Writing for the Web

SEO tools

Spying On Your Paid Search Competitors refers to several tools that allow for competitive analysis even if you don't pay for search terms. They are

• Compete


• Alexa


• SpyFu.com

I ran a Spyfu search to see how we show up for a search on "kinesiology Phd" and found that there's not much competition for that set of terms. However, once I dug a little deeper I found searches for "PhD programs in education." And that's not a phrase I've tried to optimize for. I assumed that students ready for a doctorate would have a more specific program or field in mind. And right in front of me is evidence that the search economy finds that phrase profitable. So I immediately changed the page we have listing our doctorates in education and human development. Gone is the word "doctorate."

The Compete tool will allow you to compare traffic from three top level domains. So I can compare how the University (umn.edu) stacks up to Columbia (columbia.edu), but not how my college (cehd.umn.edu) stacks up against Teacher's College (tc.columbia.edu/) at Columbia. it's too bad because this site gives information on how engaged the visitors are and it gives the top three keyword phrases which drive visitors to the site. Paying for the service might make this site more helpful.

Alexa hasn't changed much over the years. And while it also limits data to the top level domain, it provided this little tidbit:

Where people go on Umn.edu:

• umn.edu - 13%


• gophermail.umn.edu - 12%


• lib.umn.edu - 6%


• d.umn.edu - 6%


• onestop2.umn.edu - 4%


• onestop.umn.edu - 4%


• mail.umn.edu - 3%


• gis.umn.edu - 2%


• cfans.umn.edu - 2%


• extension.umn.edu - 2%


• cehd.umn.edu - 2%


• webvista.umn.edu - 2%


• movielens.umn.edu - 1%


• umcrookston.edu - 1%


• cla.umn.edu - 1%


• myu.umn.edu - 1%