There have been a ton of excellent posts, articles and launches over the past week and a half that have gone largely unmentioned on the blog. Just in case SEOmoz is the only source you're reading (in which case you're really missing out), I thought it would be worthwhile to point out some of these great reads.
- SEW has an article on SE Labs in which MSN's keyword permutation tool, keyword group detection tool and context-based acronym tool are mentioned. If you haven't already checked these out, they're worth a look (particularly for advanced KW researchers). I also think their detecting commercial intention tool is very valuable for KW research in the retail/commercial sector. A full list of MSN tools shows more than a dozen.
- Evil Matt Cutts - funny stuff, particularly the depth of attention to his posts. Barry sniffed out the owner pretty quickly.
- Is it possible that life is returning to Ask.com?
- Two birthdays - Danny's and Google's.
- John Battelle had a good interview with MC - I thought Matt did a nice job of (almost) actually answering the question of human interaction with search algorithms.
- The DMA & SEMPO are both going to offer SEO "certification" - I'm waiting to hear who the teachers and course creators are before I weigh in, but I will say that I'm very, very skeptical at this point.
- Aaron updated his history of search engines article. It's an amazingly good resource.
- Similarly, Andy Hagans wrote a guide to beating the sandbox that I agree with almost universally (though I have some additions that I should probably write about at some point)
- Google updated their Google Trends tool - very cool stuff.
- Jumpcut, which lets you make movies through your browser, has been acquired by Yahoo!
- Surprisingly, Wallop looks pretty good. Someone send me an invite, please :)
- Oilman made it to #89 on the Technorati Top 100 Favorites list. Let us know how that traffic is, Todd.
- Donna's right - Internet Summer is over.. Traffic has been rising nicely for us, too.
- Lee Odden has the lowdown on the Pew Future Internet Predictions Report.
- A brilliant post from Creating Passionate Users on why users don't upgrade (something for us to keep in mind as we update SEOmoz)
- Brian Clark had two phenomenal posts for the bloggers out there - 9 Important Words for Business Bloggers and 5 Simple Way to Open Your Blog Post with a Bang.
- Dr. Garcia has free SEO advice... listen up folks, as an IR scientist, he knows his stuff.
- As a nice endnote, Steve Rubel is telling us why we shouldn't write blog posts like the one I've just authored.
I'd love to know from readers - do you find these kind of wrap-up posts valuable? Would you like to see more of these? Are you already reading 99% of this stuff?
on the keyword Group Detection Tool - Do a search for ...SEO ....and look near the bottom of the results, also do one for GEORGE BUSH.... a big suprise awaits as one scrolls down
Like these reviews coz things zip by too fast and sometimes not sure what is important. Editorial is helpful. Keep it concise and fluff-free -- serious stories only for me please.
Thanks for the great post Rand. As many blogs as I read, I had missed the addition of the MSN tools - I'm itching to take them for a test drive. More posts like this one would be a nice addition to the blog.
I know that Matt Bailey of SiteLogic Marketing worked with the DMA to help develop their SEO Certification program. He's also an instructor for the first course offering at DMA06 in San Diego later this month.
I'm not a regular reader of this blog, but a colleague emailed me the link to this roundup post, and I found it valuable enough to stick around. Those sorts of posts have good longevity as well; when researching an unfamiliar space, reading different people's roundup posts on the topic is a time-saver.
I don't find links to evilmattcutts.com, jon battelle's interview, Andy Hagan's sandbox article useful because I've already read them.
I would personally have linked to oilman's technorati experiment post instead of his home page, but I'm probably nitpicking.
Other links I found interesting (history of search engines, internet summer is over)
Free SEO Advice I don't agree with: "Include links in header tags","Include the content of the meta description tag in the first h2."
Great post Rand! I like EGOL's idea (as if you have the time)of a twice a weekly summary. SEOmoz might not be our single source of info but it definitely is our source of choice. Whatever you do we'd be very interested in your additions to Andy's guide to beating the sandbox post.
I read that 37 signals post about upgrading. They hit it right on the money as far as I'm concered. Frequent, small, incrimental updates that are backwards compatible with the user experience are the way to go.
I really like these kind of posts, since I don't have time to read 50+ blogs a week. Your round-up posts usually contain links to posts that I've missed.
I think that these posts are the best as they let me know what you found interesting... which is valuable.
If you did one of these posts two times per week it would save me a lot of time because I would probably use your site as my single source of info.
