SEO Tips for the Holiday Season

Posted on December 27, 2011 by kevindorival

1.     When using keywords and key phrases in the title tags and descriptions of your products and services, place yourself in the shoes of someone who is blind.  Your descriptions will be extremely detailed making it easier to be found in the search engine for various searches.

2.     Holiday Trends:  Find articles and blogs about the latest holiday fashions, topics and trends.  When sniffing around the articles, you should take note of the keyword and phrases.  Use what you find in your title and descriptions.

3.     Consider the Recipient.  Use keywords that describe your gift idea and who the gift would be perfect for in your title and description tags.  Synonyms are always a good idea.  For example: mom/mother, dad/father, businesswoman/entrepreneur, son/boy, etc…you get the idea.

4.     Search Bar:  Begin with typing what you are selling in the search bar.  A list of the most recent shoppers’ searches will appear.  The words that appear will give you a great idea of what people are shopping for.  Implement these items into your tags.

5.     Google is your Best Friend.  Google has so many SEO specialists trying to trick them that they reward websites that are honest and provide value to their customers.  Place holiday terms into your titles and other areas of your online store when it’s appropriate.

6.     Gradual Changes:  Be mindful not to create too many changes all at once.  Your search engine placement may suffer if the changes aren’t helping your website advance to the first page of Google.

We will post another article about that a little later! Hope this article helps! If you have any questions about this article or need further assistance with SEO Services, feel free to contact us at 888-918-4249.

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Apple’s mobile products aren’t hacker proof

Posted on December 7, 2011 by kevindorival

Professional hackers are getting ready to start trouble in the Apple world.  Could you imagine someone other than yourself having access to your entire phone and all the information within it.  All the pictures that you send to your significant other, important addresses of your celebrity friends, bank accounts, investments and phone numbers of your family members.  iPhone hackers aren’t only able have access to your information they can call, text and email on your behalf.

Politicians could possibly get ruined in the middle of their campaigns.  Who can refute the evidence of a text message, “Sexting” or something obscene that was never sent by the phone owner?  Perfect example, last year, Apple sold 73.5 million iPhones and when the iPhone 4 was released (October 2011) within 24hrs 1 million phones were sold.

The world renowned Hacker, Charlie Miller discovered this flaw in the Apple mobile operating system and was kind enough to let Apple know about this flaw in their networks in late October. The officials at Apple well aware of Mr. Miller’s background told him thank you and that they have an antidote in the works.  They also thanked him by banning him from iOS developer program for a year.

The world renowned Hacker, Charlie Miller discovered this flaw in the Apple mobile operating system and was kind enough to let Apple know about the flaw in their networks in late October. The officials at Apple were well aware of Mr. Miller’s background, they thanked him and stated they have an antidote in the works.  They also thanked him by banning him from iOS developer program for a year.

If iPhone Hackers were to stumble upon what Mr. Miller found, in which we are sure that they will try even harder now; any iOS app could be in jeopardy by the malicious code placed into the app and zapped into the device.  This proves that iPhones & iPads aren’t as safe as advertised. Google Android Market security is nowhere near as secured as the App Store but it shows that no one is really completely safe from hackers.  Websites get hacked and filled with malware and malicious codes all the time; our website was hacked as explained in our blog, “Wordpress sites hit by iFrame Hackers.”   One could only hope that cellphones don’t reach that level of scrutiny that websites endure.

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SEO… What is it exactly?

Posted on September 8, 2011 by kevindorival

This has become an increasingly popular question over the past couple of years. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  We thought it would be a good idea to clarify what the initials mean first and foremost.  Now, it’s only fair that your next question is, “What is Search Engine Optimization?”  Good Question!  Optimization is defined by making the best of or to achieve the maximum efficiency in page load time, structure/readability, and relevancy of your website(s) content and links.  Search Engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, and BING are the driving force behind linking the world together by the means of giving & receiving desired information. Put these two together and now you have Search Engine Optimization a major component in Internet marketing.

Optimizing your website pages isn’t the easiest thing in the world to achieve.  You have to be able to conduct market research of your industry and competitors.  Identify the right keywords for your market that aren’t overly competitive but drive high search volume.  You will also have to understand and abide by Google’s Guidelines (which are updated from time to time) in order to maintain a better experience for Google users.  You will need to use software that can update your web site in order to include/modify your Meta information. The Title tags, Description tags, and Keywords of  your website must be relevant to the content of the specified page. Each of these tags will need a specified amount of characters.  For example, Google allows a maximum of 65 characters (including spaces) for the Title tag, 165 characters (including spaces) for the Description tag, and up to 200 characters (including spaces) for the Keyword tags. It is said that Google (all major search engines) ignores the keyword tags, which is up for debate, but we would go ahead an add these in regardless.

The best way to perform keyword research is by using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool – its invaluable & free, yes, 100% tax-free.  Isn’t that great?!?! There are several other keyword tools that offer more bells and whistles, but will cost you an arm, leg or maybe even a car payment.

