SEO’s – don’t neglect your hardware

We’ve been doing a lot of SEO Tool evaluation around here (it’s that time again) and it started me thinking … while so much attention is paid to the Software, it seems that little is paid to the hardware anymore, right down to a comfortable chair (we SEO’s spend a lot of time at the screen).

Desktop switches are pretty cheap and help off-load long reporting cycles to other machines, you can just switch over and check the status of your reports from time to time and continue to work on other things.

I can’t imagine how anyone can live without at least two monitors these days, I certainly could not. I think our new policy around here will be one per website (our CEO is gonna love that idea … not!). This is why I never recommend laptops for this kind of work. I’ve seen folks working in pretty cramped conditions and I can’t see how they do it. BTW, if this stuff was uncomfortable work for me … then I wouldn’t be doing it … period. I don’t want to digress too much but the other day I found myself explaining to a client that I was his SEO not his Web Designer … while I did the design for him, it takes away from more important SEO things like Keyword Research, Link Building etc. I did it because I enjoy it … it’s just doesn’t feel like work to me. I enjoy the thrill and chaos and the clandestine nature of ‘spying’ on competitors. I never liked the term ‘spying’ tho … more like sizing up the other runners during the race, it’s not like I’m sneaking into their offices late at night to boost trade secrets from the safe behind the Picasso or “the velvet painting with dogs playing poker”. For the most part it seems it’s all out in the open … you just can’t beat experience, good planning, caution and patience if you want to make them bots happy.

Continuing on … I use this Logitech Trackball that I found years ago and haven’t seen one like it in a long while. Funny, most folks who come and sit at my screen can’t seem to get the hang of it, I just pray that it never breaks because I could never go back to a ‘mouse’, I like it because I can control the resistance with my thumb, anyone who has ever had trouble dialing in 455 pixels with a mouse will understand.

Speaking of hardware, I keep my guitar and amp right next to my desk along with my green hurricane lamp … hey, it’s a creative process and I gotta have these things in my space.

Software IS important but truth be told, I could probably run everything with free online tools (naturally, there are some exceptions), in fact I actually use some of the tools on our site (imagine that). There are some really great offerings Today, I’ll save a discussion of them until after we have finished our evals but every one so far has its shortcoming, if the true all in one ‘Swiss army knife’ SEO tool becomes available … we’ll be the first to pull out the checkbook (or click the ‘Buy Now’ button).

So here we are looking at all the software available out there and, of course, I’m thinking of ‘something completely different’, it just drives folks nuts around here. I guess I think this way because my background is engineering
OK, so who the heck am I? I’ll tell you that RELAX was born because a few engineers had nowhere else to go after the engineering crash of the late 90’s. I had done this kind of work before, just to fill in, and I liked it … it was perfect; you get to use cool software, hardware, and help folks. We picked up a banking contract and we were off. Certainly they had choices … Bruce Clay is just down the street from here … but they chose us and we have always been grateful for that start. We have a new website (we just never needed one before) and it would probably interest some to watch our progress … maybe even lend a hand with a quality link or an interview/podcast.

Dave
CE – PSEM – RELAX SEO Services
www.relaxseo.com