Migrating the site
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The poor, neglected blog
You know a site has been left to die when the first time you realise it’s not even working, is when you get a notification from Google saying your very old AdSense account is going to be disabled as it hasn’t served an impression for however long.
Not remember why you even had said AdSense account is probably another hint that you’ve probably not been taking web-dev/blogging serious for a long while either. 10 years in fact, since the last time I posted here. What can I say, I’ve been busy! A lot has changed in a decade.
So, why hadn’t their been an impression, because the poor, neglected blog, something I originally cared for very much, had been half-hacked, Wordfence had kicked in, something had tried to update and then, it all just pretty much died, without me knowing. No access to WP Admin, nothing would load. It took a few hours (I had to remember FTP details for one!) but I finally got it back up and running, with all of the content here. It has, however, been de-indexed from most search engines (another reason for this post) and no longer ranks for terms I originally spent a long, long time trying to rank for, not just my name. Ohh well, worse things happen at sea I guess.
Anyways, adding a page to A. trigger a sitemap refresh and B. try out this new “block” editor WordPress has introduced.
Bloody hell, columns are now a default feature, no more having to add shortcodes and that jazz, which would invariable fuck everything up.
Seriously, they’re in here by default, how nice!
Anyways, let’s see if this helps it get back in the index again.
European Cookie Laws – Royal Navy SNAFU
There is plenty of information regarding the new EU cookie laws which have come into effect recently, as well as numerous posts from various experts in the field as to what the new cookie laws will mean for businesses. However, I just wanted to highlight how implementing the warning regarding cookies, as the new law requires, could lead to a few issues with your site and the search engines, especially if you’ve missed out a few key elements that relate to SEO when building your site.
Enter: The Royal Navy. They have successfully implemented the meta description tag on their homepage and various other pages… however not all pages have had a unique meta description included in the page header:
Add to this the fact that their new cookie warning appears at the top of the page when you first visit the site, as per the screenshot below, and you’re looking for trouble:
You see, in the absence of a meta description, Google and other search engines will usually pick up the first piece of text it finds and given it’s prominence, use it to form the snippet in the search results. Whoops:
Easily fixed, but perhaps something that shouldn’t have been overlooked in the first place. Try not to fall into the same trap.
Can you use “equals”, “equal to”, “=” in an SEO page title?
I was just doing a few tests and wondered, from an SEO standpoint, could you use an equal to symbol (=) in a page title, and would it display properly in a SERP? Don’t ask me why… it’s just something I was curious about!
I will obviously update this post once the results are in :)
Full Tilt Poker License Revoked
Following on from my post back in June when Full Tilt’s License had been suspended, it has just been announced that the Alderney Gambling Control Commission have revoked Full Tilt Poker’s license with immediate effect.
Here is the announcement from the AGCC in full:
AGCC Commissioners, sitting as a tribunal, have today revoked the licences of Vantage Limited, Filco Limited and Oxalic Limited, trading as Full Tilt Poker (FTP), with immediate effect. This follows the earlier suspension of the licences on 29th June 2011.
At a hearing held in London over six days, it emerged that FTP had fundamentally misled AGCC about their operational integrity by continuously reporting as liquid funds balances that had been covertly seized or restrained by US authorities, or that were otherwise not actually available to the operator. Serious breaches of AGCC regulations include false reporting, unauthorised provision of credit, and failure to report material events.
At the commencement of these proceedings on 26th July, AGCC made clear its preference to hold the hearing in public, to the benefit of players and media alike. However, the tribunal was persuaded that the hearing should be held in camera on the basis of claims by FTP that this would maximise the chance of a commercial rescue of the business for the benefit of players. For this reason an adjournment of 54 days was allowed.
It is important to note that the revocation of FTP’s licences does not, as has been suggested, prevent a reactivation of the business under new ownership and management. Unresolved claims by players against FTP become a matter for the police and civil authorities. Now that FTP’s licences have been revoked, AGCC no longer has jurisdiction over these companies.
The licence of Orinic Limited, a recently added geographic sub-division of the FTP poker room, remains suspended.
The determination notice containing the decision of the Commissioners and reasons for it is available athttp://www.gamblingcontrol.org/userfiles/file/Determination%20Notice%20290911.pdf
What this means for the players who are still trying to extract their funds from FTP is as yet unknown, but it certainly isn’t looking good…