Here’s what I mean. My old profile URL, which still works, is: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joannabutler

However, this is now appearing on profiles as the following:

Not only this, but other country codes are also working as @danbarker noticed:

• http://us.linkedin.com/in/joannabutler
• http://au.linkedin.com/in/joannabutler
• http://nz.linkedin.com/in/joannabutler
• http://hk.linkedin.com/in/joannabutler

All the above URLs have not been blocked through either robots.txt or a robots Meta tag. Only the canonical tag has been used on all URLs, except the ‘www’ and ‘home’ country. The tag specifies the ‘home’ country as the main URL as follows:

As Michael Gray eloquently put it, these tags are like an SEO band-aid and entrusting your entire site and its duplicate content issues with a single tag is a little risky, if not foolish should the effect of these tags change overnight. It is much better to choose one URL and 301 redirect all to it, or at least to use some simple pattern matching in the robots.txt file to block search engines from the duplicate URLs. Failing that, implementing a ‘noindex’ robots Meta tag would help avoid issues.

But, as it currently stands, there are two URLs per profile: ‘www’ and ‘UK’ for me.

So, what are the SEO implications for LinkedIn profiles?

Duplicate content

Besides the fact having two URLs makes absolutely no sense, users are left wondering which URL is their ‘real’ profile and therefore which to link to. Two URLs could potentially mean half the number of inbound links as they’re split between profiles, and therefore link equity, reducing it’s authority.

Rebuilding your ego SERP

If LinkedIn axed the old URLs without 301 redirects, you will probably have to rebuild that equity for your new profile URL. The link to your nicely formatted career summary in the form of your LinkedIn profile page may well disappear out of your ego SERP.

International reach

If you are based in the UK, want to connect with people in the UK, and don’t ever consider moving countries, this update is for you! However, in today’s well-connected, online society this is highly unlikely. You are far more likely to fall into one or more of the following categories:

• You work for an international company
• You need to connect to people around the world
• You may emmigrate

Therefore, you will prefer to keep the original, location-independent URL.

Complex URLs

Already there appears to be a redundant ‘in’ directory within profile URLs, but now we have to remember what country a person resides in in order to reference them.

What benefits are there, if any, of a country subdomain?

Local search

Your profile may well rank better in local searches. That is to say if someone searches for me in the UK, my UK profile should rank better than if they were searching from the US. [However, this may not be true due to the well publicised issues with the UK SERPs recently receiving unnaturally large amounts of foreign websites in local searches, but that's a whole other topic!]

Interestingly, LinkedIn haven’t changed the ‘lang’ attribute in the HTML or employed international language changes such as using ‘resume’ in US profiles and ‘CV’ in UK profiles.

In conclusion: this is a LinkedIn #FAIL

It makes absolutely no sense to adopt this new URL structure from an SEO, usability or recruitment/business standpoint. The only possible reasons they could be opting for this format are to free up more usernames or for unknown technical reasons.

It will be interesting to see what happens to LinkedIn profiles in SERPs over the coming days and weeks. If you have any insights or opinions on this, drop me a comment as I’d love to hear them. Let’s hope you haven’t had any expensive business cards etc. printed with your LinkedIn profile URL on…

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In case you missed it before the event, Search Cowboys also interviewed me about my talk, which I later learned was the most retweeted interview – so thank you to those who retweeted!

Overall it was a fantastic two days where I met and caught up with many inspirational people. If you have any questions or just want to keep in touch, please do! A few of my details are below, but you can find my full contact details here.

• Email: Joanna at Search Engine Chocolate dot com
• Connect with me on LinkedIn: LinkedIn.com/in/JoannaButler
• Follow me on Twitter: @JoannaButler

Barriers to Conversion and Discovering Untapped Opportunities with Analytics Slides

There have been some great write ups of the event so far including Top 10 Quotes – A4UExpo Hall of Fame by Search Cowboys, A4UExpo London Coverage 2009 by Richard Baxter AKA SEO Gadget and My review of A4U Expo 2009 – Excel, London by Geoffblog.com.

