A. Visit the home page, www.domain.com.

1. Does it redirect to some other URL? If so, that’s bad.
2. Review the Page Title. Does it use relevant, primary keywords? Is it formatted correctly?
3. Review site navigation:
   • Format — text or image? image map? javascript? drop-downs? Text is best.
   • Page URLs — look at URL structure, path names, file names. How long are URLs? How far away from the root are they? Are they separated by dashes or underscores?
   • Are keywords used appropriately in text links or image alt tags?
4. Review home page content:
   • Adequate and appropriate amount of text?
   • Appropriate keyword usage?
   • Is there a sitemap?
   • Do a “command-A” to find any hidden text.
   • Check PageRank via SearchStatus plugin for Firefox
5. View source code:
   • Check meta description (length, keyword usage, relevance).
   • Check meta keywords (relevance, stuffing).
   • Look for anything unusual/spammy (keywords in noscript, H1s in javascript, etc.).
   • If javascript or drop-down navigation, make sure it’s crawlable.
   • Sometimes cut-and-paste code into Dreamweaver to get better look at code-to-page relationship.

B. Analyze robots.txt file. See what’s being blocked and what’s not. Make sure it’s written correctly.

C. Check for www and non-www domains — i.e., canonicalization issues. Only one should resolve; the other should redirect.

D. Look at the sitemap (if one exists).

1. Check keyword usage in anchor text.
2. How many links?
3. Are all important (category, sub-category, etc.) pages listed?

E. Visit two category/1st-level pages.

Repeat A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5 – this will be quicker since many objects (header, footer, menus) will be the same. In particular, look for unique page text, unique meta tags, correct use of H1s, H2s to structure content.

Check for appropriate PageRank flow. Also look at how they link back to home page. Is index.html or default.php appended on link? Shouldn’t be.

F. Visit two product/2nd-level pages.

Same steps as E.

Also, if the site sells common products, find 2-3 other sites selling same exact items and compare product pages. Are all sites using the same product descriptions? Unique content is best.

G. Do a site:domain.com search in all 3 main engines.

Compare pages indexed between the three. Is pages indexed unusually high or low based on what you saw in the site map and site navigation? This may help identify crawlability issues. Is one engine showing substantially more or less pages than the others? Double-check robots.txt file if needed.

H. Do site:domain.com *** -jdkhfdj search in Google to see supplemental pages.

All sites will have some pages in the supplemental index. Compare this number with overall number of pages indexed. A very high percentage of pages in the supplemental index = not good.

(Note: The above is no longer a way to view supplemental results in Google, and Google has said it no longer distinguishes between a main set of results and a supplemental set.)

I. Use Aaron’s SEO for Firefox extension to look at link counts in Yahoo and MSN. If not in a rush, do the actual link count searches manually on Yahoo Site Explorer and MSN to confirm.

…..END…..

That’s what I do when making a quick SEO site analysis. Important: This is for identifying problems, not fixing them. And it doesn’t replace a real and complete SEO analysis. (There are several shortcomings, for example. Here’s one: Steps E and F assume that all category pages across the site will be the same, and that all product pages will be the same. This is not always the case, so you may miss problems/issues that a real, deeper analysis would reveal.)

It’s been said many times, including by me, that one of the flaws of social media marketing is that the resulting traffic is short-lived. That short-term nature of social media traffic is one of the biggest reasons that social media marketing is often overlooked or disregarded by bloggers and website owners. However, an effective social media plan will result in significant and long-lasting growth, with effects that can be visible long after the rush of traffic has died down.

Long-Term Gains that are Possible with Social Media:

Subscriber Growth

All bloggers want to gain new subscribers. Although visitors from social media sites can be more difficult to convert than other types of visitors, the volume of traffic that can be achieved quickly with social media can more than make up for it. On my primary blog I’ve seen firsthand that gaining subscribers from social media is possible and that it can have a very significant impact on the future of your blog.

Search Engine Rankings and Amount of Search Traffic

The links that can result from a successful social media campaign are extremely significant for long-term results, thus the popularity of linkbait. For new blogs, strong search engine rankings won’t happen right away, but a consistent approach with linkbait and social media can result in a big difference in long-term, long-lasting search engine traffic.

