10 Free SEO Tools

You don't have to break the bank to apply search engine optimization to your website. Here are ten free tools that will assist you in your SEO efforts:

1. SEO Quake - This toolbar for Firefox and Chrome provides important metrics for any website you visit, including Google PageRank, number of backlinks to a page and to a domain, number of pages indexed in Google, Alexa rank, and many others. This is a great place to start competitive research.
2. SEMRush - This free tool lets you see what phrases a given website is ranking for in Google. By looking at the phrases your competitors rank for, you can get an idea of what phrases you should be optimizing your own website for.
3. Google Webmaster Tools - This tool helps you ensure that there are no problems with your website that will hurt you in Google. You can see if you have any 404 errors, duplicate title tags, missing meta descriptions and many other issues. You can also submit an XML Sitemap to help Google crawl your entire website.
4. Online Spider Simulator - See any page of your website the way search engine spiders see it. This is a great way to make sure all of your content is visible to the search engines.
5. Keyword Density Tool - Provide a page url to this tool and it will return the keyword density of all phrases on the page. This will help you determine if your page is over-optimized for any phrases. Note that any phrases with a keyword density over 5% are likely over-optimized.
6. Rank Checker - This Firefox plug-in provides your website's Google, Yahoo, and Bing rankings of up to 100 keyword phrases at a time. Track your rankings over time to ensure that your SEO efforts are not in vain.
7. Yahoo Site Explorer - See what websites are linking to your website or to your competitors' websites. By looking at your competitors' backlinks, you can identify pages that may be likely to link to you as well.
8. Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer - Determine the quality of your backlinks by seeing what are the most commonly used anchor text variations that link to your website.
9. Google Keyword Tool - Research keyword phrases in your industry that people are searching for. This tool will give you suggestions of related keywords, as well as the number of times the phrases are searched each month and competitive data.
10. The Internet Marketing Club - This community of online marketers is a great place to find out new SEO information, exchange tips and ideas, and ask questions of industry leaders. There is also a free weekly webinar that teaches members various aspects of search engine optimization and other internet marketing principles.
    

Yahoo Announces Further Social Integration

Founded in 1994 and stated to have over 600 million users across its Yahoo platform,
Yahoo announces a major rollout yesterday -- further integration with Facebook. This means Yahoo is now allowing users to view their Facebook feed and update their status directly from their Yahoo mail and the Yahoo Homepage. As like the rest of the web, Yahoo is announcing these features as part of their plan to become more open and social. Users will also be able to manage privacy settings along with their information via a central dashboard called Yahoo Pulse.

Do you feel you will be using Yahoo more with the further developments they have been announcing? I do feel they are moving in the right direction as they continue to simplify their homepage while making it more social friendly. For the longest time, I have felt their homepage was overwhelming with the amount of information on it. Now it not only is more simplistic, but also gives more helpful social options.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Podcasting for Profit

Join Professional Podcaster and CEO of TenGoldenRules.com, Jay Berkowitz, as he is joined by the Founder of MorningCoach.com, JB Glossinger, and fellow podcasters who have discovered a way to make a living from Podcasting.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• How to Monetize Your Podcast
• How to Build Your Podcast Audience
• What it takes to be #1 on iTunes
• Social Media Strategies for Your Podcast

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, June 9, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Podcasting for Profit

TrafficWave - OceanSwell TEAM Update (#50)

"Where is Team OceanSwell headed?" "Where is this thing going?" "Why doesn't the Rotator move as fast as it used to and what's up with these Oceanswell Teams playing the one-upmanship game of promising ten referrals instead of five, or even fifteen?" "Is some other Team going to start promising 25... or 50?" "Are there any new and creative ways other than Get Referrals Fast to promote my personal TrafficWave URL?" "Does this Team co-op idea for TrafficWave have a future?"

These are the questions I get asked every single day. But before I can give my thoughts on any of that, it's important to review a little history. Fact: Before November of 2009, there simply wasn't much in the way of concentrated advertising for TrafficWave in the Traffic Exchanges other than the My Instant Biz promotion. I'd see some of Chase Swift's ads occasionally (which are very good, by the way) and the odd affiliate page thrown up there, but that's about it. However, with splash pages that I designed on my own, plus a viral ebook I wrote and with the TrafficWave co-op (and some other stuff), I personally referred over 70 people in 2009. Didn't matter. Almost every single one of them quit, and it cost me a small fortune in time, energy and money. But I didn't quit. That's because winners never quit and quitters never win. But that's when I started observing the phenomenon of the GDI Team-Builds. And when I tested one and it worked, I got real excited because I realized that nobody had tried this with the TrafficWave affiliate plan yet. So, over the course of a few days, I conceived a loosely organized idea for a TrafficWave Team-Build that I decided to call 'Team OceanSwell'... and I think Brian Rooney should give me a medal for it.

