Category: Blogs

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Keep an Eye on Your Website and Blog for Hidden Spam Parasites With This Tool

In today’s world, you’ve got to be proactive about protecting your online search engine capital. One way to keep an eye on your website and blog are to routinely review both for hidden parasitic spam hacks that will sap your search engine placement and could actually end up getting you banned (temporarily) on Google.com. Here is one tool you may want to do a few scans with to make sure that you are clean.

The tool is called Unmask Parasites. This free online tools scans a few random pages on the URL you input and then gives you a pretty fair report on activity, links, and if your site is carrying parasites. It is important if you feel you have a problem that you not just scan your home page. Do some directory scans as well to see if deeper in your site you have a problem.

Additionally I highly recommend that you review at least monthly, your Google Webmaster Control Panel and review the keywords that Google is finding on your website. If you are finding a prevalence of casino, gaming, or mortgage related keywords, your site has been hacked and needs a thorough cleaning.

Although Unmask Parasites may not find an all hidden parasites as it only scans random files, using it in conjunction with the Google Webmaster Control Panel will allow you to keep tabs on the security of your site and work to monitor others cracking in and using your site to funnel hidden spam links forcing your placement down in the organic search results.

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Windows Live Writer a Great Blogging Tool

nancy-2011If you blog occasionally or even if you blog a lot, Windows Live Writer may replace creating your blog post in the control panel as your blog editor of choice. I am finding that it is sometimes easier and faster to blog in Microsoft’s free Live Writer application than it is to write in Word when I am on the go or for that matter faster than working directly in my WordPress control panel.

These are the things I like about Windows Live Writer:

  • Ability to work offline and so I can blog while sitting in a waiting room.
  • Ability to easily add images from my clip art gallery to my blog posts.
  • Ability to save my blog post to my computer automatically without thought or a second action if I am working live.
  • I like the spell checker and word count feature. Particularly the word count feature!
  • I like the ability to set up multiple blog accounts and switch between them at will.

I have Windows Live Writer set up on my laptop so I can blog anywhere I go – the soccer field, the waiting room at the dentist, and in the car (if I am not driving). I have found that I like it so much that I am using it more and more just for blogging while I am sitting at my own computer. I find it significantly easier to quickly add photos and style text than when I am working live on my WordPress blog online.

To have it work, you will need your blog admin or user login but that is about it. You don’t even need FTP access.

If you want to check it out, you can get the free download here. You may find out like me that it becomes your application of choice.

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With Facebook and Twitter, Do You Still Need Blogging?

Many clients are now investing time and money on keeping Twitter and Facebook updated so with all of that do you still need your blog updated? Absolutely!

If your blog is installed under your own domain and resides on your website server then adding to your blog benefits the organic placement of your website as you build blog content. Twitter and Facebook are important ways to engage customers, search engines are starting to look at your activity on these networks as part of their SocialRank scale which impacts organic placement, but activity on these platforms does not build website content like blogging does.

When it comes to choosing where your money is best spent to improve organic search placement I like blogging best, then Facebook and finally Twitter. I place Facebook above Twitter as Facebook is where your prospects are spending a significant part of their time and I feel it is important to engage them where they are active.

Although SocialRank does not carry the same weight in organic placement as PageRank, both Google and Bing are actively now monitoring SocialRank. I feel that over time the activity you have on Facebook and Twitter will become more important in affecting your organic placement and where you appear in personalized search results.

In fact for national businesses involvement and engagement on Facebook and Twitter may be key to mitigating the focus of localize search results in organic placement that Google and Bing are both pushing at this time. I say that as search results are now personalized and focus heavily on showing results in your geographic area, but also include a social component where personal connections and interconnections are a factor of the results you see as well.

We invite you to find our more about our services for blog writing, Facebook updates, and Twitter writing if you have a need.

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It is False Advertising To Create Fake Reviews for Google Places

You may not have realized this, but it is illegal to create fake reviews and testimonials about your products, services, or business on Google Places, Google Hotpot, your blog, your website, and even on Amazon.com. As a business owner you should know that there are some serious penalties that can be assessed if you are doing this or even  unknowingly in this.

How so? In November 2009 the FTC, that is the Federal Trade Commission, released advertising guidelines that impact all advertising efforts even including the Web and blogging. In a nutshell the rules state that you can not write as if you have used a product or service when you have not. If you are paid to write a piece about a product you must have used it and you must state in your piece that you are paid to write the piece. You can read all the gory details and gobbledy gook the feds write to spell out a concept from the FTC website.

The bottom line is this, in the FTC’s own words for bloggers and online publishers:

  • Endorsements must be truthful and not misleading.
  • If the advertiser doesn’t have proof that the endorser’s experience represents what consumers will achieve by using the product, the ad must clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected results in the depicted circumstances, and
  • If there’s a connection between the endorser and the marketer of the product that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, it should be disclosed.

There are penalties spelled out for violations and the FTC makes it easy to report a violation with their online complaint site.

The reason for my blog post today is however to mention that creating fake reviews on Google Hotpot and other online review services would also fall into the category as false advertising and could get you and your business in a pickle with the FTC.

I mention this as there are several Google Places firms, based overseas, that are promoting such illegal reviews as part of their business packages. You as a business owner need to know that these review placement and review writing services are illegal and could get YOU in trouble.