News & Trends – Page 11 – The Web Authority

December 28, 2016December 22, 2016

My Predictions for the Web for 2017

Google Partner Badge — McCord Web Services is a Google Partner.

Here are my predictions for 2017 in regards to what will be popular for website business owners.

Google will continue to focus on mobile
This prediction is simply a strengthening of what we have seen happen fourth quarter 2016. Google will continue to keep its organic placement algorithm tied to mobile sites and content found on a site’s mobile page.

Mobile adaptive websites will lose to mobile responsive websites
Google stated that it prefers for a site to be mobile responsive versus mobile adaptive. More site owners will move to responsive websites and move away from using mobile adaptive websites in 2017.

Twitter will continue to lose dominance and may be bought by Microsoft/Bing
Although I have not heard of Microsoft being interested in Twitter yet, it seems like it would be a good match for Microsoft. As Twitter continues to struggle and top staff leave for greener pastures. I see Twitter shrinking even more in popularity, but doubt that it will disappear totally in 2017, but may be gobbled up by another company even if it is not Bing or Microsoft.

Facebook Messenger will start appearing as a chat app on websites
With more sites implementing chat functions, it makes perfect sense for Facebook to aggressively move into this area working to make it easier for business owners to implement real-time chat functions.

Take a look at my 2015 predictions nearly all of them came true by at least 2016.

Got your own prediction? Leave it in the comments section below.

December 26, 2016December 22, 2016

Your Mission for 2017 – Mobile, Mobile, Mobile

Hit the mark with a mobile-focused website strategy.

Your mission for 2017 if you want to be successful is to focus your activity on mobile. That’s mobile optimized content, advertising on mobile, newsletters that look great on mobile, and location specificity for mobile. In other words, gear up to leverage mobile activity in all you do for 2017!

AMP Pages Showing Now on Google Mobile

Earlier this week I noticed that on Google.com from my smart phone that all the results I clicked in were marked AMP that means Accelerated Mobile Page. These pages have a super fast download and are visible instantly. But they typically do not have navigation, graphic features and do make it hard to people to dig deeper into your website.

If you are using WordPress you can use the Yoast plugin and Yoast glue for AMP pages on your site. If you are not using WordPress, you’ll need to create an AMP page for each page on your site.

Mobile Version Newsletters

Several years ago I shifted my own personal newsletter format and that of many of my clients to a mobile version. If you do not have a newsletter template that resizes to fill your smartphone screen and is stated to be mobile-friendly, in 2017 you need to embrace a change to a mobile version skin.

Location Specificity for Mobile

In early 2017 take a look at your website. Are there areas you can add more location specificity? Can you add a map with directions to your site. Can you sprinkle in more geographically specific keywords? All this helps to bump up the ability for Google to categorize your website and deliver location specific content to mobile users.

Make sure to bookmark our blog “The Web Authority” so that you can be first to know and share our tips on how to leverage mobile activity to boost your 2017 website visits.

November 30, 2016November 27, 2016

Opera VPN for Smartphone Security

If you use your phone on travel, sitting at Starbucks, at Target and even Macy’s, you’d better make sure you are secure by using this free app called Opera VPN.

I have my phone set up to minimize data use. As a result when I am out an about, my phone is looking for Wi-Fi spots to connect to to save data. As a result, if you connect to any Wi-Fi, you may be setting yourself up for a hack attack and potentially even identity theft.

Opera has introduced a free super easy to use app called Opera VPN that makes it easy to stay secure on Wi-Fi anywhere. Download the app for Android or Apple at Google Play or ITunes. The app is simple to use, click the Wi-Fi icon and it lets you know a letter grade of your security. Turn it on and the app gives you a new grade with cute visuals helping you to understand how the app keeps you safe. Additionally, you’ll get an integrated ad tracking blocker.

As this app is easy to use, has cute visual cues, and is free, I consider it a great app for kids, teens, and those on a budget. If you have kids using smartphones, make sure to review this important security information with them. It is not common knowledge and we have to as parents instruct them how to be safe from identity and banking theft through the use of unsecured or compromised Wi-Fi access points.

I am not being paid for this review, just like the app and wanted to share it with you. Make sure you keep an eye on this app in the future. For now it is ad-free, but it may be ad supported in the future and may sell aggregated data, but for now, it is a smart, free, and easy to use way to be safe online with your smartphone.

November 2, 2016October 29, 2016

HTML Website Hack – Are You Secure?

Confused senior man — Hacked? You Need to Monitor Your Website for Hacking Proactively!

I just saw another html website hack this last week. We all know that WordPress websites and blogs can be hacked, and can actually be targets for spammers and porn spammers. But did you know that regular websites using html can be hacked too?

If you are not watching and monitoring your site proactively, your website can be a target for hackers too. On top of that think about the potential website traffic and loss of reputation for your business when you leave a hacked site uncorrected. for a long period of time.

Website Hacked This Past Week

A customer came to me for website updates this past week. His site had not been updated since 2014. Before starting his updates this is what I found:

Weird php files were interspersed in his site files.
On the server a hidden folder was installed.
Self propagating files were embedded in his page code.

The key is that the site had been compromised in September 2015 (based on the file date stamp). Google had marked the site as containing malware in their index, but the client had not been watching. Over a year later I found that the site had been hacked.

The take away on this is that all website owners should register with the Google Search Console. At least this way if malware is found by Google on your website, Google will email you a note so you can take action.

Better yet is to hire a webmaster to do a monthly or quarterly review of the website to assure you are safe and not helping spammer and sellers of porn to sell their wares.