I’m extremely pleased to announce that I was recently invited by Ann Smarty, Director of Media at Search Engine Journal to become a guest blogger at what I consider the premier SEO blog online.  And today my first article was published there.  It’s entitled “8 Key Points to Multiple Niche Sites and Controlling Back Links”. And in just a few hours since publishing, it’s gone hot at Sphinn…

Befitting a title that long, the article itself is a detailed guide for anyone considering whether they should split out at least some of their content onto multiple sites or not…

This is a big deal for me.  While I’ve been an industry professional for fourteen years, I’ve only recently been participating in my peer community, so I haven’t until now, had the recognition from within my industry that some of my peers have. Instead, I’ve been more focused on the day to day business of managing the search optimization of client web sites.  That Ann felt so highly of my industry knowledge, perspective and writing style is truly an honor I am proud of.  Search Engine Journal is one of the most read SEO blogs on the Internet, and one of the top ten marketing blogs in the AdAge Power 150.

While not all my articles will be as lengthy as this first one, I will always take this opportunity seriously and look forward to interacting with SEJ’s tens of thousands of loyal readers.

And without further fanfare, I invite you to read my article on tapping the power of multiple web sites for SEO.

Rather than trying to cover everything, I’ll focus specifically on one feature, the bing “Quick Preview” and the text that shows up for search results themselves. I’ll leave the rest of the reviewing to other bloggers or to a future article of my own.

BING SEARCH RESULTS - PAGE TITLE PROBLEM?

When I first did a search to see what pages come up for my name, I got mostly valid, current results.  But what struck me as odd was that the results weren’t displaying the page title for the first couple entries.

Note how the first two results just say “Alan Bleiweiss”?  Well the page title for my blog is really “Search Marketing Answers”… and for my company site, the home page title tag starts out with “Hey Dude Wheres My Site | Search Engine Optimization”…

I follow proper HTML syntax in my page titles, and most page titles show up properly for most of the results. But some of the other searches I did got similar results for sites I don’t own.  And for all of these, Google seems to have the proper page title displayed.  So what’s going on with Microsoft’s system?

BING QUICK PREVIEW FEATURE

When I first started playing with the results page, I discovered almost right away that when you roll your mouse over most search results, you see a thin line off to the right of that entry, with an orange dot in the middle of it.

As I rolled my mouse over that orange dot, a slick preview window opened up to reveal content directly from the site linked to off to the left.

While the initial text that’s shown for my pages is coming directly from the META Description tag, the info that shows up in the preview window is coming directly from the page’s content.

Now here’s where I think Google needs to sit up and pay attention.  For the first time in quite a while, I really think that Microsoft is actually delivering on a promise.  In this case, it’s the promise they’re making that bing isn’t a search engine, but instead, it’s a “decision engine”.

For those sites that they can do this with (not all sites allow replication of content), it’s going to help a lot of people make a more qualified decision on whether to click through to a site than they can now do at Google.  By providing the Meta Description AND the initial content that is actually on the page linked, Microsoft is giving us more information to process.

I like this feature a lot.  And quite frankly, it was a very pleasant surprise to see.

PAGE LINKS - NOT JUST FOR THE ELITE

I also found that for several entries in the results page, bing is also showing site links within that preview pane.  These aren’t just showing up for the top results either.  I found the same thing on results that were on the 2nd page as well.  They’re not showing for every entry, but this too goes beyond what Google is presently offering to their visitors.  Yet one more feature that may help Microsoft gain market share…

MICROSOFT IS LISTENING - SORT OF

When I tweeted my revelation tonight, I got a quick “thank you” response from “Betsy”, who was, at least at that moment, monitoring the @bing Twitter account.

While that too was a pleasant surprise, it was no surprise that Betsy ignored my first three tweets preceding my compliment.  And my tweets earlier today questioning bing’s potential for blurring the advertising and pure organic results also went unanswered.  Yet it’s nice to see that they’re eager to return the favor when the post is in their favor.

THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION

Well, in any case, we’re ultimately going to have to wait and see how this all unfolds.  Whether the site “Quick Preview” feature will be enough, or how the whole user experience goes is anybody’s guess at this early stage.  Yet I seriously believe that the potential does exist in Microsoft gaining market share, now that I’ve tasted the preview feature…

POST A COMMENT - SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

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Tim Rutten, in his latest opinion piece at the LA Times, jumped on the bandwagon with the rest of the panic-stricken print media today calling for the Obama administration to turn a blind eye to the antitrust ambitions of that group of old-guard old-boys.  Since this is now a trend building great momentum, I felt compelled to chime in.  Not because I’m a journalist with a voice in the matter - in fact, I am not a journalist.  I am, instead, just another American citizen who happens to have been a visionary from the early days, when it comes to the Internet.  I am also a staunch supporter of all that is great in America, and oppose bully tactics on all fronts…

NOTE -Since there didn’t seem to be a way to do so directly at their site in any type of comment area, I’ve contacted Mr Rutten by email inviting his reply.  It would be nice to have a dialogue on the subject….

Mr. Rutten essentially regurgitates what several in his industry have been spewing lately. (How odd- a “journalist” who just repeats what all his buddies write)  That since print media is now obviously on a road to ruin, they should have the right to conspire, so that they may reap the financial reward that comes from monopolistic behavior, much like the oil cartels in how they manipulate the price of a barrel of oil.

At one point, he states:

“Readers — and democracy itself, which depends on a vigorously free and independent press — will be the ultimate losers.”

Well, Mr. Rutten’s article is an entertaining read.  That’s for sure. He and his colleagues have been using terminology and words that evoke fear, panic and a sense that America itself will die if they don’t get their way.  Kind of like the Republican Party did during the last election cycle.  And Dick Cheney is doing now. (though in my opinion, he’s doing that because he doesn’t want to go to jail, which is another story altogether…) (and no, I’m not a bleeding heart liberal.  I would have loved to have been able to vote for decorated war hero Colin Powell for president, because I feel he’s got the healthiest mix of views of just about anyone these days…)

Here’s where I have a problem with Mr Rutten’s whole premise.  (one mind you, that no major print media journalist has the guts to cover in depth because that would threaten their paychecks even if it would be true investigative journalism…)

First, the Internet has been around for a long time now.  Some of us recognized what it is and where it’s headed long ago.  I myself, on the very first day I was introduced to the world wide web in January of 1995, instantly understood the potential, and in that living room of a friend in Felton California that winter afternoon, knew that the Internet was the future, and in fact, my future.

Because I acted on that intuition, I’ve been an Internet professional ever since.  It’s been an amazing and wild ride.  Ups and downs have come in all sorts of ways.  And I know of what I speak when I mention things like “adapt and change with the times if you want to survive and hopefully thrive”.  It was because of that mentality that I was able to ride out the dot-com bust.  And it’s why I’ve continued to adapt and change how and what I do as an Internet professional all along.

Has it been an easy ride?  You tell me.

At my first financial peak, 1999, I brought in $139,000.  After the bust, in 2001, I brought in $12,000.  While that was extremely humbling,  it just drove me harder to find new ways to monetize my passion for the Internet.

Over these 14 plus years, I’ve had to learn HTML - versions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 4.1.  I’ve had to learn the essentials of Javascript, XML, ActionScript, Flash, Photoshop, FTP,  XHTML, CSS, ColdFusion, PHP, IIS, SEO, and SEM.  Over the years, I’ve had to become intimately knowledgeable on Email marketing, Spam prevention, Social Networking, affiliate networking, and of course, blogging.

Nobody forced me to learn any of that.  It’s been by my choice, gladly, because I have understood the concept “adapt or die”.

And the Internet has been my passion since the beginning.  I have no formal programming training, I didn’t graduate with any technology degree (in fact I have no college degree - I’ve been working out in the world since I was 17.  My parents couldn’t afford to send me to college, and my high school guidance counselor spent a grand total of 10 minutes with me my entire high school span, so I had nobody helping guide me back then).

Yet I’ve worked hard.  Very hard.  For many years.  Late into the night.

