My name is John Campbell I’m a SEO based in Manchester, UK. I’ve notched up three years in the industry working for Just Search in Cheshire and now work for Amaze in Manchester,
If you’ve been able to use the new Google you may have noticed the lack of a number of results for your query. For example when searching for site:http://www.aukseo.co.uk you would be presented with the number of pages and the time taken.
On the new Google you get nowt.
I’ve blogged about problems with Google maps with see tickets spamming. This morning I found another strange result on a map search for “Blackpool Pleasure Beach”, next to Blackpool Pleasure beach is Lightwater Valley, which isn’t in Blackpool.
How do that get there? Easy.
Click on more information on the map pop up and under the user content section there is a custom map by Srab. Remember you can make a custom map on anything and position anything anywhere.
Go to his map and you’ll see that he’s put Lightwater Valley in Blackpool, it’s actually near to Ripon in Yorkshire.
Nothing major but it’s a little dangerous for Google to be using custom map data in a product people use to get directions from A to B.
PHP Weby is a Free Directory script that can create a SEO friendly directory for you. It’s prety SEO friendly but it does lack an XML sitemap generator. So I’ve brushed off some PHP skills last used a few years ago and I’ve made a script that generates an XML sitemap for PHP Weby Directory.
All you need to do is add in your database details, the URL of the site and upload the php file. This then generates sitemap which you can then submit to Google and reference in your robots.txt.
For instruction and to download the file follow the link
I’ve blogged in the past about linking offline TV campaigns with online search, there have been some success and some failures. The last week I’ve noticed a campaign by Stella Artois (Mother London the agency behind the ads) who’ve used a slightly different slant on the ’search online’ technique.
Rather than asking viewers to search online, Stella Artois asked them to search on YouTube. Different to the easier ’search online’ used in the past but an idea that could deliver a better conversion with less chance of the user ending up at the wrong result.
To gain visibility Stella have a PPC and a number one ranking on the natural SERP for ‘recyclage de luxe’, the PPC also shows for related searches such as ’stella advert’.
At the bottom of the 1st page is the video from YouTube. That should rank in the main SERP’s soon.
On YouTube they have a the number one spot for “recyclage de luxe”.
So it seems like a well executed plan. Why? – the page was published before the TV ads started to run.
The web page appears to be first indexed on 09/08/09. Find to find this out search for the page with the option dates set between 09/08/09 and 09/08/09.
Having the page up early gives it time to achieve the ranking. In this case the search term in question ‘recyclage de luxe’ had no previous competition but getting the page up early ensures the number 1 position. It’s hard to tell if this was planned by Mother London.
The video was placed online later, November 22, 2009, so just before the TV ads started. Ranking on YouTube is slightly different to the natural SERP’s you don’t need to have the video live for long to get it ranking in the search results. It helps but as there is no competition on YouTube for ‘recyclage de luxe’ putting it on late worked.
Nothing so far on Google insights, there should be a spike in searches for ‘recyclage de luxe’.
On YouTube the main video has 3,164 views, a 4.5 out of 5 rating from a total of 26 ratings. From the 25 comments so far 10 are positive, 5 neutral and 10 negative, so split down the middle.
However one comment did sum up my first reaction to the campaign;
“got told about this but it was real hard to find. Its very cool”
Which may be due to having to remember ‘recyclage de luxe’ which is a French phrase. The ’search online’ query needs to be something memorable and easy to spell. Past campaigns such as the Orange ‘I am’ or the Monsters V Aliens ‘MVA’ failed on too generic phrases but this campaign may fail due to the complexity of the ’search online’ query.
This week Matt Cutts confirmed that natural search will start to look at the speed of your site as ranking factor. It’s something thats been in the pipeline, and an obvious change if you’ve been following the “let’s make the web faster” drive from Google.
I think it’s a great move, there’s nothing more frustrating than a slow Internet connection or a slow site. If you head over to the “let make the web faster” from Google there are instructions to how to make your site faster some are a little complicated such as compressing JavaScript and CSS, HTTP caching, minimizing browser reflow etc.
If you know what your doing then thats great but if your an average webmaster here are five simple tips to speed your site up for Google and users.
Optimizing images is a simple process, there are two methods. Reduce white space, rather than giving your image a boarder or space crop the image tight and then use CSS to create boarder and positioning.
Save in the correct format, rather than using JPG’s GIF’s can be sometimes reduce file sizes for logo and simple images. Using “save for web” setting on programs such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop will enable you get the best size while not compromising on quality. To get old images into a compressed format use a bulk process, remember to keep the file names the same and if changing extensions add re-directs to preserve image rankings.
When making the HTML output of pages don’t be tempted into using tables to display data. With a bit of skill you can recreate the same thing in CSS. A great article gives 13 reasons why CSS is better than table the number 1 being faster load times.
