Lyndsay's SEO Blog

Lyndsay's Blog has a new home

2006-11-28T10:11:00.000-06:00

Please update your bookmarks! I've begun the long process of redesigning my web site, and as part of that, I need to move my blog away from the root directory. You can now find my blog located here: http://www.lyndseo.com/blog/ ~ Lyndsay

PubCon Wrap Up

2006-11-17T20:04:00.000-06:00

It's Friday night and I'm cursing the fact that I booked myself on the red-eye back to Winnipeg because it's only 6:00 p.m. but I can't really go anywhere thanks to needing to be at the airport by 9:00. Most people are still out and about (yeah yeah imagine I'm saying it with the Canadian accent so many people told me I have) and not hanging out in the hotel bar. What a fantastic week. WebmasterWorld's PubCon definately has a distinctive taste to it, with many differences as well as similarities to SES. There are many things I loved about both. I really enjoy that PubCon caters to a more "techie" kind of crowd, something I'd say I lean towards as an SEO. It's also very informal, which is awesome. But SES is a larger event, and therefore all the "extras" are proportionate. For example, SES San Jose had a much larger Exhibit Hall, which yes was quite nice. Mind you, being able to complete the floor and talk to everyone I wanted to in less than three hours was great, but I missed seeing a few exhibitors, including Bruce Clay. I hope to find a good balance between PubCon and SES. I think it great that Brett is taking the spring off to tend to "fatherly" duties, and I am really looking forward to coming back to Las Vegas next year. I also look forward to SES New York, and am now sorry I didn't plan to attend SES Chicago. One thing at a time, but I am sad to think it'll be another five months before my next conference. And now after spending time packing and shopping (hey I've got a certain allowance of duty free, you can bet I'm going to take advantage of it!) it's time to say "see ya next year" to PubCon Las Vegas.

Appreciation of some fabulous people

2006-11-17T19:58:00.000-06:00

Here's my shout out to some awesome people that I encountered during my week at WebmasterWorld's PubCon Las Vegas 2006. Dan Thies - Dan, you're still a nice guy ;) But it was great seeing you again. Dustin Woodard (a.k.a. Web Connoisseur) - It was awesome to meet you, and thanks for taking care of Sally at the Playboy Club. Colin McDougal - I know we only spoke for a few minutes, but it was great to talk to a fellow Canuck - Go Lions! (for Sunday anyway - I don't want anyone to think I'm no longer a huge Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan) Shirley Tan - Shirley, you make me smile and perk up just by being your bubbly self. Can't wait to meet up again. Matt Tuens - My sports buddy!! Loved chatting about the NHL and was really impressed by your knowledge of the CFL and the Grey Cup. John Marshall - I think one of my favourite PubCon moments was dinner on Tuesday night. If you're ever in Ontario, let me know and I'll take you on a wine tour of the Niagara Region. Craig Paddock - Boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl. Got it. Though I think you really just wanted to sit in between Sally and Jessica in the limo! Sorry I didn't get a chance to see you before you left. Rob Snell - Rob, you were probably my greatest inspiration this entire week and I am so thrilled to have gotten to know you. I'll be looking for the double-wide spam trailer next time I'm in the south. Jessica Bowman - Thanks a million for sharing your hotel room with me - I had a blast. We managed to have enough hot water for both of us in the morning, and even kept a few inches of counterspace available in the bathroom. It's a miracle! Good luck with business.com, I know you'll do fantastic. Dave and Sally Burke - You guys just rock my world, there's no other way to put it. Thank you for everything you did for me this week, it will not be forgotten. Even if you guys don't make it to Winnipeg for the Grey Cup on Sunday, you know you're welcome to come visit any time. Joe Morin - Joe, you are THE MAN. I had an absolute blast this week, thank you for all you've done for me - including finishing my drink that apparently has a completely different meaning in the USA than it does in Canada. I'll always remember the bath tub in your suite (and please, send me a link to the photo so people don't think I'm totally crazy!). I probably missed a few, I apologize if I did. I met a lot of great people, and missed out on meeting other great people. Next time!

