Landscape Analysis Tool User Guide: Fill & Download for Free

Not every good engineer makes a good startup engineer. Some of the most promising candidates that I've interviewed in the past six years across three startups (Ooyala, Quora, and now Quip) would bring 5+ years of experience from a top engineering company like Google, only to do poorly during our interview processes. Usually, the candidate wasn't a bad engineer; in fact, he might have even excelled at his current job. We just thought he wouldn't make a particularly good startup engineer.Having spent many years interviewing candidates and training and mentoring other engineers, I've found that certain qualities do make engineers more likely to succeed within startup environments. Ultimately, these qualities stem from a few key aspects of how working at a startup differs from working at a more established company. At a startup,You have a higher surface area of the product, software systems, the team, and the culture that you're responsible for.Your success depends much more on the team's performance than your own. At a larger and more established company, you might get promoted up the career ladder purely based on the strength of your own individual contributions. At a small startup, there probably isn't even a career ladder.Time is more critical, both because startups often have yet to reach profitability and because agility is their main advantage against entrenched competitors. The limited time means that you have to ramp up quickly and don't have the luxury to dilly-dally or work on the wrong priorities for too long.The most effective startup engineers that I've worked with have the skills and decision-making abilities to effectively navigate this landscape. In particular, they exhibit some combination of these 7 qualities:Systematic debugging skills. A large fraction of engineering time is actually spent debugging and understanding what's going on within a complex system. A customer reports an urgent issue, and you have to fix it ASAP. The server's CPU load spikes, and you have to figure out why. Data gets corrupted, and you have to identify the culprit. Good debugging skills enable you to get things done faster.Effective debugging requires adopting a rigorous, scientific mindset toward problems: formulating a hypothesis about what went wrong, and then figuring out the most efficient way or a minimal reproducible case to test that hypothesis. The other part involves being fluent with a wide range of tools: a profiler to help identify bottlenecks, a debugger to step through code execution, git bisect to narrow down the cause of a regression, UNIX command-line fu to slice and dice what's happening. [1]The theme of debugging applies more broadly than just the technical realm, however. Growth and usage for a product have plateaued—how do you formulate and test hypotheses about user behavior and debug those trends? The team's not hitting their project targets—how do you debug whether the root cause is poor project estimation skills, insufficient team communication, too much context switching, or something else? Recruiting isn't leading to as many engineering hires as you'd like—how do you debug whether the problems are in your sourcing pipeline, your interviews, your closing pitches, your offers, etc.? (Hint: Start with the data).Fearlessness to dive into what you don't know. As a startup engineer, you often need to dive into large and unfamiliar codebases. You might need to dig through the code of an open-source tool you're using because the tool isn't behaving as desired. Or you might need to understand another teammate's code because he doesn't have the time to modify it. The ability to quickly navigate large codebases and to hone in on the relevant portions becomes critical. Much of that ability comes from the experience of reading a lot of code. The other part comes from being familiar with tools to search the codebase, jump to relevant portions, and look up relevant commit history in version control—all of these shortcuts can reduce the time it takes to understand unfamiliar code. This fearlessness can help at more established companies as well, but you can often succeed by just specializing in one part of the codebase and knowing it really well.The unknown pool that you're diving into need not be code-related, however. It's not uncommon for a startup engineer to handle customer support, work with salespeople to scope the feasibility of a customer request, train new engineers, and many other tasks that you might not be familiar with. Adopting a growth mindset during those experiences is important to doing a good job.A pragmatic attitude toward decision-making. Being a stickler about ostensibly good software engineering practices like code reviews and unit tests might be important at larger companies to help the organization scale. [2] But at a startup, it pays to be more pragmatic in your tradeoffs and to do what enables the team to get things done faster. Pragmatism means knowing when to fight important battles, and when it's better to accept a decision even when you don't agree with it so that the team as a whole can make progress. I've seen wars get waged over coding styles—over whether lines of source code should have 80, 100, or 120 characters and whether curly braces should start on a new line. But there are ultimately many harder and more important