Effectively Using Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools is a free service from Google that provides webmasters with tools and data about their site. I want to touch on some of the benefits of authenticating your site through this service. The first step is to have a Google account set it up here. Diagnostic Tools The Diagnostic Tools section provides information on any crawling issues that Google may be having with your website. This section will provide a list of problematic URLs with a short description of the problem. You...
Why and How To Add Breadcrumbs To Your Wordpress Blog
As a long-time internet user, I have seen breadcrumbs really take off around the internet and recently with many of the major Wordpress websites using them. You may be asking, Why should I use them on my blog? Well, breadcrumbs are excellent for improving user navigation and helping the search engines establish your website's structure, otherwise known as SEO purposes. Unfortunately, Wordpress hasn't inherited the use of breadcrumbs, which is a grave disappointment in my opinion. However...
Microsoft's Vista armor starting to fade
HP recently ran an article which hinted that it was developing a software package that had the ability to bypass a portion of the Windows Vista Security. HP might not be the first, but should be noted as a major player in the game. How does this affect your experience? First it shows that it is possible to circumvent the all powerful security features Microsoft is so proud of. If hackers have not already found a way, HP’s tremendous resources will surely be reverse engineered and used...
Protect your website from SQL Injection Attacks
Is your website vulnerable? Very possible. You could do a few quick checks, but explaining how to write SQL Injection code is out of the scope of this blog. Websites written using Classic ASP language, PHP, AJAX, and other website languages are vulnerable, but that doesn't leave.NET websites in the clear. Any website that gives full access to the SQL database is vulnerable. That gives the hacker full range at manipulating the information in your database. So, what are some ways to protect...
Effectively Leveraging Videos for Universal Search
Universal Search, also known as Blended Search, blends listings from local, images, video, news, and blogs. Universal Search was introduced first by Google in May 2007. MSN and Yahoo quickly followed in July and October respectively. Universal search has had a big impact ever since on how people search. We find that many companies do not have an online strategy when it comes to videos. Videos are becoming an important part of the marketing mix. Let me provide you with some background...
What’s the hype about SQL Injection?
You may have heard of the term SQL Injection often or never before. So, what the heck is it? And, why should I worry about it? Below I try to put in lamen's terms what it is and why it is a bad thing. In basic terms, it is a way to hack into a database and a website. First, I will explain a little bit about what SQL means. What is SQL? Is it an acronym for something? Yes. It stands for Structure Query Language. It is not only an abbreviation and a programming language, is also a database. SQL...
Reputation Management - Protect Your Company Online
It's time to consider online reputation management into your monthly marketing budget. If you have never thought about reputation management for your business according to Wikipedia it's "the process of tracking an entity’s actions and other entities’ opinions about those actions; reporting on those actions and opinions; and reacting to that report". With more and more user generated content online your company's reputation is under constant threat of attack be it from bloggers...
NoFollow - What is it?
The nofollow is a HTML attribute for links. The nofollow attribute supposedly excludes links from search engine ranking calculations. This attribute was first introduced by Google’s Matt Cutts and Blogger.com’s Jason Shellen.
Example:
Ancor Text
It has been found that Google still follows these links, but if the page was not in the index previously they will not index the page, will not show the link as a back link, and will not associate any keyword relevancy from the...
High Bounce Rates Mean It's Time To Revise Your Website Content
Updated: Feb. 2015 A bounce rate is the percentage of single page visits to your website where the visitor left from the same page that they entered. A bounce rate for a website can indicate many factors. It can be an indication of user experience and satisfaction, as a high bounce rate could mean that the reader didn't find the information valuable or what they were searching for at all. It can also be a sign that your landing pages or content aren't enticing enough to keep potential...
Pubcon 2007 Take Aways - Buying Links, Video, Buzz
I finally found a few minutes to blog after returning from Pubcon to an over-flowing inbox, voice messages, and rescheduled meetings. It was a great time, as always, with lots of knowledgeable speakers. Here are 3 points that seemed to be stressed by multiple speakers and attendees alike: 1 Buying links is not a good long-term strategy. Google and the other major search engines according to Matt Cutts are cracking down on sites who buy and/or sell links. Will buying 1 link get you black-listed...