Google’s Anti-SEO Propaganda

by Barry May 20, 2013

It should be no secret that Google doesn’t like SEO. As the victim of its own success, Google has to accept that the majority of its users will click on the organic search results it provides, but the search engine resents companies spending money on SEO. It would much rather have that budget re-allocated to [...]

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Google EU Settlement / Facebook IPO / Long-Form Content

by Barry May 19, 2013

When it was revealed that Google would settle its EU antitrust case by making a range of concessions, I thought it would be worthwhile to look at what these concessions would actually do to promote competition and innovation in the European digital economy: State of Search: What Google’s EU Settlement Means For Search Speculating about [...]

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Outsmarting Google / Fighting Sexism / SEO Distributed

by Barry May 15, 2013

I was sent a review copy of Evan Bailyn’s book Outsmarting Google. While the book’s subtitle was a bit too optimistic and the content a bit light on technical details for my taste, I did find it a solid introduction to effective SEO tactics. State of Search: Book Review – Outsmarting Google Some aspects of [...]

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Moving domains without using 301 redirects – only works temporarily?

by Barry March 20, 2013

I discovered a bit of an anomaly with Google today. Like many people I do ego searches now and again to see how my websites and social media profiles rank on Google. For the past year and a half, my website www.barryadams.co.uk has been the primary search results for the ‘barry adams’ search query on [...]

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Does your hosting company want you to succeed?

by Barry January 9, 2013

So you’re finally becoming successful online. It’s taken months and months of effort and dedication to design, develop, and launch your website, and then many more months and months of effort and dedication to make that website successful. And it’s working! Traffic figures are booming and you’re generating more revenue every day! The problem is, [...]

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Google’s 2012 / FTC exoneration / Perceived Value

by Barry January 4, 2013

In my last post of the year for State of Search I looked back at what 2012 brought for Google in terms of bad PR. I feel it’s been a hallmark year for Google where the public woke up to the fact the search giant isn’t the altruistic cuddly bear we want it to be, [...]

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Twenty-Twelve

by Barry December 20, 2012

2012 has been a great year for me. On a personal level the year had a tough act to follow, as 2011 was a year of amazing highlights – I got married in February 2011 and we enjoyed a superb honeymoon in New Zealand in September. And while there weren’t similarly outstanding personal events in [...]

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Long-Form SEO Writing / Meet Your Marketer Interview

by Barry November 30, 2012

Triggered by a series of blog posts deriding the pervasive ‘What X Taught Me About Y’ blog fluff, culminating in Joanthan Colman’s excellent ‘We Can Do Better Than This‘ article, I wrote a post for State of Search listing the obstacles to a widespread adoption of investigate SEO writing, and providing a few possible avenues [...]

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Dublin Web Summit / Short-Term Thinking / Transition Rank

by Barry November 28, 2012

State of Search was given a press pass to the Dublin Web Summit – Europe’s largest technology conference – and as the Irish resident on the blogging team I got to attend. Here’s my write-up of the first day: State of Search: Dublin Web Summit The 2012 edition of the Dublin Web Summit is a [...]

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Structured Data / Dublin SEO Summit / Part-time Jobs

by Barry November 28, 2012

In my last regular blog post for Search News Central I wrote about how over time my perspective on structured data has changed, from skeptic to fan: Search News Central: My Changed Perspective on Structured Data I’ve now come to believe that structured data is, in fact, the future of the internet. At some stage [...]

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What Google Wants / SEO Competitive Analysis / Social Media Training

by Barry November 28, 2012

For State of Search I wrote an article explaining my views behind the tension between Google and the SEO industry, highlighting the entirely different objectives each is striving towards and how these collide: State of Search: What Google Wants vs What SEOs Want Then there’s a second area of tension between SEO and Google, which [...]

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No Rest for the Wicked

by Barry November 7, 2012

… or for those who love their job. After a well-deserved holiday in early October (two weeks in sunny Portugal, it was lovely) and struggling with a persistent flu I’m balancing a heavy but much appreciated workload with pedagogical commitments and interesting events. Barely back from vacation I attended the first day of the Dublin [...]

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