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One Week of Sphinn SEO Lessons
by Ruud Hein.
What valuable lessons, if any, do we teach on Sphinn regarding SEO?
A high-level analysis of one week of Sphinn postings.
The Selection
I'm coming at this from an angle where a non-SEO site owner says "hey, I have to do something… now let's learn from the best".
I sifted through the 900+ items posted between Friday May 9 00:00 and Thursday May 15 24:00, culling the ones that seemed to convey real value for a newcomer and dropping items like "30+ Weird, Educational and Stupid Search Screenshots", "Trolls or Upset Customers? Do You Know the Difference", "Exercises For Lower Ab Workouts" or "Is Bebo better than Facebook? Creating a profile network".
As much as possible I dropped questions that didn't seem to provide a definitive answer of value to the newcomer. I forgot about insider discussions, insider watercooler jokes and a whole bunch of other stuff.
In short, I sat down and looked at what I could learn from Sphinn were I new to SEO and get some answers.
I did 3 rounds. Once picking everything that seemed plausible. Second round I went over those items and picked out the good stuff. Third time around was on the article level where I had to let go of some forum spam, some article directory content and posts that in 100 words would repeat the question they had raised.
The Results
The results were surprising.
After round 1 and 2 I ended up with a little over 90 items that has passed the smell test.
By the end of round 3, which coincided with having compiled the lists, 57 items were left on the table.
Let me be honest with you; I hadn't expected this. The idea for this post was one that had me doing an evil laugh. The idea was more along the line of a linkbaity "24 Sphinn Contradictions" or "The Top 10 Things Sphinners Disagree On" … But no, if you stick with it and dig down deep enough, there's actually some pretty solid material to go with.
Hiring SEO
- 7 Signs of SEO Scams
- SEO: Don't Hire a Butcher to do a Baker's Job
- Cheap SEO: it's about quality, not price
The SEO Basics
- What Is The Definition Of SEO?
- SEO Guide for Designers
- How to Increase Relevance using Consistent Naming Conventions, Tags, Site Architecture and Links
- Optimizing Image Tag Alt Attributes: Good Use and Abuse
- Meta tags DO matter — get it right for a change
- Top Search Engine Ranking Factors for Google
- Five Steps to Better Search Rankings
- Can My Site Rank Well on all Four Major Engines?
- How to get your site into Google News
- Subdomain or Directory – Which is Better for SEO?
- Local Search Engine Optimization & Small Business
- With SEO, Time and Authority are on Your Side!
- From Google: Design for accessible, crawlable and indexable content
- Avoid Extreme Makeovers During the Optimization Process
- How to Increase Engagement and Authority With Quotations
- Google on Spam: Best 10 Minute SEO Video Ever Made
- Gaining Google's Trust - Why Google Says No to Strangers
A Bit More Advanced SEO
- How Search Engines Understand Text Relevance
- Does Google Have a "Query Deserves Diversity" Algorithm?
- Simple Block Segmentation Analysis
- Do popups have a negative effect on Google rankings?
- Different SEO Strategies for Different Situations
Keywords & Keyword Research
- Eight Keyword Research Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
- How Many Keywords Should Your SEO Be Targetting?
- Beyond Keyword Research: Competitive Analysis
Links & Link Building
- Reciprocal Linking is NOT Worth the Effort
- Using Yahoo Site Explorer As A Google Link Monitor
- Link development with social bookmarking sites
- Links And Better Things Come When People Care
- Creating a Link Building Machine
- How Many Links Does Digg Get You?
- 5 Tools for Keyword Brainstorming
- There Is No Penalty In Getting Many Links Quickly
- Case Study: 5 Effective Ways to Build Links to Your Blog
- Black Hat SEO Lessons: Indirect Promotion
- Worth $299 Per Year to Join Yahoo Directory?
- 10 Free Blog Directories Worth Submitting To
Web Analytics
- How to Efficiently Track Document Downloads in Google Analytics
- Segmenting Google Analytics by Source/Medium and other options
- 3 very different ways to scale your landing pages
- Expert Guide to Multivariate Testing Success
- Google Analytics How-To Videos (Bookmark for Clients)
- Conversion Funnels Set in Google Analytics
- 10 Excellent Online Tools to Identify Trends
WordPress & Blogging
Duplicate Content
- When Duplicate Content Really Hurts
- Search Illustrated: How A Search Engine Determines Duplicate Content
- When Google Gets Duplicate Content Wrong
Tools
- 10 Excellent Online Tools to Identify Trends
- In-Depth Look At Google's Tools & The Google SERP Tester
Theoretical Discussions & Opinion
- You've Got Your SEO in My Usability
- The difference between being on top of and ahead of your (SEO) game
- The Key Ingredient for SEO and Web Design is True Passion
Images courtesy of Dean Terry and l0ckergn0me
I hang out at Twitter where I enjoy the company, the buzz, the nuggets of info and opinion we pass along.Join me on Twitter!
As posted in SEO, Social Media on May 16, 2008.
17 Responses so far: 10 comments and 7 trackbacks
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Great list, Ruud. I think in amongst the noise, the spam, and the occasional spats, there is still a great deal of good stuff being submitted. Stuff that spans the whole internet marketing/seo/social media spectrum. I must admit I don't spend as much time there as I once did, but even occasionally dropping in can unearth great, eye-opening posts.
(Thanks for the link BTW)
Ruud, once again you have outdone yourself! Where the heck do you find the time to do so much useful research, writing, and testing each week AND handle clients?
Great post, it would be nice if you made this a weekly Sphinn roundup. I really like the fact that you filtered out all the crap and left the substance.
Hi Ruud -
That's one of the coolest things about SEO…almost everything you need to know is out there, just waiting to be read. I love that!
Thanks for including us in your list!
Miriam
If you could just do this every week that'd be great
Might be cool to differentiate the ones that went hot
I really enjoyed this piece there are a lot of great resources referenced for the newbie internet business owner.
This is interesting, I did not previously think abuot using Sphinn for anything. I love the shirts on those girls, they are pretty cool.
CM
Ruud, you introduced me to a bunch of new posts there, and I appreciate you taking the time.
However, I strongly disagree with you about my 30 weird screenshots post. Granted, the title sucked (I had no idea what to title it) but if you actually go through those screenshots, there's plenty of advanced ideas and things to learn from there/see what the competition is doing.
I think further proof of the value in that post is that two of the ideas shared there were seen in different forms elsewhere - one of the screenies got posted on its own to Sphinn, and Nicky Cakes had a guest poster who won his contest share a PPC tactic that was featured in my screenshots.
So I sucked it up on that title. Have a second look at that post. I'll bet you learn something.
One might think that Matt Cutts really IS God… I mean - standing between two nice girls etc.
Are on my way to California and I'll have to ask him, I guess…
I have always been trying to educate business owners whom are totally new to SEO, however most of the time it is hard to explain. Your list will be of great use for me to highlight some of the more important pointers. Thanks for your time doing so.