I would also enjoy if you asked others to chime in on which of these articles or news items they found the most useful or interesting. That would allow me to see what others are thinking is topGun info. Something like a weather check.
This type of thread could also be turned over to the readers... lets say you had a standing practice to post a "Tell us what's hot!" thread that went up anew every Monday and you asked us to post two-three sentence references to important items that we find during the week. Not a lot of effort for anyone but might yield rich, information dense reading.
IMO the most valuable information is to know what smart people find interesting or valuable. This is like analyst consensus in stock market reports... sometimes it pays to listen to which way the wind is blowing and other times contrarian thinking is what pays.
I think that's a great idea, EGOL. The next time we do this, I'll make it a permanent part of these threads for readers to contrinute their ideas of what to mention. JB's SearchMob system didn't seem particularly effective, so maybe we can put together something better.
SEW's weekly wrap-up is also pretty darn good.
How serious are you about wanting to know what readers think?
Intensely serious. The enjoyment and value that readers get out of the blog is probably my top priority in my professional life as a whole. It's become a bit of an addiction.
Other people feel guilty when they don't work out or take their vitamins; I feel guilty when I feel that I haven't posted enough or that my last few posts haven't provided great value.
OK, I understand. Since you really mean it....
I find that professional blogs fall into two (very broad) categories - news and opinion/how to. (After all, How to Optimize your Website is an opinion to some degree, no?) I look to SEOMoz for "how to," not news. If you comb through your web analytics, you will find that I did click on some of the links that went with this post and that info was "nice to know," but if you are mostly reporting on other blogs, I wouldn't need you. There truly are industry events going on that are not blog-specific, like Danny's birthday, but I heard that one and the SEW thread and Oilman in the Technorati Top 100 (I think) and the DMA course all in the Daily Searchcast, which is a GREAT way to keep up on all this kind of stuff. And you can listen while you drive to work or exercise. And now you can comment on Danny's blog. (I had to get that in. I owe him.)
You really do some awesome posts, but I feel like 95% of the comments are supposed to start "great post, Rand!" even when it is a lousy post. (Which makes the feedback loop for you hard, I would guess. ) I think your good stuff is so good that you shouldn't dumb it down with the other junk you do, like whether Rebecca should get an MBA (an interesting problem, this is just not the right place for it.) I was reading this comment to a co-worker to ask his opinion and he said, "I feel like SEOmoz feels like they have to get in a certain number of posts every day."
Sorry. I didn't intent to rant.
My MBA question was in regards to whether it would be relevant in the search industry field, so I figured I'd carpe diem and ask our readers for their opinion. Not terribly relevant, I know, but not completely irrelevant, either.
I thought it was very relevant, and it garnered the most interest/comments of almost any post we've ever had!
Now, are you the same person who said that he is intensely serious about what other people have to say? People who care do not get defensive. They care.
"Hmm, Robbin, I don't particularly agree with you about Rebecca's post, but you make some interesting comments about the ability to read the news elsewhere and SEOmoz' special role as a 'how to' blog. Thanks, and you really don't have to ask if I mean what I say - I always do."
You're really reading into the tone that Rand conveyed in his comment. Rand expressed his opinion and didn't say anything about not caring about what you had to say. His comment didn't seem defensive to me.
I admit, I'm puzzled by your response. I was surprised in the first place when you asked if we cared about our readers, but now it just seems like you're looking for conflict... This isn't a good place for it.
No, not even slightly (the conflict part.)
I have commented on your blog before and my thoughts are always ignored (except my comment on web analytics.) Maybe that is just a testimony to what I don't know or who I don't know. But I wasn't sure you wanted to hear negative things (because I don't usually write to say, how wonderful!) and so I asked. And it feels like you didn't want to hear negative things.... Maybe I interpreted that all wrong.
Sometimes miscommunications like this just happen. Especially without voice and tone.
I do think SEOmoz has a special place in the blogosphere and that you shouldn't forget that.
Negative things - we definitely want to hear them. I don't think there's any readers out there who are "cowed" into agreeing with us when their opinion differs. I certainly hope there aren't.
For those of us that can't keep up with it all, I love these posts. Some I have seen, some I have missed. A lot of times I miss good bits while wading through the mass of duplicate topics. Keep it up. If it's important enough to make it onto your good read list, I want to know about it.
I wouldn't recommend this type of post for most bloggers though. It takes a lot of trust for me to care enough about what the blogger is following to actually read such a post.