Archive for the ‘Search Engine Optimization’ Category
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 |
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When the internet first became popular, many counseled against shopping online because they believe it would lead to identify theft. While this was certainly true and remains true to this day, there are more ways for a person’s identity to be stolen online then simply providing credit card numbers to fraudulent sites. From time to time, there may be a security breach and hackers are able to get their hands on a list of credit card numbers, but cyber security has improved tremendously, making top consumer sites practically impenetrable. However, identity theft can still happen if a person isn’t careful.
1. Don’t use the same password on every site, especially for email.
Nowadays, people use their email for everything. They receive bills and pay bills electronically and their email is the portal for everything. A person can’t sign up for anything without it leading back to their email. While email servers, such as Google and Yahoo, pay a ton of money to prevent hackers from being able to access email accounts, smaller sites do not. Smaller sites, such as forums, are easily hacked, and if individuals are using the same password on small sites as they are for the important sites, they can end up having their identity stolen. Once someone has access to an email account, they have access to everything. Think about it. How does someone request a new password if they’ve ‘forgotten’ it? It is sent to their email.
2. Read before agreeing.
Often times, sites will have boxes that can be checked that prevent them from sharing personal information. Be sure to only fill out only the required boxes and uncheck the rest.
3. Consider telling a white-lie.
Let’s face it, a number of sites people sign up for on a daily basis have nothing to do with serious matters. If the site doesn’t pertain to something important, where the information needs to be correct, such as with work, consider filling in false information.
4. If wary about shopping online, but can’t seem to avoid it every now and again, consider using credit cards that are only good for that one transaction.
A number of banks have the option to use one-shot credit card numbers that are only good for one use. Obviously this would become overwhelming if an individual shops on a continuous basis, but it is perfect for someone who only wants to do it now and again and is afraid of risking their identity.
5. Avoid links when dealing with serious matters.
If an email comes in from a bank stating there is a problem with an account, don’t click the links provided. Instead, call the bank to gather further information.
6. Be wary of surfing the web.
While everyone loves encountering new and exciting pages, it can put a person’s identity at risk. Not all sites and pages are created equal and some are less protected than others. If there is a lock at the top of the page, it is a secure connection. Never provide sensitive information on a site where a lock doesn’t appear.
7. Limit the information placed on social media sites.
Facebook and Twitter have become an epidemic, and while most individuals using these sites are surrounded by friends and family members, they are still vulnerable to the outside world and can easily fall victim to identity theft.
8. Avoid phishing scams.
Everyone has received the email of the poor man stranded in Africa (or some other foreign land) and needs money to return home because he only has solid bars of gold with him, or some other nonsense story. These are phishing scams and, while this story may not be all that believable, countless fall victim to the stranger’s plight.
9. Beware of entering sensitive information in public places.
It’s surprising how many times account information is stolen from people looking over other people’s shoulders, but it happens frequently.
10. Once it is on the web, chances are it’s there forever.
So, when all else fails, just don’t put sensitive information on the web. Avoid sending emails with important numbers, like account numbers and social security numbers. Be smart when using the internet.
Author Bio:
Fergal Glynn is the Director of Product Marketing at Veracode, an application security company that offers dynamic analysis tools.
Posted in Reputation Management, Search Engine Optimization | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 |
Writing blogs is an art and you must be focused on turning out blog posts which are very interesting to read and have content to catch the attention of the reader. When you are writing a blog you should totally concentrate on that one and do not let your mind wander away to something else. Remember that if you are a good blog writer then people will be actually waiting for your next blog post. So the onus lies on you to write something that will satisfy your blog fans. You must aim to produce the best blog of your life each time you sit down to write something. This will ensure quality write ups and you will be known as an awesome blogger.
What does your audience want?
Everyone has a habit of reading two or more articles and reproduce the same matter in different words. No wonder, people are fed up with such time wasting blog posts. To be a successful blogger you must go the extra distance and do some extensive research. You should give information which is entirely new and the audience has never come across before.
Extensive background research
When you are doing background research for an article, try to include that information which prompted even you to say ‘wow’. Your readers will also appreciate if you write unique posts. Most of the posts by average bloggers do not have enough ‘wow’ material and this disappoints the readers. You need to incorporate good materials so that the readers stick with your blog posts. It is always a good idea to attach a video or an image with your blog to enhance the visual appeal of the write-up.
