The concept for this site…

January 21st, 2010

I have a pretty clear idea of what I want this site to be and I’d like to share it with you so you know what to expect, how it will evolve over time and at what level you feel it resonates with you and if you want to hang around or even contribute once things get rolling.

First, what I don’t want this site to be; another “SEO news blog” (like those linked to in the sidebar) These already do an awesome job of highlighting ever-changing trends in the industry, including Google’s latest moves – algorithm changes, mergers & acquisitions, the changing playing field of search, search marketing conferences, meet-ups, movers and shakers, the best sites, and the occasional SEO how-to tip and trick to optimize your site, etc. I use these guys all day to stay on top of my game, and I’m sure you do too… (grab the feeds from these guys if you haven’t already –  if you’re an SEO) . So while we’ll have some of this stuff in here too, that will not be the main focus of this site.

So what else is there if the concept of this site is not to bring you SEO industry trends? Where’s SEOWithoutborder’s Unique Postion? What is our offering here? What’s the high-level concept and how it will differ significantly from what’s already out there? (Good questions… I must admit!) What the hell are we going to talk about here; the SEO after-parties? ;)

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.

SEOWithoutBorders brings web owners and Top SEOs together to show you real-time SEO recommendations from some of the Top sites on the internet! The concept of this site is to “SHOW YOU” – not tell you – specific SEO Recommendations that you can understand and use in your online business. They’ve been carried out by some of the Best SEOs in the industry that have worked and are still working for some of the most prominant, trafficed sites on the internet. We’re talking about SEO’s who’ve work on “MySpace” with millions of visitors a day, Yahoo!, Google, Fox Sports, EBay, PayPal, CBS, Wall Street Journal, and the like! (Top Tier sites, that are owned by Companies who’s combined traffic accross their network ranks in the Top 10 highest trafficed sites on the net!)

So you’ll not only hear the stories of what it’s like to work on these big giants, but get the inside scoop on how we analyze and perform SEO on a major properties and how it relates to your site. We’ll be using a lot of rich media like screen captures and video to clearly outline the step by step optimization process.

This secret, never-before-released,  insider information from Top SEOs – pretty much in real-time, as it happens – will be in one of many important areas of the art and science of SEO:

kw research

indexing & roadblocks

internal linking strategy

external linking strategy

link sculpting – sans no-follow (that means “without” in french)

on page

off page

analytics

tools

tricks

optimization best practices – you name it!

(Thus the market for this site is both Web Owners and SEOs!)

And so by reading and the recommendations and viewing the videos on this blog, you’ll know what the best in the business know. You’ll see actual SEO that gets implemented, goes live and what the results are for the Top properties in the world, and, you’ll be able to use these same tools and tips for your website.

Your contributions and input are important! The concept is bold and I hope you like like it and will help shape it in the months and years ahead!

Please take the time to grab the feed, re-tweet this post to your followers and leave me a quick comment to let me know how I’m doing / what you think!

(SEOs interested in contributing can contact me here: lt@seowithoutborders.org)

Written by Lawrence Touitou-

Bookmark and Share



Lawrence Touitou brings you the best SEO tools, tips and advice on his SEO blog: SEOWithoutBorders.org - a collection of some of the best, SEO best practices from the most prominent SEOs in the industry.

What’s the first thing you do? (the answer may surprise you.)

January 18th, 2010

So you’re starting a new blog, website or your assigned to a site that is new to you. What is the very first thing you do? Look at the on-page? check the keywords? Check the pages indexed? Backlinks? What’s really the very first thing you need to do before you even think about SEO?

I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the best and one of them was my former boss, friend and mentor at Fox Interactive, Bill Maciatis. I could talk all day about Bill and the countless lessons I learned from him ( I’ll push you a link to his public LinkedIn profile at the end) but for now I’ll just say that Bill was all about ‘RESULTS”. He taught us that it’s all about the numbers and he would often say, I don’t care if you work from home or you want come to work in your bath robe and slippers, as long as you keep your numbers up, I’m happy.

I remember a story he told us that stands out in my mind till this day – this was back in ‘07 btw… He was talking about the Bears (Bill’s a big sports fan from Chicago) and how no matter how great the coach is, at the end of the season if the team doesn’t perform, make the playoffs and make it to the Superbowl (Which is coming up in just a few weeks actually) someone’s going to have to pay. There going to find a new coach.

With that said, the first thing that he, back then, and I today advocate, before you even think of SEOing a site, is to know how you will measure RESULTS. i.e.

  • Is there an analytics platform in place?
  • What metric will you use (and be evaluated by) to determine results?
  • Do you have access to it ( login / someone to send it to you on a weekly stats)?
  • Have you created a baseline?

