Author: Ash Nallawalla

About Ash Nallawalla

Ash Nallawalla is a consultant enterprise SEO with a long background in large companies with complex websites. He is a published author of several books and thousands of magazine articles.

[SOLVED] How to Create a LinkedIn QR Code?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I did not know that people were creating a QRcode for their LinkedIn profile pages. That isn’t surprising, as QRcodes are an easy way to display a URL – point your phone camera at one and you will see its destination. Click that button and your phone browser opens the URL.

I don’t network much with strangers, but if you do, here is the easiest way I could find. No need to search Google, at least in Windows, for the option seems to be built into Chrome. Many of the online sites need you to sign up before you can download the code.

Steps

  1. Go to your LinkedIn profile page. You can reach it by clicking Me > My Profile in the top menu.
  2. Right-click a blank area, not an image and you will see the option to create a QRcode for this page. Click that option
  3. Download the QRcode and use it on your website, business card or elsewhere.
LinkedIn profile page
LinkedIn profile page
QRcode for my LinkedIn profile
QRcode for my LinkedIn profile
QRcode as seen in a phone camera.
QRcode as seen in a phone camera.

That’s all.

[SOLVED] Seeing /home-2/ in WordPress URLs

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I was going nuts after seeing some of my pages showing a new “path” /home-2/ in their URLs.

Strange new path in URLs
What’s this /home-2?

I could not find any discussions online about this feature, so decided to put up this post. I was at the point of reinstalling WordPress on this new site, which has about six pages. I deactivated all plugins but that made no difference. I removed unwanted plugins and themes. I exported all data, ready to import into the rebuilt site.

Solution

I found the culprit. It’s a WordPress feature!

page attri
Page attributes

My home page is also called Home and this feature causes child pages to be given a URL with the parent page name in the slug. So all the pages I placed as a child of Home were given a /home-2/ path in the slug. As I did this to some pages after they had been saved earlier, they were getting 301 redirected to the longer URL. I hope this helps someone with the same mystery to solve.

Chicago Manual of Style and PerfectIt

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I have almost finished writing three books (“Tapping Organic Leads for Profit” series) and as a former professional editor at Unisys back in the 1990s, I had to get a second opionion. I am an Australian but writing in American English. The books are a vanity project, as I should be retired according to the calendar and, therefore, am not publishing them to become rich or famous. The budget allowed for a subscription to the Chicago Manual of Style (US$30/year) and PerfectIt (US$70/year). They work together if you use the same email address.

CMOS Online

The Chicago Manual of Style is one of the well-known American style guides and is liked by many editors. Companies can and do have their own house styles, as did Unisys when I was a senior editor in 1989-1991. I used the Hewlett-Packard house style when I did a contract task there. Apart from browsing it online, in this context, you access it through PerfectIt.

PerfectIt

PerfectIt is a consistency checker. It isn’t a spelling or grammar checker. The following is taken from its own Getting Started guide:

PerfectIt checks:

  • Hyphenation consistency.
  • Capitalisation consistency.
  • Consistency of title case in headings.
  • Spelling variations.
  • Consistency of italics.
  • Numbers in sentences.
  • Punctuation and capitalisation consistency in lists and tables.

In addition, PerfectIt finds:

  • Abbreviations that have not been defined (or that appear before their definition).
  • Table titles presented in the wrong order.
  • Brackets and quotes left open
  • Subscript missing in chemical formulae.
  • Superscript missing in measurements.

PerfectIt also checks house styles. It can:

  • Check UK, US, Australian and Canadian spelling preferences.
  • Check UN, EU, WHO, GPO, Australian Government, and American Legal styles.
  • be customized to check your house style.

As an example of checking consistency, it presented “end user” and “end-user” as variations I had used. Some writers will need this type of check if they are not sure about using a phrase as a noun or as a modifier.

Detecting hyphenation opportunities
Detecting hyphenation opportunities

Towards the end of its numerous checks, it offered to tidy up the loose ends. For example, many of the edits needed the references to be updated.

Tidying up the manuscript.
Tidying up the manuscript.
Summary Report.
Summary Report.

