Why I love the SEOQuake Firefox Extension

Sometimes you do a search and you think to yourself "why the heck are they number 1?", well the SEOquake firefox extension gives you a little extra information to work it out.

Basically it lets you see a load of search engine parameters "on the fly". For example, I'm just checking my Euro 2008 site and notice its been fluctuating between 2nd and 6th for the past few months. SEOquake allowed me to check various information such as the Google PR of competiting pages, how many pages the site has in Google, how many links it's got in Yahoo!, how many pages indexed by MSN, its Alexa rank, the age of the document, how many links in del.icio.us and check the source.

But that's not all, it will allow you to order, within the SERPS, Google, MSN, Yahoo! etc. So I when I do my "euro 2008" search I order by PR to see how established the sites are, or age, pages indexed .....

Basically this is a list of parameters you can check:

List of parameters.

* Google PR
Google PageRank of current page

* Google Index
Number of indexed pages. Google version.

* Google link
Number of links, pointed to the current page. Google version (Except links from concerned domain).

* Google cachedate
Date of current Google cache.

* Yahoo Index
Number of indexed pages. Yahoo version.

* Yahoo link
Number of links, pointed to the current page. Yahoo version (Except links from concerned domain).

* Yahoo Linkdomain (LD)
Number of links, pointed to the current domain. Linkdomain (LD) operator finds pages linking to domain, as opposed to link which finds references to a single page. Yahoo version.

* Yahoo Linkdomain2 (LD2)
Number of links, pointed to the current domain (2-level domain). Linkdomain2 (LD2) operator finds pages linking to an entire domain, as opposed to linkdomain (LD) which finds references to a current domain (subdomain for example). Yahoo version.

* Yahoo Directory
Domain presence in the Yahoo Directory.

* MSN Index
Number of indexed pages . MSN version.

* MSN link
Number of links, pointed to the current page. MSN version (Except links from concerned domain).

* MSN Linkdomain (LD)
Number of links, pointed to the current domain. Linkdomain (LD) operator finds pages linking to domain, as opposed to link which finds references to a single page. MSN version.

* MSN Linkdomain2 (LD2)
Number of links, pointed to the current domain (2-level domain). Linkdomain2 (LD2) operator finds pages linking to an entire domain, as opposed to linkdomain (LD) which finds references to a current domain (subdomain for example). MSN version.

* Yandex CY
Yandex Rank of current page.

* Yandex index (russian SE)
Number of indexed pages. Yandex version.

* Yandex link
Number of links, pointed to the current page. Yandex version.

* Yandex catalogue
Domain presence in the Yandex Directory.

* Rambler index (russian SE)
Number of indexed pages. Rambler version.

* Rambler top100
Domain presence in the Rambler top100 catalogue.

* DMOZ Directory
Domain presence in the Dmoz Directory.

* Alexa Rank
Traffic estimation index.

* WebArchive age
First date in Archive.org

* Del.icio.us index
Link to del.icio.us history for current url.

* Technorati index
Link to Technorati history for current url.

* Digg index
Link to Digg history for current url.

* IP lookup
Current domain IP.

* Whois link
Link to the Whois record of current domain.

* View source
Link to the source code of current web page.

* Check robots.txt
Check if robots.txt file exists and if it does show link to it.

* Page links
Dispaly quantity of internal/external links with the link to the link list.

But don't go crazy as your IP could be banned!

However, you can save the information to a file and keep track of it.


Hotjiggidy!

Big Companies Getting Mobile Internet So Wrong

I love using my N95 to connect to the net. I use it to "read" the papers in the morning whilst everyone else trots out to the newsagents in the rain. I love keeping up-to-date with the cricket scores when I'm at a client's office. I also love checking my emails when I'm out shopping with the missus. Sometimes, however, I'll find a site that gets mobile Internet so wrong.

I've just been having some router issues whilst trying to find out information about my flight to Antigua. So I try and get to the FlyBMI.com site on the phone and it uses a naff UA redirect to force me into the mobile version of the site. The only problem is they give me about 4 options - all of which don't work.

The N95 has a fantastic browser that can handle complicated JavaScript and lengthy forms, it handles cookies fine and generally is excellent at connecting you to the net on the go. Like the BBC or Facebook you have the option to view a slimdown version or go to the full site. With BMI you don't.

Thankfully a reboot of the router allowed me to connect and see all the flight restrictions and guidance.

So if there's any designers out there that work in the mobile marketplace - could you please allow users to choose which version of the site they wish to use!!!

P.s. I thought this blog was about affiliate marketing :-(

Merchants: Find a Royal Mail & TNT Alternative

I've started up a forum about the problems consumers and businesses have with courier companies - it's called Delivery Hell.

As part of it I blog about the industry. Despite not getting round to doing the template yet, I'm adding content and have regular readers. As part of doing it I found out that there's likely to be a strike by Royal Mail and Parcel Force workers which would obviously impact on the fulfilment of merchant orders.

It won't only affect these two delivery options but also, it appears, TNT who sometimes use Royal Mail to complete delivery.

So I've got two requests for merchants:

1. Could you prepare an alternative to Royal Mail, Parcel Force and TNT just in case you need to switch over in face of a strike.
2. Add your details to the section for merchants to list which couriers you use so consumers can make sure their purchases will be delivered. You can do that here.

And now I'm an E-PR Account Manager

When opportunities come up at the right time it'd be stupid to turn them down. As many of you know, I've become a bit disillusioned with being an affiliate. Yes, I can't argue with the income stream, it certainly keeps me in holidays. But it's not all about the money - with me anyway!

I was contacted by Tanya at Pazang - who I used to work with at TopJobs to see if I was interested in working with her at the company she runs.

After speaking about the role and what I have to offer we've come to the agreement that I'll take responsibility for looking after their PPC, SEO and social media marketing.

I've been thinking for some time about hooking up with others that can complement my skills and allow me be part of a more rounded offering, and even though I've turned down previous offers, I've decided to take the plunge and work with a much larger team.

Pazang offer something totally different. Media agencies are two-to-a-penny. In the recent past the growth of social media and distinction between SEO, media buying and PR have become more and more blurred. This is why I feel that working with Pazang and bringing my experience and enthusiasm will help contribute to even greater marketing success to their clients (and hopefully bring on new ones).

It isn't the right time at the moment to be promoting myself and Pazang to my network of contacts as my first task will be to meet the current clients and make sure they're getting exactly what they expect. When I've done this then I'm sure you'll be hearing about the integrated marketing solutions that Pazang offer.

Stay tuned.

SEO Jobs

And not for those SEO'ers out there, here's a feed of SEO Jobs.

Other SEO Job Sites
Jobs In Search
Datascope - Recruitment Agency
Just Sales And Marketing - SEO Jobs

Affiliate Marketing Jobs

I've found a cool little widget from WorkCircle that allows you to place relevant vacancies on your site. It's simple to use as you just place a keyword to filter on. If you're interested in the the odd 10p then it's worth adding.

I primarily signed up to use it one one of my forums but thought that I might as well place it here too.