Sacramento Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Guy

Here is a great tool called website grader that allows you to grade your website on a number of factors. You can even enter competing websites to see how you compare to them. The best takeaway from this report is the number of inbound links, the number of other websites that point to yours. This is valuable because Google will give you a higher website rank just for having links from others.

Check it out and let me know if you need help interpreting your results.

HubSpot Website Grader for SEO

Here is why free search engine traffic achieved through search engine optimization is so much better than paid search called search engine marketing. The obvious reason (besides the expense) is that when you stop paying for the sponsored links, the traffic stops visiting your site. A residual payoff is to rank high in the middle section of search engines with the free results because you can stay positioned there for a long time, meaning optimize once and traffic keeps on coming.

The second reason is that free search gets 250% more traffic than paid search, according to Online Marketing Research. That means a number 1 paid rank is equivalent to a 9 or 10th place free rank. This eye tracking study shows where users look (the red portion) and click (the red Xs).

Google Eye Tracking Study

Check out http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/. From what I’ve gathered, the numbers are DAILY search volume. Type photographer (for example) and you’ll get a list of relevant words, then you can click on individual ones to see breakdown, for example click family photographer and you’ll find what people are searching within that niche. There are some limitations, but good for generating ideas.

Don’t forget – Zach can do all of your keyword research for you as a part of his search optimization package!