Hackers, Crackers and Script-Kiddies

You log on to your site and notice that, from your administrator’s console, things don’t look right. So you search the site access log and discover the worst. You’ve been hacked. You’ve got a bogus IP address listed in the search log and when you try to access the intruder, all you get is a 404 error message – Site Not Found.

Now what do you do? What did the hacker do? Is there a digital ticking time bomb buried in your site’s code? A Trojan horse, perhaps? And what about that sensitive personal data stored on your site’s database? You know that’s been copied, even though a quick check of MySQL reveals the database is still in tact. Even so, that sensitive data has been compromised.

Any site is vulnerable to hackers, crackers, script-kiddies and other black hats regardless of how many layers of security you have in place. Remember, hackers never sleep and they’re always looking for web site vulnerabilities. These guys could have gained entry to your site in lots of different ways. By placing an order or opting in for your newsletter. Once contact is made, security is more easily breached.

You’ve got a problem. So, never let it get this far.

Keeping the Bad Guys at Bay
Once a site has been hacked, getting it scrubbed clean and back online can be an arduous, time-consuming-money-losing proposition. Better to keep those evil-doers out from the start.

Check your host server’s configuration. Ooops, forgot to do that.
Revisit your server configuration. You can buy the best, locked-down-tight site security but if it isn’t properly configured with server side software it may provide a false sense of security, as in you aren’t getting what you paid for.

Synch up for safety.

Keep security software and hardware current.
We all know that the hacker community doesn’t have much else to do except sit around devising new ways to circumvent the latest patches from Microsoft or security software developers like MacAfee. The security software programmers know it all-too-well so 24/7, there’s a battle going on between security programmers and hackers looking for a trophy and web creds from other hackers.

Update in-place security regularly. Log on for patches and fixes.

Keep meticulous records of all software. (Keep the box.)
Maintain a record of all software in use to support your business including edition number, i.e. XYZ 2.0. Also user key codes and other information that’ll come in handy if a hacker does get through. An online security company needs to know as much about your software as the hacker did. Make it easy for that company by providing make, model and serial number.

Review log files.
At least once a day, check your back office logs to make sure no one has dropped by unnoticed.

Good time to bring up permissions. A lot of small companies maintain a network of computers. One in customer service. One in accounting and so on. A network is a must for even small businesses today, small businesses that rely on the office network to access business data and records of activity.

This requires the company owner to develop a permissions log – a directory of which employees have access to what company data. All departments and employees should not have access to all data. Only that information required to do the job.

Limit the number of permissions. Limit access to data. And train employees in safe and secure online practices, i.e., email scans, daily virus scans across the network and so on.
And worth another mention, keep access logs up to date. Close out all ex-employees and others who have no business looking at order tracking data.

Stay current on viral epidemics.
First, always keep site security in mind. Consider it a key part of your job as online business owner. That requires a pro-active approach to security. And that requires a knowledge of the latest in frauds, scams, schemes and viruses.

A new virus, once discovered, is almost instantly identified on webmaster sites, on security software sites and, of course, on the Microsoft download page. That’s good. It prevents a local epidemic from becoming a pandemic. Keep up with the latest in hacker tactics and the cures offered on the web. If you wait, your site is vulnerable to a viral injection.

Bulk up your passwords.
This is a simple step, it doesn’t cost a penny yet many site owners still insist on using their pet’s name as the administrator log on. Anyone who knows the site owner will be able to hack the site in, oh, about 10 minutes.

Limit access and create undefeatable passwords. Dictionary software is easily available on hacker sites. These programs go though millions of letter and number strings a day until they generate the actual password. So, extend your passwords, use letters, numbers and symbols, and change them often.

Change all passwords whenever an employee leaves the company.

Run a check of all content generated by third parties.
You might download a FREE counter and pick up a dose of key-logger software – software that logs every key stroke made by you and other members of the office network.

Evaluate the source of the content. For example, sites that syndicate content via RSS feed should be Googled and checked by you, the web business owner. Any third party content can be booby-trapped so be careful. As mom used to say, “You don’t know where it’s been!”

