Year: 2021

SEO and Screaming Frog

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Easy SEO anyone can do

Did you arrive at the Fireplace Aquarium by way of a search engine like google or bing?  How search engines choose which sites to show and in which order can be influenced by ‘search engine optimisation’ or SEO.  An important aspect of SEO, in addition to having interesting and informative content, is having the technical aspects of a website sorted out such that the website facilitates the content instead of getting in the way.  Currently, I’m working on the following pieces:

  1. No broken links, missing pages or ‘404’ errors or other obvious sources of user frustration
  2. Informative meta descriptions for web pages so search engines don’t have to guess what to say
  3. All images have an ‘ALT’ text description to aid the visually impaired and help search engines understand the messages images are conveying
  4. Verifying that search engines know about all the different pages they might decide to index using Google Search Console (or similar)
  5. Add headings that match questions Google searchers have asked* and provide helpful answers to those questions.
Screaming Frog SEO spider logo
SEO spider

How to use Screaming Frog for SEO

A really great tool to help accomplish the above is the Screaming Frog SEO spider.  You download and run the app**, then point it at your website where it then ‘crawls’ all the interconnected pages exactly like the search engines do, collecting information you can query in a user-friendly way.  For example, you can click a button to see a list of all the broken links in your website (or ideally, see that there aren’t any broken links).  Similarly you can query which pages have meta descriptions, which images have ALT descriptions, and what those descriptions say.  It’s also easy to generate a list of all the web pages, and indications as to which can be indexed by search engines, and then to compare that list with pages actually indexed by google or bing etc.  Where the search engines have missed some pages, you can point the engines to those pages specifically.

How to make a Screaming Frog sitemap

One of the cool things you can do is to generate visual sitemaps, either based on the directory structure, or the route in which the SEO spider crawls the site, and see those as either a tree graph or force-directed graph.  The graphs can be exported in either SVG or HTML format; unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t play well with SVG, so I converted the SVG saved output to PNG using Gimp and you can see two versions of the results below.

Niade.com structural visualisation 11-Mar-2021
Directory tree graph
Force-directed directory structure of niade.com
Force-directed graph

Making the sitemap is easy.  Launch up Screaming Frog and type the base address of the website into the ‘Enter URL to spider’ address bar at the top, press ‘Start’ and wait for the scan to complete.  Then select your visualisation of choice from the Visualisations menu.  Once the visualisation comes up, have a play with the settings by clicking on the small gear icon in upper right corner of the visualisation window.  When it’s looking how you want it to, click the diskette icon to the immediate left of the gear icon to bring up the save screen, pick where you want the visualisation to be saved, select either ‘svg’ or ‘html’ format from the dropdown menu at the bottom right of the save screen, and then press ‘Save’.

*Real world example:  I clicked the ‘Performance’ tab in my Google Search Console and found I was getting queries for “screaming frog visual sitemap”.  I then did a google search for “screaming frog visual sitemap” to see what people wanted, and the search result page helpfully said:

People also ask:

  • How do I make a screaming frog sitemap?
  • How do you use a screaming frog for SEO?  [really, that’s what they ask]

So I made level 2 headings corresponding to those two questions, and then (hopefully) provided some helpful answers.  If you found these answers were helpful, you could thank me by linking to my site from your website, ideally with a “do follow” link. 😀

**Screaming Frog is a UK-based outfit (which is nice) and provides their SEO spider free of charge for use with smaller websites (less than 500 URLs).  They claim versions for Windows, macOS and Ubuntu, however, I develop Fireplace Aquarium on a Chromebook running Debian linux (the testing repository) and much to my surprise (and delight), the Ubuntu .deb file installed using gdebi without incident and seems to run just fine under Debian.

Domain name change

Posted on by Andy Pierce
Aqua.egads.uk ➔ Niade.com
niade.com favicon
niade.com

I changed the domain name for the Fireplace Aquarium from aqua.egads.uk to niade.com.  Dreamhost (my web hosting provider since 2005!) made the WordPress domain changeover process super easy:  register and host the new domain name, go into the web hosting control panel, push the appropriate button and in a minute or two everything is switched over.

