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Archive for the ‘Search Engine Optimization’ Category

Google Profile – Personalized URLs and Crawlable Links

April 14th, 2009 Lyndsay Walker 2 comments

Google Profiles are a new and, in my opinion, underused resource. Perhaps you didn’t like it because of the unfriendly URL, but you can now get your very own vanity URL with your Google username.

Example: http://www.google.com/profiles/lyndseo

And wait! What’s that? Adding links? And these links are crawlable?

Google Profile lets you add links with whatever anchor text you decide – and as of right now there is no rel=nofollow attached to those links. They do give you some guidances – “Examples: Online photo albums, social network profiles, personal websites” – as a fallback, I would assume, for those who may will try to manipulate it.

Duplicate content no more

February 12th, 2009 Lyndsay Walker 5 comments

Today at SMX West, the three big search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft) announced a new tag to help reduce duplicate content on the web.

This new tool is called the “canonical tag”.  If you’ve spent some time learning about SEO before, I’m sure you’re familiar with the term.  Canonical refers to a page that has more than one URL.  For example, the www and non-www versions of your web site are considered different sites.  Google has had a tool through Webmaster Tools for some time to help with this, but the announcement of this new tag comes from all three search engines meaning that they *should* all obey it.

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Does blogging make you a better SEO?

December 22nd, 2008 Lyndsay Walker 1 comment

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise that I’m not much of a writer, given the frequency of updates to this blog. In fact, I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m a numbers girl. Absolutely left-brained.  Writing is not my strongest suit.

Does that mean I’m not as good at search engine optimization?  Not at all.  For all the time I could spend writing blog posts, I instead spend time reading up other people’s content, learning and absorbing as much as I can. I just don’t feel the need to repeat what’s already being said elsewhere.

SEO Myths with WestJet’s Lyndsay Walker – 5 Question Interview

June 3rd, 2008 Lyndsay Walker No comments

A couple of weeks ago, I was featured on the digital marketing blog OneDegree.com. I discussed SEO Don’ts Myths and Scams, the panel I will be speaking on at Search Engine Strategies Toronto on June 17-18. Hope to see you there – here is the interview.

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Robots.txt – Disallow a directory, but allow select files?

May 22nd, 2008 Lyndsay Walker 2 comments

In the past, I haven’t done anything overly complicated with robots.txt, and I have a situation I need a little help with.

I have a directory I want to disallow, with the exception of a select few files in that directory. Is there a way I can say “disallow all but “?

Your help is appreciated!

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WestJet’s Hiring: Manager, e-Attraction Web Business

January 15th, 2008 Lyndsay Walker No comments
City: Calgary Province: AB
Category: Marketing/Sales Job ID: MK008-08
Posting Date: January 8, 2008 Closing Date: January 28, 2008
Duration: Full Time
Description:Looking for a great place to work? A place where an award-winning culture means empowerment, teamwork and a passion for what you do?
Then think WestJet. It’s a great place to land.
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Hey FlightStats – great customer service!

January 15th, 2008 Lyndsay Walker No comments

Not three hours after I posted last month about the incorrect spelling of WestJet in Google’s flight tracking (supplied by www.flightstats.com) I received an email from Conducive Technology Corp’s CEO Jeff Kennedy. He stated that the spelling error had been corrected and would be updated within a few hours.

Actually for a few days the actual word “WestJet” didn’t show up at all, but now I am pleased to say that WestJet is spelled correctly in Google’s FlightStats results.

Thanks to Jeff and the FlightStats team for doing what more people should – watching the web and blogs for any mention of their company name, and going into action when something needs to be done.

dmoz returning from the grave

December 23rd, 2006 Lyndsay Walker No comments

After a few months of being in a complete coma-induced state, dmoz appears to be showing signs of life.

Now, it’s only the Editor’s Section that’s back online, but submissions should be soon to follow, right?  I don’t mind that the editors have some time for theirselves first.  Clear out some old crap, some of those submissions that have been sitting in the queue for probably close to year, maybe even more.  Or hey – wipe out existing pending submissions altogether and start with a clean slate.

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What Google Toolbar PR Update?

October 2nd, 2006 Lyndsay Walker 1 comment

Some people reported seeing the Google Toolbar PageRank updating as early as Friday, and Matt has confirmed it on his blog today.

But I see nothing. Now that’s frustrating. If you’re gonna “push the big red button”, why not implement the update across all datacenters? What’s the point of only doing a few at a time – or only a few and that’s it?

Now, I’ve been at this game long enough to know that TBPR doesn’t mean too much in the grand scheme of things, but its nice to know that my link structure is being appreciated. Is that so much to ask?

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