After nearly 5 ½ years at Vertical Leap, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to take a plunge and try something different. Coming to this decision was far from easy – it’s probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life…

Vertical Leap has been great to me over this time and I really can’t thank the company enough for everything that they’ve done for me over the years – I just hope I’ve managed to give back just as much in that time.

I started as a graduate, with few responsibilities initially and a brief to learn SEO sharpish. I was fortunate to have done a degree with skills that I thought would be relevant; HTML, image manipulation, the odd bit of flash (which I appear to have completely forgotten) and a bunch of other stuff – but it was the project management items that have been most in use in my day to day life since really.

Vertical Leap took a chance on me at the time. I was raw and enthusiastic, but I wasn’t an expert back then. I grew up really quickly. I got over my fear of the phone. I pushed to get more involved in retail (which had been my part-time work whilst studying) style customer interactions and meetings, rather than “hiding” behind emails.

I learned a lot, really quickly and before I knew it really, wasn’t just the graduate – I was managing a full portfolio of campaigns, getting results, keeping customers happy (until last week when I moved them on, I still had 5 clients that were among the very first I was given all those years ago).

I built long term relationships with clients as often as I could. I’m pretty sure that I was doing fairly well, as 2 years or so into my career I started overseeing the company’s activities in the SEO world, determining updates to processes strategies, helping determine who we would recruit for that department, becoming active in interviews.

I became a manager of people, as well as process for the SEO department – and I relished it.

My time at Vertical Leap has been the Best of Times:

The team we built there are awesome, a truly cracking bunch of people who I will be friends with forever, and that I am going to miss my daily interactions with dearly. All the people that I work with at Vertical Leap – every single person – are my friends.

All of them I will happily spend time with in the future. I’ve not had a hell of a lot of different jobs – but for those that I have had in the past, this was not always the case.

The office banter, the cutting humour, the fun going out for drinks and meals… Laughs are a plenty, there is a great team spirit, both within the specific teams and the company as a whole. Leaving you guys behind makes me feel a little lonesome inside:

I know we’ll still see each other. I know that I will see everyone in just a short week at the Christmas Party which I was really grateful to still receive an invite to. But whilst things will be different, I’ll look back on these times fondly forever.

Thank You All at Vertical Leap, staff past and present, friends that I’ve made for life…

So, I’m moving on… I know some people already know what I’m doing next… But I’m not going to announce it just yet, I want to let someone else have the pleasure of the first public announcement of that.

Suffice to say, its one hell of an opportunity to have encouraged me away from what I already had. I’m super excited, can’t wait to get stuck in, and can’t wait to learn everything that I am going to need to do moving forwards. There will be some different challenges, likely some similar ones, and I’m certain that there will be ups and downs that I can’t predict right now… The time is right for me to seek a new challenge. So…

Roll on Monday morning, and the challenges that will bring…

In the meantime, it’s time for me to Hit the Road Jack:

Adios Amigos, Au Revoir Mon Amis, Farewell for now my friends – but I will see you all soon

Well, seeing as it’s getting close to Michelle’s birthday, and I am being uncharacteristically rubbish at organising her any presents, I’ve decided to adopt an Orang-utan for her.

Don’t worry, I might find something else for her too before then, I still have a week or so to go!

So as part of this campaign, if you can, go adopt an animal, pledge to buy good wood, sponsor an acre of forest – anything to help these guys out

This really resonated with me, as it’s how I’ve felt about every event that I have thus far attended in the search marketing arena.

As I touched upon in a previous post, Twitter (which is my main tool for this type of engagement), is a place that real communities form around, and as part of that community, you begin to build what totally feel like real friendships from the individuals that you engage with.

In just about every example of me having met in real life those that I talk to on Twitter regularly, it hasn’t felt like “meeting” for the first time. Instead, as the title says, its meeting old friends for the first time.

I know that some people from the outside, may well perceive this, as well – a little sad? You meet your geeky internet friends in real life? Saddo!