Overall Traffic Growth

Success with social media can have an impact on your overall traffic in the future, not just for the next two days. Repeated success with social media will bring lasting visitors that click-through on inbound links, the search engine traffic that was just mentioned, more recognition from other bloggers, and increased direct traffic as more people become familiar with your blog.

Ad Prices

If social media is able to produce long-term traffic gains, it can also result in corresponding increases in prices for advertisements. While many advertisers will consider social media traffic to be less valuable than other sources, the resulting click-through traffic and improved search engine traffic will have significance to advertisers, and can ultimately justify a higher price tag for ad space.

Name Recognition and Branding

With more and more people using social media sites everyday, building your name recognition through social media is a major long-term benefit. Social media is an excellent tool for the blogger who wants to build a strong brand that’s seen as a niche leader by a targeted group of readers.

Using Social Media for Long-Term Results

In previous posts I’ve covered some of the long-term benefits of social media marketing, including improved search engine traffic, subscribers, and a stronger network. The biggest key to building long-term results is to have a solid, established plan for what you hope to accomplish with social media.

The plan is what leads your individual posts to help you reach your ultimate goals. It’s what keeps your efforts organized, efficient and on target. Without a plan you may be able to get a random post to the front page of Digg or get a rush of visitors for StumbleUpon, but your efforts will not be focused in a way that maximizes the potential of social media.

To start with, you need to know what it is that you want to accomplish with social media. Do you just want higher traffic numbers? More subscribers? Sales? Branding? Each post you publish (well, not necessarily all of them, but at least the ones that target social media) should help you take a step towards that goal. For example, if you want to brand yourself as the go-to source on a specific subject, concentrate your posts on proving your expertise to readers in one aspect at a time surrounding that subject. It’s a pretty simple concept, but many bloggers forget about their long-term purpose with social media and they post whatever they think can get a quick rush of visitors.

Long-term results will only come with repeat success and content that’s focused on a specific subject. As people continually see your posts covering various aspects of that subject at various social media sites, they’ll start to view you as an expert and the long-term results will be sure to follow.

Things to Consider for a Long-Term Focus:

Subject of the Post

As I mentioned already, always consider the subject of your posts that are targeting social media to determine how they will get you towards your long-term goals. If they have no impact on those goals, I would advise you to spend your time developing different content that will lead you to the goals. Why waste time with something that only has the potential to generate short-term results?

Tone of the Post

Many visitors that find your content via social media will not be familiar with you, your blog, or your writing. For this reason, be careful how you present the information, because your tone can impact their first impression, especially if one of your primary purposes with social media is to brand yourself.

Targeted Social Media Sites

One thing I harp on all the time is using the right social media sites, ones that have an audience that is well-suited for your content. Don’t just chase the front page of Digg when you could be getting much more targeted traffic with niche social media sites. There’s nothing wrong with Digg, but be sure that the sites you’re using are well-suited to your long-term goals. Although niche social media sites will not be able to send the same volume of traffic that major social news sites will send, there are huge benefits to repeatedly getting your content to the front page of niche sites.

Timing

The timing of your posts that target social media is especially important if they are news-related. Only the initial blogs that break the news will typically get the results with social media. Also, think about the timing of how frequently you are targeting social media. If your goal is to gain a large number of subscribers in a short period of time, you may want to increase the frequency and target social media more often.

Potential Impact

The long-term effects of social media on your blog will be a combination of the results of your individual posts. Before you write or publish a new post, think about the impact that it could have on the overall sum of your content and your social media marketing. Ideally, it will build on what you have already done and strengthen your place in the niche. If you feel that content has no potential to positively impact your blog, why post it?

The Needs that are Met by the Post

Posts that do well with social media all meet the needs or desires of social media users, whether it be an information, news, humor, entertainment, etc. The needs and desires that you meet will impact the long-term effect of social media on your blog. Try to provide some consistency in what you are giving readers so that they can clearly see your blog in the way that you want it to be seen.

What’s Your Experience with Social Media and Long-Term Results?

From my own personal experience I know that social media is more than just a short-term solution to a need for more traffic. What have you seen in your own blogging efforts?