PubCon Las Vegas 2006 - Thursday

2006-11-16T20:44:00.000-06:00

As it turns out, staying in, relaxing and getting some work done Wednesday was a great move because I woke up Thursday feeling refreshed and raring to go. Danny Sullivan gave the keynote address on Thursday morning and talking about search and where search is heading. I'm going to have to review someone else's notes on his speech because unfortunately, I was in the back and wasn't able to see or hear much. Now, Thursday was a special day. The morning contained the conference's final separated sessions while the afternoon was home to two Super Sessions. I had the pleasure of attending the Ecommerce Site Optimization session where Rob Snell gave an outstanding presentation of Yahoo! Stores and the best way to organize your SEO strategy on an ecommerce site. I know that I was not the only one who several times said "why didn't I think of that??" Kudos Rob, you did a great job and bring on the redneck humour - I love it! I also attended the Bots session and, to be honest, was a bit disappointed. While Bill Atchison and Dan Kramer were obvious experts on the subject, I just didn't feel that being told what bots SHOULD do was all that beneficial to me. Vanessa Fox outlined the best use of Google's Webmaster Console, a topic I always love hearing about since I think I'm a tiny bit in love with this service. Brett Tabke spoke about why WebmasterWorld banned all bots, and even gave an inside glance to WMW's admin panel, and how they filter the good bots from the bad. The first Super Session of the afternoon was a celebrity panel (Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer, Greg Boser, Todd Friesen, Danny Sullivan) running a site clinic. I missed the first portion, taking advantage of an emptier Exhibit Hall, but arrived in time to see a classic site of how NOT to do SEO. The woman admitted she had no idea what she was doing, and claimed not to have found a programmer in 10 years to help her. I do feel sorry for her, after hearing the audience bursting out laughing several times, and several panel members giving her the tough love approach. But I'm sure she came to PubCon to learn, and I have no doubt that many people have likely offered her assistance. And for the last session of the day, we listened to representatives from Yahoo, Ask, MSN (oh sorry LIVE), and Google talk about what's new and what they've accomplished. An awesome way to recap the week, and it's always great to hear the speakers talk passionately about their products. Ask threw another cocktail reception Thursday night, though this time it was hosted in the Exhibit Hall - much much nicer. I arrived late again and this time didn't get a chance to do much mingling. I joined Rob Snell and Dave Burke at the hotel steakhouse for a VERY inspiring dinner. These guys are great and gave me TONS of tips and advice while I am starting my own SEO agency.

PubCon Las Vegas 2006 - Wednesday

2006-11-15T20:43:00.000-06:00

Now, someone please tell me about the curse of Wednesdays. Just like in San Jose, I wake up Wednesday barely able to function. I did miss John Bataille's keynote, however had a very pleasant conversation with Shirley Tan and Jeannine Crooks at the breakfast table. To give you an idea of how out of it I was that day, I just had to go look at the session grid to remember what session I attended. Oh yes, I attended "What Every Webmaster Should Know" - a taste of programming and how it can and should be implemented, as well as the Search Bloggers panel. Rand Fishkin, also known as SEOmoz, cracks me up. I had the pleasure of meeting him in the hotel bar the night before, where he informed everyone of their blog's Technorati ranking. My blog, of course, not exactly a top 10 (times 1000) blog, but now I didn't have the opportunity to appeal to an audience of 2000 for a link the way Guy did. Good times, good times.

