody will mention them in a public forum ;)

One tool (or type of tool) that you should look at is xenu link sleuth. It's fairly crude at a high level, simply crawls your site and returns the relevant information on link status, but you'd be surprised at just how powerful that information can be in identifying other factors like issues with the site architecture. There are lots of tutorials out there with tips on how to use it or get the most out of it, certainly one worth playing with a little (there are various other similar alternatives that do pretty much the same job, so personal preference on which type to use will come into play).

As link8r and blacknight both said, tools can be handy to give a very quick high level snapshot. Just avoid becoming overly dependant on them, you need to understand the basics before you can use tools in a meaningful way, and be sure to use the right tool for your needs. Focus on tools that provide you with actionable and quantifiable information and not ones that give random 'scores' that are meaningless without true context.
 

bober

New Member
will mention them in a public forum ;)
Yea I was thinking that - As said above I've 'YET" to work directly for a company so It's just hard/very time consuming trying to build an online presence with no contacts as such. I am thankful for IWM and the information they/users provide.

Thanks for the link, (defo look into it) I've recently just set up a campaign with seomoz so I'm just gonna see how I get on with that for now:)
 

Satanta

New Member
Thanks for the link, (defo look into it) I've recently just set up a campaign with seomoz so I'm just gonna see how I get on with that for now:)
I don't use seomoz personally, but I'm almost sure some of their toolkit provides similar functionality (monitors your site, reports broken links, etc.), so if you can keep things to a smaller number of different tools and still achieve the desired results that's obviously preferable.

Remember that even if you get to a point where you find a 'paid' toolkit you're happy with, it's handy to have an idea of the various free offerings out there should clients wish to perform any independent monitoring. The biggest problem is simply finding which tools work best, given the host that are available out there. Even the standard webmaster tools are getting better at identifying many of the issues that will pop up.

If you've been looking into the area, I'm sure you'll have already come across Raven Tools (free 30 day trial available). One of the more common agency tool sets used in the industry. Has its pros and cons, just as the others do, so very much a case of 'horses for courses' and finding which matches your needs at a price that you're willing to pay (do try to avoid wasting time trying out 'free trials' on a product that you won't/can't realistically sign up to long term [be it seomoz, raven, or any other] - it's a waste of time and effort getting over the hump of the learning curve just in time to have it removed), then focusing on that set. http://raventools.com/
 

bober

New Member
I'm sure you'll have already come across Raven Tools (free 30 day trial available). it's a waste of time and effort getting over the hump of the learning curve just in time to have it removed), then focusing on that set.

I'm currently using seomoz & raven (30day trial) - just trying to figure out which will best suits me. seomoz is pretty expensive at €99 compared to raven at €15 per month.
 

Satanta

New Member
seomoz is pretty expensive at €99 compared to raven at €15 per month.
Do the restrictions on the seomoz tools place it closer to pro than solo with raven? (solo looks more aimed at a DIY'er, only 3 sites, than an actual marketer that will have numerous sites - although a decent way to do a longer term 'test' I guess)
 

mneylon

Administrator
Staff member
I'm currently on the free trial of Raven
Cost doesn't bother me *too much*
If you were able to tweak your site to get better (and more) organic traffic you'd be saving yourself money on PPC :)
 

bober

New Member
@Satanta Actually I just realised for $15 Solo with Raven you only get 3 websites & they don't give you facebook & twittter monitoring (you need to purchase pro $99 - 2 users, Social monitoring & unlimited domains).
Then
seomoz pro version $99 gives you only 5 campaigns/sites (plus it doesn't have the social monitoring) you do get access to an API application where you can get up to 1000 backlinks. (I not familiar/know about API's).

All in all looks like I'm gonna have to spend $99 - possibly pushing towards raven with 2 users & unlimited domains. wanna go halves, hah. (I do prefer seomoz friendly interface/userability)

@blacknight suppose it is a small price to pay if you can gain more organic traffic & lower your ppc :)
 

Satanta

New Member
There are various other tools out there (I frequently come across webceo/ibp/etc), but many of the tools out there are 'questionable' and don't use APIs to access the information (worth reading up on APIs a little, it's how the tools work without breaching googles 'no automated requests' guideline - I have a vague recollection of you hitting that problem with Quake before?).

wanna go halves, hah. (I do prefer seomoz friendly interface/userability)
Heh, I've never looked into it to be honest, but I'd assume that the tools provide a single 'account' with access for two 'users'. So trying to share like that would (if I'm right, but am open to correction here) allow the other person to access your client data and vice versa. So do be very careful there.

While the UI/UX is very important, try and focus on which is giving you the most beneficial/accurate/important information when you're making a call on it. It's the data you'll be basing your decisions on when optimising, so it's priority number one.

@blacknight suppose it is a small price to pay if you can gain more organic traffic & lower your ppc :)
They defiantly can provide excellent value for money. When used correctly, they can dramatically increase efficiency and speed things up. There's not much available through them that can't be gotten elsewhere for free or for a lower cost as a stand alone, just a question of how much time it will save you and how much you value your time.

As mentioned before, do focus on the building blocks before getting bogged down in the tools. If you can't see/identify the issue independent of the tool (albeit in a longer time) then it's simply papering over the cracks (Pet peeve: I've seen various firms pump out fairly meaningless automated reports [sometimes free ones] at extortionate costs claiming it to be 'their work').
 

Beaker123

New Member
I use seo powersuite and IBP PRO for site auditing and link checking, 2 very powerful tools. IBP puts out some fantastic looking reports
 

I4Visual

New Member
We don't use such tools to be honest
the best and only tools you need are easy to get -
Google Backlinks checker.
SEO for Firefox.
Pagerank... of course:)
 
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