Technical SEO, search intelligence, and the code behind it — notes from 20+ years of making websites work harder.
A 'this site may be compromised' label on the SERP sends 98% of searchers elsewhere — a Microsoft figure. How Google and Bing flag malware, and how to avoid the label.
ICANN opens up generic top-level domains to virtually any word, for a not-so-small $185k fee. A few thoughts on the SEO side — authority doesn't migrate with the extension.
Google, Bing and Yahoo! finally agreed on a common vocabulary for semantic mark-up. Why schema.org is worth implementing even if richer SERP snippets are never guaranteed.
Three small Google moves worth noticing: descriptive terms in local search, a test swapping URLs for site names in snippets, and Matt Cutts on why Amazon outranks brand sites.
After two years in London agencies: SEO is not a discipline in isolation. Bureaucracy kills projects as surely as a bad backlink profile, and the ROI follows the flexibility.
Once you've decided a mobile version is worth it, the real work starts. A practical checklist — page size, sitemap, navigation, images, XHTML Mobile and a separate subdomain.
Notes from a Google London training on mobile: smartphone sales already past the PC, 15% of queries from mobile, and figures that should convince anyone still on the fence.
Hover on the magnifying glass, see the page before clicking — Instant Preview changes what searchers judge. The impact on design, copy, rank, PPC, and Flash-heavy sites.
Import some data from a CSV, try to sort it, and Excel starts protesting about the blank rows. A very simple trick in five steps to wipe them out — same on Mac and Windows.