What to do with the old domain?

It’s poor form to deactivate the old domain and let anything out there with links or bookmarks pointing to the previous site break with 404 errors, so I instructed the old web pages to automatically redirect to the corresponding new versions for three months or so.  Naturally, Dreamhost made the redirect process super easy as well.  After Google got all the pages switched over in the index, I deactived the old domain.

Why niade.com?

Hylas and the Nymphs by J.W. Waterhouse
Hylas and the Nymphs

From time to time I have a poke around at what might be available in short and usable domain names, ideally with the .com TLD.  The usual result of this exercise is “not much”, but in this instance niade.com was available and since it reminds me of ‘Naiad‘ – freshwater nymph – it has a vague watery/fishy feel to it that seemed appropriate.

Web browser fish icon

The ‘favicon’ is a small 16 x 16 px graphic you can see before the web page title in each tab of your web browser.  The niade.com favicon is an homage to the 5-banded barb (Puntius pentazona).

Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ – submerged vs. emersed growth

Posted on by Andy Pierce

It’s been seventeen weeks since the Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ was planted so it’s time to take a look at how the emersed growth form from the shop compares to the submerged growth form in the tank.

Aquarium plants for commercial sale are, for economic reasons, almost exclusively grown “emersed” – the roots of the plant and whatever media they are planted in is kept submerged underwater in the nursery but the leafy part of the plant is grown in the open air.  There is a massive difference to the plant, however, in growing with leaves in the open air vs. leaves that are always submerged underwater, and so plants will very often have a different form of leaf, sometimes dramatically different, after they get established in the aquarium.  You can see the effect in the Fireplace Aquarium with e.g. ludwigia and lobelia and now here we see it with the Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’.

Continue reading “Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ – submerged vs. emersed growth” →

Major aquarium plant trim

Posted on by Andy Pierce
Aquarium after major plant trim
After the trim
tank before the plant trim
Two weeks before the plant trim
plant cuttings removed from aquarium
107g of plant trimmings

The ludwigia had reached well beyond the height of the tank casting a considerable overshadow so it was time for a trim.  I had just received a new set of ADA pinsettes and was looking forward to trying them out for replanting the trimmed tops*.  It was also time for a water change and I’m switching to a new  EI fertiliser scheme** so potentially big changes coming.

Continue reading “Major aquarium plant trim” →

Visual layers in an aquarium

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Aquatic plants for aquaria are commonly classed by how tall they can be expected to grow, with the idea that it is sensible to grow the shortest plants at the front of the tank, middle-sized plants somewhat further back behind the shortest plants, and the tallest plants at the very back.  In the community these are generally called, logically enough, foreground, midground and background plants.  Of course, you don’t have to follow this scheme and there might be a specific effect you’re trying to achieve by putting taller plants in front of shorter plants, but ideally this would be a deliberate choice and not something you unintentionally discover by accident.

In this video, you can see the effect in action.  On the left, at the very front bottom of the tank, low down and in the shadow of the lobelia, is a single dark green line of newly planted cryptocoryne lutea ‘hobbit’ which is expected to grow to a maximum of 5 cm.  The aforementioned lobelia cardinalis ‘wavy’, bright green and filling the bottow left quadrant of the tank, was planted six months ago and has topped out at its maximum height of just under 20 cm.  In the back of the tank, the red plant arching over the lobelia is ludwigia palustris mini ‘Super Red’ which would be around 45 cm if stretched out to its full length.  The very low carpeting plant on the right side all around the base of the mountain is marsilea hirsuta (although if you look carefully, there is another ‘hobbit’ hiding in the bottom right front corner.  The marsilea was planted over a year ago and will never get any larger than it is currently.  Some people like the look of plants that float on the surface such as frogbit or duckweed, and in a larger setup these can be effective, but I prefer not to go there in this instance.

