Web Tools
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on June 16, 2010
Compete.com’s May data went live today and I noticed some major changes with the traffic stats and their website. First, is their new logo, which I don’t really have an opinion on. Second, are the external referral analytics for a site which you have to click to see the referring sites now. And third, is the huge drop in past and current traffic as shown by their graphs for certain websites.
For example, as you can see above the graph the unique visitor stats for SEOmoz.org and SEOBook.com were in the 350 – 450k range for April 2010. But, prior to this update the graphed showed them in the 850-950k range for April. Going back a year, it looks like both of their stats dropped roughly 400k each month from what Compete had previously reported. I also noticed the traffic stats dropped significantly on some of my websites too. Well below their true numbers. Also, apparently the biggest referrer to this blog was from some website I’ve never heard of or seen any traffic from before, so I’m very confused about where they got that information.
I have checked Compete’s blog and Twitter account, but didn’t find anything suggesting and issue with their data. However, they did release quite a few new features recently and made some major changes which I’m guessing that must have affected it.
I wonder if the data for SEObook and SEOmoz is closer to their real numbers now?? Anyone else concerned with the new data reported for your website?
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on April 20, 2010
I’m probably just super-paranoid, but some times I feel like Google is watching my every move and removing opportunities that would be available to someone who didn’t publicly admit they were an SEO.
Prior to the last PageRank update I felt it was appropriate to submit this blog to a few quality web directories. Before submitting, I qualified these directories based on a number of factors. One factor of course was how much PageRank was displayed when viewing the category I was submitting too. In this case they had a PageRank 0, 3 and 4.
The first one was a newly discovered directory that allowed free blog submissions, and the following two were directories I regularly recommend and that have been around for a very long time.
After I submitted my blog to the first one for free, I noticed Matt Cutt’s blog was the very next approved submission. Now Google is no longer caching the page I’m listed on. The category I submitted to in second and third directories used to have visible PageRank, but as of the last PageRank update those categories now show a PageRank of zero too. However, the PageRank of their home pages went up.
During that time, another free resource I’m always able to squeeze out a PageRank three company profile for my client and personal websites is also now showing PageRank zero for all company profiles listed in the same PageRank 5 category my company is listed in. I’m certain they should all have a PageRank 3.
Also, I took on a new client during this time and submitted him to two of these quality directories. Beforehand, the categories I submitted him to had a PageRank 3, PageRank zero, and were cached by Google. Now neither one of them are cached, and both show a PageRank zero.
Coincidence or manual edit?
I’m probably just being paranoid because I haven’t done anything “wrong”, but it sure has me wondering if I should stop using so many of Google’s free tools.
Posted by Wesley LeFebvre on August 26, 2009
Yep, I said it, THANK GOD! This time-saving Firefox add-on is AWESOME! A must have, for web developers or anyone who loves to use Mozilla Firefox. If you’ve been thinking about using Firefox, but hesitate because you are worried the websites you visit are incompatible, then this little tab will most likely solve that for you. It has worked for my favorite web sites, and I’m sure it will work for yours too!
It’s simple and quick. Simply right-click any open web page, then select “View in IE Tab”, and that’s it! Now you will be viewing the reloaded page in an Internet Explorer Tab.
Another great add-on that compliments this one well is the Too Many Tabs add-on. With this great add-on you can save your tabs, and save multiple tab rows. Simply pin your necessary IE Tabs on a daily tab row, then you can quickly view them with one click of the mouse the next time you’re in your Firefox web browser.
