Central Perk: SEOptimise

joi, 28 octombrie 2010

SEOptimise

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 03:04 AM PDT

A couple of months ago Kevin sent an email round the SEOptimise office looking for a volunteer/guinea pig to check out the Site Visibility Premium Podcast. As one of the newest members of the SEOptimise team I thought it would be a good opportunity to increase my knowledge and plus it would make a good subject for my first company blog post (so be nice).

I should probably admit to something first, while I absolutely love learning new stuff I do tend to have the attention span of a small child while reading things, which is a slight problem in an industry where there is loads to learn and lots of it can come from blog posts, so I am always up for different ways of learning.

With that little confession out of the way – on to the review.

Format
The good news (well for me at least) is that the Premium Podcast, as well as having a permanent home on the Site Visibility site, is also delivered as a bite size video/presentation hybrid of roughly 10 minutes and lands in your inbox every weekday afternoon. The videos are each specifically targeted at individual topics covering anything and everything from; PPC, SEO, blogging, affiliate programs and conversion through to anything else you want to suggest in the forum (on which the Site Visibility team are refreshingly active). Whatever the topic, there is usually a week long overriding theme, which this week is "what has digital done for…".

The best part is that whoever is presenting, usually Kelvin Newman – Site Visibility's Creative Director, explains everything in pretty much plain English combined with the occasional random seagull noise for good measure (I should probably make clear it is actually seagulls not the presenter).

As a bonus if you want to get your learning done on the go, as well as a video format where you can follow the practical stuff onscreen, there is also an audio only version available too.

Content
So who is going to benefit most from the podcasts? They will probably be of most use for people with beginner or intermediate SEO knowledge levels, affiliates looking for a boost or site owners who want to do their own SEO from scratch. Having said that even working for an agency with plenty of experience and knowledge it still had its benefits – it's always nice to see the tools and tactics that the other agencies employ and I dare say it would be a useful tool for getting new staff up to speed too.

For those of you who have, like me, sat through hours of conference presentations will know that the best presentations are the ones that give you something to take away and use. I always liken it to cars – I'd rather someone told me how to drive rather than how the engine works. So I was more than happy that each of the videos has something that you can actually take away and use, whether it's a tool to use, an approach to take or even the correct way to pronounce canonicalization.

Site & Extras
Overall the site is easy to navigate and it's not overly difficult to find podcasts you may have missed, although a better search function would be handy sometimes. On the plus side, judging from some of the forum threads from the Site Visibility team, they are always looking for suggestions for improvements that could be made so the site will continue to evolve. And since I'm on the topic of the forum, its worth checking out as there is a nice little community going on with plenty of discussion and it's a good place to pick Kelvin's brain and suggest what you want to hear on the next podcast.

Overall
Personally, I was impressed with the service. I consider myself to know a fair amount about SEO and I learnt a few different things and found a few new tools that have come in handy, so there will definitely be people out there who this will benefit a lot. And, for those of you like me who like your learning visual, bite size and with stuff to action afterwards it's definitely spot on.

If you fancy checking out for yourself visit the Podcast section on the Site Visibility site.