miercuri, 16 februarie 2011

Raven SEO Tools Review – Getting Started With Keywords Graywolf's SEO Blog

Raven SEO Tools Review – Getting Started With Keywords Graywolf's SEO Blog


Raven SEO Tools Review – Getting Started With Keywords

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 07:44 AM PST

Post image for Raven SEO Tools Review – Getting Started With Keywords

I’ve been spending some quality time with Raven Tools, and I thought I’d turn it into a tutorial series to help you get more out of using the tools as well.

I’m going to assume you’re starting from scratch here; if you’re not, just skip the steps as needed. The first thing you need to do is set up a profile. A profile allows you to keep “related” sites together. For example if you had 3 travel sites and 3 gadget sites, I would set up two profiles–one for travel & one for gadgets. If you have client work and your own sites, you can divide it that way as well. Just think of it as a big drawer in a virtual filing cabinet. For this tutorial, I’m going to be using one profile for this website. After you have named the profile, it asks you to enter the domain and choose which search engines you want to track rankings on

Raven Tools Website Setup

For this tutorial I’m going to do things manually, but you can feel free to use setup wizard if you like. Once that’s done, I like to hook in Google analytics. You do that under the analytics tab. If you are logged into Google Analytics, the account will show (sorry about the redaction); if not, it will promptyou to log in. Then you will choose which site from that Google profile it should use.

Raven Screen Analytics Setup

If everything worked, you should see your analytics data which looks something like this:

Screen Analytics Data

f your website has been running for a while, there will likely be some keyword data. You can access it by pressing the “keyword” link at the top of the page. In the lower part of the page you will see keywords you already rank for. If you would like to track your position for one of the words, click the “add” button on the right.

Raven Keyword Analytics Import

It’s likely you’ll want to track more than one word, but (to keep things simple) I’ll just be using [seo blog] for now.  Once I’ve added all the words from my analytics, I want to find some new keywords. I’m lazy … err efficient … so I like to start by looking at what others in my space are doing. For the purpose of this tutorial I’m going to look at Sugarrae.com. So Head on over to Research > Keyword Analyzer and put in the domain you want to scan.

research tab

In a minute or so you’ll see the results, which look something like this:

Keyword Analysis

You’ll notice symbols next to the words. Raven tries to tell you what it thinks those words are. [Advil] for example is a product. [Christine Churchill] is a person. It thinks [internet marketing] is a company (hey it’s not always right), and it thinks [affiliate sales] is a keyword. If I wanted to start tracking my rankings for any of those words, I would just use the “add” link on the right.

Next you’ll want to try the SEM Rush Keyword Tool, which is located under Research > SEM Rush. SEM Rush is a paid keyword tool that’s included with your Raven subscription. What’s nice here is it gives you a a lot of extra data like what the CPC is for adwords (this helps you identify high value or high conversion keywords), traffic volume, number of results, and so on. You can add the words to your tracking report with the “add” link on the right.

SEM Rush Keywords

Next up is the Wordtracker Tool, which is another paid SEO keyword tool included in your Raven subscription. Access this tool by going to  Research > Wordtracker in the menu. This works a little differently than the the tools we have looked at so far. It asks you to put in one or more words then gives you back a list of suggested or related keywords. Again you can add them to the tracking with the “add” link on the right.

Wordtracker Raven Tools

Last is the Google Adwords Keyword tool located under Research > Adwords Research. It works the same way the Wordtracker tool does, using one or more seed terms to build a list of similar or related keyword suggestions. It gives you prior months’ volume, last month’s volume, and competition. Again add keywords to your tracking list with the “add” text on the right.

Raven Adwords Keywords

Next you want to head over to the Ranking > Competitors tab and enter in any competing websites. I put those websites in for example purposes only. Let’s not start any Gray hates Rae/Aaron/Rand rumors okay …

Raven Competition

Let’s do one last check of all of the keywords we have decided to track using the Rankings > Keyword tab.

