I’ll be working right through Christmas and into 2012, with the exception of the weekends and public holidays and I know many people are in a similar situation.

Work will still continue on my SEO campaigns but I am looking forward to the downtime for a professional refresh, not just a general refresh.

So what’s a professional refresh? For me, it’s a time where I get to go through my professional life and trim the fat – ie, analyse everything linked to me as a professional and make it work harder for me.

This isn’t about seeking a new career, it’s about giving yourself a better professional image by updating contacts, profile information and even your photo.

Since the downtime won’t involve daily calls with clients or aiming for inbox zero, this is a moment free from distraction to set yourself straight for 2012.

Here’s what’s on my professional refresh agenda – mind you, I’ll be doing it in board shorts with ice tea in hand!

1. Update Twitter – weed out profiles that no longer offer value and maybe even look at a background change!

2. Update resumé – not a lot has changed but it’s worth a review – maybe some wording change, maybe my goals/objectives have changed?

3. Update LinkedIn – give that bio a refresh (here’s a guide to avoid all the buzzwords), update work experience / skills / achievements and even the photo if possible. Find new contacts too!

4. Update my ‘online presence’ in general  – this involves Googling my name and updating profiles / info about me elsewhere.

5. Finally launch a re-designed JaavedKhatree.com.au – this has been in the pipeline and my version tracking has faded away.. a new site awaits in 2012!

What’s on your professional refresh agenda?

When Google started displaying things like currency conversions, flight details, real estate listings and even flight bookings,  I honestly thought they were going to sink the boot into sites dedicated to those sorts of services, especially when they acquired ITA Software (albeit with some strict rules).

They’ve sort of scaled back things a bit in that regard but with Chrome OS and Chromebooks abound, it’s got me thinking again about the concept that the browser is everything and the search engine is everything. Take it further to just having a browser that essentially was the search engine and where everything was conducted.

After playing with the new Google app on the iPad, I agree when some say they’ve snuck in features of Chrome OS into the iPad. I only use that app now for mail, G+ and searching. I feel it’s a very complete experience and I still love being able to type in currencies to convert along with flight details to help me work out if a flight is on schedule or not.

Google probably lost focus with a lot of things as they diversified but people downplay the impact Google will have in the coming years once they tighten their grip on localised searches and including a lot more things into the search experience.

They’re a bit like the All Blacks in some respects. When they get it right, they’re merciless and punish their opposition. But when they keep dropping the ball, people start to lose confidence.

Google has every reason to sink the boot into price comparison sites with Google Shopping. They can nail XE with currency conversions. Goodbye Babelfish thanks to Google Translate. Forget RealEstate.com.au, use Google Real Estate Listings. But somehow Google just hasn’t managed to get their act together.

I feel that when they do (only a matter of time), they will BE the experience.

Anyway, rought thoughts on hump day. Feedback appreciated!

I’m not a coffee addict in the purest sense and I certainly don’t rush for a caffeine hit when I need to be awake or the first thing in the morning at the office.

It’s not uncommon for me to make a cup at home around 10pm when I clearly should be avoiding stimulants. And as much as I drink and wholeheartedly prefer instant coffee to alleged ‘gourmet’ coffee from outside vendors, I actually know when my coffee is rubbish, regardless of where it’s made.

I’m not a coffee snob so spare me the ridicule, I’m actually going somewhere with this.

You see, I have a few close friends who own coffee machines at home (not of the pod variety) and they always freshly grind their beans before making a cup – and their coffee tastes amazing (this is a short sell but the point is made), whereas much of the stuff I get from indepenent vendors and even Starbucks and Gloria Jeans tastes burnt and undrinkable many a time.

I see coffee vendors claiming they only use 100% Arabica beans, they are constantly coming up with fresh grinds and they want to be there to share a special moment in my life by brewing the perfect cup of coffee.

My friends also use 100% Arabica beans, freshly grind their coffee and they’re definitely there sharing moments in my life, special or otherwise.

So how is it that in both instances, where it’s all ‘freshly ground’ and all that jazz, that there’s heinous differences in quality?

It’s about the person involved and how they make it (and why).

No doubt, many baristas definitely have a love for coffee and get much joy in making coffee for others. However a love for coffee doesn’t automatically translate into the ability to make great coffee.

Yes, bean quality matters but only so much. I believe companies would be better off training staff to truly make really great coffee and using this as their USP, not the quality of their beans.

