Author Archives: Sara

How to Add Twitter’s Official Tweet Button in WordPress using TinyUrl

It’s very simple to just add the official tweet button to your site, but if you have very long Search engine friendly URLs (see any post URL on this site) it can be a bit difficult!

To implement the tweet button with a short URL I used tinyurl, as unlike bit.ly you don’t need to create an account and the only data it sends back to you is the shortened URL.

The code should be implemented within the loop, you can even include it if you want to keep file sizes low.

//the url you want to make tiny
$maketiny = 'http://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url='.get_permalink();

/*Initialise and set options for cURL
(this lets you transfer data between URLs)*/
$ch = curl_init();
$timeout = 5;
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $maketiny);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE);

//execute and close cURL
$data = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

//You now have the tinyurl stored in $tinyurl
$tinyurl = $data;

Now that you have the tinyurl stored in the $tinyurl variable, you can use it in the twitter button!

You have two choices about how to code the button, either use JavaScript or an iFrame.

For JavaScript you need the following code:

<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"
type="text/javascript"></script>
<div>
   <a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button"
      data-url="<?php echo $tinyurl; ?>"
      data-count="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">Tweet</a>
</div>

For an iFrame you need this code:

<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"
src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.html?
url=<?php echo $tinyurl; ?>&amp;counturl=<?php the_permalink(); ?>"
style="width:130px; height:50px;"></iframe>

The following attributes and query strings can be used:

Query String Attribute Description Default
url data-url URL of the page to share HTTP Referrer
via data-via Screen name of the user to attribute the Tweet to none
text data-text Default Tweet text Content of the <title> tag
related data-related Related accounts None
count data-count Count box position (can be horizontal, vertical or none) horizontal
lang data-lang The language for the Tweet Button en
counturl data-counturl The URL to which your shared URL resolves to (only needs to be used if a short url is used in for the other url) the url being shared

For more information on the tweet button see the Official Twitter Tweet Button Page.

Google Algorithm Update Helps eHow

Last week Google announced a search algorithm update which would impact nearly 12% of all queries. The update was aimed to reduce visibility of “low-quality sites” from the SERP (Search engine Results Page). It has only been released in the US so far, but it has already caused quite a stir…

Although Google has never explicitly stated it the new update is an attempt to crack down on content farms like eHow, answerbag.com and other Demand Media sites. However the effect on page rankings in the US alone have been unexpected to say the least.

Many content farm sites have seen their rankings reduced, but they’re not the only ones seeing a negative impact on their search engine rankings. Several sites which create their own unique content were slammed, losing in some cases over 90% of their Google spots.

cultofmac.com, an Apple-focused blog which produces it’s own unique content has seen 96% of it’s Google spots disappear in the past week!

ehow.com has actually seen improvements in it’s Google visibility and search engine traffic, so the update has actually removed some of it’s competition and boosted it’s traffic.

It hasn’t been a very good week for Google, on Monday 0.02% (about 35, 000) Gmail users logged onto their accounts only to find ALL of the emails missing. According to the Google’s Gmail blog the error was caused by an update that created a software bug which infected Google’s online backups of the accounts, so they’ve had to bring in the back-up tapes to restore the accounts.

Let us know if your site has been affected by the update whether it’s good or bad news.

Choose What Sites Google Shows You

Yesterday Google Relesaed an Extension for Chrome which allows user to block selected websites from SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

This may look like a poor solution to solve Google ‘s content farm result issues, however it is just a tool they are using to help them combat this issue.

The data from this extension will be sent to Google and analysed to create a “potential ranking signal for search results” according to Matt Cutts (head of the web spam team at Google).

The Extension is called Personal Blocklist Extension.

I decided to try it out myself to see if it is any good. It took less than 10s to download and install and no browser restart is required so you can block as you please straight away.

It’s quite simple to use, when you search for anything on Google a link is displayed underneath each result which can be used to block a domain.

Pages from blocked sited no longer appear on the results page. However they can be allowed back into your current results page by clicking the “show” link that appears at the bottom of the page.

