The official Scribe plugin page description says “Scribe is an SEO software service for WordPress – think of it as a content optimization assistant – that analyzes web pages, blog posts, and online press releases at the click of a button.”
But I say, “Think of Scribe as a femme fatal named Rachael, employed by the Tyrell Corporation to whisper sweet search engine optimization secrets in your ear and make you question your own humanity.”
Of course, that’s just me. And you, most likely, will see things a bit differently. But first, a cool YouTube video:
What is Rachael Scribe?
As I mentioned above, Scribe is currently a WordPress plugin that interacts with an online service via an API Key, similar to the way Akismet and WordPress.com Stats work. As such, it makes a few changes to your WordPress Admin interface to add support for search engine optimization (SEO) analysis and advice on your existing posts and pages. (A description only a geek could love. Hopefully this Scribe SEO review will get better.)
[The long-term plan is to provide the Scribe service to several content management systems (Joomla and Drupal) and standalone use, via a web-only version (due out in March) and a Microsoft Word addon.]
Scribe SEO Review
In a nutshell, Scribe analyzes one of your existing posts or pages and provides feedback on it related to its on-page search engine optimization characteristics, like the use of keywords in the title tag. Then you can make changes to your content, and analyze it again until you are satisfied that you’ve made it appealing enough for the search engines. Simple stuff.
Now, I’ll go into more detail below, but the bottom line is that on-page SEO isn’t exactly rocket science, nor is it the only factor that will influence how well you rank in Google. So if you’re already an expert at this kind of thing and have excellent SEO habits, then you probably won’t be happy with Scribe. But here is the dirty little secret of on-page SEO: too many of us don’t do it, or (like me) do it half-assed. Why? Because we’re lazy, it isn’t fun to do, and we forget.
If there is one main benefit of Scribe it is this – it makes on-page SEO convenient. That’s it.
(Others will tell you it makes the job fun, but I’m not so sure about that. It does make it suck less.)
Is that convenience worth paying for? Will you benefit from it enough to pay a monthly fee to have it? I don’t know. That really depends on your situation. For some I think the answer will be “yes”, for others it will be “no”. Read the rest of this review to help you decide.
Installation
The plugin is available on the WordPress site, so you can install Scribe the same way you install most other plugins – simply go the the Plugins page, click on the “Add New” button, search for “scribe”, select the one listed that matches the Scribe WordPress plugin page, activate it, and you’re good to go. Alternatively, you can download the zip file and use the plugin upload feature in WordPress, or FTP the file to your website.
The final step is to enter your API Key. If you’ve ever installed Akismet or WordPress.com Stats then you know how to enter an API Key. (If you haven’t, you probably need to focus on blocking SPAM and tracking your traffic statistics before you worry about optimizing your content for the search engines.)
Scribe Plugin Requirements
Scribe needs you to have one of the following themes installed on your WordPress site: Headway, Hybrid, or Thesis. If you don’t use one of those, you can still use Scribe with any other theme as long as you also have the “All In One SEO” plugin installed.
Scribe can only analyze English-language text. And the developers do not have immediate plans to support other international languages (as opposed to interplanetary languages, I suppose). So if you want to optimize a blog that doesn’t use English you’re probably out of luck for now.
First Impressions
Once it’s installed, a little Scribe box sits to the right of your WordPress editor, with an “Analyze” button and, if you’ve already ran the analysis once, a “Review” button. Scribe makes you fill in the title tag, meta description, and content before it will let you run the analysis. Do that, then hit the “Analyze” button, and a lightbox-style window pops up with an assessment of your content and specific suggestions for improvement.
If you’ve been to the Scribe website, or read any of the other reviews, you’ve had your fill of screenshots and videos and if I spend time recreating those this damn review will never see the light of day, so use your imagination here, okay? (Besides, I already showed you a really cool video.)
What Do I Like About Scribe?
I said it earlier and I’ll simply repeat it here. I like how convenient Scribe makes it for me to analyze my content in WordPress before I publish it. I also like that it lets me go back to old content and improve it. I think the use of a WordPress plugin was a very smart choice and I think a lot of bloggers will find this a very appealing way to go.
