Straight SEO Talk

Are printers the next hacker doorway?

seoforprofessionals — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:35:15 +0000

Columbia University researchers say, “yes.”

This article is a must-read for users concerned about system vulnerabilities.

Click to read MSNBC’s Bob Sullivan’s article.

Keep up with all of your Usernames and Passwords

seoforprofessionals — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:05:37 +0000

This may be old news to some of you, so bear with me if it is. But you need to make sure that you keep tabs on all of the logons and passwords associated with your site, especially if you have an SEO or web developer you’re working with.

Here are few highlights:

Know where your site is hosted. It could be 1&1, GoDaddy, StartLogic, etc., but you need to know the name of your website’s host. Some developers even host sites that they build, which in itself is not a bad thing. But you need to think about how it would affect your web presence if your relationship were to end. Suddenly. Badly.

I know, that’s not going to happen, but take a few moments to gather some basic information. Who. Where. Find out your username and password for your site’s dashboard and its main FTP account.

If you’re not accessing it directly, you’ll need to know your Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, and Places Pages logons. While you’re at it make sure you copy your Analytics Code.

Then if you have a Yahoo Business listing or Bing Business Portal pages you’ll need those logons. And dont’ forget the directories you have accounts with: Yelp, Merchant Circle, Hot Frong, Mojo Pages, Manta Kudzu, YP, etc.

A small business’s web presence can generate a lot of usernames and passwords to all kinds sites and services. Try to keep with them all. They’re your intellectual property.

SEO for Professionals makes sure it clients have all of their information in a central place and are able to access it any time. Gather yours today.

Google drops 3rd party snippets from Places

seoforprofessionals — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 11:53:42 +0000

On Thursday, July 21, 2011, in its Lat Long Blog, Google announced that, “Based on careful thought … review snippets from other web sources have now been removed from Place pages.”

Whoa. Just like that. I’ll bet that’s going to shake up rankings. Here, read it for yourself. Google Lat Long Blog.

I’ll keep you up on all of the SEO developments. Stay tuned.

+1 Released. Add It to Your Site Today.

seoforprofessionals — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:31:00 +0000

Google has released the +1 button. That means it’s available for use on your web site right now. Kinda like Facebook’s ‘Like’ button, it allows signed-in users to recommend your site to their friends.

Now here’s the difference. Before, the +1 was shown within search results. NOW, you can add it to your site, and your visitors can +1 your site while on it.

Google is also showing the +1 button in organic SERPs for sites that have added the button. But even users not logged in can see them.

You need to add the +1 button to your site today.

Here’s the link. Add +1 to your site…

Chrome Market Share Up

seoforprofessionals — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:13:24 +0000

The Wall Street Journal reports the Chrome browser’s worldwide market share up to 20% this June from 2.8% in June 2009. IE falls to 44% from 59%, Firefox down to 28% from 30% in same period.

Wall Street Journal article

Could HTML5 be the end of the app?

seoforprofessionals — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 18:04:21 +0000

An interesting CNNMoney article explores the idea that HTML5′s expanded functionality could make many apps for iOS and Android things of the past. Why? Because a single browser-based app could be built to run on both platforms with the same bells and whistles as two apps coded for each device. So, it wouldn’t make any difference what operating system is native to the device because the “app” would run in the browser. In other words, there would not have to be separate apps for iPhone, Android, Crackberry, Windows, etc. Just one. Who would benefit? Certainly not Apple. Maybe Amazon. Maybe you and me. Here’s the article:

Mobile Web apps escape Apple’s iron grip

And if you’re interested in HTML5, check out these links:

w3schools.com HTML5 Tutorial

Mark Pilgrim’s diveintoHTML5.com

Google Labs’ Correlate is an interesting keyword tool.

seoforprofessionals — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:59:02 +0000

Check out Google Labs’ Correlate. Correlate grew out of Google’s Flu Trends, which helped people determine where the flu was occurring around the U.S. by matching search data with location. What have keywords to do with the flu? Well, you can enter keywords and Correlate will return other keywords that are directly related to the original keywords. It’s keywords that others are using in actual searches. Plus, you can plot usage over time (to determine seasonality for example) as well as geographical distribution of those searches. Pretty cool. Check it out. Enter your product’s strongest keywords and see what Correlate correlates.

Go to Google Correlate

Google Previews Android@Home

seoforprofessionals — Wed, 11 May 2011 12:53:59 +0000

Google makes known its plans for your home…

Android@Home

Pretty cool.

Amazon’s down. (It’s up now.) Now what?

seoforprofessionals — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 11:56:05 +0000

Amazon’s Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) service crash this week stopped some Internet heavyweights in their tracks. Foursquare, Reddit, Quora, Hootsuite, just to name a few. So now the finger-pointing begins. And it really shouldn’t. Most reports attribute a mirroring misconfiguration as the cause. Essentially a backup routine, data was backed up until there was no disk space left. I’ve never made a mistake like that.

So what does that mean for cloud computing? Not much. It only points out that, like anything else, the cloud is going to fail for stupid reasons. But that doesn’t mean it should be abandoned. What about air travel? Every now and then there’s a… No pun intended. Are we going to give up airplanes? No. They are safer than driving.

The same goes for the cloud. It’s probably safer than your data center.

But there are risks. And risks can be mitigated.

You’ve heard this a million times, but I’m going to tell you again. Back up your data. Get in the habit of pulling your data down from wherever it’s stored and make a copy. Got a lot of data? Get your IT department on it.

And here’s a radical suggestion. Define a data set of mission-critical files. Then back that data up to a jump drive and put it in your pocket. You can get a 128Gb jump drive for a hundred bucks. Do it.

Now sit down for this – You are responsible for your data. Not the cloud. Not Amazon. Not your IT department. Not your assistant. You.

Something like this will happen again.

You’ve been warned.

Google launches ‘Think Quarterly’ online magazine

seoforprofessionals — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:40:41 +0000

Google’s UK division has launched a new quarterly magazine, Think Quarterly.

Dubbed, “a breathing space in a busy world. It is a place to take time out and consider what is happening and why it matters.

“Think Quarterly is a(n) unparalleled communications tool that bundles together some of the world’s leading minds to discuss the big issues facing businesses today,” the magazine says on its Twitter bio.

“Like most companies, Google constantly communicates with its business customers via email newsletters, updates on our official blogs, and printed materials,” Google writes on its site. “On this occasion, we have sent a short book about data, called Think Quarterly, to a small number of our UK partners and advertisers.”

Okay…