This post is about three pretty interesting things in my book: opportunities at SEOmoz, a new kind of duplicate content, and me. Despite the clever title, this post is not about SEO. You’ve been warned, OK?
That’s OK. Who are you, anyway?
I know, I know - I haven’t been very active on the blog, nor have I been oot 'n aboot on the conference circuit much this year (Did I mention I'm Canadian?). But I have been busy! Back in January, I relocated from Denver to Seattle and joined SEOmoz for the coolest job ever as the SEO Consulting Manager.
Oh, what a year!
We have been honored to work on some of the web’s most exciting projects this year. From Fortune 500s to peppy start-ups, non-profits, and a few in between, our clients and each of their unique situations have been as challenging as they have been rewarding. All that excitement has kept me busy behind the scenes, working the SEO hands-on and rallying some of the industry’s best, brightest, and busiest to help our consulting clients succeed in the SERPs.
Big deal. What else you got?
Hold your horses. I’ve been busy in more ways than one, let me tell you! One night back in April, my new husband and I were settling in for another rainy night in the Pacific Northwest when … [“Lindsay, this is a family blog!” - Rand]. Oh, sorry boss. Let’s look at this from Googlebot’s perspective …
.gif)
.gif)
That's right, Googlebot! All except the bad neighborhood thing, but I'll let you take that up with Matt. My husband Eric and I are expecting twins on December 27th! I bet our friends have some questions. Let's see if we can cover a few of them now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Were you planning to have twins?
Q. Can I have your job?
Q. Are your twins identical?
A. One is a boy. One is a girl. If they are identical ... oh dear.
Q. While I'm doing your job, what will you be doing?
A. I'm told that caring for an infant is a lot of work. No matter how many ways I look at this in Excel, when I multiply the work it takes to care for one infant by two ... sleep, eating, and personal hygiene disappear from the spreadsheet. Any Excel wizards out there that can help me with this? I'll also be hanging around Q&A, a service we offer our SEOmoz PRO members, to keep my offspring clothed and my skills sharp.
First, I'd like to thank the Academy.
Rand, Sarah, and Gillian - Each of you bring kindness, compassion, and generosity to work everyday and somehow never run out. What a team! I love you all so much, I'm inviting you into the delivery room. [*crickets chirp*]. Um, this is awkward ... How about a phone call from the hospital?
Jen - Keep it up! (This woman knows her stuff. You should totally take her to lunch.)
I'd also like to thank the whole crew over at SEOmoz for their warm welcome, great sense of humor, occasional lunch room snacks, and the best going away party / baby shower / fried chicken feast a girl could ask for.
Wrap it up, lady.
Except for the fact that I have already relocated to Florida, I'm not going anywhere yet. Pregnancy permitting, I will be working full-time until the end of November, doing what I always do on the consulting side of the business. I might even post again on the blog! ["We've heard that before!" - angry crowd].
In summary;
- Duplicate content isn't always a bad thing
- Don't forget to apply for my job
- Boy/girl twins can't be identical, for obvious reasons
- I heart SEOmoz
- I twitter (@lindzie) more than I blog
I don't understand the first picture.
Is Googlebot watching you two do . . . ?
Really should put up a robots.txt for your home:
User-agent: *
Disallow /bedroom/
OMG if you could see my laughing right now!
Why didn't I think of that?! LOL
LOL! That's it I am turning into a real geek.... robot.txt jokes are funny now :) lol ... Congrats Lindsay, and good luck! :) *in a good way* :)
Geek robots.txt humour always wins! Thanks for all the thumbs up.
Truth!
Note: a meta noindex tag is more effective at conserving link juice..........
Have I taken the joke one step too far?
Perhaps you haven't taken it too far. It would be easier to tape a noindex notice to the window than to append a robots file to the home... somehow.
I wonder if a sock on the interior door knob has the same meaning.
I thought he was talking about a condom. :^/
Hahaha! Classic!
This is by far the coolest announcement of duplicate content I've ever seen. :)
Congrats Lindsay!!
Lindsay - I can't tell you how much you've meant to us here and how much we all miss you already (and will miss you even more come December). Stil, I guess the twins probably do need your attention even more than we do.