What Don’t I Like About Scribe?
I think Scribe could be better. For example, on one of its tabs it shows how your post will appear in a search engine result. You know, with your title, a brief description, and the URL of your page. Which is great. Unfortunately, the URL that Scribe shows is just the general URL to your site, without the actual, full permalink of the individual page itself. Why not? I don’t know. So I submitted a feature request within their support center.
The second major complaint I have is the inability to specify what keywords you are targeting. Instead, Scribe tears apart your copy and figures out for itself what keywords will likely be considered most significant by Google (and all those other search engines nobody really cares about). And that’s a really cool feature. However, I’d also like to have it do an assessment of keywords that I specifically tell it about.
The final thing I’m not sure I like, and I’m sure I’ll catch some flak for saying this, is the price. I’ve read other people’s opinions about this and I’m on the fence. I can’t necessarily unilaterally recommend Scribe to everyone. I think you will need to evaluate it and see if it provides enough value to you to justify the monthly fee. I really like Scribe, but I can’t say that it’s a no-brainer to buy it. Having said that, it certainly is easy enough to get the trial version, or to sign up for a month, give it a shot, and cancel if it isn’t working out for you.
Is Scribe All I’ll Ever Need For Great Search Engine Rankings?
Honestly, no.
If your content sucks, people won’t bother reading it and it won’t matter if it is optimized for the search engines or not.
If you have great content and it is optimized, you may or may not rank well in the SERPs. There are many factors that influence search engine rankings, such as the quality and quantity of links to your content, the amount of competition for the keyword you want to rank for, the age of the pages you are competing against, changes to Google’s algorithms, etc.
What if I’m using the Thesis Theme, the greatest theme since WordPress themes were invented?
Again, I’m sorry to say “no”.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Thesis. I use it on lots of blogs. And it has good SEO support that keeps getting better. But SEO is a big can of worms and even if Thesis was the perfect SEO platform it could never solve all your SEO issues. If you really want to be on the first page of Google for any keyword that has competition you’re going to have to do more than on-page and structural optimization. They are part of the solution, but not necessarily the whole solution.
Technical Support
Scribe support is provided using customer support software by Zendesk, and I got to make use of it right away. MyScribe didn’t like the apostrophe in my last name and now refers to me as “Patrick O” (kind of like “Jackie O”, I suppose). Emails from Scribe and the PDF invoice also had the same problem. I couldn’t find anywhere to fix this, so I filed a support ticket:
#329 Patrick O
I’d hate to think you guys don’t like us Irish folks, but you do seem to have a challenge with the apostrophe in my last name, O’Brien, as I’m now being referred to as “Patrick O” instead of “Patrick O’Brien”. Any way to fix this?
I filed the ticket at 11:48 AM on Thursday and the issue was fixed a few hours later. Since then I’ve filed a few more suggestions and feature requests and have gotten decent responses, so I would say that the support is pretty good.
Version Upgrades
This product review was based on Scribe Version 1.0.10, which was released on February 24, 2010. The support center had upgrade instructions for users of version 1.0.8 and 1.0.9, including an instructional video by Sean Jackson, the Technical Architect of Scribe.
The upgrade process appears to be quite painless, as all the Scribe options are stored in the WordPress database, not in the plugin files themselves. That means you can delete the old plugin files, upload the new ones, and be good to go. None of your previous work is lost, and you don’t have to reenter your API key. So upgrading should be a breeze.
Scribe SEO Review Final Verdict?
These are early days for Scribe Rachael. She’s only a few weeks old. Replicant or not, she needs time to mature and prove her value to society. I suspect that by the time she’s in her twenties she’ll be quite a knockout and a model citizen. In the mean time, let’s give her a chance to grow up. There will be plenty of time to administer the Voight-Kampff test later.
Rachael: Do you like our WordPress plugin?
Deckard: It’s artificial?
Rachael: Of course it is.
Deckard: Must be expensive.
Rachael: Very. I’m Rachael.
Deckard: Deckard.
Rachael: It seems you feel our work is not a benefit to the public.
Deckard: Optimizers are like any other machine. They’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem.