A list of blocked sites can be viewed, edited or unblocked by clicking the red logo next to the address bar.

So all in all it’s a pretty good extension, however for Google web spam team to find the data collected useful a lot more users will need to

a) Use Chrome (currently with only 10% market share)

b) Bother install and use the extension

Should you Bother Using Meta Keyword Tags?

As with most SEO queries there is no straight forward answer, so I’ll just go with it depends…

Basically Google doesn’t use them any more at all!

So if you’re only worried about how you show up on Google don’t bother (unless your site search feature uses them!).

However, if you’re concerned about showing up on Yahoo or Bing they are a necessity!

Bing and Yahoo have a combined 10%* of search market share which may not seem like much first glance, however this accounts for 4.6 Billion^ searches per month in the US alone!

Yahoo has claimed in the past that they stopped indexing the meta keyword tag, however they provide advice on improving your search position including:

Use a “keyword” metatag to list keywords for each page of your website. Use distinct lists of keywords that relate to each specific page on the site. Do not use one broad set of keywords for the entire site.

Bing also provides similar suggestions in their head tag optimisation blog.

So if you care about your position on Bing or Yahoo follow their advice, but like any SEO method you will need more than just a good meta keyword tag to position well on any search engine.

*According to Net Market Share

^According to comScore December 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

How much Publicity is too much?

If you listen to the Radio in England you have probably heard about the Street-level crime map site.

The site allows users to see what crimes have been reported in their local area. Check it out here.

I decided to try it out myself…

The interface seems to have some bugs and there appears to be very limited functionality, but for a site made for the minimal sum of £300, 000 you can’t really have very high expectations :P .

I then discovered that since it went live this morning millions of users have accessed it and the site has since gone down. The Home Office reported on their Twitter that they were receiving approximately 75, 000 hits per minute.

So what is the moral of this post?

Sometimes you can have too much publicity. If you intend to create a service that thousands (or in this case millions) of users will want to access you need to take into account volumetrics, bandwidth and other limitations.

Whenever a new site is launched and will definitely have an immediate large following there are going to be those who are legitimate users and those who are just browsing or curious about the site becuase it was a trending topic on twitter,  google or any other social media or search site (if you ever see your site as a trending topic I suggest you upgrade your hosting plan!).

Even if you over estimate these figures it’s best to have a site live and the ability to catch potential visitors and customers than to greet them with a server error.

Make Money Off Your Facebook Fans!

Facebook has announced a new advertising feature, Sponsored Stories.

These are brand related stories which appear in your news feed normally, however if the company is willing to pay any of their brand related activities will appear in this new ad format.

So every time you check in somewhere or like something brand related you could find yourself in a sponsored story on one of your friend’s Facebook page as well as part of their news feed.

This raises (even more) privacy concerns with Facebook. Do you want your actions to appear in ads? Should users be allowed to opt-out of this feature?

There is currently no opt-out option, however if we stop telling our friends exactly were we are and everything we like we are a lot less likely to be exploited by these brands. Does anyone really care if I check into my local Wetherspoons seven times in a day? Will it make my friends go there too?

The most it is likely to achieve is an intervention!

It’s estimated that Facebook took in over $1.8 bn (£1.1 bn) in ad revenue during 2010. This new advert format is sure to be another lucrative venture for the social networking company.

So the question we really should be asking ourselves is not about privacy or opt-out options but Does Mark Zuckerberg really need more money?

Apologies for my terrible Photoshop skills

Mozilla Proposes a “Do Not Track” Feature in Firefox 4

You maybe able to stop tailored ads showing up when you browse with this new feature in Firefox.

If the feature is enabled in the user’s browser, the HTTP header will send a “Do Not Track” message to all sites which request their data for behavioural advertising.

The image below shows how the system might work.

Mozilla Firefox do-not-track tool

The feature is still in proposal mode, however Mozilla hope that all browsers make this an industry standard.

This would be a huge step forward in obtaining user privacy, however if sites do not adopt this standard it will make no difference to web browsing.  If it is accepted by behavioural advertising sites it could give Firefox a great increase in market share!