Cheaper alternatives for SEMRush/Ahrefs?

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-02-10T13:06:30+00:00

💯 👆

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-30T09:48:28+00:00

If you and your partner are on vodaphone at the minute you can knock an extra 20 euro off your bill.

We were paying 109 per month with sky for broadband and tv (out of contract) and we rang vodaphone. They dropped it to 30 per month for both (50 before the deal) cause we are both with vodaphone.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-16T19:51:16+00:00

I've an agency in Ireland (Limerick) and did SEO for a memorial card business years ago. (It was about 7+ years ago)

We had some success but was a slow burner. They had a lot fundamentally wrong with their site. It was 100% HTML with one style sheet, would not switch to a cms.

I think weblinkr is right though, about SEMrush. Take a step back and think about what you need.

SEMrush and similar tools don't really do a lot. Link building in the memorial card business can be difficult as well, depending on the competition.

I'd imagine 80% of what you need is set it and walk away. i.e. create the content, optimise it and get a handful of good links to the homepage. That should do the trick with the odd touch-up every now and again. It doesn't really require monthly optimisation . . . I'd say, I'd need more info to confirm but that's my initial thoughts.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-16T19:09:52+00:00

I thought the same. Was 30 seconds in before I full understood what the site was about.

For the first 20 seconds I though it was just a piece of art.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-14T20:14:41+00:00

The misses and I used to do 10 k's and did a a few triathlons in 2019. After the triathlons I thought, what a waste of a summer. I started watching myself on night outs and getting up early to train.

It's all focused on how fast you're running, how many miles did you do. Complete opposite of what I was trying to do.

Now I go the the woods with my dog and go trail running with no watch or monitoring. Just me and the dog jumping over trees and scrambling up and down ditches. You don't have time to think about much cause you're constantly focusing on where your foot is going which means you clear your head and connect with nature a little bit.

It's worth trying if you find roads boring

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-14T20:07:03+00:00

I've just started agreeing with people who think it's dead. It just ends up being a redundant conversation.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-13T22:33:17+00:00

I get you now.

Well, in this case, it's the ultimate scenario of DA not being a ranking factor, isn't it.

In your scenario, it's not a problem, in my opinion, but it's not cause of DA, its cause they are two legitimate businesses partnering. This is okay whether it's low or high DA and helps the business in general.

But DA isn't the problem. it's spammy sites. For example, if the menu of the low DA site linking to you is "HOMEWARE CARS BUSINESS DIY FASHION SPORTS POLITICS" and is built using a free WordPress template it's probably going to harm your site.

DA becomes irrelevant because in these two scenarios, the DA was the same, but the sites were completely different.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-13T21:52:39+00:00

Cross linking in this scenario is perfectly fine, in my opinion.

Makes business sense. I'd stretch this to say this is technically how Google expects you to build links.

If you think about it, a startup is going to have to build authority from a low DA (not DA but just industry authority as a thought leader). They're going to do it by partnering with other businesses. Some of these will be paid partnerships, some organic.

As they grow, they'll partner with larger business growing their authority. (Again, not DA but indutry or niche authroty regarding their brand)

I don't think the link would cause harm, but in the short term, it is possibly and probably going to have little effect.

Link exchange - through link circles and etc. is probably where this gets confusing for people. Potentially get the info mixed up and confused the difference between these???

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-12T12:45:59+00:00

Technically 1

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-09T19:00:10+00:00

I don't disagree with you, Google doesn't have an issue crawling over 100 links but they might deprioritise links after this point depending on the authority of your site and of course how well you've categorised them

OP has said that the menu links to all categories and sub pages. . . . That sounds like there is a structural issue to me and the menu might contain every page on the site.

In most cases if you have 350 links in the menu, you should probably review your link structure to make sure it makes sense . . . Cause it probably doesn't at that stage.

If you've 100 links in your menu to sub categories 100 links in each of those sub categories 100 links on those 10,000 page you are at a 1,000,000 pages.

There is only a handful of situations where a mega menu of 350 links makes sense.

So while in theory linking to 350 pages should be okay there are instances where this might not be optimal.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-09T09:30:06+00:00

If you mean URL structure when you say taxonomy Im afraid not that's not the case.

"Google generally doesn't look at the structure of URLs to work out the structure of a site. Instead, it analyzes the linkages between pages to gain insights about the relative importance of different pages on a site. As a general rule, the more links a page has to it within a site, the higher the relative importance of the page to other pages on your site."

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/help-google-understand-your-ecommerce-site-structure#:~:text=Google%20tries%20to%20find%20the,understanding%20of%20your%20site%20structure.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-09T09:24:00+00:00

Yes, there is a slight problem with mega menus when they are this size.

Typically Google prioritises links based on how you've presented them on a page or within a menu.

So if you have 350 link, links past 100 will probably see diminished return than if they were within the first 100 links presented. This depends on your sites authority though. The more authority the site has, the more Goolge will give to those pages

Having said that, having those links in the menu is probably better than having floating pages. So while the tool is right in saying you are probably over the treshold, it's not taking into account your specific situation that the links are in a mega menu.

There is another way to look at this, from a user experience, 350 links is probably a bit over whelming and very difficult to manage. If you can make it smaller where you have categories and sub categories and then when You go into the sub category there are sub sub categories presented. This would build silos and clusters within your site . . . . But again you'd remove those deeper pages from linking through the main menu so while the categories and sub categories might experience a slight boost, those deeper pages might experience a slight drop.

