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miercuri, 14 mai 2014
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Starting Over, Part 3 - Optimize
Starting Over, Part 3 - Optimize |
| Starting Over, Part 3 - Optimize Posted: 13 May 2014 05:14 PM PDT Posted by Dr-Pete This post is a part of the "Starting Over" series, the story of starting a blog (MinimalTalent.com) from scratch. See the end of the post for links to the rest of the series. In parts one and two, I showed how I got my blog off the ground, indexed by Google, and just starting to rank. Now, it's time to dive in and sand off any rough edges, before they cause future SEO injuries. (1) Spot-check the SERPsMarketing automation tools are great, but sometimes we get so enamored with those tools that we forget they only offer a window into the big picture. Early in a site's life, I'm a big believer in actually typing in searches and seeing how your results look in the wild. The first time I started ranking for the phrase "minimal talent," it looked something like this: On the bright side, the site was getting picked up on Google+ (thanks, Jeremy!). Unfortunately, Google was creating a snippet from my first blog post. Why? Well, I hadn't actually specified a Meta description. Sometimes, even the professionals forget the basics. Once I fixed the problem, I kept watching and eventually saw this: There's a wealth of information in this one image. I learned that Google was using my Meta description, but that it might be a bit long (note the odd jump to mid-sentence). I learned that Google was picking my authorship attribution and displaying my profile picture. I learned that my title wasn't getting cut off. I learned all of this by just opening my eyes and looking. (2) Google Webmaster ToolsOk, now that we've at least made a few sanity checks with our own eyes, let's see what the tools have to say. First, is Google indexing the site the way we'd like them to? Since I set up an XML sitemap, I can just go to "Crawl > Sitemaps", and see something like this: I've submitted 8 pages, and all 8 were indexed – so far, so good. Of course, the "indexed" count on this page only tells you which of the URLs in your sitemaps have been indexed. To get a glimpse at Google's full index stats for your site, go to "Google Index > Index Status": The total count is right in the ballpark of my sitemap count, which, at least in my case, is good. Of course, Google didn't index any pages before the site existed, so the graph really isn't that useful. Over time, though, it can show you any unusual trends. Keep in mind that, for large sites, you can't expect every single page to be indexed, and that's often not even desirable. The more you break up your sitemaps, the more you'll be able to spot problems. If you see your total index count really take off, or you know it's just way too large (your site has 500 pages, and Google has indexed 25,000), then this could be a sign of runaway URL parameters and duplicate content. Finally, let's make sure I don't have any obvious crawl errors. Go to "Crawl > Crawl Errors" and you should see an overview like this: I've got two "Not found" (404) errors, which really isn't bad at all. I'm a bit concerned that my initial WordPress "Hello World" post is popping up, so let's click on that: The "Error details" aren't particularly useful here, so I'll go straight to "Linked from" and can see that the bad URL was on the page itself (a non-issue) and the home-page. Looking at the home-page source code, this link is now gone. So, Google just crawled the site a bit too early, and this problem should take care of itself. (3) Moz AnalyticsWhile Google Webmaster Tools has a lot of useful information, there can be pitfalls to getting the story from just one point-of-view (especially when it's Google's). Let's look for any crawl issues in Moz Analytics, starting with "Search > Crawl Diagnostics". Toward the bottom of the page, I get this summary: Problems are sorted (left-to-right) from high priority to low priority, but my job this time around is pretty easy. I have 38 occurrences of one error, "Missing Meta Description Tag." This is problematic not just because of the error, but because I really don't expect to have 38 pages of the site crawled. So. Let's drill down and look at a few sample pages… A quick spot-check of the site reveals that these pages do not, in fact, have custom Meta descriptions. While this isn't mission critical just yet, I should add them soon for my main pages. As for the 38 crawled pages, it looks as if Moz Analytics is crawling my comment/reply pages. Looking at the source code, these pages have two Meta Robots directives and a rel=canonical tag in place, which is probably giving the crawlers some grief. It's probably not a big issue, but let's make sure that Google isn't indexing these pages, by using the "site:" operator with "inurl:" on the comment/reply URL parameter. Entering the following into