Northern Voice Kick-off Party – Wooohooo!

Thanks to Reilly Lievers for the picture

I told you it was going to be an extraordinary party – well, it was! We drank great wine, eat incredible food, witness Federico himself sing while playing 3 keyboards, and danced until it was over!

The venue? Fantastic. If the Godfather lived in Vancouver, he would probably go to Federico’s. (more…)

GreenDrinks Vancouver – Feb 09

Green Drinks Vancouver always, and I mean always, delivers on good times – it’s like a huge party where the main topic of conversation is the environment.

There’s always a good variety of people. All have an interest with environmental issues, some come because it’s an excuse to drink beer, and some check it out because they think it’s a practice for St. Patrick’s Day.

This week there were three very interesting displays: (more…)

Third Tuesday Vancouver – February 09

Stephen Jagger @ Third Tuesday Vancouver - Thanks to Tris Hussey for the Photo

Third Tuesday is one of the most well attended Meetups I know. I’ve gove to the meetups a couple of times and every time there are great speakers. Last Tuesday Stephen Jagger took the stage and talked about different tools small businesses can use to cut costs. (more…)

Relationship SEO – After Valentine’s Special

Valentine’s Day is a great time for single people to reflect on what they’re doing to be found by cupid – your “single rankings.”

So, how did you do? Didn’t get a lot of visits from potential buyers? Then you might want to work on your Relationship SEO.

It’s simple. Apply the same principles for improving your rankings on Google to yourself and you’ll have a better chance to be found by that lucky person.

Top 5 things the best Relationship SEO gurus on the planet say are important: (more…)

Vancouver Twestival Rocked!

Book Comparison – Web Analytics and SEO

Web Analytics: An Hour a Day and Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Online Internet Marketing.

They’re good books but so different I though it might be good to let you know about them.

It’s the Time to Go Crazy!

A couple of days ago I got a letter from the Canada Export Centre that really struck a nerve.  The letter promotes the new CEC International Business Network Program but it start’s with the story that made me write this post. For me, it was one more reason to go crazy.

The letter came just days after making a conscious decision to not watch any more news on TV. Why? I was coming home and turning on the news channel just to hear about layoffs, bailouts, crisis, depression… kill me now!  …way to end the day. It gradually eroded my optimism and hope – like kryptonite for happiness.  After 4 days in a row and I was ready to start crying. (more…)

I’m going to YVR Twestival

Are you?

Have a Sitemap.xml, it’s good for your site.

Last week, on the Skytrain, I had an interesting conversation about website optimization with a business owner . The man was comfortable using the Internet  and managed his own website but, like most people, that was it – he wasn’t  a web developer, designer or techy guy. At one point we talked about sitemaps, and then here I am writing this…

A sitemap.xml file is important for your rankings.  It’s a relatively small document that gives the Web spiders, the ones who check your site for content, a blueprint of your site.

The good news, it takes almost no time to make one. The bad one, it’s a XML file.

But no problemo, if you don’t know and/or don’t care about XML, you can still get one, for free,  at www.XML-sitemaps.com. It has an ultra-easy to use sitemap.xml file generator. When you go to the site, just type in your Web address, the Sitemap spiders will crawl it and create it for you.

That’s no the only place you can visit to get your free sitemap.xml file; the Help section of Google Webmaster’s Central recommends other sites. I found www.xml-sitemaps.com to be the easiest to use AND it doesn’t ask for any personal information – major bonus points.

Once you have the file,  you can edit it with Wordpad (or a similar program) and upload it to the site’s “root folder.”

Of course, there’s much more to it, but the first step is the most important, right? You can research more at www.sitemaps.org or at Google Webmaster’s Central

Ah, almost forgot, if you have a WordPress blog, make sure you install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin.