So you’ve got a great idea about a business and you go to Godaddy.com and see that the domain AwesomeBrand.com is available.
That’s great! You’re excited. AwesomeBrand.com is the perfect name for your business and you’re happy that it was available.
Know (SEO) Before You Go
I hate to be a downer, but just hold on a minute. Just because a domain is available, does not mean that you want it.
Why?
Because that domain could have been owned by someone else before and they got rid of the website, for what ever reason.
Here’s the thing… You have no idea what the history of that domain is before you purchase it… Unless you have an excellent SEO research tool like SERPed.net
Before you buy any domain, you want to research it. The same goes for accepting a new client project for SEO.
In the video I posted above, I’d planned to demonstrate to you how I use the Site Explorer. It’s a tool I use everyday.
I know it well.
So I wanted to show you, in real time how I analyze a site. In the example, I was explaining how I investigate a domain. In this case I was investigating a domain I was about to purchase at auction. But I do the same when I’m doing an analysis for a business owner that I want to sell my SEO services to.
In this example, the domain looked good at first. It looked strong, healthy, and it had a lot of links going to it.
BUT…
Then I looked at the links! They were f*@%ing terrible!
Someone had owned this website and built it up and put a lot of work into it. It was good quality content. THis is what I thought I was going to buy.
Then, for whatever reason, they let it go.
After that, someone bought the domain, and turned it into a porn site. The anchor text is all GROSS. They trashed the domain.
So of course I didn’t buy the domain. (Funny side note, I know a guy that built his first SEO agency on a former porn domain. He didn’t think to research the domain before he bought it either!)
Anyway.
It’s Critical to Research Website Backlinks
You don’t want to buy a domain that was spammed or a porn site or drug site or whatever. The same is true when researching a potential SEO client.
I’d need to know this stuff before I sign up a client for search engine optimization because if they have been spammed, that will make the job much harder. I’ll have to spend more on the project. And, I’ll have to charge the client more.
But I need to know before starting.
Sometimes, you’ll just want to avoid the project all-together. Or tell the client they need to think about moving their website to a new domain.
The Site Explorer is just one of the many tools inside of SERPed. It is the one I use the most, by far. Once I have the Site Explorer analysis, I can tell within a minute or two, if I want to work with that domain or business.
The backlink analysis for Site Explorer is so crucial to my business that I use it everyday. (Inside tip: I used Site Explorer to research this domain that you are reading right now, before I purchased it.)
I highly recommend SERPed and the Site Explorer is just one of the many useful tools in the toolbox, or suite of tools, that comes with a SERPed.net subscription.
If you work on with websites at all, you can benefit from SERPed.net. If you do SEO, then you need SERPed.net. If you purchase SERPed from the link on my website, I’d really appreciate it.
And it’d be obvious that you are a really great person!
BONUS!
If you purchase SERPed through the link above, I’ll give you a complementary 30 minute training session via Skype.
That way, if you have questions, I can help you out.
I sincerely like this tool (SERPed). I use it all the time. And I think it can benefit a lot of folks. That’s why I’m promoting it.
BONUS #2
What do you think?
Have you used the Site Explorer inside SERPed? If so, do you like it? Do you have any questions about Site Explorer or this article?
I actually read these comments, so let me know if I can help you out.