by Nick Throlson | Feb 6, 2013 | Guest Post, Web Design
In an ever evolving digital landscape it is important for businesses, and individuals to maintain a proper online reputation. Such a task is often made difficult in a world shaped by facebook pictures, user reviews and disgruntled employee's taking to the twitter-sphere.It can become almost impossible not only to keep track of what is being said
about your company,?never mind?trying to respond to it all!This is where Google's new "Me on the Web" tool comes in play, this new tool included ?on your Google Dashboard, allows you to monitor what is being said about your business (or related search term), and with this?google reputation management?option allowing you to gather your results in nearly real time you can finally have a competitive edge in tackling the otherwise staggering task of managing your
online reputation."Your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you ? whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag or a reply to a public status update," Google explains, gone are the days when the information about your brand was a controlled and well crafted marketing piece, in this modern age you are an open dialogue between users everywhere with minimal control over your own identity.Luckily however Google's been sure to provide links to help you deal with unwanted content, and to give you further insights into how you can manage your online identity; and with a growing number of digital marketing companies
delving into the world of online reputation management you can rest assured that you can hire someone to take care of the mountain of alerts you get when it all becomes to much.As reputation management?continues to progress its important to remember a few key important factors to secure both your brand and personal data:1. Review all facebook security settings each month, not only is it very easy to make a mistake and post something publically but with the continued revisions not only to facebook security policy but also the fundamental changes to their control panel data can quickly change.2. Insure to keep backups of corporate social media account passwords in an offline and secure environment, also keep note of which employees have access and be sure that termination contracts include a clause disallowing their use of these accounts.?3. Set up ?Me on The Web? to search for company name, key employee names, key email addresses, phone numbers, and unique keywords (such as a unique service/product name). It can also be helpful to put in variations with?spelling mistakes in them as sometimes slanderous claims don?t come from the most reliable sources!?Janet McKenzie is a marketing associate for a new york based reputation management company specializing in corporate clients at?http://www.synqk.com by Nick Throlson | Feb 4, 2013 | SEO, Web Design
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Microsite Masters Serp Tracker:?With this SERP tracker you can better determine ROI and associated SERP impacts delivered from specific providers and vendors and cut the fat from those who aren?t adding value to your bottom line. Determining SERP efficiency when compared to dollars spent over time has never been easier.?MicroSite Masters ? Reliable and Accurate SERP Tracking for SEO Professionals. So What are you waiting for Sign up today! by Nick Throlson | Feb 1, 2013 | Guest Post, Web Design, WordPress
If you have logged into your WordPress and found an alert to update, then this article is one you might want to read.You see, WordPress gets updated a lot. Sometimes the updates are small security fixes. However, once a year or so, there is a major update.Before we continue, I want you to think about something. When you see that WordPress released an update, what do you do?- Do you update right away?
- Do you wait?
- Do you ask your theme developer for compatibility?
- Do you look at your plugins for updates related to compatibility?
- Do you do something else?
The reason I ask is because with WordPress 3.5, there was a fairly major change in the core source code, that affected many WordPress theme and plugin developers. As the community guy for a company who develops WordPress photography themes, I can tell you first hand that the release of WordPress 3.5 drastically changed the daily activities of each employee for a few days.
Without going into too much nerdy details, WordPress changed some of the code that many themes and plugins relied on. So in turn, development had to be made (by many companies) to add a workaround. In addition to the development time for the workaround, we had to do a lot of internal testing on various environments, and then release an update to all of our users.That short story is pretty much what sparked the question I stated above. So I went on Quora and Google Plus to ask communities the same question I just asked you. Here are some of the answers I received.- Richard Saasta on Google Plus said he does a full backup using BackupBuddy. He then updates WordPress and verifies that everything is working correctly. If something goes awry, he then has a clean backup that can be reverted to.
- Tony Davis on Google Plus said that he keeps a separate domain with the exact theme and plugins of his other install. He will do an update in that test environment before making an update to the live site.
- Mickey Mellen on Quora said that he updates his plugins daily, and because most of his websites run the same plugins that he will update one of the smaller sites first, and once verified he will roll out updates to the rest.