Let the readers enjoy
The bloggers nowadays are real smart and they always strive to provide good content to the readers. In addition they also invite the readers for their inputs regarding a post; in this way the readers feel that they are more involved with the blogs than before. You can also create a separate post mentioning the inputs received from the different readers and leave a space for the opinion and comments of others. Do not forget to respond to the comments left by the readers.
Have an engaging title
The title is a vital part of a blog post as it $indicates what the post is all about without giving away too much information. The language should be fun and punchy to compel the readers to read the entire post. Once you have finished writing the post, make an effort to clear the article of any unwarranted words, phrases and sentences that may put off a reader. The title can be funny and sensitive but not to the point of destroying the whole interest of the post.
The main aim of a blog post is to give enjoyment to a reader. If you miss out on this then the whole effort in writing goes waste. So along with the title your effort should be to make the post interesting throughout. Bits and patches of good content are good but not enough to ensure your longevity in this field.
About the author: Alyssa Clarke is a blogger who loves writing on tech sites the most. She is always on alook out for covering latest news in her posts that range from latest tech stuff to even firefox add-ons. Currently she is planning to do a piece on web and product design tips and tricks.
- Starting a Blog (frommyexperience.com)
Posted in Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment »
Friday, July 29th, 2011 |
Chances are you’re in one of three categories regarding Google’s latest social network, Google+. You’re either:
- Banging at the gates of Google+ to get a prized invite,
- Already in Google+ but struggling to understand it, or
- Still clueless about the whole G+ ordeal. Aren’t Facebook and Twitter enough? Now Google throws this into the social media mix?
Right now, getting into the walls of Google+ is kind of like getting through an airport: it’s all hurry-up-and-wait time. You raced to get an invite, but now you’re sitting and twiddling your thumbs, waiting for users to arrive.
Most people still aren’t on Google+, and those that managed to get an invite still have no idea what to do with the thing. Circles? Sparks? Hangouts? The most common stream on G+ is “I have no idea what I’m doing on this thing.”
The good news for savvy businesses? You get to gain a jump on the competition by being an early adopter of G+. As fledgling Plus users slowly figure out their latest social media acquisition, you’ll one of the first up-and-running Plus users in the field.
Step One: Choose Your Profile Picture Wisely
Even more than Facebook or Twitter, finding a killer profile pic is essential on Google+. Your picture acts as your virtual calling card; it’s the first and the only thing G+ users see when they come across your name.
Google+ requires square-shaped avatars, so choose accordingly. Select a high-resolution image that will immediately grab G+ users’ attentions– but make sure it’s relevant to your business.
Step Two: Sort Out Your Circles
You know how you have one lump of people who “follow” or “like” you on Twitter and Facebook? That one lump is comprised of various interested parties: potential clients, colleagues in your field, or the three immediate family members you convinced to join your page when it was still in its infancy. Whatever you share goes out to the entire lump of people.
On G+, everything’s sorted out in separate circles, and you choose what you share amongst those circles. It’s kind of like having various virtual mailing lists for all of the people in your life. You can send an article you’ve written solely out to your colleagues or share a business special amongst your past clients. Create a VIP Club for your frequent customers or post pictures of your newborn that only your family can see.
Step Three: Invite People to Follow You
Google+ allows you a relatively lengthy introduction space, so use it wisely. Write an engaging introduction that invites people to follow you. G+ introductions also allow links, so be sure to link to your website and your various social media profiles. Also, make sure your page’s searchability is set as “Visible in Search” so people can find you on Google.
Step Four: Utilize Sparks
Sparks are essentially a live Google feed for something you’re interested in. For example, a “Movies” spark would keep you easily updated on movie reviews, upcoming films, or casting rumors. Utilize this for your business by easily following industry trends. For example, if you’re a content writing business like Copypress, you’d follow things like “SEO Copywriting,” “Social Media Marketing,” “Blogging,” etc. Then with the click of a “Share” button, you can easily share applicable links with one or more of your circles.
Since G+ is still brand new, you’re not competing with mega-businesses like you would on Twitter or Facebook. Jump in now and build your audience before the G+ waters get too crowded for you to stand out!
Image Source: Topgold via Flickr
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Posted in Google, Search Engine Optimization | 3 Comments »
Friday, July 15th, 2011 |
The Internet is a really strange environment. No other business model has ever been so contradictory, so hypocritical, so confused. Here’s the problem.
