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So, I was over at SEOmoz.org today, which is a very cool site. There are tutorials and tools out the ying-yang, which is sweet. But the one thing that took up about twenty minutes of my lunchtime today was the SEO test. How cool is that? You can measure your understanding of SEO.
I did well, though not as well as I’d have liked. I’m always leery of tests, you know. I always assume that what I’m seeing is a trick question, and pick the wrong answer instead of an obvious one. Testers are a sneaky bunch, you know? 
But here was the question:
“What of the following is the WORST criterion for estimating the value of a link to your page/site?”
Hmm… there were about 5 choices, but what stuck out at me right away was “Alexa.” I was ready to click that radio button, when I saw Google toolbar page rank.
Toss up?
The Alexa ranking is so nebulous. It means bupkiss, really. Here’s what SEOmoz.org had to say about it:
Since Alexa data is typically less useful (http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-blog-stats) than monkey’s throwing darts at a laptop, that’s the obvious choice for worst metric. The others can all contribute at least some valuable insight into the value a link might pass.
OK, totally true, except… Google toolbar. Brad Fallon told me personally that it means very little because it’s never current. Your page rank changes constantly, but they only update the toolbar about once a quarter.
So, that to me means that PR is also questionable, but it’s obvious where I went wrong. It’s not the WORST indicator of a valuable link. Duh. It’s not a clean estimate, but in the ballpark. Duh again.
Course that’s SEO. Not everyone agrees with everyone else. Want to know what’s right? What works through testing, testing, testing.
Anyway, it was a trick question. LOL
Shouda picked the obvious… Alexa.
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October 10th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSo, I was over at SEOmoz.org today, which is a very cool site. There are tutorials and tools out the ying-yang, which is sweet. But the one thing that took up about twenty minutes of my lunchtime today was the SEO test. How cool is that? You can measure your understanding of SEO. I did well, though not as well as I’d have liked. I’m always leery of tests, you know. I always assume that what I’m seeing is a trick question, and pick the wrong answer instead of an obvious one. Testers are a sneak [...]
October 13th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I didn’t even know that Google Toolbar has anything to do with link value. I’ve found that Alexa readings are very useless for the site that I work on. Thanks for the post!
October 14th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
That’s a really interesting site. It looks like it could be a handy resource for someone who wants to know more about SEO. I could probably learn more but I’m a bit lazy.
I didn’t know that the Alewxa ranking lacked in value so much, it’s good to keep in mind. I don’t think any ranking is really all that helpful or accurate especially, as you mentioned, Google’s PR which doesn’t update frequently at all.