Long time no blog! I hope you all had a good festive season. I thought I would kick off the new year with a technical post, as Google announced cross-domain support of the Canonical tag last month (worth reading for the explanations of when you might want to use it and how to implement). YouContinue reading “Solving Website Structural Problems With The Canonical Tag”
Category Archives: Search Engine Optimisation
Changes to Google’s First Click Free Policy
You may recall that I wrote last year about Google’s First Click Free policy, allowing online publishers to protect their content whilst allowing Googlebot in to index the content, so that all their lovely keyword-rich content wasn’t hidden behind a “pay-wall” (i.e. password protected for paying users). With a lot of hoo-hah about blocking GoogleContinue reading “Changes to Google’s First Click Free Policy”
New Google Webmaster Tools Labs Features
Google launched a new Labs section of Webmaster Tools today, containing two features. The first is called Fetch as Googlebot, which shows you the page that Google gets when you enter a URL from your website. Quite handy to see what Googlebot sees, particularly HTTP headers. Here’s a screenshot of the tool showing the 301Continue reading “New Google Webmaster Tools Labs Features”
Keyword Examiner keyword research tool launched at last!
At long last, I’m pleased to announce the launch of my Keyword Examiner tool, which I’ve been trying to get finished for the best part of a year! The software itself has been working since January, but I haven’t had the time to put the marketing and support elements together – until now. You canContinue reading “Keyword Examiner keyword research tool launched at last!”
Link Building Seminar in the East Midlands
As I’m sure many of you know, I do a lot of presentations and workshops for the eBusiness Programme here in the East Midlands. Well, in November I’ll be delivering a short presentation on link building advice at a number of venues. The marketing bumpf goes like this: Top Link Building Advice for Search EngineContinue reading “Link Building Seminar in the East Midlands”
New Google Features
Google have been busy adding new features – you’ve probably noticed the larger font in the search box for instance. One thing you should definitely be aware of if you have a Google Maps listing (Local Business Centre) is the new Place Pages, as detailed here. It’s worth having a read of this to understandContinue reading “New Google Features”
Google Ignores the Meta Keywords Tag (In Case You Didn’t Know!)
Just in case anyone had any lingering doubts that Google uses the meta keywords tag in web pages, they categorically state they don’t here. You might also be interested in this explanation of how Google handles duplicate content and why it’s not so much a penalty, as a simple outcome of the per-search algorithm, courtesyContinue reading “Google Ignores the Meta Keywords Tag (In Case You Didn’t Know!)”
Google Internet Stats
I noted on SearchEngineLand that Google has introduced an Internet Statistics landing page, particularly focused on the UK: https://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/internetstats/ There are stats on various topics, almost all internet/media/technology related, although there are some macro-economic stats available. A variety of sources have been used and you can even submit your own stats. Interesting stuff! 🙂
SEOMoz 2009 Ranking Factors Report
Just a quick link: the SEOMoz 2009 Ranking Factors report has been published and it’s no surprise to see that external link anchor text, title tags and link popularity are seen as the most important factors by a reasonable concensus of SEO experts. Go and have a read here.
Dodgy SEO Company Marketing Tactics
A client of mine forwarded an email (let’s be honest, spam) he received from an SEO company in the north-west last week. I thought I’d write about it here, but I’m not going to name names because frankly I can’t be bothered getting hassle from talking to a company who uses these tactics. The emailContinue reading “Dodgy SEO Company Marketing Tactics”