Becoming a "Pro SEO"

[Matt Geer]

Thanks for the ideas Randy.

Would you guys recommend having different accounts for testing? A different Google Analytics account, hosting, etc? Speaking of hosting, is a shared hosting account ok, or would all the other sites (including yours) in some way contaminate your results -- or maybe even affect your earning sites?

[Randy]

Theoretically, anything can contaminate your results, which is why I suggest conducting the experiments with multiple pages (or even multiple sites)...you're looking for a cause and effect relationship, and the more correlation examples you have, the more likely that the cause and effect is there. Personally, I wouldn't worry about hosting or Analytics when conducting my experiments, although if I were, I'd probably prefer that they be the same rather than different.

[Randy]

Michael's the real expert on testing and experimenting though. I should probably just sit back and let him get into it.

[Prop]

Off topic question for Michael: kilroy-has-a-brother, how long did it take you to write that article?

[Michael Martinez]

I usually write those articles in 1-2 hours.