Because I embrace the Internet so completely, so thoroughly, I learned early on that if you truly want to succeed on the Internet, all you need to do is reach out to those who have come before you and succeeded in whatever path you are wanting to be on.  And they’ll gladly, freely share with you tips, suggestions, insights on what has and what has not worked for them.   They don’t conspire with you.  They teach you how to fish for yourself.

And most of what I have learned has come to me because I’ve found it freely, thank you very much, available online.  There to read, download, and learn from.

See, that’s the beauty and power of the web.  It’s the single most potent vehicle in the history of humankind as far as being able to empower humans who might not otherwise have been able to afford to pay for that empowerment.  People who want to learn just about anything, including how to adapt and change.

Oh yes - there are plenty of things we need to pay for online.  Essentially it’s got to do with superior quality, and more comprehensive content.  Heck, even Mr. Rutten admits that some entities like the Wall Street Journal have found ways to monetize very high quality deep content.  And to boot, he also refers to the fact that news media apparently raked in $447 million in online revenue last year.

What?  They made money online?  Hundreds of millions of dollars?

Yep.  Except that’s not nearly enough to help pay for the thousands of people who currently work in the print news industry.  They expect that they’ll need to make billions online if they are to survive the inevitable shift. And as of late, they’re working to get Google to pay for at least a big chunk of that.

Well that’s the rub Mr. Rutten.  Your industry failed to fully embrace the Internet more than a decade ago.  For the most part, your industry’s leaders have apparently been too myopic, or too arrogant or too lazy perhaps, to find a way to adapt even though the writing’s been on the wall for so many years.  And you still to this day, refuse to even consider that a dramatically smaller staffed group of niche market news outlets might in fact be both a much more focused and stellar bunch of journalists, let alone a dramatically much more highly profitable bunch.

No, heaven forbid tens of thousands should lose their income.  People who would, in that scenario, be obsolete.  Not needed.  Superfluous.  Actually, they wouldn’t - all anyone who loses their career in such a manner needs to do is learn to adapt and find new opportunities for themselves.  Is it painful?  Yes.  Does it take a huge toll on an individual or family?  Of course it does.  (See my experience from the year 2000 above). Yet due to the current financial crisis, people who, through no direct fault of their own, are having to do that right now - all across America, in all sectors.  But unlike them, your industry has gotten in this pickle through direct failure to take actionable steps based on sound business principles.

The bottom line here is this - deep-pocketed old-boy networks (wall-street, Detroit, and now print-media everywhere) find it easier to use fear-mongering and lawyers in suits when dealing with a potentially catastrophic event of their own making rather than the hard work and dedication it takes to adapt.  And since Congress (both parties thank you very much) consist of like minded people (read that - paid off under the table during their tenure in congress and as lobbyists afterward), we have a serious problem here people.

While I have no problem with individual news entities sharing their success stories with their peers, I have a serious problem when the entirety of the biggest players decides to get together so they can force that entire industry to stop giving news away in any form of any significance.  And I also think that how they do all they can to marginalize professional journalists who blog as independents is yet another major bully tactic to try and keep themselves relevant without adapting or embracing.

I encourage everyone who reads this to contact your members of Congress and express your outrage.  I did so yesterday - sent a  lengthy email out.  And I’d greatly appreciate you leaving a comment here - either letting me know how wrong I am or if you even agree a little… Because unlike the LA Time’s opinion column online, I believe it’s only proper to allow comments on an opinion piece article…  Call me crazy like that…

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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #1.  FINDING PEOPLE TO FOLLOW ON TWITTER
You can go to Twitter when you’re signed in, and do a search for topics you might be interested in, and find people who are on twitter that discuss them.

For example, you could type in  prosperity   or   antioxidants   or   gratitude   or   photography

From there, you’ll get a very long list of recent tweets (a tweet is when you post something to Twitter)  from anyone who mentioned that word in it.  Clicking on their photo brings up their profile and all their recent tweets.  If you like what they post, you can choose to follow them.

(You can always choose to “unfollow” them later on if you want)

RATIO OF FOLLOWERS TO FOLLOWING

Some people only follow five people but have 50,000 followers themselves.  People like Oprah, Larry King, Ashton Kutcher…  At first I followed some people like that, because as an Internet Marketing professional I wanted to see how they were using Twitter.  What I found was that very few people in that category are worth following (at least by me anyhow) because they really are just using Twitter to get even more fans or publicity.  And that, to me, is just not something I care to pollute my life with.