I mean, if you look at Starbucks or Gloria Jeans or even McCafe and Michel’s Patisserie, they all go on about their bean quality but never about their awesome baristas who have a clue.

I think if you focused more on the ‘people’ and ‘service’ part of the coffee making process, you can start using a different catchphrase…. “Awesome coffee, made with 100% Arabica beans and 100% awesomeness”.

Appreciate your thoughts.

My foray into the world of SEO was almost by accident though there’s a bit of a logical progression when I think about it.

I first went online back in 1996 at a disability conference in Auckland, New Zealand. Telecom New Zealand was showcasing the wonders of the ‘Internet’ with their product: Xtra. It lived at Xtra.co.nz and was (at the time) an imagemap of a little ‘town’ which served as a portal for news, sports, weather and other such information.

The booth attendant asked me what I wanted to do with the ‘Internet’ and I had no clue. I tinkered around with the Xtra portal and landed on Yahoo.com. I found the chat room section and started making friends in no time.

Speeds were at 28.8 and 33.6kbps but it wasn’t an issue at the time – the whole idea of the Internet as a place to get info on everything at any time was just too amazing for my young mind!

I insisted we ‘get the Internet’ at home and when a new Windows 95 equipped computer landed at my door in late 1996, we were ready to go online!

Naturally once you start going online daily, you begin to wonder how to create your own website and I used Netscape Composer to create my first website. I used Yahoo’s free hosting and my site remained online for a few years. Admittedly, it wasn’t much more than a collection of great links, photos and ramblings but it did sport an impressive array of tiled backgrounds, colourful and unique page headings courtesy of Paint Shop Pro 5 and of course, animated gifs.

I kept up with web design for the ‘fun of it’ during  high school and uni years and began to dabble in some asp.net and php but this was extremely basic. And I was still using Paint Shop Pro 5 but had upgraded to Macromedia Dreamweaver!

In December 2003 I secured a position with Dark Blue Sea, an Internet media firm in Brisbane as part of their Customer Care team. I provided support for clients using their 4 products: ROAR.com and PageSeeker.com (PPC search engines), Fabulous.com (wholesale and domain monetisation platform) and Dark Blue (affiliate program). Dark Blue Sea was bought out by the Photon Group in 2007.

It is here that I developed a great interest in SEO courtesy of an SEO competition run by Dark Blue for the phrase ‘nigritude ultra marine’. The goal was to be ranked #1 for that phrase by competition close and whilst I was unable to participate, I did watch the competition keenly. Back then, meta keywords, stuffing of content and all sorts of other dodgy things were still used to somehow help with rankings and the one thing I questioned about it all was the validity of such techniques, since as a corporate entity or business, you wouldn’t be able to resort to those sorts of tactics without ruining your image. You would have to seek out more professional, long term strategies in order to rank well in search engines.

When I completed uni, I found a job in Sydney with 247 Real Media (now Outrider) and actually ventured into the PPC game. There was scope to move into the SEO department (where my passion lay) but at the time, PPC was hot and I worked on great campaigns for News Limited where I developed my skills in keyword research and copy writing. Despite the experience and fun of it all, I felt SEO was the future since most people I talked to simply ignored the paid ads. Back then the concept of social media was not so well developed or prominent but people were still trying to grasp the c0ncept of using the Internet to market their business.

I moved back to Brisbane in 2007 to join a Web Design and Internet Marketing company called Diggy and successfully managed one of their 5 branches for almost 3 years. This role was extremely varied but had plenty of web design and SEO to keep me happy. This is where I met Dan Petrovic, my mentor and friend who helped me focus my energies on ‘marketing websites’. Under Dan’s wing, I learnt a great deal more about SEO, far more than what you would read in a book or at a seminar. His patient and practical approach to SEO is the reason why he is the best in the biz and I consider myself very fortunate to have been schooled by a world-renowned industry expert. When Dan setup an official entity in the form of DEJAN SEO, I had to join him as I would be able to work day in and day out on SEO campaigns in an environment that fostered creativity and allowed for a great deal more experimentation and learning with SEO.

I’ve been at DEJAN SEO since December 2009, I currently manage 80+ campaigns for small to medium businesses in Australia, New Zealand, Israel, USA and Japan. I work with about 35 talented link builders and digital marketing strategists. SEO is at the core of what we do and I spend my days auditing websites and either making the necessary onsite SEO changes or guiding my clients on how to do so. I also assist with link building, help identify opportunities for online growth and I even work hard in the conversion optimisation space because a #1 ranking means squat if it doesn’t translate into sales.

