Advice My Clients Probably Won't Read

Optimizing WordPress Sites

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:36:53 +0000

I’m trying out this add-in for WordPress that helps you overcome the inherent WordPress deficiencies relative to search engine optimization, and, so far, I’m impressed.

http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/#utm_source=wpadmin&utm_medium=sidebanner&utm_term=link&utm_campaign=wpseoplugin

And I guess you can tell I’ve been busy! It’s been so long since I posted because October to December are my busiest months of the year. And, personal note, during that same time, there is Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween (important to me), and 4 family birthdays. So I go nuts about now.

Google Adwords Phishing Attempt

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:38:18 +0000

If you advertise on Google, read this please.

A client received an email that appeared to be from Google Adwords saying that her campaigns had been stopped and it had a link to follow so she could review the issues.

The link went to google-uki.com. I could easily see that since I have my email program set to display emails as plain text, not HTML. I searched for the message of the subject and found this

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdWords/thread?tid=55788c79f07b2959&hl=en

Read the last paragraph of the first posting, which is from a Google employee. Great advice!

Stupid Spam of the day

admin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:55:13 +0000

These people didn’t even try to hide their URL which obviously doesn’t go to Google.

Please update your primary and backup payment information,
even if you

plan to use the same information. Please follow the steps

below to update your payment information.

Your credit card will only be used and stored as part of
re-enabling your

account.

We will not display or share it without your permission.

1. Log in to your account at http://www .googlcnm .com/Select/login

2. Enter your new or updated payment information.

3. Click ‘Save Changes’ when you are finished.

NEVER click a link in an email unless you are absolutely sure that the sender is legitimate and, even then, it’s better to type in the address you want to go to. I get stuff from my bank and credit card company and never click the links in such emails. Instead, I go to their sites via my “Favorites” bookmark which I know is safe.

And, just as a reminder, if no one ever responded to spam, like buying some service that sounds really great, we wouldn’t get spam.

Security & Hacking

admin — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:11:04 +0000

You would think a magazine named Vanity Fair might be all about fashion and culture and rich people – which it is, but it’s also one of the best resources I have for in-depth articles about Internet Security, or the lack thereof.

A few months ago, they had an article on Stuxnet, a hacking type program (trojan horse) that some government allegedly created to interfere with another country’s nuclear weapons program. Fascinating. And terrifying.

The most recent issue had another article about hacking and how all the major companies and government agencies and Google, etc. have all been hacked, with the implication that the culprit is the Chinese government and that cyber warfare has been with us for some time, but no one wants to admit it because shareholders might get upset. Please – let us get upset. We couldn’t get much more upset than we already are.

Even scarier!

What I’ve taken away from all my reading is that:

If someone wants to hack your website, they will
The fact that they can is not a reason to make it easy for them.

I seriously doubt I or my clients need to worry about a government hacking our websites, but there is more than adequate evidence to support our worrying about everyday crooks hacking our website, bank/credit card accounts or home computers.

So, make sure your passwords are difficult. “Difficult” means that until you have typed a password 30 or 40 times, there’s no way in the world you could ever memorize it.

Your name with the last character capitalized and then 3 digits from your zip code is not “difficult”.

jdfFf21$1dj!!VCV —Now that’s difficult. (It’s also not my password for anything)

It’s your life. And it’s your bank account. And it’s your website. You might not be able to make it hack-proof, but you can darn well make it really difficult for a hacker to get in.

It’s just like protecting your home. You can leave the front door open. You can leave the front door closed but unlocked. You can leave the front door closed and locked. Or, you can lock the front door and have a deadbolt and a yappy dog and a motion detector security light and an alarm system. Which one do you think the burglar is going to like?

Be safe.

Norton Safe Web

admin — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:30:23 +0000

I use Norton Internet Security and when I do a search, it will show the results with a little green circle with “OK” in it, meaning that Norton has visited that page and it’s not a threat. If they haven’t visited it, you can get them to and, thus, show the green “ok” symbol by claiming the site.

http://safeweb.norton.com/help/site_owners

If I’m looking for something, I pay attention to that little green circle, and I’m sure other people do, too, especially if they’re planning to shop.

If I manage your site, all you need to do is setup an account with Norton (link above) and then give me your login info and I’ll take it from there.

Any way we can add even just a bit more credibility to an ecommerce site is good.