For a small book of about 70 numbered pages (14,874 words), the process took me just over an hour. The other two books are 100 and 200 pages, respectively, so that will be fun.

Recommendation

PerfectIt requires a human to assess the recommendations, so I did not accept all of them. It did find a few omissions on my part, so I am happy with it.

Lumina 4K Webcam User Review

Camera contents
Reading Time: 3 minutes

I ordered the Lumina camera on 10 May and it arrived eight days later – an excellent turnaround. I had seen a friend share his Lumina Founders Edition webcam image and I was so impressed that I ordered one immediately.

First Looks

These are my initial comments, as I unboxed the camera less than an hour ago. The parcel was well packed and the camera box is well-made – not unlike an iPhone box.

Lumina packaging
Lumina packaging

Contents of the Package

The camera comes with a magnetic cover to hide the camera when you don’t want the bad guys to monitor you secretly (if you believe in that), but the magnet is only above the lens. So you might bump it off by accident when the camera is exposed. You get two kinds of USB cables There is a folding mount that connects to your own tripod, or folds over your monitor or laptop screen. A supplied Allen key helps to tighten the camera on the mount.

Camera contents
Package contents.

Software

You need to download the Lumina software from their website, but before you do that, the camera must be connected to the computer so that its serial number can be supplied before the download. I installed it and there was also a firmware update I installed. All pretty straightforward.

Lumina software and firmware update.
Lumina software and firmware update.

Bugs

The colour tuning card you see in the photo could not be used immediately, as their website mentions some issues that are being ironed out. I used Zoom to test the camera and found that switching between the AI “Plus” mode and the Raw mode caused Zoom to not see my face until I restarted both the Lumina app and Zoom.

I became invisible.
I became invisible in Zoom settings.

Comparison – Old and New

My old webcam is a 10-year-old RocketFish RF-HDWEB that had served me well for the occasional video call. Most of the old cameras don’t have zoom (the feature, not the app). I sit more than an arm’s length from it, so I look small compared to others who sit close to their laptop’s built-in camera. I will soon be publishing two SEO books, so I expect to be on camera a lot and needed this new camera. This odd comparison of old and new isn’t fair to the RocketFish, but it’s the kind of comparison that consumers will face, unless they are buying a new camera every other month.

My face with the old RocketFish HD camera.
My face with the old RocketFish HD camera.
The Lumina in Raw mode.
The Lumina in Raw mode.
The Lumina in Plus (AI) mode.
The Lumina in Plus (AI) mode.

Checked shirts don’t suit video cameras, but I wasn’t changing clothes for this quick review. There was just one ceiling light and ambient light from the monitor in front of me. The Lumina is clearly better than the old one and the Plus mode is better than the Raw mode. I saw the warning about using 720p rather than 1080p, so I took the above screenshots in 720p mode. I did not test the AI mode, which adjusts the virtual “cameraman” if you are an animated kind of person who moves close to the camera and then moves back.

Warning about using AI at the higher resolution.
Warning about using AI at the higher resolution.

You can read more about the software at the Lumina website.

Zooming

Zooming (not the app) is done by having the Lumina app open along with your video app (Zoom in my case). A convenient slider lets you choose the level of zooming.

Maximum zoomed out (and background blur on).
Maximum zoomed out (and background blur on).
Maximum zoomed in.
Maximum zoomed in.

Verdict

Keeping in mind that I have used the Lumina camera for a few minutes, my initial impression is one of delight. Without adding any special lighting (which I will buy soon), my face is better lit than the old camera could achieve. More impressive for me is the ability to zoom in.

Lumina Website Link

Full disclosure: This link will take you to the Lumina website where you can read more about it. If you buy through this link, you will get $25 off and if two people buy a camera each, I will get a free one – I intend to gift it to a very deserving person whom I know.

Lumina website link

Losing a Corrupted Word 2021 Document

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I suffered a major setback by way of a book manuscript I was writing. It is lost beyond repair. I know what I should have done, but I am documenting this to help others. I use an offline copy of Word 2021, not the online Office 365.