There are many elements to a successful digital strategy and it needs to be comprehensive if you want results, such as:

- a solid website that converts well and ranks well

- a mobile site

- a strong social media presence

- consistent email marketing

and even a mobile app if it’s relevant and appropriate!

But I believe SEO is as vital as any other component and forms the corner stone of a solid online presence. Pete Williams of Deloitte Digital fame might disagree (he reckons it went out with body shirts) but I’d like to think that there seems little point in worrying about chandeliers and feature walls if your foundation is falling apart.

SEO FTW.

I’m using a BlackBerry temporarily and found the WordPress app in BlackBerry App World so I thought I’d give it a shot!

Even before the iPad was released, I had all sorts of wild ideas running around in my head about innovation using tablet PCs.

I remember having a laptop in uni thinking it would make life easier in lectures for notes etc but it was more of a distraction and just saved on ink and paper… I still had to write notes for each slide… and I wished my laptop had a touch screen.

Enter the humble tablet PC. I saw a fellow student with one in class and he used a stylus to write notes and it was just awesome. It was the right sort of device for lectures that saved on printing but still allowed you to write notes. Plus you had all your other notes in one handy spot.

I recall how at a Pakistani restaurant in London, the waiters all had PDAs to take orders with and they all synced up to the main computer for swift order taking and management. I then thought about how that could be expanded further with a tablet PC given its compact nature.

How about installing an iPad in a restaurant booth? Patrons can come in and order from an interactive menu and all orders link up to a central computer and patrons could then use the iPad to order extra food, summon a waiter to pay their bill or if possible, pay their bill directly from the iPad (I’m thinking Square-like technology).

I’ve found it very useful at conferences where I get to show people their websites and search results with ease. I also get them to sign up for a free SEO audit straight away and without any hesitation. It’s awesome for building up our database but also just a very easy paperless way to collect leads.

Speaking of leads, at Giapo in Auckland, NZ (the best gelato, by far) there’s a touch screen computer in the wall which you can use to record a video and post to Facebook. You can like the business and post comments too. This is awesome and no wonder Giapo has a cult following. He’s got a very firm handle on social media and uses it very very well. He’s on FB, Twitter, Foursquae and has a QR code too. LEGEND. There’s no iPad but it can be done.

At my local hairdresser, they have a TV to keep you occupied. There’s no sound, so there’s subtitles instead and you can’t choose what’s playing (it’s usually something from Pixar) but it keeps me distracted. I don’t think the iPad could work here but I can see it being handy at places where you wait for things to be done for you, like a beauty parlour (while waiting for your nails to  be done?)

For years I was also saying I wished there was a way for hospitals to use tablet PCs instead of paper charts. It could all be linked with a central server and you could even use barcodes. I know there’s hygiene and reliability concerns but when you think about how the iPad is the tool of choice for so many entrepreneurs, where they use it for emails, appointments, browsing, managing tasks and so on.. this idea has plenty of worth.

There’s so much potential and the more I use the iPad, the more I see it changing everything we do. Just yesterday I was showing my 90 year old grandfather some information about Noah’s Ark (apparently located in Turkey). It’s so easy to just flip out the iPad and do some research or check your mail. iPad – it’s the way of the future!

@jessnichols on Twitter just asked if we need resumes these days, considering she hasn’t updated hers in ages as she relies on LinkedIn to do the talking.

This is something I’ve been going on about for ages. LinkedIn is certainly growing in Australia but in the USA, it’s insane. There’s all sorts of amazing figures about people being headhunted and finding jobs via LinkedIn and it seems to be a huge thing amongst professionals there.

However I find it’s just not as big over here. No one has ever asked for my LinkedIn username or the URL to myLinkedIn page. Granted, I do tell people to “Google me” – not to sound trendy but because when you do that, you get all the necessary info about me – my website, my blog, Twitter and LinkedIn. You find out a bit more about other sites I’ve designed and community/other groups I belong to. I mean, really, a resume seems redundant.

A LinkedIn profile is set out to be easier to read than a cover letter and resume. You get the right info straight away and you can easily connect with people and get more info. I think this is a lot more efficient and helps you select better candidates.

I have plenty of connections, a decent amount of recommendations and a decent sized job history, with appropriate descriptions that clearly show off my command of the English language. There’s even a nice smiley photo of me to go with it. I should probably just make out business cards with my name and LinkedIn profile URL. Might work a lot better.

