Posts

Posted on

Google Tag Manager – Changing the Way You Add Code to Your Website

You may have missed this in the last several months and so I wanted to bring the Google Tag Manager to your attention. Tag Manager is a revolutionary way to add code to your own or clients’ websites. With so many improvements and changes happening at Google, for some websites and particularly larger sites implementing code to track activity or conversions can sometimes be problematic and time consuming. Tag Manager solves these problems.

With the Google Tag Manager you simply install, just after the <body> tag in your code, one snippet of JavaScript code. Once in place you will be able to control what code is shown (in this external script file) from within the Google Tag Manager control panel.

Want to add Google Analytics? No problem! Want to add AdWords conversion tracking to two pages on your website? No problem. You can do it all not from the website but rather from the Tag Manager control panel.

With advanced rules and controls you can select what code shows on what pages all from within one location. With new AdWords remarketing features planned for 2013 now’s the time to get Tag Manager code in place on your website and migrate your account IDs into a new interface. I think you’ll find management easier and implementation of future code a snap!

Posted on

Help Me Support Legislation for Gun Control

Dear Readers,

I don’t usually write off topic on my blog, but I am so sickened by the events of Friday December 14 and the killing of young innocent school children that I cannot keep silent. Americans need to rise up to demand the control and licensing of guns.

Here’s how you can help.

Go to We The People create an account and sign the petitions you see to demand that our President work to enact effective discourse and changes on gun control and the right to bear arms.

This site is a part of the White House site. Many of the gun legislation petitions have received more than the needed number of 25,000 signatures in just a few days to demand a response from the White House on an action plan. Please join me in making a difference for our country and our children to prevent further incidents where mentally ill or temporarily deranged persons can access guns and subject our society to further terror and violence in places like movie theaters, schools, and shopping malls.

Although I am a gun owner myself, I recommend the licensing and required training of any gun owner. I recommend the total ban on automatic weapon sales and on assault rifles and military hardware to civilians. I would be willing to give up some of my freedoms to allow for a greater level of safety for our public benefit. It is shameful that we have allowed so many innocents to die just over this past year as our government has been paralyzed or held sway by lobbyists from enacting meaningful gun control reform. How many more must die, how many more families will suffer, how can we continue to allow the sale of automatic weapons to be in the hands of our populace where they can be legally used by unbalanced people?

I entreat you that your voice matters in this issue. Rise up with me and fight to demand that our government take actions to immediately prevent further violence and to protect the rights of families and children to be safe from fear in our schools, workplaces, and communities through meaningful gun control registration and legislation.

Nancy McCord
President of McCord Web Services LLC

Posted on

Google’s Matt Cutts on Guest Blogging and Link Building Clarification

Google’s spam engineer Matt Cutts takes time in this video to clarify further how Google feels about guest blogging and answers if you use guest blog posts will your website be penalized for placement. This is an excellent video and well worth the minute or two to watch.

Here is the synopsis of the video in a nutshell.

1. If you allow just anyone without review to post to your blog or you accept blog posts that have been posted widely on the Web already, your own site’s reputation can be impugned by this tactic and placement may drop based on Google’s new filters.

2. If you are allowing articles that have been spun (meaning multiple versions created automatically with software changing the word order in an effort to provide seemingly “unique” content for each site you send to) to be used on your website or blog, you will most likely have your site penalized in Google for these activities.

3. Matt says point blank that if you are doing many guest blog posts or allowing many guest blog posts that may be of questionable syndication on your own website, that this is a “pretty good indicator of bad quality”. “If your website links to or receives links from sites like this, this can lower your own site’s reputation.” “Yes, Google is willing to take action against sites that are doing low quality or spammy guest blogging.”

My recommendation to you is that if you accept guest blog pieces, they should be written uniquely for your website. I would recommend you use a service like Copyscape Premium to test if a piece sent to you is unique. I would not post articles that appear in many locations on your own website. Better yet get your own blog writer. I invite you to review our blog writing service program.

If you do guest blog posts for others sites, I would be very selective of the sites you choose to write for and consider limiting your content to only one or two really high quality sites. Make the inbound links to your website be meaningful and not hurtful to your overall placement strategy.

Posted on

Coming Soon Custom Vanity URLs on Google+

The current URL of your Google+ page is long and ugly, but the Google+ team does say that they are working to re mediate this issue.  at Google writes in one of his Google+ status updates that Google is currently trying out new vanity URLs on select brands at this present time.

Google+ vanity URLs will be in this format Google.com/+NancyMcCord (this URL does not exist yet, but you can connect with me on Google+ for now on this ugly URL: https://plus.google.com/104147012849953819334#104147012849953819334/posts.

You can read Saurabh Sharma’s full announcement online. Make sure to read the comment thread as it is interesting.

The first step in the process is to request Google+ verification. Here is the link to start.

So stay tuned when custom vanity URLs are available on Google+ I’ll make sure to let you know.