PubCon Las Vegas 2006 - Tuesday

2006-11-14T20:41:00.000-06:00

Guy Kawasaki's key note was great. He knew how to keep the audience listening, a hard task at 9:00 a.m. for most of us who were out late the night before, and suffering from at least a two-hour time change. Don't worry Guy, I won't let the bozos get me down. The first day seemed a tad disorganized but to be fair to Brett Tabke, they did a phenominal job considering the last minute rush of registrations. Having lunch in one of the session rooms caused some confusion, but not nearly as much as having Ask.com's cocktail reception in that same session room - with 2000 chairs set up in that room, it left little room for mingling and most people were crammed up against the bar. Thankfully, I arrived fashionably late and only had to tolerate the masses for about 10 minutes and yet still managed to meet several new people. Tuesday night's dinner with Dave and Sally Burke, Rob Snell, Matt Tuens, and John Marshall was extermely interesting. And I'm not even talking about the hour wait to be seated, followed by the hour wait for our food. The conversation was lively and I'd be lying if I didn't come away with more than a handful of insights. The night was capped off by hanging out in the hotel bar for a few hours, exchanging success stories, tips, and Technorati rankings (Thanks Rand!)

Two Weeks to Vegas

2006-10-28T18:31:00.000-05:00

Doesn't it seem like forever since SES San Jose? Two weeks from tomorrow I'll be in Las Vegas, gearing up for another whirlwind week. I'm pumped and ready - I think! I am looking for a place to stay the night of the 12th, preferrably near the airport. Can anyone recommend a good place? So far it looks like there's a Best Western and Howard Johnson. I'd like something with a COMPLIMENTARY airport/hotel shuttle, and one that runs all night since I'm getting in later. The session grid is exciting. Brett Tabke did a great job. So many great keynotes, lots of rather interesting sessions! Yes, two weeks indeed. What a long 14 days. BUT as soon as I get home I'm gonna watch the Winnipeg Blue Bombers claim the Grey Cup right here at home. GO BLUE!

What Google Toolbar PR Update?

2006-10-02T14:05:00.000-05:00

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?

Matt Cutts & Lyndsay Walker - BFF

2006-08-31T15:33:00.000-05:00

I'm a little late jumping on the "Matt Cutts and I are best friends forever!" bandwagon, but I just got a hold of these pictures taken at the Google Dance and SES San Jose. (Thanks Joe!) (Disclaimer: I do not personally know Matt Cutts.) Anywho, yes, as you can see, I was one of the "Cuttlettes" running around the conference. It was a ton of a fun, and at least that night I *knew* why people were pointing and laughing at me! ;) It was a pleasure meeting Matt, though unfortunately I really didn't get a chance to chat with him as he was busy debating with the MSN guy at the moment. Some other other really great people I met that I have to mention are... Jessica Bowman Joe Morin David and Sally Burke Rob Snell Craig and Juan (sorry guys I forget your last names!) Bruce Clay Kid Disco Adam Lasnik I fully expect this list to grow with every conference to come. Please stop and say hi if you see me sometime! I'll be at PubCon Las Vegas, but am not attending SES Chicago. Hopefully, I'll make it to SES New York.

Danny Sullivan leaving Search Engine Watch

2006-08-29T10:05:00.000-05:00

This morning Danny Sullivan posted on his blog, daggle.com, that he will be leaving Search Engine Watch. Danny explained that in the past year since Jupiter Media sold SEW to Incisive Media, things were not progressing in a way that he was comfortable contributing to. And so, his contract with Incisive Media will not be renewed. Danny will chair SES Chicago in December, but he says it is unlikely that he will be a part of any further Search Engine Strategies conferences. What will happen now? That's really hard to say. Danny is wise and has a great following. Whatever he chooses to do, he will no doubt find success and support. Right now I think its hard to say how it will impact the SEO/SEM world - but no matter what, I think there's a lot of potential for new growth and I'm anxious to see what happens.

Google Hacks - Third Time's a Charm?

2006-08-23T14:31:00.000-05:00

I was very excited to receive my copy of the third edition of Google Hacks this morning. Just in time! I am driving to Ontario tomorrow and will need something to read to pass the time during stop overs. (Why am I driving to Ontario? To see if I can sell my 2000 Ford Mustang there. Click the link for more info!) Anywho, I see that the new addiction of Google Hacks includes information on Google Maps, which should make for an interesting read. I'll be sure to post a review when I get back.

