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Comment by bdmac97 | Hacker News Reader

I noticed that too but in their defense the signup was ridiculously painless. Only required a login and password. Email was optional. No confirmation required.

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I agree that it's not too hard, but if I weren't an HN member I would have bounced at that point.

I think having the search bar on the homepage is a great idea since it tells me exactly what to do right when I get there. Maybe put a URL in there explicitly (like http://www.mysite.com ) that auto-clears onfocus so it's ridiculously obvious.

Some quick thoughts:

* Provide a "top tip" that is the #1 thing someone should do to improve their page. The tips offered are good, but aren't ranked, even though some are obviously more important than others. * Give the option to have the report emailed to you. I'd like to pass mine off to my business partners. * Possible premium upgrade: Live chat/advice on how to improve your site. People pay for SEO, right?

Final verdict: I liked it, but I don't think I'll come back a lot. There's already a lot of DIY SEO advice out there and I didn't find anything here I didn't already know. I'm a wannabe expert, though, so maybe it's vitally helpful for others.

Awesome feature suggestions. Thanks. I really like the live/chat deal. The email a report feature is already on our list. For the time being you can just export it as CSV or PDF.

People reuse usernames and passwords, so even though it is painless, now they will have a database of usernames and passwords which can probably be used in a lot of places. Thus, I only sign up for new things rarely and only for things in which I suspect I will need to use frequently.

Hmm... I guess you have a point there. It's frustrating a bit as a developer because in all likelihood if they've done their jobs as developers they DON'T have access to your password at all. The problem is how do you trust a new site when there are obviously some (many?) out there that still use plaintext for passwords? Anyone have a solution for that? Some type of security audit w/a badge that your site can display saying "Hey, we DON'T store your password or have access to it!"

What would you say if they instead used some form of OpenID system (RPX Now or something) so you didn't have to give them your password? Would that help?

We PHP CRYPT() those passwords and never see them. I am disappointed you think we'd store passwords in plaintext.

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