Nice choice of ad…

Highland Spring Mineral Water ad on an article named “Why you should stop drinking bottled water”.

The perfect day for bacon…

Jamie and his Magic Torch

I used to love this when I was a kid (even though people used to sing the theme tune to me incessently)

Fruits of Mass Destruction

Thanks Google, Tasteful

Pitfalls of SEO Link Exchange Requests

I’m not a big fan of SEO link exchanges – they’re ineffective, but even if you believed they were still relevant, they’re often fraught with pitfalls. Dubious webmasters regularly claim they’ve added a link when they haven’t – they’re maybe just using a clever script to show you a page that doesn’t really exist, or they’re blocking their link pages using robots.txt files or nofollow tags.

I do love receiving link exchange requests though – it’s great to see how people approach this technique. Here’s one I got today (the links on their link page were all marked as nofollow):

Subject: partnership with jamiedigi.com?

Hi,

John Stahl here. I just wanted to drop you a line and invite you to be a link partner for our website [sitedomain.com].

I’ve found your website with the “reverse google pagerank algorithm” which indicates that we both would get better google rankings, when we exchange links.

I’ve already gone ahead and added your site jamiedigi.com to our link directory, could you please verify the description before it will go life at: [link to customise your listing]

Talk soon,
John Stahl

If I had reverse-engineered Google’s PageRank algorithm then I think I would be doing something more interesting to promote it than a link exchange!

Swine Flu headlines, then and now

Then:

Now:

I wonder why?

Does Google follow links in PDF files?

PDF files have become fairly ubiquitous online, and Google has index content in them for a few years. I came across a question on a forum recently asking if Google followed links in PDF files, and I genuinely didn’t know.

So this is a small test to find out – here’s my PDF file, Google. Do your worst.

My assumption will be that Google will follow the link. Unfortunately my test isn’t detailed or scientific enough to determine whether PageRank is passed.

SEO Link Request from Mobiles.co.uk

I’m always interested in seeing how other businesses run their SEO campaigns. Here’s a sample of a link request I received recently from Mobiles.co.uk, part of The Carphone Warehouse group:

Hi – I’m Richard Cridford from mobiles.co.uk. A wholly owned subsidiary of the Carphone Warehouse Group, we were the UK’s first retail mobile phone website (launched in 1995) and are now the largest web-only mobile phone store in the UK.

We have been working hard creating content on our own site and we wondered if you would be interested in some free of charge content written just for [some random blog]. This is a genuine offer that could help both [some random blog] and mobiles.co.uk so if you are interested, please read on . . .

We are working with a large team of professional writers in the UK who can cover almost any theme. We can quickly agree a subject with you and commission them to write specifically for you. There are absolutely no costs and you will have complete editorial control with no requirement to publish the content on [some random blog] unless you are entirely happy with it.

All we would ask is that you allow us to include one simple text link back to mobiles.co.uk towards the end of the content which will hopefully be found by the search engines in the longer term – which is how we would benefit.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks and kind regards – Richard Cridford
Marketing Executive
www.mobiles.co.uk
Mobiles.co.uk Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC
Registered in England no. 3253714 at 1, Portal Way, London W3 6RS

REMOVAL
Removal is probably the wrong word – you are not on any kind of mailing list because we identify and approach sites individually. However, I really do not want to upset anyone by making contact and if I have done so, I`m really sorry. I am always trying to improve our approach. Given that we have other sites, if you could reply with any of the following in the subject line, I will ensure that I learn from it!

REMOVE (no further contact regardless as to reason)
NO INTEREST (no interest in mobiles.co.uk but you do sometimes link)
NO LINKS (you never link with other sites)

Thanks!

The blog that they enquired about was a random little WordPress site that I set up years ago, and that doesn’t generate any traffic, so they must have dug pretty deep to find it. I wonder where they’re getting their content from – somewhere like Adfero DirectNews perhaps? It’s also interesting that they didn’t request any sort of specific anchor text – maybe the keyword-relevant domain name is strong enough.

My perfect day out in London for tourists

Whenever anyone visits me in London they want to know the best places to go, the best things to see and the best things to eat. I’m not a fan of the traditional tourists traps. Places like Madame Tussauds and The London Dungeon are ok, but not worth wasting your time on for a short visit – they’re expensive, busy and nothing special. Instead, this is my perfect one-day trip out in London, local style.

Get on the DLR at Bank towards Greenwich

Bank is on the Central or Northern line (see tube map) and is pretty easy to get to from anywhere in London. Aim to get there about 10am – any earlier during the week and you’ll hit rush hour. Get on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) towards Lewisham. Try to sit at the front.

The DLR journey to Greenwich gets you great views of the commercial part of London, past Canary Wharf. There’s not much to get off for around there, but it’s worth seeing from the train. Get off the DLR at Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich – you’ll end up in central Greenwich.

Grab brunch in Greenwich

In Greenwich, have a good look around the market, and check out the views across the river. The market has a number of good stalls selling tasty food, but there’s another smaller and less glamorous market near the Ibis Hotel which sells some of the most tasty Thai noodles on London.

After brunch, wander down the road to Greenwich park. The view from the Greenwich observatory in the park is one of the finest views in London – you can see for miles across to central London, St Pauls, the Gherkin and Docklands. If you have some time and have any interest in boats, the Maritime Museum within the park grounds is worth a look.

Once you’re done in Greenwich (aim for about 4pm) get the 188 bus to North Greenwich and the The O2. The O2 is the final stop on the bus, so you don’t need to get out until it terminates – you can find the route map here.

From the O2 to Waterloo on Clipper

The O2, formerlly the Millennium Dome, is the most popular concert venue in the world. It’s got plenty of shops and restaurants inside, but there’s not too much to see there during the day. Have a quick look around, but after you’re done head towards the pier, where you can board a Thames Clipper.

The Thames Clippers are a river commuter service, and zoom down the Thames from the O2 to Chelsea Pier and back. They give you a brilliant view of all of London – on your way to Waterloo pier you’ll see the O2, Greenwich, Docklands, Gherkin, London Eye and houses of Parliament. It’s a great way to get back into central London.

From Waterloo to China Town

From Waterloo, wander up to China town. It’s about a 15/20 minute walk, and will take you up through Westminster, Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square.

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Dinner in China Town

China Town has some of the best Chinese and Japanese restaurants in London. My personal recommendations are:

• Red n Hot – really tasty and authentic Chinese hot pot (map)
• Tokyo Diner – delicious Japanese bento boxes (map)
• Misato – cheap and tasty Japanese food, including wonderful Katsu Curry (map)
• New China – more familiar British-style Chinese food, but still authentic and delicious (map)

After you’ve eaten, walk the 10 minutes to Covent Garden and check out some nightlife. There you’ll find bars, clubs and entertainers in the central arcade:

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