No more wait for Google Analytics

2006-08-16T13:48:00.000-05:00

The Google Analytics blog announced today that you no longer have to wait to start up an Analytics account. Brett Crosby talks about the ways to set up your Google Analytics, formerly Urchin, account - either by going to Google Analytics' home page or by using the Analytics tab in your AdWords account. I've been using Google Analytics for close to a year now, and it has been great in offering all the stats I want to see. I've used it for e-commerce sites, call-to-action sites, blogs, and informational sites. I love being able to cross reference data, and the referral data is very specific. I'm also noticing that the maximum number of sites I can use my account for has doubled from five to ten. This will help avoid needing a new Google account when I've run out of available sites. If you haven't signed yourself up for a Google Analytics account yet, go for it. It's free, easy to use, and if you don't like it just remove the JavaScript code from your site.

Back to work

2006-08-14T15:11:00.000-05:00

Well, first of all, getting up at 5:30 a.m. is a big change from getting up at 8:00, or 10:00 as my body thought it was, last week in San Jose. But that's alright, I'll be okay in a few days. Just prior to me leaving for my trip, our IT department managed to crash the server that held everyone's files. Beautiful. I never did get it straightened around before I left. I was gone for a full week, though, certainly it would be fixed by time I get back to work today, right? Wrong... so under orders from the IT department, I could not use my computer until they had restored all my files and folders. But, hey, what a great opportunity to play with all the new stuff I got from the conference. The four of us in this corner are now all sporting squeeze-toy brains courtesy of Industry Brains and and The Karcher Group. Lovely! I spent some time last night looking at SES pictures online, and I see that a couple other girls also made t-shirts for Matt Cutts. Well, I suppose it was silly to assume I'd be the only one wearing a shirt for Matt, but I am happier with the more subtle message mine sent out. I gotta get on Joe to send me that picture! I'll leave for home soon. This is going to be a very busy week - my significant other's brother is getting married this weekend and the guests start arriving tomororw. Tonight is all about cleaning!

Tales of the San Jose Airport

2006-08-11T11:44:00.000-05:00

Not really knowing what to expect, I planned to arrive at the airport for my flight home to Winnipeg nice and early. As the taxi rounded the airport and we passed Terminal 1, the line for Southwest was outrageously long. I'm thinking to myself, WOW am I ever glad I'm three hours early. But then we got to the United area of Terminal 3 and no one is waiting. Well that's good anyway. I cleared security at about 8:30, but the flight doesn't leave until 10:55. Looooooooong wait. But thankfully I found a seat next to a plug and forked over $10 for Internet access until we depart. Still have a little more than an hour to go and I am ready for the nice nap I plan to take on the plane. I figure I'll need the rest for my mad-dash sprint across two terminals at O'Hare. Yipee!!

Last night in San Jose

2006-08-11T11:20:00.000-05:00

The conference itself ended yesterday at around 2:00. I ran into Jessica and Sally and we decided to do dinner later. After a nice afternoon of lounging and trying to hook up with Joe to hang out, Jessica, Sally, and I went to some place that the name escapes me right now, I'll think of it later I'm sure. We had dinner and hung out at the Mariott for a while. It was nice and we're all going to try and meet up again in Vegas at PubCon. This trip was definately a lot of fun but I am really ready to go home. Here's hoping for a nice quick trip home.

SES - Day Four

2006-08-10T12:25:00.000-05:00

This morning I went to the Meet the Crawlers sessions - representatives were there from Google, Yahoo and MSN - I think. I walked in a few minutes late and missed the introductions. It was really hard to hear and a lot of the questions weren't really related to what I am interested in. The entire thing was Q&A. Only two more sessions to go, and it seems like they might all be Q&A type sessions. I've sent text messages to some of the people I met Tuesday night to see what they're up to today. In hind sight, I could have flown home today instead of tomorrow, but I'm hoping to make the most of the time I have left.

SES - Day Three

2006-08-09T21:21:00.000-05:00

I didn’t have even one drop of alcohol the night before, but I woke up exhausted and hurting. After a very disappointing breakfast, I wondered down to the talk with Eric Schmidt. It was very hard to hear, but what I did hear was very interesting. Eric talked about privacy, and how Google wants to be trusted and will never willingly or happily hand over search data the way AOL did. Eric talked about the federal subpoena Google fought and eventually won – the federal government had asked for search data and they didn’t get it.