But for me, it really doesn’t feel that way at all. The world is evolving – who would have thought hundreds of years ago that you would be able to pick up the phone and call someone on the other side of the world? Or that electronic devices would make it possible to exchange short messages to anyone and everyone?

As human communications have evolved, so too have the ways that you engage with people – you don’t have to have met someone in “real life” to get to understand some of what makes that person tick.

I, amongst probably many others, possibly share too much of myself on social networks. But the value that I get from them seems to be matched by what you put in. I really do not want to become a boring twitter account that completely lacks personality, and is just trying to be promotional. That’s just not me.

I probably bore some people when I tweet about food and cooking – if that is the case, you can just choose not to follow me – I probably won’t be offended (though I do monitor who unfollows me on there, just for reference).

When I’ve met some of those folks that I “know” best from Twitter, like Rhys Wynne, Kev Strong, Samuel Crocker and Paddy Moogan, it has after a few moments felt completely natural. There are many more that I haven’t mentioned, and I truly mean no slight to those folks, just these guys are almost as active as me on the old Twitter

Of all the folks I met for the first time at this year’s Think Visibility, the best intro has to have been with Ingo Bousa – we’ve been talking on this platform for a few years, and he is a very funny go. For the last few weeks, it’s been made clear to me that I needed to introduce myself by shouting “IS ME PETE” in a Borat style voice. I did this with amusing results (not least losing part of my voice repeating it throughout the night at loud volumes), as it caused Ingo to immediately drop his drink.

For those that may consider it sad – I would just say, try it – you don’t know what you are missing. It is likely that it is easy for me working in the online marketing industry – I don’t know if it’s the same for other groups – but don’t rule it out just because you don’t know it!

I am still around, it’s just life has been very busy of late. Whilst I’ve not been posting here much, I have been blogging still, and I thought I would share where you can catch up with some more of my recent writings.

I’ve been writing a bit about server load speeds – at least slow ones – having a negative impact on SEO and other Search/Online Marketing efforts – first back in November, where I looked at Negative SEO Issues with Website Loading Speeds (which in this case had caused home pages of a few sites I worked on to be temporarily de-indexed) and again in January with Further Implications for Search Marketing of Webpage Loading Speeds, where I reviewed an email sent to our PPC account manager for the same websites, and some of the problems that can arise when you have problems with loading speeds.

I also wrote a blog in January, moaning about the lack of update to that ever annoying, meaningless PageRank figure, only for there to be a huge update a few days later (and being informed that whilst the 100+ sites I check may not have been changing unless 301′s were involved that some others had been seeing changes in the period I hadn’t observed any movements). Whilst the title was “Please – Update or Ditch”, having had an update, I am somewhat of the opinion I would rather see it ditched, as despite our best efforts, I still hear tales of people being very heavily judged on the performance of this little green bar, when the fundamental bottom line for the website is steady or increasing. Ah well, such is life, all we can do is to continue to educate as best we can about focusing on what really matters!

I’ve also been doing some guest blogging over the last few weeks – I’ve done 2 already, have a couple more lined up and really need to get my writing hat back on for Vertical Leap again soon.

If you want to catch up with these guest blogs, go and check out Daniel Bianchini’s blog with Top Questions to Ask Your Potential SEO Agency, and Common Technical Mistakes Made When a Website Launches where Dean Cruddace has kindly let me post on SEO Begin.

I’ll be looking to be doing some more guest blogging on some sites if I can secure some slots too, so I am definitely going to have to get my writing motivation back, especially as my food blog has also been being somewhat neglected of late!

Coming up in the next few weeks/months, I’m looking forwards to being at ThinkVisibility in 2 weeks, giving me a chance to meet up with a number of my favourite Twitter friends again, and for the first time, and am hoping that I will be able to secure a ticket for the next BrightonSEO on April 1st, though that can’t be guaranteed until Monday morning when I learn if I have managed to be one of the lucky ones! I’m sure both events will be packed full of useful tips and tricks as well as great networking opportunities.

That’s it for now folks, and hopefully see many of you soon!

I’d had ideas of blogs to post here, but not actually started writing anything – there will be more to come in the future.