At the same time though, if you really have something of value to contribute on Twitter, I don’t care how many people you are following or are following you.  I’ll follow you anyhow.

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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #2.  BETTER MANAGEMENT

Managing your user experience is paramount to efficiency, enjoyment and quality of life in the Twitterverse.  Here’s just a couple tips on how to get a grasp of what could otherwise become a very overwhelming experience on Twitter.

TWITTER USER INTERFACE IMPROVED WITH TWEETDECK

I use TweetDeck - it’s a stand-alone program that is much better at being able to follow what people say, respond and participate than just using the Twitter web site.  With Tweetdeck, you don’t have to refresh your twitter page to get updates of when people you are following post their own tweets.  You can also set up new columns - to move your favorite tweeple (twitter people) over to.  That helps me a lot now that I am following over 500 people.  There are other solutions out there, TweetDeck just happens to be the one I prefer.

TWITTER FOLLOWER MANAGEMENT WITH TWEEPLER
Trying to evaluate whether someone that is following you is worthy of following (yes I evaluate each follower to see if I want to follow them!)  I have found Tweepler to be invaluable!  It’s not perfect, yet it’s light-years ahead of using the Twitter site method.  You can see everyone who is following you, every one from that list that you are following, and everyone from that list that you are not yet following.

You can quickly see their three most recent tweets, and their profile description.  If they have a link to their web site in their profile, you can click on it to get a better grasp of who they are.

Then at the click of a button, you can add them to who you are following, or you can move them to the side.  You can always come back to review the list and change things if you want.
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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #3.  SHORTEN YOUR TWEETS
First, it’s not polite to only tweet one way.  Or to only tweet links to your business web site or blog. Participate in the community aspects of Twitter - comment on other people’s tweets, add your own voice.  Some people tweet every single thing in their life while others only tweet about one topic.  That’s your call.   Yet when you tweet, sometimes it is a challenge to get all you want to communicate in 140 characters.  Here’s a couple tricks to fix that.

SHORTEN WORDS
Change the word “for” to  4   “you” becomes U  “and” becomes &  and so forth…

SHORTEN URLS

UPDATE - I now use bit.ly for all my URL shortening. This free service is one of the top used URL Shortening services, and all their links implement a 301 redirect that ensures SEO integrity of any pages you point to.

So http://www.search-marketing-answers.com/blog/2009/05/16/competitive-insight-girl-scouts-and-hells-angels/

becomes http://bit.ly/MhsvA

Other services like this are TINYURL and SNURL among others.

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS
If you feel a tweet just can’t be completely shortened, go ahead and use two tweets.  Just be aware that too much of this can annoy people.  Then again, some people will unfollow you if you post more than five tweets a day.  Personally, I tweet anywhere from no tweets in three days up to 50 or more tweets if it’s a really amazing day.
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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #4.  REPLYING
If you want to reply to someone on Twitter  you use the @ symbol  so  @alanbleiweiss how are you?   will send the message “how are you” to me. Only reply to me if you think you have something of value to say.  Please don’t reply to every tweet I post in the hopes that I will follow you.  Yet if you have something to say that is in opposition to my views, please DO reply to me and you just may find that you become one of my favorite tweeple!

Note though - that if I tweet you three or four times and you don’t respond, I may choose to un-follow you.  No offense - I just think that it’s polite to acknowledge others most of the time.  Still though, I understand that sometimes it’s not all about me and I won’t automatically unfollow either though.

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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #5.  RETWEETING
If you really like something that someone tweets, you can choose the “ReTweet” option (either manually copy and paste it to resend it out, or in TweetDeck, using the RT button next to their photo.  If you do it manually, it’s polite to put RT  username    in front of the tweet to let people know that you’re just forwarding something from someone else.   Doing so without giving credit is rude for sure.

