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!

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

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

The Adidas website was brought to my attention recently, as it has apparently won some design awards. A quick Ctrl+U to look through the code and I stumble across this comment:

<!– HTML Content for SEO –>

Under the comment are a few bits and pieces followed by a whole load of copy, held within tables that are hidden by CSS. Now, I’m all for usability/accessibility, but blatantly advertising the fact that the copy is included for SEO purposes is surely a no-no in anyone’s book?

Quadzilla posted this earlier on today, and to be honest, with my current situation, I’m contemplating the €5000 entrance.

He’s organising an SEO fest at Oktoberfest, with some of the biggest names in the SEO/Affiliate industries, with a number of jumbo parties thrown in as well.

Current situation I hear you say? Yes, I handed in my notice at bet365 as I have been offered a consultancy doing SEO/PPC, working from home, with a lot more flexibility, etc.

Fun times ahead, though I doubt SEOktoberfest 2008 will be on the cards as 5K is a LOT of money, even with a load of Bavarian beer thrown in.

DaveN has blogged about a new tool available on his site which analyses all parts of a site in respect to SEO. It focuses mainly on keyword density, but also analyses links (both internal and external) and even the server header code. Very swish!

Keyword Density Tool