I'm seeing that open site explorer seems to do a good job analysing backlinks

[joemas99]

I can see the link text and where they are coming from and i can use that to steer where i want to get links from, and how i want to get links. Am I missing something? Does raven tools or other software have anything more to offer me in managing my back links? I'm not talking about where and how to get them, just in viewing the structure to help fine tune it so as not to appear unnatural to Google.

All responses wecomed

[SteveOllington]

The holy grail of all that is analytics: http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/

[joemas99]

I only have about 2-3 weeks of GA data, but will explore more of the benefits now that you mention it. Thanks

[SteveOllington]

Your analytics is always the most important tool in your arsenal (in my opinion). But I have only just started learning how to wield that properly (I had no idea of what it was capable of before and only used it for the generic stuff, but now I've learnt a lot more about how to use segmentation properly for KPI's and business objectives... thanks Avinash!).

Anyway, I know what you mean... I was too tied up in the tech side of SEO to look at profit and systems, which I'm now attempting to get the hang of better.

[joemas99]

Funny, I have a client who grosses a few million a year selling wristbands. Anyway, I will take a look at Zoho, I signed up for raven's free mth trial, and adgooroo will do a free site crawl then 10 days free. I guess I'll figure it out. maybe it's all overkill and open site explorer is enough. I will soon see i guess. Thanks. Any other thoughts are appreciated...

[RyanPurkey]

It sounds like you have the skill set to be effective with Open Site Explorer,  spreadsheets, and management via your CMS.  The graphs and reports you mention are often handy to agencies reporting to clients that want a simple report. Since you're plugged in to the pulse of your site you don't need the extra fluff.  I did recommend Zoho in another post for someone seeking out project management software, but their online docs are top notch as well. Structuring your data and projects to be shared with your internal team and targeting completion date milestones should help with what you want to achieve.

No offense taken.  And that's why I answered the ROI question as I did.  If you're selling large scale real estate or heavy equipment one or two sales may be all you need for the year... it's a much different answer than if you're an affiliate for elastic wristbands.   It sounds like you have a solid understanding of the business side of your business, so if you have cost effective solutions to doing what you want to do you should be fine.

[joemas99]

Does this change your response any. I know my industry very well. I am now writing my own content and have in house people to help with the rest. I now realize that when we set up our new site last year as a WP site I was not conscious of how much we messed up the internal SEO. Fixing that now, but forced to write many new pages optimizing key words that we have a chance to rank on. Now here's the kicker (hope I don't offend anyone). I have had schooling in  engineering and statistics and feel that most young people in SEO go nuts on all the details of spreadsheets and metrics, and have little idea about time management for profit. After being in business for over 30 years i know that many things are involved in attracting clients, converting them, and profiting. I see SEO as a tool to get more people to my site and converting them. So I want the best optimization and the best  SERP. I don't want to waste our time creating graphs and rehashing the same info many times.

In the past, Google trashed our site a couple of times(trashed meaning didn't show our pages but no know major penalty) I was part of a link farm, and had the same link text in many links, beginner type stuff. Now I just want to continue to develop good content under high searched for key words and get good back links.

I know my competition enough and my industry to quickly assess the types of links they have and if i want them. So my issue is, do i really have to be concerned with other tools? I have watched part of the advanced DVD's I bought from SEOMOZ and it seems like all this extra stuff is for show and overkill.

Can you tell me what you think I really need or may need and why, beyond the seomoz tools? Your answers will be greatly appreciated.

[RyanPurkey]

Hi Joe.  There's certainly many aspects to how you want to go about generating and gathering back links, but by in large you are seeing the basics. Raven Tools plugs into Basecamp which can be handy and tries to include a broader cross section of online marketing data to further help plan your campaigns and website marketing.  Still, Open Site Explorer gives you all the raw data you need in managing your backlinks and really it's up to you how you want to approach it.  You'll likely come across some sites that appear spammy but a competitor has a link there.  You'll have to decide whether or not you want to try and acquire one there as well.  Other times, you'll get widget, content, and vertical creation ideas from viewing where others--or your own site--have successfully gotten backlinks.

If you're putting a conscious effort towards acquiring genuine links you will have very little worry about appearing unnatural in Google, and emphasizing a broad source of backlinks will expose you to different market segments and your target audience (see Laura Lippay's: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-8step-seo-strategy-step-1-define-your-target-audience-and-their-needs).