If you go to RT someone it will automatically add your username in front of the tweet.  So sometimes, that makes the tweet too long (140 character max allowed).  When that happens, I sometimes shorten their tweet and change RT to (via)  so people know it’s been edited.
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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #6.  PRIVATE TWEETS
If you are following someone and IF they are following you also,  you can directly communicate with them privately.   You put a D  in front of their username but with a space  so   D alanbleiweiss  will send me a direct tweet if I am following you also.  (If you have TweetDeck Direct tweets show up in their own column and so do  replies)

CAVEAT Direct Tweeting is NOT a perfect system - once in a blue moon Twitter will accidentally send a direct Tweet out in the open.  And if you are typing fast and end up not having a blank space after the D and before a username, that tweet will go out into the open twitterverse!

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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #7.  FINDING MORE PEOPLE ON TWITTER
Once you are following others, if a tweet they post includes @username of someone else on Twitter, that’s one way to discover other people who you might want to follow.

Also, as you surf the web, more and more people have icons or text  links to follow them on Twitter.  Clicking on that link or icon will take you to their Twitter page where you can choose to follow them or not.

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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #8.  #keyword
When you see a tweet with the pound sign (called the “hashtag“) in front of it, that’s a way that people can discuss common topics or events over an extended period of time, then someone else can do a search  for #whatever  and all the tweets that exist for that topic or word will be displayed.

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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #9.  #FollowFriday
This has become one of the more enjoyable hashtags - where if you like someone’s tweets enough, on Friday you can say #followfriday @alanbleiweiss

The problem with this was that many people got out of hand and would #followfriday six tweets in a row with eight usernames in each tweet.  Twitter recently made a change to their system so that if you are not following people that I include in my tweets, you wouldn’t see that tweet from me at all.  (And thus killed the #followfriday purpose).  There was huge uproar among the twitterverse and so they changed that back but it may only be temporary.

RECOMMENDATION
Many of us prefer to use #followfriday in a more elegant way so if I like you enough I will do something like:

#followfriday @yourusername  because they really have great insights on health and wellness

(essentially it’s a mini-testimonial for you)
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BEST TOP TWITTER TIP #10.  MORE TWITTER TIPS
Well, this IS a list of my top ten Twitter Tips, so I had to find a way to limit it to only ten tips on making Twitter a much more enjoyable and efficient place to communicate.  And that left me with the dilemma that if I could, I’d make it Alan’s top 100 Twitter tips.  But then it wouldn’t be a Top Ten list then would it?

So in keeping within my own article’s title, I now offer you a couple additional resources for further Twitter eduation:

TWITTER 101 (I highly recommend this one)

http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/twitter-101/

BETTER FOLLOWING
http://www.twitip.com/how-to-be-a-better-follower/

MOBILE TWEETING
http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/04/16/20-ways-to-use-twitter-on-your-cell-phone-or-mobile-internet-device/

http://twitterhelp.blogspot.com/2008/05/twitter-via-mobile-web-mtwittercom.html

TWITTER HELP
http://help.twitter.com/portal

TWITTER SPAM REPORT

@spam Follow Twitter’s official spam profile and report Twitter spam via direct message (shortly after you follow them, they’ll follow you back.  Once that happens, you can D spam  to report spammers

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If you hadn’t noticed, Google was down to upwards of 14% of it’s users at one point this week.

Yes - down - as in “very slow” for some, even “not working at all” for others.  Only for an hour mind you, yet down nonetheless.  They even blogged about it.  Given what we know about Google’s market share, that’s a LOT of people who lost their ability to search the only really good search engine on Earth.

And that prompted me to think once again (yes, I have a very bizarre way of connecting dots) about web analytics - the tracking and analyzing of site visitor information that is so important to my small and mid-size business clients…

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THE END IS NOT UPON US

Personally, I learned about the down-time thanks to an article by Jordan McCollum, who confirmed that the End Times weren’t actually upon us (yet).  See, I wasn’t directly affected.  Either because I was surfing elsewhere at the time, or I actually was at Google (probably looking to see where my mesothelioma law firm clients were in the SERPs for one of their key word phrases - yes I really do have a client in that arena) and in that moment, wasn’t one of the fourteen percent.  Heaven forbid.  I would have been extremely upset.

