A Methodology for Site Reviews

Site ReviewsMethodology and Examples for Web Marketers to Perform Quick Reviews of Websites. Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz | October 2011

A Framework for All Site Reviews

Why Does thisWebsite Exist?

Who Cares?

What Motivates, Inpsires & Interests this Audience?

What’s the ClientWorried About?

What Should A Review Cover?

User Experience

Design UsabilityConversion Stickiness

Content

Usefulness Interest Alignment Quality Share-ability

Accessibility Keyword TargetingContent Optimization Link Authority

Social

Social Value ChannelsIncentives Social Optimization

User Experience Content SEO Social

Springest.co.uk

http://www.springest.co.uk

Why Does this Website Exist? http://www.springest.co.uk

Springest helps connect people to training & education that can better their lives

Who Cares?http://www.springest.co.uk

Anyone running a training course/program

Anyone seeking to learn in a professional training environment

What Motivates, Inspires & Interests This Audience? http://www.springest.co.uk

The Pain! Oh, the Pain! For training organizers it’s empty seats

Marketing opportunities

And market analysis (what are people saying about their events and how do they fare vs. the competition)

For those seeking to learn, it’s finding the right path

And exploring potential options with feedback, ratings and ROI analysis they can trust

User Experience for Springest

Auto-detect? Save Us a Step!

Do users care about this?Doesn’t sound impressive…

Do you get lots of traffic/searches?Impress these providers!

Charity donation iscool; but the message ismuddled/hidden.

Not sure “News” is theright headline here… “Why Do We Trust a Website?” sounds like killer content. Several others do, too, but they don’t necessarily sound like “news.”

This could surely be morecompelling and receivehigher engagement.

“Stay tuned?”… I’m also a bitconfused on the relevancy ofthese articles, why they’reseparate from news and how theyfit with the site/users’ goals.

“0” replies/comments onany of the Q+A? So sad!

Who’s going to answer? Why?Do other questions have goodanswers? Has someone askeda similar question?

Start typing and Quora startsfiguring out what I want andshowing me… It’s powerful.

Hey! Where’d the restof the site go?

What about quality?Reviews? Value?Ability to get ajob/raise/fulfillment?

Can editors somehow review these? Can we infer something fromcomments made around the web? Can we get statistics from theprovider? Anything to make this more useful + convincing.

Found this on the Netherlands site andloved it… Couldn’t find it on the UK site.

Content for Springest

Feels a bit thin here…

Technically, this is “good content.”

In reality… It likely has highbounce rates, lowengagement, doesn’t drivesubscriptions and doesn’tencourage sharing.

Yikes...

Also Yikes.

Content Idea #1Incent users (both event organizers and seekers)to contribute to the articles/q+a section.

Content Idea #2Turn the articles section into a blog. Give itmultiple authors. Create a feed where folks cansubcsribe. Tweet, Facebook, Google+ thosepieces. Make sure no post has <2 comments.

Content Idea #3Subsidize those attending professional events ifthey’ll review them on Springwise. Find them viaTwitter, Lanyrd, Meetup and the event sitesthemselves.

Content Idea #4Whatever you’re doing in the Netherlands rocks.Do that in the UK, and make the statsembeddable on other people’s sites.

SEO for Springest

If it were me, I’d govertical by vertical.Build the mostcomprehensive,amazing resource on“web design courses”then move on to“photography” then to“languages,” etc.

#1: I’d likely reverse the title tags to put the keywords at the front. #2: Videos, star ratings or any rich snippet info would help these stand out.#3: Be very cautious aboutusing non-unique content orgenerating bamboo pages here.

Who will link to this page and why?

These are yourpartners. They justdon’t know it yet 

And these guys.

This group is going to help share and promote your content/Q+A

SEO Idea #1Professional events calendar that all the eventswant to earn a listing from (and that require anembed on their events page to “prove” they’re theofficial organizer).

SEO Idea #2Contests to get into events free for the personsubmitting the article that earns the most tweets /Facebook / LinkedIn shares.

SEO Idea #3Find unemployed bloggers (Google blog search,LinkedIn lookups and RSS search can help),reach out and ask them to become contributors tocontent and Q+A. In return, sponsor their eventattendance.

SEO Idea #4Embeddable badges for the positive reviews lefton Springest that events can put on their sites.

Social for Springest

This account should help promote the events, reviews and people involved with your site.

The LinkedIn audience in hyper-relevant for your business. Get a page here, answer questions, connect to event providers, recruiting agencies, etc.

Great place to shareevent photos, interesting blog content and have discussions on news around employment/training issues.

Answer questions that fit into the training/eventsworld on sites like Quora

Social Idea #1Become a resource to event marketers andconnect with them over social networks. As youshare content, they’ll be very likely to help itspread via Twitter/Facebook/etc.

Social Idea #2Use Facebook events and Facebook ads; do thesame with promoted tweets that are geo-targetedand LinkedIn ads. Show results and share withevent marketers (great way to grow your socialreach and get great content).

Social Idea #3Run contests via Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn forticket giveaways that require a follow/like. Thiswon’t bring tons of followers, but they will be highquality.

Social Idea #4Watch for people using particular words/askingquestions on Twitter around events, networking,training, etc. Helping them find good stuff (even ifyou’re not linking to your site) will build goodwilland followers.

BathandUnwind.com

Why Does this Website Exist?

To Bring Happiness toBeautifulWomen Like These

Who Cares?

Everyone without a “Y” Chromosome.

What Motivates, Inspires &Interests This Audience?

User Experiencefor BathandUnwind

Great brandmessaging… Butdoes that convert?Help bounce rate?Bring users back?