decisions to spend your time and energy on.The guiding heuristic for evaluating most tradeoffs should ultimately be: "What course of action will ultimately increase the probability that the team succeeds?" Many factors may feed into that question: product choices, architecture tradeoffs, team culture, people, and more. But many also don't. The best course of action for those that don't might be to limit the discussion time, commit to a decision, and move on. [3]A tool-building mindset. Tools let you scale the limits of your most critical resource—your time. Effective engineers build a lot of tools, which is even more important at startups where your time is even more limited relative to how much needs to get done. Larger organizations might have dedicated tools teams to help engineering teams be more effective. At a startup, the more capable that you are as a tool builder, the more of your manual tasks that you can automate. If those tools get adopted by other team members as well, then that's another big multiplier for productivity.A strong generalist. Particularly in the early stages of a startup, a lot of the problems faced won't require a specialist's knowledge. The broader your skill set—even if it's just a minimal, working familiarity with a diverse set of skills—the fewer bottlenecks you'll find on your execution path. A frontend web engineer who has some basic server skills will be able to more effectively hack together prototypes, without being blocked for help from busy server engineers. A backend engineer with basic HTML, CSS, and Javascript skills can throw together a web interface in front of a tool that she's built so that more team members can use it, without being blocked on a web designer. A growth engineer who's fluent with the basic data analysis tools will be able to analyze the experiments she's running without being blocked on a data analyst.One exception where a specialist might get further is if you're working in a niche, technical space, such as a database startup, where deep expertise is required to be effective. Also, the more later-stage the startup, the more likely that there are sufficient people filling specific roles that you can afford to specialize and find others to help.A desire to be a player and not a victim. In his book Conscious Business, Fred Kofman describes two attitudes that we can adopt toward any problem. We can either be victims and blame any problem (a slipped project deadline, a product launch that flops, or conflicts with teammates) as being due to external circumstances. Or, we can be players, and identify the aspects that are within our sphere of influence and focus our energy and efforts toward what we can actually affect and fix. The victim mindset may make us feel better in the short-term, but ultimately adopting a player mindset is the only way to productively make progress.Working at a startup can be stressful. With the high levels of stress, it's easy to fall into a blame game, dodging responsibility rather than taking personal accountability for the parts that were under your control. Unfortunately, that path will only lead to disappointment and resentment.Grit, combined with a willingness to learn and retrospect. A key observation about the other qualities is that they are all learnable skills—assuming that you're motivated enough. The long-term motivation to learn these skills comes from a quality called grit. Angela Lee, in her TED talk “The key to success? Grit” gives a great definition.Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality.If you're willing to invest the time to regularly retrospect, you'll understand what you're weak at and where you need to improve. With time and experience, you'll become a better startup engineer. A bit of mentoring and guidance early on to nudge you in the right direction can also go a long way.These skills would all be useful for engineers at more established companies as well; they just matter more if you're at a startup because time is more limited. Furthermore, a lack of these skills doesn't necessarily mean that you're a bad engineer. It just means you might be less well-suited right now to a startup environment. But if you're determined to be a good startup engineer, don't let that stop you. Figure out a plan of action to improve on these skills.Looking for more ways to excel as a software engineer? Get a free, sample chapter of my book, The Effective Engineer. It's the only book designed specifically for today's software engineers, based on extensive interviews with engineering leaders at top tech companies, and packed with hundreds of actionable habits and techniques to accelerate your career.[1]: xkcd: Command Line Fu[2]: For instance, I learned a lot about scaling engineering teams while at Google: What Google Taught Me About Scaling Engineering Teams. But at a startup, it's important to be pragmatic about applying those lessons.[3]: Don't let indecision make choices for you