Check your links. Check their ads.
Links are important to building connectivity within a small market. But a link is also an access point for a black hat so always consider the company you keep. Inbound links can be used to inject malware.

Same with paid advertising. Some “company” may be pay you $50 a month to advertise on your site, build a shell site or mirror site and steal your sales. You might not notice it for a couple of days – and by then, your legitimate business could be out $1,000s in sales and you’re facing a boggy mess of customer complaints that are only going to cost more to repair.

Just because an advertiser “sounds nice on the phone” doesn’t mean that she’s running a legitimate business. Know what’s on your pages. Know who’s on your pages. If it looks funny, or your instincts tell you something’s not right, do you really need that extra $50 a month? Take care with those who reach out to touch you. They may be picking your pocket.

When you grow, hire a pro.
When you’re just starting out with a new site, money is always tight, always a consideration. In this case, go with a reputable web host that maintains high levels of server security, including security against cross-server (X-server) attacks. And if this is all gibberish, call the tech support team at your hosting company.

However, at some point, when that online business has grown from a part-time hobby to your sole source of income, congratulations. Now hire a pro.

Site security is no longer a priority. It’s become the priority once you’ve quit your day job and now rely on web traffic to pay the bills. Have a security pro check your system and, if merited, hire a security service that tracks attacks on your site, providing higher levels of safety for your “hand-built” digital business.

Yep, despite the fact that the web has been gussied up in recent years, it’s still a lawless frontier in which you have to protect yourself. The web police don’t exist so forget the 911 call. It won’t help.

The secret to a secure site is constant vigilance and automated convenience. Buy good security ware. Properly configure with server security. Update regularly and keep track of who comes and goes, whether an employee, a link-in or a paid advertiser.

Keep security front and center. It will keep what’s yours – yours!

The Power of On-Site Links

You can’t swing a comatose web head without running into the stalest advice in all of SEO. Get quality, inbound links to improve site ranking with search engines. Yawn! What else ya got?

'Slinger's Linking His Way to Success

 

 

Okay, inbound links work in a lot of ways – creating credibility, trust and the chance for designation as an authority site so, yeah, inbound non-reciprocal links help, and there isn’t an SEO pro or newbie who doesn’t know it.

What you don’t hear a lot about is on-page links – links seen on every page of a web site. Links that connect visitors to other site pages.

Redirects and On-Page Links
Redirects are not held in high regard by search engines. The long-held impression that redirects are black hat tactics is still there. And, there are hackers still trying to hi-jack sites using invisible, on-page redirects. As soon as a visitor accesses the hacked site, s/he is redirected to another site page or even web site from the link provided in the SERPs. Redirects, such as a 301 (permanent redirect) or 302 (temporary), are cause for suspicion and can mean instant death for a web site.

There are plenty of legitimate uses for redirects. A blog, for instance, may send out a conformation of post receipt before redirecting the visitor to the blog and post itself. This kind of redirect is beneficial to visitors, providing useful and reassuring conformation and therefore, not all redirects are bad.

Here’s the deal: if the redirect has a valid purpose – one that an SE bot understands – redirects aren’t a problem. In fact, on-page links are nothing more than redirects and your body text should use them to help visitors navigate.

Embed Text Links Deep In The Site
It’s easy to optimize a site page for bots. The SEO industry still contends some search engine weighting factors, but there are many that enjoy almost universal acceptance by SEO pros.

That’s why some site owners optimize a page for bots and bots only. 5% keyword density, perfect title and alt tags, perfectly balanced informational content – the kind of content bots like to see. This page is then buried deep in the site with lots of links to more user-friendly pages within the site.

The deep site page, perfectly optimized for bots, won’t be attractive to humans (necessarily) with keyword dense text, no graphics (bots don’t read graphics files) and with a perfect title tag. This is a high ranking page according to metrics analysis because the content is information, as opposed to sales copy and again, it’s bot-o-mized in the page’s HTML.

Once the visitor reaches this highly optimized page, he or she is automatically redirected to a page that’s designed to appeal to humans rather than bots. These automatic redirects are usually permanent (301) and susceptible to bot interrogation and even page penalty.

