No-one questions the wisdom of creating good content. It reinforces authority and expertise. It acts as a catalyst for creativity. It’s good for search engine traffic, marketing, sales, and (shudder) social media. So why is there so little good content? There’s a seemingly infinite amount of content, but almost all of it is sorely lacking when it comes to quality. … Read More
Don’t Be Evil – really?
I don’t believe for one moment that Google are evil; it’s a baseless idea that most intelligent people reject as sensationalist. The embodiment of good, however, has to be more than just the absence of wickedness. And a motto of simply not being evil does little to reassure me of a company’s intentions. Imagine, for example, a person described as “not … Read More
SEO far SEO good
A few months ago I was discussing SEO strategy with a person who wouldn’t want to be named, but hopefully doesn’t mind being quoted. He asked: “If we had to choose between creating content or getting links, which would you prioritise?“ SEOs may wince, smile or raise their “good question” eyebrows, but many non-SEOs (aka normal people) might consider this … Read More
My name is Dave and I’m an SEO
My name is Dave and I’m an SEO. No-one ever follows this with “Hi Dave”. At best you get an awkward, vaguely sympathetic smile. In a way the dislike of SEOs is strange. We * don’t pollute the planet, exploit children, chop-down rainforests or sell products that kill people. But as an industry we’re responsible for a number of big … Read More
How Google Analytics can hurt you
The sampling in your Google Analytics account can be horribly inaccurate, and may dramatically skew the data that you rely on. Does that get your attention? What is data sampling? As defined by Google: “Sampling in Google Analytics (GA) or in any web-analytics software refers to the practise of selecting a subset of data from your website traffic and reporting … Read More
Decrapifying SEO trends in Google Analytics
When it comes to understanding how your website is performing from an SEO perspective, Google Analytics is an excellent quick and dirty tool. It’s also all too often used incorrectly. Important SEO analytics tip #1: Trends are more important than volumes. And they’re easier to spot. Important SEO analytics tip #2: Short term fluctuations don’t matter. I can’t tell … Read More
Real-world SEO
You probably know this one: A woodcutter was straining to cut down a tree. A passer-by stopped to watch, and suggested that the woodcutter took a few minutes to sharpen his saw. “If you stop to sharpen your saw, you would cut the trees much faster.” The woodcutter retorted: “Who has time to sharpen their tools? Can’t you see how … Read More
Why is Google so mean to SEOs?
I’ve been working with SEO since 1997, and have seen more change over the last two years than the 14 years prior to that. Even if you don’t know the specifics, you’ve probably heard about Penguin and Panda. And in this case, the specifics don’t matter. The majority of Google’s updates have one single purpose: cleaning-up the garbage from the … Read More
Is ranking the SEO metric of yesteryear?
Whether you’re handling your own SEO, working with a reliable SEO company, or just hoping it’ll somehow happen on its own, you probably like to measure your SEO performance. Which is why so many of us monitor rankings for our keywords. The higher the better – more so when we’re above our competition, right? Rankings, however, in spite of how … Read More
White-hat SEO is for the naive?
Hacking has become cool. Actually hacking has already made the transition from cool to mainstream. We’re bombarded with articles and blog posts on hacking your working methods, schedules, sleep cycles, coffee brewing, education, thinking process and more. It isn’t, therefore, a huge leap for many businesses to assume that hacking SEO is a logical extension of the same idea. And the … Read More