Technical SEO, search intelligence, and the code behind it — notes from 20+ years of making websites work harder.
Analytics and Webmaster Tools now talk to each other around +1, Likes and Tweets. Interesting, and a reminder of why having access to a client's Google accounts matters at pitch.
A few days with Google+ on the pre-invite list. The missing link between Facebook and Twitter — Circles done properly, privacy controls Facebook never quite managed, and no ads yet.
A Bing Webmaster Tools bug lets any account download data for domains they don't own. Tempting to keep quiet and use it for pitching — but I'd rather sleep at night, so I reported it.
A 'this site may be compromised' label on the SERP is enough to send 98% of searchers elsewhere — a figure from Microsoft. How Google and Bing flag malware, and how to avoid it.
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 that swaps URLs for site names in the snippets, and Matt Cutts on why Amazon outranks brand sites.
Looking back on 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 of the site 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 the figures that should convince anyone still on the fence.