Well, not really - I get paid whether Google is down for an hour or not.  I am, after all, the owner of my own company.  And I ALWAYS pay myself for my time, regardless of circumstances outside my control. 
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MARKET SHARE OR SMOKE & MIRRORS?

Depending on who you believe, Google owns anywhere from  65%,  to more than 70% of all search on the web.  Andrew Lipsman over at comScore tried to explain the variations in these statistics earlier this year.  Of course, his spin attempted to put comScore in a good light as compared to the others.  Because it’s in his financial best interest to convince you that comScore is reliable, trustworthy and necessary.  Except the truth is they use old school statistic methods that come out of the Television marketing world.  Archaic.  Barely not really plausible even in the 20th century.

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I LAUGH IN THE FACE OF “FACTUAL” STATISTICS

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a statistics agnostic.  I used to be a crime statistician, and if it suits me, I can show you in five minutes how to turn soup into nuts, water into wine, and five visits into five thousand.  On digital paper at least.  So when it comes to statistics, I inherently know that you can’t take them at their face value.

Now, I don’t go around just mocking stats and web analytics companies.  I always put them in context, and fact check.  And use other information to help form business decisions.

However I firmly believe that when it comes to Competitive Insight, statistics are inherently a bear trap waiting for the unsuspecting camper to meander right into.  Especially when it comes to Internet analytics.

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GIRL SCOUTS AND HELLS ANGELS

For example - if a web site is in a truly niche market - let’s say they cater to Girl Scouts, hard core bikers, Gen Y, or hundreds or thousands of other niches, then it is most likely that solutions from comScore, Nielsen, HitWise, Alexa, Compete, and all the rest, are going to be completely misleading at best, and patently false at worst.

Why?  Because none of the players have any real grasp of those  user bases, or, in the case of “comparisons to your competition”, access to the real traffic statistics on those web sites.

Sure, Alexa may have slipped their toolbar onto the computers of a small number of unsuspecting Girl Scouts.

But a “few” is far from any kind of large enough share to be a valid basis for extrapolation.  And its’ more likely that the only reason those Girl Scouts have computers that got that Alexa ToolBar on them is because their older brother was probably surfing for illegal music downloads at some point. Or porn.  And the statistics from that household are then tainted, to say the least.

The point though, is that if the market focus of a web site is Girl Scouts, Panel based stat companies can’t possibly have enough Girl Scouts on their panel to give you real data to work with.

Calling All Volunteers

Exactly how many hard core, shiv carrying, barroom brawling bikers do you think voluntarily allow their computer to be loaded with a 3rd party user activity tracking solution from comScore or Nielsen?  Okay, so YOU may not cater to that crowd, but again, it’s illustrative of the diversity of markets served through the web.  And a perfect example for this article.

Hells Angels Disclaimer: If you know of any Hells Angels who are participants on the ComScore or Nielsen Net Ratings panels, please let me know and I will peacefully and most respectfully revise this article.  Or I’ll just call one of my friends from the Diablos and let them work it out with the Angels. 

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Commercial Break

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SMALLER SITES AND COMPETITIVE DECISIONS

In my example above, with say, Girl Scouts, there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of web sites - perfectly legitimate, professionally designed web sites, that cater to people in the Girl Scout demographic.  How well do sites like HitWise or Alexa provide insights into market reach for sites like those?  Not well at all.  Terribly in fact.  Beyond pitiful. And it’s even worse for specialty sites with that market focus.

Just to test and either validate or debunk my own theory, I ran a check on three web sites that fit this arena.

GirlScoutShop.org

This site, run by Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, sells uniforms, books, insignia, camping supplies and more.  They’re a legitimate web site selling authentic Girl Scout products.  A small site, for sure, yet if I want to market to Girl Scouts, and I want competitive insight into other web sites that cater to them and come up in the top five at google, they go on my list.

YouthLeadership.com

This site is not focused specifically on Girl Scouts as their market.  In fact, according to their web site, they are “An online information center for youth leadership education and development.”  Their market is Teachers, Parents, Kids and Teens.  A site that would make a perfectly fine destination for any up and coming Girl Scout looking to have a positive impact on the world.  Better still, with such a large scope, the site must have lots of visitor traffic data.