After this session, I dragged my poor beat up body to the Linking Strategies session. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear a lot of the session and will have to go back through the presentation to pick up the things that I missed.

The other sessions I had hoped to attend that afternoon included Buying and Selling Links and the In House Forum. Unfortunately, I missed them both due to illness, and as a result ended up staying in Wednesday night.

Google Dance

2006-08-09T08:19:00.000-05:00

I admit, I was pretty nervous about having to go all the way to Mountain View solo, without knowing anyone. I had posted as such on the SEW forums. When I got back to my room after another good hour of wondering around the Exhibit Hall, I had a private message from Joe Morin – offering to introduce me to some other people.

Joe advised being out front the Convention Center at around 6:00, despite the advertised departure time of 6:30. It was about 6 when I got his message, it was ten minutes later by time I got there. Well, he wasn’t kidding, there was a massive line by time I got there, and it grew very fast. I met Joe and he introduced me to several people. And off to Google we went.

On the bus, we were all ID’d and given wristbands for those over the legal drinking age of 21. Weird for me, since back home in Manitoba the drinking age is only 18. However, I clear the US drinking age by a few years, so I was given my bright yellow wristband.

I felt bad for everyone – the Google reps who were giving out the wristbands weren’t even putting them on for people. Have you ever tried to put a wristband on yourself? Not easy. Thankfully, I am a wristband pro. After several months now of wristbanding hundreds of people at the Winnipeg Blue Bomber games, I’ve learned a trick or two about putting a wristband on people of all shapes and sizes. Rob, who I was sitting beside, managed to get the sticky part right on his arm. After a quick rip and a bit of pain, Rob’s wristband was off his arm and I put it back on him nice and neat.

The entry way into the complex was lined with Google employees cheering and welcoming everyone as they came in. The theme of the party was Google Labs, with the decorations all themed as the Periodic Table of Elements, but with Google services as those elements. Very neat. We picked up our complimentary Google Dance shirts – WOW, not only did they have sizes OTHER then men’s large, but they actually had women’s shirts!! I was so impressed by that, after already surrendering my SES shirt to my significant other since no doubt he will get far more use out of an XL shirt than my little 5’2 frame ever could.

They were serving a wide variety of beer as well as wine. Now, I don’t drink, and despite several predictions of me being sloshed by the end of the night, I think I had one Coke and that was it. The food under the tent left something to be desired for the oh-so-picky eater that I am. I had half a corn dog and that was about it. What I didn’t know is that the Google cafeteria was open and serving a lot more food.

We headed upstairs to the University Room for the meet the engineers session. There weren’t a lot of people up there at first, but by time we were there, Matt and a Microsoft rep were into quite a debate. Joe decided to thrust me in front of Matt so he could see my “Cuttlette” shirt. He got quite a kick out of it and a few pictures were taken. Unfortunately, none with my camera so I am at the mercy of Joe, Matt, and whoever else’s cameras were used for my impromptu photo op.

The next hour or so was spent in the increasingly crowded room chatting with various people. I met Jessica Bowman from Enterprise Rent-a-Car and we became fast friends. I also chatted with Dan Thies for a while – he is a really great guy. Vanessa Fox used me once as a positive Google Sitemaps example. On Thursday, when I decided to launch this blog, I knew I’d need it indexed fast. I submitted a sitemap and within a half hour I was crawled and indexed. I don’t know if Googlebot was on steroids that day, but I was impressed and wasn’t afraid to tell people that using Google Sitemaps (a.k.a. Google Webmaster Central) is GREAT.

Eventually our group made it back over to the Labs area. By that time our group had become myself, Jessica, Sally, David, Craig, Rob, Juan, and Bruce Clay. We all, save for David who was chatting with the Analytics people, positioned ourselves in the giant cut out Google logo for a Polaroid moment. That picture will be posted as soon as I get home and get scan it.