Possible Causes of Word Doc Corruption

The book manuscript was about 283 pages from memory and I had not backed it up for over a month, and the backup copy was 30 pages shorter. I was finding that Word and Excel documents were taking longer than usual to open and I wondered if my hard drive was on its way out. I decided to back up the folder to my backup drive (a separate physical drive) and that was a clue that something was wrong, as the copy failed.

I used O&O Software Disk Defragmenter to defrag my data drive D but it was taking very long, so I thought I should stop it.

I tried to open the manuscript to add some content and found that it would not open. I had last used it last night, so I was puzzled. I remembered that I had done an online repair of Office and wondered if I had installed the 32-bit version of Office instead of the 64-bit version. I had an ISO of the original download, so I reinstalled Office, but it made no improvement. The Word doc refused to open.

The doc would not open.
The doc would not open.
Still no luck.
Still no luck.

Things Tried on the File

chkdsk /f reported no errors.

chkdsk was happy with the drive.
chkdsk was happy with the drive.
chkdsk was happy with the drive.
chkdsk was still happy with the drive.

Error checking via File Manager > Properties showed no file errors. (image above)

Open and Repair did not work.

Text recovery tool did not recover any text.

Recover Text from Any File did not work.

Opening in Notepad is a crazy suggestion, as seen in some articles. The contents are not plain text – other than some file names. See below the older, working copy and the corrupted file below.

Corrupt and clean versions viewed in Notepad.
Corrupt and clean versions viewed in Notepad.

There are no previous versions or unsaved versions.

Importing into Google Docs did not work.

Inserting into an empty document as an object did not work. “Word has encountered a problem.”

The recovery tips in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/troubleshoot/word/damaged-documents-in-word were tried but none worked.

Trying to link the corrupt file to a clean doc did not work.
Trying to link the corrupt file to a clean doc did not work.

Tools Used

There are many articles with suggestions, but they are rehashes of the things I tried above and sometimes have affiliate links to tools.

Libre Office could not open it.

LibreOffice failed to open it.
LibreOffice could not open the corrupt file.

OpenOffice also failed to load it. Its help text says “The most recent versions of OpenOffice can load, but not save, the Microsoft Office Open XML document formats with the extensions docx, xlsx, and pptx.” Note: Both LibreOffice and OpenOffice did open the working copy – but not this corrupt copy.

OpenOffice failed.
OpenOffice failed.

Stellar Repair for Word crashed on the file.

Stellar Data Recovery was useful to undelete an earlier version, but 30 pages shorter.

GetData Word Repair couldn’t open it.

Remo Repair announced that it had recovered it, but the file vanished

https://word.recoverytoolbox.com/online/

https://onlinefile.repair/rtf

https://online.officerecovery.com/word/ took ages to upload, but at least it was uploading.

Conclusion (See update)

At the moment I am stumped. The disk and data are fine. The file is difficult to select – clicking it sends File Explorer into a long delay before I can get control, but the file just does not open. Sending it to an online service times out for this reason and downloaded trial tools cannot process it.

If you have any suggestions and have personally solved this problem, please leave a comment. (Comments are moderated)

Update

I managed to open the copy with a paid version of the file recovery tool – Remo Repair Word – but it turned out to be an older version too. In the end, I used a recent PDF copy and exported it to RTF. This has some scrambled tables and some missing images, but it will get me back to sanity, with fewer than 10 lost pages. Many of the lost pages have images, which are safe, so the lost text won’t be too hard to re-create.

The Mythical Bombay Back Bay Station

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I administer an unlisted Facebook group known as “Bombay, I Remember”. It is a group for reminiscences of its members in the pre-1995 Bombay (when the city was renamed to Mumbai), but nowadays it is kept alive with a lot of historic content about Bombay. Several posts have covered the railway line of the former Bombay, Baroda and Central India (BB&CI) line, particularly the stations at the start of the line.

I have not found any old document that mentions this “Bombay Back Bay” station.

The Bombay Builder

Today, I found an archive of the Bombay Builder covering 1867 at the Asiatic Library’s online archive known as Granth Sanjeevani. The specific page below is dated 5 April 1867. Note that date.

Note the stations in the Locality column.
Note the stations in the Locality column.

Two things stood out for me. The terminus at Colaba was there in April 1867. The second station is called Esplanade Station. This is an added mystery, as the Esplanade in those days was too far from this train line to deserve the title. As this is a journal for engineers, they were interested in girders and overbridges, in addition to stations.

