Career
Welcome to Sydney!
Thursday, January 13th, 2011 | Career, Events, General Interest | No Comments
Well we did it! we sat on a plane for 12 hours, a brief stop in Hong Kong, then onto another plane for 9 hours and here we are! Its morning here in Sydney Australia and the weather is balmy and overcast, to be honest I was expecting raging sunshine but not to worry I am sure its just an off day!
We have arrived at the hotel and are just taking everything in, including the view which is stunning. We drove over the Sydney Harbor Bridge in the taxi and a pang of home sickness and pride pricked me as Dorman Long (the company that build the bridge) are from my hometown of Middlesbourgh. Also Captain James Cook lived in Teesside so is this all serendipity? You have to wonder when your life takes this much of a monumental turn in another direction.
However on first impressions, I think we are going to like it here! 
Preparing for the move
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 | Career, Events, General Interest, SEO | No Comments
Well the countdown is on for the move to Sydney and I must say we are pretty organised, albeit I am flapping like a chicken and writing lists until they come out my ears. Flights are booked so no turning back now.
Living at my dads so his front room resembles some sort of storage facility but we are getting there with the packing.
Looking forward to starting my new SEO job, nerves are getting to me a bit but I am sure I will be fine, its like anything, you can have your doctorate in Nuclear Physics but start a new job and you can struggle working the fax machine!
Christmas as bizarre and a little bitter sweet, it was nice to have that family feeling of everyone coming together but knowing that a move of nearly 12,000 miles is pending its sad to think this may the last get together for some time.
Anyway on with the rest of the packing.
New SEO Job In AUSTRALIA!!
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 | Career, Events | No Comments
Yes that’s right the Lewis’s are emigrating to Australia - Sydney to be exact.
We are due to arrive on 12th January 2011 after I have been offered a sponsored employment position with an Australian based agency specialising in Search Engine Marketing.
Very exciting and a lot to do between now and then so keep checking back for updates. I hear the hardest part will be finding an apartment as the competition is high in and around Sydney (not to mention the cost of rent).
I am sure we will find somewhere that is pet friendly because of course we are taking our dog Xena with us! We just have to train her to hunt spiders!
Sadly we can not take Bradders and Misty our bunnies and have found them a home here in the UK, we have to say goodbye which is sad but the power of the internet will ensure photos and emails are frequently sent to us informing us of their continuous bunny antics!
So if anyone has any comments or advice it is always welcome and we embark on this exciting (and a little bit scary) adventure.
Meta Tags Quick Tips
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | Career, General Interest, SEO | 2 Comments
For those of you who find a distinct lack of creative inspiration when it comes to writing meta tags you are not alone. I also feel slightly perplexed when it comes to writing meta as common knowledge will tell you that the tags need to be unique and not duplicated across a site it can be quiet a challenge, especially on larger websites.
I have also read various “guides” on writing meta and all seem to suggest that the keywords meta tag is now of little importance and not reviewed by some search engines. So that leaves the title tag and description. I can understand that the description tag is important as I have seen it used as the excerpt on SERPs so this needs to be thought about.
So here are a few of my thoughts on writing meta tags – hopefully it is helpful
Title Meta Tag
Include the keyword or phrase the page is trying to be optimised for as the primary keyword followed by any secondary keywords which will reinforce it i.e.
Primary Keyword – Secondary Keywords | Brand
Or
Brand | Primary Keyword and Secondary Keywords
If you are trying to rank for a very competitive term, I have found that it is best to include the keyword at the beginning of the title tag. If you are competing for a less competitive term and branding can help make a difference in click through rates, it is best to put the brand name first.
Description Meta Tag
Acknowledged by all search engines so this is important and needs to be included on all pages and be unique per page.
Summarise the page as best you can using the pre-defined primary and secondary keywords and limit it to 170 characters or 200 characters.
This requires using the most creative juices and you need to ensure it is coherent.
Keywords Meta Tag
This is more important for Yahoo then Google or Bing – try and limit to no more than 10-15 keywords to a page.
Include the keyword of phrase the page is trying to be optimised for first.
KeywordsMore important for Yahoo then Google or Bing – no more than 10-15 keywords to a pageTo include the keyword of phrase the page is trying to be optimised for first:
Link Building and SEO – A quick guide
Monday, November 16th, 2009 | Career, General Interest, SEO | 4 Comments
Recently I have been more “hands on” with link building and link building strategies as part of SEO. I thought I would share my findings – although I have kept this basic and brief!
What is Page Rank?
Page Rank is an analysis of links which is used by Google to establish a numerical weight of the page of your website based on the volume and relevancy of links to your site from other sites of a similar genre and good page rank.
As my own page rank has lapsed a little in recent months I decided that I needed to take on more research into this subject and optimise my page rank and that of my clients.
My research and professional opinion is that link building is an important part of any SEO strategy.
Why is link building Important?
Well in order for a site to gain creditability and maximum exposure you need to look at getting back links from other websites linking to you.
Think of back links as a “vote” for your site. So a “vote” from a high page ranking site is a very credible “vote” and a high page ranking site will be a site that will be crawled often so you link will be picked up.
Now this sounds easy but it takes quiet a strategic approach as it is not productive to target just any websites for you back links.
The websites page rank is important and its relevancy in relation to your website. So this means taking the time to indentify websites with high page ranks who are themed around the same subjects or products as your own website.
Where to start…
Well a good place is look at submitting to Dmoz (Page Rank 8 ) and other directory sites (basic stuff). Dmoz is great as it is a high page rank and gets crawled by Google regularly so there is a good chance your site will be picked up and associated with the category you have submitted to. Also to submit to Dmoz is free! Just make sure you submit as specifically as possible i.e. drill down you category as far as possible rather than trying to get submitted to the highest level of category. Dmoz is edited by real people and a more narrow category may mean that your submission gets revised quicker.
Another place to look at getting back links is simply use web searches for subjects you want your site associated with – then approach them for a link to your site. Not all sites will offer you a link for free or at all so be warned you may need to pay for links – the question to ask yourself at this point is whether the back link from this site is worth the money.
You can purchase software which will analyse your website and find sites associated with the same subjects/products that may be looked at for potential back links – however my experience of this software is that it still need a human touch to filter out competitors (who aren’t going to give you a back link) or sites that are just of no value.
Another area is to submit well written optimised articles to various websites and contain a back link to your site. These sites are usually reputable with a high Page Rank and categorised so you will find a relevant category to post your article. Just three sites I have found are www.HubPages.com/ www.ezinearticles.com/ and http://www.articlesbase.com/
Another area to explore is social networking site but I feel this is a subject in itself so I will post separately about this.
You can also opt for link exchanges (sometimes called reciprocal links) although I believe this is to be avoided where possible to avoid search engines seeing a straight forward link from a site, to another site and back again.
In some circumstances this needs to be adopted to take advantage of a sites relevancy and page rank although this need to be kept to a minimum and only considered from sites that will enhance relevancy and page rank.
Another common technique is commenting on blogs relevant to your site – this is fine but check for no follow links and ensure your comments are constructive and relevant to the post not a blatant attempt at shoe horning you url in as this will be seen as spamming and removed.
So what have I learnt from my recent link building 101? Well it is certainly organic process and takes time. It needs to be a natural progression and well strategized . There are lots to consider and it really involves thinking outside the box. You are also in the laps of the gods as to when your link will be picked up as it depends on the webmasters of the website you are linking from and how often they submit sitemaps, and how often Google visits.
As I submerge deeper into link building I will do my best to share my experiences with you. Watch this space!
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