The SEOmoz Pro SEO tools, guides and tips teaches you everything from linkbuilding to permanent redirects.
Here's my review to help you decide whether or not to sign up.
The SEOmoz Pro SEO tools, guides and tips teaches you everything from linkbuilding to permanent redirects.
Here's my review to help you decide whether or not to sign up.
My name's Gab Goldenberg, aka Bookworm SEO at SEOmoz.org. I'm passionate about learning search marketing, so I spend roughly 20-30 hours a week, just reading marketing and search marketing books, blogs, training materials and of course, SEOmoz.
For example, my book reading list includes the SEO Book, Winning Results with Google AdWords, Web Analytics An Hour a Day and many others.
In June '08, I spoke at SMX Advanced (on the site buying panel), prior to which I'd already spoken at SMX West in February and am scheduled to speak at SEM Canada in September. I've gotten links from such big sites in the industry as Search Engine Land, Search Engine Watch, SEOmoz and www.SEOBook.com So I have my peers' recognition.
Thus I'm well qualified to tell you about investing in SEO training because I myself spend so much time reading, learning, and training.
I want to be honest however, so I'll freely tell you that I get commissions when people sign up for SEOmoz Pro membership, after clicking my links. But I'd say the same things regardless, because I'm such a huge fan of SEOmoz and have learned so much from them.
I've been a member for over a year and a half, but I only got really involved in the past 6 months or so (starting in October 2007).
I've since become a Pro member (aka premium member) and you can find me ranked #11 amongst SEOmoz's 60,000 members. It's made a huge difference in developing my network of friends and connections as well as in what I can do for clients.
Something that I really enjoy about being a SEOmoz pro member is the camaraderie it helps build with other experts in search marketing. This is important because if ever you need some links, or you run into a tough obstacle, your friends can easily help you out with links, advice and referrals.
When I went to SMX West (where I spoke on the local SEO panel), I found myself running into friends from SEOmoz literally from the first panel I attended onwards. I met:
But don't take my word for it, here's a picture of Jeff Pollard (SEOmoz.org's CTO) hanging out with Will, Duncan and Nick Gerner (another SEOmoz staffer). To the right of that is a pic of Tom Critchlow and myself at the SEOmoz party at SMX Advanced, for SEOmoz.org Pro members only. Incidentally, SEOmoz hoodies and SMX Advanced passes are discounted for pro members!
How I used SEOmoz Pro's SEO tools for Clients
On the client side of things, I recently authored an SEO audit/report for a major government organization here in Canada. I frequently found myself using the page strength tool to establish what pages had the best chances to rank for competitive terms.
For another client, I've been using the Juicy Link Finder SEO tool in order to establish potential sources for links. I've approached them where possible, and had success improving rankings as a result. It's helped us break into the top 100, and we're #39 now on Google.
I should mention in the interest of fairness, however, that the tool isn't perfect and occasionally brings up sites that are - upon human inspection - controlled by the competition. Obviously you can't get links from those.
On the personal side of stuff, I've made great use of SEOmoz's Q&A. For example, it's helped my career as an SEO consultant, with SEOmoz's Rebecca Kelley giving me tips on where to focus to attract clients.
Similarly, I've had questions on paid inclusion at Yahoo, finding links to the www. subdomain of a site vs the root URL, as well as tracking URL redirections questions. All of them were superbly answered by the SEOmoz staff. My clients have really benefitted, and are grateful to me for having access to this deep knowledge resource!
Another example was SEOmoz's Jane Copland suggesting that link profile diversity (i.e. having links from many different sources and types of sources e.g. blogs, forums, press mentions etc.) was helpful to breaking out of the Sandbox, a Google filter that limits rankings for long periods of time.