Are you new to the wonderful world of SEO?Everyone has to start somewhere. So, you might as well hit the ground running, as soon as possible. As you gain steam and begin to understand the finer details of search engine optimization, you’ll soon realize just how important the right strategy is to your business.In my step-by-step guide to SEO, I discuss the importance of this strategy, as well as basic information to help you better understand what you should and shouldn’t be doing.Several times per week (if not more often), I receive an email asking the same basic question:What’s the best way to get started with SEO, without spending thousands of dollars?It’s easy to believe that you have to pay an SEO professional thousands of dollars to achieve top notch search results where your business ranking is concerned. At the same time, you may find yourself paying for every resource imaginable.While there’s nothing wrong with spending money to make money, this isn’t something you have to do. Instead, there are plenty of free resources that can point you in the right direction.In this post, I’ll share 10 free SEO tools that are perfect for beginners who want to get their feet wet. These tools won’t guarantee page one search results, but they’ll go a long way in helping you formulate a strategy for reaching your goals.Let’s take a closer look!1. Google Search ConsoleIf you’re going to familiarize yourself with only one free SEO tool, let it be this one. It may not be the most advanced. And, it may not have a direct impact on your rankings. But, it’s extremely powerful for beginners.This free SEO tool is all about one thing: the overall health of your website.For example, you can use it to see how many URLs have been submitted and how many have been indexed.Another one of my favorite features is the “Search Analytics” function. With the ability to review “your performance on Google Search,” you can get a better idea of whether or not your website is trending in the right direction.Here’s an example of some of the data that you can track:You don’t want to obsess over these numbers, but they give you a good idea of where your site stands and how it's progressing. For example, you want your total clicks, total impressions and CTR to increase over time, with your average position getting lower.Even if you don’t know the first thing about using the Google Search Console, it only takes a few minutes to poke around and learn how it works.2. SEMrushAre you looking to learn more about your website? How about a competitor's site?SEMrush has you covered. All you have to do is enter a URL and run a search. From there, you’ll be provided with a variety of data, all of which can be used to help push your SEO efforts to the next level.The only bad thing about SEMrush, if you can call it that, is the amount of information you’re presented with. If you’re experienced in the field of online marketing, you’ll love the avalanche of data. But, if you’re new to this space, it can be intimidating.My suggestion is to take things one step at a time, only moving on to the next section of data when you fully understand what you’ve already reviewed.Many people start by reviewing the backlinks data. This is particularly true when you want to see how a competitor is performing:From there, it’s only natural to focus on the top organic keywords. This shows you the top keywords for the site, which will provide you with some guidance, moving forward.If you want to learn more about any website, with an eye towards SEO, you’ll need to spend plenty of time with SEMrush. There aren’t many free SEO tools that offer as much as this one.3. Keys4UpThere’s something about keyword research that scares many people.If you’re new to SEO or if you don’t know which keywords align with your industry and goals, you need to use Keys4Up.The goal of this free tool is simple: to bring simplicity to the process of keyword research.Once you run a few searches, you’ll find Keys4Up easy to use and full of powerful features.Once you select your primary keyword and hit search, you can sit back and let this free tool do all the work for you.Inputting “content marketing” into a search engine turns up the following search results:As you can see, you can review all keywords or focus on those that are 1, 2, or 3 words long. I suggest that you experiment with each option, as this will allow you to review every keyword.What I like best about Keys4Up is the “what you see is what you get” functionality. You aren’t bogged down with details that don’t matter. Instead, all you do is run your search and review the keywords.Pro tip: you can export saved keywords to your computer or spreadsheet. Either way, this is a good idea, if you want to review your search engine results at a later date.4. SEOquakeIs Firefox, Chrome or Opera your browser of choice?If so, you owe it to yourself to learn more about the SEOquake browser extension. It doesn’t matter which of these three browsers you use, the same features are available.While this free tool is self explanatory, once installed, there are some key features that you should become familiar with:Instantly conduct an on-page SEO audit of any webpage, including competitors.Analyze the external and internal links of any webpage.Compare URLs and domains, in real time.Export data for future use.Here’s an example of the SEO audit of a webpage, as shared by SEOquake:You’ll find this useful, when browsing your own website, as it gives you an idea of what you’re doing right and what might need a change.It’s also useful as you check out your competitors. By seeing where they come up short, you may be able to take full advantage, subsequently pushing your website to the top of the search engine results.All in all, SEOquake is easy to use, without being intrusive. Once you download the extension