Creating a baseline is your starting point. If you have a brand new property, your baseline is ‘0′. The good news is the biggest opportunities for growth lie with new properties. Regardless where you are at in terms of SEO maturity for your site, the things to remember are; don’t start SEO until you see where’s your starting point, document it (take a snapshot in excell or a screenshot) and make sure everyone is aware of it and agrees fully that that will be the number or metric that your efforts (your results, don’t forget) will be judged by.

Then, you can track what’s working on a MOM (% month over month) and YOY (% year over year basis). And this comes from the understanding that ideally, nothing in SEO or any type of online marketing is left to chance. You must test what’s working at all times and evaluate your level of effort against your results to see if what you’re doing is working and how well.

So in summary, to get RESULTS (as Bill Says…) you must know where you’re at to start with. And to know that, the first thing you do, is find the data that shows where the site’s at now, look at the traffic from search, and draw a line that says,

“SEO started here!”

Then share it with those you work for so everyone’s on the same page! (Thanks Bill! http://www.linkedin.com/in/bmacaitis )

…hope this helps! :)

Written by Lawrence Touitou-

Bookmark and Share



Lawrence Touitou brings you the best SEO tools, tips and advice on his SEO blog: SEOWithoutBorders.org - a collection of some of the best, SEO best practices from the most prominent SEOs in the industry.

A day in the life of an in-house SEO!

January 17th, 2010

Laura Lippay of CNET & Yahoo fame – who I still need to meet in person – cracks me up!!! She put this awesome video (funny but true) together about a day in the life of an in-house SEO!

Written by Lawrence Touitou-

Bookmark and Share


Lawrence Touitou brings you the Best SEO, tips and advice on his SEO blog: SEOWithoutBorders.org - a collection of some of the Top SEO best practices from the most prominent SEOs in the industry.

Why is my mouse in the garbage pail?

January 16th, 2010

I have a 1 year old son… obviously… He likes to play with the cordless mouse and is attracted to the red laser. My garbage pail near my desk has a red led that pules and is a motion detector which he figured out how to open and close a long time ago. Put 2 + 2 together and what do you get? The cordless mouse in the garbage! :0

Written by Lawrence Touitou-

Bookmark and Share



Lawrence Touitou brings you the best SEO optimization, tips and advice on his SEO blog: SEOWithoutBorders.org - a collection of some of the best, SEO best practices from the most prominent SEOs in the industry.

Being Relevant

January 16th, 2010

Picture this: You find yourself up in front of a room of people speaking – which many of us do on occasion, in our work or making a toast or announcement at a wedding, party, holiday dinner, etc. You get everyone’s attention and you start talking about the 49ers, or the static on the radio or the lint on your dress after getting it back from the dry cleaners, etc., your going to find, best case scenario, people’s interest is going to wane, bigtime… They’ll think, “What the heck is this girl/guy talking about?” What’s the relevance? They may even say, “Hey Joan/Jonny, maybe we need to stick to the reason why we’re all here…”

(And the only reason they’re not walking out on you is because these people are your family, friends and coworkers and being polite!)

When you’re not being relevant online, the response is quick, simple and brutally honest; people leave your page. How does that relate to SEO? SEO is the technical extension of what I call, “the first rule of marketing” and that is, “CLOSE THE FREAKEN DEAL!”

You promise something? Deliver it! (That’s the most basic premise of marketing, and relationship building and seems so obvious that it’s hard to believe that so many people, small businesses and companies have such a hard time fulfilling that simple request.)

When you order something online, or grab a product off a shelf at the store, or order something at a restaurant (I think I’m hungry as I write this :) and it says it will do something, or be something and you’re all excited when you get it and it goes (audio here please…) waaaa, waaaa, waaaa, waaaa…

(And it doesn’t do what it says…) How do you feel? Totally ripped-off, no? Will you shop there again? Or buy that product from that company again?

When we tell search engines that a page is about xyz (a keyword phrase) and a user finds our results in SERPs, and clicks on Link, we need to damn well be sure that that page is providing RELEVANT info about that topic.

Being Relevant is CLOSING THE FREAKEN DEAL for an SEO. All the technical means that Search Engines (SEs) use to detect that relevance comprise the endemic knowledge of our craft, and the business of Searh Engines, but the underlying impetus which is often missed is just plain and simple; “Be Relevant” and give people what they want, without too much else.

Written by Lawrence Touitou-

Bookmark and Share



Lawrence Touitou brings you the best SEO tools, tips and advice on his SEO blog: SEOWithoutBorders.org - a collection of some of the best, SEO best practices from the most prominent SEOs in the industry.