I like the look of the different horizontal layers of plants on the left, contrasting with the verticality of the mountain sculpture on the right.  The fish seem to appreciate the differences too – if they’re nervous they can hide under the lobelia, or explore above the lobelia while still feeling a degree of sheltering protection (or at least so I project upon them) from the overarching ludwigia.

Snow on the mountain – not melted yet

Posted on by Andy Pierce
Anubias nana 'snow white' rear view
38 days later – underside view
Anubias nana 'snow white' front view
38 days later – topside view

Anubias nana ‘Snow White’ – one month update

It’s been a little over five weeks since I planted anubias nana ‘snow white’ in the aquarium.  I wedged it into the various crevices on “the mountain” which is a biOrb Amazonas Root ornament sculpture.  There has been some discussion around the impossibility of actually being ‘real world’ successful with this plant, but nevertheless,  I decided to give it a go .

Zebra thorn snail near anubias nana 'snow white'
Zebra thorn snail getting close
Anubias nana 'snow white' wedged back into place
Back in place

I can say that so far it hasn’t been an instant disaster.  Not dramatically successful either, but the plant is still in there mostly holding its own.  It definitely doesn’t look like it has had a significant number of the white leaves ‘melted off’ but neither would I say it’s shown much (any?) evidence of new growth.  There might be some green algae growth, but nothing too bad (I had expected much worse).  These specimens above had been dislodged from their place on the mountain and wound up wedged against the intake of the powerhead.  I took the opportunity to pull them out for these photos, but didn’t other do any cleaning or maintenance, and wedged them back into place in the tank.  The plantlets coming loose like this has happened before and is infrequent but not unusual.  I haven’t tied or glued them in place, just wedged them in, and I quite suspect that they are being periodically dislodged by zebra thorn snails, who seem to be the little miniature juggernauts of the aquarium.  In theory the anubias will grow roots that will attach themselves more firmly to their substrate, but I haven’t seen evidence of that happening either.

I think we’ll call it a draw for now – the snow is still in the game.

Wrap text around video in WordPress

Posted on by Andy Pierce

It is relatively straightforward to use the visual editor of WordPress or BoldGrid to embed pictures and have text flowPlaceholder image smoothly around the picture to either the right or the left:  Insert the picture using ‘Insert Media’ from the column tab, then select the picture in the visual editor, click the ‘edit’ icon, and then click on the icon for picture positioning on the right or left.  Centre puts the picture in the centre of the column, but text doesn’t otherwise flow around it.  It can be a little fiddly, but it mostly works.  You can then drag the image around to reposition it within a paragraph as well.

The problem is, you can’t do the same thing with an embedded video.  You can construct a dedicated row and column setup to contain the video but then it’s complicated to get the text to flow around that structure correctly, particularly across different viewing platforms.  I’ve done a lot of searching and getting text to wrap around an embedded video using only the visual editor is a “can’t get there from here” situation.

Continue reading “Wrap text around video in WordPress” →

Aquarium daily lighting sequence

Posted on by Andy Pierce

My daily lighting sequence with the Kessil A80 LED light controlled by a mains timer was pretty straightforward:  lights off for 18 hours per day and lights on full for 6 hours per day.  That’s fine but of occasion I’d head into work with the lights off and they’d already be off by time I came back home.  The problem is you can’t really extend the lit period very much before the algae starts to grow like crazy.  As a way around this I picked up a Kessil “Spectral Controller” which is a programmable timer that plugs into the light and lets you adjust both the light intensity and light colour throughout the day.

The video shows a looped simulation of my current lighting pattern – this is from the controller doing a “preview” of the programme so it’s very sped up and not done to time-period scale.  When I was using the mains timer, the “on” setting meant the light at full power (100% intensity) and a mostly white end of the spectrum colour (80% colour).  I like the look of that and the plants do well with it so I kept that setting for the main lights-on period with the spectral controller during the day.  I then added periods of extended low intensity on either side of the main lights-on period, and some gradual ramps up and down between those.  Brighter and bluer during the middle of the day, dimmer and redder in the morning and evening.

