Posted by fabioricotta

This post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

Hi SEOmoz folks,

Sometimes we begin a new SEO consulting job and do not to know where to start our Link Building. We have a lot of options but the first thing I really like to do is to analyze what my competitors are doing. As we know, one of the best ways to analyze backlinks is by using Open Site Explorer (OSE). With this tool we can submit a domain and see which pages on the web are linking to it and some awesome metrics. We can use it to begin our analysis.

The first thing you need to do is to create a competitor list. Then you need to go to OSE and insert your competitor(s) domain(s). Then you will filter by links from "External Pages Only" and "All Pages in the Root Domain", as you can see below. With these filters, we guarantee that we will have an overall look at your competitors' website backlinks.

After the above steps, we need to export all this data by clicking on "Export to CSV". After that, you will import this data to Excel:

Next, you will remove the 6 first lines, as they are only comments. Then you need to select the first line, click on the Data Tab and select "Filter". This will give you the ability to sort every column by some filters.

Now we can begin our competitor analysis./> [...]

Wed Jul 14, 2010 00:04 am

Dan Kantor, the man behind de.licio.us's Playtagger and Firefox extension, has brought us a new toy to play with that literally makes the web your musical oyster. ExtensionFM is a Chrome extension that automatically scrubs the websites you visit, finds embedded music, and adds it to a library of online music.

As time has gone on, we've found fewer and fewer reasons to actually download music and ExtensionFM gives us one less.

Sponsor

Kantor has done some big things in online music over the years. He created Playtagger, a music player that made mp3 bookmarks in de.licio.us playable right there on the page, and founded Streampad, a social web-scale music application that was acquired by AOL in 2008. If you use the Firefox plug-in for Delicious, Kantor built that too. Until 2009, he was the product director of AOL Music and now he brings us ExtensionFM.

Kantor pre-released the music plugin just over two weeks ago with little to-do, but we can't get enough of it. ExtensionFM runs quietly in the background as you browse, collecting any and all tracks and archiving them. If you decide you'd like to listen as you go, you can simply click on the icon and play individual songs, queue songs, or play or queue them all. If you decide that you like a song enough to own it, you can simply right click on it and chose "Buy", which sends you to the song on Amazon. But even if that were to not work, the program keeps the link to the site where it originally found the song. [...]

Fri Feb 19, 2010 12:20 pm

Walmart has launched a new online video game store called Gamecenter, which the company describes as a one-stop destination for video game previews, first look exclusives and special savings.

To promote the launch of the site, Walmart.com is offering a $50 eGift Card to people that preorder three or more new titles, including "Medal of Honor," "Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood," and "Fallout: New Vegas." Walmart said all videos games ordered can be shipped for 97 cents each.

Each month, Gamecenter will feature new video games along with exclusive content, and special offers for each title. A countdown clock will show the days until the most popular preorder titles are available.

"Walmart Gamecenter combines incredible savings with exclusive gaming content all in a compelling and interactive experience online," says Kelly Thompson, vice president of merchandising for Walmart.com.

"Gaming enthusiasts will be drawn in by the exclusive content and developer interviews, while moms will appreciate the special savings only Walmart can offer on the hottest video game titles."

Customers can upgrade their video game collection through Walmart's online Trade-In program, which allows them to trade their used games and earn Walmart prepaid Visa cards. Used gaming consoles are also accepted for trade-in.
 

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Thu May 20, 2010 13:25 pm

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Google Introduces Real-Time Blogger Stats

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Traffic mongers and general-purpose stats hounds now have another compelling reason to use Blogger: last night, a statistics tool called Blogger Stats was introduced, and believe it or not, it in some ways one-ups Google Analytics.

The first advantage of Blogger Stats is that it's integrated, meaning Blogger users won't have to deal with separate products and logins.  The second improvement - and this is where the appeal to certain people lies - is that the stats relayed by the new tool are delivered in "near-real-time."

A post on the official Blogger in Draft blog explained, "You can see which posts are getting the most visits and which sites are sending traffic to your blog right now.  For example, if a reader shares one of your blog posts on Twitter and the post is getting lots of clicks, you will see a traffic increase in Blogger Stats almost instantly, with the particular Tweet mentioning your post being identified as the traffic source."

The post later added, "There's also a lot more data that's being tracked, such as popular search keywords that send visitors to your blog, which country your visitors come from, and which web browsers they are using.  Basically, with the new Stats feature, you know what's going on with your blog right now."

Users seem impressed so far.  The only complaints tend to revolve around the perceived shortcomings of Google Analytics, in fact (now that Blogger Stats has the real-time edge).

The Blogger Stats tool can be accessed through the "Stats" tab of Blogger in Draft if you feel like experimenting with it yourself.

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Fri Jul 02, 2010 08:20 am

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