By this time, there are thousands of people milling around and you can’t really move too much or see too much without bumping into people. Because the majority of the party was outside, this also meant that there was lots of smoke around. By 10:30 I was developing a nasty headache from the smoke and decided to call it a night. The others were going to stay, though at 11 they’d be kicking everyone out anyway. By time I got back to my hotel room, it was 11:30 and I pretty much dropped down and fell asleep right away. It was a great night

SES - Day Two

2006-08-08T17:17:00.000-05:00

Day 2 had lots of great sessions, and I had trouble choosing between them. For the morning, I stayed with the Advanced Organic track, then switched to the Linking track in the afternoon.

The first session I attended was “Can You Please Them All”. Aaron Wall, Dave Davies, and Michael Murray talked about what matters most to the search engines, and the specific things that each search engine likes. Rahul Lahiri from Ask was available for Q&A.

The second session was the Duplicant Content session with Shari Thurow, Mikkel Svendsen, Matt Cutts from Google, Tim Converse from Yahoo!, and Rahul Lahiri from Ask. This ended up being a rather comical session, as it was Mikkel vs. the rest of the panel as he tried to convince the audience that automating keyword replacement is a great idea. The others were quick to label any type of automation as spam, but it was very lighthearted and a lot of fun. During the Q&A, however, I would like to highlight a quote from Mr. Svendsen:

“Have fun and spam the engines.”

Because MSN did not have a representative at this session, it truly became a “pick on MSN” session. Someone said, though I can’t remember who, said that MSN really cared, they would have sent someone to represent them at this session.

At lunch I wondered around the Exhibit Hall for a while, picking up some cool swag including a stuffed goat from Trexy. Okay, I admit – I have a lot of stuffed animals, but mostly Canadian critters. I can honestly say I’ve never had a stuffed goat before and I think Trexy’s goat will make a fine addition to my collection.

I spent the afternoon learning all about Link Building and Site Architecture.

Mike Grehan, ahh, he’s a funny guy – first thing he did was pull a fast one on the audience. He said he had placed a yellow post-it under one of the chairs, and whoever had that post-it on their chair had to stand up and tell everyone why his or her site deserved to rank number one. He laughed at all the paniced faces in the crowd. Another thing that sets Mike apart is his use of a shoehorn as a pointer. Definitely a creative one, that Mike is.

Back at home, Mark had mentioned that at a Mike Grehan session, the phrase “green fairy dust” would surely be used. Mark, I think you should know that it took Mike nine minutes to say “green fairy dust”.

Eric Ward and Debra Mastaler also talked about link building, and link myths and mistakes.

The Site Architecture session, I have to admit, was disappointing. The majority of the presentation dealt with duplicate content – something that a lot of the crowd had already heard about earlier in the day.

Barbara Coll, Derrick Wheeler, and Matt Bailey presented. They talked about robots.txt, session IDs, and redirects – things that had been mentioned already. 404s were grazed upon briefly, and SSIs and other headers were not discussed at all.

The other disappointing aspect of this session was the replacement of a Q&A with a site clinic. Instead of taking questions from the audience, they took web sites and examined them. So instead of taking probably 6 or 7 questions, we examined two web sites. The second web site the owner even admitted that it didn’t need help, he just wanted to know it was okay. I felt that a great waste of my time, the presenters’ time, and the audiences’ time.

And so ended Day 2’s sessions.

Internet at the Hilton San Jose

2006-08-07T19:28:00.000-05:00

I haven't taken my laptop down to the WIFI spots here at the Hilton yet - frankly, my laptop is a piece of crap so I'm leaving it in my room. I was rather disappointed to learn that not only is WIFI not available in the guestrooms, but wired high speed internet is not free. Okay, so I pay my $53 or whatever it is, and am happy because I'm at least connected for the rest of my stay. I have never experienced such slow internet since the last time I was making use of my 56K. This is absolutely rediculous. I have no idea how long it'll take to publish this post - if it'll even get that far. SearchEngineWatch.com is lost to me. I've been trying for 20 minutes now to make a post. I don't know if that site is bogged down because of added traffic from the conference, but I cannot believe how hard it is. Come on people. It's 2006. No one expects these waits anymore!!!

