Working out where we currently stand in the SEO world...

[Quest Cloud Solutions Ltd]

Hi guys,

After having a new website designed (which we're very pleased with so far), we're looking to improve on the SEO side of things. We're using the Yoast plugin to optimise all pages, adding good content regularly etc., but I want to know how we currently stand.

What tools are people using to identify PageRank and the quality of backlinks, etc.? I hear SEO dudes talking about this kind of thing all the time, but can't seem to find the relevant tools.

Apologies if this has been asked before...

Cheers

Ryan

 

[Uzair Kharawala]

I use a couple of tools which are really good:

• MOZ extension for Chrome
• Onlywire.com for creating bookmarks on social media on automation

There are loads and loads of tools out there, but I think 'less is more' when it comes to SEO. Just do a few things well and you'll start to see the results.

Hope this helps.

 

[Quest Cloud Solutions Ltd]

Thanks Uzair; that Moz toolbar looks very helpful!

Any other suggestions people?

 

[a1exn1987]

Raven Tools is a good, but paid, tool. It gives you a lot of information on ranks and backlinks.

 

[fisicx]

Your pagerank score is pointless as is the number of backlinks.

Don't bother with any toolbars. All you need to do is analyse your visitors, if the are lanmding on tyhe right pages form the search engines and then picking up the phone then you are doing OK. If not then you will know what pages you need to promote.

If any SEO dudes are mentioning pagerank they probably don't know what they are talking about.

 

[zigojacko]

You can monitor your backlinks with Majestic SEO if you register and verify your website with them.

 

[theseomarky]

The best metric of all is if you are getting actual comments on your website from real people that means that you site is ranking and people are interacting with your site.... especially if you post one thing and then a couple hours later you get real comments.

 

[Quest Cloud Solutions Ltd]

I get that the best metric is the traffic and interaction you're receiving, but if it's very low then we've got little to go on. The original question really was to see what tools you SEO dudes are using to monitor where a site is currently at, and to look at the options where we might be falling down, whether that be dodgy backlinks, missing info in tags and whatnot, etc etc...

Some of the tools mentioned so far look useful, so thanks for those guys!

Any other help is greatly appreciated. I see the value in SEO services, but the other Directors here aren't convinced. I'm essentially looking for ways of evidencing the work that SEOs put in and the tools they use and the effort that goes in to making our website work as well as it can for us.

Cheers

Ryan

 

[fisicx]

What part of the business makes the most money? When people call you on the phone what words do they use to describe what you do? Maybe you are not getting the traffic because you are not targeting the things people are looking for. As an example, you offer cloud solutions. If people are using different words in the searches you won't ever get their traffic. What if they don't want end to end IT solution but are just looked for a data host? What if the want a backup service but don't care if it's hosted or online.

Stop using techno babble and start selling the things people are searching for. That's where you SEO needs to begin.

 

[zigojacko]

I get that the best metric is the traffic and interaction you're receiving, but if it's very low then we've got little to go on. The original question really was to see what tools you SEO dudes are using to monitor where a site is currently at, and to look at the options where we might be falling down, whether that be dodgy backlinks, missing info in tags and whatnot, etc etc...

Some of the tools mentioned so far look useful, so thanks for those guys!

Any other help is greatly appreciated. I see the value in SEO services, but the other Directors here aren't convinced. I'm essentially looking for ways of evidencing the work that SEOs put in and the tools they use and the effort that goes in to making our website work as well as it can for us.

Cheers

Ryan

Investing in a technical site audit of your website that analyses every aspect of it would be great value for money, a one-off cost (and then as for implementation, you could either address internally (if you can) or tackle stage by stage). Getting everything right onsite will play a large role in making pages rank more successfully long-term and should be a more convincing approach to consider for your other director's without them worrying over the umpteen horror stories of monthly retainer services.

Ensure your arsenal includes:-

Google Analytics
Google Webmaster Tools (verify your site)
Google Page Speed Insights
Google Keyword Planner
Bing Webmaster Tools
Majestic SEO (verify your site)

That's all you really need to measure the progress of your website and the effectiveness of any digital marketing efforts. How you utilise these tools and how much you understand of them will greatly determine what you get out of this though. And it is this that the cost of expertise in this field really delivers you a return on what you invest into it.

Hope that helps for now though.

 

[eiger]

Use moz.com and ahrefs.com to monitor your backlinks. With moz.com you can also register your site to be crawled for errors on an ongoing basis and see the overall seo health of your site. As above, Google Webmaster Tools will also show any errors and the general health of your site.