Re-Ranking the SEO Blogosphere (and My Updated Firefox Sidebar)

Over the last few weeks, I’ve realized that I really need to optimize my processes for working. It’s been a long, steady slog, but I’ve finally got at least one item nailed down, and since it was so popular last time, I figured I’d once again share my Firefox Sidebar. Of course, this means I’m also re-ranking the blogs that I read (old list here), trimming many off the list and adding a great number of new ones, too. I’ll share my sidebar first, then get into the blog list more specifically.

That’s pretty much what it looks like. I have a few other folders and links that I’m not showing off, but they’re probably of less interest/value to people that aren’t me 🙂 Here’s what you’re seeing:

• Email – no surprise that it’s up first, as this is usually 70% of my workday. I keep my tasklist in email (SEOmoz uses Google’s hosted applications platform for the nominal cost $50/user/year), star everything that needs attention, archive everything I’ve finished and try to literally answer every email I’m sent (although getting back to search community folks who email me for the first time can take almost a week nowadays).
• Conversion History – this shows a view of what happened on SEOmoz – how many users signed up, how many bought premium accounts, how many cancelled, new comments, new questions in Q+A, new YOUmoz posts, the works!
• SEOmoz Q+A – It’s taking us between 48-72 hours to complete a response to a Q+A thread, and I’m hoping to drop that down to 24-36 in the near future. This link takes me directly to the unanswered questions and open threads, which I try to run through in reverse chronological order.
• SEOmoz Tracker – This is actually publicly available; it’s the recent posts updater that shows all the threads that have new comments that your SEOmoz account hasn’t yet read. It’s good for responding to questions in comments and booting out any spam that finds its way in.
• IndexTools Analytics – It’s true; I’m obsessed with our stats – daily visitors, visits, page views, and, of course, referring URLs.
• Social Buzz – These are aggregator-type sites that I use to make sure I’m aware of the latest in the world of search and the web. Even I’m shocked how soon after a story breaks the journalists and phone calls and emails pour in, and I think I’ve branded myself at this point as someone who pays attention, so I feel embarassed and probably look like an ass when I’m not on top of the news.
• Blogs – I’ll cover these after the bookmarks. Basically, I’m one of those insane people who actually visits blogs rather than use a feedreader. I’ve tried ’em – I really have. I just need comments and the ability to comment right away, even though I probably only leave comments on other blogs 1-2X a day.
• Forums – Like many in the SEO space, I’ve drifted away from forums towards blogs. I still try to visit Cre8asite every day, but it often ends up being once every 2-3, and the other forums I’m lucky if I stop in once a month.
• News – This is what I read while I’m at my desk eating lunch (probably 2-3 days each week). I hate being uninformed about current events and Reddit+Daily Show only takes you so far. I have to include the BBC as my top source because US News is so skewed/local it barely gives you a worldview at all.
• Bookmarklets – I trimmed these to only the ones I use. Basically, you click them while you’re surfing a domain and get the Yahoo! & Google data. The SEOmoz dashboard is really amazing, too. If you’re not using that now, I’d highly recommend it – saves me tons of time when I’m investigating a site. You can take any of these and drag them into your toolbar and they should work:
• Reputation Management – This handy folder lets me track down mentions of our brand across most of the visible web. If you repurpose it for your own brand, personal name or clients, it’s very useful – just make sure you’re checking on a regular basis.
• Seattle Info – Weather, maps, traffic, bus times (yes, I still don’t own a car, but I walk to work most days so I only need this if I’m catching a bus to downtown to see Mystery Guest or it’s pouring rain and I forgot a coat)

I used to have a lot more in the sidebar, but I’m a minimalist in all things including my browser. Maybe that’s why I can relate so well to Swedish design 🙂

On to the blogs – the following is NOT a list of the most important blogs in the search space. It’s NOT even a recommendation of what you should be reading. It’s simply a list of blogs that I find valuable, ordered by how often I usually read them. Thus, the first 5-10 I visit almost every day, while the last 20 or so, I might only check once a week. And, yes, this can also be considered SEOmoz’s blogroll:

1. SearchEngineLand – Like the NYTimes in the offline world, it’s all the search news that’s fit to print
2. SEO Book – Probably still the best strategist and deep thinker on search and online marketing topics
3. SERoundtable – Coverage of relevant chatter in the search forums
4. Matt Cutts – When he posts something useful, almost everyone in search covers it anyway, so I could probably move him further down at some point
5. Gray Wolf – Michael’s tough on Google, and really smart when it comes to revealing strategies or discussing the news
6. Marketing Pilgrim – Between Andy & Jordan, the coverage here is terrific
7. SE Journal – Loren Baker and his colmunists cover a lot of great technical material as well as
8. TopRank – Consistently good material and lots of event coverage to boot. 
9. Copyblogger – Brian Clark’s impressive foray into the sphere has become one of the most popular blogs on the web. Now he’s got several other contributors helping out.
10. Stuntdubl – If only he’d blog more often; the material’s extremely high quality.
11. Cre8PC – Kim Krause’s work covers usability, accessibility and a beautifully dichotomous outsider/insider perspective on search.
12. Webmaster Central Blog – The Webmaster Trends Analysts do a good job clearly explaining their tools and some ways that Google crawls and interprets web pages.
13. Google Blogoscoped – Philipp Lenssen says it’s 80% Google; it’s also about 80% must-read 🙂
14. ProNet – The major writers here are some of SMM’s best and brightest
15. Lisa Barone – Great coverage and clever writing combine to make Lisa eminently readable
16. SEO by the Sea – Bill Slawksi’s in-depth patent analysis blog is a must read for engineers and optmizers alike
17. Vanessa Fox – The creator of Google’s Webmaster Central and current ad director for Zillow authors terrifically valuable posts.
18. Shoemoney – Many of his posts are a fluff, but there’s still lots of good material, too.
19. Jon Mendez – A brilliant conversion specialist with an unrivaled depth of experience.
20. Fantomaster – Ralph’s black hat knowledge makes for consistently good material.
21. Eric Enge – Eric & Stone Temple have been on a roll for the last 9 months, scoring great interviews and putting out impressively comprehensive posts.
22. Sugarrae – The amount of enjoyment you get from Rae’s blog is in direct relation to how much you enjoy snark with your learning.
23. DaveN – Dave’s gotten more serious about blogging lately, and his deep intelligence on search subjects
24. Matt McGee – Matt’s expertise with local search topics and his charismatic writing style makes for a terrific blog.
25. Grokdotcom – The Eisenbergs’ client list speaks for itself, and their blog on web marketing and conversions is one of the best.

    I won’t cover the rest in detail, but they’re all worthwhile reads. My best suggestion is to check them out and see which ones prove valuable to your business.

26. Donna
27. SEO Black Hat
28. Traffick
29. MindValley Labs
30. Scobleizer
31. Live Search Blog
32. Tropical SEO
33. Greg Linden
34. John Battelle
35. Johnon
36. Muhammad Saleem
37. 10e20
38. Greg Boser
39. Jim Boykin
40. Tamar Weinberg
41. WebProBlog
42. Cartoon Barry
43. eKstreme
44. Scoreboard Media
45. Neil Patel
46. Bill Hartzer
47. ResourceShelf
48. Out of My Gord
49. Dennis Mortensen
50. Ian Lurie
51. IR Thoughts
52. aimClear
53. UltraGeek
54. Performancing
55. SEOPedia
56. Daggle

Hopefully, this list and the bookmarks are valuable to you. Please feel free to post links in the comments to your own favorite sources for any of the above that I might have glossed over.