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So according to http://groups.google.com/group/google-ajax-search-api/browse_thread/thread/bbf97020226534f3 the Google CSE API cannot be used to get SERP data, and there is no legal automated way to get SERP data. I'm guessing that there must be, though, as I'm guessing SEOmoz isn't breaking the Google TOS? Any input would be appreciated!

Hi Sara, I checked and wasn't able to find a way for "Roger" (the mozBot) to crawl a development site (i.e. one that is password protected). Here is a post that gives more information on how your site is crawled. Maybe you could migrate the site to a public subdomain and have the SEOmoz bot crawl it there? It would at least give you some on-page SEO feedback. Good luck!

Glad I could help

There is an SEOMoz tool Competitive Link Research Tool that can be used to see if there are certain sites that are providing decent links to multiple competitors. Also worth investigating the link profiles of competitors using the Open SIte Explorer might give you some ideas of sites to approach.

Thanks, this website is a custom build.  The company that built the site will not allow FTP access for some reason.  Like I would want to rip off their generic looking template.   I just reoptimized all the png's on my own website after a speedtest but thanks for the tips

That's great! Happy tracking

@Frank: As to paid links, I highly doubt it.  My supervisors and I are pretty militant against black hat, and I know I haven't bought any links.  I can run another backlink report tonight, but it's not likely we'll find any.  I have found a handful (i.e. not even half a dozen) random links that appear highly spammy, but they aren't on interrelated sites/link neighborhoods, so I don't think that's the issue.

First of all, good luck with your new website!  Now onto your questions: I wouldn't suggest taking on every imaginable category of news, instead I would focus on one topic. Your sitemap should only links to pages on your website, however the pages should (and most likely must) present the source of the original news article. Yes. For text a regular sitemap will work, for video check out video sitemaps, and I am not too sure about podcasts, maybe someone else will be able to chime in on that. Resources: Creating sitemaps: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=183668 Creating a video sitemap: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=80472

I definitely don't agree that article writing is a thing of the past. What I think IS a thing of the past (at least, I HOPE so) is low quality articles, spun articles, and the thin content that so many directories have accepted, pre-Panda. In fact, my business has exploded since Panda was released, as people scurry to acquire quality articles to replace the watered-down garbage they were previously buying for .01-.02 per word. So I'd say no, it's not a dead practice, but going forward, it's going to take higher quality to be effective.

Spammy links will often have a low Moztrust and a medium  or high Moz rank. Sites penalised by Google can often be spotted if there is a considerable difference between Moz Rank and Page Rank. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply Frank. I thought there wern't any videos when I first looked, thanks for clearing that up I'll go and watch the videos now.

Hi Vinny, In general LinkScape updates every 30 or so days. So if you gain a new link or 3 part way through LinkScape's cycle it's very possible that it will not be included in the most recent update. Also, as awesome as it would be if LinkScape's directory were as large as Google's, it isn't. This is mostly just due to technology constraints I'd guess, and not having dozens of ENORMOUS data centers like Google. Because of this there is a chance that some links will not be picked up (especially if the links might be on really new sites, or maybe rather spammy ones). So it really turns into a waiting game to see if those links you know exist are picked up on the next LinkScape cycle or not. Finally, unless I've managed to totally avoid it this whole time, the index doesn't have any sort of history. The amount of data storage required to maintain such a history would be crazy in conjunction with how often they currently update their index. To name drop one of SEOMoz's competitors (sorry guys XD ) majesticseo.com does actually offer historic indexing services. I don't know how in-depth they are when you're fully subscribed, as I've never been a paying member of their services. It may be something worth checking out. And if someone comes into this question and corrects me about SEOMoz having historic index access, definitely do that instead! I know I will =P.

My iPad wrote Andiswa"...lol"..just meant original content is king