{ 34 comments… read them below or add one }
Ok. This was a great review. I didn’t get the video but the transcript at the end assisted. I want the 2+ minutes back of my life I spent watching the Bladerunner vid though (only kidding). I’ve never actually watched the movie and have often gone to buy it and bauked at the $50+ price tag. So you’ve saved me $50.
You’ve also given me an understanding of what an original review is all about. I must admit I splatted mine out before work after I read my emails over toast and tea and didn’t use my voice. This review was great.
I’m also tackling over whether $27 USD (about $30 AUD) a month is worth it to tweak 10 posts (their estimate of 3:1 evaluations/posts) or up to $99 USD a month for 100 posts. WTF!
ROFL. Oh, come on! What do you mean you haven’t seen Blade Runner? It’s one of my all time favorites. That little video clip doesn’t do it justice. I’ll lend you my anniversary edition with the little car and origami unicorn. You’ll love it. Rutger Hauer saying “Time to die.” Daryl Hannah doing killer gymnastics moves and kicking Harrison Ford’s ass. Great stuff. You’re killing me, Somone.
Thank you for the kind words about my review. I really appreciate that.
As for the price issue, I hear ya. Between you and me, I think there’s bound to be some changes in the near future. Now, I’m only speculating, but since this is just between you and me here, I’ll go out on a limb and make the following prediction:
I think the price points are going to stay the way they are: $27, $47 and $97. These are classic price points online. What I think will change is the number of evaluations that one gets. Kind of like the way web hosting is always going up, but the price stays the same (you keep getting more domains, more storage, more email accounts, all for the same price you were originally paying).
In particular, I think $27 for 30 evaluations just isn’t going to sell very much. At that price people are going to hesitate to click on that “Analyze” button because its going to feel like they’re spending a dollar rather than just clicking on some button to get some information. $47 for 120 evaluations is a better value, but that will be out of some blogger’s budgets. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of evaluations goes up after the Scribe folks figure out how to handle the load of all the early adopters.
If I turn out to be right, you saw it here first. If I’m wrong, don’t let anyone know I spun this yarn of bogosity. :-)
21. Nxg7+ Kd8 22. Qf6+!
22. … Nxf6
23. Be7# 1-0 (Checkmate)
Another first. I’ve never gone to a Chess site online before. MY husband just had to explain to me that Sean Young played a robot. I love Sci Fi, Fantasy and action – preferably combined but not too fussy. Must have been the background music over Sean’s voice in the video above and your indication that it would be cool – which I mistakened for fun. My 8 year old son playing Battle for Middle Earth on the other computer behind me was the only thing that kept me awake. Okay I may be having too much fun here. I’ll have to check out the rest of your site and offerings. I do like your style. …Okay I’m back…
Keep writing you have a wonderful style. Got somewhere else I can read while you’re getting this blog up and running?
Dirty little secret: I don’t know a darn thing about chess other than how to cut and paste from a chess site in order to create an obscure reference to a chess match from the movie, which, based on your description, is one I think you’ll like. If you like realistic, dystopian views of the future, not Star Trek crap (oops, that’s not going to make me popular).
As for my writing, I haven’t done as much as I would like. I spent many years doing software development, and much of my Internet marketing is in rather competitive areas so I don’t give out my domains, but I’m focusing more of my time now developing my own products and so I’ll be writing more here, and on the thesistheme.org website, and the scribeseobonus.com site, and a few others. Thank you for asking.
Aha, so you’re an evil mastermind behind a myriad of uncustomized Thesis sites then. Good work.
Guilty as charged. I need to hire a good graphics person one of these days. But for now I’m focusing on content, SEO, product development, list building, etc. And putting off making anything super pretty.
I just came across the BlogHeaderGuy via another Thesis site. Awesome banners and other work for very reasonable prices. Worth a look. http://blogheaderguy.com/
I actually know of this guy from a forum I sometimes visit and, yeah, I really like the stuff he does. Thanks for the reminder.
Amazing…now this is the tool, which helps SEO’s doing easy onsite optimization for websites, blogs, ect.
