Since one of my friends Skyped me and told me about a new SEO tool “Linkdiagnosis” I’ve been researching in to websites to see if I can find and correlation or trends with SE positions. Part of Linkdiagnosis’s features shows backlinks with page rank and “strength”. I’ve been analyising how this is determined and it seems to be a combination of links pointing to that page, the age of the domain and the page rank assigned.

What I did was look at the term “SEO BLOG” and took various websites to find the data, plus seounique of course!

Here’s what I found:

I looked at 6 websites and noted their rankings in Google UK:

1. www.wolf-howl.com
2. www.estebanpanzera.com
3. www.seodisco.com
4. www.yooter.com
5. www.seotao.com
6. www.seounique.com

Using Linkdiagnosis I made a note of the total strength number of the domain, number of registered backlinks, plus took a screen shot of their PR distribution.

1. Wolf Howl

Google UK Position = 1
Strength = 772
Number of Backlinks = 3404

2. Estebanpanzera

Google UK Position = 9
Strength = 124
Number of Backlinks = 227

3. Seo Disco

Google UK Position = 10
Strength = 161
Number of Backlinks = 142

4. Yooter

Google UK Position = 20
Strength = 211
Number of Backlinks = 376

5. SeoTao

Google UK Position = 23
Strength = 11
Number of Backlinks = 141

6. Seounique

Google UK Position = 100+
Strength = 36
Number of Backlinks = 341

As you can see by these results, strong backlinks still seem to be the key in good search rankings (by strong I mean strength not page rank), especially with a good use of anchor texts. The anchor text seems to even make up for number of backlinks and quality of these backlinks when it comes to specific keywords. SeoTao has low link strength and a low number of backlinks but those links often contain the words “seo blog” in anchor descriptions, this strategy mixed with a good domain age obviously produces good SE positions.

What seems to a nice discovery about this tool is the ability to find strong backlinks that carry weight in terms of strength. After looking for a few hours it’s obvious that good blog posts that become popular and are linked too, hold a lot of weight if you comment. So as well as being friendly to people it pays to say!

Ok, so those of you that are regular visitors to Seounique may or may not have noticed a few blog changes happening. For those of you who are not aware of my changes:

• Added social bookmarking buttons after each post
• Added a contact page (roll on the spam)
• Added an advertise page to offer spots on my “Top Spots“
• Updated blogroll and included “Seo Blogs”

I hope all these features will help with the usability of the site and make performing actions that little bit easier. As to why I have started to add “Seo Blogs” to my blogroll is quite simple. Nothing in this world is free as many people know (not all) and I have a list of around 20 seo blogs I visit on a regular basis which part of me thinks I should link to. As much as I would like to send them over a little complementary link juice I just can’t justify it at this point. Although 2 sites that have given to the site in different ways will now be positioned on Seounique.

I will only be linking to SEM or SEO blogs as thats what my readers find interesting, so no gambling yada yada…

If you feel like you could offer something to the site (however little) and join in with my sometimes rambling discussions then let me know and you could see your link here.

1. When you login to Mixx or visit the domain (depending on your browser setup) you automatically see how your stories are performing and you can see what stories have been submitted by your friends.

2. The submission process is clean and friendly, I could quite happily sit down and submit hundreds of stories, photos and videos without feeling confused.

3. It’s easy to create a good friend and fan base, and your friends are displayed in your account page.

4. Karma points encourage Mixx users to interact, be nice, start conversations and be part of the community.

5. You can buy Mixx products, such as a stylish Mug, all your co-workers will know where you go to bookmark, drink with pride!

6. The Mixx lounge and tools are easily accessible at the bottom of the page giving you access to feeds and other Mix goodies.

7. They have a unique social awards system to once again encourage people to be active and friendly!

None of these features are particularly mind blowing or revolutionary but the way the site is put together it adds a sense of well being to the site. I’m yet to see the harassment of members by others, it reminds me of stumble when it first started.

Mixx is already a fast growing social bookmarking site but with these features standing out to me I can see very big things for Mixx in 2008!

I suppose it was inevitable at some point but yesterday afternoon my dedicated server was compromised and all 12 of my websites were disabled.

I thought about it long and hard whether or not to blog about it as I’m sure it happens to many people on a regular basis. At the time I was distraught, I thought that over 2 years of work had been erased at the click of a button!

Luckily my server had been backed up by my hosting company so it was a matter of contacting them and getting the problem fixed within minutes. It made me think however that some bloggers and website owners out there might not be as lucky as me. I for one will be taking extra measures in the future to make sure I never feel like I did for that short period of time on Sunday again.

1.    Make weekly backups of your files from FTP
2.    Backup your databases on a regular basis
3.    Increase server security with an advanced software firewall or hardware firewall
4.    If you experience a hack, change all server passwords
5.    Choose a hosting solution that includes backup, it costs under $10 per month and is worth it for piece of mind.

Heart attack over, and look forward to a new week of seoing!

Guest Post from “Nick James” (Swags2804)

Firstly I’d like to thank Matt for giving me the opportunity to make my voice heard over here. I appreciate it immensely.

Matt recently ran a small competition to compile a list of sage SEO tips that would be valid for 2008. His own suggestion was:

“Whatever industry your business is in your website will benefit from starting a company blog written by employees. As well as providing unique fresh content for your site this will open up opportunities in terms of networking and trust building…”

It’s a point that I agree wholeheartedly with, for the unprecedented success of blogs, blogging and various forms of social media have opened up an array of marketing opportunities away from just the old school, traditional SEO.

Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying for an instant that traditional SEO no longer has a place or is of any less importance. It can never be drummed into heads too many times that all those ‘repeated cliches’ about title tags, keywords, content, inbound links, and all the rest, are ‘repeated cliches’ for the simple fact that at present they do have a bearing on where a website ranks in the SERPs. SEO can affect a website’s performance although obviously not control where it will eventually land up within the hallowed halls of Google Search.

But as a means of bringing traffic into a website, the search engines are no longer the be-all and the end-all. In fact, they have even made their own forays into the world of social media with varying, if far from astounding degrees of success, because at present their existence is governed by the end-user utilising their search boxes in the hope of finding the most relevant replies to their requests: content that is produced and supplied by other users, not Google or the other portals.

But I digress. Back to the original point and that of starting a blog. This particular tidbit of advice is in fact a two-edged sword with regards to SEO. But a nice two-edged sword…

In fact it could be seen as ‘the gift that keeps on giving’, so to speak.

Firstly, if regularly updated with unique and informative content, Google will take note and increase the rate at which it crawls your website specifically to keep up with all these little gems you’re casting out into the cyber-latticework of the internet. At present a continual turnover in the content of your website is seen as good and aids in ranking issues, specifically over a website that may be targeting the same keywords as you, but has remained stagnant since its inception.

But there’s more. If a blog is continually providing this type of informative content and is being successfully promoted through social networks and bookmarking sites, then it will receive an influx of traffic and inevitably a steady reader base and subscriptions. This in turn will increase your blogs standing through the various networks as more and more people bookmark various articles or submit its content, making it available to their own group of friends and so on and so on, ad infinitum.

This will attract plenty of one-way, naturally formed, inbound links, the holy grail of SEO - the only downside of this scenario being the general inability to choose your anchor text - and hey presto, there’s suddenly all these other blogs and websites pointing their digital fingers at your pages. Taking into account that this hasn’t happened overnight and not all the inbound link text is identical, a search engine might just think… “Hmm… All these other sites pointing to this one. These boys must be good. Authority’s even. I’ll give them a foot-up through the rankings.”

It’s like a vicious circle, except it isn’t particularly vicious. Not even mildly perturbed. More of a warm and fluffy one. Social media providing a comfy chair for SEO to take the weight off its feet for a moment or two and let somebody else do the work.

But that’s just a basic outlay of the benefits a blog can have for a business and what counts in particular, people visiting the website and eventual conversions.

But that is not all. I’ve never been one to say in a short, sweet and succinct sentence what can also be said in twenty pages of rambling nonsense, which is probably why my application for staff editor at ‘Monosyllabic Monthly’ was swiftly turned down, but the title of this post refers to a onetime funny man of these shores: a certain Frank Carson and in particular his famous catchphrase.

All right, he wasn’t actually of these shores being from Northern Ireland, but what’s a small splash of water (the Irish Sea) between friends?

In his prime Frank Carson, like myself, could ramble for England (or Northern Ireland) but amidst his continuous patter of banter and bumble there was always the razor-sharp delivery of gags. As he would continually remind us, “It’s the way I tell ’em”. Which finally, is what I’m trying to get at with this post.

If you’re not an already established blogger or an authority site, how the deuce do you get yourself noticed above all the other blogs and noise in your niche vying for the same attention? Well disregarding any ‘black hat’ techniques to promote your blog, providing a unique voice with which to deliver your content is a must. Just take the common or garden SEO blog for instance; there are only so many times you can go on about the irrelevance of metatags before it’s drowned out beneath the clamour of everybody else saying or having said the same thing. Of course, there are a multitude of other topics to discuss within SEO, but if you’ve not carved out your particular recess or found a distinctive voice by which to brand yourself, then that groundbreaking item of search news that you’ve spent months researching for and testing against - the one that was set to be guaranteed, solid gold link bait - might pass by unnoticed, or even worse be picked up upon by a more renowned yet less scrupulous blogger who proceeds to steal your thunder and bask in the glory that was rightfully yours (masses of unadulterated, organically formed, one-way links).

If, however, you have successfully cultivated a unique voice and a unique style of writing, then it will give you some leverage with which to attain that extra few inches to raise ourself above the crowd. A rather tall hat can be as equally effective…

But wait there just one moment, young man! Just who the devil are you to tell us about unique voices and writing styles? What exactly have you achieved?

Well nothing really. And I’m certainly no authority on blogging, with an audience of thousands waiting upon my every word. But I know what I like and what I look for in the blogs that inhabit my feed. And I can only carry on with my particular style and hope it keeps a steady readership both informed and entertained.

A blog is a powerful marketing tool, but as I’ve said before it shouldn’t be just that. Its upkeep should be taken seriously, for if you take it seriously, remain genuine, and don’t regard it as solely a way of earning a few extra shillings, then your readership will start to grow and return your commitment with their loyalty.

You have to set yourself apart from the crowd if you wish to be heard. In a cutthroat world where success or failure can depend on the turn of a coin, so to speak, you have to have that something that sets your voice apart from the clamour fighting for the same attention all around you.

So the next time you sit down to write that post on ‘10 Things Danny Sullivan Eats For Breakfast’, remember, “It’s the way you tell ‘em.”