Simple

link:www.mysite.com/page – this will give you the # of links to the specific page you run the search for.

linkdomain:mysite.com – this gives you the # of links to the domain in its entirety.

External Links Only

When you run the simple commands above, it’s a good “quick & dirty” but won’t give you the most accurate info. The most accurate info is “how many external links does this site have.” In order to find this info, use:

linkdomain:mysite.com -site:mysite.com

Exclude Specific Sites

Let’s say that you’re really active on a forum…you’re a moderator or something like that, and you have thousands of links from this one source. You’re getting some juice from these links, but not as much juice as you would if they were spread out elsewhere. So…to see how many links you have, excluding this one source (or two, or three) use the following command:

linkdomain:mysite.com – site:myforum.com -site:myfriendsblogroll.com

So…these are the basics. There are some more advanced features out there, but this will get you going!

2)ROI for Local/Mobile Search is much harder to measure than web traffic.
a. Most people don’t click through – they call in.
b. Create a unique phone #
c. Include a coupon

3) Mobile Site Notes
a. Create a new site for your mobile site.
b. Mobile sites need fresh content – RSS feeds are awesome
c. Use your standard mysite.com – do not use .mobi or m.mysite.com – use a redirect for mobile browsers
i. This establishes your brand much stronger

1)      Eye catching titles

2)      Image(s) above the fold

3)      Short, easy, scannable content

4)      Don’t make pages dead-ends.  Include links at the end.

5)      Don’t be a grinch – link to sites you’re not related to.

6)      Be topical & time sensitive.

7)      Solve someone’s problem.

      Use buttons/widgets to encourage linking/voting

9)      Everyone loves “top 10″ lists

10)  Make your list go to “11″

He’s seeing quite a bit of good traffic through PPC (pretty cheap, too) and his bounce rate is sick (as in good.)  He’s working on monetizing it, so I’ve basically been helping him w/ that, and with SEO.  His programmer put together the site with a really intuitive hierarchy, so it should crawl really well.  I introduced him to “anchor text” & PR, so he has the basics.  He won’t need too much link building in order to take on the guys showing up for local results.

Regardless…check it out.  If you’re in Austin, it’s a sweet service to use.  If you’re not in Austin, maybe he’ll expand to your area soon!

Steiner Ranch is a master-planned community in Austin that has ~3000 homes already constructed, and will have 4500 when it’s built out in ~3 years. My ericbramlett.com site ranks #1 for most Steiner Ranch related searches, and ranks behind the HOA & the developer site for “steiner ranch.”

So…I’ve seen some decent traffic from those terms & thought that it would be cool to build a neighborhood specific site. The SEO doesn’t look like it will be extremely difficult, and I’m a big believer that Google looks at the continuity of a website’s theme. Google’s obviously trying to go as local as possible, and searchers are becoming more & more savvy. “Power Searchers” are using the advanced search features to find exactly what they want.

It’s my feeling that super-niche sites are the wave of the future. Matt Cutts has expressed that webmasters should focus on owning one good site – but I think that it’s very powerful to have a specific niche site that a searcher will find that is exactly what they’re looking for.

So…check out LifeinSteiner.com & let me know what you think! I’ll let you guys know how well it converts (unless it’s incredible – then I’ll report that it’s awful )

The only downside is that it’s in Vegas – I f’ing hate Vegas.  I’ve been for business & for pleasure on a few diff’t occasions each, and I never have a good time.  DING DING DING DING.  That’s all you hear from the minute you get off the plane until you leave.  So…I’m going to spend the next few weeks trying to coordinate some activities that I will actually enjoy – I don’t particularly like to gamble, don’t like to lay out by the pool, and don’t like to shop…I do like the shows, but I’m not crazy about $200/ticket…we’ll see what I can come up with!