20 years ago, the idea of mobile phones was a bit of a fairy tale and not something most people could grasp, even though early concepts were proving promising.

10 years ago, mobile phones started growing in popularity with every household having at least 1-2 handsets.

Fastforward to 2011 and now not only does everyone have a mobile phone but our phones now have access to the Internet and everything within. We can do our banking, find our way through GPS and communicate with others next door or in the next country, with a few touches.

Unbelievable.

But the leaps in technology are not just the only unbelievable thoughts behind mobile technology. We’ve now become hopelessly addicted and reliant on our mobile devices for just about everything.

20 years ago, if you were waiting for someone, and they didn’t show at the scheduled time, you just waited and waited, eventually gave up, then went home. Nowadays, we’re constantly in touch, sending texts, leaving voicemails and of course, making calls. I don’t think we’re really ‘missing’ meetings and such things anymore. We’re a lot more in the loop.

20 years ago, if you were lost somewhere, you pulled out your map book. Or if you were walking around, you’d ask for directions or help. Or you’d do research at home and write down addresses of places or times and venues of events.

Now, you can use the Internet on your phone to guide you wherever you need to go, to find out the name of that new restaurant (and read reviews!) as well as book tickets for events.

I’ve been using an old Blackberry since my HTC Magic conked out and it’s so old, I can’t go online with it. It’s so frustrating because I’ve found myself in situations where I’ve needed to check my email urgently or needed to check an address or whatever but since my phone has no Internet, I can’t do that.

Insanely frustrating. And eye opening… since it’s showing how reliant I am and we are becoming to the Internet, our mobile devices and the Internet on our devices.

What would I be doing 10 years ago? or 20 years ago? I’d be a lot more patient, that’s for sure.

I wonder what the future holds for us – with devices like the iPhone revolutionising how we go through our days and innovation in mobile technology jumping ahead every single day, it’s scary and exciting at the same time.

I think I’m more excited than scared. Though I just hope we don’t become as dependent on the Internet in order to live, just as we do with oxygen.

WordPress is an amazing system that’s not just for blogs/blogging. The plugin range is growing every single day and there’s countless themes available out there that simply blow your mind.

To learn more about what makes WordPress so awesome and how you can also get into WordPress design, I talked to Bronson Quick, co-founder of Sennza.

JAAVED: you’re obviously in love with wordpress, how did you get into it all and what makes you choose wordpress over other platforms like drupal and joomla?

BRONSON: After working in web design for a few years I went through a similar process as most web developers do. I first started coding sites in Dreamweaver using Dreamweaver templates then still found it difficult to actually update the content on websites. I wanted the client to be able to update the content themselves so I decided to code my own content management system (CMS). This process was time consuming so I looked at the open source alternatives out there at the time. I tried Joomla and Modx and found they were too cluttered and too complex for clients to get their heads around even after training sessions. I also worked with some proprietary CMS at some agencies but these lacked in features and were getting dated. Even more importantly, those CMS were lacking in features that were required for SEO which was an ongoing concern.

The transition to WordPress came at a time where I was working on Queensland Government sites for an agency and we were using Joomla. Joomla was great because of the team I was working with but it was still too cluttered for clients. I ended up working on WordPress sites after hours and loved the speed that I could take a Photoshop design and turn it into a WordPress theme. Then of course I became aware of the thousands of plugins that can be used on WordPress.org to extend the functionality of WordPress and lastly, and probably most importantly, when I gave clients a username and password to login into their WordPress site they could often login and update their site before I even completed initial training with them.

JAAVED: some people refuse to label WordPress as a CMS because they consider it merely a blogging tool on steroids.. what do you say to that?

BRONSON: To that I simply respond by directing to my recent 5 minute talk at Brisbane Ignite: http://www.sennza.com.au/2011/06/ignite-brisbane-wordpress-is-not-just-for-blogs-dammit/ and the original blog post titled “WordPress Is Not Just For Blogs Dammit!” http://www.sennza.com.au/2010/06/wordpress-is-not-just-for-blogs-dammit/
JAAVED: Now wordpress has a heap of plugins that let you do just about anything.. which ones could you absolutely not live without?

