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Google Data Highlighter–you need to be using this right now!

March 8, 2013 by Peter Mahoney

Google Data Highlighter--you need to be using this right now! Wordpress SEO ExpertYou know how Google pulls in interesting bits of information into its search results for some sites? Like showing right there in its results the dates and venues of a company’s upcoming events?

Well, that used to be done via little code tags in your HTML. Over the last few months, Google has rolled out a tool to let you do it across your entire site by previewing your live site graphically, and simply highlighting parts of it.

Those snippets in the results carry a lot of weight; people assume that the sites with snippets are for the more popular and professional businesses.

Make the most of this TODAY. (That’s right, I used CAPS. This is so simple and such a great upgrade to your Google presence!)

Filed Under: Google, Hints & Tips, Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Tools

Guess who’s number 1 baby yeah!!11one!

March 7, 2013 by Peter Mahoney

I’m more than a little happy about this.

I’ve beaten out the phone and Linkedin directories!

A Google UK search for “Peter Mahoney” returns my website as the top result.

Hitting number one is pretty phenomenal, especially when you consider that in the tech world there are a couple of CEO’s of major international companies sharing my name.

Plus this means when people ask me for my URL, I can show off my SEO skills by simply saying, “Google me”.

So what’s next? I want to see my Twitter feed at number two, that’s what.

Filed Under: Branding, Google, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Code

March 4, 2013 by Peter Mahoney

There are a number of ways you want to improve your website’s code to help with SEO, and also to improve site speed which as I keep banging on about, is an important metric for Google.

This is probably the most technical of all the posts that make up my SEO primer, so by way of introduction, I’ll simply say the following are a variety of things within your site’s code that are helpful for optimisation. You may not be someone who ever touches your site’s code, but these are good things to know about so you can check your developer is doing their job right. 🙂

As much as I love spinning a good narrative, bullet points are going to be our friend in this piece.

  1. Meta tags.
    I’m getting these out of the way early, because they’re controversial. That’s because the way these are used is often misunderstood owing to historical changes. Basically, they used to be really important, and the first thing old-school search engines looked at. Then the spiders got more clever, and started to look to make sure your page’s text contained all the keywords you were using in the meta. Then they realised they could do away with the meta and just scan your text. For this reason, a lot of SEO (ahem) “experts” will tell you they’re not necessary. That’s bulls**t basically.
    This page
    documents Google’s use of the “description” tag, which they do look at and use. Other search engines use them in varying ways too. The description and keyword (and author!) tags are all worth using, and using well. Make sure they tie-in with your copy.
  2. Alt tags.
    Search engines are certainly getting better at seeing what your site’s images are, but it’s far from perfect. Alt tags are the things that let the browser know what your image is representing, and therefore really important for SEO. I always make sure that my images contain tags that say not only what the image is of, but also the name of the page/entry it’s appearing in. That way the page name is repeated in the code too, which boosts it’s importance within the page.
  3. nofollow.
    About 10 years ago, people had things called doorway pages that were nothing but links to other pages in their sites. It was a dirty trick and got stamped all over by the search engine gods. However, you know how WordPress in particular creates pages for monthly archives, category archives, even tag archives? Well funnily enough they look a lot to spiders like doorway pages, containing tonnes of links (including all the sidebar links) to pages that just link to other pages en masse. I’ve measured this myself, and yes, you will get penalised for them. I have most of my links on this site set up with the nofollow rule, meaning the good search engines (technically spiders don’t have to respect this rule, but the big boys all do) will not follow it and count it as a link.
    I want them to see all my pages, but not to see them all a hundred times. I opt to leave category links being followed, but NOT monthly archives or tags.
  4. minify.
    This is just a trick to get all the unnecessary spaces and characters out of your code. It’s particularly useful for javascript and CSS, but your output HTML is worth shrinking too. There are tools out there that do it at load time, but that can place a burden on your server. I love this tool which takes all your CSS and merges parts where it can, and will (if you ask it to) minify the hell out of it.
    If you keep the page load time down, Google will rank you up.
  5. Javascript at the bottom.
    Place all the Javascript you can at the bottom of your page’s code. Again, it’s a speed thing.
  6. Make it clean.
    Don’t use tables unless it’s for, you know, a table. CSS has reigned supreme for a long time now. Don’t repeat attributes within tags. Check for redundant code. Consider taking out all those comments you put in while you were coding the site in the first place. Basically, give your code a nice, long bath.

Technically, your code underpins everything. Make it Search Engine Optimisation friendly and you’ll be much better ranked for it.

Filed Under: Google, Hints & Tips, Keywords, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Tools, Website Speed, Wordpress

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), a primer

February 18, 2013 by Peter Mahoney

I’m starting a series on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to help explain a few key concepts, as well as helping guide you towards the right SEO expert. Ideally me of course, but whoever is telling you they’re an expert really should know how to cover more than the basics.

The number of people I see selling SEO services who really have no idea is appalling. (I’d say shocking, but there are a lot of opportunists out there!)

I’m going to break my series of SEO posts into the following sections:

  1. Code
  2. Site Speed
  3. Social integration
  4. Blogging
  5. Back-links and all other things link oriented

Naturally there is a lot of cross-over between them, but over the course of the series you’ll get a better idea of some key concepts, and some fairly original (but proven) ideas for their implementation.

All of course to get you more quality visitors!

Filed Under: Hints & Tips, Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social networking, Website Speed

I can make you an awesome, SEO’d personal online brand

January 18, 2013 by Peter Mahoney

It’s true.

I spent much of last year involved in making personal brands for people to improve their search engine rankings, industry positioning, and overall getting them in more clients and more revenue.

On the back of my 17 years web development/design experience, my decade long history of helping people with their social networking, and months of testing and improving my system, I’ve created a personal branding product that will do wonders for you, your reputation, and of course your income.

Currently it’s only being offered through People Per Hour (PPH), but watch this space–when I’ve got a few more of these under my belt you can expect this package to cost over £700.

Right now it’s just £167!

  • Demo: http://victoria.petermahoney.com
  • Buy it! I can make you an awesome, SEO’d personal online brand Hourlie – PeoplePerHour.com.

Filed Under: Branding, Hints & Tips, Marketing, Online community, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social networking, Tools, Wordpress

Saving a search engine ranking

December 3, 2012 by Peter Mahoney

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a Google UK search for “Peter Mahoney” no longer had me in fourth place. I wasn’t even on the first page.

Second page, fifth down. This sort of thing is normally an absolute disaster for an SEO expert, the sort of thing that gets them mocked on Twitter and thrown out into the void that exists somewhere between success and scrambling about in the pit of people who pretend they know what they’re talking about, but really don’t.

It’s a very full pit.

But since I’d done it on purpose, I wasn’t too worried.

There is so much information online about search engine optimisation (SEO); what works, what doesn’t, what used to but some people still does, what you get penalised for now that most people haven’t cottoned on to—basically a lot of misinformation that can harm your ranking.

This site is my sandpit. It’s where I play with things to find what works, and what doesn’t.

I can now confirm:

  • You’re best to have you’re tags on a WordPress site set to “nofollow”.
  • Have categories scanned sparingly, and certainly not by all pages.
  • Your Twitter feed is better off in your footer than your sidebar (right/left hand column).

I managed to get my ranking back of course, but not just by undoing all the tests I’d tried—I applied an optimised set of tweaks I’ve been working on, and got back the very next time Google spidered my site.

Let me know if you want me to send you up the rankings to, regardless of where you are right now.

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Wordpress

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