Here’s another quick update on what’s happening.
Again, do pardon me for the lack of updates on this blog and on social media.
So far, I’ve only published one article this year. I spent weeks researching and producing that article.
Big list of citation sources (and links) for local SEO in Singapore
As usual, I’m spending the bulk of my time working on client’s sites.
Clients I’m working on now:
- 1 Yoga site
- 2 property sites
- 1 designer jewelry e-commerce site
- 1 home loans comparison site
- 1 Job portal
- 1 Tech blog
- 1 IT solutions site
- 1 Education site
- 1 Wedding site
These, and a couple more kinda 50-50 clients.
As you can see, I’m handling more clients than I did last year. The good news for me is most of these clients are consultation projects, and I’m not actively dipping my hands into every facet of the campaign.
I’ve come to the realization that I don’t HAVE to deal with so many clients (like I do now). Therefore, it may be a possibility that I will severely limit the number of new clients I accept from June onwards. This will give me more time and opportunities to finally work on my own personal projects.
Another option is to train up another SEO person to take on new clients. I’ll need to find someone I can trust…
any enterprising youths out there?
What’s going on at Google
I thought I’d just share with you the major changes in Google in the past few months.
Here’s are some that you need to pay careful attention of.
Mobile-friendly update (April 21 2015)
Google officially announced and rolled out this update that boosts the ranking of mobile friendly site on mobile search results.
I would suggest speaking to your developer about improving the mobile friendliness of your website. Use this tool to see what Google thinks of your site in terms of mobile friendliness.
Better presentation of URLs in search results (April 16)
Google started changing the way it displayed URLs on the search result. Although the announcement stated that this affected mobile search results, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they did this on normal search results.
Example:
An update on doorway pages (March 16)
Google changed it’s definition of doorway pages in order to target sites that were abusing doorway pages. Here’s a good article which explains and gives examples of Doorway pages.
If you do not want to get penalized, try to make sure you have pages on your site that offer actual unique content, and not pages created just to target variations of a keyword phrase.
HTTPS as a ranking signal (quite old – August 6, 2014)
In August 6 2014, Google officially revealed that they’ve started to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. Though it’s a very minor signal at this point of time, it could expand in the future to be given a heavier weight. That said, I wouldn’t encourage everyone to just start converting their site to HTTPS.
Doing so without proper implementation could actually harm your site and backfire. Here’s are some Google guidelines if you wish to do so.
Articles that I’m supposed to publish
I’m always getting ideas for articles to write (most of them generated while bathing or sitting on the toilet).
While I do end up starting a draft and writing down some points, most of them do not end up getting published. As much as I like producing new content, my client work always gets my priority.
Here are some work-in-progress articles that may or may not see the light of day.
- Case study: How I get leads despite ranking on page 5
- How Naruto influenced my SEO philosophy
- how to convert black hat seo techniques into white hat
- Best video resources to learn SEO
- 6 things your SEO will never say
- Why MM LKY would have been an awesome white hat SEO
- 50 facts on link building
Last words.
I’m heading to Phuket this Sunday for a 5 day break. That’ll give me a chance to catch a breather and refresh my creative juices. I always maintain that SEO is an art – something which requires quite a bit of creative thinking.
This break will help me recharge, ready to bring greater results to my clients. Hopefully it’ll also stir up my passion for writing, and I can complete those incomplete articles.
Drop me an email if you want to peer-pressure me into writing the next article. I welcome them!