BRONSON:

My top five would be:
1) Backup Buddy http://pluginbuddy.com/purchase/backupbuddy/ This is amazing for backups and also amazing for site migration.
2) Gravity Forms: http://www.gravityforms.com/ This plugin is a must have for easy to easily create and manage forms in WordPress
3) Akismet: This comes bundled with WordPress and it’s the best way to manage spam. Set it up with an API key and it’ll work it’s magic in the background
4) All In One SEO Pack:http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/  A great plugin for SEO
5) Last but not least. VaultPress! http://vaultpress.com/ I always like backups of backups. VaultPress takes real time backups of your site and stores several copies of that backup all around the world. It can also perform realtime scans of your WordPress core files…so it’s like antivirus for your website!

JAAVED: For those who are starting out with wordpress design and want to tinker around, where would you recommend they go to for the best advice?

BRONSON: The WordPress.org support forums are great: http://wordpress.org/support/ WordPress Meetup groups are great: http://wordpress.meetup.com/ and http://wordpress.tv/ is a great place for videos from WordPress Meetups and WordCamps around the world.

JAAVED: last question (for now): with the rise of many premium theme sites, are there any which you prefer (and why) or do you opt to work from scratch with the default theme for your own customised design?

BRONSON: Usually this is determined purely by the clients budget. At the moment for clients with a limited budget will get them to choose a theme from either Elegant Themes or Woo Themes. We are going to moving away from that approach now at sennza as part of our rebranding that is currently in development.

If we are designing a custom site from a Photoshop design I start with a modified version of the Twenty Ten theme which used to be the default WordPress theme but as of yesterday there is a new theme called Twenty Eleven that I will be stripping back to use as a starting point for future themes.

JAAVED: Awesome, thanks for your pro tips Bronson. You clearly love WordPress!

BRONSON: Love it? Mate, I’d marry it!

—

Jaaved Khatree is a Senior SEO Strategist and Digital Marketer at DEJAN SEO, a Brisbane SEO Company.

Bronson Quick is the co-founder of Sennza, a Brisbane WordPress Design Company.

There’s a lot of Buzz happening recently with Google doing all sorts of tests with their properties, viz. the implementation of the +1 Button, nav bar, homepage and SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
+1 Button

I love the +1 Button and have been frantically +1-ing everything noteworthy. In SERPs, they’ve been trialing the display of +1 data like which one of your mates has also +1′d it, how many people have +1′d it and the guys at Search Engine Land are talking about Google now localising +1 data “XXX people in NYC have +1′d this”. More and more sites are adding this button to their site and I’d suggest you get onto it too! It’s showing a lot of promise in light of the established and popular Facebook Like button and Twitter Tweet Button. I consider this a form of redemption from Google after the ‘failure’ that was Google Buzz (which I still kinda use actually!)
Nav Bar

A while ago, Google moved their nav bar to the top of the screen and in more recent times, changed the styling of it which was generally met with positive feedback for being clean, clear and simple.

Enter the black nav bar with white text and a red line above the relevant section you are in. Very un-Google like and something considered a bit random from a company that is known for making highly calculated decisions on simple things like whether borders should be 3px, 4px or 5px wide (with full justification) or which shade of blue would be best, out of a possible 41 combinations. No joke.

New Google Homepage

So apart from the black navbar, there’s been some changes to the Google homepage. Interestingly, it only worked for me in Opera and not in Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Here’s a screenshot:

A few things to note:

- logo seems a bit smaller
- more white/negative space above the logo
- black nav bar
- links that once appeared under the search buttons now appear in the footer, to the left
- buttons look a bit different

Here’s the version in Chrome:

All looks normal apart from the black nav bar.

Notice I’m not signed into Google whilst in either browser and I have cleared my cache too.

Interesting.

New SERPs layout

There was talk of Google testing new SERPs layouts not too long ago, in particular with the styling of the icons in the sidebar. Once again, I’m seeing the change in Opera but not in Chrome. Here’s some screenshots:

A few things to note:

- Results are now left-aligned as opposed to being in the centre of the screen.
- The icons are greyscale, simpler and slightly different to their former selves.
- It highlights the section you’re on by making the text Red.
- The side bar options are all greay apart from options.
- the URL for a listing is now UNDER the page title (used to be under the meta description before)
- grey shading up the top
- search button is no longer grey button with ‘search’ label, but now a blue button with a magnifying glass
- no more ‘similar’ link, just ‘cached’.

I quite like the new layout and almost missed a few changes (viz. location of URL in SERP listing) but I wonder how the rest of Google’s millions of stakeholders will react.

Thoughts?