Yaa as said we are lazy of doing onsite optimization, but now just using one button we can do it in effecient way, and also we can see great result…
Wordpress is awesome man…
Thanks
Saurabh
Patrick, nice review… we share some concerns. I too want to be able to add my own key words, although I appreciate the fact Scribe aka Rachel seems to know what google et al want… at least until the next algorithm development. I too wonder at the price and wouldn’t be surprised to see some more specials down the road.
Hmmm, maybe the algorithm changes that always happen is what keeps us paying the monthly fee?
And I wonder how long before copycat programs and what happens when ‘everyone’ has Scribe aka Rachel.
Meanwhile I’m having fun using it, doing what s/he/it says and then not, depending on my purpose.
Thanks the goddess s/he/it can’t yet read my mind.
Thanks, Anne. I don’t think Google algorithm changes have too much impact on on-page SEO. They tend to have more to do with links, link quality, link authority, etc. So things like social bookmarking come along, work great for SEO, get abused, Google adjusts, etc. But your page’s content shouldn’t have to change.
As for copycat programs and everyone using tools like Scribe, there are already lots of tools on the market and lots of people practicing on-page SEO. Scribe is unique in its delivery, but pretty standard in what it delivers, if that makes any sense.
But those who are consciously doing SEO, and will do it in the future, are pretty much producing a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to all the content out there. I wouldn’t worry about Scribe becoming popular. It really isn’t going to make a difference except for everyone that’s trying to rank for “scribe seo review”. When you’re trying to rank for a competitive keyword then a tool like Scribe is just one of several things you need to employ.
Keep having fun, hone your voice, build your audience, and do what you can to help the search engines appreciate your content.
Hey Patrick, that is one of the very best balanced and truthful, neutral views of a service tool I think I have ever read.
The thing I found with scribe is that it struggles with multiple keyword phrases as it simply does not recognize them therefore telling you that your page is not optimized when in fact it is.
Now for the important stuff….Blade Runner, yes, your post takes me back to a better day. Now I am going to have to take some time and watch it again.
Awesome Analogy!
Thanks
Hey, Dirk. Thanks for stopping by. And thanks for your comments on my review. To be honest, I’m still on the fence when it comes to Scribe and I really wish I weren’t. I’d rather be able to say that I absolutely love it and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. But it’s still a bit rough around the edges. Like you said, multi-word phrases aren’t always recognized as such. Which is frustrating. Hopefully Sean Jackson and company are really listening to the feedback they’ve been getting about this issue.
I also think too many Scribe users get hung up on trying to get 100% on their posts, which isn’t always possible and isn’t necessarily a death sentence. I just shoot for 80% or better. If I’m really concerned about SERP ranking then off-page factors are likely more important than a 100% score for on-page factors. (I know I’m preaching to the choir on this one, right?) Maybe this is one area that they have oversimplified – putting so much emphasis on a single percentage score and displaying it in a huge font. It must drive all the perfectionistic bloggers out there absolutely crazy when they score less than 100%.
The other issue, in my opinion, is price. I’ve mentioned this here and elsewhere – I don’t really consider Scribe to be a bargain at it’s current level of functionality and pricing structure. If the pricing isn’t going to change, then I do hope they will improve the functionality to make it an easier purchase decision. I’m just glad I got in at the early-bird discount price.
Great review, Patrick O (“…like Jackie O” – love it!).
I love your emphasis on content, that truly is the bread and butter of web publishing. Everything else is clicks and whistles.
I’ve been very happy with Scribe and have even installed it on another one of my sites. The cool thing is, that if you have multiple websites and/or blogs like you and I do – you can use the tools you learn on all of them.
As for paying the monthly fee for a service like this, you’re right – it’s definitely a personal thing. An individual will know if the particular price will cut too far into their budget or not. Personally, I think if you break it down into what it would cost a week, people will realize that they could get a few less lunches at fast food places to pay for the service (they’d be healthier and so would their blog!).
For people who work from home like me, it’s a pretty clear choice. The money I make with my blogs/sites dictates how much money I have to go shopping, so I take this stuff super seriously. More money = More more kitchen gadgets. Less money = less kitchen gadgets. Yikes!
I plan to keep readers of Self Help Daily up to date on the progress of my Scribe-fueled sites. Hopefully it’ll live up to my expectations.
