Vox Fortis Communications

And people wonder why I’m a web analytics nerd.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit my web traffic is pretty sad. It’s not what it should be given that I do this stuff for a living…which is probably why I don’t have the time to put my mad skillz to use in my own little space here. That said, I still look at my analytics every day, because I’m compulsive that way.

I was sipping my coffee, checking out yesterday’s numbers, and was interested to see there was a spike. I was curious as to why, so I checked out my referring traffic, and drilled down to a particular link that was doing it. It’s an “XHTML Challenge” and there on the page was my friend Naomi over at IttyBiz vs. my piddly little site right here. You can check it out here. I have no idea what the stuff on there means (other than our content ratios, which shows right there why she has a much bigger audience than I do). I do know that even though at the moment I’m winning 7 votes vs. 3, I will likely lose because I don’t have scores of minions. (Though I do love my faithful readers, and you know who you are *cough*JuddandMichael*cough*.)

The interesting part is that you can see who started the challenge, and it’s none other than Jon over at Freelance Folder. (At least I think it is. It’d be a mighty huge coincidence if there was another “JPhilips” out there who reads both Naomi and myself.) I suspect that because he’s male, he wants to see a girlfight complete with mud wrestling, but he’s also probably smart enough to know that Naomi and I are the furthest thing from that.

Then again, would it get me more readers?

I don’t know about all of you, but I never get to read all the stuff that’s in my RSS every day. It’s too crazy how often Lifehacker updates. I can keep up with the once a day posters, but my BoingBoing feed is a lost cause. I’d love to find some new blogs about small business, but I have no clue when I’d squeeze that into my day…somewhere between my phone calls where I’m simultaneously answering emails, maybe? Yeah. Not ideal.

A few weeks ago, Shane was all, “Pssst. I’m working on something cool.” So of course I’m all, “Your wife is pregnant?” Well, no. But until the human baby makes an appearance, he’d been putting intense work into another baby: Sproutwire.

I shamelessly love the Shane and Peter blog as it is, so I was intrigued to hear there was another project in the works. And it’s so genius, and created by a group that specializes in UI anyway, I’m just geekily excited to be in on the beta. The site is called Sproutwire, and it will serve as a hub for articles related to small business, vetted and served up to you on a gorgeous Sproutwire silver-platter-like-designed site every single day.

For people like us that can’t get enough reading about small business, this is a Godsend.

You know what else is a Godsend? ME. (I’ve always wanted to be able to say that.) As a reader of my blog, and because Shane is one of my blogosphere homeboys, you can get a sneak peek at the beta launch as well. Follow this link, input your email and you’re in line for when they lift the veil on the beta version this Friday.

See? You knew there was a reason you came here. So go. Now. Do I need to say it again? Go sign up for Sproutwire beta, fool!

The pup has a fascination with the ice cube dispenser on my fridge. It grinds up the cubes (because crushed ice is really the only way to go) and she sits there, ears perked, waiting for the magical ice chunks to plunk onto the floor.

This isn’t unlike finding and deciding on your keywords in several ways, believe it or not.

Some are bigger than others.

When people search, it’s like they’re at a doorway, and when someone enters their search term and hits “enter” 50,000 people want to charge through the entryway. Google is the hall monitor that helps arrange them in a more orderly fashion, but those other sites are still your competition.

When the dog sits there and waits for the ice cube, she’s going to gravitate towards the bigger ones…the problem is, if they’re TOO big, they won’t fit through the dispenser. They need to be ground down a little more.

Pick SEO keywords that are in the sweet spot.

If you pick something like “freelance design” for example, you’re going to have trouble unless you’re someone really well-known. Access to a robust SEO tool is your best friend when it comes to saving yourself time on competing for words that have insane competition. I always try and find what I refer to as the “sweet spot” for clients: words that get decently searched, but that don’t have the whole world as competition.

So take the previous example. Let’s say you’re a freelance designer, and there are a few thousand searches a day for that term, but millions of pages that you’d be competing with…get creative. Check into searches for freelance design specific to your area, or explore the option to add adjectives in front of the term like “affordable.” Granted, the search volume won’t be as high as something like “freelance design,” but you’re not going to get any of that traffic by trying to compete with the biggies anyway.

Start with the big ice cube, and grind it down.

Look at those biggies first. Don’t avoid the huge terms you know you can’t compete on, but use them as the big ice cube you whittle away at until it’s small enough to fit through a relevant search.

The eager searchers on the other side of the screen will snap you up when your smaller cube fits through the door.