While I was in Europe, my business partner told me about this new juice diet thing he was trying and how good it did to him. After I arrived he immediately set me up to see a movie on Netflix: “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead“, you can watch the movie trailer on YouTube. He also got a juicer for the office and told me “here, this is all you’re going to need for the next 10 days”.

I used to be a quite active person, born in the south of Portugal, my hobbies consisted mostly of water sports like windsurfing, swimming, scuba-diving, etc. Since I left my home country I slowed down a lot, first the marriage, children, and then Google
Overall, I’ve been a bit overweight since I stopped the active lifestyle I had. I feel I need to regain part of what I lost, regain focus and feel more fit, so I took the plunge and instead of doing this just for 10 days, I decided to shoot for a 30 day challenge.

At this moment I’m starting the 2nd day of my fast diet, and so far I must say I feel pretty good. I’m still searching and figuring out how to mix the fruits and vegetables so I don’t become the creator of anything that tastes horribly bad. Hopefully I found some good tips on Reboot Your Life, the community website that followed the movie.

I didn’t eat anything solid since Monday morning and the hardest part is still to go out and pass by a barbecue or go to the supermarket to shop for vegetables and pass trough the cheese section. Also after this I plan to go back to exercise on a regular basis and regain part of that more active lifestyle again.

My weight today is 120 Kg (that’s ~265 lbs)

30 day challenge: Juice Reboot is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts

It has now been 5 years and 5 months since I first joined the company. As a Portuguese guy used to Sun, beach and an extraordinary gastronomic culture, moving to Ireland was a tough decision, but at the same time the smartest I ever made. Joining Google in its European Headquarters brought me an unmatched experience and vision as a professional. During the last 5 years I met so many bright and intelligent people from the most diverse corners of the world. People that have an amazing sense of responsibility, pro-activeness and are fun to work with at the same time. Working for Google has been one of the longest, most enjoyable and self-rewarding experiences I’ve ever had in my career path until today. In one sentence: I found at Google a unique company culture that I expect to take with me throughout the rest of my life and career.

Since my start in March 2006, and during my progress to Webspam Analyst in the Search Quality team, I’ve seen, experienced, learned and worked on so many amazing things. I’ve seen technology that goes well beyond what I could ever dream of and many say it doesn’t exist yet. I feel extremely lucky to have been handed the privilege and the enormous responsibility to touch the core of one of the most successful companies in the world; the ability to see how the massive Internet world moves, how and where trends grow, where it has been and where it’s going… It surely is an amazing view from here.

I’m really proud of the many things I achieved, all the chances Google gave me from learning to travel; representing Google as a Search expert in conferences in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Dublin and Turkey; the insane amount of interviews I never dreamed I would be giving; and the level of communication I achieved with everyone that follows me on Twitter and on Google+.
I worked with so many amazing people from the most different locations and across many different products, and the list of names would be very extensive to put out one by one, nevertheless there are a few key people I’d like to give my special thanks to (in no particular order) Matt Cutts, Brian White and the whole Webspam team for the knowledge, support and insights they gave me; my managers and language team for driving such a great culture; the whole global Search Quality team for our efforts in improving Search in so many languages, John Mueller and the External Communications stream for being so awesome and always pushing for better ways of communication with the outside world, and all the friends I made inside the company for all the good moments we shared.

Leaving Google, and the extraordinary Search Quality/Webspam team is by far the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but I feel that the time has come for me to move on to exciting entrepreneurial challenges, do something new and travel to Brazil. Hopefully you will hear more about it when it’s ready, for now I can only say “stay tuned” and keep your eyeballs in this name Engeeno.

A step back? Maybe… But only to gain momentum.

Google: I will miss you is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts

The next update deserves a video is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts

This seems to be a recurring topic that somehow just doesn’t want to settle, and since I recently did a presentation on this topic I thought it would be nice to highlight this particular step.

Just before I headed up to ExpOn in São Paulo last month. I spent some time trying to put together a simple flowchart that would illustrate nicely how you as a webmaster should handle desktop content and mobile content, and with the help of John Mueller we managed to put together something we thought would be clear and simple enough. One thing to keep in mind before I start is that you should always show to Googlebot the same content you show to a user on a desktop browser, because Googlebot will not be crawling or indexing all mobile versions.