Do these categoriesline up with yourproducts, or with howyour visitors actuallyshop?

Seems like brandswould be an essentialway of shopping… Butit took me a while tofind how to shop bybrand from this page.

There’s no message about connecting to the community/social orgetting involved with content. Is that intentional? Has it been tested?

At default resolution,there’s no productsvisible above the fold!

Reviews = awesome. Strikethoughprices = awesome. No way to shop by“on sale” or seasonal = less awesome.

Wow. This is really top notch!

Content for BathandUnwind

I found a hidden blog!

Great content; just hard to find andnot well promoted.

Content Idea #1Identify 30 blogs in the womens/beauty space thatare medium size/influence that would be receptiveto outreach. Start commenting, engaging,interacting and relationship-building with them.

Content Idea #2Create a “best bloggers in beauty” awards thatyou give out annually. Make badges and physicalawards to mail them. They’ll all link to you likecrazy. Oh, and make the nominations based ontweeted votes 

Content Idea #3Reward reviewers with visibility – give topreviewers/contributors a leaderboard, points, etc.This could also apply to blog comments.

Content Idea #4Head:Head faceoffs of beauty products that claimto perform a specific function. Run a test everyweek or month and publish the results, withphotos ala Oyster fakeouts. Which skin creamperforms better? Super luxury expensive one? Orlow-priced basic?

SEO for BathandUnwind

These are all duplicate(ish)content/titles. Might want to address.

Clicking these links uses AJAX. If userscopy/paste/link, the juice flows to howeverthey originally landed in the section, rather than where they intended.

Those nasty URL params stick around even after I go to product pages (which isn’t ideal either)

Damn Zappos and their brilliant videos!

Son of a @#%!

Everyone’s using the sametitle and description for the product (likely from the manufacturer). We’ll need to fix in order to rank.

SEO Idea #1Get unique content written about the products andremove the duplicates. Consider even writingunique title tags and meta descriptions for eachone, as these can help you stand out in search.

SEO Idea #2Pull in the attributes most used about the productin reviews (you can even do this from reviews offyour own site). This can create unique contentand positive keyword associations, plus be usefulto users.

SEO Idea #3Use the Urbanspoon “Spoonback” strategy. Findbloggers who’ve written about any product youcarry and offer to feature that review on yourproduct page if they’ll “spoonback.”

SEO Idea #4Work with beauty schools, training courses andwork-from-home reps who have websites to dosponsorships, content creation, guest blogging,bizdev partnerships, etc.

Social for BathandUnwind

You get lots of interaction and likes on Facebook. Perhaps integrating FB features moreonto the site (even using the FB comments plugin on product pages) would work.

Nice work building an audience onTwitter. More interaction/engagement here, including outreach, will likely earn you even more traction.

Sign up for Pinterest and start buildingsome boards on here. Very strong site with your demographic.

Social Idea #1Connect with independent producers having ahard time getting their lines of productsdistributed. Be a featured shop for them, and letthem help you promote their product.

Social Idea #2Do a video or online “how not to beautify” series(like “what not to wear”). Use Facebook/Twitter toaccept nominations, votes, suggestions, etc. andshare the story as it’s in progress.

Social Idea #3ID professional aestheticians with any socialfollowing and reach out to them, requesting thatthey help build a “best of XYZ category” via asurvey. Then publish and ask them to help shareit. They’ll be likely to participate and to share,because they helped create it.

Social Idea #4Use Facepile/Facemash. And get the Facebookcomments plugin that’s indexable onto your blog(also possibly test it on your product pages).

Go Forth, Reviewand Help Others Prosper! Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz | October 2011

http://www.seomoz.org	9010
http://www.houseofuser.com	306
http://feeds.feedburner.com	185
http://output43.rssinclude.com	48
http://us-w1.rockmelt.com	36
http://paper.li	36
https://www.rssinclude.com	31
http://reviewseotools.com	26
http://www.grangewebdesign.com	19
http://codingtutor.info	18
http://blogging.collected.info	17
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	16
http://itsalltechnology.collected.info	15
http://www.netvibes.com	14
http://mindgamemarketing.com	13
http://www.networkofnews.info	11
http://www.datascapes.ca	11
http://websites.networksolutions.com	10
http://www.wiebeimuttern.de	10
http://xss.yandex.net	10
http://output96.rssinclude.com	9
http://anispo.com	8
https://si0.twimg.com	8
http://internetwebsitedesign.biz	8
http://output90.rssinclude.com	7
http://www.hanrss.com	7
http://internetmarketing.collected.info	6
http://petermusu.blogspot.com	6
http://a0.twimg.com	6
http://wiebeimuttern.de	6
http://uxasm.wordpress.com	6
http://www.rocktheboatmarketing.com	5
http://blogbrainz.collected.info	5
http://www.mikehoyles.com	5
http://blog.technetsource.com	4
http://output39.rssinclude.com	4
http://livehealthyandprosper.biz	3
http://www.boxado.com	3
http://www.pcidsssecuritypolicy.co.uk	3
http://www.evolvebeyondmoney.com	3
http://dashboard.bloglines.com	3
http://www.seo-services-peterborough.co.uk	2
http://localhost	2
http://www.linksarefree.com	2
http://www.petermusu.com	2
http://www.social-webnet.com	2
http://www.theschafergroup.com	2
http://feedproxy.google.com	2
http://www.frontlinemarketingsystems.com	2
http://www.search-engine-optimization.ir	2
http://tut7.com	1

A Methodology for Site Reviews

by Rand Fishkin

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