Leo Newball, Jr. » SEO http://leonewball.com life, design, tech Sat, 03 Apr 2010 05:53:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 the next LVL – WordPress Theme http://leonewball.com/2009/04/06/the-next-lvl-wordpress-theme/ http://leonewball.com/2009/04/06/the-next-lvl-wordpress-theme/#comments Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:20:29 +0000 Leo Newball, Jr http://leonewball.com/?p=125

the next LVL is a theme I’ve been developing for a few months and is my first WordPress themes for public consumption. The theme was originally developed to be a CMS based theme, but in it’s evolution became something completely different. The theme is a two column, widget ready theme that is compatible with WordPress 2.7. There are a few elements that make this theme different from others:

  1. the next LVL does not have the traditional website header, that has been shifted onto the right sidebar
  2. Highly SEO friendly without the need for additional plugins
  3. comes with a robots.txt  file to be used in the root directory of a WordPress install
  4. A comical 404 page (feel free to use your own personal message here!)

This theme is the base of a few features I’ve been working on for future themes and future development. They include broader SEO options built into a theme, possible backwards compatibility with older version of WordPress, color changing and graphic changing options.

Currently the next lvl is in version .9.2 (think release candidate), last updated April 8th, 2009.

Recent Changes:

  • version .9.2 (4/8/09)
    - Fixed a font size issue with <select> tags inside of posts
    - Cleaned up CSS Code
    - Removed Plugin Dependend Code
    - Removed Images from Sidebar and replaced with text
  • version .9.1 (4/6/09)
    - Added a page navigation at the top.
    - Updates and removal of legacy code and images
  • version .9
    - Out of alpha development, ready for public beta release.
    - New theme color

Download the current version of the next lvl here

Feel free to leave any feedback in the comments section (including typos and grammatical mistakes, I am notorious for those!)

Enjoy!

]]> http://leonewball.com/2009/04/06/the-next-lvl-wordpress-theme/feed/ 6 Google Insights: A New SEO Tool for Keyword Research http://leonewball.com/2008/08/06/google-insights-a-new-seo-tool-for-keyword-research/ http://leonewball.com/2008/08/06/google-insights-a-new-seo-tool-for-keyword-research/#comments Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:49:09 +0000 Leo Newball, Jr http://leonewballjr.name/?p=89 In their efforts to become more transparent about their search and search habits, Google recently released, Google Insights, a new that can be used for web developers and those performing SEO optimization gain better prospective on target keywords, and aids in keyword research. Previously most search term and keyword research has been done by specific keyword research tools, including Google’s AdWord Keyword Tool. The keyword tool helped determine which target keywords or phrases are stronger, providing those performing SEO optimizations a determination for stronger or weaker keywords and alternate phrases to target.

Although the Keyword Tool is helpful, it data is limited in scope and is targeted to those using the AdWords application. Insights is a more detailed tool for keyword research. With Insights you are able to see the strength of your keyword over time, potential target markets, relevant search terms (as with the Keyword Tool) and search terms that are on the rise. For SEO optimization this is really helpful and important.  Using the keyword Web Designer, I want to take a brief look at Google Insights.

Google Insight Demo

Click for the full image

The information provided, however, is not raw data. Instead Google displays the strength of each keyword on a scale of 1 – 100 (Google explains their methods here in detail). Using the example above, I would like to help translate the information. Displayed first is the keywords overall strength. In the example above, they keyword Web Designer has an overall strength of 70. The chart beneath it represents the keywords strength over time, from 2004 to current day. This can be customized for shorter time periods, any specific year from 2004 – 2007 or a rolling 30 day, 90 day, 12 month intervals. Underneath is regional interest which displays the strength of your keyword compared to various locations. If you are a Web Designer in Nepal you seem to be in very high demand!

The most interesting aspect of insights is the ability to provide a list of top searches and rising searches or related keywords on the rise. This is very helpful in tailoring your website to niche markets or swapping keywords that were never expected to use. These results show that Web Designer may be a very generic term, if you are skilled in .ASP or .NET web applications, Microsoft Web Designer is ninth on the top search list; it may behoove you to use this term. Another term that should be considered is web page maker, as it is the top keyword on the rising searches.

Google Insight Demo

Click for the entire image

The deeper you delve into Insights, the better it gets. There is the ability to compare different keywords to one another. In the example below, I’ve compared keywords Web Designer to Web Developer in order to compare one against the other.  In this case, they keyword Web Designer displays a strong trend of popularity, but the Web Developer keyword is rising and now may provide better results.

Google Insight Demo

Click for the entire image

Google Insights is a great addition to SEO optimization but can also be used for bragging rights. In this case it seems that Google has determined who wins between cats and dogs.

Google Insight Demo

Click for the entire image

Do note, that while Google Insights is free, you must have a Google account to see the magnitudes I discussed in this article.

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