Comments for Brand Police

Comment on Railway Sleepers Sydney – A case study in SEO by Chris

Chris — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:21:53 +0000

Well, your railway post is now at #5 in Google… Half a year late, I know, but you got there eventually.

Comment on What is a Gravatar and why do I need one? by David Leonard

David Leonard — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 11:09:35 +0000

Thanks for this. Since I’ve always been wary of splashing photos of myself all over the internet, my gravatar features a logo of my initials (hopefully displayed with this comment). I’d be interested to hear any views about whether a gravatar of a logo is as effective as one of a photo, or whether it may vary in different circumstances. Any thoughts?

Comment on Google Places Local Search Changes – How SEO Just Got Harder by Matthew

Matthew — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:27:50 +0000

Hi Joan, My understanding is that a blue adwords pin would override a normal pink/red pin – the idea being that it will “stand out from the rest“.

However I can’t say 100% sure, as it’s early days and a lot of the people using this feature so far (that I know of) weren’t showing next to the page 1 map before… Perhaps you could test it out and report back? Matt.

Comment on Google Places Local Search Changes – How SEO Just Got Harder by Joan

Joan — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 11:13:52 +0000

Ok… Now I have a question… If I am already in the 7pack thanks to my Google Places, and I have an “organic” pink… And I create an adWords campaign with ad extensions, in order to get the blue pin, which one will appear? Both? The blue one? The red/pink one?

Comment on The Worst Logo Ever by Robert

Robert — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 01:18:37 +0000

Reading your whole article, I couldn’t help but be reminded of this: http://www.dailyhaha.com/_pics/ms_paint.jpg.

Comment on Google Places Local Search Changes – How SEO Just Got Harder by Jessica Haring

Jessica Haring — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:22:45 +0000

Hello Matt.
I concur with all and sundry – and let’s face it – that Google is in it for the money is no surprise – nor does the advertiser mind paying if the bang for buck ratio delivers. However, I too have noticed the rapid and extensive changes, particularly as Google was once considered the ‘mild mannered forerunner in the billboard in the sky’ is now perceived, by myself at least, as the green-eyed greed ridden ‘untouchable’ it has become.

The standard daily budget we were prepared to pay was suddenly recommended at three times the rate – to which we felt compelled otherwise we were no longer going to enjoy the primary listing we had been up until that point. Once the ego had subsided we decided to remain at the current budget – low and behold our results have tapered somewhat – something we were actually wanting to achieve – but we certainly haven’t fallen to the back of the queue so to speak. Remember too ads are cyclical – meaning some days we’re on the first page and some on the second. Yes, people are lazy and usually don’t scroll or click the second page – however a large component of our business is also ‘walk-in’ – our tactic is as individually based as that of our competitors.

My main point is that until people actually respond by not engaging with all of the latest and greatest advertising guises Google may actually put good old fashioned service to the fore rather than monopolising their stronghold. For instance – an administrative department responsible for clearing businesses no longer in operation – I have ‘reported a problem’ on multiple occasions regarding one operator who is definitely no longer in operation to no avail – very frustrating and not worthy of our hard earned dollar!

Comment on SEO Basics – The Title & Meta Description Tags by Matthew

Matthew — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 09:25:12 +0000

Hi Jeff, thanks for stopping by.
In code, the title tag is what’s between the title and /title code elements (with <> around – couldn’t make it show properly in the comments section! ) This results in a couple things – the title being in the “Blue Bar” at the top of the window (ie not on the page itself – on the blue bar (or gray etc bar) above all your toolbars. It will also usually be what is displayed as your page title in Google search results.
For those not working in code, if you are using a WYSIWYG editor such as Dreamweaver or Expression Web, you would set this by right clicking on the page and selecting Page Settings or something like that – it will be in there.
In WordPress, you can set it for the homepage using the “Settings: General” page. To change on an individual page level, check out my other post on WordPress SEO basics – has some instructions there. Hope this helps.
Matt.

Comment on SEO Basics – The Title & Meta Description Tags by Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:38:44 +0000

I am having trouble understanding terminology. Title tag… Is the the name of the page in wordpress? I am using a custom menu to keep the name short but made the name of my pages longer (per your suggestions above).
I do understand meta tags I believe.

I did a site map using Google XML Sitemaps and google updated my site within a couple hrs! yahoo and bing still have not almost 24 hrs later.

Comment on Google Places Local Search Changes – How SEO Just Got Harder by David Moloney

David Moloney — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 12:14:02 +0000

Great article Matt.

I noticed the new Google Places search configuration recently and immediately thought of the organic listings that have been pushed down below the fold. Coupled with Google Boost, this does put pressure on Google’s motto of ‘Don’t be evil’. I can only imagine that the flat fee of $25 will evolve into added extras in the future. Perhaps ‘free click to call’ charged to the business owner.

Comment on Google Places Local Search Changes – How SEO Just Got Harder by Aidan

Aidan — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:39:24 +0000

Phew that article would have taken a while to write Matt, well done though and it echoes something I’ve been saying for of a long time now… Why on earth would Google continue to allow anybody to have their valuable traffic free of charge when they could easily make so much more money from it?