I’m looking for someone to fill an SEO job based in London. A bit of a background on the company:

• Based in Canary Wharf
• The world’s leading digital and direct media agency, with more than 650 professionals in 39 offices across 32 countries.
• Part of the second largest communications group in the world
• Fast growing, even in the current economic climate

A bit about the job, you should be proficient in:

• On and offsite optimisation techniques
• Coding in web languages
• Analytical analysis and reporting
• Development of proposals and presentation of such

The ideal candidate should also be proactive (I had to put that in, be thankful I didn’t include: “be a team player” or some other clichéd rubbish) and a team player (hahaha, I crack me up).

No, but seriously now, if you think you fit the bill, please leave a comment with your details and I’ll be in touch! There are plenty of perks in working here:

• We have a bar on the 9th floor, that serves booze, no joke, every day from 5pm. And it’s subsidised. Not free, but cheap, a lot cheaper than anywhere else within the square mile!
• The bar also serves proper coffee, all day, which is also cheap. Think at least half the price of a Costa or Starbucks, and it’s decent, non-instant stuff too (we all know SEO’s run on caffeine and alcohol)
• The rest of the guys here are all awesome, search minded people, just like you and me, and it’s nothing short of BRILLIANT sharing an office with them
• The Bolivian SEO guy buys you coffee and beer when he’s late for work, and that’s quite regular!
• Did I mention the bar?
• With the cheap beer?
• And the free jukebox?
• Which you can plug your ipod into?
• And the free pool table?
• AND THE BEER?

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

During a recent project involving a fair few languages for a large technology company, we came up against the fact that the local translation of an acronym, didn’t really make sense to the client. We therefore wanted to ensure that the client was happy (by including our target keyword) as well as we were targeting the localised keyword to ensure we caught the traffic. Our decision: include the local word, followed by the English acronym in parentheses, or brackets.

But does Google display them in the SERPs?

A quick search brought up nothing, so the power of the blog prevailed once more:

Image of SERP showing parentheses in page titles

And there you have it, Google WILL display parentheses in page titles!

The “SEO Blackburn” article I put up received a fair amount of attention, so I thought I would actually put something productive up for those in and around the Blackburn area looking for Search Engine Optimisation services.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation can be defined as the manipulation of a website in order to increase its relevance towards a given keyword or set of keywords. However, as the online space evolves, more and more “social” elements can also have an effect on a website, its performance, and ultimately, its levels of traffic and conversions.

What can affect SEO?

Any online, and in many cases offline, promotional activity could have a positive, or indeed negative effect on a website. This includes:

• Editorial – Online or offline
• Advertorial – Online or offline
• Other forms of press – Especially online
• Social Networking Activity – Do your users, clients, staff, associates use social networks? This could impact your SEO perfomance
• Blogging – As above

As I’ve mentioned before, if you’re looking for SEO in Blackburn, please leave a comment and I’m sure I can point you in the right direction!

In May 2008 I took the SEOmoz.org SEO quiz, and was happy with my 86% ranking of: SEO Master.

I stumbled back across the quiz a few weeks ago, and have been meaning to show off my latest result, so here it is:

SEO Dark Lord – 99%

Are you an SEO Expert?

Blackburn – My Surname
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation, something I did as a consultant in mainland Europe, something I now do as a full time employee of the digital marketing arm a reasonably large marketing firm here in the UK.
Blackburn – Also the name of a reasonably large town in Lancashire, England.

Not having thought of this before, imagine my surprise to find that my blog has started ranking for “SEO Blackburn“.

So, as a concious blogger who knows that people finding my site whilst searching for a Blackburn SEO might not find what they’re looking for at this blog, please leave a message here and I’ll be sure to pass your information on to someone who would be able to help with any or all of your SEO requirements!

2009’s Wimbledon Championships at The All England Club are well underway and I quickly threw “wimbledon” into Google this afternoon to grab the latest scores. Yes, I am one of those people who uses Google as a navigation tool rather than a Search or “Discover” engine at times, and I knew that the single word query would take me straight to what I wanted! Continue reading: Wimbledon Coverage 2009

I’m not going to go HUGELY into this one, but how can the New York Post get away with this: Continue Reading: Buying and Selling Links

Google’s insight tool gives a relatively surprising view leading up to the European elections. Search trends on the so called “fringe” parties are on the up, with a lot of interest heading to the independant party. Continue Reading: European Elections – Search Trends

Latent semantic analysis, or latent semantic indexing as it is more popularly known now, was first patented in 1988 by a number of scientists, including Susan Dumais, a Principal Researcher in the Adaptive Systems & Interaction Group of Microsoft Research, and is defined as a method by which the relationships between a set of documents and the terms they contain are analysed by producing a set of concepts related to both the terms and the documents. This concept can be applied:
Continue reading: Latent Semantic Indexing

Question: Can using a load balancing system be detrimental to your SEO efforts?

I have recently noticed a lot of daily fluctuations in the SERPs for a reasonably competitive keyword that my client is targeting. One day it’ll go down 18 spots, then jump by 9, then again by 10, then down by 12, it’s all over the shop. Weirder still, we’ve not been changing much recently either, they just keep bouncing up and down. Then I spotted flagfox was showing a Dutch IP, which for a UK focussed site, isn’t great news.
Continue reading: Load Balancing and SEO