lyndseo.com

Search Engine Optimization :: Lyndsay Walker :: Toronto, Ontario

Monthly Archives: February 2009

What do you want to know? SEO Design and Information Architecture

In just a few weeks, I’ll be speaking on two panels at PubCon South – Career Gut Check (SEO/SEM Career Landscape) and SEO Design and Information Architecture.

For the Search Engine Optimization Site Design and Search Engine Optimization Deployment – Information Architecture panel (whew that’s a long name), I will be speaking on a few specific subjects:

  • Using CSS for Effective SEO
  • Page Structure: DIVs vs. Tables
  • WordPress Design
  • Using Analytics for SEO Design

So – tell me what you’d be interested in hearing more about.  Even if you can’t make it down to Austin next month, I’ll be sure to talk about it more here when I get back.

And if you are going to be there, stop by Salon A at 11:20 on Day 2 (Thursday, March 12) and say hi!

Duplicate content no more

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.

How does it work?

Simply enter the canonical tag within the head section of your web page.  Within the tag, you can declare the URL that should be indexed and crawled.  This will tell the crawlers that any other page with the exact or very similar content should not be indexed and link juice should instead be passed onto the declared URL.

Example:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.lyndseo.com/2009/02/duplicate-content-no-more”/>

Other Tips

  • Works on domains and subdomains
  • Does not work across domains
  • Relative URLs are okay, but absolute URLs are better

This is really exciting news… I only wish I had this information a month ago!

Big changes in 2009 for Lyndseo

A lot has happened since my last post on December 31, 2008.  Most notably, I am no longer working for WestJet Airlines.

I have decided to move back to Winnipeg where my husband and I have family.  It’s been a tough adjustment for us in Calgary. We gave it two years, but never really felt settled.

Right now, I’m trying to figure out what that means for me.  Either:

A) I look for employment as an in-house SEO
B) I look for employment at an agency
C) I take on clients independently through Lyndseo

Option A is not likely to happen. I’m really anxious to get a chance to work with a variety of companies and industries and have the ability to flex my internet marketing muscles.  SEO is most definitely my specialty, but in the past few years I’ve had the opportunity work get my hands dirty in other areas of web marketing as well.

I’m open to suggestions, job opportunities and contract opportunities.  You can send me a note through my contact page or come follow me @lyndseo on Twitter!