SES - Day One

2006-08-07T17:45:00.000-05:00

So far today, I have attended the following sessions... Search Engine Marketing - Introduction Since it is my first SES, I thought I'd attend this session to get used to things. Plus, Danny was speaking and I figured that would be a good experience. The session was very interesting, though I can't say I learned anything new. Search Term Research & Targetting I came into this one a bit late because I originally sat in on the Search Landscape session. I don't know if it was where I was sitting or what, but I found it very hard to see the detail on the power point slides, and couldn't really tell what Michael Lanz was saying - he seemed to be speaking quite fast (maybe time restraints?) . Anywho, since I had deliberated which session to attend, I ended up switching. I caught the end of Christine Churchill's presentation and saw all of Dan Thies's presentation. He's a great speaker, great at keeping the audience's attention. I'll post specifics of his presentation later. Social Search - Up Close with Google Shashi Seth from Google talked about two new products - Search Topics and Subscribed Links. The presentation was short, only about 30 minutes, and I only stuck around for about a half hour of the Q&A. For the last session of the day, I believe I will attend The Search Laboratories. I know of know public parties, so I hope to explore a little bit of downtown San Jose this evening.

Sitemaps - Now Webmaster Central

2006-08-07T17:09:00.000-05:00

One thing I missed in my last post is that Google Sitemaps has been renamed to Google Webmaster Central. Definately more appropriate, but far too many syllables. The Preferred Domain tool, which apparently was called such because Danny Sullivan can't pronounce "canonical" is in fact to cure canonical issues. I know a lot of people will be happy about that.

Sitemaps

2006-08-07T09:10:00.000-05:00

I'll head to the convention center shortly to register for SES, but I see that while I was sleeping like a baby, Matt Cutts posted a "12 Tips for SES" video. While watching, he mentions that Google Sitemaps rolled out some new features on Friday. Sure enough! The first thing I noticed is a "Preferred Domain" tool. This tool allows you to choose whether you want all indexed domain.com pages to appear as www.domain.com, or vice versa. Will this really help with the ever-causing-headache canonical issues? Or will it just make the SERPs look pretty and consistent? I'll let you know after the Lunch with the Google Sitemaps team today. In the meantime, here are some screen caps for your enjoyment.

Danny Sullivan in USA Today

2006-08-05T15:45:00.000-05:00

I'm a few days behind, but I've finally had the time to sit down and read USA Today's article on Danny Sullivan. Search Engine Watch was definately one of my first stops when I began my SEO journey, and it became clear early on that not only did Danny know what he was doing, but that many of the other major players in the industry have a great deal of respect for him and his knowledge. Looking forward to learning more from the man himself next week in San Jose.

Graeme's Hooters Birthday Extravaganza

2006-08-04T14:25:00.000-05:00

Earlier in the week a few of us decided that Friday's lunch spot would be the local Hooters. Graeme had never been to a Hooters before, so we decided to make the most of it. Brianna called ahead to let them know we had a party of 8 coming - and that it was someone's birthday. They said they would do the whole make-him-get-up-on-the-bar-and-sing. When we arrived at Hooters, the table had a birthday note for Graeme and three balloons. Since Mark, Brianna and I got there first, we hid the note. We weren't going to tell him until the girls took him and dragged him away. Unfrotunately, that never happened. Our bill arrive, we paid, and were on our way. We did beat the others back to the office though, and took that opportunity to decorate Greame's desk a bit - we tied the balloons around his desk and taped the birthday note to the back of the chair. Alas, Graeme was not impressed. We tried to make his first Hooters experience a fun one - and even if it wasn't, we hope it was at least memorable. Here are some pictures: Brianna and Jordan: Me, our waitress, and Brianna: Me and the waitress: Me: The office after we got back: Graeme's chair: