Websites for SEO / SEM Job Seekers
Every now and then, someone would ask me if I know any job vacancy for SEO and SEM and I keep telling them to do a Google search for companies offering search engine optimisation in Dubai. This will no longer be my answer if someone ask me again because there is now a search engine that was created to help job seekers find work in Middle East and Africa, the Jomea.com.
You can search for jobs in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan, Nigeria, Libya and other countries in the above-mentioned region.
Later last month, SEODubai.org had added a section SEO Dubai Jobs on its website.
Though Jomea.com is still on its Beta stage, I’m sure it will very helpful to those SEO/SEM job seekers.
Good luck in your job hunting!
Google Now Uses RSS/Atom Feeds to Discover New URLs
Google Webmaster Central has blogged that they are now using RSS/Atom to discover new URLs or webpages. In short Google is now indexing and crawling not only contents found on websites and blogs but contents that are syndicated from them through RSS/Atom feeds. Whereas before, Google relies mainly on the links provided on website and blog contents, now your site can be found by Google through RSS/Atom feeds that are published on online RSS Feed reader, such as Google Reader.
To those who still don’t know what an RSS/Atom is.
RSS (most commonly translated as “Really Simple Syndication” but sometimes “Rich Site Summary“) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”,or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.
Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs.
The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed’s URI or by clicking an RSS icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user’s subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
So in order for Google to discover your webpages through RSS/Atom, it is important that you allow crawling of robots.txt
To find out if Googlebot can crawl your feeds and find your pages as fast as possible, check your Webmaster Tools account. The Test robots.txt tool will show you if your robots.txt file is blocking Googlebot from a file or directory on your site. The toolbox can be find on Crawler Access under Site Configuration.
Join ‘Golden Ticket’ competition and be the first to ride the Dubai Metro
Do you want to part of Dubai Metro’s history? Do you want to be one of the people to ride the Dubai Metro on its first day of operation on 09-09-09? Don’t worry, there is a chance that you could be by participating in the biggest contest in Dubai and win the Golden ticket by registering and answering questions.
Images courtesy of Gulf News
You can join the RTA’s Golden Ticket Competition here.
Yahoo Acquires Maktoob
After signing a ten year deal with Microsoft search Bing, today Yahoo has agreed to acquire Maktoob.com, the leading online community in the Arab world with more than 16.5 million people unique users. This will be Yahoo!’s biggest geographic expansion in years.
Soon Arabic versions of Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Search, and the homepage and then eventually local versions of properties like News, Sports, and Finance will be available to Arab users.
“This acquisition will accelerate Yahoo!’s strategy of expanding in high-growth emerging markets where we believe Yahoo! has unparalleled opportunity to become the destination of choice for consumers,” said Yahoo! chief executive officer Carol Bartz. “Access to information and communications tools can positively impact people’s lives in many ways, and with the acquisition of Maktoob.com and our investment in the region, the Arab world will soon get a Yahoo! experience in Arabic with relevant local language content, programming and services.”
Search Engine Ranking Factors 2009 Released
Rand Fishkin had announce the release of SEOmoz’s Biennial Search Engine Ranking Factors 2009. There were 72 SEOs who participated in the data gathering process this year. This survey is done every 2 years. Hmm…I hope to be one of the contributors for the 2011 ranking factors.
I advise anyone who’s into SEO to check this valuable resource.
