Tag: seo

Reducing Page Load Times Dramatically Increased my Googlebot Crawl Rate

August 3rd, 2011 · MTF · Uncategorized 4 comments - Tags: google, seo, tech

We’ve heard it many times before: Google loves fast loading websites. Towards the end of this past June, I completed a move of my site Wantbox from a Dreamhost shared server to a dedicated Linode virtual server.

I really like Dreamhost’s hosting service, their nice dashboard and great customer service, but Wantbox had grown beyond shared hosting. I needed an environment that I could fully control and could no longer tolerate the downtime caused by other sites on my shared server.

I chose to move to LinodeÂ because of the competitive price, the positive experience from some friends and the great Django/Apache/MySQLÂ StackScript setup script by Filip.

Perceptually, I noticed that the pages seemed to be loading faster, and confirmed an approximate 35% page load improvement using WebPageTest.org.

What a Google Penalty Looks Like

July 21st, 2011 · MTF · Uncategorized 15 comments - Tags: google, seo, tech

My site Wantbox (find someone for remodeling the bathroom) recently recovered from a sitewide Google algorithmic penalty. With Google, you never know for sure why you were penalized, but after reading a lot of posts, interacting with a fewÂ SEO experts and doing some thoughtful head scratching I made a bunch of changes to the site and waited it out.

In the end, I believe that Google felt I had too many links fromÂ my online birth announcement site into Wantbox. I removed most of the links and added “rel=nofollow” to the remaining ones. I admitted my error in a reconsideration request to Google (Google’s response to my request included below), documented specifically what I had done to fix the problem and waited it out.

Below is the graph of how the Google penalty played out. I wasn’t surprised by the 90-day duration of the penalty: I had read other reports of similar link-based actions. I didn’t expect, however, the gradual ramp-back of the the “penalty release” period. In all, it took about 4 months to get back to normal traffic.

Source: Clicky Search Traffic (my favorite analytics service)

Distilled Pro SEO Seminar: Day Two Recap

May 19th, 2011 · MTF · Uncategorized 5 comments - Tags: seo, tech

: Pro SEO Seminar Boston

Yesterday I attended day two of Distilled’s Pro SEO Seminar in Boston. Once again, the lineup of speakers was impressive and the tips, tricks and advice was mind-blowingly awesome.

I have so many notes, ideas and tests to try coming out of this conference that I’m looking into cloning myself as an SEO intern. We all saw how well that worked out for Michael Keaton’s character in Multipicity.

Similar to the Day One Pro SEO Seminar recap that IÂ posted yesterday, as I track down the slides for each presentation I will link to them here. Â If you attended, please feel free to leave updates in the comments and I will elevate them to the post if appropriate. Each presenter’s Twitter account is linked below. Follow them.

Distilled Pro SEO Seminar: Day One Recap

May 17th, 2011 · MTF · Uncategorized 12 comments - Tags: seo, tech

Pro SEO Seminar Boston

Today I took a break from working on my newly launched Django websiteÂ TruthTruthlie.me to attend the first day of theÂ Distilled Pro SEO Seminar in Boston.

After reading all the great feedback and presentations from Distilled’s Link Love conferences in London and New Orleans, I was thrilled when they announced that the traveling SEO circus would be rolling through Boston.

Day one didn’t disappoint, with great presentations from Rand Fishkin, Justin Briggs and half a dozen other excellent presenters. Since I am a primarily a web developer who happens to love SEO, I particularly enjoyed Will Critchlow’s presentation describing the tools, sites and APIs that he leverages to get the data he needs toÂ excelÂ at SEO. Very geeky and very powerful. Loved it.

SEOmoz bot tattoo

Apparently I wasn’t the most excited person to be there, however, as seminar attendee @RebeccaSlosberg expressed her undying love for Rand and SEOmoz by getting the SEOmoz bot tattooed on her shoulder. Yes, it is indeed a permanent outpouring of love for Roger.

Unfortunately, the merciless Boston traffic, exacerbated by a light rain and neverending construction, caused me to miss the first 20 minutes of the seminar. I did catch everything after that, however, and my notes are below.

7 SEO Tips for your Django Site

March 25th, 2011 · MTF · Uncategorized 13 comments - Tags: django, google, seo, tech

“It is legal because I wish it.” – Louis XIV, France

Forget content. When it comes to the Internet, Google is king. If you please the king, you can do well.

If you cross the king, your disloyal ass will be thrown into the tower to watch your site wither and die, unless the king deigns to sets you free.

Some of the things that most please the king are “thick” (i.e. not “thin”) content pages, well structured site navigation, and honest links to and from your site.

In building my new site, Wantbox.com, I’ve both pleased and inadvertently crossed the king. The problem with this monarch: he doesn’t speak to his subjects, so if you end up in the tower, you’re never quite sure why.

Your best strategy is to know the rules of the kingdom, and do your best to follow them. Below are some of the best practice, white-hat SEO techniques that I have used to make sure the king stays happy.