Western Railway

The Western Railway (WR) has been the name of the former BB&CI since 1951, so it should know its own history. Its website is very flaky, so here is a screenshot of its About Us > Milestones page.

WR milestones.
WR milestones.

Notice that the WR timeline says the line to Colaba was extended in 1873. How can the earlier reference in the Bombay Builder mention a Colaba Terminus before 5 April 1867? The entry for 1867 mentions the start of a local service between Back Bay and Virar (then spelt Veraur) on 12 April 1867.

I decided to check the newspapers of the day, as scanned by Granth Sanjeevani.

The Bombay Gazette of 12 April 1867.
The Bombay Gazette of 12 April 1867.

I checked the date of this new service, the next day and a few days on either side. Not a single mention. Surely a service covering the length of Bombay was worth a mention? BB&CI used to advertise almost daily, but no mention of a new service?

The Wikipedia Entry

The Wikipedia entry for Churchgate railway station says:

“By 1867, a track along the foreshore, further than Grant Road station was constructed, up to the station named as “Bombay Backbay” near Marine Lines. On 12 April 1867, the first suburban train was started with one train each way from Virar to Bombay Back Bay. The stations were then named, “Viraur, Neela, Bassein, Panje, Borewla, Pahadee, Andaru, Santa Cruz, Bandora, Mahim, Dadur, Grant Road and Bombay Backbay”. In year 1870, Churchgate was first time mentioned as the station. The line further extended towards Colaba in 1872, and goods shed was built there.”

The spellings in those days were quite fluid, so they are a little different from the ones in the Bombay Builder. The unknown Wikipedia contributor has a different date (1872) for the extension of the line to Colaba compared to the WR date of 1873. They mention this mythical “Backbay” (actually two words, Back Bay) station as being “near Marine Lines.

A letter to the editor

The Times of India, 2 September 1868
Letter to the Editor, The Times of India, 2 September 1868

Where does this leave me? I have not found any old document that mentions this Back Bay station. Until I do so, I will treat Back Bay Station as a colloquial reference to Church Gate Station (whose name slowly became one word). If you go to that Wikipedia page for Church Gate Station, you will see that it was opened in 1867!

Wikipedia entry for Church Gate station.
Wikipedia entry for Church Gate station.

Here is another modern reference to Church Gate being called Back Bay.

Church Gate being called "Bombay Backbay".
Church Gate being called “Bombay Backbay”.

As for the other mystery of an Esplanade Station between Colaba Terminus and Churnee Road (now spelt Charni Road), I think it too is a colloquial reference. Perhaps the engineer who wrote that entry was a brief visitor and wrote it up when back in the UK?

Colaba Station Dates

I found this document “Things of India Made Plain, or A Journalist’s Retrospect” by W Martin Wood in the more navigable archive – the Wayback Machine. It mentions in an entry dated 29 September 1873 that the Colaba station was well towards completion that year, after a period of seven years, suggesting that it was started in 1866.

Colaba station took 7 years to be built.
Colaba station took 7 years to be built.

The previous page has an entry dated 9 October 1872, mentioning the procurement of the land for the station.

1872 entry.
1872 entry.

Those words from 1872 suggest that there were railway tracks to Colaba in 1867 (also mentioned by the Bombay Builder), but the grand station was not completed until seven years later. Those tracks carried the cotton to the docks there during the US Civil War and to the Cotton Green. There is a plaque at Bombay Central station that acknowledges a Colaba Causeway station built in 1870 and another reference that the line used to go to Arthur Bunder.

Restore Image Search in Chrome

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I do a lot of historic research about my birth city, so I am often delving into old articles and images, sometimes needing to perform image searches but a right-click in the Google Chrome browser. Of late, I noted that this functionality had been replaced by Google Lens – a product whose purpose is unfathomable to many people, including myself. You do this fairly unproductive search in Lens and sometimes it senses your frustration and deigns to let you continue the search in Google Image Search.

The bothersome Google Lens option in Chrome.
The bothersome option in Chrome.