Raven Master Keyword Tracker

Now it’s time to look at where we rank for our keywords and compare ourselves to the competition. You can change competitors using the drop down on the right.

Keyword Ranking

Raven Competition Keyword

The last thing you’ll want to do is add the analytics, keyword, and rank tracking to your dashboard.

Raven Dashboard

There’s a lot more you can do with Raven Tools, which I’ll take a look at in future posts.

To be clear I am a current paying customer of Raven SEO Tools. If you sign up from my link I will get a commission. However I feel that this is a tool that can help you be more productive and make more money, which is why I’m comfortable recommending it. Feel free to try Raven Tools for 30 days for free. You don’t even need a credit card to sign up …

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  3. How to Add Singular and Plural Keywords to Your Page Titles This post is a short response to a question I received via...
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Raven SEO Tools Review – Getting Started With Keywords

Race to the Top Commencement Challenge

The White House Your Daily Snapshot for
Wednesday, Feb. 16,  2011
 

Race to the Top Commencement Challenge

The Race to the Top Commencement Challenge is back and we’re asking public high school students from across the country to tell us how their school is preparing them for college and a career. In return, we'll make sure one high school has a graduation they'll never forget – including a commencement address by President Obama himself.

The deadline for applications is February 25, 2011. Learn more and apply today.

Photo of the Day

President Barack Obama meets with former President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office, Feb. 15, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog.

President Obama on Deficits and Corporate Tax Reform
President Obama holds a news conference on the 2012 budget and explains how the federal government, like American families, must live within its means while still investing in the future.

Investing in Our Future
President Obama sends an email to the White House email list about his FY2012 Budget proposal and some of the tough choices we must make so that we can afford to invest in our future.

Video: Travels with the First Lady
Watch as the First Lady travels to Alpharetta, Georgia, to celebrate the first anniversary of her Let's Move! initiative.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

9:30 AM: The President and the Vice President receive the Presidential Daily Briefing

10:00 AM: The President meets with senior advisors

12:30 PM: Press Briefing with Press Secretary Jay Carney WhiteHouse.gov/live

1:15 PM: The Vice President meets with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of Macedonia

1:45 PM: The President meets with Secretary of State Clinton

2:20 PM: The President and the Vice President meet with the Senate Democratic Leadership

4:45 PM: The President delivers remarks on the America’s Great Outdoors initiative WhiteHouse.gov/live

6:30 PM: The Vice President and Dr. Jill Biden host a dinner for new senators

WhiteHouse.gov/live  Indicates events that will be live streamed on White House.com/Live.

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SEOptimise

SEOptimise


30 Efficient Web Tools that Save Time and Make Money for Power Users

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 06:19 AM PST

*

Web tools are useful when they don’t require a significant time investment to master them or use them. The best tools out there save time and make money at the same time. They don’t even have to deal with time and money like time management or micropayment tools do. They just have to make sure you reach your goals as fast as possible and that you finish the tasks you work on as quickly as possible.

Business tools in particular have to be time saving in order to make time for the actual business matters.

There are tools out there, such as Facebook, which require more time investment than others, and the ROI remains fuzzy. ​Today I want to focus on the kind of tools that are the exact opposite:  efficient. Check out the list of 30 efficient Web tools that save time and make money for power users below:


Social Media Tools

  • CoTweet makes Twitter actually conversational and searchable. It saves all your past conversations.
  • Sendible is similar to an email marketing tool but for social media. Send messages via numerous channels in an organised way.
  • Get Satisfaction is for gathering user feedback directly when you want it, instead of perusing the whole Web to find it.
  • SM2 is an analytics tool for social media that collects all kinds of data on the keywords you want it to track, so you don’t have to search Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums.
  • Trunk.ly collects your links from Delicious, Twitter and Facebook automatically so that don’t have to back them up or search for them. Trunk.ly does both.
  • Amplify is like Ping.fm or Friendfeed in that it combines all your networks in one place, plus you get a WordPress blog there automatically​.​
  • ShopTab is a tool for creating a shop tab in Facebook without much fuss. Some agencies charge thousands of dollars or let you pay per click; not here.​