At this point you might be wondering how I deal with WordPress updates on my own website. I did a lot of research on good web hosts, and in the end decided on going with a WordPress specific host, WP Engine. ?One of the big advantages of hosting with WP Engine is that they handle the WordPress core updates. (They won't touch your theme or plugins) Another big advantage is the built-in staging option. So whenever a WordPress update is imminent WP Engine sends an email to users with a time frame when all users will be updated. They instruct users to take advantage of the staging feature and to update a test site. The beauty of the staging site is that it is identical to your live site. Doing this can verify if a site will fail with a WordPress update, before going through with the update on the live site. Make sense? So my workflow is as follows:- WordPress update released
- WP Engines emails a deadline before the site will automatically be updated
- I create a new staging environment
- I manually update the staging environment to the latest WordPress
- Test everything
- If something fails, I email WP Engine to say "please do not update me because XYZ"
Make better sense?Now that I have gone through all of that, I want to ask you again. When you see that WordPress released an update, what do you do? Now that you've read the article, will you do something different?Thanks for reading,ScottScott Wyden Kivowitz is a NJ photographer and the Community & Blog Wrangler at Photocrati.? by Nick Throlson | Dec 9, 2012 | SEO, Web Design
SEO work is a way to bring your website above your competition. Doing so means
knowing the techniques to bring up your rank. This article will show you ways to
make yourself visible, it will also tell you things you should stay away from.The way to do this is to make a robots text file and place it in your site's
root directory. txt file and plugging it into your main directory. This tells
the search engines that these files are not to be accessed.Take the time to consider what keywords would be associated with your content,
and use these keywords throughout your website. Add keywords to both your title
tag and main content, but keep your keyword density to a sane level to avoid
getting the dreaded "keyword stuffer" label.Dedicate each page to highlighting one target keyword phrase. Confusion is the
inevitable result when you try to cram a lot of different keywords into a single
page. Your readers will get more out of a page that maintains focus on one
topic. They will be more likely to return to your website, too. Search engines
may help bring visitors to your site, but they will not endear it to readers.
Search engine optimization is important, but the experience of your readers is
even more crucial.Join as many prominent organizations as you can when you are working to optimize
your search engine ranking. These organizations link to their member businesses,
so you can get more local visitors. Plus, a good Better Business Bureau rating
lets customers know that you are running a legitimate website.You should seek out ezines and online forums that focus on your target market
and submit articles with imbedded backlinks that connect to your website. The
great thing about eZines are that they are archived, so even if your article is
found months later, it can still have usable links back to your site.If you want to rank higher on the search engines, aim to include content that
delves into a wide variety of topics but still remains focused on your overall
idea. If, for instance, you are blogging on a topic such as golf, include
content dealing with the professional tour, course design and various types of
golfing gear. By keeping your content diverse, you will attract the largest
possible audience.Putting your website in a prime place to be found is what search engine
optimization is all about. The article you have just read gave you multiple tips
on how to make this happen for you. Applying these simple tricks will get your
website noticed in no time, so increase your traffic today!Thanks for reading. For more great seo tips see?www.digitalcomposure.com?? by Nick Throlson | Dec 7, 2012 | Guest Post, Web Design
Through your ecommerce website, you likely have grand dreams of turning a large, steady profit. An ecommerce website acts as a virtual storefront, and when effective, it can entice consumers to make purchases and can process a sales transaction without effort required on your part. However, in order to be effective, an ecommerce site has to receive focused traffic. Many savvy website owners have decided to use a blog to drive traffic to their website and generate interest. Here are a few secrets that you can put to use to enjoy better results from your blogging efforts.1. Make Regular Posts
One of the key benefits associated with blogging is that it can boost your website?s search engine rankings. Search engine rankings are determined by several factors, and two of those factors are the age of your posts and the frequency that new posts are added to the site. In order to enjoy the benefits of a business blog, you will need to make at least two to three new posts per week. You can write these yourself, or you can outsource the work to a freelance writer.2.Use SEO
Your blog posts should be written with SEO strategies applied. You should research the top keywords that customers are searching for when looking for your company?s offerings. Then, target these keywords in your writing. Each post does not have to focus purely on those topics, but the words can be intermingled throughout the text to boost search engine rankings when the words are queried.3.Evoke an Emotional Response
The best blog posts may be written with SEO strategies in mind, but they also are written with the knowledge that your potential consumers will be reading them. With this in mind, they should be written in a manner to create an emotional response to buy The best blog posts will stir emotions that may relate to the desire to have the latest and greatest equipment, to look beautiful and stylish, to provide for a family, and other related emotional responses.4.Show Value
Customers may want to buy what you are offering, but they also want to know that they are getting a great deal on their purchase. Consider using your blog posts to describe key features that make you products better than the rest, to talk about sales and promotional offers, to describe how these products can save a consumer money or time with use and other value-added benefits.5.Address Your Customers? Needs
Consider what needs your customers have when buying your products and create blog posts that describe the needs as well as how the products fill those needs. If your products are functional in nature, such as if you are selling vacuums on your ecommerce site, this may not be difficult to do. If your products are luxury items, you will have to appeal to the perception of needs or to emotions. For example, a customer may buy a luxury watch because of the desire to look distinguished or to enjoy the finer things in life.Your ecommerce website?s blog can be put to great use to drive traffic to your website and to convince customers to make a purchase. Put these secrets of blogging to use today, and watch the incredible results take hold!Written by Warney BoydWarney writes about small business tips. He recently attended a business presentation by?Brett Kelly??the CEO of?Kelly+Partners in Sydney, and found him to be one of the most motivational?speakers he has come across.? by Nick Throlson | Dec 6, 2012 | Guest Post, SEO, Web Design