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These very question were posed to a collection of some of the world’s top bloggers and social network marketers…and here’s what they revealed:

* Darren Rowse | ProBlogger.net – Guest Posting – I’d identify a handful of other blogs in my niche (or surrounding niches) to offer to write some guest posts for. Networking – I’d spend a lot of time interacting with other bloggers and their readers – commenting on their blogs, emailing them and exploring ways of working together in win-win ways. (When I read Darren’s original e-mail to me, I misread it and thought he said to write guest posts in exchange for advertising, not payment. Turns out, that’s not what he said, but I’ve used that very strategy to break into print magazines and wonder if it would work for blogs, too)

* Maki | doshdosh.com – Building relationships with influential people is my favorite off-blog marketing method because it gives the greatest amount of returns for all your efforts. Promote the content of other people, send emails, chat on IM, do favors, connect people together, help them achieve their goals. This is a great way to brand yourself or your site and makes it so much easier to get support or publicity in turn when you need it.

* Cyan Ta’eed | FreelanceSwitch.com – I would pick 5 top-100 blogs that I felt worked well with my target market, then I would read each of their articles and spend time coming up with interesting and constructive comments for any I felt I was qualified to write about. I would also scour the web for any gems I felt would relate to them, and send them over immediately. In that way I would position myself as a valuable resource and hopefully befriend them too (if we naturally clicked). When the time came for me to send them a special article I had written, I would have a far better chance of getting it profiled with them, and I would have valuable contacts for any future collaborations….OR…I would spend one hour a day reading every Digg top story that day, then spend the other hour finding and submitting great articles to Digg. In that way I would hopefully get a good eye for classic Digg stories, and move up the ranks as a popular Digger (for those that don’t know, Digg has unofficial “Star Diggers” who develop a following. If they post one of your stories, you can be guaranteed up to hundreds of Diggs from the get-go, and a very real shot of being on the Digg popular list that day). I’d also contact every blogger I know, and ask them to give me a heads-up when they had a special article coming out. That way I could Digg those articles before anyone else – which as I rose in popularity would benefit the traffic of the blogs in question also. Once I was a popular Digger (which is pretty hard from what I’ve heard – but probably possible in two hours a day for an extended period of time), I would be able to on occasion submit my own flagship articles, easily get them Dugg, and get thousands upon thousands of readers coming to my site on a regular basis.

* Penelope Trunk | Brazen Careerist – Here are two offline things that are great for promoting my blog: Being interesting at a party – if people like talking to you they’ll check out your blog. Doing public speaking. Sort of a like a party, right? But it’s a party where everyone is listening to you

* Leo Babuata | ZenHabits.net – Write guest posts. To me, there’s no better form of advertising, free or otherwise. If you can get a good blog with a medium to fairly large audience to run a guest post of yours, take that opportunity! It’s worth the time investment. Why? Not only is it free, but you’re exposing yourself to a new audience. And if you write your best stuff, there’s no better advertisement — how else can a reader know the kind of quality writing you’ll put out on your own blog except by reading it on another blog? Always do your best stuff when writing a guest post for another blog, and you’ll get lots of new readers.

* Anita Campbell | SmallBizTrends.com – I’d engage in social media marketing campaigns using a variety of content sharing sites, social networking and community based sites. So many sites, so little time…. With two hours a day, you could rock the house and make a huge difference.

* Liz Strauss | Successful-Blog.com – Two hours a day. I’d hang on StumbleUpon. I’d comment on blogs I’d read. I’d talk on the telephone with bloggers about what they were reading. I’d have a professional expert profile where the media looks for experts to interview. I’d speak at the local rotary and at every conference I could find. I’d know the editors and the editorial calendars of the op-ed and lifestyle press and be sure they knew when I was publishing something that correlated with their usual interests. I might even go as far a buying a weekly hour of live radio time and hosting a show in the suburbs of Chicago on the same topic as my blog.

* Muhammad Saleem | MuhammadSaleem.com – I would go socialize with other bloggers. This can entail guest writing on their blogs, commenting elsewhere and so on.

* Henrik Edberg | PositivityBlog.com – I´d probably use those two hours over time to build power user profiles for the biggest social media sites like Digg, Reddit and Stumbleupon. This would not only give me more connections, friends and opportunities out in the world. It would also enable me to increase my own readership pretty quickly by using those sites as a power user.