Search and SEO Tools

  • Yahoo! Search Clues is a keyword research tool that not only shows you how often your keyword gets looked after, but also who looks for it. In a way, it combines several Google and Bing tools in one place.​
  • blekko is a spam-free search engine. Although it may take a while to get used to it, once you know how to use it and you’ve customised it to fit your needs, it’s better than Google.​
  • Screaming Frog SEO Spider allows you to crawl the Web like a search engine​. You check your site for broken links and much more.
  • Global Market Finder is a new keyword research tool by Google, finding potential markets for you abroad. No need to do it manually anymore.
  • Reinvigorate is not only a well-designed, real-time analytics tool; it also offers heat maps for the most competitive prices out there.
  • Domainr is a very ​simple and fast domain search engine giving you a quick overview of all kinds of domains, even the most exotic ones.



Music Tools

  • SoundCloud – Your Sound, At The Heart is a one stop shop for all your audio and musical needs​. Whether you’re an artist, a journalist or a user wanting to download free music, Soundcloud is for you​.
  • stereomood allows you to play music matching your current mood. So no need to tediously add artist names or listen a one size fits all genre radio. ​
  • Hitlantis uses an advanced visualization to help you find new music from independent artists you might like quickly​.



Web Design & Development Tools

  • Optimizely – A/B testing is really obligatory if you want to make sure that your visitors really use your site to buy and not to bounce. Opimizely is an easy-to-use WYSIWIG editor to create A/B tests.​
  • Sumo Paint is like PhotoShop but it’s online and you don’t even have to regsiter. Just drop in and create your graphics.​
  • Clue is user testing in such a simple way that any text describing it would take longer than to test it.
  • Surreal CMS is probably the best way to add ​a simple-to-use CMS with advanced functionality to your custom build microsite.​



Money-Making Tools

  • Pay with a Tweet is an alternative way to pay. You pay with your social capital on Twitter, aka a tweet.​
  • Ven is a new global internet currency which should simplify transnational transaction significantly if you ask me.​
  • Flattr is a micropayment tool you use to pay those writers you actually want to support, with just the click of a button.​
  • Kapipal is a very simple crowdfunding tool does not take money and works with PayPal.​
  • The Invoice Machine creates professional-looking invoices on the fly.
  • Twippr allows you to send money using Twitter. As simple as that.
  • OnePageCRM is a modern web-based CRM tool​ that takes away the fuss from Customer Relationship​ Management. It’s free while in Beta.​



Time-Saving Tools

  • Geckoboard combines all your important business data in one place and updates it in real time.​
  • Mite is a simple yet powerful time and project management tool at a very competitive price.
  • TeuxDeux is the first online ‘to do’ list that I actually use without getting annoyed and losing time.



These web tools are for power users who gain their power by getting things done efficiently. You can waste time and money all day on the Web, but you can use tools to save time and make money as well. Try these and tell me what you think! How did you use them? I have tested most of them and use some of them regularly.

Most of the tools are both easy to use and free or affordable so that you don’t have to invest much more time and money than you get out of them.

*Image by Menage a Moi.

© SEOptimise – Download our free business guide to blogging whitepaper and sign-up for the SEOptimise monthly newsletter. 30 Efficient Web Tools that Save Time and Make Money for Power Users

Related posts:

  1. Study: Twitter Users 3 Times More Active than Average Social Media Users
  2. How to Use Google Webmaster Tools for SEO Inspiration
  3. Interviews with UK’s First Facebook Users

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marți, 15 februarie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Population Adjusted Retail Sales and the "Real" Retail Sales Depression; 3 Factors to Consider Going Forward

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 03:24 PM PST

In Retail Sales Rise 7th Straight Month, Now Above Pre-Recession Peak; Making Sense of the Numbers; Housing and Auto Perspective I questioned whether retail sales are really rising and posted some charts of autos, housing, and sales tax data (the true measure of retail sales).

