SEO tools like WebCEO or SEO Elite are normally used to track rankings of keywords. It is also possible to check them manually which is fine for a few selected keywords but impossible for webmasters who track hundreds or even thousands of keywords.

I recently came upon a post on a blog that explained how to track Google rankings in Google Analytics. It did not work at first and I had to fix an error before the ranking tracking was actually working. Below is now the explanation on how to track a website’s ranking in Google.

You start by adding a new profile to an existing website. Start by clicking on the Add New Profile link on the right side of the overview of all websites that have been added to Google Analytics.

Now select to add a profile for an existing domain, select the domain from the drop down list and give it a unique name, e.g. website rankings. A click on continue will create the new website profile which will initially track the same data that the original profile is tracking.

You will be taken back to the profile overview page. Click on the edit link next to the newly created profile. Click on the Add Filter link on the right lower side of the profile detail page.

We need to create three new filters:

Filter name: Ranking 1
Filter type: Custom filter – Include
Filter field: Campaign Medium
Filter pattern: organic

Filter name: Ranking 2
Filter type: Custom filter – Include
Filter field: Campaign Source
Filter pattern: google

Filter name: Ranking 3
Filter type: Custom filter – Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Campaign term, (.*)
Field B -> Extract B: Referral, (\?|&)cd=([^&]*)
Output To -> User Defined: $A1 (position: $B2)

It then takes a few hours before the first rankings can be checked as the new profile will start tracking traffic beginning with the time it was created.

The rankings are then accessible by clicking on Visitors > User Defined when checking the stats of a website. They look like this

And there you have it. A dead easy way to track keyword rankings in Google.

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It is not often that a search engine invites users to test it’s search infrastructure. Google invited webmasters yesterday to test out their next-generation search engine infrastructure. Interested users can point their web browsers to http://www2.sandbox.google.com/ to perform a live test.

For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search. It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions. The new infrastructure sits “under the hood” of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.

Webmasters usually have the advantage of being able to check how their websites rank for certain keywords which makes it easier for them to spot differences. Most users who commented in the original post at the Google webmasters website mentioned that search results in the new search engine would be more relevant. It was also noted that less spam websites would occupy a position on the first three search results pages.

A quick test for some of the keywords that Ghacks ranks for did not reveal any major changes. Please post your opinion about Google’s next-generation search infrastructure in the comments.

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FireFox – This isn’t really a SEO tool per se, but more of a requirement. Most SEO tools on the Internet require FireFox and the reason is simple: FireFox allows plugins. FireFox is an amazing browser which has gained astounding ground since its release leaving Internet Explorer to the not-so-tech-savvy and those who are currently using Internet Explorer to download FireFox!

NoDoFollow – This is very handy tool to find whether links on a site are no-follow or do-follow. When doing SEO for Google, Internet marketers prefer their site’s back links to be do-follow. Do-follow back links raise a website up in Google SERPs more so than no-follow links. It’s important to know whether a site gives do-follow links or no-follow links when doing link building. The NoDoFollow Firefox plugin (yes, you’re going to need FireFox for this one) allows link builders to differentiate between do-follow and no-follow links.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool – Anyone looking to earn money from creating and doing search engine optimization on niche sites will have to do keyword research. Those versed in SEO already know this, but there are a lot of SEO newbies out there who have neve rheard of keyword research. This is extremely important. Doing keyword research often means the difference of making cents or dollars online. It’s a good idea to know which keywords make money and which don’t before spending time and money doing SEO for a site. Doing keyword research prevents that time and money from being wasted — most of the time. Surprisingly, there are a lot of people who don’t even do keyword research!

SEO for Firefox Extension – This is a major time saver. Those who’ve ever had a full piggy bank as a child and counted out all the change before taking it to the bank where the teller just dumped the change into a machine that counts the change in a matter of seconds can appreciate the time saved with this addon. Those on dial-up will also appreciate this. When doing keyword research it’s important to know the Google Page Rank of a site and how many back links from Yahoo of probably hundreds of sites depending on how many keywords researched. Instead of inputting each site into some online Page Rank checking and manually going to Yahoo to find how back links a site has, this tool allows Googlers to see ALL this information and more right in Google search when they’re researching each individual keyword.

Website Marketing SEO Score Tool – This is actually pretty cool. This tool gives web site owners to see what’s wrong with their website. This tool gives each site a score and tells what could be done differently. Of course, anyone can manually check all this stuff themselves, but this is great for a nice pick me up and it can be used as a learning tool.

All in One SEO Pack – Have a niche site? If so, you probably use WordPress. I’m not making fun of Blogger users, but those using WordPress do have a significant SEO advantage over those who use Blogger. If you’re a niche site person like me, you’ve probably got WordPress. This tool configures WordPress blogs to be very SEO friendly and is highly popular among literally the whole niche marketing crowd. It’s important not to use something because it’s popular, but because it works. However, this is popular for a reason.

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Someone who wants to earn money from blogging needs traffic more than anything else. It is not hard to put Google Adsense on a blog and earn money with it. The ad might not be optimized but it will still earn money if the blog receives traffic. Without traffic, there will be no money no matter how optimized or clever the ad units are.

Blogging for a period of three years teaches a lot if you are eager to learn. Bloggers learn about search engine optimization which is a profession in itself, about monetization, about the blogging plattform, how to interact with visitors / customers / fellow bloggers and more.

It’s a steep learning curve but if you master it you will be successful. Here are a few blogging tips that helped me a lot:

• Keep Going: That’s the most important part of it all. Many bloggers give up after blogging for a few weeks because they cannot see that traffic comes in. No visitors equals low motivation and that’s usually the point when they decide to quit.