LearnAndServe.gov

According to their web site, Learn and Serve America supports and encourages service-learning throughout the United States, and enables over one million students to make meaningful contributions to their community while building their academic and civic skills.  Again, this is quite an appropriate web site suited for Girl Scouts.  And since it’s a U.S. Government site, surely there’s plenty of traffic.

Now, I picked these three not because any one of them might be just like your web site from a products or services perspective, but to illustrate a point.

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ALEXA IS WORTHLESS

While all three are appropriate for the Girl Scout market, checking on them statistically at Alexa is worthless.  Alexa shows NO statistics on any one of these sites.  As though they don’t even exist.  Or aren’t “worthy” of tracking. Because if they’re not in what Alexa deems the top 100,000 web sites (at least the top 100,000 that Alexa has statistics on), then you don’t get any info at all.

HOW FAR DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE DO WE HAVE TO GO?

Well heck.  In order to be Alexa’s top 100,000 sites you need to be pretty special.  How Special?  Let’s take a look.

One of our clients, Carlos Santana (maybe you’ve heard of him?) has a web site called Santana.com - a site that Alexa says is ranked number 219,860.  And that 0.00049% of all web users have visited the site in the past month.  And another client’s site, RedRocker.com (have you heard of Sammy Hagar?), doesn’t register on the charts at Alexa either.  (Sammy only got a paltry 0.00019% of the web’s users last month according to Alexa). SO even if you’re name is Carlos Santana or Sammy Hagar, you can’t even get comparative data of any significance from Alexa.  What a waste of time.

BUT LIKE I SAID

Like I said though - the basis for their statistics is massively flawed so even when someone comes to me and says “We’re ranked #1 at Alexa in our market”,  I say “SO WHAT.”  What I care about is - do you come up higher than your competitors in Google organics?  What is your conversion rate for your PPC ads?  What’s your Return on Investment in your total Internet initiative? And anyone who wants to advertise on your site or invest in your company should be asking the same questions.  If they’re not, they’re participating in what I like to call the Statistics bubble.  (Think Mortgage Bubble, Internet 1999 bubble)

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COMPETE.COM IS BETTER?

Compete claims that their data is the only real and valid data because they have arrangements with the major service providers.  They’re supposedly given direct access to Internet Service Provider traffic information.

So okay - let’s find out.

I ran all three sites through the Compete.com system.  Amazingly, what I found were apparently  numbers.  YouthLeadership.com supposedly had 549 unique visitors in April, LearnAndServe.gov had over 15,000, and GirlScoutShop.org was reported to have had 12,973.  Well the problem with these numbers is that I’ve done a number of tests over the past couple years with sites like this.  While I don’t have access to the actual server logs or analytics reports for any of these examples, I do have such access for over five hundred web sites - clients I have served.

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But wait.

How trustworthy are the Compete.com numbers?

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WAX APPLES VS EDIBLE APPLES

Well for RedRocker.com, Compete reports that in April, they had 38,387 total visitors and 18,413 of those were unique.  Well, according to Google Analytics, they had 68,946 total visits, and of those, 37,194 were unique.  And from my previous article, while we know Google Analytics is flawed, if anything, they UNDER-report visits.

So the next time someone tells you to check out Compete.com, tell them I said to take a bite out of that wax apple and let me know how it tastes.

And Suggest they install Google Analytics.  For Free.

For all it’s flaws, you get much more reliable information on your own site than any panel based extrapolation.  And if you think you can learn about your competition from any of those companies or Compete.com, fuggedaboutit.  (HEY - I lived in Brooklyn before moving to California)

And if one of those “panel based” statistic providers tries to sell you their products, or worse, someone insists on making a business decision based on statistics from one of those “We really don’t have access to real statistics, but we have access to the big ISP servers so TRUST US” companies (like Compete.com), please don’t believe them.  PLEASE.

Seriously.

I beg you.

And for the record, Hells Angel Photo copyright 2008 Alan Bleiweiss. (Do you really want to know the story behind that?)

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What do you think? Am I off my rocker? Or do you have similar experiences?