Google sacks employee for reading email accounts of teens

Google has risen to the heights it now enjoys largely down to its philosophy, or working mandate, of ‘don’t be evil’. It’s search engine results pages are largely clean of spam and it works very hard to crackdown on websites and black hat SEO companies who attempt to ‘game’ the system by doing underhand things such as buying links.

Because of this however, whenever anything emerges from within Google’s own ranks that stirs the blood and causes concern among us, the populous, about Google’s true allegiance with evil – Google has to act fast to dispel those concerns. Recently one such incident did occur when a Google engineer, David Barksdale, was found to have been snooping on the activities of teenagers.

David Barksdale was sacked by Google

Barksdale was employed by Google in Washington, USA, and he was using his Google given powers to access and read the emails of four teenagers. The timing of this incident couldn’t have come at a worse time for Google as it had just launched the ‘Google Family Safety Centre’ – which is designed to make using the Internet safer for children.

The law website Gawker even revealed how Barksdale used his Google access to gain entry into the Google Voice account of a teenager so he could find the identity of the boy’s girlfriend. The website goes on to claim that Barksdale then (more…)

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Inspiration is an SEO business concern

Lois-and-Clark Picture, if you will, the websites that are at the top of your field. The ones that have clawed their way to the top of the search engine results pages, and stay there are usually the ones that feature constantly updated, interesting and provoking content that even you read. It’s easy to imagine that these competitors have some weird advantage, that they’ve somehow trapped Lois Lane and Clark Kent in their offices and are forcing them to churn out article after fascinating article.

Apart from the fact that Lois and Clark are fictional (sorry if we’ve upset any DC fanboys there), this fantasy does have a few obvious flaws. Not many businesses can afford to employ a writing team and, even then, writing teams run out of inspiration. The edge these sites have over their competition is (more…)

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Link Building: Be a Selector, Not a Collector

What is it about people who love to collect things? Some people are driven by a compulsion to own things for the sake of owning them. The focus of an obsession may be something fairly innocuous, such as porcelain pigs or comics. For the better heeled, it may be that they are hooked on owning fabulously expensive modern art, Faberge Eggs or vintage sports cars. For example, DJ Chris Evans recently forked out a staggering £12m on a rare 1960s Ferrari 250 GTO. I’m sure that he was able to justify his purchase to his accountant – and his wife, come to think of it – as an ‘investment’, but would happily admit that he bought it simply because he wanted it.

Your collection can get out of hand

If not kept in check, collecting can get completely out of hand and rule your life. If you must collect things, it’s best if you exercise some quality control rather than acquire everything that comes your way. The same can be said for building links to your website. When looking to increase the number of links you have, it’s relatively easy to (more…)

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

Attack of the late-night Gremlins

We’ve all had it happen, and recently it happened to me. It was a long day, the computer screen was bright, my headache was pounding and suddenly, they pounced on me: The late-night gremlins.

Late Night Gremlins Late-night gremlins are exactly what you’d imagine them to be; troublesome, annoying and a particularly sickly shade of green. They have a tendency to creep up on you when you least need it. Even worse, they can lay the sort of traps that will adversely affect your search engine optimisation.

People in SEO and other information technology-related industries are particularly prone to late-night gremlins. Being used to them, we can cope with them fairly easily. Site owners performing SEO, however, may have a harder time dealing with them.

Why would site owners need to deal with late-night gremlins during their SEO? The situation partially comes about due to SEO advice. It’s always a good idea to update your site in the night-time, when alterations in progress will be seen by (more…)

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

When Twitter just reveals a twit

I have some advice to all the birds out there. You know in the mornings, when you wake up at dawn and decide it’s a really good idea to start yelling at the sparrow just a couple of branches over, and he yells back, and then your cousin joins in, and before you know it the whole tree is singing? Well, it’s really, really annoying.

Let me elucidate this with a comparison. In the human world, we have this thing called Twitter. (Yeah, I know, crazy coincidence.) Lately, a lot of businesses have decided that one of the things they should do to help their online marketing is to make announcements on Twitter. It can be a really good idea for their site’s search engine optimisation, helping them get their message out there, kind of like when you birds sit on a lonely twig and sing so sweetly to each other.

Birds Tweeting outside my window

The thing is, because everyone else on Twitter is (more…)

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Cowboy SEO

It’s a sad fact about modern living, but many of us feel totally helpless when it comes to practical jobs such as fixing a car or any DIY that goes beyond constructing an IKEA bookcase. The image of a workman beholding your efforts at fixing/destroying something in your home, whilst rubbing his chin and asking you which cowboy did you get in to do the job, before telling you it’s going to cost a lot to fix, is a cliché – but it happens often.

The idea of causing more harm than good by doing it yourself in order to save money is not one that would appeal to any rational person, yet some people will still go ahead and try anyway. There’s nothing wrong in acknowledging the limits of your own experience and understanding and calling in a professional to get the job done.

Take search engine optimisation, for example. Like any DIY job, there is plenty of advice available on the Internet telling you how to go about doing it effectively. Just like other practical jobs such as car maintenance, there are now (more…)

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

You don’t have to be King of your Keywords

King of the Castle! It doesn’t take much time wandering around the world of SEO before you realise that there are some highly competitive keywords, and some not-so competitive keywords, that can be optimised for within your industry. Of the former, there are very few companies that can actually attain the dizzy heights of a top ranking. It’s simple logic. Google only has room at the top of the SERPs for one website for each keyword.

Even with this knowledge, a lot of businesses choose to pursue the most competitive keywords in their field. This is quite puzzling behaviour, although it isn’t really surprising. Everyone wants to be the king of the castle in their particular field, and it is difficult to accept that you can’t be. In any other areas of competition, failing to get to the top five isn’t going to do you any real harm. Aiming for the stars is generally seen as a good thing, in terms of search engine optimisation, however, aiming for keywords that are (more…)

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

Google says SEO is not affected by Google Instant

As we reported last month, Google was about to launch (and has since launched) Google Instant in the UK. This is a new feature whereby the search results are updated within Google as you type your search. While this helps speed up what you’re looking for, it can also produce some amusing (and sometimes embarrassing) results while you’re still forming words.

One important consideration that also needs to be raised about this development is how it affects SEO. If real-time SERPs are updated as you type, is it worth optimising your websites for partially completed words as well as the full word?

For example, if optimising your website for ‘seo wirral’ – should you also include examples of ‘seo wir’ on your website, as results for this phrase will be displayed as someone begins to type.

Google Instant

Google however has claimed that this isn’t the case, and that SEO professionals need not concern themselves with optimising for partially completed words. Google Analytics’ Alden DeSoto commented that (more…)