Housing is not a part of retail sales but housing does affect retail sales because of appliance sales, carpet, paint, fixtures, landscaping, etc.

This was my conclusion.
Car sales are not up in number, but they are up in price. The same applies to food, and many other items. Population is also growing. All of those things need to be factored into the equation.

Even if one accepts the retail survey is accurate (I don't because it misses too many small stores that went out of business and are still closed), real sales have certainly not recovered. That puts pressure on states because expenses, especially medical expenses and pension benefits have soared.

The Good News

  1. The good news (if you believe it), is that retail sales are finally back to January 2008 levels.

The Bad News

  1. State expenses are way higher than 2008
  2. Job growth is anemic and will likely stay that way
  3. Stimulus money has been spent
  4. Congress is unlikely to bail out states
  5. Interest rates are higher
  6. Mortgage rates are higher
  7. Gas prices are higher
  8. Congress is seeking spending cuts
  9. States are hiking sales and income taxes
  10. Property taxes are rising in spite of falling home prices
  11. Home prices are falling

Ironically, points 4, 8, and 11 are good things for the long-term health of the economy but economists will not see it that way because it will impact short-term growth.
Population Adjusted Retail Sales

I did not factor in population growth but noted that it should be done. "Dshort" did factor it in and has a nice set of charts that suggest The "Real" Consumer Economy Remains in Depression
Monthly Retail Sales With Regression Lines



The green trendline is a regression through the entire data series. The latest sales figure is 8.1% below the green line end point.

The blue line is a regression through the end of 2007 and extrapolated to the present. Thus, the blue line excludes the impact of the Financial Crisis. The latest sales figure is 16.1% below the blue line end point.

[Mish note: the above chart is not adjusted for population growth and income. The following chart is]

Population Adjusted Retail Sales



Consider: During the past 21 years, the U.S. population has grown by over 22% while the dollar has lost about 37% of its purchasing power to inflation. When we adjust accordingly, the rebound in retail sales from the bottom in April 2009 merely gets us back to the per capita spending during the late summer of 1999.

Retail sales have been recovering since the trough in 2009. But the "real" consumer economy, adjusted for population growth still in a state of depression — 8.3% below its all-time high in January 2006.
Dshort has some great charts. Inquiring minds will want to give his site a closer look.

Long Term Retail Spending Factors

Three factors that need to be discussed in light of retail spending trends are demographics, taxes, and changing consumer attitudes towards debt.

Demographics

  • Boomers are past their peak earning years and headed for retirement.
  • Boomers in aggregate will need to downsize their lifestyles.
  • Those wanting to downsize their houses and simplify their lifestyle have no one to sell to. This will keep enormous downward pressure on home prices.
  • Those fresh out of college cannot afford and will not buy the cars and homes their parents had.
  • Many college graduates are despondent over being hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt with no way to pay it back.
  • Student loans programs benefit no one but schools and teachers. Eventually students will revolt.

Taxes, Stimulus, Pensions

  • Many states are raising sales taxes, property taxes, income taxes and fees. This takes money out of consumer pockets to feed untenable wages and benefits for public union workers.
  • Cities and states are bankrupt over untenable public union wages and benefits. Either wages and benefits must fall or taxes have to go up.
  • The federal government will either raise taxes, cut spending or both. Either way will put a damper on growth and retail spending. Raising taxes will put a long-term damper on growth. Cutting spending is good for the long haul but will put a short-term damper on growth.

Changing Consumer Attitudes


  • There has been a massive secular change in consumer attitudes towards debts.
  • The trend is housing is towards cash-in refis from cash-out refis.
  • Banks are reluctant to lend except to the most credit-worthy borrowers.
  • Credit-worthy borrowers do not want to borrow.
  • Kids see their parents or grandparents arguing over debt, even losing their homes over debt, how vowed to not get in the same situation.

Retail sales are up but $150 billion in stimulus spending to states is going away. Spending cuts in Congress are coming. Pent-up demand for car sales will end, but pent-up need to dump housing inventory is building. Taxpayers are fed up, but many states are hiking taxes anyway.

All of those items place enormous headwinds on retail sales. It is quite possible the latest set of retail numbers is about as good as they get. That certainly is not priced into equities or nearly anyone's economic model.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List


Retail Sales Rise 7th Straight Month, Now Above Pre-Recession Peak; Making Sense of the Numbers; Housing and Auto Perspective

Posted: 15 Feb 2011 12:12 PM PST

Retail sales rose for the seventh consecutive month and are allegedly above pre-recession levels. Tax data seems to dispute that notion, as do auto sales and new home sales. The latter is not part of retail sales, but the furnishings that go into houses are. Let's take a look at this a number of ways to see if we can make sense of it all.

Retail Sales Rise 7th Straight Month


MarketWatch reports Sales at U.S. retailers rise 0.3% in January
Retailers' sales rose 0.3% last month as consumers spent more on gasoline, autos and online goods, the Commerce Department reported. It was the smallest increase since last July, however. Sales also rose 0.3% excluding the volatile automotive sector.

The increase in sales fell short of Wall Street's expectations. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast sales to rise by 0.6% overall and by 0.6% excluding the auto segment.

The government also revised sales data for December 2010 lower — to a 0.5% increase from 0.6% as originally reported.

"Spending growth has clearly lost some momentum," said senior U.S. economist Paul Dales of Capital Economics.

Stripping out gas and auto, retail sales rose a meager 0.2% last month. Sales dropped 2.9% at building-supply stores and declined 1.3% for retailers who sell hobby items, sporting goods, books and music.

Restaurants and bars also saw a 0.7% decline in sales — the biggest drop since March 2009.
Chart of Retail Sales



The above chart is courtesy of Calculated Risk who writes "Retail sales are up 13.7% from the bottom, and now 0.4% above the pre-recession peak. "

Here is a link to the Census Bureau Advance Monthly Retail and Food Services Report for January 2011.

Sales Tax Data

The only valid measure of retail sales is state sales tax reports. Unfortunately time does not permit a complete analysis. Not only would one have to look at 50 states, one would also have to adjust every state's tax collections for increases in sales taxes.

As a one-state snapshot, I frequently look at Texas to see what its trends are. Texas may or may not be a representative state, but it can provide some clues.

Texas Economy in Focus

Please consider the Texas Comptroller's Economic Outlook updated February 11, 2011.
Job growth, sales tax collections – both from business and consumer purchases – as well as automobile sales, signal that the Texas economy has emerged from the recent recession.

Another indicator that the state's economy has been comparatively healthy was the U.S. Bureau of the Census report that Texas added more people (nearly 4.3 million) than any other state between the census counts of 2000 and 2010.

Entering 2011, more than half the jobs shed by employers during Texas' shorter recession have already been recovered as our economy recovers more quickly than the U.S. as a whole. Nationally, only 13.4 percent of recession-hit jobs had been recovered ending 2010.

Texas and the nation returned to economic growth in 2010, with the nation increasing its GDP by 2.8 percent and Texas increasing its GSP by 3.4 percent.

Taxes

  • Texas sales tax receipts for January 2011 were 10.4 percent higher than for January 2010.
  • For fiscal 2010, state sales tax receipts were down 6.6 percent from fiscal 2009.
  • Motor vehicle sales tax collections for January 2011 were 19.6 percent higher than for January 2010.
  • The average core transaction price nationwide for a new car or truck during the first 15 days of December 2010 rose 12.5 percent to $28,484 from $25,326 in the first 15 days of December 2009.
  • For the first 15 days of December 2010, total national new auto sales were 555,997 units, up 9.9 percent compared to first 15 days of December 2009.
  • Nationally, leases accounted for 28.1 percent of new vehicle sales in November 2010, an increase of 15.6 percent from November 2009.

