ben spencer // web standards design and development

Setting a geographic target for your website in Google

Posted on 12 August 2008 at 03:22pm. 0 comments.

Snippet of the set geographic target tool

I have had to produce multiple reports in the past explaining why certain websites aren’t appearing in Google UK when ‘pages from the UK’ is selected. The answer was always related to the geographic location of the hosting server itself e.g. if the hosting server is in Norway, then it wouldn’t appear. Well quite some time ago, Google introduced a ‘Set geographic target’ option within their Webmaster Tools which solves this issue. If only it was around a bit sooner.

Verifying an ExpressionEngine website with Google Webmaster Tools

Posted on 24 July 2008 at 02:19pm. 0 comments.

If you are using the “Exclude List Method” to remove index.php from your ExpressionEngine URL’s, and you want to be able to verify your website with Google Webmaster Tools, there are two important steps that you will need to carry out.

I prefer to use the “verify file” method within Google Webmaster Tools, simply because it negates the need for an extra line of code required for the “verify meta tag” alternative. However, when combining this verification method with the “Exclude List Method” for removing index.php from your URL’s, Google will not be able to access the file, and will therefore not be able to verify it.

benspencer.com begins

Posted on 22 July 2008 at 07:22pm. 4 comments.

After shurking my responsibilities at the gym, and over a week of very late nights, my online home is finally live.

I have been very keen to get involved in the active and friendly web standards community for quite some time, but all of the ‘benspencer’ TLD‘s were taken and I was never quite happy with any of the alternative ideas that I had. When benspencer.com finally became available in June 2008, I rolled up my seelves and began work.