Related posts:

1. Think Visibility: Advanced Analytics Slides
2. My SEO Workshop Slides from the Chartered Institute of Marketing Conference
3. I’m Speaking at A4UExpo London 2009

Talks from the other keynotes were fantastic; Sahar Hashemi, founder of Coffee Republic, was particularly inspirational in her talk about being an entrepreneur, Professor Malcolm McDonald’s gave a great talk about the truth about marketing with some very funny quotes, some of which I had to list here:

• “The good thing about being mediocre is that you’re always at your best”
• “An increase of 100% on nothing, is still nothing”
• “You don’t analyse the ROI (return on investment) of the wings on an aircraft”

Helen Jeremiah, Head of Marketing for Boots, also gave a great talk explaining the history of Boots and their aims and philosophies behind their current marketing strategies.

If you’re interested in web analytics, come and see me speak in London at A4U Expo on the 14th October – you can use my special offer code SEOCHOC10 for 10% off!

Related posts:

1. I’m Speaking at A4UExpo London 2009
2. Think Visibility: Advanced Analytics Slides
3. Online Marketing and Me: 2008 to 2009

The talk was truely fascinating, and by no means just a simple run down of how the Internet was born. I left feeling Sir Tim Berners-Lee was a true genius, and so genuine. The talk was actually filmed by BBC Click and as I was on one of the front rows you are guaranteed to see me in the background mesmerised by his talk and tweeting updates!

Below is a mini write-up including answers to your questions tonight:

• Your questions for Sir Tim Berners-Lee
• My write up and review of Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s talk at the Science Museum

Your Questions for Sir Tim Berners-Lee 

1. @Walkerama asked: Can you have a word with Microsoft about IE6?
   Not covered in the talk specifically, but he did say that information on the Internet should be available independent of the platforms or browsers, and that includes being accessible to people with disabilities
2. @DavidWilcock asked: The Internet has brought porn to the masses, do you feel this makes you one of THE great social pioneers?
   Again, not answered specifically (!), but Sir Tim did say that “the web is a reflection of humanity”, good and bad.
3. @wallglamour asked: you could ask him if the Grid really does exist or are we doomed just to have 24mb download speed.
   I don’t think he believed any of the internet was static; download speeds, just like the technology it relies on, will continue to improve.
4. Anon asked: What kind of idiot decided that mixing semantic tags (quotes etc) with visual styles (colors, sizes etc) was a good design choice for HTML?
   HTML was actually made to resemble the existing CERN documents as closely as possible to encourage people to adopt it quickly.
5. @nsdesign asked: “do you regret not charging a royalty to every web user ?”
   Sir Tim Berners-Lee absolutely believes in royalty-free data and information. Keeping it that way means more people adopt it, therefore more people collaborate on it and consequently a much more invaluable invention.
6. @_elj asked: What’s your favourite recent web innovation?
   Sir Tim Berners-Lee loved the social web, connecting people. He also loved mash-ups where people had used raw data to produce new information such as the Google Maps mash up with traffic black spots. He praised companies that released raw data WITHOUT creating excuses in delaying making it freely available.
7. Audience member (and I) asked: You clearly believe in data and information being made freely available, but where do you stand on newspapers charging for access to their articles online?
   Sir Tim Berners-Lee said there was a need for high qualilty, professional and reliable content online. He compared that with the abundance of untrustworthy blogs online now with questionable sources.
8. Audience member: At what age do you think children should allowed online; not from an online content point of view, but one whereby some people believe the Internet can hinder a child’s development?
   While stating that he was not qualified enough to answer this question, he concluded that early adoption of the Internet by children can either promote great multitasking skills (that older members of the audience may not have) or it could be their road to ruin!

My write up and review of Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s talk at the Science Museum 

Sir Tim Berners-Lee also made the following points:

• The WebFoundation.org will be launching later in 2009
• The Internet should be independent of the platforms and technology used to access it including disabilities. It should act like a collaborative knowledge bank that anyone can access.
• Documents therefore need to be decentralised; the Internet needs to be independent. An example of this would be social networks where you need to re-find your friends due to them being siloed.
• The Internet should work independent of size like water, which is a scale-free system with parts that overlap seamlessly.
• As the Internet is about sharing data between people the social side of it is intrinsic and should always be included in the process of web science.

