Chris created the fictional company “Yogamatic,” and walked the SEO group members through ways to conduct research on one of Yogamatic’s top competitors.  The following is an overview of the techniques he presented:

Google Tools

Most of us are familiar with the Maps, Videos, News and Images tools on Google. But Google has other vertical search options that allow you to conduct targeted research on your competition.

The Updates tool will allow you to see what social media your competitors are using, and what users of social media are saying about your competitors.  The Discussions tool allows users to see threads and forums that mention your competition. This is a great place to look for – and capitalize on – complaints that people are making. And the Blogs tool allows you to see what blogs are saying about your competition.

Backlinks

OpenSiteExplorer.org is a free tool that allows you see which domains are linking to your competitors.  You can view by page, domain, anchor text, or a full list of metrics. You can use this information to help determine what direction to take your own website.

Traffic Patterns

Compete.com is another free tool that allows you to spy on competitors by peeking at their traffic levels. You can graph your own traffic against that of your competition to get a direct comparison. You can see from these graphs who is growing and who is shrinking, and by how much.

Keyword Rankings

SEMRush.com and SERPAnalytics.com will allow you to enter the domain name of your competition and see what keywords are organically ranking for that site. You can also see which keywords they are bidding on and how much they spend per month on PPC.  SEMRush includes a handy estimated traffic graph with the data.

Alerts

Setting up a Google Alert for your competitors means you will know when new pages appear in search rankings.  Through SocialMention.com, you can set an email alert or an RSS feed that helps you keep tabs on your competition.

I am happy to announce the details for the March 2009 meeting;

In addition to the information below there will also be Food so come hungry and bring your friends!

When:
Monday March 23rd 7:00 – 9:00

Where:
Courtyard by Marriot Pittsburgh Waterfront
401 West Waterfront Drive
West Homestead, PA 15120
Click here for a map

Seminars:
1. 5 ways to use external marketing to funnel traffic – by Phil Laboon CEO of Eyeflow Internet Marketing
2. SEO During Web Design: Introduction – by Chris Hornak Administrator of Pittsburgh SEO Group

event with your friends!

To clear up any confusion The Pittsburgh SEO Group is not associated with the Pittsburgh Internet Marketing & SEO Group on Meetup.com. We wish them the best of luck and hopefuly can we can work together in the future.

Update 1/01/2010

We are now working closely with the Pittsburgh Technology Council to provide the best experience we can.

This month’s discussion will be on the many aspects of turning your website visitors into leads.

When: Thursday 09/18/2008 @ 7:30

Where:

ITT Technical Institute

10 Parkway Center
Pittsburgh, PA 15220
4124184145

What is Link Building?
Link building is the process of gaining links from other websites that point to your website or other online content.

Why is link building important?
You can look at links as votes for your website. Every link you get from another website is seen by search engines as a vote for your website. When a link specifies anchor text it is not only voting for your website but it is telling the website what the page is about and then giving you credit for that anchor text.

NoFollow vs DoFollow links
There are two main types of links those who don’t pass link value, NoFollow, and those who do, known as; DoFollow. When you’re building links you want to make sure they are DoFollow links or links that do pass on value to your website or web content.

A few free link building techniques you can do on your own…
• Forum Signatures
• Website Directories
• Social Bookmarking
• Blog Comments

Tools Mentioned at the meeting
• Sharethis Firefox Plugin – Social Bookmarking tool
• Search Status Plugin – shows you if links are nofollow, if a page has google page rank and more.
• DoFollow Diver – Find blogs that you can comment on.
• Fast Blog Finder – software to find dofollow blogs.

If I am missing anything please let me know! Thanks to those who attended this meeting and I look forward to seeing new people at the next meetup.

When: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 7:00 PM

Where: ITT Technical Institute

Details: This meeting will be a great oportunity for those who want to get better results in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) on a low or non-existing budget, as they will only cost your time. I will be talking about a couple of link building techniques that will include; blog posts, forum signatures and social bookmarking.