How to Disable Google Lens in Chrome

  1. Open Google Chrome.
  2. In the address bar, type “chrome://flags” and press Enter.
  3. A long list of options is shown. Press Ctrl+F and search for “Lens”.
  4. You are taken to the option “Search your screen with Google Lens”.
  5. Change the setting from “Default” to “Disabled”. (You might hears wails coming from the ‘plex)
  6. At the bottom of the Chrome screen, click “Relaunch”
  7. Bob’s your uncle.
How to disable Google Lens in Chrome.
Before the change.
After the change.
After the change.

Now I have my Chrome browser as I like it.

Image Search is available in Chrome again.
Image Search has been reinstated.

Control Malahit DSP2 with SDRUno-Extio and Omni-Rig

Reading Time: 2 minutes

You might want to try connecting your Windows PC with your Malahit DSP2 receiver using SDRUno-Extio (not the regular SDRUno, but the other one you will find that was installed at the same time) and Omni-Rig 1.9. Now why would you want to do this? One reason is that you are a geek like me and want to see if it works and is worth the trouble.

What You Need

In addition to the receiver, you need a USB cable, but as a geek you have already hooked that up to update your firmware. You need Omni-Rig 1.9 (other versions might work, but you need one that shows the TS-480.)

Manage sound settings
Manage Sound Settings

Once you have enabled the two disabled items above, you should see the “spectre” option in SDRUno-Extio, but after you have set up Omni-Rig correctly.

Omni-Rig settings
Omni-Rig settings

The Rig type should be TS-480 and the Port is the one you see in Control Panel Device Manager. When you unplug the receiver, a COM port will disappear and will return when you plug it in – that is your Malahit’s COM port – COM 7 in my case.

Find the COM port used by the Malahit.
Find the COM port used by the Malahit.

The baud rate should be the same as the CAT settings in SDRUno (The Sett. button in the SDRUno Rx Control).

Start SDRUno-Extio. A tiny window opens up.

Start SDRUno-Extio

Click Sett. to open the main settings. Choose Malahit spectre as the WME Input Device.

Select Malahit spectre.
Select Malahit spectre.

Click RX in the main window to open a receiver instance. Note the three buttons at the top: RSYN1, MCTR and TCTR. The labels are white text.

A receiver instance is opened.
A receiver instance is opened.

Click each of the three buttons: RSYN1, MCTR and TCTR. They will turn to orange text.

The three buttons are clicked.
The three buttons are clicked.

Click Sett. and go to the CAT tab. Choose the Malahit’s COM port and baud rate.

Set COM and Baud Rate.
Set COM and Baud Rate.

I am not sure why the status says “Not connected” but once you click Play on the main window, the PC speaker should come to life and relay the Malahit’s audio and mirror the frequency in SDRUno.

Click SP1 in the main window to display the spectrum and waterfall in SDRUno-Extio.

Spectrum and Waterfall in SDRUno.
Spectrum and Waterfall in SDRUno.

You can now control the receiver from your PC. Enjoy!

Thanks to Alexander DL5VZ for his help in clarifying these steps.

[SOLVED] Pesky Glitch in Descript Editor

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I had to make a 20-minute video in Descript and I jumped into it without reading any instructions, so flame away. I know I’m not the only one who uses such video tools, or any other software, before RTFM.

The Split Word Problem

I can assure you that I do not have a long, Aussie drawl, but see the issue in the image below.

Words get split arbitrarily.
Words get split arbitrarily.

I noticed that some words were split into two clips for no obvious reason. I did not make a dramatic, extended “aaaaaaand” there. It’s a normal intonation. There was an “A ustralia” split too, when I do not utter a gap when I say it.

Another example of a split word.
Another example of a split word.

For normal editing, such as the numerous full stops inserted in the middle of sentences, words shown twice, etc, you select multiple words and click the “Correct” button.

Example of a duplicated word.
Example of a duplicated word.

The Fix

I have not found out what causes this glitch, but this is how I solved the problem.

  1. Select the shorter fragment.
  2. Delete it.
  3. Click “Correct”.
  4. Select the longer fragment.
  5. Add the letters you deleted from the shorter fragment.
  6. Click “Correct”.