Best wishes to you and Rachael!
Glad you liked the review, Joi. Thanks.
I also like that I can use Scribe on multiple blogs. Installing the plugin and activating it are so easy it only takes a minute to set it up and then it’s just there to use.
But to use it regularly and make it a no-brainer habit I think Scribe needs to be priced cheaply enough that you don’t hesitate to hit that “Analyze” button. I won’t pretend that I know what that magic price is. And maybe I’m wrong. I just think that if the price is too high then people will be thinking to themselves “hitting that button 3 times means I’ll have less money for that kitchen gadget I want.”
Now, maybe I’m thinking of the wrong user of Scribe when I say all this about the price. A couple of comments the Brian has made on Copyblogger made me realize that he might be thinking of the professional copywriter as the target for this tool, more than the weekend blogger that wants more traffic. The professional copywriter is making money from his craft and should have an easier time seeing the value proposition of search engine optimized copy over non-optimized copy.
In any event, do keep us up to date on your progress with Scribe. I’ll be curious to know if it meets your expectations.
I like how the price went down to $27 for 300 evaluations after your post went live ;-)
Solid review!
Hi Joe. Thanks for the compliment on the review. Not sure what you mean about the price going down. I posted my review after the intro price break went away, and it looks to me like they haven’t changed. Where did you see a price change?
Pat,
I think the best thing about Scribe is it does actually get you thinking about effective SEO copywriting. I would think as you go along and use the software you’ll get a feel and a rhythm for writing for you audience and then “tweaking” for the search engines.
Bill
Hi Bill. I agree, and for some people it might be enough to use the service for a month or two and then just have a lot of self-discipline. At the same time, there is an interesting little twist to Scribe that’s curiously a bit of a pro and con at the same time.
Most other tools make you put in a keyword and then they evaluate your copy for that keyword, right? Not Scribe. Instead, you just click the “Analyze” button when you’re on a Page or Post and it evaluates your content, which, if they do it right, is how the search engines are going to approach your content as well.
So Scribe tells you what your relevant keywords are based on what you’ve written. And sometimes you find out that your content has somehow headed off in the wrong direction. You “think” you’re optimizing for a given keyword and you’ve written for that keyword, but then Scribe comes along and points out that, actually, an entirely different keyword is the dominant concept behind your content.
Now, what I *really* want is a combination of both. I want Scribe to look at my content “blind” and tell me what it finds. But I also want to be able to ask it to evaluate my content for a specific phrase that *I* provide. I’m hoping they add this feature in the future.
Thanks for visiting, Bill.
Pat,
Thanks for checking out my video review of Scribe.
Generally, I agree with you. It’s convenient. It’s probably not for the very experienced. The price point seems a bit off. And it doesn’t fix crappy content.
Furthermore, I do agree with Bill (above) that it does get you thinking about SEO; to your comment earlier – it get’s you away from getting lazy.
With all that, I think that it’s pretty decent.
Thanks.
Great review. I missed the promotional pricing so it is out of my price range for sure now. I might try it for a month just to learn a bit more about it and how it works, but there is no way I can afford the monthly fee on an ongoing basis. It is said that 99.9% of bloggers make little or no money from their sites. I guess this software is targeted to the other .1%.
First of all, excellent review. You put a lot of cons in there that I didn’t think of. I tend to write my reviews shortly after I start using things and I’m still excited about it. Maybe I should stop that.
But I agree, Scribe is still young and I’m sure things will change. I like the fact that they are taking considerations from other people into mind.
Very fair review my friend.
For me (who has never given a hoot about SEO – ’cause I write for fun since I have a day job), it has helped me understand SEO in a hands on way. I pretty much score 100% on most new posts, but trust me a bunch of the legacy stuff was in the 50’s.
Will this improve my traffic? I’m giving it a couple of months and if it doesn’t I’ll move on. That’s the beauty of a monthly subscription. I’ll be out $54 vs. some pay me all the cash up front solution that may have cost 100’s or 1000’s.
I’ve been in since day one of commercial release and as such have endured some of the growing pains. I have been nothing but impressed with the response of the Scribe team to address the issues that have popped up.