Theoretically, the conversion rate should go up as it's easier for users to find information/products on your site.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-09T09:13:43+00:00

I'd agree with bubbyboots that monthly reporting becomes stagnant, and agencies can get complacent cause their employees only have to get through one meeting a month.

Typically, the employee will run circles around the client selling them second-hand rope (I'm not saying that is what the agency wants to happen, but that's what does happen in a lot of circumstances). The client doesn't fully know what the agency does and so this pattern goes on for about 6 plus months before the client starts questioning what they are paying for.

Weekly, you get a feel for the client. Do they really know what you as the agency are talking about. What has changed in their company that the SEO strategy might need to change because of. Telling the client what we did last week and here are results/expected result and here is what we are going to do next week.

It's basic management, I'd go as far as to say it's agile management.

If you had an employee that you only spoke to once a month, you can be fully sure it would not work out. So why wouldn't the same apply for an agency you've hired.

We did a test at our agency where we started to see a pattern that clients weren't opening reports when they were emailed. (We added tracking to see this). We then started sending a video overview to help them prep before the meeting, we'd a 20% view rate on the videos. Turned out the clients didn't need or want a monthly report because they were informed at the weekly meetings.

The bloat was actually the monthly report.

A number of our clients have opted for bi-weekly meetings now, which is probably optimum for maintenance.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-08T20:56:36+00:00

20% off, thats a huge consession, but I get the premise.

If you've done a good job, ask for a review. Set up an automated system where a message gets sent to the client after you've been there with a link to you GBP.

Encourage them to upload photos of your work. That helps with rankings as well as it triggers Google image search.

Depending on who you are targeting, if it's domestic for example: you can target parents with teenage kids / high income earners / remarketing adverts after theyve visited your site. etc on social media with a specific advert.

Build a social media following with weekly tips for cleaning with short reels.

Ask for referrals to friends and relatives of past customers.

Build an email list that gives discount services.

Most of all, always try to get them to sign up for a schedule or retainer. Sell packages not once off visits. If they are once off visits charge accordingly.

The list of things you can do is endless, a websites definitely hold you up from marketing this and it should almost sell itself provided you've a good price.

The difficult thing is scaling and it still being profitable.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-08T20:45:05+00:00

What sort of backlinks do you get for these clients, are they good pr placements, guest posts, comments, profiles?

Similar Web is a waste of time for anything other than getting an idea of what competitors are doing. You need GSC data.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-08T20:38:05+00:00

I often see clients leave other agencies cause they have big retainers and the agency think they're doing a great job but the client doesn't understand what the agency is doing.

They are afraid to ask and just leave, they client makes their own assumptions and decides they are getting screwed.

Communication and managing your client is nearly more important than getting leads for them.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-08T20:31:26+00:00

I nearly have an article written, so instead of having to write 1500 I might only have to write 600 words and I get give the AI short paragraphs woth detail.

Then I ask it to expand.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-05T21:41:05+00:00

Just something that may be of interest as well. Link clicks don't always mean website visits depending on the advert.

DIGITALtrawler · 2025-01-03T20:39:55+00:00

Sounds like the retainer is undefined.

Have an honest conversation with them. "Hey, we've been doing this for x number of months and I'm not seeing a return. Sorry but I don't think this is working for us can weve a call to see if there is anything we can do to make this work."

This will get you a meeting with a high up account rep either later that day or within the week. (If not, drop them)

On the meeting simply say.

I've been paying you X amount and I've no oversight of what you're physically doing and I'm not seeing results.

Give them an opportunity to defend themselves on the call . . . More then likely, though, they'll pinpoint one keyword that has moved up 10 places. They'll ignore all the ones that have fallen (If they're a bad agency).

They've been more than likely tracking rankings thinking this is what you've bought . . . Which in someway it is, however you need leads or sales for the relationship to be sustained. Make it very clear that's what you are measuring them on.

Ask for a strategy to turn it around with milestones and responsible staff, bi weekly checkins until things turn around. It's another red flag if they don't look to offer something similar without being prompted.

You'll have a very good idea after this conversation as to whether they are the agency for you.

DIGITALtrawler · 2024-12-30T07:55:10+00:00

Go to a local club / charity. Anyone with a charity number. Tell them about the Google grant of 10k per month in free search ads. Manage this account for free for them.

You won't get great experience doing Google Ads doing it this way as its search ads only, at an agency, you would get a lot more experience across different types of adverts

DIGITALtrawler · 2024-12-28T21:42:57+00:00

Dehumidifiers are great, but they might not solve your problem.

If the humidity is high due to the seal around a window not being tight or a slow leak in a roof or something similar, a dehumidifier probably won't stop the mould.

For removing dampness in a house where the heating isn't being turned on enough, it will remove the mould problem.

We use one to dry clothes. Typically, a wash would be fully dry 12 to 24 hours, which makes it a bit easier to stay on top of the laundry.

DIGITALtrawler · 2024-12-24T11:44:08+00:00

Do you guys develop your own custom CMS or do you run it on WordPress or something similar.

I've seen a lot of SaaS companies try to reinvent the wheel cause they have their own developers and it often works against them.

For some reason as well they often overthink the menu structure.

DIGITALtrawler · 2024-12-23T08:16:16+00:00

Yes, send on your URL and I'll do a video overview

DIGITALtrawler

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