There are mainly 2 types of mobile devices:

• Smartphones – that have full featured browsers (most common are Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, etc);
• Feature Phones – that have limited capabilities, processing power, etc. (and usually can only handle WAP, WML, xHTML, etc) these often need a transcoder too to render normal HTML pages.

There is only one scenario where Google wants to crawl a mobile version of a site and that’s when there is a Feature-phone version. That’s because, due to the limited capabilities of these devices, Google stores these sites in a different index, specially tailored to serve this kind of content. So if you have to think about content delivery according to users and Google, you should think something along these lines: This has changed, see updated at the bottom.

So now let’s say you want to decide how to handle mobile users VS desktop users but you have been undecided in how you should set it up. You saw people that have set a mobile version using the same URLs and others who have set a mobile version using different URLs and everybody tells you their way is the best, and aaaaah… You can’t decide!

Well, to start you need to decide if you want or even need to have a mobile version of your site for Feature-phones or if it’s enough to have just a Smartphone optimized layout. It will depend of how mainstream your business is, is it a global business that reaches to everyone or is it a niche business that reaches only to a small amount of people? You need to assess your audience… What do they use most?

After you have decided what your audience uses most and what type (or types) of mobile site you want to have, than you can start planning how it will be structured. To help you with that here are the most popular options (Green arrows = YES; Red arrows = NO):

Using the same URLs

Using different URLs

If a visitor goes directly to your mobile version, the best thing is not to do any kind of redirections, but sometimes you might want to distinguish between a Smartphone user and a Feature Phone user, so if a user navigates to your mobile version directly and you want to present the best version for the type of mobile device, here is how you should think about it:

Hope this contributes to clarify things a bit and clear some of those pesky doubts about how and what’s the best option for your site.

 
UPDATE: Since I frist wrote this posts, Google changed how they handle smartphone optimized websites. How Google treats content for SmartPhones is the only thing that changes.

BEFORE:

• You wouldn’t serve your SmartPhone optimized site directly to Googlebot/Googlebot-mobile.
• Googlebot-mobile would only index content specifically tailored to FeaturePhones.
• You wouldn’t allow it to be indexed or it would be canonicalized to the desktop version of your site.

NOW:

• You can serve your SmartPhone optimized site to Googlebot-mobile.
• Googlebot-mobile will index both FeaturePhone and SmartPhone content.
• You can serve based on the UA, see post I wrote about “how to handle mobile users” but have new stuff in consideration:

REMEMBER:

• Mobile sites are/should be accessible, light and simple by nature.
• You should start to worry about how your mobile version shows up in search results.

How to Handle Mobile Web Performance

How to handle desktop and mobile users is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts

I’m sick tired of reading — and hearing — statements like: “Oh, SEO is this thing where you put sites ranking in 1st place” or “SEO is to fix what Google is ranking in the wrong place”, or even “SEO is all about reverse engineering algorithms, and finding the loopholes in Google and leverage them so you improve your rankings…”.
I mean, Seriously? Is this what you think SEO is all about? Do you really think that to optimize something is to leverage loopholes in order to get the upper hand?

Let’s start by taking a look at the definition of Optimization in Wikipedia:

…is the process of modifying a software system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources. In general, a computer program may be optimized so that it executes more rapidly…

Or even the definition of Search Engine Optimization in Wikipedia:

…Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via natural (or un-paid) organic/algorithmic search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion…

And now look at the definition of Cheat in Wikipedia:

…Cheating is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one’s own interest, and often at the expense of others…

Let me emphasize the beginning of that 2nd sentence “Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage…”.

In an objective way, do you see any kind of relation between that last sentence and the statements about what is SEO quoted above?

What do these definitions really tell us? What can we really extract from here?
Well, for one they refer to Optimization with words like “improving”, “best”, “quality”, etc. And they refer to Cheating with words like “deception”, “unfair advantage” and “own interest”… Do you see the pattern? Because I do… Because, to do Search Engine Optimization does not mean that your job is to “put sites ranking in 1st place”. SEO is not reverse engineering, SPAM is!

To rank in 1st place is a bonus that comes after the optimization of a good service or product. Of a great experience and user engagement in an accessible and well structured site. If you have a great story to tell you can write a book with it and make really nice graphics and market it and become famous. But if you don’t have a great story, doesn’t matter how fancy your graphics are or how good you promote it, it will be much harder to become famous if at all.

So, in other words, to have a good optimization you must always have good content, and the quality of your content is what will differentiate you from your competition and complement your optimization efforts, otherwise you will always be in a weak position against your competitors.