Thanks for all the amazing work you've done to date and for all the ways you're continuing and will continue to help out. SEOmoz is a better company for having brought you on.
BTW - Sam and I were just bemoaning your departure yesterday. We used to love hearing your laugh at something over email or on the web and it's just not the same without you here...
p.s. Please do ping me if you're interested in the Director of SEO role here at the mozplex. They're tough shoes to fill, but I know there's great people out there :-)
Rand, this could have been a great "Whiteboard Friday" feature!
Seriously though...Lindsay, congrats and let me be the first to say that I admire your courage to re-focus your efforts on being a mother. Leaving a prominent career position for the sake of raising children is becoming less and less popular.
And hats off to SEOmoz for supporting your decision! When my wife had our first son I took 3 days off and was demoted from a sales manager position upon returning to work. It was frustrating...then when she had our second son earlier this year I took 3 days of earned paid vacation and was "laid off" the next week. So it's refreshing to see a company support your decision so well.
SEOmoz has been hugely supportive. In fact, when I told Rand I was pregnant his first reaction was to jump up from the meeting room table and give me a giant hug. [ok. that chokes me up...]
There was a time when I was certain I wouldn't have children. I was a career woman and that's all I wanted. Though my career has been hugely rewarding, I'm willing to bet that the next chapter will be more so.
I don't think I'll ever get SEO out of my blood (I refer to my fetuses as duplicate content for goodness sake), but my primary focus will be shifting for a while.
I am thrilled about it, and so are the folks at SEOmoz. :)
Thanks Boss. You are an inspiration and I can't wait to see where you bring SEOmoz in the next fews years.
Hold a couple jobs open for these little ones. I'm aiming to have them ready in about five years.
Don't forget to visit us! We have sunshine down here. :)
Congratulations, that is brilliant news and to be having twin must be extra special if not just that little bit scary.
In the run up to Deceber it will get very exciting and tiring at the same time.
I know what have to come my wife is due to drop on the 19th of October, right smack in the middle of the SEOmoz london conference. Hence the reason I am not going. :) :(
I wish you all the best, i would love to see your guest blog once and a while just so you can give all the mozzers an update on your two bunddles of joy / horrors (You know you are going to have those days).
Can i recommend some names:
Boy:
Steven Edward Oliver {Insert surname here}
Girl:
Mabel Ora Zoe {Insert surname here}
(Which Means Loving, Golden, Life: which i thoght was nice)
I hope you can see the hidden meaning in the recommended names?
*coughnerdcough*
there's some serious nerdiness coming out in this post and comments. :)
Took me a minute... but LOL!
"when I multiply the work it takes to care for one infant by two ... sleep, eating, and personal hygiene disappear"
You are going to need more than a canonical tag to solve that duplicate content issue! Congrats and good luck!
If you put canonical tags on them, you can dress them up however you like and you'll always know which is which :)
Great news Lindsay. Congratulations. I wish you weren't leaving though. It's a pleasure working with you. The Hospital is lucky to have such great support.
How exciting. Congrats. Life has now changed forever! You are going to be sooo busy. If you can keep your great attitude through twins you'll have blog topics forever. All the best!
Lindsay you can start blogging at seomomz.org now :)
Congrats Lindsay! I'm voting that Google Bot should be listed on the Sex Offenders List, everyone needs to know where he lives so our neighborhoods can be save.
I was telling my husband last night, Googlebot is kinda like Santa. "He sees you when your sleeping. He knows when your awake..." That really creeped him out. Now I'm creeping myself out.
I wonder what I'm starting here. I'm picturing thousands of eager SEOs sitting down at their laptop Christmas morning, rubbing their hands together... "I wonder what Googlebot brought me", as they check their rank and analytics.
You are such a geek! :P
the identical thing will never end...your kids will endure that for thei entire lives...often awkwardly when meeting the parents of their future spouses...
LOL. That is what I read. :) But perhaps, in some small way, I've helped the situation with my preemptive FAQ to some of the web's smartest folks. Fraternal Twins FTW!
Congrats again Lindsay! We definitly miss you around the office.
