Search Engine Optimization Articles

20 Dec

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization 2 comments

Canonical Tag Delays with Googlebot in Web vs Mobile Index

I have recently been noticing an intriguing trend when I publish blog posts. When my posts publish, they are automatically tweeted out by a plugin called WordTwit. My posts are always indexed within two to four minutes.

What I am noticing, though, is that my posts are increasingly being indexed with the “?utm_source=rss” parameter, like so:

Click to Enlarge

16 Dec

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization 7 comments

When Data Disproves Assumptions

Back in August I mentioned in this post that one of my goals for this site was to double RSS readers by February 7th, which would mark 1 year since I started this site.

Well, let me tell you that I think I need to set loftier goals. At the time, I had 41 RSS subscribers. As of the 13th of December, I have 123!

Here are the statistics:

01 Dec

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization 10 comments

Social is about Traffic and Conversions, NOT Rankings

Listen up search marketers. Listen up good. I’ve got something to say.

The goal of social is to drive traffic, conversions, and brand loyalty, NOT rankings.

Many of the most socially shared posts on SEOmoz are focused around social and how social affects rankings. Just look at this graph, showing you the disparity in sharing between the social and non-social posts (with outliers removed that skewed the data unnecessarily):

Posts having to do with social get 63% more tweets and 61% more Facebook activity on average. WOW.

29 Nov

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization 8 comments

Awesome Ways to Build Website Wireframes

I am often needing to create wireframes for clients during technical site audits. Maybe you’re an SEO consultant or analyst as well, or you want to have a site developed and need to show your developer how you would like the site organized.

I’d like to share a couple of cool tools with you that I find extremely useful when building wireframes of existing sites as well as creating new wireframe mockups for sites to be developed.

Should I use a Rel=Canonical or 301 Redirect?

There seems to be a lot of confusion in the world of SEO today, especially in clients minds and with their technical teams, about when to use a 301 redirect and when to use the rel=canonical tag. My goal with today’s post is to explain the differences and talk through some of the nuances to help you think through which one pertains to your situation. Every situation is different, so take the time to read and figure out which is better for you.

17 Nov

John Doherty Posted in Technical SEO 37 comments

Lessons from Google about URL Lengths

A few weeks ago, I was reading through some posts on the official Google blogs, such as InsideSearch, WebmasterCentral, and the GoogleBlog. I was taking notes and sharing a few links via the Tweeters, and while doing such I noticed a link like this:

Search queries data is....what?

13 Nov

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization 5 comments

SEO: It’s all about the Content. And everything else.

We hear frequently that “content is king”, which I am coming to believe more and more, but the more that I come to believe that Content is King, I realize that content is nothing without other stuff done right. If you have a site with incredible content that deserves to rank, yet your site is terrible, you don’t deserve to rank. This is a waste of awesome.

08 Nov

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization 4 comments

SEO Facepalms: Don’t Hide Content Behind Javascript

Arguably one of the worst mistakes that can be made with a website is hiding content (inadvertently, not in a cloaking way) from search engines. Since on-page SEO and quality content have become larger ranking factors in the past 2 years (and especially since Panda first rolled out in February), we have to make sure that content is quality and visible.

For optimal SEO benefit, do not develop a site in Flash. And, do not hide content behind Javascript or other code.

05 Nov

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization 4 comments

#Searchlove New York Recap – Day 2

*If you haven’t read it, check out the Searchlove Day 1 Recap before reading this post*

Searchlove New York day 2 started out with a bang. People rolled in looking a bit bedraggled, but mostly none the worse for wear, from the previous night’s Halloween party. If you want to see pictures of some of SEO’s finest looking great in Halloween costumes (we had Steve Zizzou, Buzz Lightyear, a cowboy with a horse, and Waldo, just to name a few), check them out here:

Potter and Zissou — Chad Burgess (Harry) and Rand Fishkin (Steve Zissou)

#Searchlove New York Recap – Day 1

The first ever Distilled Searchlove conference in New York City happened on Monday and Tuesday, the 31st of October and 1st of November. Being a Distilled employee in New York, I was privileged to attend the entire conference and to get to lead a table on Panda First Aid as well, which I hope was beneficial to everyone who attended. Aside from the parties (which are always awesome), the content was top-notch. I am consistently blown away by the amount I learn at conferences, and this one did not disappoint.

In the past I’ve recapped Linklove, which almost killed me, ProSEO Boston, and Mozcon (which also almost killed me). For this one, even though I live tweeted the whole conference (which almost killed my fingers), I’m not going to do a full recap. Instead, I want to follow suit in something that Will Critchlow has taught me and give you some actionable bits and bobs from each talk.

Let’s rock and roll.

28 Oct

John Doherty Posted in Technical SEO 2 comments

Beginner’s Guide to the .HTACCESS File

Linkbuilding gets all of the love in the SEO community, but we often forget that technical SEO is the solid foundation upon which linkbuilding and SEO are built. If you don’t have your information architecture, redirects, and solid code in place, a lot of your efforts will be wasted.

Today I want to talk about the .htaccess file. There are many ways to implement 301 redirects (remember that 302 temporary redirects are bad news), but if you are using an Apache server, the best way to implement a redirect server-side is via the .htaccess file.

Note: if you’re not hosting on your own server, you must check with your hosting provider. Some hosting providers, such as Bluehost, will help you out with redirects, or at least redirecting a domain you bought for ORM reasons.

26 Oct

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization 7 comments

Meta Tags that will NOT help SEO

Sometimes as I am browsing through the Interwebs, I come across something that dumbfounds me. Sometimes this dumbfoundery is completely blatant and in plain sight. Other times, however, the goodness is hidden beneath the surface.

I’m talking about hidden gems within the code that someone read somewhere would help them out with SEO on their site. And while I wish I was kidding about these following incredible meta descriptions, I am not.

Hear me loud and clear folks:

These following meta descriptions actually exist in the wild of the Internet and do not help your SEO. Do not use them on your website.

Now that I have that off my chest, here are some amazing meta tags that I have found on the Internet.

Here’s a Paid Links Backlink Profile Visualized

While I’ve posted a few times about SEO Excel spreadsheets, and I’ve used link profiles a couple of times in blog posts, I’ve never been able to show what a backlink profile full of backlinks looks like. Back to the beginning A healthy backlink profile is one that has links of all types. It is […]

11 Oct

John Doherty Posted in Linkbuilding No comments

Letting Testimonials Speak – I’m Stoked for SearchLove NYC

SearchLove NYC happens at the end of this month. This is the first time that Distilled has brought a conference to the City that Never Sleeps, where I am fortunate enough to live and work. Full disclosure: In case you don’t know, I work for Distilled in New York. That being said, I would write […]

01 Oct

John Doherty Posted in Search Engine Optimization No comments

My Search Personalization Presentation from Podcamp Philly

I’m getting up on stage at 1pm in Philadephia at Podcamp Philly to talk about “Search Personalization – What It Is and How To Use It”. This presentation covers basic information about search personalization, strategies to get more exposure for your site and self in the search results through social media, and also some other […]

John Doherty

Category: Search Engine Optimization