Today, the Team OceanSwell idea is six months old and it has set TrafficWave on fire! A year ago, you could buy shares in the TrafficWave affiliate co-op all month long. Today they sell out in 24 hours. In the span of six short months, the concepts incorporated within Team OceanSwell have spawned multiple 'me-too' copycat programs and various other systems centered around the awesome potential of TrafficWave's affiliate sales program. It's simply amazing how the thoughts of one person can change the online landscape in such a way.... and it happens real, real FAST. It's like chain-lightning in this business. If you're talking to me about 90 days ago, you're talking through a cloud of trail dust. Take this brand new program for example: SuccessQuick

Evidently, it was inspired by Team OceanSwell since they reference the promotion more than once in their product description! But you know what? SuccessQuick is a really good idea!!! It's a downline-builder, Traffic Exchange and red-hot money maker. That they would actually compare it to Team OceanSwell in their product description tells you what can happen in six short months when just one person comes up with a new idea. Amazing, isn't it? Internet Marketing is a dimension of thought as well as action, and you'd better be prepared for both - and be prepared to move FAST.

As for our Team Ad & Team Rotator method, it will continue indefinitely and continue to evolve. But because of the rapidly changing landscape, the pendulum is now swinging backward, toward a renewed emphasis upon learning how to actually USE the TrafficWave product and establishing systems for promoting your own affiliate URL outside of the Team-Build. Yes, the Team co-op will continue to work, but it will be slower now. Accept that. That's because interest in TrafficWave is now at an all-time high.

That is why it's important right now to quickly sum up a few basics for online business success with TraffcWave (and/or anything else):

1) PLEASE... treat your business as a business, and do it at all times. You need to get serious.

2) You need a website and/or blog within which you can place your TrafficWave advertising banner or subscription form. To get automated traffic to it, I recommend three things: ExitFire, TweetTrafficRush and Link Referral.

3) Follow-up personally with your referrals. There's a real person on the other side of your computer screen, so don't try to hide from them. Get to know the people you're doing business with and are partnering with. You will do SO much better if you do! This is a people business, as ALL business is!

4) Most important of all, it you're in this for the long-haul (and presumably for the rest of your life!), then you must commit to the task of building a large opt-in mail list - and TrafficWave just happens to be the perfect tool for that. List-building is going to be the central pillar of your Internet Marketing career and TrafficWave has an excellent affiliate plan to go along with it.

To be a part of TrafficWave and our OceanSwell Team co-op, you will need to enroll contact me (twoceanswell@hotmail.com), and I will give you the link to enroll through. Then you can begin your own 'Internet Marketing Journey' with TrafficWave... and maybe even get rich.

Have a good and productive weekend!

Google Insights for Search

I attended the SFIMA Summit this past mid May and was blown away by Albert Chin’s presentation. Although he spoke about many topics the one that really caught my attention was Google Insights for Search.

With Google Insights for Search you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties.

Trying to choose the proper advertising message for a campaign is always a slippery slope. Insights gives you the ability to determine which messages resonate best. For example, a home builder may be unsure of whether it should highlight cost, location, or square footage to market a new development. When the three features are entered into Insights, you can see which words have the most interest.

Another great feature of Insights is the ability to examine seasonality. For example, a private island in the Bahamas that offers dolphin encounters may want to find out when people are search for swimming with dolphin terms most often.

Insights can be a helpful tool in creating brand associations as well. For example, a new client comes to TenGoldenRules.com looking for a new advertising campaign. The client needs to know what competing brands are doing and how they should position their products against them. Insights allows you to compare multiple products in one search. By carefully examining the results we can better help our clients understand the competitors’ offers, thereby creating a superior advertising campaign for our clients brands.

The final area that Insights can be useful in is when entering new markets. A coffee distributor may be looking to expand into new markets. By entering in coffee + distributor and comparing the data across multiple countries, such as Canada, Italy, and France, the distributor can get a sense of where interest is the highest.

As you can see, Insights gives you some great tools to research and fine tune your marketing campaigns. If nothing else take a little time and experiment with the tools, I have a feeling you’re going to love them.

Google Rolls Out Personalized Search Pages

Within the next few days, more people will be able to have a personalized Google homepage, using their favorite photo. You can choose a photo from your computer or Picasa web album. If you've visited Bing, you probably notice the random images when you do searches there. Google took a step further and allowed their users to choose any photo they want. I think the idea of having a personalized Google page is neat, and makes searching on Google more your own. If you're not into that, you can still use the classic, clean Google homepage.

What do you think of this new feature? Do you prefer the classic white Google homepage, or will you be personalizing your homepage with your favorite photo?

Google Yourself Lately?

A recent Pew Research Center study showed us that 57% of adults have entered their own name into a search engine. As far as I'm concerned, the remaining 43% need to do so immediately. It is not a matter of curiosity, it is a matter of maintaining your reputation.

There is so much personal information available digitally about us these days. In many cases, this is not information we want to share with the world. So if you haven't Googled yourself lately, you don't even know if there is negative information about you online. 21st century reputation management weighs heavily on the Internet. In order to prevent your reputation from being tarnished, the first step is to identify the information about you that is available.

Hopefully no one is talking trash about you online, but what do you do if you Google yourself and find some bad publicity? The idea is to push anything negative down the search results and off the first page. The best way to do so is to create as many personal social media profiles as you can. By creating profiles on websites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and PeoplePond, these profiles can show up on search results for your name and push down the trash talk. One thing to remember, however, is to fill out your profiles completely. Take advantage of all the space you are allotted and your profiles will be more likely to show at the top of the results.