If you want to read more about Sir Tim Berners-Lee you can find his biography online, his previous presentations, and also his Wikipedia page.

Related posts:

1. Sir Tim Berners-Lee Talks at the Science Museum in London

Earlier, I asked my Twitter followers for questions to pose to Sir Tim Berners-Lee and so far had some great, if very funny, ones! Here are a few:

• @Walkerama asked: Can you have a word with Microsoft about IE6?
• @DavidWilcock asked: The Internet has brought porn to the masses, do you feel this makes you one of THE great social pioneers?
• @wallglamour asked: you could ask him if the Grid really does exist or are we doomed just to have 24mb download speed.
• Anon asked: What kind of idiot decided that mixing semantic tags (quotes etc) with visual styles (colors, sizes etc) was a good design choice for HTML?

I’m not sure I can ask all of those without being subtly ejected from the talk, but I will certainly do my best! I personally, am intrigued by his apparent dislike of Microsoft as suggested in his online biography.

If you have any more you’d like to suggest, please leave a comment as I will check during the talk. I also hope to keep you updated by tweeting any interesting points.

Related posts:

1. Review of Centenary Talk by Internet Inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Together with Lisa Myers from Verve Search and Will Critchlow from Distilled, we’ll be covering analytics for affiliate conversion, identifying and breaking down the obstacles preventing visitors from converting.

And, especially for you guys, I’ve got a special discount code giving you 10% off places at A4U Expo London! The discount code is SEOCHOC10, so if you haven’t already, make sure you register your place now as it’s already shaping up to be a terrific event, jam packed full of invaluable sessions.

I’m Also Speaking at the CIM Power of Marketing Event

While I’m on the topic of events, I’m also speaking at an annual Chartered Institute of Marketing all day event in Nottingham called the Power of Marketing.

In the morning of the 2nd of October I’ll be taking an interactive workshop on search engine optimisation, then later in the day delegates can catch author and professor, Malcolm McDonald, Boots Marketing Director, Elizabeth Fagan and co-founder of Coffee Republic, Sahar Hashemi. There’s an early bird discount that runs until the 11th of September, so make sure you book your place before it’s too late!

If you’re attending either of these events, don’t be afraid to come and say hello!

Related posts:

1. My SEO Workshop Slides from the Chartered Institute of Marketing Conference
2. Bigger and Better: Have You Booked Your Think Visibility Tickets?
3. I’m Speaking at Think Visibility

Now, I like change and especially to see what Google is up to when it experiments, but they can’t really think this would be a change for the better? What are the potential implications of this?

Universal Search

It’s likely to mean people rely much more on mixed results for images and videos for example. But I am personally a fan of being able to flip easily between other search types such as News, Images and Maps. I don’t want to have to trawl through irrelevant types of search results.

Personalised Search Results

When searching, especially when I want to test results for a particular keyword, seeing that I’m logged in in the top right hand corner of the SERPs acts as a reminder that the results I’m seeing may well be peronalised just for me and therefore a less accurate representation of what the average user will see. Removing this log in/out link means that more people will probably forget to log out, Google collects more data from your searches, and presents you with personalised results unbeknownst to you.

Google Denies Users Choice

Ultimately it would force users to use the new drop down “Show options” menu, but this does not offer the same full range of options. Instead it currently only offers Videos, Forums and Reviews. Of course users can hit the ‘back’ button on their browsers and start again as the menu remained on Google’s homepage, but that would have been a pretty bad user experience.

If this change stuck, it would have been a fairly fast transition and I’m not convinced it would have been well thought through. Could this be another knee jerk reaction to Bing’s popularity and moves lately? Bing interestingly has both top and side navigation menus as standard. Choice.

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The second Think Visibility conference is coming round already on Saturday 12th September at the Alea Casino in Leeds and promises to be even bigger and better than before! This time around I’m not speaking, but will be enjoying the fantastic, packed schedule that Dom has put together.

Tickets for the event will go fast! They’re priced at £99, but there are some discount codes going round if you’re quick!

Related posts:

1. Think Visibility: Advanced Analytics Slides
2. I’m Speaking at Think Visibility
3. I’m Speaking at A4UExpo London 2009

Keep website analytics simple by having simple goals, using simple strategies and above all, having fun!

