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A Time to Relax?

ReDeYe
23
Aug 2010

I write this from the “parental” area inside the Flying Fortress, a childrens indoor play area the size of a small country. The children are happily off playing whilst me and the good lady chill out with with a book (her) and the internet (me) as our companions for a few hours. It is of course interspersed with sporadic visits from hot and tired children often requesting liquid refreshment or worse, chocolate.

All in all, this wasnt how I envisaged the start of my 9 day holiday, but then English weather is never kind when you want it most.

I have to admit, I am a nightmare when it comes to holidays, or rather breaks from work, which is really what this is. It’s been terrifically busy at work recently, so the break is a welcome one, although I am finding it tricky to switch off and stop worrying about my clients and their SERPS, but I guess that comes with the job. Only this morning I found myself checking a few positions, just to make sure the work we had undertaken recently was paying off. Fortunately, they are moving in a positive direction, so less worry, but I really shouldnt be worrying on my week off at all, SEO does that to you though, especially if you care and I do.

My eldest daugher joked this morning (when the 3 year olds were running around like loony bins throwing food at each other and generally making every room they visited look like a bomb had been dropped on it) that I would be glad to go back to work for the rest! I won’t tell her and as much as I love spending time with my children and adore them to bits, she might just be on to something…

I’ve recently added a couple more photo’s to the ever expanding collection on flickr if you get time to check them out. This week may even provide some opportunities to add to the list further, I can but hope.

Category: Life, Photography, SEO  Leave a Comment

Lots to do, too little time

ReDeYe
16
Jul 2010

Where on earth does all the time go? It seems like only yesterday when I said I would make sure I blogged more and yet here we are almost a week since the last post. Perhaps I need to rename this place failblog.

We dont like people who have black hats, not in this industry.

We dont like people who have black hats, not in this industry.

Anyway, it’s been an interesting week on the whole with some new discoveries in the world of SEO (more black hats than saville row) and my constant, but steep learning curve shows no signs of levelling off yet. I always felt I had a capacity to learn things quickly and learn a lot at one time, even if I wouldn’t class myself as an academic, but this job has really opened my eyes to just how little I used my brain in the last couple of years.

I was also reminded by my step mother (no, she isn’t wicked) that I still need to finish off her new site. I wouldn’t call myself a web designer in any shape or form, but Im reasonably good in photoshop and I know a bit of php and sql. That said, for her holiday home project I chose to use wordpress and although it has its restrictions, I am finding it reasonably flexible. The main problem is finding some time to get it finished, especially with work and learning taking up large quantities of my time, never mind the children and the long suffering girlfriend.

Perhaps I am doing this all wrong, especially as I work for a company that do web design. I wonder if they do staff discount or even a freebie now and again. On a more serious note, I have been playing with Social Media a lot this week, in particular spending time learning about the Twitter API and how to utilise my own Twitter apps. Obviously this is all from a marketing point of view, but I will admit to enjoying it for personal benefit too. I’ll put up a couple of posts today with the details in for those of you interested.

Category: Life, SEO, Social Media, Web Design  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment

SEO Lord of the Rings

ReDeYe
07
Jul 2010

I’ve fast found myself using film analogies in recent days and I’m not sure why. It’s not like I’ve been watching tony on NCIS either.

Last week I wrote about the Matrix having odd parallels with SEO work and today I find myself treading through the murky waters of what the industry calls “Black Hat” SEO. Paradoxically, there is something called White Hat SEO too, which is perhaps why I would be forgiven for making the Lord of the Rings analogy about wizards here.

In my attempts to get one of my clients indexed on Google, the journey took me to places which shall remain unlinked and un-named, but suffice to say, one walked right in to Mordor and I was lucky to get out without a scratch on me.

Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that any technique discovered would be classed as bad, especially as none of the things I looked at were illegal in the truest sense, but then I forgot that Google is not only the provider, but the police force too and they can, if they choose to, delete all your hard work by removing your listing or god forbid, remove page rank, if they feel you have gone over to the dark side (Star Wars analogies are allowed).

So, I sit here with a much clearer understanding of what is black and white in the SEO world, but like life itself, there is plenty of grey stuff.

Category: SEO  One Comment