I just signed up for the Scribe SEO Plug-In, created by Brian Clark and his team at Copyblogger.com. I have a ton of respect for Brian and just love Copyblogger.com (Really, who doesn’t? 
) Anyway, today (02/26/10) is the last day to sign up for the introductory $27/month rate (then it goes up to $97/month) – so I figured no better time than the present to sign up, take a look and see what it is all about for myself.
I have to admit – at first glance, I’m kind of confused by the Scribe SEO plug-in. So, am wondering if anyone else might be, as well?
I just left a comment asking for clarification on the Copyblogger site – it is still awaiting moderation, but I am really hopeful it will be posted with a response. I think I must be missing something – I am certain the product is a good one given the wealth of experience and knowledge behind its creators – plus the abundance of stellar reviews it is receiving … but I am just not “getting it” based on the experience I talk about below…
Anyway, here is what I wrote:
I just installed the Scribe SEO plug-in and ran one of my blog posts through it as a test. (I am not new to SEO and have a pretty good grasp on how it works).
I have to say… I’m kind of confused by it. The page I tested is optimized for a specific keyword phrase I selected based on both Micro Niche Finder and Wordtracker – it’s in the title, 1st sentence, and appears throughout the copy at a density of 1%.
However, Scribe is showing zero usage of any primary keywords in either the title or body – even though combinations of the terms it suggests clearly appear in the title and body??
Is this tool NOT meant to work with longer tail keyword phrases? I am assuming this because the suggested phrases are all 1 – 2 words in length and quite frankly, there isn’t a snowball’s chance I’m going to rank in the top 3 by targeting those broad phrases.
I obviously have great respect for what you do – or I wouldn’t have signed up. But, would really appreciate some insight on how to effectively use this tool.
Thank you!
Anyway – am hoping to hear back on this.
In the meantime, would love to hear your experience or input on this topic, as well. Please leave a comment below! (WebCopyResults.com is a Do Follow site).
Til Next Time,
PS I just ran the Scribe Content Optimizer on this exact post and here are screen shots that were returned. (Note: I didn’t try to optimize this post based on keyword research – I created this particular post more as a way to ask a question and get your feedback).
Somehow, my content returned a score of “94″ – while the other post that was deliberately built around a specific longer tail keyword phrase returned a “40″:
Further, I am suprised to see the inclusion of “confused” as a primary keyword – and “anyway” and “effectively” being returned at all (see below). Thoughts?
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Hi Trish. Did you submit a ticket to support? That’s the quickest (and most effective) way to get your question answered. I”m not sure what’s going on with your results, but support is there for you.
Hi Brian – thanks for the VERY FAST reply!
No, I didn’t submit a support ticket – I left a comment on Copyblogger.com about it. However, I will be more than happy to go that route and see what I can find.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment.
Trish
Great post Trish. I heard about Scribe and i was curious to hear what people thought.
Given your background, i’m sure you can’t be the only one to be a bit confused about the results you’re seeing. However, this is a new program, so im sure Brian and his team are still working out last minute issues and will continue to tweak the results to make them better over time.
Good luck – let us know if anything changes for you as you continue to use it!
Hi Trish. I understand your confusion. I ran Scribe on some existing pages and saw some of the same kinds of results that you saw. Scribe appears to be a bit of a black box in terms of how it decides what the primary keywords are for your copy. I really have no idea how it determines them, and how it deals with long-tail phrases made up of 3 or more words. I’m as curious as you are.
Pat
P.S. Would love to be able to subscribe to comments for this post, but you don’t have the “Subscribe to Comments” plugin installed.
Hi Patrick
Thanks for commenting – I have submitted a support ticket and am looking forward to hearing back from them. I will be sure to post an update as it plays out…
Trish
PS Shame on me! You are right – I will add the “Subscribe to Comments” plug-in asap – sorry about that!
Thanks Steve – I appreciate your feedback.
I agree – program is new and so far, I’ve been really impressed with how responsive Brian has been. I’ve been involved in enough new product launches in my offline sales career to know that tweaking and refining are usually needed to get the best results.
Am looking forward to seeing how it rolls out – since I got in at the $27/month rate – I would definitely like to see it perform as I hoped it would so I can stay subscribed at that rate!
This is all way beyond me LOL but you know me it takes me a long time to ‘get’ something anyway. Hope you can get it all figured out because it sounds interesting.
I wanted to post to find out about the subscribe to comment plug in thing that was mentioned. What is that all about?
Gotta touch base with you soon, Trish! Lots to talk about since NAMS. Hope to see you in August!
Trish,
I agree that Brian and Sean have been very responsive. They’re quality guys. On the other hand, I’m still not sure exactly how the keyword magic happens. But I think what some of us really want is the ability to suggest our own keywords, in addition to the keywords that Scribe uncovers on its own. I cover this a bit in my own Scribe SEO review post on my blog. Let me know what you think.
Pat
P.S. Thanks for installing the “subscribe to comments” plugin!
Angie – Here is a link to the “Subscribe to Comments” plugin for WordPress, which provides the following:
“Subscribe to Comments is a robust plugin that enables commenters to sign up for e-mail notification of subsequent entries. The plugin includes a full-featured subscription manager that your commenters can use to unsubscribe to certain posts, block all notifications, or even change their notification e-mail address!”
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/
In other words, it lets people subscribe to an individual post’s comments so they keep coming back to add to the discussion, which is one of the goals for a blog for most bloggers.
Install the plugin, activate it, go take a nap. It’s that simple.
Hi Patrick
You are so right – the ability to suggest our own keywords would be huge.
Also, thanks for posting the link to your review – I’ll be by in a minute to take a look!
Hey Angie – Patrick was kind enough to provide more info on it – see his latest comment for more details.
Still haven’t set up that Skype account yet (Yeah, I know!) – but drop me a PM at the SSWT forum or email me – would love to hear what’s going on with you!
Talk soon!
Thanks Patrick!
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