Optimize good and live longer!

Search Engine Optimization is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts

We all know that Google certifies Analytics Partners (GACP), AdWords Partner (GAP), among other Google Partner Programs available. If we take AdWords as an example — in which basically you can become certified either as an individual or a business or both — in order to obtain a GAP certification, you must go trough the AdWords Certification Program. Upon successful completion of the test/exam you will receive an “AdWords Qualified Professional” or “AdWords Qualified Individual” badge that you can happily display in your site.

A Google AdWords Certified Professional manages AdWords accounts for clients by creating and setting-up campaigns and doing the necessary adjustments to ensure the maximum ROI (Return On Investment). Such adjustments are always made trough the AdWords API or web interface and often have to comply with AdWords policies in order to get approved. In other words, not only this is something that doesn’t happen physically on a site, but Google has the control of approving or suspending any kind of activity that infringes on policy and best practices. To sum up, neither the Analytics Partner or AdWords Professional certifications interfere with the organic ranking of a website.

Now lets imagine Google would certify someone as an SEO Professional. After providing SEO certification Google would be partially responsible for any actions and techniques executed by a professional in any website on the Internet. It would be nearly impossible to guarantee that a professional would always comply with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. SEO is something that belongs and should remain in the private side of a website or professional, and to be honest, I wouldn’t want Google to control everything what you put in or take out of any website! I don’t think anybody would… All Google wants is to control the quality of its index.

Google always liked to keep money away from the organic part of Search, this in one of the main pillars that allows the Search Quality team to treat big and small websites equally and fairly. Independently of any site having any relation with Google or being a client of any other Google product — although some of you might think differently.

And in a nutshell, this is why Google doesn’t provide SEO certification :^)

See also Matt Cutts take on SEO certification:

Why doesn’t Google provide SEO certification? is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts

The amount of webmaster and SEO tools used to be a scarse resource a few years ago, and often were only available to a small number of SEOs. But that started to change when search engines decided to offer some of those resources as a public tool.

Google Resources in a video

Before I put out my list, there is a video that deserves special attention. It was done around 2008 by Wysz, one of my team colleagues in Search Quality and gives you good advice in how to make easier for Google to find your site.

There is already a big number of YouTube videos, that you can watch in order to understand better how stuff works and do some site analysis, which is by far less boring than having to read big chunks of text. But not everything is in video yet:

• Google Webmaster Help Channel: As the name suggests, it’s a channel dedicated to webmasters, SEO, search and many questions answered by Matt Cutts.
• Google Analytics: I think no introduction needed here, it’s Google Analytics dedicated channel, includes videos of examples and tutorials about how to use this tool in the most diverse ways, including filters, segments, you name it.
• Google Website Optimizer: Similar to Google Analytics channel, Google Website Optimizer includes examples on how to create A/B testing, how to implement these tests and to maximize your site’s conversion.

Google Tools and Documentation

List of tools and documentation provided by Google, when used and interpreted together this array of resources can and will be your best friend. The isolated use of tools can often be misleading.

• Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: No matter what people tell you, always start here if you are planning to build your first website. I recommend special attention about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which includes the Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide;
• Google Webmaster Tools: This one should be obvious to any serious webmaster. Lets you have a notion of the “health” of your site in Google’s index, from the analysis of robots.txt, meta data, link information, keywords, your site’s performance to the ability to see your site like GoogleBot sees it;
• Google Analytics: What is the goodness is having a website and having no idea how your visitors interact with it? Google Analytics lets you measure your site’s success on the web and with your visitors;
• AdWords Keyword Tool: Familiar to many, this is a fee public tool that Google gives to webmasters, SEOs and marketers so they can find and research keywords relevant to their websites and campaigns. If you want o see some examples about this tool, there is an excellent list of videos on YouTube that will give you some insights on how to use the AdWords Keyword Tool; *
• Google Insights for Search: Similar to Google Zeitgeist but in real time, provides valuable data on searches done on Google. With this tool you can get an idea of the most searched words by country, region, etc…;
• Google Trends: for a broader view on search data, gives you an idea of the popularity of search terms over a certain period of time;
• Google Webmaster Help Forum: One of the best online communities to discuss anything related to your website on Google;
• YouTube Keyword Tool: Similar to the AdWords Keyord tool mentioned above, but specific for video;
• Video Sitemaps Central: Explains what is the use for Video Sitemaps, how they work and how to submit a Video Sitemap.
• Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: So you won’t lose all those nice tool updates, lots of basic and advanced useful articles or anything related to Google and webmasters.
• Google Webmaster Central on Twitter: If you are a heavy Twitter user, follow Google Webmaster Central on Twitter.

