Understanding SEOMOZ and how to make improvements to my website

[martino888]

I have thought the same here because I'm new here too.. but I think that we can find the answers in the "help" section..

loads of video explanation there  http://www.seomoz.org/help

[RobertFisher]

Phil (and Martino)

Welcome to the best place to learn and discover, the SEOmoz Community.

When I saw your question my first thought was SE Ranking factors 2013 or 2012 and went to find it to give a link and, there is 2011. So, I will quote Dr. Pete in speaking to one for 2013: Every time we do it, though, it gets a bit harder and more complicated. It is getting tougher by the minute to be sure what works, etc.

So, I will provide an opinion that does come from experience, but not one that is fool proof. First and foremost, build your site for your customer/visitor, etc. After insuring you have solid on page SEO throughout, stop for a moment and be clear that Google is not your customer. Understand that spending 8 hours a day trying to mine links might be better spent with writing exceptional content, acquiring exceptional images, and insuring a visitor to the site gets a quick answer to their query. One of the biggest flaws I see in SEO is tunnel vision: Becoming too focused on one or two parameters of the algorithm and losing sight of the reason you built the site. I have seen extensive discussions on how to get this or that link, to use or not use a hyphen, the value of exact match domains, on and on ad nauseum. At the end of the day, if you have good content and if you have an accessible site with reasonable UI/UX features, you can beat a lot of your competitors in the rankings. NOTE: If you do, please remember to answer the query in your meta description and then again on the page they will land on. (Yes, I have a bit of tunnel vision on this). One last thing on content is that if you really put good content up, they will come to the site. Please keep after it.

I tell clients nearly daily: Our job is not to make you rank first on Google, that is the job of the Indian SEO firm with the gmail email account... Just kidding: **Our job is not to make you rank first on Google; our job is to keep you ranked ahead of your competitors. **
I recently was in a very long discussion with a potential client we would really like to have. He has definitely drank the kool aid because he is obsessed with #1 ranking on the most competitive terms in his vertical. Yes, I understand from a business perspective why he is saying that and, frankly, as a business person I respect him a lot. The problem is that I must be very careful to provide enough other metrics that he can see what actually works.

Stay on moz and keep asking and reading. Answer where you can and understand everybody that has answered more than 3 or 4 questions has gotten something wrong. Because of the type of people here, you won't see people being burned at the stake for a wrong answer.

Best to each of you,

Robert

[EGOL]

Why do people worship SEOmoz metrics and are willing to move Heaven and Earth to improve them?

They don't determine your rankings and nobody is going to pay you for getting a good score.

There is more talk in Q&A about improving metrics than there is about improving websites.

Sometimes I think that these metrics are a decoy that keeps people from building a great website.

[RobertFisher]

Speaking of Heaven and Earth, you know you and I worship at the same alter. It is about user experience, content, etc. It's either what's my score, rank, etc. or it's name that uber huge parameter... EMD, Anchor text with keywords, etc. I find that it is easier to be fully holistic in the approach and not worry about that really, really, really important one item that will take me to the promised land! (wow, that promise land part came to me right at the end. I mean, dude, like, uhhh, you know).

PS - I really do think the thing Sergey was saying about the triple hypen link will bring true redemption to the web. (Couldn't help myself.)

[EGOL]

I worship at the same alter..

heh... I saw you Yelping for sushi this morning.

[PhilSmith23]

As explained in the opening discussion I am adding regular unquie content to improve the user experiance.  Over time this will make the website an authority on the products we sell.

Note the word sell.  I am fed up with paying Google for adwords traffic and currently this new website is enjoying a good position.  Of course improving the position even by one place is atractive.

Your comment saying SEOMOZ metrics are not of any interest if this is so why are they here and why are you paying to be a member.

Help me out i don't understand why you knock the system you subscribe to.

SEOMOZ metrics do measure the position in search engines the websites that enjoy a better position than yours have a better set of metrics.

My question still stands  does anyone have any idea how to improve the metrics even if generally it is through content I would just like some direction where to start.

[EGOL]

The most important thing that you can do is to improve your website.

In your topic area or industry what is the most valuable content that you could produce that would be appreciated by your target audience?   If you can identify that and produce best-on-the-web information that is helpful and useful and easy-to-understand then that is the best thing that you can do.

Best-On-The-Web

This type of content is liked, tweeted, linked to, emailed, bookmarked and shared.  That type of activity will bring more people to your site who will like, tweet, email, link, bookmark and share.  This activity can improve your rankings and also improve your metrics.

You can hasten that process by promoting your content so that a larger number of people see it - especially to the people in your topic area or industry who have a voice or who are active in reporting and sharing.

The SEOmoz metrics are a good way to get a numerical gauge of your progress over time.  They can also be used as a way to compare the relative mojo of your site against others.

So, instead of looking to them to light the way to success, you should instead be making a big "to do list" of jobs that will improve your site, getting them done and helping other people discover what you have created.

One of the greatest problems that people have in doing this is that they produce yada yada yada content instead of best-on-the-web in their niche.  So if your content is not making people say WOW!  then it is time to kick up the quality.

Pedestrian content does not get shared.  You need WOW! content for that to happen.  Even if your site is about something as mundane as manure it is still possible to create content that will attract attention and be shared.

[PhilSmith23]

EGOL very much appreciated your last comment I believe that good engaging unqiue content is best and that the metrics are a gauge.

The link metrics will improve because of good content and some regular work looking for the right links.

Do I assume that Damain authority and Mozrank improve because of good content or age of domain.

I keep coming back to metrics because I want to understand what makes them tick.

However your recent answer is in my opinion the right way forward for any website.  Assuming all of the onpage errors and notices are corrected.

[EGOL]

You can learn how these metrics are calculated using the links at the bottom of this post.

In short they are link metrics.

They are not a direct measure of content quality or user engagement.

I believe that a person should be working to improve his website to increase:

-- the amount of time that visitors spend

-- the CTR of your listing in the SERPs

-- the number of people who share your content

-- the number of people who ask for your site by name by typing your domain into a search box or typing it into a chrome address bar

-- the number of times people mention your domain - even if there is no link

The things above are based upon the quality of your content and google can detect them and measure them.  I think that a lot more  than links drive SERPs.

If I was google I would stop using links and use the measures above.

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/mozrank

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/moztrust

http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain-authority

Use the SEOmoz metrics to track your link profile over time and to get a gross comparison against other websites.

[RobertFisher]

EGOL

If you don't stop it they are all gonna start worshipping...YOU!

[PhilSmith23]

Egol - Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

Rob - I thought the idea was to share good information.

[RobertFisher]

Yes, you are correct. EGOL and I are "poking fun" at one another.