It’s a good idea to monitor your competitors and see what they are doing in regards to search terms.  Perform a Google search on a keyword or phrase that your potential visitors will use to find you and take note of which sites show up.  Also, take notes on the keywords that are being used for the competitors pages that show up at the top (When you open their web page, Press “Control” + the “U” key on a PC or “Command” + the “U” key for Mac).  If you don’t know where to look for the HTML Meta information, then Press “Control” + the “F” key on a PC or “Command” + the “F” key for Mac, this will open your computers search feature and allows you to find what you need. This feature will help you find where the information is located in the code of a site.  Take note of all this valuable information.

All the information that you are gathering will assist you in optimizing your website.  The best way to conduct SEO is to do the research before you build the site (if possible). This way, you have a better idea of how many pages will be needed, what keywords to target, and what the consumers in your market are looking for. In order to protect yourself and your investment, you MUST get educated about SEO and the companies out there that can help you by providing SEO services.  Internet marketing is extremely time consuming but well worth the squeeze at the end of the day! This article was drafted to provide our visitors with some general knowledge about “ON-PAGE” SEO practices. Once these practices have been mastered, you will need to venture down the path of “OFF-PAGE” SEO, which includes Link Building strategies and such.  We will post another article about that a little later! Hope this article helps! If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to contact us at 888-918-4249.

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WordPress sites hit by iFrame hackers (http://counter-wordpress.com/frame.php)

Posted on September 8, 2011 by kevindorival

The Problem:

Recently, one of our (WordPress) websites was compromised by an unknown assailant.

During a typical day at BoastingBiZ, our development team was performing routine maintenance on one of our websites and noticed a grayish/white bar that went across the screen at the bottom of the home page (just beneath the footer). After further research, this “Mystery” bar was found throughout the entire site. On the left hand side of this bar was 3 microscopic characters that appeared to be the letter “F”. Our team went ahead and viewed the source code of the page to identify where this line was generated from. They didn’t find anything in the code that would cause this to appear! NOT GOOD!!! This was our initial indication that we had a problem.

Over in our SEO Services department, our guys noticed that this same site was cached by Google at about the same time this “Mystery” bar was detected. Lucky us right?!? WRONG!! Now, when we perform a Google search for our company name, the search results for our web pages show a message underneath our description tag that reads:

“Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer”

http://counter-wordpress.com/frame.php

Our team immediately went into COMBAT Mode!  We had no idea WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHEN and HOW this could have occurred. What we did know, was that our website was in perfect working condition throughout the day and was also in good standings with Google up until around 4:00pm that afternoon. We also knew that Google last indexed our site about a week prior. Something happened, and what ever it was, it happened recently!

Immediately, we had a meeting with all technical department heads.  During this meeting, we discussed each and every detail of the work performed on the site through the past week. Perhaps it was a newly installed plugin, we thought. Or maybe it was caused by a new update that WordPress rolled out? It could be have been either of these if not a combination. Being that this issue was isolated to just ONE site, we knew it was not an attack on our server. Which was a relief to know!

In situations like this, we utilize a website that provides access to a set of tools which identify if a site has been infected with malware or has been blacklisted. Bookmark this link for future use: http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/

About 10 seconds after entering the URL, we received the Search Engine Optimization answers we were seeking! We identified “What” and “Where” the issue was in the click of a button. Then we knew exactly how we were going to fix the problem but, we did not know how we were going to prevent it from happening again. Well, we did some digging and came across the fix. See step 6 below for details.

Somehow, a Hacker-Jack was able to modify a JavaScript file within our site and became able to inject malicious malware.  But rest assured, there is a way to add the necessary layers of protection! Follow the steps below to make sure your site is protected…

The Solution:

1. Make sure that the Database and Tables of your WordPress site are backed-up daily, weekly, or even monthly. Daily back-ups are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED so that you will not lose too much data in the event of a catastrophe (i.e. Blog Comments, etc.).

**Back-ups can be performed on the server level or directly onto your local machine via FTP or SFTP.

2. Make sure that your HTML & Javascript files are also backed-up daily, weekly, or even monthly. Again, “daily” is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

3. Make sure to set up your website in Google Webmaster Tools. If your site is not already set up here, please click the following link to set up your FREE Webmaster account with Google. www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

4. Identify the INFECTED file and its location using: http://sitecheck.sucuri.net/scanner/

5. Log into your site via FTP or SFTP and replace the infected file with your stored BACK-UP version.

6. Modify the permissions of your websites “Files” & “Directories” based on the following instructions provided by WordPress.org: http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_File_Permissions

Great Job! Now you’ve added an additional layer of protection to your site! This was the first phase. The next phase only applies in the event that Google indexed the pages of your website after the malware was uploaded.

Once you’ve finished securing your site, you must request that the warning be removed from the Google listings by visiting:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=168328.

At this point, you will be able to request a review of your website and explain what happened to the “Google Gods”. You will also need to explain the steps you took to correct the issue. Typically, if Google indexes your site after you have been hacked, they will notify you of the situation via email and provide you with info on how to request a review. If your site is no longer harmful to its visitors, Google will remove the warning and you will no longer be a “Google Blacklisted” site!

If you’ve run into a similar situation, feel free to leave a <a href=” http://www.boastingbiz.com/contact-us.html target=”_blank”> Question/Comment/Feedback </a> – We would be happy to provide any assistance we can!

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Welcome to GetPlacedSEO.com

Posted on July 5, 2010 by admin

Welcome the new GetPlacedSEO.com Blog.
Please check back often for the latest news we have to share with you, our valued customers

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