So much lol round there in belgium guys !
disalow bedroom & all... You're crazy.
Big up for mom & dad ! You will have time now to develop new strategies !
I'm so glad for your LOL! :)
Congratulations and best wishes for the two future SEO specialists :)
Congratulations, Lindsay! Sorry to see you go, but best of luck in your new adventures. When you get tired of living in the swampland surrounded by alligators and palmetto bugs, just let us know ;)
This was such a sweet and clever post, I really enjoyed reading it and I'm so happy for you! Congratulations!
Lindsay congrats to you and Eric! Thank you for being a wonderful boss and for putting up with my endless questions. :) I'm definitely going to miss you. Don't worry though, even with twins I'll be bugging you all the time. You and Eric would miss me too much if I didn't. :)
I can't wait to meet the little Wassells! (even though I wasn't invited into the delivery room :P)
Goodbyes are silly when we have the interwebs to keep us connected. :) Oh, and Rand has said that he expects the twins to be fully trained SEOs at birth. They'll be answering calls too soon enough.
Before birth are they "wire frame" or "site under construction"?
Once they are born will you refer to them as, "Now live!" or "hosted"
I want to know if you can do a "view source" and check for hidden challenges.
I know as a good mom you will monitor their links to be sure they don't end up linked to bad neighborhoods. Only high quality links please!
"Your child must have an established MozRank above a 4 before the twins can associate with them.";)
Congratulations! I retired from my great job for my first baby who is now having babies. It was a great decision, and my husband and I are now small business owners. And I am still working. LOL
I wish you the best!
Absolutely LOVED this article and the replies. Cleaver, creative, and corny in a geek way.
Congratulations Lindsay,
I was down that road many years ago but now have two young daughters (nearly teenagers). Gone are the days of "what's that daddy.. - Referring to my PC" to "Dad you just got no idea how to use Powerpoint have you...." -
I love the oot'n'aboot reference I thought you were a Scot like me - but your Canadian so that still counts (my sister lives in burlington - and she has 4 small kids, the making of a team me thinks.
All the best
David
Congratulations Lindsay!! I guess I can't suggest my name as a good name for your baby girl eh? haha
I so enjoy your belly pics on FB. You are my HERO for going through this!
All the best to you and your new family. And let the SEO references continue!
Congratulations!
I've enjoyed all of your posts.
Congratulations.. Sorry we missed you at the pro series in seattle. I was looking forward to your 'how to make reporting sexy' presentation. Maybe next time!
Hey congrats on the twins! Late to the post on this one - and look forward to seeing you back here on Q&A soon!
Congrats on the big news.
Congrats! All the very best
Good luck with your twins, but to be perfectly honest no excel spreadsheet wizard will be able to help you. Our son is 6 months old and let me tell you he is a full time job and some. God I couldn't imagine 2 of him :)
Congratulations on the babies! The northwest will miss you.
Reading all these baby stories - so glad mine are growded ups...
Jenn
Congratulations Lindsay! Having a little girl and boy (non-duplicate) myself, I can only tell you that you are in for some really amazing times. Best wishes.
I should have out of office set up to post comments on blog posts when I'm not around. I've told you congratulations on the phone, but what the hell. Congratulations! :)
Congratulations!
Cute post.
Your duplicate content is better than mine.
Mine is just 0s and 1s. The only kind of real duplicate content I have been able to muster has alwayls occured 2 or more years apart. ;-)
Duplicate content is just words, is anyone using different words?
I have coined "Search Engine Optimizician" but I still have to explain it to people if they actually read it properly.
congratulations on your twins, I'm sure everybody here wishes you nothing but the best :)
Congratulations on the twins! Watch out with twins you always get a wild child!!
If history, mythology or literature have anything to do with it... you might be right.
Also if you've met her husband... you might be right. :) (he's so going to kill me)
Congrats!
Is SEOMoz looking for just Seattle folks? How about Charlotte, NC :)
We are certainly willing to look at non-Seattle area candidates, so long as you can relocate (and we do offer generous relocation packages). It's very important to the team that you can be on-site in person - we're a pretty tight-knit group :-)
Good thing you changed your avitar from Charlotte SEO!