Stimulus Package

In Texas, an estimated $18 billion in federal stimulus money is flowing to state and local governments.
That looks pretty good. However, there was $18 billion in stimulus money that will be headed out the door. Moreover, sales tax receipts for fiscal 2010 were down from fiscal 2009, and 2009 was down from 2008. That is in spite of an influx in population.

Texas State's sales tax collections up again but not enough

On December 8, 2010 the Statesman noted Texas State's sales tax collections up again but not enough
Texas' sales tax collections in November increased 8.7 percent over the same month a year ago, marking the eighth straight month of growth, according to figures released by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs on Wednesday.

So far, the first three months of the fiscal year have generated about $5 billion through the sales tax including the $1.84 billion collected last month. The November collections reflect transactions in October.

While a marked improvement over last year, that first-quarter total is still around $400 million below the collections at the same point two years ago, which is a more telling indicator of the state's revenue situation.

The approved 2010-11 budget is based on projections that sales tax collections would hold steady in the first year of the budget and then increase by 7 percent in the second year.

The actual first-year collections were down about 6 percent. And the state is still not keeping pace with where it is supposed to be for the second year nevermind making up ground for the previous year's lackluster performance.
Did Texas finally catch up? I am not so sure. What happens when stimulus fades out?

Auto Perspective



Auto sales are well below the pre-recession totals. One way to make up for the difference is if average car prices are considerably up from late 2007. That seems likely as noted by Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.

"The average core transaction price nationwide for a new car or truck during the first 15 days of December 2010 rose 12.5 percent to $28,484 from $25,326 in the first 15 days of December 2009."

Housing Perspective

New and existing home sales are not part of retail sales. However, the appliances, furniture, landscaping, carpet, paint, remodeling work, etc., is.

New Homes Sales



The above chart from New Home Sales increase in December

New home sales certainly do not support the notion that retail sales should be improving. Those are incredibly dismal numbers.

Existing Home Sales



The above chart from December Existing Home Sales: 5.28 million SAAR, 8.1 months of supply

While new home sales do not support the notion of rising retail sales, existing home sales might. Certainly there was a huge spike in home sales related to various tax incentives, and the buyers of those homes are highly likely to re-carpet, buy new appliances, buy paint, improve landscaping, etc.

The question now, is where to from here?

"Real" Retail Sales

Finally, here is one chart that helps tie it all together.



"Real" means inflation-adjusted (price-adjusted). Car sales are not up in number, but they are up in price. The same applies to food, and many other items. Population is also growing. All of those things need to be factored into the equation.

Even if one accepts the retail survey is accurate (I don't because it misses too many small stores that went out of business and are still closed), real sales have certainly not recovered. That puts pressure on states because expenses, especially medical expenses and pension benefits have soared.

The Good News

  1. The good news (if you believe it), is that retail sales are finally back to January 2008 levels.

The Bad News

  1. State expenses are way higher than 2008
  2. Job growth is anemic and will likely stay that way
  3. Stimulus money has been spent
  4. Congress is unlikely to bail out states
  5. Interest rates are higher
  6. Mortgage rates are higher
  7. Gas prices are higher
  8. Congress is seeking spending cuts
  9. States are hiking sales and income taxes
  10. Property taxes are rising in spite of falling home prices
  11. Home prices are falling

Ironically, points 4, 8, and 11 are good things for the long-term health of the economy but economists will not see it that way because it will impact short-term growth.

Addendum:

Please see Population Adjusted Retail Sales and the "Real" Retail Sales Depression; 3 Factors to Consider Going Forward for additional charts and discussion.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List