Google… …results in no documents found. So, at this point, it looks like Moz is being a little overprotective. It may be worth removing either the canonical or Meta Robots down the line, to make sure I'm sending Google clear signals. Now, let's look at what really matters – have my rankings improved? Or, at the very least, are they stable? It's looking good. I took the top spot for my brand name ("minimal talent"), kept the #1 spot for my tagline, and have even moved into the top 10 for "minimalism 101". I don't expect to be ranking for "minimalism" or "yahoo logo" any time soon – these are stretch goals at best. What's important is to see gradual progress, even if that progress isn't always as fast as you'd like. (4) Google AnalyticsAre these rankings helps my traffic? Honestly, only a tiny bit. Here's the graph of sessions for the first couple of months: It's not a bad graph, as graphs go, but the spikes correspond with blog posts and almost entirely with traffic from social media (at this point, primarily Twitter). The small increase in traffic between posts toward the right side of the graph is a good sign, and some of that is coming from Google. I think this graph really illustrates the dilemma of modern SEO. You aren't going to get search exposure without first building traffic and interest somehow. For me, social is one obvious tool, but for the first few months of a project that means a sustained effort on an established network. For someone with no network at all, the build-up is going to take even longer. Recapping Parts 1-3I hope this short series has at least given you some insight into getting started and how the pieces can all come together. I hope it's also not entirely bad news – ranking in 2014 isn't easy, but it can be done, and getting the basics right does still matter quite a bit. We're going to put this series on hold until something interesting happens to Minimal Talent that's worth talking about. If anyone has specific questions about getting started or about the site's successes or failures so far, please chime in. Read the full seriesUse the links below to explore the entire "Starting Over" series:
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Seth's Blog : Emotional handwashing
Emotional handwashing
Emotions are far more contagious than any disease. A smile or a panic will spread through a group of people far faster than any virus ever could.
When you walk into the office or a negotiation, then, wash your bad mood away before you see us. Don't cough on us, don't sneeze on us, sure, but don't bring your grouchiness, your skepticism or your fear in here either. It might spread.
More Recent Articles
- No is essential
- "Don't do what I said, do what I meant."
- Set a date
- Power, policy and public perception
- Cognitive load
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Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
- Quarterly GDP Consensus Estimates vs. Actual GDP 2009 to Present
- $1.2 Billion Obamacare Contract Pays Workers to Do Nothing
- Ukraine in "Undeclared War" with Russia says Defense Minister; Mish says "Russia Won't Invade"
| Quarterly GDP Consensus Estimates vs. Actual GDP 2009 to Present Posted: 13 May 2014 08:56 PM PDT I received an interesting chart today from Ralph Dillon at Global Financial Data in regards to GDP consensus estimates. GDP Consensus Estimates vs. Actual GDP  click on chart for sharper image Dillon writes ... I am by no means advocating that it is an easy task trying to predict what the economy will do in the next quarter or over a fiscal year, but when the forecasts compared to reality are so wrong time and time again, why do we place so much emphasis on forward looking data that is just flat out incorrect?Questions Abound Given that government spending adds to GDP by definition, How much of GDP is deficit financing of demand brought forward? How much of GDP is in any way productive? For the answer to the latter question, think about things like bombing Iraq and Afghanistan to smithereens. Also think about government contracts that pay people for doing nothing. For a recent example of the latter, please see $1.2 Billion Obamacare Contract Pays Workers to Do Nothing. If the government paid people to spit at the moon it would add to GDP by definition. Yet, paying people to spit at the moon makes as much sense as paying people to do nothing. Worse yet, spitting at the moon actually makes more economic sense than many of the needless destructive wars we fought. Deficit spending and stupid wars realistically ought to subtract from GDP. And what about hedonic pricing and imputations? For those not familiar with hedonic pricing, the government accounts for the presumed value of goods sold, not actual prices. For example the prices of computers drop every year even though speed and memory increase continually. Rather than calculating the actual price of goods sold, the government adjusts prices to say computers sold for more than they really did. Here's an example of imputations: The government adds the "imputed" value of free checking accounts to GDP as a valuable service rendered but not paid for. I propose that makes as much sense as imputing the value of free sex rendered to married husbands on the grounds that if they weren't married, they may be paying prostitutes. Yet nearly all economists focus on GDP as the be all and end all in economic measurements. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| $1.2 Billion Obamacare Contract Pays Workers to Do Nothing Posted: 13 May 2014 12:23 PM PDT Check out this video of Obamacare contractors paid to do nothing, literally. Link if video does not play: Paid to Do Nothing An employee of Serco, a company with a $1.2 billion government contract to handle paper healthcare applications has some rather interesting, and believable claims. "There are some weeks that a data entry person would not process an application. The main thing is the data entry side does not have hardly any work to do. They're told to sit at their computers and hit the refresh button no more than every 10 minutes. They're monitored, to hopefully look for an application. Their goals are to process 2 applications a month, and some people are not even able to do that. There are centers in Missouri, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. 1,800 people trying to get 1 of 30 application that pop up. Serco, gets paid for the number of people they employ. So they want us there even if we are not doing anything." Others complain as well. The video shows online comments from an alleged former employee "This place is a JOKE! There is nothing to do - NO WORK." Serco refused to answer questions about the news investigation. The center for Medicare and Medicaid issued this preposterous statement: "Serco is committed to making sure federal funds are spent appropriately." Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
| Ukraine in "Undeclared War" with Russia says Defense Minister; Mish says "Russia Won't Invade" Posted: 13 May 2014 10:44 AM PDT The civil war in Ukraine took a bloody turn for the worse today as separatists killed six Ukrainian soldiers and wounded eight others in an ambush near Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region. In response to the ambush, the Ukrainian defense minister proclaimed Ukraine in "Undeclared War" With Russia. "In our eastern regions we have an undeclared war," acting Defense Minister Mykhaylo Koval told reporters in Kiev today. "Our neighboring country unleashed the war, sending special forces and saboteurs into our territory."Rather Curious Poll 56% say Ukraine is at war with Russia but 67% say Russia is brotherly and friendly. That does not make a lot of sense. I would like to see the poll questions. Official Denial The defense minister's statement regarding an undeclared war with Russia sounds curiously like an official denial of Civil War. Ukraine does not want to admit the truth. Renewed Diplomatic Push in Ukraine The Financial Times reports Renewed Diplomatic Push in Ukraine Crisis A new diplomatic push to resolve the crisis in Ukraine is under way even after two of its regions declared independence and sought to join Russia, with European mediators pushing for "round table" reconciliation talks.Another Failure Likely ... Unless The new OSCE road map is identical to the old OSCE road map. Thus, these new talks are likely to fail unless the separatists are at the table. Unfortunately, Kiev does want separatist leaders at the table, just as before. Holding Russia responsible for a group it has no direct control over seems ludicrous, yet that is about to happen, again. And if the talks fail, more counterproductive sanctions will be on the way. Why Russia Won't Invade Long-term, I am optimistic. Somewhere along the line, I expect all parties will sit at the table and talk. A neutral Ukraine, with more autonomy for Eastern and Southern Ukraine is the most likely result. Russia will retain Crimea. Behravesh commented "Russia could end up paying a very heavy economic price for its annexation of Crimea ..." I rather doubt it. Winning Crimea was a long-term strategic victory, and repercussions will blow away within a year. If Russia attempts a takeover of other regions, which I still doubt, then there could be a heavy price. And although the recent vote for independence suggests otherwise, other polls have shown majority of the citizens in Donetsk prefer an association of some sort with Kiev. Unlike Crimea, there is little reward for Russian annexation of other areas. Feuds and sanctions would simmer for years. Why would Russia want that? I suggest Russia doesn't, and that is why it hasn't (and won't) invade Eastern or Southern Ukraine. Ultimately, diplomacy will succeed. In the meantime, civil war, not a war with Russia, lingers on. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com |
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