It’s as easy as that. Happy editing.

Epson EcoTank ET-3800 Setup is Quirky

Reading Time: 4 minutes

My previous Epson printer was dying and its ink cartridges were getting expensive, so I had my eye on the Epson EcoTank printers. It took me some compromises to settle on the ET-3800. Ideally, I would have liked an A3 scanner with higher resolution. I also wanted a printer that was in stock locally. I had to pick this A4 model, realising that I don’t really need to print on A3 paper and for scanning large pages I have just received a CZUR scanner, yet to be opened. This is not a review, but just a report on the confusing setup process of this printer.

instruction sheet

The setup instructions are on a large folded sheet in English, Hindi and Chinese. This model works with the Epson Smart Panel app, so some of the setting up (but not all) is done with the app and not the tiny screen.

I connected it to power and loaded paper. I started the Smart Panel App.

app

My phone’s Bluetooth found the printer.

app instructions

I was looking forward to the ink loading process and opened the black ink bottle. You just turn it over and it does not leak – when it touches the receptor in the printer, the ink begins to flow. There is some ink left in the bottle, so don’t discard it just yet.

ink bottle

Do the setup in a quiet room, so you can hear the gurgling of the ink as it empties into the tank. If you are doing something else on the side while the ink is filling up and are not paying attention (like me) and nearly pour the next bottle into the slot that you just filled, relax. The printer is Ash-proof (that’s me). The guides at the top of the bottles are all different, so you cannot insert the wrong colour in the wrong slot!

bottle guides

When all four ink tanks are filled, the app asks you to proceed with ink initialisation. Okay.

Next, I tried to connect the printer to Wi-Fi. The previous Epson printer was on Wi-Fi. This kept failing, because the English instruction, “Did you confirm the password?” implied I had already done that. As you can see, I had not even entered any password. Never got the chance. Eventually I replied “Yes”.

wi-fi setup

But I did not get a chance to enter it. This was an endless loop. What’s going on? Nothing doing. I could not get past this point.

I managed to install the Wi-Fi settings from the front panel, but it was not going to be of help.

Setting Up the Software

So I thought I’d try the URL printed on the instruction sheet. Strangely, the choices of the installation country were just USA, Canada or Asia. I picked USA, as Australia is not in the choices.

https://epson.com/supportsearch?searchText=ET-3800&support_keyword=

I could not find the ET-3800 – maybe it is not sold in the US. You have to ask why does Epson need to make so many models each year, but they are not telling.

printer selection menu

So I used the DVD that comes with the printer. It has all the software and drivers you need. This is fine if you have a DVD drive on your computer. Luckily, I have a removable DVD drive that I can use to set it up on my laptop.

DVD setup

After initialisation, I selected “Print Test Page”. Nothing happened. I found that had to complete steps on the printer front panel to finish alignment etc. Then a test page came out. The screen guidance was not clear, but I think I got it. I had to do head maintenance and print head alignment again, all from the front panel.

print head alignment

The instructions for choosing the best print sample are not the clearest. Take a look. I worked out that you have to look at the numbers on the printed sheets and use the +/- buttons to pick the number you like, then you proceed to the next step. Perhaps the steps should be labelled A, B, C and D?

print head alignment.

The front panel mentioned a firmware update and showed two choices – Dismiss and Close? At this point I did not know if this screen was a touch panel – it is not. You have to push the buttons to interact with that screen.

Firmware option

Poor Wi-Fi Sensitivity

Now, this is where the fun really began. I had set up Wi-Fi with my home network, but I could not download the firmware. The printer had lost the connection. I live in a steel-frame house that has poor phone reception inside and it also seems to hamper Wi-Fi signals. Although the previous Epson XP-420 printer had no problem with Wi-Fi, the ET-3800 was just borderline and had allowed itself to be set up, but could not hold the connection. Thankfully, I had a spare Ethernet port on my extender (my home office has an Ethernet run to the modem/router) and was finally able to update the firmware but adding an Ethernet cable – the last spare I had.

Installing firmware update

Registration Madness

The trouble with this disjointed installation process is that the DVD-based setup app invites you to register the printer online and that is straightforward. The form tried to get me to enter my phone number as mandatory when I tried to edit my existing profile. Why would they need my phone number when they have my address and email?