Two points with navigation, a) how many items in the navigation can effect load time. Listing every single category and subcategory in some sites would create a huge navigation over 100+ items. Only link to the top levels on every page and other relevant pages, a good example of this in action is the BBC site, go into the sport sections to see..
b) Coding of the navigation is also important. Using Flash or JavaScript (all the code) is a no go, using css with a little JavaScript can create efficient drops downs, even better don’t use drop downs just a plain navigation will keep load times down. Remember that navigation is on every page so improving navigation improves load time on every page in the site.
Each http request adds time to the load of your site, this includes loading items from a different site. Where possible host images on your own site, don’t have multiple tracking codes, try not to pull twitter / RSS feeds into every page.
By placing the JavaScript and CSS in an external file users and search engines don’t have to load it on each page load. You place the code in a file either .js or .css and link to in the head of the page e.g.
Yes it costs money but if you’ve spent time on the last 4 points they might have no effect if your server is slow. To get a good indication of speed ask the company for some high traffic example site and go on them at peak traffic times. Ask if any are “digg proof” and the specifications of the server.
Over all these 5 points might make a difference but the objective is to make improvements to lots of different areas, added together they will make a difference to the speed of your site.
I’ve recently started working in Manchester City center so been looking at Google maps for local places to eat at dinner. As ever, the first place to look is Google Maps. After a few clicks on locations strangely See Tickets, a ticket sales company seems to have claimed a lot of local listings that have nothing to do with them, thus having a link to their site.
Each one links to seetickets.com
Looking at the locations is it possible that See Tickets could sell ticket for the Palace Theatre, but not for 5th Ave a nightclub or Retro Bar.
A search for “see tickets” with the map in Manchester brings up some great results:
Piccadilly Gardens (Bus stop and open space)
The old ODEON on Oxford road which shut down about five years ago.
The big wheel in the Triangle
and Long Legs a gentlemen’s club.
All of the links go to http://www.seetickets.com/see/index.asp? and it looks like see tickets haven’t stopped there, they’ve done the same for locations in London too!
You can imagine tourists trying to buy a ticket from See Tickets to go to Parliament for the day!
Anyone else getting this for their location? Go to your local area on Google maps and search “see tickets”
After a post today about using Windows Live Writer I’ve looked for a Mac alternative for my home laptop, a MacBook.
After reading a few blog posts I’ve downloaded MarsEdit which is a paid solution with the a trial period.
On the looks it’s not as good as Live Writer but has a few nice features like a media manager for pictures which also plugins into flickr (Which is something that Live Writer can do with a plug in) and having an out put window to see what your post looks like (not in the theme like Live Writer).
It is missing a few points such as being able to edit the size of pictures once you have uploaded them, use of tags and view post in theme. Over all not a bad effort from MarsEdit but it seems for once Windows have managed to make a great user friendly product!
I’ve heard about Windows Live Writer and with a new Windows computer to hand I thought a test would be needed.
1. Setup
Really simple install of the program (it’s bundled up with MSN messenger download). To add in the blog all you have do is select the type of blog, e.g. WordPress and add in your log in details. It’s loads up settings, category and your theme and your ready to go in 30 seconds.
2. Ease of Use
The idea behind Live Writer is to make blog publishing easier to do this Live Writer is very similar to Word a program many people have managed to master. Lets test uploading pictures.
Very simple, just click insert, picture then brows the picture either on your computer or the web.
3. Speed
The install was quick and also the typing is quicker as you don’t have to wait few the milliseconds between pauses when WordPress autosaves. I’ll have to test out how fast it is to publish in a moment but over all it’s very quick.
Conclusion
A really nice program which I can see being very useful for when you want to blog but have no internet connection. If you have users that are unwilling to try to using WordPress this is a baby step to blogging as it’s very similar to Word.
Edit : The upload was very quick!
As this blog is about SEO I suppose I should blog about changing jobs. For the past 2 years 10 months I’ve worked at Just Search. The role at Just Search was my first in SEO and I don’t think you could get a better start in the SEO industry. Having a degree in Computer Science and also running the website odd site helped me get into the swing of things. For anyone looking to get into SEO having a Computer Science degree really helps but is not essential, some of the best SEO’s out there have hardly any qualifications.
My job role originally was SEO Account Manager but morphed into Senior SEO Advisor which was basically was doing SEO on the fly during client’s contracts, with some report writing and consultation. It was great fun and most importantly dealing with 100’s and I mean 100’s of sites really helps to build up experience.
The best part of Just Search was the people I’ve met so off the top of my head a BIG THANKS TO Neil, Paul, Gary, Dave, Martin, Caroline, Ahmed, James W, Phil, James S, Adam, Simon R, Adam L, Sadie, Sam, Mark, Rik, Will, Carl, Vip, Daz and loads others…
From Monday I’m going to be working in Manchester City for a company called Amaze.
Best update some profiles over the weekend!
To improve the speed of the site and also to get wider images into posts I’ve changed to a new theme. It’s a free theme from Woo Themes which needs a few little updates but look good so far. To help I used the theme test drive plug in is great for testing your new theme without putting it live.
© AUKSEO – Blog from a Search Engine Optimiser based the UK.
Recent Comments