Learn about the best search engine marketing tactics, the use of search engine optimization tools, personalized search and the role of the global search engine markets. Pandia interviews Dan Richmond of Link Assistant.

Search engine optimization can be time consuming.

You must identify which keyword phrases to optimize your SEO campaign for. It helps a lot to get inbound links from related sites, and harvesting such links demands skill and patience.

Then you need to keep track of your rankings in order to find out whether the campaign actually has the effects you were looking for.

Link Assistant SEO Tools

There are companies out there that develop tools aimed at helping web masters and search engine marketers in their efforts.

Link-Assistant.com, is one of the leading software development companies in the search engine optimization arena.

Their product line is made up of tools designed for various aspects of organic search engine optimization:

• Rank Tracker – keyword research and rank tracking
• WebSite Auditor – content analysis and optimization
• SEO SpyGlass – competition research and backlink analysis
• LinkAssistant – link building and link management

“These tools provide assistance on all stages of a typical SEO work flow saving a lot of time and effort on the way,” Senior SEO Consultant Dan Richmond of Link-Assistant.Com tells Pandia.

“They help find the best keywords to target, optimize your content according to the latest search engine algos, find quality link sources, get in touch with link partners, track rankings in some 400 search engines and much more.

“All tools feature flexible reporting tools that can be used both for client reporting by SEO companies and for in-house use by webmasters and SEOs.”

Usability

The effectiveness of a tool often rests on its user interface. Too many tools of this kind come in the way of the work to be done, rather than assisting it.

Richmond says that Link-Assistant.Com put a lot of emphasis on user experience and try to make the interface of the tools as user-friendly as possible.

“We constantly keep track of search engines’ algorithms and update our software whenever there’s a change,” he says.

“We listen to our users trying to add the features they need, help them with their SEO questions, provide free training and give equally high level of attention and support to each client whether it’s a small business or a Fortune 500 company.”

The risk of being banned by the search engines

Ever since the late 1990’s there has been a discussion regarding the safety of rank checkers. Some search engines have frowned upon such tools as they make use of the search engine’s computing power and band width.

Pandia has actually never met anyone who has been punished by Google for using such tools, and used with sense there has never been any big risks involved. Nevertheless, we asked Richmond whether using their tools may lead a web site owner into trouble.

“No,” he replies emphatically. “This is one thing that makes our software different from the competitors’. It is absolutely safe to use. This is the only software with full support of search engine API keys. The tools can also emulate the behavior of human searchers, rotate browser agents and proxy servers. Therefore our tools never get blocked by search engines.”

Click here for a larger size version of this screenshot of Link Assistant!

Does rank mean anything in a world of personalized search?

Pandia: “You give your users data about how high they rank in search results. Still, some would say that since the search engines deliver different results to different geographical locations, and in some cases even give personalized results adjusted on the basis of search history etc., this does not make much sense. Do you have any comment on this?”

Richmond: “Right, sometimes search results can differ depending on the geographical location, that’s why our tools support over 400 local and regional search engines from over 60 countries enabling the users to optimize for each and every location where they want to rank high.

“The tools take this into account when collecting and analyzing the data so that you can target local markets of USA, United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, Japan or any other country and achieve top rankings there.

“As for the difference in personalized search results, statistics show that only slightly more than 10% of users tend to sign into their Google account when searching the web. Thus our tools help businesses get their message through to 90% of Googlers which is actually a lot of people.

“Moreover, the difference in personalized results is often insignificant, so if you rank top for your keywords in general results, in most cases you’ll still be there in personalized search.”

Why bother about other search engines than Google?

Pandia: “You say you support more than 400 search engines. But isn’t Google the only search engine that matters?”

Richmond: “Google is certainly the biggest fish, but it’s not the only one in the pond. According to Comscore’s latest research Google generates about 63% of all searches leaving more then a third of the search pie to other players including Yahoo! (over 20% of searches) and Microsoft (about 8%).

“Of course you can put all your eggs in the Google basket, but this way you’ll be leaving out almost 40% of prospective customers.

“Furthermore, there are still countries where Google is not the search leader.” — He smiles: “That sounds unbelievable right?”– “The Big G is losing to Yandex in Russia, Baidu in China and Yahoo! in Japan to name a few. So if you want to tap into these markets you need to optimize for the search engines that are popular there.

“And we shouldn’t forget there are also regional versions of Google with their own peculiarities which you need to be aware of when optimizing for the German, Australian, British or any other version of Google. That’s why there are so many supported search engines in our SEO tools.”

Identifying the best keyword phrases

Pandia: “How do you generate keywords? Do you use your own tool or do you fetch search data from others?”

Richmond laughs enthusiastically:

“We’re only planning to launch our own keyword research tool that will be the coolest one ever!

“In the meanwhile we offer our users keyword data from tools like Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, etc. Plus Google Adwords Keyword Tool will be added in one of the nearest versions so that you can get keyword data from Google and compare it with other sources in a most handy way.”

The role of the social web

Pandia: “Some argue that the social web is changing the way we search. Not only do sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter produce a lot of content, but they may also serve as search tools in their own right.

“In your opinion, what should those involved in search engine marketing do to meet this challenge?”

Richmond: “Indeed, the social media has brought about significant changes to the world of search. But social media sites are not going to take over the search engines nor will social media marketing replace SEO. The relationship between them is more of a symbiosis.

“It’s hard to carry out a great social media campaign without the traffic support from the search engines, unless you’re famous. Of course big names like Dell or Mac can stir a frenzy in the social media and pull hoards of visitors and sales with a purely social media campaign. But if you’re a small or mid-sized business the chances are you’ll never hit the top of Digg or Stumbleupon.

“In most cases your story will get lost somewhere in the ever growing pile of other social
media marketers’ efforts.

“That’s why you need SEO to power up your social media campaign. If you get your social media story to rank well in the search engines it’ll drive a lot of traffic and attention to whatever you posted, giving you the boost you need to make it to the top stories list. That in turn will get you a lot of links that will benefit your website’s rankings.”

The most important factors for search engine success

Pandia: “Your tools also analyze the customer’s web site and provides advice on how to improve its search engine friendliness. What is, in your opinion, the most important on page factor for search engine success?”

Richmond: “Rocking content. The harder your content rocks, the higher it gets in the search results. But when your content is not only great but also well optimized, your rankings will go through the roof.

“And if we talk just about the web page structure, the title is perhaps the most important factor. We’ve seen cases when the title change alone helped gain 50-60 positions up for very competitive keywords.”

Generating links

Pandia: “What is the most efficient way to generate high quality inbound links?”

Richmond: “Again it’s content. Offer something exciting, something that fires people up, something they want to talk about and share with their friends and colleagues, something unique that can’t be found elsewhere be it a service, product or information. Do that, and people will link to you.

“It’s certainly not the easiest way to build links, but it works best.

“And if you can’t come up with anything people would go crazy about, you can always use the second most efficient way to generate links - LinkAssistant!”

The Link Assistant software is available for Windows and Mac OS.

Disclosure: Link Assistant is a Pandia sponsor.

photo credit: johnthescone