But events yesterday have motivated me to get something moving, so I decided to focus on yesterdays events a bit for something to write about.

Twitter is a place where communities form – I’m sure this applies to other social media sites, quite likely forums and blogs too, but I’ve seen evidence of a really strong community bond over the past 24 hours.

You form groups on twitter around those with similar interests. I work in search marketing, so probably 3 in every 4 people I follow are based in the same field jobs wise.

You share ideas on what things are working for you – work out things that have caused you problems to try and help others stop things before they become a problem. Lots of people in this industry, hopefully myself included, reach out to help people on a daily basis when it’s asked for.

But that makes it sound rather dry and dusty, just about the work. It’s far more than that to be honest.

I love trying to find out more about people. I’m a social animal. Those that know me in life, know that I talk a lot. Sometimes I don’t know when to shut up and that probably applies to twitter use at times too.

But there are plenty of other people out there who are just as interested in the people behind the avatars too. So, you talk – about musical likes and dislikes, sports, films and tv, share funny videos and images and comics that you find here and there.

You make jokes with people and share some fun times. When things frustrate you, there is a platform for you to vent that frustration. There have been times when I’ve needed to talk to someone to get things off my chest and twitter has supplied me the friends necessary to help me out.

As a result of my twitter use, I’ve gone out and met some of these industry folks that I talk to, and it’s been great – I’ve turned online relationships into real friendships.

One friend on twitter did more than most to get that ball rolling. I’m sad to have learned that he died on Thursday.

RIP Jaamit – almost a year ago, with the first Brightonseo event, you convinced me to get in the train from Portsmouth to Brighton on a cold night, not knowing anyone that would be attending.

You greeted me saying it felt like we’d been friends for years. We barely ha a chance to chat as you were so busy with the organising of the night and DJ’ing, but there were plenty of interesting folks and friends to be made that night.

You were welcoming again the other times I saw you and for that I am grateful.

Thank you for convincing me to do that.

You will clearly be missed, as I am clearly not the only one who you had this influence on.

Twitter yesterday was unlike anything I’d ever seen. So, so many people were so shocked and saddened by the situation. At times it was the quietest I have known my feed to be – and it has never been as polarised on just the one topic.

Farewell my friend. And much love to all those that knew him far better than I ever had a chance to in real life. We’re all thinking of you.

I don’t consider myself to be a social media expert, although I do like being social – I like to talk to people, find out interesting or fun titbits of information about peoples lives, share useful knowledge between people for the betterment of all of them

I also don’t think that I am exactly one of the most famous tweeters in the world, or all that widely known/liked just yet – whilst it is a terrible measure, I have only just gone past 700 twitter followers, and growth in that respect has been dwindling a little bit of late.

What I do think I have that perhaps the person asking does not, is quite an engaged follower/following relationship. I tweet quite a lot, about all sorts of topics ranging from SEO, music, film, I crack jokes and stories with people and probably, most of all, I tweet about Food and Rum

These are all things that make me, me! I love cooking, so I talk about it – quite a lot of people in my Twitterverse also seem to like food, and I think its somewhat expected of me now (I know my co-workers ask about it if I don’t tweet about food for a while).

I like a lot of types of music too. I listen to some blues and jazz music from time to time, and some of my twitter friends do too – The same goes with some of the rock music I listen to, or the hip hop that I put on from time to time. Over the last year, Twitter has become the main method of me finding new music to listen to – through word of mouth recommendations from people that I have spoken to enough to realise common interests.

I think that to get the most out of social relationships built up in these spheres you have to take the time to tweet – if you don’t have those conversations with people that draw you closer together, you limit the possibilities of how much influence them and how they can help you increase visibility of anything that you are trying to get visibility for.

I follow a lot of people in and around the SEO industry, but at the end of the day, many of the relationships I have formed with people have begun in completely unrelated conversations – you can then always talk about more work related issues at another time. Start the conversation somewhere that you have some middle ground to meet at, and build from there.