Yahoo! Resources

Yahoo also provides some resources to help and complement the services provided by Google.

• Yahoo Search Blog
• Yahoo Site Explorer

Bing Resources

And finally Bing, that already offers some services for webmasters

• Bing Webmaster Toolbox
• Bing Webmaster Center Blog
• Bing Webmaster Community

Nice listing! I will try to keep this post updated with both new features in existing tools, or new tools that help SEO’s and webmasters improve their sites. If you like in particular any tool listed here, share experiences and tricks, or if you know any useful public tool that is provided by the major search engines fell free to share it in the comments. I hope this has some level of usefulness to everyone

* In the Portuguese version of this post, I have a mention to the Search-based Keyword Tool. Since Google decided to sunset this tool I’m removing the mention here.

Free SEO Tools is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts

I remember when I got my first job at a Design agency in Lisbon around 1998 — at that time I was in the last year of my degree — I had time to experiment, explore and research the Design world, I was full of ideas and great theory of how things could be accomplished and I even had nice grades to prove that. But soon I realized that many people, either inside the company or outside were always reluctant in pursuing and trying new stuff, and I heard many similar stories from my university colleagues that worked in other companies. Soon it became obvious to me that most people are afraid to admit they don’t know something (mostly to someone younger), either because they are afraid of “losing control” or to be seen as “deprecated” by their peers. As one gets older in a leading position, if they don’t face challenges on a daily basis they get “comfortable” without even noticing they are losing on innovation and competitivity.

So, mostly, people are afraid to lose control, either because they didn’t keep up with time and explore new technologies, or they thought those would be irrelevant and wouldn’t impact their business… Or just because they lost motivation on what they do and seek an easy and comfy way to pursue business. When someone tries to challenge them, they become unwilling to listen to others and assume they are right at all times. And that’s what mostly happens in the web world!

Many “old school” companies ignored the potential of a well established web presence, either by leveraging the power of search and social media, or because they didn’t try to come up with a differentiating factor once it becomes something perceived as given in the web world. The web deeply changed the way we access information and get to products.

So what does all this has to do with people saying stuff like: SEO is a “dark magic”; SEO is “snake oil”; SEO is dead; [insert here next meme]?
Well, because they are trying to evaluate something they don’t fully know or understand, because they just realized they have been losing on something and now they need to catch up with it somehow… And now they just found out that somehow this search/SEO/SEM thing affects their business after all. So they go out, try to get this “new thing” as fast as they can and they realize it’s harder than they thought, or they got the wrong/incomplete advice, because SEO is composed by a lot of things together and it’s not a just a single factor, a plugin, or outputting pretty URLs. So they end up not getting the results they planned, and get frustrated.

…OK in some cases that is just pure link-baiting, but those are the exception :^)

People in general don’t like change, we don’t like the idea of having to adapt over and over again, you can see this at its best when Google launches something that changes search or anything people are used to, you’ve seen it with Google Suggest, Google Personalized Search and recently with Google Instant. Well without change there would be no innovation, and Google loves innovation, you do the math. I don’t expect that everyone agrees with me in this post, because people tend also to learn the best with their experiences. And it doesn’t matter what you write, people will read what they want to read, but at least I expect to get you thinking about it, and maybe next time you hear about some change on the web, on search, or social media, or wherever, you consider the positive side and figure out how to adapt, before dumping your negative thoughts and rants straight out.

Why people see SEO as “dark magic” is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts

For someone that works in a company like Google, it just seems the normal thing to do right? But the fact that I’ve dedicated myself exclusively to the Portuguese language market for so long is because there was — and still there is — a true need for information, growth, knowledge and development when it comes to the search world. So I’d say it was a fair decision.

Anyhow, from now you can expect me to start jabbering in English too. Ah… also expect the site to break once in a while (I hope you won’t see it tough), cos’ I like to hack around with stuff, and I’m one of those guys that is never happy with the template :^P

So I’m all set to blog in English is an original article of Pedro Dias published on Pedro Dias - My Ego, Google, SEO, Webmastering and random thoughts