The growth of the Internet has been staggering, and many companies are able to survive solely off of traffic and conversions generated online. Achieving a sustainable stream of revenue, however, requires work and dedication. The best way to achieve result, however, is to hone a website for attracting eyeballs and converting visitors as effectively as possible. Here are five tips for achieving this goal.1. Run a blog
A website must be the central location of an online campaign, but it needs other properties to support it. One of the best properties is a blog. While website content must be carefully crafted, blogs allow website developers more freedom. By encouraging those who visit the blog to visit the main website consistently but not incessantly, blogs can be a great way to generate the traffic necessary to succeed.2. Launch a forum
One of the best ways to attract attention is to foster an online community. While forums are widely considered to be old web technology, they are still incredibly popular, those who can create a top forum in particular field will generate significant traffic. Forums are also self-sustaining, and they will continue generating more traffic once they reach a critical mass.3. Integrate social media
In the past, most Internet users would first load a major search engine when getting online. Today, however, many start with social media. Because of this, those who want to attract attention must have a social media presence. By creating informative, interesting posts, website operators can leverage the power of social media to fuel a website's popularity. Further, good post will likely be shared by followers, which can spread a company or brand name across social media ecosystem.4. Each page should encourage a sale
Websites must be informative, but the purpose of most websites is to generate revenue. When crafting each page, special attention should be paid to ensuring that it encourages visitors to purchase a product or service. It is important to be subtle, however, as being too pushy can cause visitors to look elsewhere. It is also important to remember that sales do not have to occur instantly, and an effective website will encourage those who did not buy a product or service today to come back and reconsider making a purchase tomorrow.5. SEO from day one
Many website operators create a website and then worry about SEO. While SEO can be successfully added to website, and as far more effective to consider SEO from the beginning. By finding target keyboards before creating any content, those who run websites can prepare themselves to skyrocket up the search engines. Today, search engine algorithms place an emphasis on good content over the sheer number of links a website has, so creating top-notch content and honing it for SEO is becoming increasingly important.The web is highly competitive, but the rewards for those who succeed can be high. By taking time to create the best website possible and giving it useful, supportive Internet properties, website operators can increase their odds of succeeding.Written by Monica ChamberMonica is an online marketing
specialist and also teaches part-time in Google?Adwords course??in Sydney. Monica has worked in New York for five years in a national search marketing agency prior to relocation to Australia.
In an ever evolving digital landscape it is important for businesses, and individuals to maintain a proper online reputation. Such a task is often made difficult in a world shaped by facebook pictures, user reviews and disgruntled employee's taking to the twitter-sphere.It can become almost impossible not only to keep track of what is being said
about your company,?never mind?trying to respond to it all!This is where Google's new "Me on the Web" tool comes in play, this new tool included ?on your Google Dashboard, allows you to monitor what is being said about your business (or related search term), and with this?google reputation management?option allowing you to gather your results in nearly real time you can finally have a competitive edge in tackling the otherwise staggering task of managing your
online reputation."Your online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you ? whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag or a reply to a public status update," Google explains, gone are the days when the information about your brand was a controlled and well crafted marketing piece, in this modern age you are an open dialogue between users everywhere with minimal control over your own identity.Luckily however Google's been sure to provide links to help you deal with unwanted content, and to give you further insights into how you can manage your online identity; and with a growing number of digital marketing companies
delving into the world of online reputation management you can rest assured that you can hire someone to take care of the mountain of alerts you get when it all becomes to much.As reputation management?continues to progress its important to remember a few key important factors to secure both your brand and personal data:1. Review all facebook security settings each month, not only is it very easy to make a mistake and post something publically but with the continued revisions not only to facebook security policy but also the fundamental changes to their control panel data can quickly change.2. Insure to keep backups of corporate social media account passwords in an offline and secure environment, also keep note of which employees have access and be sure that termination contracts include a clause disallowing their use of these accounts.?3. Set up ?Me on The Web? to search for company name, key employee names, key email addresses, phone numbers, and unique keywords (such as a unique service/product name). It can also be helpful to put in variations with?spelling mistakes in them as sometimes slanderous claims don?t come from the most reliable sources!?Janet McKenzie is a marketing associate for a new york based reputation management company specializing in corporate clients at?http://www.synqk.com
MicroSite Masters is a SERP tracking device for 
If you have logged into your WordPress and found an alert to update, then this article is one you might want to read.You see, WordPress gets updated a lot. Sometimes the updates are small security fixes. However, once a year or so, there is a major update.Before we continue, I want you to think about something. When you see that WordPress released an update, what do you do?
Without going into too much nerdy details, WordPress changed some of the code that many themes and plugins relied on. So in turn, development had to be made (by many companies) to add a workaround. In addition to the development time for the workaround, we had to do a lot of internal testing on various environments, and then release an update to all of our users.That short story is pretty much what sparked the question I stated above. So I went on Quora and Google Plus to ask communities the same question I just asked you. Here are some of the answers I received.