For a website to rank well in any search engine and especially Google it must have links. Although there are many ranking factors at play, links are still key to getting organic traffic. However, the best links according to Google are natural links, that is, when another website chooses to link to your website or their own accord because they like your business. This is considered a “vote” in Google’s PageRank system.
But, if your site is new there is no way for anyone today to find out about it in the search engines. In the past people used to find new websites by searching web directories. Today everyone goes to Google (or one of the other SEs) first. So if you are not in the search index how do you get discovered to then win some natural links? It really is a catch 22 situation. And although Google loves natural links, to get anywhere in the Google you have to build your own links.
Link building is almost considered to be spam. It can be argued that every single link that you personally create with the sole purpose of boosting your site in the search engines is a form of spam. Even if you are contributing to a blog by joining the discussion or writing a guest post, deep down inside you know that you are there to get your links. Is this wrong? Many people think so. Is there an alternative? There are some, but not many.
Google is extremely strict on buying links. If you buy a link on a website just to boost your PageRank then Google will punish you and probably also frown severely on the site that sold you a link. So buying links is not an option as you could get stung and never recover.
So you need a link building strategy of some sort. Really all you can do is accept that from now on every link you get could be treated with mistrust by Google at some future date, because they could change their search algorithms further to reduce the amount of gaming that webmasters and SEOs do. But for now, here is a plan that mostly works, when done right.
First, use some good old fashioned favourites. List your site in all the free directories that are still active and have some good search presence. There a thousands of web directories out there and a vast majority are completely useless, free for all link farms disguised as a web directory, but there are some good ones still. Best way to find a directory that is liked by Google is to search Google. There is no point submitting your website to directories that are not in the Google index, this will do nothing for your SEO efforts.
Blog commenting is another simple link building method. Do not spam. Everyone hates spammers. Go for quality rather than quantity and go for discussion rather than random remarks. So find blogs in your area, or in totally different fields that interest you and join the discussion. Consider your website being linked as an additional extra, not the sole reason for you being there.
Guest blogging is one of the better new ways to build links. Communities such as MyBlogGuest.com bring professional writers, businessmen, bloggers and publishers together. Again, the links are an added bonus, the main reason to guest blog is market yourself and your business to others.
More traditional methods simply involve contacting other websites and asking if they would link. This is very hit and miss, but if you personalise your message you may get lucky. A friendly email praising their site and suggesting how a recent article you wrote would fit in well with their next blog post is one way to ask for a link. Or you could take the route of “please add me to your blogroll”.
Forums are another way to get links. Forum moderators are really hot on spammers these days, so again, like blog commenting, join a community, be a part of it, and then when the time is ripe, share something specific on your site that will add value to the conversation.
If you can get some links using these methods then you will get listed in Google and in time your rankings should increase. Continue to build a high quality site and hopefully people will start to talk about your business and link to you.
Do not forget social media today, this is the next big area and is still evolving. Some SEO pundits believe that in time social media will be as important as traditional links, although the volumes of user interaction will have to be much higher. Maybe 10,000 social media likes will be equal to 1 link on a PR5 website (for example).
Right, now you have a plan, get to work. Happy link building.
Jon Wade writes. He used to dig holes. For a while he moved bits of paper about on desks in some of the worlds biggest financial institutions. But now he writes. Mostly he writes for Shareholders Portal, but also blogs about SEO and Google too, because he finds it interesting and it fills in the time when the markets are a bit slow. SEO is not so much a hobby, more a chore, as there is nothing worse for a writer than having his words go unheard.
Posted in Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | 2 Comments »
Thursday, April 1st, 2010 |
Google has always added their fair share of April Fools shenanigans to the popular search engine. In years past they have made fun of Yahoo and Microsoft. Currently Google has renamed itself Topeka in honor of a return gesture the Kansas town made to acquire a special Google project.
As part of the ongoing Google April Fools jokes they have adjusted the the search time from seconds to a host of odd units for measuring time.
You can see the full list below in the screen shots. Look to the right to see the time unit. The first one is my favorite, from Monty Python’s The Holy Grail Fame, “times the velocity of an unladen swallow.” Other time units used include microweeks, microfortnights, jiffies, parsecs, centons, centibeats, epochs, nanocenturies, hertz, warp, and 23.00 skidoo
Click each image for a larger view.
