I've been a fan of SEOmoz, in general, and Rand Fishkin, in particular, for quite a while. In fact, a search of this blog will reveal posts where I gush embarrassingly about the great things the SEOmoz team does. Up until today I've avoided signing up for the premium membership that the site offers. Yeah, I could come up with various logically sounding reasons why I didn't want to pay, but basically I just hate being ripped off even if the dollar amount is less than I'd spend for dinner at a mediocre restaurant.
Well, today I bit the bullet and signed up for a month's trial and gained access to the premium content. The first thing I did was download three special guides on keyword research, link building, and being search engine friendly. The documents are long (a good thing) so I've yet to go through them in detail. I then moved on to check out the SEO tools. Some of these are available to the non-paying public with limited usage while others are completely restricted to premium members. I'm fairly familiar with extracting data about web sites using search engines, but there's still a bit of interesting information available from these tools and are worthy of attention.
After looking at the tools, I checked out the SEO Q&A section. This is, in my opinion, the best feature of the premium membership. Here people can ask questions and have them answered by the SEO experts at SEOmoz. Even if the answer just validates one's own beliefs the service is quite valuable and worth the membership fee. I got some inspiration from some of the questions and answers and I'm already working on putting this inspiration to work for my clients.
The final section I checked out (and yes, I was on the SEOmoz site for hours this weekend) was the SEO Tips and Tricks articles. These are quick reminders of effective SEO techniques often with links to more detailed articles. Tips are often geared towards beginners, but I was pleasantly surprised to find some good items.
So overall I'd give the membership a 10 out of 10 for value. My one remaining concern is whether there will be ongoing value month after month. After all, I signed up and got through everything in one day. How long will it take to amass additional useful content to justify the ongoing monthly fee?
- SEOmoz Crawl Test - SEO Tool Review
- SEOmoz SEO Guides
- SEOmoz Term Target - SEO Tool Review
- Scaling SEO Services
- Wikipedia Steals the Short Head of Search
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Let us know after a month! Are the tools any good? Is there an SEOmoz affiliate program that you're on?
Would you consider paying for SQUIRT at Bluehat SEO?
SEO Ranter,
I'm going to take a closer look at the tools and do a review if they are interesting. And no, I'm not part of an affiliate program with SEOmoz. I get nothing if you sign up.
I've read about the SQUIRT tool, but the last time I checked sign-ups were closed. That's one that I'd be worth looking at in more detail when it opens up again.
I recently posted about the value of the membership and about how to win a FREE premium membership, check them out.
Features Rated & Reviewed:
http://www.ecommerceoptimization.com/articles/seomoz-premium-membership-features-rated-reviewed/
How to Win a FREE Membership:
http://www.ecommerceoptimization.com/articles/got-my-free-seomoz-premium-membership-heres-how-i-did-it/
Anyone interested in providing feedback on their experience, let me know. I will add your comments to the post and link to a site of your choice. Thanks.
I was looking into it as well, it seems VERY overpriced from what I can tell and in comparison to webmasterworld.
Has anyone tried it yet?