and learn how it can suit your personal needs, there’s a good chance that it’ll become one of your go-to free SEO tools.5. Keyword InAre you looking for something a bit more creative than a basic keyword planner?Keyword In may be able to help. With this, you can throw out a variety of keywords, with the hope of uncovering fresh ideas.Here’s a basic idea of how to get started:You can use any keywords that come to mind. It’s free and fast to use, so get creative.Once you hit the “Generate” button, the search results will knock you off your feet:Sure, you could have thought up these keywords on your own, but it would have taken quite some time.With Keyword In, you can quickly find the best long-tail keywords for your website.This isn’t the type of free tool that you’ll use each day, but it definitely comes in handy, every now and again. For example, if you’re researching ideas for a new blog post, you can use it to come up with a list of long-tail keywords to include.Keyword In can be classified as a keyword research tool, but it’s definitely more than that. One search and you’ll realize this to be true.6. GogretelThe name of this free SEO tool doesn’t give anything away, in terms of what it offers, but it’s well worth using.With Gogretel, you can get an instant look at whether or not your website follows Google webmaster guidelines. Along with this, there’s a social media component that’s also worth checking out.Upon running a test, you’re presented with a search results page that allows you to view information in three distinct categories:You can click on each category to access detailed data. For example, the basic information tab provides the following:Like a few other free SEO tools on this list, Gogretel isn’t one that you’ll use daily. Sure, you’ll want to check your site from time to time, but you don’t have to do so every day of the week.That said, it doesn’t hurt to use Gogretel as a way of better understanding and tracking your competitors. For example, you can use the content analysis tab to see where your top competitors are lacking, then use these shortcomings against them.The speed and data alone are reason enough to run a couple searches with Gogretel. If nothing else, one search will show you if the free tool has something to offer your business in the future.7. Google Mobile-Friendly TestThere was a time when it didn’t matter if your website was mobile-friendly.However, those days have come and gone. Not only does this have an impact on your search engine rankings, but it also has a lot to do with the user experience.Are you unsure if your website is mobile-friendly?Well, you don’t have to wonder any longer. Instead, you can use this free Google tool to get a fast answer.Running a search engine query for my website, Neil Patel: Helping You Succeed Through Online Marketing!, generates the following:There’s nothing else you need to know about this tool. Once you check your website, you’ll know, for sure, if it’s mobile-friendly or not. If it is, you’re in good shape. If it’s not, don’t wait another day to make a change. This could do wonders for your traffic.From an SEO and user perspective, you website must be mobile-friendly. There’s no two ways about it.8. Varvy SEO toolThis tool is similar, in some ways, to Gogretel. However, it has its own unique set of features that make it a favorite among SEO beginners.The goal of this free tool is to help webmasters determine “how well a page follows the Google guidelines.”Just the same as most free SEO tools focused on anaylysis, it starts with entering your URL. From there, it only takes a few seconds to see the search results.The tool reviews 14 key areas of the website:Googlebot accessMobile devicesSecurityAccessibilityPage SpeedRobots.txt guidelineImage alt textSitemapsIf modified sincePaid linksValid HTMLAmount of linksFindable linksHTTP headersIf the category heading is “green,” it means everything is in good working order. If it’s “yellow,” it requires some attention.For example, you may need to take some steps, in regards to security:The Varvy SEO tool is not the end-all, but it definitely provides some useful information and guidance. Since it’s free and quick to use, you might as well rely on it to regularly double check if your website is within Google’s guidelines.9. SlerpeeAre you concerned about how your website looks in Google SERPs?You should be. Not only can this impact your search engine rankings, but it goes a long way in helping a person decide if they’ll visit your site.Rather than do things the hard way, you can use Slerpee to see how your website looks in the search engine results. Best yet, it then provides tips for improvement.Here’s an example of what you’ll see, after running a search:If you’re happy with what you see and you’re happy with your search results, thus far, you don’t have to change a thing.However, the cool thing about this free tool is that you can experiment without actually taking action. This way, if you find something that you like better, you can transfer it over to your website.Any changes you make to the title or meta description can be previewed at the top of the page:Even if you never make a single live change, this free tool gives you the opportunity to experiment with different variations.You don’t have to use this free tool every time you create a new page or post, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea, either. It’s