Sometimes it’s not going to work out perfectly – I know that some of my flippant tongue in cheek comments have been misinterpreted at times, and no doubt I will have ruffled some feathers along the way, but that was never my intention. I have cringed a couple of times reading back tweets, but thats just a part of the journey.

Ultimately, I doubt that there are many cut and dried rules about getting people to like you on Twitter, especially if you have to “try” to be liked – but my main 2 rules for my activities on social media platforms are:

1) Treat people the way you would like to be treated

And

2) Be yourself!

I’ll finish this post with a tweet I received from Nichola Stott after finally meeting her at BrightonSEO yesterday:

I fully intend to

The full line up of the July BrightonSEO speakers is available now over at SiteVisibility, and there is a cracking line up of people to be listenig to and engaging with.

There are a few folks that I am particularly looking forward to here – I’m very much looking forward to hearing Nichola Stott talking about “Challenging the Conventional Wisdom of Anchor Text” as well as getting to meet the lady too, after almost a year of talking regularly on Twitter.

I’m certainly interested in Zachary Colbert’s talk on “Lev Manovich’s theory of Linking & Association”, although I don’t really have a clue what it is about. I got a fleeting chance to talk to Zac at the last event and hope to be able to chat some more again.

Another interesting topic that I am looking to hear about is “When is an SEO Campaign not an SEO Campaign” from Anabel Hodges.

There are plenty more of cracking looking presentations no doubt to be seen over the course of the day, with a very interesting, authorative panel of presenters lined up for us – and as well as that I’m sure everyone will be looking forward to getting to the traditinal home of #BrightonSEO (well so far anyway) the Quadrant, where even more serious chatting will no doubt be had over a bevvie or two.

I’m hoping to take some notes and get them into a post a bit like my previous reflections on brightonseo post after the last one.

And once again, thanks again to Kelvin Newman of SiteVisibility for putting all the effort in to organising this again

I was immensely fortunate, that upon graduating I got the very first job that I applied for, as a trainee SEO at Vertical Leap, and on the 1st August, I will celebrating 4 years working in the industry.

In the time that I have worked at Vertical Leap, I’ve been fortunate to work with a number of amazing people to learn SEO from (as well as learning many lessons on life) and seen a tremendous amount of growth in the company. In the time I’ve been here we’ve outgrown2 office already and seem to be swiftly filling up our new one too (though there is still plenty of room for us to grow further).

When we first moved in to these offices, we almost had enough space for a kick about with a football, whereas now we are getting to a stage where we need to think carefully about how to use that space.

In those 4 years, staff have come and gone, as they do, and I have looked to step up to the plate every time it was necessary for me to take on responsibility.

From starting as a trainee SEO, with no real knowledge of the subject (although my degree did supply me with a host of related skills), I have worked hard, kept my head down, retained as many of my clients as possible and done what I can to grow as a person into a bigger role in the company.

Around 18 months to 2 years ago, I was made Team Leader of the growing SEO department at Vertical Leap.

In my previous post, I alluded to this being a bit rubbish title, which was meant to be a joke, although with the pain I felt inside when writing that post, I don’t think that was particularly clear.

A title isn’t really very important in my opinion. I think mine at the moment is somewhat wordy “SEO Team Leader – Campaign Delivery Manager”. Suffice to say, I don’t use that in my email signature!

As I say, a title isn’t very important – what is important is how you fulfil that role.

As Vertical Leap has grown & we employ more staff in the SEO department, the more my role has grown too.

When I first started at Vertical Leap, I was entrusted with a small number of clients, and as my confidence and ability grew, I took on more responsibilities, more campaigns and helped the company generate more revenue.

We launched a blog on the site, and I am one of the more regular writers on the VL search marketing blog (I’m not THE most regular writer, though I do write more than many).

I now have to spend not inconsiderable amounts of time with new staff – teaching them the “Vertical Leap” way, showing them how we utilise our campaign management tool Apollo and ensuring that we treat our clients consistently well and do everything you can to keep them happy – understanding their goals for a campaign.

At first, these extra responsibilities did not come easily, but over the last year in particular I have done my best to do right by my team and help the, to help themselves in their own development – just like I was helped by those that came before me.