Posted in Google, Out on a Limb, Search Engine Optimization | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 |
A new LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll had some interesting insights into the minds of advertisers. When asked how they used Internet advertising, 79% said as a branding device. This number was higher than the 65% who said they use Internet advertising to drive information-gathering for an offline transaction or the 58% who use it to drive online transactions. Simply stated, advertisers in this survey are using Internet advertising more for brand recognition than to get people to buy. Interesting.
Internet advertising does offer the opportunity to target an audience based on the content on a page or website. Say a user is on About.com getting information on how to find a part-time job; it would make sense for them to see a banner ad for a site like SnagAJob or CareerBuilder. But not all ad networks can be so granular or have corresponding advertisers thus, while reading about part-time jobs, a user might also get banner ads for toothpaste, gift cards, or paint.
And what if the user hasn’t gotten to About.com yet? What if they’re using Google or Bing to find information? Or, let’s say, they read the About.com article and now want more information so then they go to a search engine. Wouldn’t it make sense for SnagAJob or CareerBuilder to be present in the search engine results thus giving that user another chance to see the brand and click to the website?
Search engine optimization (SEO) gives brands the ability to be found at that crucial point at which someone is actively looking for information (not just passively reading an article). And your site’s content is always a good match with what the user searched on because Google wants to provide relevant search results.
So let’s say, going back to the part-time job example, the user was actually reading an article about part-time jobs for stay-at-home moms. A narrowly focused banner ad talking about part-time jobs and written for a stay-at-home mom audience would be a great match. But would a banner ad be that specific? Not likely. However, if the user went to a search engine and did a search on “part-time jobs for stay at home moms” (very specific and long-tail, no doubt), the pages in the results would be tailored for that search. And hopefully SnagAJob and CareerBuilder would have a page about that topic for the user to read along with the About.com article.
One of the benefits of SEO is targeting by geographic location which can be harder for Internet advertising – even though some networks will target ads based on IP address (which can be spotty). Sure, SnagAJob could put a banner ad on the website of a local TV station or internet portal – but that is a lot of stations to contact and rate cards to evaluate. However, if a user searches on “Wichita part-time jobs” it’s simple for SnagAJob to have a page about that topic with a listing of part-time jobs in the Wichita area that then is found in Bing’s search results.
If you’re an advertiser thinking about how to get more brand exposure online, consider SEO for your website. The search engines are another place for users to find your brand.
Photo by Danard Vincente
Posted in marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Strategies | 8 Comments »
Thursday, June 11th, 2009 |
I’ve played around with Bing over the last few days to see what it offers. Most of my evaluation has been of the results page from the user’s point of view.
- Are the results I’m getting relevant?
- How would I use the tools on the left side (“refined” results, Related Searches, Search History, etc)?
- How would I pick which result to click on?
As an SEO company, we know it’s important that the client’s site ranks well and that search engine users click through (more traffic + more sales = more revenue which makes our clients happy). Users only have a few pieces of information to help them decide what site to visit when they’re looking at a results page: the title (that is also the link to the page), a short description, and the URL of the page.
From what I’ve seen of the results in Bing so far, it looks like the results page is pulling the title tag and meta description, which is pretty standard. However, they’ve added a little something extra to help users decide if this is the site they want before they click. When you hover over a search result, a horizontal line with an orange dot appears on the right. Mouse over the dot and a Preview window opens. In that Preview there is copy from the page, maybe a phone number and/or email address for the site, and sometimes even 5 deep links. So where is this information coming from?
It looks as if Bing is pulling the first content on the page and the first links. This isn’t so great if you’ve put a tag line at the top or Global navigation above your more-customer friendly links. Here I did a search for “diamond engagement rings” and found MySolitaire as the #3 result. The Preview included the first content on the page (double bonus, it also contained the terms “diamond”, “engagement”, and “rings”) and the first links.
But wait, there’s more to it. A search on “Lucero CDs” gives us Amazon as the #7 result. But its Preview copy is not what appears at the top of the page (and the code). Instead, the Preview pulls information father down; it is actually a customer review.
