How Real SEO Analysis Works

If you're serious about SEO, you need to know how to analyze the information you uncover.

A decade ago, businesses were wondering whether they need to be part of the Internet. By the late 1990s, plenty signed up and did the basics like placing keywords in the META data.

Unfortunately, that's all some companies do - pick out keywords that may or may not be appropriate and pack them into the META keyword data set that search engines pretty much ignore.

Proper analysis requires sound thinking and judgment in many areas. We'll focus on two major ones - Top 300 and page caching.

Top 300
What's the Top 300? It doesn't sound too valuable unless your biggest customer of the last 10 years actually traveled that deep into the depths of search engine information overload.

Actually, any number will do depending on your interest. Start with your 10 favorite search terms (or carefully targeted search terms). To track your growth, think big. If you're ranking No. 292 one week and then a week later, you're No. 154, you know you're on the right track.

Too many SEO managers make the mistake of tracking the Top 30 results and miss out on the wonderful fact that they're already No. 31. Don't be poorly informed.

Page Caching
Google is the best for this because of how fast it continues to reindex pages. Create your own Google Cache Calendar - a Word or Excel document will do. List your strategic pages - say about 10 for starters. Apply the Top 300 rule, check your rankings and record the cache dates. Over time, those dates form patterns that can help you determine when Google will return next - enabling you to time your next set of SEO updates.

If you're not in the Top 300, you can still get some perspective from the page cache analysis if you're still planning to optimize a given page. It's easy to find the page - if it's in Google's index. Just enter the URL as your search phrase or find some unique text from the page and search for that string of words with quotes on each end. Either will result in a top SEO ranking and you can grab the cache date.

The bottom line is that you need to track you're progress before making changes to the strategic SEO pages.

Michael Murray is vice president of Fathom SEO, a SEO firm. He authored the "U.S. Manufacturers Resist Natural Search Engine Optimization and Online Sales Leads" study and a white paper, "Search Engine Marketing: Get in the Game." michael@fathomseo.com

Earthtimes (press release)

Search Engine Optimization Inc. Announces New Addition to Senior ... MSNBC - 11 hours ago As CDO for Search Engine Optimization Inc. (SEO Inc.), Ed will develop new strategies for future sales growth and company expansion as well as spearhead the ... Affordable SEO Marketing Services PowerHomeBiz.com (press release) SEO, Inc. Hires Executive socalTech.com NY SEO Firm Ranks High With NY Businesses WebWire (press release) 4Hoteliers - Search Engine Land all 40 news articles

Understanding SEO Basics For Your Business Meadow Free Press, ID - 2 hours ago When it comes to advanced competition in your niche or in advanced seo tactics when your competitor seems immovable from the top spot on Google, ...

USA SEO Pros Beats Recession Lows PR.com (press release), NY - 5 hours ago As the number of jobless claims increases across the country, it would seem that many people are turning to home businesses and USA SEO Pros has the numbers ...

Save 50% on the 3-Day Advanced SEO Weekend Workshop Coming to ... PR Web (press release), WA - 5 hours ago Leading SEO industry educators Robin Nobles, John Alexander and Michael Marshall will be meeting on Jan. 24-26 for a special hands-on SEO skills Workshop ...

Video SEO “Posers” Piss Me Off! ReelSEO Online Video News, CA - 13 hours ago Online video has become incredibility opportunistic for many new businesses to enter the space, with more people claiming to be “experts” in Video SEO. ...

Linking Related Theme Pages To Improve SEO Practical Ecommerce (subscription), Grand Junction - 22 hours ago Consider using a technique called link siloing to improve search engine optimization for your site. The idea is to link related theme pages supporting pages ...

Baytech Releases Long-Awaited Integrated SEO / PPC Marketing Solution Business Wire (press release), CA - Jan 8, 2009 “SEO is like a foundation for all websites,” says Jennifer Lin, Marketing Director at Baytech. “Keep in mind that SEO is optimizing a website for better ...

SEO 'aids social media release success' Digital Response Media, UK - 2 hours ago Search engine optimisation (SEO) can help to increase the success of marketing campaigns involving social media news releases, it has been suggested. ... PR Interview: Become a Social Media Release Convert: 8 Steps MarketingSherpa.com (subscription) all 2 news articles

Fantastic Growth Propels USA SEO Pros into 2009 BigNews.biz (press release), MA - Jan 6, 2009 Now that the buzz of the holiday season is dying down, it’s time to get back to business at USA SEO Pros. The numbers are in for 2008, and it was another ...

SEO Consult Maintains Its Ranking as The UK's Number 1 Search ... MSNBC - Jan 6, 2009 TopSEOs, the independent authority on search vendors, has ranked SEO Consult, the UK's leading Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company, as the number one ... How PPC and SEO Can Benefit Companies In A Struggling Economy Promotion World (press release) all 19 news articles