Technical Reviews and Geek Toys

Since I started this blog it has been an adventure learning about how to get more traffic. Search Engine Optimization.... Back Links.... Social Networking Sites... it just goes on and on. It goes without saying that I am still trying to figure it all out. I added Tools For Business content to the Aztec Chamber of Commerce website and discovered the Website Grader which is free search engine optimization tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates website traffic, Search Engine Optimization, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides a report with tips on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective.

I ran this tool against Blog-Ga-Jim on 12/23/08 and achieved an overall score of 30. Today when I ran it my score had increased 36 points. So why the low score and what did I do to improve it?

...

• The site's Meta Description and Meta Keywords were blank.
• My Google Page Rank was zero.
• The Internal Page Analysis showed there were no keywords or descriptions assigned to the three Internal Pages (Business, Rants, and Linkblog).
• I had only registered my domain name, bloggajim.com for one year and only had 7 months and 14 days until it was due to expire.
• bloggajim.com was not being tracked by Alexa, an online service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet in a similar way to Nielsen television show ratings.
• There were only 3 inbound links.
• No entry found in DMOZ, The Open Directory Project, is the largest and most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web.
• There was no listing in the Yahoo! Directory.
• There was no listing listed in the ZoomInfo directory.
• There was no listing in Technorati is a popular blog directory service.
• There were no articles submitted to digg.com.

What improvements were made and what did I do to get there? That is a good question...

• The first and easiest thing was to add a site description and meta keywords as well as description and keywords to the internal pages.
• I don't remember doing anything to Alexa. I just now checked and I had not done anything... maybe because it didn't know bloggajim existed. I was able to update contact information. It is interesting to note that the Alexa Site Info tool that I just added to the site shows 'No Data'.
• Submitted to blogtoplist.com
• Joined Qassia.com which enables me to get one backlink for every piece of intel (article) you add. Every intel will carry a direct backlink to one of your sites. Google Tools indicate I have 4 back links from this.
• I added some classified ads to Craigslist. According to Google Tools, this gave me 4 back links.
• I have added four articles (lens) to Squidoo and have not had one visit. Perhaps I am doing something wrong there.
• I renewed bloggajim.com for two more years.

What do I still need to do?

• Add a del.icio.us.com Bookmark - Done
• My Google Page Rank is still zero. Need to figure out what I can do to fix that.
• I have joined ZoomInfo directory.
• It looks like the Yahoo Directory has a one time fee of $299. Don't think I'll go there.
• Figure out how to add a permanent redirect (technically called a "301 redirect") between www.bloggajim.com and bloggajim.com.
• Google Tools has some diagnosis tools that may be useful.
• Generate more inbound links. Craigslist only allows a unique classified ad. I think I added maybe a 6 ads and it took me a couple of hours. Adding articles (intel) to Qassia.com seems to work a little better.

If you have a website or blog I would suggest you use the Website Grader to see how well it is being marketed. It is free to use. You might learn something new.