In this case it looks like Bing is pulling the first “unique” content on the page since many of Amazon’s pages share the same information at the top. And the content it pulled did not contain “Lucero” or “CDs”. In a few other results for different searches, it seems they are pulling content near the top but not what I would’ve guessed. So it seems like Bing is looking for copy that:
- Is near the top of the page
- Is unique
- Has the keywords in it (which is like when there is no meta description and the SE pulls content from the page, that includes the keywords, for the description of the listing on the results page)
Bing is so new that I’m not suggesting your run out and change the key pages of your website to maximize what could be in the Preview window. But, if you are thinking about site optimization for Bing’s result, you might want to consider what content and links are at the top of your page and the copy around your prominent keywords for the page.
Posted in Bing, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, SEO Copywriting, Site Reference | 16 Comments »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 |
Big Oak’s Client Success
Search Engine Optimization, known as SEO, is the ability to rank a website in the top search results. That’s what we do here as an SEO Company. However there are times that clients need more than SEO, they need marketing, website functionality, and a plan to increase their ROI.
Clients either are well versed in Search Engine Optimization and need someone to do the heavy lifting, or they come with no knowledge of the subject, but know they need exposure to their websites and heard SEO is the way to go. The bottom line for most clients is an increase in profits. That’s what is measurable to their business. Increased web site visitors or traffic normally increases the bottom line or profit.
Big Oak SEO Company took on a new client in February 2009. The client had a successful brick and mortar store and ventured into the online arena. The client operates a Yahoo Store with over 300 products in a niche market. As their SEO Specialist along with our Keyword Researching Specialist we optimized their Yahoo Store for their keywords and started a link building campaign.
The net results in just over 1 month was an increase in $2,000 of sales, and a doubling of orders from the prior month. Under normal circumstances we would consider this a huge success. However the client was lacking a fundamental marketing tool for their website, namely a presence in Google Shopping.
This was beyond the scope of our SEO contract, but Google Shopping presence for this clients products would positively effect the clients ROI. After all ROI, Return on Investment is what the client is really after. Being ranked #1 for a term that doesn’t bring in sales will not benefit the client nor keep a happy customer.
It took a several hours over the course of a few days and several tweaks to establish, create and optimize a Google Base Feed for Google Shopping. (BTW this extra effort was free of charge – no extra billing.) In just 3 days after the first Google Feed went live, the Client reported their first sale from Google Shopping. I am still tweaking the feeds for Higher Google Shopping Results and the client is adding more products to the feed, but this is definitely a case where going the extra mile pays off.
In SEO it not only what you know, but who you know at times as well. Having a SEO Company that is well versed in Google Shopping, Google Adwords, Google Maps, Web Design and Web Functionality can mean the difference between Ranking and Rankings along with Increased ROI.
Posted in Google, Search Engine Optimization, SEO Client Success, SEO Strategies | Comments Off
Monday, February 16th, 2009 |
It occurs to me that as you get into more tactics that involve the social web, you should start leveraging the client’s staff (and possibly their customers) for assistance.
For example, what if you created a series of assignments to roll out over the life of your work with the client starting with each staff member tagging the company on delicious, then digging some page(s) on the site that they like, then creating their own lens on Squidoo.com, etc.
Providing instructions for your clients on how to do this would be part of the SEO consulting work you should be doing for your clients.
SEO is hard work and many hands make light work as my Mom used to say. Get your client’s involved and they will appreciate you efforts all the more and feel like they are part of the process and the success.
Posted in Search Engine Optimization, SEO Strategies, Social Media Optimization | 11 Comments »
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 |
It’s faddish these days to walk around saying, “Directory links are worthless,” or “Directory links aren’t that effective for SEO anymore.” I don’t know where the people who seeded this myth (or the parrots who repeat it in lockstep) came from, but I know how to make them flip their opinion straight away. By using logic.
Recently a colleague of mine was looking at a client’s backlinks in Google webmaster tools and noticed that about 20 of them were coming from a single directory submission to directory name removed to preserve its effectiveness*. I had included about 20 tags when I did the directory submission, and Google had indexed and cached each page that was created in the directory via tagging. The fact that Google spiders this directory often and felt it was important enough to show as 20 backlinks to a site in webmaster tools would indicate to a rational person that Google trusts this directory a great deal.
Yet there are still people who like to make the generalization that directory link building is dead. Why? Well, the generalization seemed to begin after it became clear that Google was on a crusade to torture directories that sold links. When Google feels like it, it will go to a random directory that sells links, knock down its PageRank, decache half its pages, and make sure it doesn’t rank for its own name.
(more…)
Posted in Link Building, Search Engine Optimization | 16 Comments »
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