  Some search engines apply an automatic filter to new websites (some call it sandbox) that prevents them from ranking for popular keywords to avoid spam. It is natural that new sites will not rank well for terms like business or credit cards while they will have lesser problem ranking for long tail keywords.

• Keywords: Speaking of which. Keywords are the essence of a blog. Search engines analyse blog posts and pick out keywords that they think the blog post is about. They then give the keyword a score and compare it to other sites that rank for that keyword and place the new website on a specific rank in the search engine for that keyword. Other factors may weight in like the new blog filter but that’s basically how it works.

  If bloggers are serious about traffic generation they need to understand the keyword concept and how they do keyword research. Keyword research meaning to find profitable low competition keywords that the blog can most likely rank well for.

• Long Tail Keywords: Long Tail refers to keywords that are very specific and usually consist of a few words. Blog is not a long term keyword while How To Create A Blog is. Long Tail keywords receive less traffic than their more generic counterparts but that traffic is usually targeted.
• Build a Network: If you blog on your own you will miss opportunities. It is impossible keeping up with all the news and trends related to blogging. A network of bloggers that target the same niche can help each other in several ways. If they come upon an interesting topic or option they will inform their fellow bloggers about it. They can also promote the blogs of other network members in their own blogs.
• Don’t read the Chows: Don’t read the blogs of those so called probloggers. The only thing they usually care about is their own bankroll. The products that they promote will earn them money because other bloggers will join or buy them because of their recommendations but there will be no or small gain for the little guy who bought the product. Their sites are about an image that they have to keep up and about upselling products to newbies. Stay away from them. Look at my link list for recommendations.

Here is a short link list:

• Make Money For Beginners
• Internet Marketing School
• Seo Zombie
• Google Adwords Keywords Tool (Keyword Research)
• Wordtracker Free Keywords (Keyword Research)
• SEO Quake (Firefox Extension)

If you read the three blogs posted above you will learn a lot in short time. Those are honest bloggers who do not try to sell you yet another “make money in no time” product that only works for them because they can sell it to you.

Seo Zombie is a site that I discovered a while ago and the guy does a good job as well, his Keyword Sniping Case Study sounds interesting and might be a great way to learn if he continues posting updates.

The keyword research tools are essential to discover keywords that can be target that pay well and have enough traffic to make them worthwhile.

Seo Quake finally is a Firefox extension that displays all kinds of “SEO” information like Pagerank, links and domain age on the screen.

If you have any questions about blogging let me know and I try to answer them.

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Most webmasters have the decency to cite their source when they write about a topic that they have encountered on another website which is a good and honest thing to do. Almost all of them on the other hand use anchor names like via or sitename to link back to the website which is probably helping a new blog that wants to establish a name for itself and might help experienced visitors identify the source by reading the name.

It is however not really helping the webmaster who is maintaining the source website.Most search engines (still) rely heavily on anchor names. What you do is you tell the search engines that the source is about via or the sitename but do not give the search engine a single hint as to what the article is really about.

Lets take one basic example. Ghacks writes a post about the latest Firefox update. A brand new story that has not reached the masses yet. Instead of linking to that story using via or ghacks webmasters would do me a much bigger favor by using anchor names like firefox, firefox 3 or firefox update because this would give my article more weight in the search engines.

I have therefor decided to link to other blogs that I cite in my articles properly from now on. The link will contain one major keyword (a keyword can be comprised of one or multiple words) that I have identified in the post on the other website. This will help the other website in their search engine rankings in the major search engines. I will furthermore contact webmasters who link to my articles and ask them if they would like to consider doing the same.

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Basically it gives you a meta tag report, and then shows you a bunch of keyword statistics. What I find very helpful is that it not only shows you keywords on your page, but also the ones found in your anchor tags and image “alt” tags. Since search engines check both, it’s a good idea to keep on eye on these. The analysis is ended by a huge keyword density table which will allow you to compile some hefty stat tables of your own based on it,and you can start working to get the density you want exactly.

The best use you can put it to is to check on competition. Take a look at how sites that have proven themselves got to where they are. Take a look at their keyword density and their anchor tag usage, try and mimic it, and perhaps you will soar into the Google top 10!

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Here are a few sites and forums that have categories for website sales: Digitalpoint, Namepros and Sitepoint. I’m sure you can find dozens more easily.

The first thing that you can do is to check on various markets. Which sites and topics sell well, which do not. If you have a blog or website compare the traffic level and revenue with your own. Check all the advertisers and try to get into their advertising program as well to earn more money with your website.

But that is not the main advice and tip of this article. Buyers post all sorts of information when selling websites. Traffic level, earnings, visitors, search engine rankings, advertising schemes, number of pages, how many users have signed up for the newsletter and much more.

And here is what you can do with that information. Check Google and other search engines for the main keywords, see if those keywords spill out lots of websites writing about the same topic. If you only find blog posts for example you might have hit a gold mine.

Instead of buying that website for several thousand Dollars you build a website around the main keywords and theme. The main benefits should be clear.

1. You know the main keywords and can research additional ones that bring in additional users
2. You know that there are not many competing websites and that you can get a top 10 position easily with some SEO (onsite and offsite)
3. You know which traffic levels and earnings you can expect from that website, even if it would only rank 2nd or 3rd on the main keywords
4.Instead of paying hundreds or thousands of Dollars you only pay for a domain name, some hours of your time and some basic SEO (links)

This leads to the Advice to the buyer of a website. There will be others who will try to get some piece of the cake by building a website that looks similar to yours. This means that it very well can be that your traffic levels and or revenue will drop if you do not continue to work on the website.

A website with strong keyword links is much safer than one that only has a dozens of links and still takes the top spot in Google because of zero competing websites.

That’s it. A quick post, all thought up and written in about 10 minutes. Opinions ?

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