Current lighting programme:

  • 00:00 – 09:00:  lights off
  • 09:00 – 10:00:  5% intensity (lowest possible setting without turning off), 0% colour (as “warm” or “reddish” as possible)
  • 10:00 – 10:30  smoothly ramp up both the intensity and colour of the light to get to…
  • 10:30 – 15:00  100% intensity, 80% colour (the “on” setting with the mains timer)
  • 15:00 – 17:00  smoothly ramp down both the intensity and colour of the light to get to…
  • 17:00 – 18:00  5% intensity, 0% colour
  • 18:00 – 00:00  lights off

The extended low light periods are good for observation purposes.  The fish don’t seem to behave radically differently.  They still show the same lights on behavior vs. lights off behavior, but with some larger amount of intermediate swimming, particularly while the light intensity is ramping down at the end of the day.  It’s too soon to say whether the algae or plant growth will be different.

Hobbit in the house

Posted on by Andy Pierce

Today I got in two pots of Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ from Aqua Essentials as grown by Dennerle.  The idea is to fill in some of the space in front of the lobelia and to hide the bare stems and adventitious roots that make up the lobelia understory.  As usual (always?) the plants arrived in prime condition and seemed to survive shipping in the cold British weather including storm ‘Christoph’ which was happening at the time.

pots of Cryptocoryne lutea 'Hobbit'
Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ – emersed growth form
Cryptocoryne lutea Hobbit plantlets
Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ ready for planting

I took the plants out of their pots and removed the rock wool they had been grown in.  Each pot could be separated into a number of plantlets and a few extra mini-plantlets as well.  The root systems were robust and healthy-looking, and the leaves also looked good, a firm dark green, although of course this represents the emersed growth form from the nursery and not the final submerged growth form for which they are now destined.

Continue reading “Hobbit in the house” →

Aquarium plant maximum height

Posted on by Andy Pierce
full height ludwigia and lobelia
Ludwigia breaks the surface

How tall do submerged aquarium plants grow?

Figures are approximate, as they say.  When planning a planted aquarium (and there should be some type of plan!) it’s important to consider the expected maximum height of plants in the layout.  I went wrong previously planting echinodorus radicans, a fine plant but much too large for this aquarium.

After not trimming back the ludwigia last week today it managed to reach the surface of the water.  This version of ludwigia, ludwigia mini ‘super red’ is listed online as “Dimensions: grows up to 30cm” however in this aquarium it is 41 cm from the aquasoil floor to the water surface, so this plant has overachieved.

I can’t complain and I’m glad it’s healthy.  I’ll give it a trim today and replant some of the better looking top portions to have it fill in a little to the right.  Stem plants like the ludwigia are pretty flexible that way:  you can trim them to pretty much whichever height works for you, just the growth rate and how much you trim will determine how often they will need this type of maintenance.

Afternote: 
Digging around a bit more on the Tropica entry for this plant it says in the “Plant info” section in the ‘Height’ entry if you click on the +/- expander button:

Height:10 – 30+
Average height (cm) of the plant after two months in the tank.

so to be fair there is a little + sign after the 30 and it does say ‘after two months’ and it has been three months in tank (nearly to the day) since it was planted, so I suppose it’s “fair play” to the description, even if 30+ is actually 41…

Ludwigia palustris mini ‘Super Red’ can go back to green at the water surface

Just to see what would happen, another time I let the ‘Super Red’ go for much longer than I otherwise would have and it reached the top of the water and kept growing.  It kind of piled up on the surface without reaching directly through and I noticed that the new growth at the surface had green foliage rather than red.  When first planted back in the day the emersed form of the young Ludwigia was also green rather than red, and it seems the red colouration may be exclusive to the submerged form.  The pile of Ludwigia floating on the surface was shading everything underneath so I did eventually take it all out and replant the tops.  Ludwigia tolerates this procedure really well and I have successfully done this a number of times now without adverse findings.  Some of the ‘mini’ stems had comfortably exceeded 50 cm in length, so the ’30+’ guidance from Tropica could fairly be listed as 40+, or maybe 30+++.  Once back to being fully submerged, the new leaves produced subsequently were back to the usual bright red colouration.