Having a Website and Social Media is a Must

If you have a business, having an online presence in the form of a website is a must. Having social media pages for you business, such as Facebook and Twitter, is also essential. But, having one without the other is not a good idea.

We have found that the crossover between social media and the traditional website is a major factor in clients familiarizing themselves with a business. Both social media and a website serve similar functions, but a website really helps flesh out your capabilities and allows you to present the customer with exactly what you want them to see. Continue reading →

Importance of Getting Customers to Review You on Google

There are three types of search results you find on Google:

Pay-per-click: People pay money to show up in the top and bottom margins with the little green box that says “Ad”. Every time the link is clicked, money is deducted from their funded account. The amount per click depends on what the client has bid, which can be as low as 50 cents or as high as $15.
Organic: These are the “natural” results that we have been seeing since Google’s inception back in 1998. They are located in the main body.
Local Places: This is the box that appears on top of the organic search results that usually has a map and some dots showing where the business is located.

Continue reading →

Bitcoin Thieves Up Their Game

I typically just stick to content related to web design and search engine optimization on this blog. But from time to time I will post an article about scams that are taking place in the virtual world. Today is an especially unique blog for me in that it will be the first time that I discuss cryptocurrency on this platform.

Electrum hack and phish

As you probably know by now, cryptocurrency is basically internet money. People use it by sending it to one another at which point they can exchange it for the fiat currency of their choice. It uses a technology called blockchain to complete the transaction. Continue reading →

Attention: Important Notice , DOMAIN SERVICE NOTICE

If you have ever bought a domain name, you’ve probably received an email with that same (or very similar) text in the subject line. Rest assured, it is spam. One thing is for certain: almost every email you get regarding your domain name, you can ignore. Unless the email is from the company which you bought the name, it is spam, scam or phish. And even then, don’t click any links. The scammers may make the email look like it is from your registrar.

Most of these type of emails will say you have a limited time to confirm, protect, or -fill in blank- your domain name. The email is designed to play on your impulse to solve the problem quickly and click.

If they are not scamming you then they are trying to sell you something that you don’t need. Look at this email below: click it to enlarge

You will notice the spammers in this one I received made no attempt to hide the fact that they are from some web company (see return email address and link url). They also use strong threatening language like “failure to do so will result in bla bla bla..” or “Do not discard this message..”. This one in particular is designed for the newer domain name purchaser who is essentially a novice in this area.

Should I Approve Blog Comments from Other Businesses

Many blogs offer the option to leave a comment. There are multiple ways to leave them. The blog could utilize a Facebook plug-in that allows someone logged into Facebook to comment easily. Other sites use blog membership plug-ins with similar functionality, like Disqus. However, many people find these can be troublesome down the road when the company changes its terms, starts charging money or goes out of business.

The best solution is to offer an open comment form that allows the person to submit their name, email, comment and website. The website option is for those people commenting on behalf of a company or their own blog. Continue reading →

Getting Spammed from Your Contact Form Recently?

Are you starting to get spammed through your website contact form again? You are not alone. Literally millions of people have been receiving heavy doses of spam this week. The problem is that Contact Form 7, a form used by millions of people within their WordPress installations, has stopped working with Google ReCaptcha V2. When you log in, you get an alert to change your site keys to reCaptcha V3, a version that is supposed to work in the background. The problem is, spam is still getting through.

I have searched the web and have found many complaints but no answers from WordPress. I suppose the best thing to do to save time/money at this juncture is to wait and see of they sort this out and tighten up the security. Continue reading →

Single Page Optimization

There is not point in having a very optimized page that is within a website which is itself not optimized. Google would not see this page as the “single great apple in a basket of rotten apples”, rather, they would just see it as a basket of rotten apples. With that said, I am going to discuss the proper optimization of a single page.

Industry practices in this matter change all the time as Google itself changes. It is important to stay updated on all the algorithm changes at Google by reading their various blogs. Continue reading →

Be Careful, Even the Unsubscribe Button May be a Phishing Trick

By now you probably have become pretty good at spotting a phishing or “spoof” email. The email looks a bit off right? Those are the easy ones. But phishers and scammers are getting better at their phishing emails.

Lately we have been seeing a new wave of emails where they take an existing email from the actual company and duplicate it with very good effect. A couple tips to remember are: Continue reading →

Mobile vs. Laptop Usage

In the business of designing and optimizing websites, it helps to know who your target audience is. It also helps to know what devices people will be using to look at your websites.

For the purpose of this article, “desktop” and “laptop” will be combined and be simply referred to as “laptop”. The nature of this article is to determine mobile device browsing vs. non-mobile device browsing regarding website design and optimization.

It has long been known that mobile devices would take over as the single most used type of computer device that people use to browse the web. A recent study suggests the number is about half and half. I don’t think this is the relevant statistic though. To me, the relevant question is to ask who uses mobile devices exclusively vs. those people who use a mix of the two. (I will leave out people who use laptops only and don’t use mobile devices because those numbers are so low that they are negligible.) Continue reading →

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