What valuable lessons, if any, do we teach on Sphinn regarding SEO?
A high-level analysis of one week of Sphinn postings.
The Selection
I'm coming at this from an angle where a non-SEO site owner says "hey, I have to do something... now let's learn from the best".
I sifted through the 900+ items posted between Friday May 9 00:00 and Thursday May 15 24:00, culling the ones that seemed to convey real value for a newcomer and dropping items like "30+ Weird, Educational and Stupid Search Screenshots", "Trolls or Upset Customers? Do You Know the Difference", "Exercises For Lower Ab Workouts" or "Is Bebo better than Facebook? Creating a profile network".
As much as possible I dropped questions that didn't seem to provide a definitive answer of value to the newcomer. I forgot about insider discussions, insider watercooler jokes and a whole bunch of other stuff.
In short, I sat down and looked at what I could learn from Sphinn were I new to SEO and get some answers.
I did 3 rounds. Once picking everything that seemed plausible. Second round I went over those items and picked out the good stuff. Third time around was on the article level where I had to let go of some forum spam, some article directory content and posts that in 100 words would repeat the question they had raised.
The Results
The results were surprising.
After round 1 and 2 I ended up with a little over 90 items that has passed the smell test.
By the end of round 3, which coincided with having compiled the lists, 57 items were left on the table.
Let me be honest with you; I hadn't expected this. The idea for this post was one that had me doing an evil laugh. The idea was more along the line of a linkbaity "24 Sphinn Contradictions" or "The Top 10 Things Sphinners Disagree On" ... But no, if you stick with it and dig down deep enough, there's actually some pretty solid material to go with.
Hiring SEO
- 7 Signs of SEO Scams
- SEO: Don't Hire a Butcher to do a Baker's Job
- Cheap SEO: it’s about quality, not price
The SEO Basics
- What Is The Definition Of SEO?
- SEO Guide for Designers
- How to Increase Relevance using Consistent Naming Conventions, Tags, Site Architecture and Links
- Optimizing Image Tag Alt Attributes: Good Use and Abuse
- Meta tags DO matter — get it right for a change
- Top Search Engine Ranking Factors for Google
- Five Steps to Better Search Rankings
- Can My Site Rank Well on all Four Major Engines?
- How to get your site into Google News
- Subdomain or Directory – Which is Better for SEO?
- Local Search Engine Optimization & Small Business
- With SEO, Time and Authority are on Your Side!
- From Google: Design for accessible, crawlable and indexable content
- Avoid Extreme Makeovers During the Optimization Process
- How to Increase Engagement and Authority With Quotations
- Google on Spam: Best 10 Minute SEO Video Ever Made
- Gaining Google's Trust - Why Google Says No to Strangers
A Bit More Advanced SEO
- How Search Engines Understand Text Relevance
- Does Google Have a "Query Deserves Diversity" Algorithm?
- Simple Block Segmentation Analysis
- Do popups have a negative effect on Google rankings?
- Different SEO Strategies for Different Situations
Keywords & Keyword Research
- Eight Keyword Research Mistakes That Are Costing You Money
- How Many Keywords Should Your SEO Be Targetting?
- Beyond Keyword Research: Competitive Analysis
Links & Link Building
- Reciprocal Linking is NOT Worth the Effort
- Using Yahoo Site Explorer As A Google Link Monitor
- Link development with social bookmarking sites
- Links And Better Things Come When People Care
- Creating a Link Building Machine
- How Many Links Does Digg Get You?
- 5 Tools for Keyword Brainstorming
- There Is No Penalty In Getting Many Links Quickly
- Case Study: 5 Effective Ways to Build Links to Your Blog
- Black Hat SEO Lessons: Indirect Promotion
- Worth $299 Per Year to Join Yahoo Directory?
- 10 Free Blog Directories Worth Submitting To
Web Analytics
- How to Efficiently Track Document Downloads in Google Analytics
- Segmenting Google Analytics by Source/Medium and other options
- 3 very different ways to scale your landing pages
- Expert Guide to Multivariate Testing Success
- Google Analytics How-To Videos (Bookmark for Clients)
- Conversion Funnels Set in Google Analytics
- 10 Excellent Online Tools to Identify Trends
WordPress & Blogging
Duplicate Content
- When Duplicate Content Really Hurts
- Search Illustrated: How A Search Engine Determines Duplicate Content
- When Google Gets Duplicate Content Wrong
Tools
- 10 Excellent Online Tools to Identify Trends
- In-Depth Look At Google's Tools & The Google SERP Tester
Theoretical Discussions & Opinion
- You’ve Got Your SEO in My Usability
- The difference between being on top of and ahead of your (SEO) game
- The Key Ingredient for SEO and Web Design is True Passion
Images courtesy of Dean Terry and l0ckergn0me