nice to know how your website will look in Google SERPs, before it’s indexed.10. Google Keyword PlannerDid you really think I’d go through this entire list, without mentioning the Google Keyword Planner?While I’ve discussed a couple other keyword based free SEO tools, this one is a must-use for all beginners.You can’t go wrong, when you get involved with this free tool. It provides comprehensive and detailed search results that can be immediately put into action.For example, a search engine query for the phrase “online marketing,” leads to the following search results:This allows you to answer questions such as:What long-tail keywords make the most sense for my website?Which keywords have the least amount of competition?Which keywords are searched the most?For those who want to get involved with paid traffic, this free tool is a good place to start.Taking into consideration the suggested bid, you can easily determine which keywords you can and can’t afford.If you’re new to SEO, keep one thing in mind: you’re going to spend a lot of time on keyword research.Even though you’ll use many free SEO tools, this one is sure to be at the top of your list. With data “straight from the horse’s mouth,” you know you’re on the right track.ConclusionWith the SEO landscape constantly changing, it’s imperative to keep an eye on the industry, as it applies to your website.If you’ve overlooked the importance of SEO in the past, remember this: 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.Even if you only use one of these free SEO tools, I’m confident that it’ll help you take another step towards reaching your marketing related goals.Do you have experience with any of these free SEO tools? Would you add any others to the list? Share your comments below.

Hi Shivansh,There are a lot of ways to bring traffic to your website, there are those for free and there are those with fees. Let me share with you one:KEYSEARCH FEATURE REVIEW 2019: 15 STRATEGIES I USE TO GET TONS OF TRAFFIC TO MY BLOG USING THIS CHEAP KEYWORD TOOL.Are you planning on starting a new blog, or improving your existing platform? In order for your website to have massive success, you need to use a reliable tool for efficient keyword research. Are you looking for a keyword competition tool for free, or a piece of software that you can get at an affordable price?KeySearch can help you find more customers, and improve your online presence at a reasonable cost. It is a good keyword analysis tool that suggests strong keywords for your articles, links and content ideas. You really need this if you want to rank high on search engines! Read on to get a 20% off discount!!GREAT CONTENT STARTS WITH STRONG, RELEVANT KEYWORDS.You may have your own unique way of describing what you do, and what you want to achieve. But, how will people search for the product, service, or details you provide? The answer to this question would lead you to one of the most important steps in blogging, content creation and optimization–the keyword research process.WHAT IS KEYWORD RESEARCH? HOW TO SEARCH FOR KEYWORDS?Keyword research is the process of analyzing, and finding actual search terms that users enter into Google and other search engines. The insights that you can get from these search terms can help strengthen your content strategy and larger digital marketing strategy. Don’t just google keywords. A simple Safari keyword search won’t do the trick. Keyword analysis and search term research are more than that.What are search terms? A search term is one word or multiple words (called search phrase) a person types into a search engine search box. Google and other search engines interpret key search terms in order to understand user intent, and return relevant results.When done well, keyword search can serve as the blueprint of your digital marketing strategy, guiding every decision you make. Allow it to shape your content, and help make more informed decisions about your ad campaigns. That way, you can do more efficient keyword research competitor analysis, connect with more customers, and reach more qualified leads.By using the right keywords, you can promote your blog more effectively. Click here for some helpful tips.Keyword search involves brainstorming for good ideas, and expanding them into new phrases and keywords. Then, you determine which of these are good for your digital marketing goals. Don’t worry though, there are lots of keyword volume checkers and tools that can help you.THRIVE IN THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE THROUGH KEYSEARCH!KeySearch is a premium keyword analyzer tool that can change your life, and make your brand thrive online. You’ll never regret getting a subscription! Not only does it tell you how many searches each month a keyword gets, but it also communicates how difficult it is to rank for each. If there are websites that currently rank high for the search terms you are using, KeySearch can tell you how strong their web pages are. Basically, it can provide an easy keyword research process.Don’t just throw in keywords on your website, and hope that they work well. With KeySearch, you can take a more targeted approach. Improve your SEO efforts! You may not find a good keyword difficulty checker for free, but you can find one for a reasonable price–that’s KeySearch!Read more about it here: https://www.angelagiles.com/keysearch