* Cory Miller | CoryMiller.com – Study the great blogs and learn what makes them great. Then force myself to read great blogs outside of my niche, passion and even interest for the same reason. Start email conversations with other bloggers. Develop relationships with journalists in my niche. I’ve been quoted and featured in four stories published in our state newspaper simply because I was blogging in my niche. And then, simply, get some rest. Blogging takes a ton of energy. I think more bloggers could use more rest times of simply sitting on the couch.

* Donald Latumahina | LifeOptimizer.org – For me, I will get involved in social media sites. This way I will know what the social media audience likes while also building my network there.

* Chris Garrett | Chrisg.com – For me it is guest-posting. It’s great marketing for your blog plus you can get paid for it!

* Cameron Olthius | CameronOlthuis.com – I’d participate by leaving thoughtful comments that contribute to the conversation on other relevant blogs.

* Alister Cameron | AlisterCameron.com -
o Create the next killer Wordpress plugin or theme
o Build relationships with top stumblers (and diggers)
o Write guest posts for [big blogs in your niche]
o Plan/research for next link-baity post
o Comment like crazy on other key blogs and some lesser-known ones
o Design a theme for csszengarden.com (Gets you a PR9 link)

Amazing insights…

While there was a bit of crossover between our various experts, I was amazed at how many different ideas were offered. And, a number of people brought off-line initiatives into the mix, too.

As someone who’s entrepreneurial efforts have been largely off-line until recently, I learned the power of networking and mainstream media publicity very early on. So, I would add these off-line strategies to the mix as well:

* Attend blogging/tech conferences where you know a ton of other bloggers will congregate, stay at the hotel where the conference is even it’s a bit more expensive and spend every extra minute connecting with everyone. Don’t just focus on the superstars, welcome any conversation..and, most importantly, like Maki said, when you meet people get into the “what can I do for you” mindset, not the other way around.

* Attend non-blog/tech conferences, events and trade-shows that focus on the content area of your blog. Get out and talk to people who actually earn their living in the big, scary face-to-face world….you might even have fun!

* Write “print” guest columns in old-fashioned newsletters, magazine and newspapers or even the online analogue of print outlets that either share the targeted readership with an interest in what you blog about or have massive reach. In fact, a friend of mine, Marci Alboher, began freelancing for The New York Times a few years ago and that eventually led to a gig as a regular columnist and career blogger with them. The nice thing here is you get exposure and you actually get paid, either in cash or I’ve even negotiated ad-space in lieu of greenbacks, which can be a real win-win with the right publication.

* Hit the radio-waves – Terrestrial or satellite, shows of all sizes are constantly on the hunt for entertaining guests, provocative topics and informative spots. I’ve done a bunch of radio and actually, through connections developed over time in print media, ended up doing a regular radio spot on Sirius (click podcast link on right column to listen) that turned into a recurring 1-hour segment. And now that I blog, guess what gets promoted at the end of every segment?

I’ll detail a bunch of ways to get you and your blog on the radio, featured in magazines and newspapers and writing for them, too, in a future post, so stay tuned.

What was interesting to me, too, was the absence of some oft-touted strategies like blog carnivals, and article-directories. Food for thought.

…so, how do you choose what to do?

Fact is, each strategy has its own unique benefits and they are all highly-effective at growing traffic. But, clearly, to implement them all would take far more than two hours a day. So, you need to make some choices.

For me, it comes down to bang for your buck. These days, time is our most precious asset, even more treasured than money. And, time well spent can take the place of money well spent in launching and growing a blog.

So, rather than trying to do it all on a low level, hone your efforts, choose the strategies that resonate most with you, the ones you feel most comfortable pursuing, and invest your energy in those.

Do this for 30-days and then if you have the inclination and the time, begin to add more, one at a time. This will allow you to adapt to the workload and also be able to more effectively measure the additive affect of each strategy.

And, remember, too, this nugget:

* Jay White | DumbLittleMan.com – This is going to sound VERY generic but there is no better marketing than writing great articles. I would simply use that time to write.

No amount of off-blog effort can make up for poor content or design. So, step one is to make your blog rock. Once that’s taken care of, step two is to set the off-blog marketing wheels in motion.

If you’ve got more ideas, thoughts or questions, share them now in the Comment section below.

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