SES London 2009

Back from Search Engine Strategies London, (SES London) 2009 and straight back into solid work. Firstly thanks to those of you we met at SES London and all of the helpful and useful advice. Even the UK weather held up for most of the conference.

It was great to see some interesting companies at the expo. I am looking forward to the launch of PR Web UK. This will be very interesting for future releases on behalf of many of our clients due to the targeting of the UK press agencies.

So already this year we have seen some changes in the world of Internet marketing like the new canonical tag to help eradicate duplicate content being indexed from the same site and the URL policy change in Google AdWords.

What is the Canonical Tag?

It is a way for websites to specify the preferred version of a web page if it is duplicated via multiple URL strings. This is particularly relevent to eCommerce websites where the same product page can appear via different searches with virtually the same text or exactly the same text.

To get around this duplicate content and to stop it all being indexed and essentially 'clogging up' the Internet, all of the major search engines have agreed that the Canonical Tag will allow website owners to specify to Google which copy of the page they want to have indexed.

Basically on the pages you do not want to show in the index you add the Canonical tag in the head section of a website in the following format;

This will advise the search engines to only count the URL indicated in the tag and what's more, it will pass on the PageRank from the pages you do not want indexed.

New AdWords URL Policy

This is also quite an interesting one, especially if you have some large AdGroups running with multiple websites in them.

Basically this will no longer be allowed. All AdGroups must only contain a single domain. This means that those of you that might have set up AdGroups with lots of different AdGroups with adverts pointing to a range of websites will have to get these in order or they are likely to be suspended.

Well that's the latest SEO news from Artemis but if you have any questions then please get in touch.

Google Latitude

So there are cynics who think Google is after world dominance, a sort of Big Brother who knows what your habits and hobbies are, who you like to talk to, how long you spend on the Internet, shows pictures of your street and in some cases even shows shots at street level of 'real people'. So what could they possibly offer next that goes another step closer to monitoring your EVERY move?

Well maybe we could find out next week when Google launches their brand new service Google Latitude.

So what can Google Latitude do?

Well here is a simple question;
Would you like to know where your husband / wife, boyfriend / girlfriend, children are when you can't reach them (or don't believe them)?

Well Google Latitude uses a mixture of GPS (Global Positioning System), wireless technology (WIFI) and mobile phone tower (node) to determine where you are via your mobile device, dependent upon which of the aforementioned technologies your mobile phone uses. The Google latitude service is really an extension of the current Google Maps service, which has already caused a lot of controversy over the street level images showing people as clearly as if they were standing in front of you.

It is available on the majority of Blackberries, most Windows Mobile 5.0 devices, most Symbian S60 devices, and phones powered by Google’s Android mobile software, such as the T-Mobile G1. Unfortunately (or fortunately) those of you with iPhone or iPod Touch will have to wait little longer although it is coming...

How Google Latitude work?
1) Download the new version of Google Maps to your mobile phone
2) Invite your friends via email to join
3) When they have accepted and are part of the 'Google Community' (they have a Google account in other words) with a profile picture you will suddenly see their 'mug shot' on the map.

What's more you can get directions to their location and even use your desktop (or laptop) via iGoogle to see the same information.

Don't worry though for those of you that do not want to be tracked Google has though ahead and has come up with a variety of ways to ensure you cannot be tracked.
So there you have it Google Latitude.

Remember WE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!!

Tracking Search Engine Rankings

As an SEO company we are always researching articles and information relating to the world of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Sometimes we come across some useful information that we like to share with clients and fellow SEO experts alike.

This week we came across a great video simple entitled "When to Track Rankings".

I recommend that you take six minutes and watch the video as it answers a lot of questions about ranking fluctuations and why you should not always focus solely on ranking results.

It highlights some obvious reasons why rankings can fluctuate in different data centres and at different times of the day.

Lets take an example:

We do the SEO for a popular interior designer in Marbella called Richard Lewis Interiors and we conducted the search "interior designers marbella" in Google.Co.UK and in Google.Com at exactly the same time.

Here are the results;

Google.Com



Google.Co.UK



As you can see the both results are position 1 in SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) but in the second image there are a bunch of local results which has essentially pushed the result further down the page, which WILL have an impact on visitor levels.

Other things that play a part in rankings for individuals are things like personalisation i.e. people using iGoogle to alter their own results, news results appearing and short term ranking results such as articles and press releases.

What the video advises us is what we have always advised our SEO clients;

Concentrate on the spread of keywords, the visitors these produce and the pages they view. Use the website analytics to monitor results as opposed to constantly checking SERP on a daily basis.

Take a look at the full video below


SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday - When to Track Rankings from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.