Set Simple Goals

Children don’t have complex needs; sometimes they just want some attention, a treat or to play. Treat your voyage into the world of your website’s analytics with the same simplicity. Over complicating your goals will leave you confused, whereas breaking up a big research task into smaller chunks will mean you are more likely to succeed and emerge with good, solid conclusions with statistics to back them up.

Keep Reports Fun

Why churn out endless spreadsheets when you can illustrate them with colourful graphs and charts! Visual representations are much easier to digest and are fantastic for proving a point. They get straight to the point making them perfect for demonstrating theories or results. Most spreadsheet software allows you to make graphs, so spend an extra second or two the next time you have a spreadsheet finding those controls.

But, Why?! Be Inquisitive

Never, ever be content with what your statistics are telling you. Ask yourself ‘why’ at every turn just like a child. Remember: there may be more than one answer.

Become an Analytics Superhero

Just as a child learns through exploration and play, keep building up your analytics knowledge and skills. Develop your knowledge through exploring statistics. Challenge your own or your client’s assumptions about why users are behaving in a certain way and find the proof. In the process you will learn how to dig down to find answers. I guarantee that you will find a couple of things along the way you never knew before.

Website Statistics Need Attention Too

Children need attention; so do website statistics. Make sure you check your website statistics on a regular basis. “But, why?” I hear you say… So that not only will you know if there are issues with your tracking codes (it happens, especially if you are working on your website), but also you can react instantly to new trends as they unfold. Timing is key in marketing. Don’t forget to monitor any tracking filters you have applied to your statistics too to make sure that they are working and picking up the data you need.

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The jist of it is that SEOs feel that big brands are now being favoured more in organic search listings and that smaller brands are having a hard time. But blaming Google for handpicking brands to be boosted in the SERPs (search engine results pages) is false and taking the easy way out.

Generating Brand Buzz

Up until now SEOs have used link building techniques to increase the authority of websites in search engines. But the knock-on effect of Vince is that those who previously used the easy route of mass link building through spamming and paid links will find those techniques no longer produce results. This means that only good quality links are considered – those that are usually created by people naturally linking to the site because they want to.

One reason why SEOs may think that big brands are being favoured is that people naturally talk about them online and in doing so, link to them. Smaller brands on the other hand are less likely to have that buzz generated about them naturally, and therefore now struggle to gain inbound links and authority to compete with the bigger brands.

SEOs should therefore work to generate a buzz about the brand in other ways. This means that they must become better SEOs through considering the whole (on- and offline) marketing mix for their clients rather than concentrating purely on standalone SEO or quick wins.

1. Trending Topics

One way to generate a buzz would be to publish articles or blog posts that centre around a spiking topic in the news. In order to find out which topics are trending take a look at Google Insights for Search or Google Trends. Here’s an example of Google Insights for Search illustrating how searches relating to ‘Michael Jackson’ peaked a couple of weeks ago:

Targeting trending keywords has two benefits: content based upon the topic may see a boost in SERPs and also there are higher volumes of searches for those terms which would result in more traffic to your site.

2. Creating the Buzz Yourself

If publishing content around an existing buzz topic is not possible or relevant to the site in question, the buzz can be created around the brand itself (or product/offer). This is where a combination of offline channels such as TV advertising and online display advertising or YouTube videos can be used to create a viral marketing campaign that captures interest and sparks online searches.

The key is to be creative. The best way to generate a buzz is to engage your target audience and give them something that will entertain, inform or significantly help them in some way. In the UK, take the Cadbury’s gorilla (chocolate) or Compare the Meerkat (price comparison) as completely off-the-wall examples of creative viral campaigns. These have also done extremely well in universal search thanks to placing their TV ads on YouTube, and the buzz has even spread to social networks like Facebook where there are groups dedicated to the campaigns (The Cadbury’s Gorilla has over 120,000 fans and Compare the Meerkat has nearly half a million fans).

The Lesson

Forget SEO as a standalone product; that approach simply doesn’t cut it anymore. Integrate SEO with other marketing channels and watch your campaigns take off.

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