Finally, you get this screen.

After registration

Looks simple, right? Remember, I have just installed a printer and its process sent me here to register it with its serial number, but why show me a setup option as well as a file download link? I checked them out, downloaded whatever I could, being pretty sure I already installed everything from the DVD. OK, they are allowing for someone who registers before opening the box and has not been through the installation process. Perhaps, given so many dozens of models they make, the poor product managers don’t have time to figure this out.

So far so good. Perhaps a review will follow?

Body Text Word Clouds in Screaming Frog

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Screaming Frog SEO Spider (“SF”) is the favourite tool used by most SEOs I know. We usually use it to do a crawl of a website. I am happy to use SF, but I have seldom looked deep into the Visualisations menu to export one of its reports, known as Body Text Word Cloud.

Word Cloud option in Screaming Frog

I was checking a website of a US company and felt something was amiss. I ran a partial crawl of a few pages and looked at this Word Cloud, where I noticed that its primary keyword (present on the website in spades) was missing in this report. I questioned SF tech support, who confirmed it as a bug. It was a stopword in some European languages, but not in English. They fixed it within days in the version seen in the image above and it will soon be in the next production release.

As much as I love SF, this post is about this report and not the rest of the tool. If you have it and have a recent crawl of any website, you should open the crawl file, or do a small crawl of your site, or that of a competitor. Note: Many will block crawlers, so do your best human emulation.

Content Analysis

I picked a former client (9 years ago) whose site still shows many well-implemented SEO features. They are doing a great job with content, as I found out with this check.

Now, most people who use Screaming Frog SEO Spider might have looked at the body text word cloud and not given it much thought – well, that was certainly me. In case you did not know, that word cloud is only that of the home page. If your primary keywords are not seen in that cloud, you might want to rethink the make-up of that page.

You can check any crawled text page by right-clicking a page URL and choosing the option in Visualisations for Body Text Word Cloud.

Choosing the Body Text Word Cloud option in Screaming Frog

Here’s an example from this site. It’s their eSIM page.

esim page word cloud

Here is their Network Solutions page.

Network solutions page

Those two examples should suffice for the post, but I checked some other pages and observed that they have done a great job giving their primary keywords adequate prominence without overdoing it. I could run a single-page crawl of a competitor page if it happens to be performing better in the SERPs and check its word cloud.

As usual, the usual disclaimers apply. Ranking involves numerous other factors that won’t be picked up by a tool, so I imply nothing other than to encourage SF users to explore this option on their sites.

SEO for Product Information Management (PIM)

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I had not heard the expression “PIM” until today and it was in the SEO context. It’s a buzz word for what we might have called database driven websites in the past. They are used for product catalogue sites, such as hardware or clothing brands. They are increasingly cloud-based and are stepping up their marketing. I have not worked for a company that would need a PIM, so I had not noticed it before. Today I saw a YouTube video talking about SEO for PIM and the first thing I noticed was no attempt to explain the acronym. As you do, I Googled it and now I know.

What Is a PIM?

PIM is a Product Information Management system. It stores data about products and it might include a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. In other words, it contains product titles, descriptions, feature lists, images, variants, videos, prices – whatever attributes you can attach to a product. A PIM might offer these features:

Articles about SEO and PIM

I also looked for articles about PIM in an SEO context. Most of the content is lightweight – keywords, description etc. Look at these, for example:

I stopped looking at that point. No, that is fluff – much of it, anyway. From the PIM maker’s perspective, it is just a packaged database product with a fancy name. Telling the customer to use keywords in titles and descriptions isn’t good enough.

SEO Expectations of a PIM

Sorry, I expect more from a PIM, given all the trouble they have gone to package a database product. Here is what I would expect out of the box, as a minimum:

  • Schema.org (structured data) Tagging – A product page has so many opportunities to mark up different attributes.
  • Faceted Navigation Management – Products with many attributes have the potential of creating thin content and Google might choose not to index what it considers low-value content.
  • Digital Asset Management – No, I mean beyond storing file names and descriptions. Images, videos, PDFs etc can have many SEO optimisations.

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