Around a year ago, I was also challenged to become better known in the industry – as I’d been doing all this great work for my clients and concentrating on getting things done.

At first I wasn’t sure how to achieve this – and I was left scratching my head about it for some time.

I decided first to start talking to the rest of the SEO community on Twitter – a great place to exchange ideas and techniques , whilst also a platform for some fun exchanges with some other interesting people, and believe to a certain extent I have achieved this goal (although I’m not going to rest on my laurels just yet).

I’ve also looked to put myself about a bit more at industry events – initially with the local Brighton SEO events, but hopefully extending myself a bit further around the country if suitable opportunities present themselves.

Doing all of these things takes hard work and determination – just working the 9-5 hours aren’t sufficient for me to achieve the goals that have been set for me, and buy me.

Clearly, as can be seen from my last post – things in life can affect the course you are trying to take – and there are going to be bumps in the road.

But nothing worth having in life is ever easy – so I will continue to work hard to achieve my goals in life and be more of the person those close to me, need me to be.

It’s been months since I’ve written a credible blog on here (tho I have started a recipes blog in that time, which has a few posts), and I never find the time to do things in the evening that I want to be doing – mostly because evenings are my work ‘research’ time…

Life is busy, and as more commitments are added to work and personal life, it adds to that slippage.

At work I’m the ‘team leader’ of the seo department. I think I’d like a better title than that, although I guess that isn’t for me to decide.

Essentially, whilst I don’t have to concern myself with the human resources issues of the staff, I am in charge of making sure everyone services their clients properly and fully, and I’m charge of the way that we approach seo.

Despite this, I also have a full portfolio of clients to manage as well as being responsible for our companies seo, although I don’t always have the control over that, that I would like. I’m not going to gloat about it here, but there are some things that we are doing pretty well for at the moment, although I have targets for improving this further.

In my personal life at the moment, my partner for the last 7 years (well almost, it’s our anniversary next month) has had to deal with an immense amount of problems with her back, as well as starting a new job, having finally escaped the shop floor at HMV, she is now an artworker at b&q’s head office, finally landing the role with graphics she has been seeking since returning from her round the world travels.

She does love the job, although the commute can clearly be a drag. Still, she’s learning fast how to drive (I’ve never had a lesson in my almost 28 years of life :s ) and that should make life easier. It might stop the question ‘when are we moving to southampton’ being asked (quite so frequently).

But it’s her back that really causes her problems. Mich is the same age as me, 27, but for the 8 or 9 years we have known one another, her back has been in a serious decline.

It is hard seeing the ones you love in pain, and being utterly helpless in the face of it.

Mich has what seems to be an uncurable condition in her lower back, which 2 years ago when she had her last MRI scan affected 4/5 of her vertebrae – though I suspect that it is likely to be affecting more than that now, something I guess we’ll find out soon, as she has another back specialist to see in just over a week. I think this will be the 5th or 6th specialist she has seen now, and whilst I want to hope that this can offer the attention and treatment she needs, I’ve mostly come round to the fact that this is a permanent condition, that ultimately we are going to have to live with.

This week has been a particularly bad one for the poor girl, but with lots of commitments at work, I haven’t been able to pay her the attention she not only needs, but thoroughly deserves.

This is why I need a device that can warp time, as sadly my workload is dictating that I need to work this weekend, when I really need to be paying attention to the woman i love.

I guess… Who ever said life was going to be easy

I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen when I get home from work, and usually am cooking up a variety of meals with all sorts of styles. As a result I thought I would start writing a food blog, and have now take the plunge and launched Quick Easy Dinners.

I guess it’s still a work in progress at the moment, as I haven’t had the time to get enough posts on there, but over the coming weeks and months, I’ll be adding a number of food ideas and recipes to the site from myself, and a number of friends and family that have agreed to contribute. I’m still unsure about the template that I am using as well, but we’ll see how things go on.

If you have a recipe idea that you would like to share, then by all means either contact Peter Handley or contact Quick Easy Dinners.