True SEO beyond RED Yellow Green

[bigebiz]

Hello 30Dc's. People are asking a lot of the Red Green Yellow Questions of SEO based upon the Market Samurai SEO Analysis tool.

It is a fantastic tool and gives great information, but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater or go gung ho based on a COLOR. Use it as a guide.

However there really is no way to say RED Green or Yellow is a definitive answer based upon the scope of information that is given. More Research is required. Use the Color as a Guide but take it one step further.

Suggestions:

If you find a Niche you like, Find a Keyword Term that is Good based upon the Market Samurai traffic data, Run the SEO analysis but then take it a step further. Instead of saying RED GREEN YELLOW as a determining factor. Actually look at the Results on the screen.

Ask yourself these Questions about the 10 Ten Results:

Look at the Actual Domains, are they Authority Sites?
Amazon, Ebay, Wiki. About. etc?

Is the Keyword in the URL?
order of importance
keyword .com
Keyword. com/Leyword/Keywords
keyword.garbageurl .com
garbageurl/Keyword .com


Search the actual Backlinks via Yahoo
(linkdomain:www. domainname. com)

generally speaking the first results of this list of yahoo will be the most valuable links. So evaluate them.


WHO is linking to THEM? Where are they getting the Backlinks,
what sites? what domains, what platforms? Same Niche Themes?
are there links coming from Blogs, Bookmarks, authority websites, Forums etc?
does it appear the are new links or very old links?

Meaning another Person is Actively working on LINK BUILDING as well? If they have 10K links and you have 0 and you both are working for links will you do enough work to beat the other GUY/GAL?

What is the Anchor Text in the Backlinks?
Search Google for SEO Backlink Anchor Tool you will find some.

When was the last Google Cache for those domains?,
Use SEOFirefox plugin to find out, Is it recent?

Is the AGED Domain Updating and actually Relevant information?
is the site growing, new blog posts, new information, etc

How many Pages of the Site are Indexed in Google?
use command Site: domainname. com

What are the ON site SEO factors of the Domains?
Look at a View Source. Are the keywords in the Title? H1 tags, Are their Internal Links with the Keyword, What is the keyword density of the site how many times do you see the word appear on the page?
( Look at the actual Cache of the page in Google and the keyword terms will be Highlighted)

Are they In Yahoo in Dmoz?
If they are in Yahoo either they are very old site, Authority site, or Paid $300- 400 to be included. A webmaster that pays that much, has a budget and is usually actively working his Keyword and Site building links and traffic.

If they are in DMOZ another sign of Age, as well as a unfortunate powerful LINK that Google give weight.
In a very generic sense, you might have to create 1000 backlinks just to overcome the power of a DMOZ LINK


You have to evaluate all of those factors to really SEE if the Competition is Vulnerable for you to overtake those ranking positions.


Sorry but a Green, Yellow, Red generic LOOK is not a true SEO look into the possibility of breaking into a keyword.

If you find a Niche TERM you can create content upon, has the Right Traffic Numbers, then Take the time to really research the SEO Competition and not relay on a Red Yellow Green Assumption. You will save yourself a lot of time and effort down the road to success, if you stop and take a REAL look at the competition and look for Vulnerability.


Top Level SEO Main Factors:

Amount of Links
Source of Links
Keyword Anchor Text Of Links
Keyword in URL / Domain
Amount of Pages Indexed
Dmoz
Yahoo
Domain Age
On Site SEO ( Title, Body, H1, Keyword Density, Image Tags, Internal Linking, PR)


Use the above list as a Guide and research and the answers become clearer.

There is a lot more to SEO, but this is a good place to start to analysis the competition.

[BrentH]

Great post, Eric!

A huge amount of detail here.

Re "Google Cache Date" - check out the "CA" column in Market Samurai... This is sensitive to receiving Google Time-outs though.

Brent

[nrocy]

Superb post! Even if some of it seems more/too advanced to people, a real take-home from your post is that we ought to be thinking about what MS is telling us!

That said, the generic red/yellow/green approach is probably enough for people who aren't too interested in understanding SEO at the moment and just want to find something to dabble with.

Not me! I'm off to re-read your post in detail!

Thanks for taking the time to put it together,
- Paul

[tommyfocus]

Wow!! Some much more info to learn and understand!!!!

[BrentH]

Eric's a smart man when it comes to SEO.

Within 24 hours of owning Market Samurai, he'd already achieved a top 10 ranking for a keyword that he'd found using Market Samurai.

[grollsta]

Eric, top quality post. Thanks!

[ademartin]

Another great SEO post Eric.

Thanks,

Ade

[Tina0827]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share all this information! It definitely is helpful (even though I really don't understand some of it!). I have been struggling with the red, yellow, green thing and I did go back and look at some of the stuff you had pointed out.

What I found was that some of the red links went back to books on google.books and wiki sites. The same was true as I continued researching as you suggested.

The keyword phrase I wasn't sure about was looking better.

I guess the moral of the story is that we can't judge a book by it's cover!

Market Samuri has given me a temendous amount more info then I knew how to get before and the info you gave here takes it to the next level.

In case it hasn't been said...thank you to all for their generousity in sharing tips and tricks that can make us all 30DC winners!

Tina
Twitter / bestreflections
Tina Williams - FriendFeed

[KarenKramer]

Eric.... Have I told you lately that I think ...You're Awesome!

[webmack]

Thanks for the detailed info Eric.

Is the Keyword in the URL?
order of importance
keyword .com
Keyword. com/Leyword/Keywords
keyword.garbageurl .com
garbageurl/Keyword .com

Question - is keyword.relatedphraseurl.com likely to rank significantly higher than keyword.genericurl.com? Enough higher to eventually overcome the on & off-page SEO advantages of an established genericurl.com?

Top Level SEO Main Factors:
Amount of Links
Source of Links
Keyword Anchor Text Of Links
Keyword in URL / Domain
Amount of Pages Indexed
Dmoz
Yahoo
Domain Age
On Site SEO ( Title, Body, H1, Keyword Density, Image Tags, Internal Linking, PR)

Another question - are these factors listed in order of importance? In other words, should I stop freaking out over a competing site's unassailable domain age advantage if it looks like their 'keyword anchor text' and 'keyword in url' factors aren't so strong (and I can optimize those factors in my site)?

I love the quick graphic Red/Yellow/Green view in Market Samurai, but I really appreciate your help in getting deeper into the analysis.