Is Meta data still important in the Google algorithm?
Mar 1st
You could almost be forgiven for thinking that in this day and age Meta Data has no real importance. Ever since Matt Cutts confirmed that Google no longer uses Meta data in the algorithm, many webmasters have started to neglect it, in particular Meta descriptions. However I’m going to present the case that Meta descriptions are still very important in the Google Algorithm.
Deciding whether or not to use WWW in a URL
Feb 20th
Over the past couple of days I’ve been deciding how to structure my blog URL. Prior to today I had two versions of my blog:
http://bowdeni.com
http://www.bowdeni.com
Although I obviously have just one blog, but to search engines these are actually two different sites. This presents problems for duplicated content and link building. For the former, search engines don’t like duplicated content and with two variants of the site, it’s essentially duplicated perfectly. In terms of link building, you could waste efforts and not benefit from genuine links if they are targeting to the two different versions. I therefore went on a journey to build rationale to pick one of the two to keep.
Tips for buying links
Feb 3rd
Of course buying links is the work of the devil, and certainly not feature in a SEO strategy. However at certain times you may have a website that is very poor and offers little value. In these situations propositions to acquire links organically may be a bit of a headache, and in a moment of weakness you may find yourself buying links. Should you even find yourself in this situation, here are some tips to gain the most value and protect yourself from being penalised.
When buying links you must take many factors into consideration:
Campaign to include Mars drink in boots meal deal
Jan 13th
I sent this email to Boots today.
Dear Boots,
I’m as big a fan of the Boots meal deal as anyone, but I feel as both a shareholder and a customer, that sustainable competitive advantage at a corporate level could be obtained by including Mars Drink in the Boots meal deal.
May I remind your board of directors that they must act in the interest of shareholders, and the decision to include the Mars drink (preferably the thick variety) would deliver unprecedented added value.
8 techniques for link building (Part One)
Jan 5th
SEOmoz recently ran a webinar on linkbuilding, outlining 8 major different methods of linkbuilding. I thought I’d write a bit about them, and add my experience of using them. This is a two part post, the following four further methods will be posted soon.
1. Manual Link Submissions/ Requests
This technique refers to approaching relevant sites and either attempting to leave a link or approaching the webmaster to obtain one. I have used this technique a great amount buthaven’t gained many high quality using it. It is a pretty tedious method of link building too.
Learning some CSS
Jan 2nd
One of the books that I received for Christmas was CSS: The Missing Manual. I did know some CSS and had built a 200 page medical website with CSS, but my knowledge of was rusty. This book is an excellent resource for CSS, whether you are learning it from scratch or already have a little bit of knowledge.
Working in search marketing, it’s my aim to become fluent in HTML/CSS. Having witnessed first hand the massive impact landing pages has on converting traffic, I’d like to be able to position myself to be able to create and amend client landing pages. Using Google optimiser tool, I’ll be able to split test different landing pages and not only deliver beautiful traffic, but also spoon feed them into making purchases 
.
Knowledge in CSS will additionally be useful for my own projects that I’d like to develop, but I need a book for finding the time!
A digital christmas
Dec 26th
Good and bad news this christmas. Firstly the bad. I returned to my parent’s house for Christmas only to discover that they currently don’t have any Internet whatsoever. I managed to share my 3G internet connection on my Nokia N95 8GB via Bluetooth with my Macbook so at least I have some connection, albeit pinging servers at over 300ms.
On the good news front, I’ve received plenty of techie books to keep me busy. For 2010, I’ve identified my skills in Excel, CSS and landing page optimization need to be improved. With the latter, we ran a competition on one of our sites in our portfolio, and we sent a huge amount of traffic to merchants, but it became quickly apparent that the quality of the landing page influenced whether we generated £10k in sales, or literally nothing at all.
My Excel book is probably large enough to kill someone with and has all the information to satisfy my knowledge for pivot tables. Over the forthcoming week, I’ll be cracking into that and my book on CSS. If I am to work on creating landing pages for clients, then knowledge of CSS will be critical. It’ll be helpful for my sites in my personal portfolio. Another book I need to buy in the new year is one on analytics, but I’ve got plenty of reading for now!
No pictures on this post. Not until I have a Broadband connection again!
Google real time search
Dec 13th
This screen grab of a search I did is testament to Google’s new real time search results working
The ongoing debate SEO vs PPC – SES Chicago 09
Dec 10th
I’ve been following some of the SES Chicago 09 coverage and the ultimate battle came up, SEO vs PPC. Representing SEO was David Naylor who I saw speak on the subject of SEO. Once you get past his love for plugging Microsoft services, then he is a very good speaker. Also representing too was Rand Fishkin, a true SEO heavyweight!
What amazes me is that in debating different search engine marketing techniques, so much effort is spent on debating which is better rather than using it as a forum for discussing how the synergies of both methods can be used to deliver value. I believe that SEO can deliver sustainable competitive advantage through excellent organic listings. Looking at the site portfolio I work on at work, I think SEO is the source of our competitive advantage. PPC has some great uses. It requires no investment, and you can deliver traffic in an instant. A particular interest for me is usability and converting traffic, so for that, PCC is great.
Anyway, if you haven’t already, check out the debate that was held. There are some really funny lines in it, especially by David Naylor. I Loved the Bing remark.
My personal digital set up
Nov 28th
I have a bit of a soft spot for technology which is not good for my wallet. My Nokia N95 8GB is starting to test me, and since my iPod Classic broke very recently, the lure of an iPhone is becoming harder to resist. Nonetheless, I thought it would be a good time to speak a bit about my little set up at home.
I’ve got a CD2 20″ iMac (which I got Apple to kindly gave me for free) and I loaded it up with 4GB of RAM. I seem to be one of the few people that doesn’t do cracked software, so I have a bought copy of Adobe CS4 Design Premium.
A couple of weeks ago I upgraded to Office 2008 for OS X. I’m still to get used to it as I was expecting it to be much like Office 2007 for Windows and it isn’t at all. Ironically my set up at home far exceeds my one at work. At work I don’t really have much paid software, but I have grown to like GIMP. It’s not a bad substitute for Photoshop CS4.
I’m getting the Apple Magic Mouse for Christmas 