Addendum – the same applies to McAfee. http://www.siteadvisor.com

Site Updates & Sympathy

admin — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:59:09 +0000

Just a quick note to say that I completely understand a client’s frustration when I tell them that their website needs to be redone because the design is not conducive to getting ranked well.

Often, the client has spent thousands of dollars for their website, and they don’t want to hear that it isn’t good enough and they need to spend thousands more.

However, things change in the world of the web. How sites are designed has changed drastically from when I built my first site in 1997. How search engines “read” sites has also changed. And both of those things will continue changing.

It doesn’t mean the previous design was bad when it was done (although it may have been).

Just as you would maintain and update a physical business or home, you need to do the same with a website. We don’t walk out to wells to pump water to bring to the house. We’ve progressed. And if you’re old enough to read this, then you’re no doubt old enough to remember when there wasn’t an Internet as we know it today. Times change; technology changes; websites must change.

So, the best advice I can give is to plan for these changes. Plan now for that next overhaul.

Depending on your site, it might cost $800 or it might cost $5000 (or more). Find a web designer/developer with good references and trust them to do a good job for you and tell you when changes need to be made. And set aside an amount every year so that when the time comes, you’ll be prepared.

Google Shopping Submission Changing

admin — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 20:16:43 +0000

If you submit your products to Google Shopping, be aware that you will probably need to redo your feed/spreadsheet to comply with the new requirements posted here.

The deadline for compliance is August 31, so if you have a lot of products, better get cracking!

Google’s Plus and +1

admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:40:27 +0000

If you’ve noticed the “+1″ by sites in search results or on ads and wondered what it was, it’s Google’s way of letting you recommend websites or companies. Kind of cool, assuming some black hats out there don’t figure out a way to spam it and give a website unwarranted pluses.

Along the same lines, I heard a piece on the radio recently about Google’s new Plus program which is only being tested right now. It’s similar to Facebook, but they’ve designed it to be much easier to use, especially with regard to having a single identity but having “circles” of different groups, like family, colleagues, customers, etc. And, for me, the biggest deal is that they’re promising that if you want to delete your account, it gets deleted entirely from their server. That’s the exact opposite of Facebook, which I’ve grown to hate for its intrusiveness and how difficult they make it to protect one’s privacy. I think it’s fine for businesses, but it’s way too Big Brother for my personal life.

Privacy (Photos)

admin — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:04:16 +0000

How important is your privacy? Some folks care; some don’t. If it’s important to you, I encourage you to check your privacy settings on every online service you use, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and so forth.

Facebook is now building a database of photos based on those photos that have been tagged with someone’s name. They will even show you a bunch of photos that might be you. And the default Privacy setting is to allow that function. The whole thing creeps me out.

I really don’t need everyone in the world to know what I look like. …Not that the whole world – or even a tiny portion- really cares, but one has to draw the line somewhere and Facebook just stepped over mine.

Microsoft AdCenter Tips

admin — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:14:53 +0000

Omigosh! Just called Microsoft because a credit for a client hasn’t been showing up after their merger or whatever with Yahoo! and ended up spending 48 minutes (my timer was on) with this guy. If we cut out the 18 minutes of pure BS in between the useful information, it was a worthwhile call.

The gist of it: Get really specific with your ads and your keywords. Really, really specific. I could go on, but suffice it to say that it is impossible to be too specific.

Okay, I’ll go on. If you sell gifts for brides to give their bridesmaids, don’t just advertise for “bridesmaid gifts”. Use keywords like “bridesmaid sister gift” and “childhood friend bridesmaid” and so on. And be sure your ads include a call to action and, if it can appeal on an emotional level, so much the better. For example, “Make Mom Cry at Your Wedding” would be a good emotional “call to action”. Of course, Microsoft and Google rarely give you as many characters as you’d like to use in your ad, so you need to be creative here.

But, all in all, I wouldn’t say it was a waste of time. However, I do have to mention that he wanted to show me something, but that feature wasn’t available. He had to get off the phone while we were talking because he couldn’t find the feature, just as I couldn’t and, come to find out, they were updating the page. Just imagine how much of a client’s time I could have wasted trying to find out how to add new keywords to a campaign when the fricking button wasn’t anywhere at that time???

And that’s why I charge $85/hour. Because I don’t work in a business where procedures and methods haven’t changed in 20 years. I work in a business where procedures and methods change every 20 minutes!