Summary: Little-Known Blogs, SEO, Tools, Google Plus on #SEOchat

What are your favorite little-known blogs (SEO or otherwise)?

@mattgratt: Favorite little known SEO blogs – Coconut Headphones & the now defunct Scoreboard Media Group blog.

@yankeerudy: Former company http://www.iamsmartacus.com/web-development-blog/ present http://www.yankeerudy.com. Apart from the major ones, I’ve always paid more attention to individual posts until I start seeing the same URL over and over. That’s how I ended up adding Outspoken Media to my rotation.

@mldriggs: Gotta give mad props to @PointBlankSEO
http://pointblankseo.com for being an under the radar blog that I like. I also enjoy @dohertyjf blog: http://johnfdoherty.com, although his last post make him seem far from little-known.

@jenastelli: Just browsed http://cdtr.co/KFWCA1 today. Great images. Shameless plug for the @Conductor blog. We had a lot of interest in our @duckduckgo post earlier this week: http://cdtr.co/pMAolP.

@ashbuckles: Here’s a start on those Pinterest users. Great people behind these profiles: http://bit.ly/MD8YNV.

@scott_dodge: I hear http://www.scott-dodge.com is pretty fantastic

If you could only perform on-page or off-page (promos) for SEO, which do you choose and why?

@tbrownseo: Off-page. Outreach is more fun and could build long-lasting relationships.

@vinceblackham: On-page. focusing on badass content that would generate the links/traffic/shares that off-pager’s focus on. It’s tough to build links to crappy sites with terrible content.

@shuey03: On-page! content is where it is at! And I love being able to make small tweaks that greatly impact visibility.

@yankeerudy: If done in a vacuum, I guess off page. But assuming great content continues, onpage is a real force multiplier.

@thompsonpaul: Often find good content is hamstrung by lousy on-page optimisation. On-page lets us make use of off-page influence.
@scott_dodge: True that. A lot of what we are doing around here is both – create awesome on-page content, then promote it like crazy. Making lots of use out of @garrettfrench’s link reclamation recommendations.
@thompsonpaul: Often find good content is hamstrung by lousy on-page optimisation. On-page lets us make use of off-page influence.

@tannerpetroff: On-page because solid content will never be penalized by an algo update while still collecting links, likes & shares.

@ashbuckles: Maturity of the site should help with on & off page decisions. New should be clean and well-promoted. Mature should clean up arch.
@scott_dodge: Absolutely agreed. Working on some huge, mature sites that were carelessly redesigned. Dug up a ton of dead links.
@yankeerudy: And not just dead links. bad inter-linking, missing/incomplete tagging, hidden nav all impede effectiveness.
@ashbuckles: Link reclamation is a huge win on site redesigns. It’s amazing the amount of moving parts on large sites.
@shuey03: It’s also a huge win on massive sites that retire pages often.
@yankeerudy: w/site redesigns another is orphaning good links. gotta remember those 301s.

Tools

@scott_dodge: With Screaming Frog, you can scrape 404′s – other than that, I just use GWT.

@yankeerudy: One overlooked tool is Analytics – check your most popular landing pages.

@shuey03: I personally use google analtyics, opensiteexplorer, screaming frog, and both webmaster tools to dig up 404 pages.

@tannerpetroff: Anyone have a good article on link reclamation examples/case studies to share?
@scott_dodge: Read this by @GarrettFrench – http://bit.ly/HTFxGy
@ashbuckles: Haven’t read it but it looks on topic — http://bit.ly/MBsXez

@thompsonpaul: Open Site Explorer from @seomoz great for finding 404s that have incoming links (ie fix most valuable first).

@vinceblackham: I guess the twitters are acting up for me, but I believe http://brokenlinkindex.com will soon do something lie that.

Should you redirect all 404 pages, even if they don’t have links?

@scott_dodge: Ideally, yes. However, you can definitely prioritize certain 404′s, and throw the rest in a queue to do later.

@tbrownseo: Definitely not. When you don’t have the same/similar content as the old page, a redirect does not make sense in all cases.

@ty_kilgore: I say no to redirecting all 404 pages. Certain situations a 404 is the right call.

‏@ashbuckles You should know what links are incoming to each page before redirecting. No need to pass on negative links. A 404 is a great way to disassociate content & links from your “new” pages.
@shuey03: Does a 404 kill negative links coming into your site? I say no, I think they can still hurt your domain.

At what point after being hit by an algo penalty do you shut down the domain and start over? 4 months? 8 months?

@ashbuckles: I think a site rebrand should always be your last option. If you’re making some progress, keep at it. You can build micro-sites and rely on other platforms (social, press, etc.) I’d say it depends on the business… if you can dump a site and easily rebrand, it might be easier to do just that.

@tbrownseo: When building new links, new site, and new brand is more cost effective than fixing the old site like buying a car.

@scott_dodge: I’d say it all depends on the time investment required. If it’s a huge site, and you REALLY screwed up, might make sense.

@ty_kilgore: I think sites that have been live no longer than 5 years can start over but longer than that stick with it.
@ashbuckles: I’m not sure it’s a life span question. There are legal and other reasons. But mostly, it’s a corporate decision.
@ty_kilgore: At the end of the day it’s a corporate decision I agree. I guess it depends on how bad the penalty.

@ashbuckles: A banned site is rare. Penalized, yes. For months, yes. But rare that it’s banned forever.

@MirandaM_EComm: When is it appropriate to kill a domain and start over… depends on how much time/money each option requires.

Should You Ignore Google Plus – Thouts on Post Below

@ashbuckles: Thoughts on this week’s post by @jeffbullas — Why You Shouldn’t Ignore Google+ Anymore: http://bit.ly/MDdMmp

@MirandaM_EComm: Post assumes you should have been ignoring it in the first place. G+ user count isn’t active users… includes everyone forced into an acct by opening YouTube, Blogger, GMail acct. I always forget to check it :s Never really actually visit G+, though I post to it from around the web. A good addition to @jeffbullas acct would be ability to broadcast Hangouts and upload directly to YouTube. Love that.

@ashbuckles: I’ve been a fan of Google+ since day 1. I have issues, like the lack of community, but I like it. I’m also pretty sure the user count is grossly over-estimated. For many businesses it’s more about getting +1 on site for the early interaction from your site.

@scott_dodge: I don’t really mind it, but what I do mind is Google+ being shoved down our throats.

@yankeerudy: G+ is important, for no other reason than it’s absorption of Google Local.
@ashbuckles: Local is the biggest reason to pay attention again, especially with the rise in mobile usage. And who knows what else G will suck into G+ to goose the numbers, like Android stuff for example.

@tbrownseo: These aren’t reasons why I’d pay attention to it but agree with the general purpose of the article. It’s a Google product.

@ty_kilgore: I feel like if Google wants it to be successful then they have to do what they’ve done. Make it integrated into other products. Where Google has failed in the pass is giving users a reason to care. Now with integration I have to care.

@yankeerudy: Other result of more integration is the ever increasing % of Analytics inbound keywords that are masked. what will that lead to?
@MirandaM_EComm: It leads to more valuable advertising via big data for Google.

Comments

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