Again, thanks for the review seems right on target to me!
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my review, Jim. It will be interesting to see if Scribe has a significant impact on traffic since on-page SEO is only one aspect of SEO, and only one way of improving your chances of getting traffic to your content. There are lots of other ways to get traffic. (Which I’m planning to reveal in the bonus package I’m putting together at my Scribe SEO Bonus site.)
I read some of the posts over at your blog and I have to say that a lot of your self-improvement advice seemed right on target to me. And it’s a great looking site, especially for someone who only writes for fun. Very nice.
Great review Patrick. I just bought Scribe SEO and I look forward to testing it out. With my webdesign hat on I think it will be a great thing for clients concerned about SEO on their blogs.
However since you have renamed it Rachel I am concerned that people will think I have become a Pimp! “You too can have access to Rachel for just $97 300 times a month.”
Keep up the great writing style.
Oh my, Justin! I thought my jokes were bad. I think you just ruined the PG rating I’ve been maintaining here. :-)
I hope you enjoy your time with
ScribeRachael.Thanks for the review, which I found quite helpful.
I have found Scribe both helpful and frustrating. And a tad tantalizing. Helpful in making me do the title tag + description stuff which someone else had previously told me about but I had not been doing consistently. Helpful in getting me to think about keyword placement.
Frustrating because, in line with some of your comments, I want to know how the content measures up on keywords *I* want to use, not have Rachael decide what keywords I *should* be using (or, as you suggest, both would be ok).
Tantalizing because I thought images in posts were supposed to be good for search. I heard Web Analytics wizard Avinash Kaushik on that a couple of years ago and have been taking trouble to include images since. Not true? But if true, why no indication/ranking with Scribe (oh, “scribe” – is that it?)?
Anyway, happy St Pat’s Day from another part of the green diaspora (Australia)!
Hello, Des. I’m glad you found the review helpful. I wish I had answers for all of your concerns, but I don’t. I think the reality is that no tool is going to be able to predict ahead of time how an individual page will rank in the search engines and for what keywords. All the tool can do is provide some helpful tips. In the end it really depends on a number of other factors, like what other pages you are competing against, the “authoritativeness” of your site and the page you created, whether you have links to the page and where the links are coming from, etc.
Another factor is that really good, unique, authoritative content is going to be very rich in a variety of keywords and synonyms that should draw in traffic from a bunch of “long-tail” searches, and not just one primary keyword search. So how you “theme” your content can also be important. Dr. Andy Williams and Michael Campbell have an interesting perspective on this that’s worth looking at.
SEO is a big issue and on-page factors are often just the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes it’s enough to optimize the elements that Scribe identifies, sometimes it isn’t.
Happy St. Pat’s to you as well!
Hi Patrick – good Scribe review (extra credit for working in Blade Runner :) I just posted my own Scribe SEO Review, focusing on the target audience, and why the current Scribe tool set isn’t there yet. I’d appreciate your thoughts.
I knew Brian would figure out a way to discount the price of Scribe again, but I didn’t expect it this way. If you were disappointed that you missed out on the early bird discount price of only $27, you should click here to get your free SEO copywriting report, read all the great stuff Brian Clark (Mr. Copyblogger) has to say about the subject, don’t stop until you get to the bonus code at the end, then sign up for the free trial of Scribe to lock in your discounted price. And remember, you heard it here first. ;-)
SEO is very important to every site owners. This can make a difference of their success. However, not all people knows how to do SEO effectively, great there are plugins now.
Anybody knows a thing how to make my site to the top????
I’m a big fan of the WordPress platform. Scribe seo is one of the best plugin in WordPress that works with WordPress to analyze your posts, give you information about them, and make suggestions about improving your post from an SEO Perspective. Once you’ve finished writing your post, the plugin checks to make sure you’ve written an optimized version of your title in the custom title field.
If you have old post in your blog and you expected a little more out of? Use this tool to go back, re-evaluate, and tweak things a bit to improve them.
Oh well, I still need to pay for this wordpress plugin. I can’t afford to have this especially if I’m not totally into blogging. Maybe SEO professional may do this work for me.
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