Congratulations, Lindsay! It was a pleasure working with you, and I wish you and Eric the best of luck with your new family.
Thanks Rebecca! The pleasure was all mine. :)
Congrats!
The most important thing I can recommend is to learn to sleep when you can. If you and your husband try to stay awake to take care of everything together--especially for the first 2-3 months--you are going to turn into zombies.
God luck.
Do you have something against zombies? ;)
Congrats Lindsay! Your duplicate content definitely got you more internal links! (Bad one, I know. Haha.) Good luck with your bright future ahead of you and your family of 4. :)
Awesome! Congrats! My sister is having her 2nd around that time as well. Great christmas presents for a family, I'd say. Can't wait. Good luck with your twins!
Well congrats!!
Fortunately this is the good kind of duplicate content...and not spam, or you'd really have your hands full.
Now....hmmm......if only your job could be done, um, remotely, say from a different geo-location. ;)
Best wishes!
Congrats on the new arrivals and i like the way you made it relevant to SEO !
SEO = Relevancy ! I love it !
Congrats and Best Wishes Lindsay.
Yahoo!... for our new DoubleSEOmOm :)
Omg, congratulations, Lindsay.
Boy/girl twins are simply so hard to get, and it would probably double your time for taking care of them. (Boy is the big trouble, I am pretty sure lol)
Thanks for the interesting post, and ofc, the funny pictures :D
Many congratulations Lindsay!! Twins are supercool and I'm sure you'll make a supercool mum :-)
It's also been a pleasure working with you, as Rand mentioned they'll be tough shoes to fill!
Congrats!!
And wellcome in the Group of the SEO-Moms&Dads... you will find your toddlers inspiring in all the aspects of your life!
Ah.. I'll be add you on Twitter... I think I can give better parenting tips than SEO's ones :)
About the job, I'd love to propose myself (it should be a huge relocation... from Spain!)... but exactly my two little kids are the wonderful reason I won't do it.
Love this SEOmoz community.
Wow! I just started to follow your blog today and this is the first post I get to read. What wonderful news!!
My wife wants twins in the worst way, 4 arms 2 babies. Sounds like fun
Pretty good SEO tie-in I must admit. And yeah I know the little dig to Matt is toungue in cheek but really and trulky, Google, as someone who has been on the 'net long before Google was enevisoned (letting actual contracts to Alta Vista for custom, government-related search work, as an example) Google does get a bit too priggish and holier than thou at time ... kind of in love with their self-appointed world guardianship.
I'm talking both bedroom issues and their own wierd definiton of "duplicate content".
Frankly I like this definition a lot better, all the best to you.
It's really good to acknoweldge from time to time that there is a whole world out there that Google doesn't (as yet, anyway), crawl.
Your reply just got me thinking;
If the Google bot was a real life creature which crawled the real world what would it look like?
... Gollum type creature with a really big head??? mmmm maybe?
Google Interiors: Beta
Congratulations and best of luck with your new arrivals.
You have been and will be missed, Lindsay. It was a pleasure working for you. And as Rand said, the office is simply not the same without you.
Hey! What did I tell you about saying goodbyes? Still too early. ;)
Congratulations. Children bring a special something to your life.
Can get frustrating at time, but certainly puts a smile on your face more often than not.
Good luck
Nice explanation towards duplicate contents keep it up.......
Okay..I'll do the standard "Congrats on the big news.... wow, twins, that is great." comment!
But, honestly, this article is, even with the disclaimer that it is not about SEO, really Poor! All I have learned is that Google willl accept twin human beings - wow, big shocking news there!!
What about twin (or the more common expression - duplicate) content? You say "duplicate content isn't always a bad thing" yet, never really address this issue. What about adding links to past SEO Moz articles on duplicate content? what about new research? what about insights on duplicate content?
Ugh, tongue in cheek articles are great...but at least have some nugget or why are we all here and paying a montly fee?
Looking deeper into the article reveals some interesting seo details in real world applications. Here is their recommended basic blueprint for car dealers:
https://www.ebizautos.com/search-engine-optimization-seo.cfm