Use On-Page Links to Avoid the Appearance of Impropriety
Use links to redirect visitors. Links are, in fact, redirects and they can be used to help visitors find the information, goods or services they need, and help index a site faster and with greater accuracy. If you do it right, you can get all desired pages indexed on the first pass by a Googlebot. For human visitors, it’s all about on-site links placement that strikes a chord or hits a nerve and generates a response to take action.

Example: A fire extinguisher site publishes an informational piece on home safety, providing good, quality advice. Quality, high-ranking content. This page is one of the high-ranking, deeply placed pages that draw visitors in. Now, instead of using automatic redirects, the savvy site designer will use contextual links to trigger a response from the site visitor.

Within the article, of course, is the recommendation to keep a fire extinguisher in the house. (Completely off the subject, you should have a fire extinguisher on hand. It saved my house.)

Anyway, the article provides a link in context to (1) generate a response and (2) compel action to that response. So, to move the visitor off the highly-ranked page, a short paragraph, based on the keywords entered to access the highly-ranked page, is used. For instance:

“Fire danger in the modern home is a reality, putting you and your family at risk every day. A small, properly-charged fire extinguisher can save your home and the lives of your loved ones.”

This deeply-embedded link then takes the reader directly to the products page for home fire extinguishers. The highly-ranked informational content draws attention from bots. The links draw the attention and direct the flow of visitor traffic once the site has been accessed, leading visitors to the precise page they need.

Use On-Page Links at All Site Access Points
A visitor can reach a well-connected site any number of ways – via directory, indexed as individual links in SERPS, links from other sites and, if you’re doing everything correctly, maybe even some organic traffic.

Obviously, the more access (doorways) to a site the better. However, how a visitor got there is indicative of what the prospect is searching for. If the prospect reached the site through the Directory of Insurance Brokers, that visitor may or may not land on a home page depending on the query words used in the directory search.

“Low-cost high risk car insurance,” as the query phrase, displays a link with that exact headline. The searcher clicks on the top-ranked link, reads a short “Let us show you how to save $$$ on high-risk pool insureds, and a click takes the visitor to the car insurance zone page where additional links continue to direct the pathway taken by the visitor, i.e.

“High risk insurance will cost more depending on just how complicated your driving history is.” , (especially if you’re a local broker looking for local business).

Directions for Humans, Street Signs for Bots
These on-page links direct visitors to precisely the information they’re looking for. These links also provide pathways for search engine spiders that are trained (programmed) to follow links.

Links direct spiders to the far corners of a site, deep into the corpus. However, it’s just as important to make it clear what pages are off limits to Googlebots and other snippets of spidering programs.

Keeping Spiders Out
Spiders don’t just crawl. They follow the mathematics within the algorithm that directs their movements. They follow commands as well.

You can designate certain pages as to keep spiders out of your private business, or keep bots from indexing pages that are in beta at the moment and not quite optimized for indexing.

Or, if you want to close off large sections of a site to spiders, create a robot.txt file that identifies the pages of a site that are NOT to be indexed or accessed by spiders. The fact is, Googlebots are unleashed on any site visited by a user with a Google toolbar so there’s nothing you can do to keep bots from crashing the party.

A robot.txt file, placed in the site’s root directory, will make it clear to spiders what they can and cannot see. It’s the safest way to keep the relentless, “Terminator”-like Google bot from reforming from liquid into a dangerous cyborg once again. And believe it, bots “…will be back.”

Each page of a site should be analyzed from both the bot and the human perspective. Use embedded links instead of automatic redirects to avoid raising the suspicions of bots who think redirects are “icky.”

And place these on-page, intra-site links for maximum effect – either at the point when user need is identified, at all entrance points to the site, on the order form and the contact page.

On-site links are invaluable for helping visitors and helping bots. And together, that’s very helpful to the success of your site.

Go Hyper-Viral: Make Contacts and Cash

Viral marketing has been around for thousands of years. It’s nothing more than word of mouth marketing (WOM), but with the advent of the world wide web (W3), viral has taken on a nuanced cachet of subversion – exploiting the system. How cool is that?

Through the centuries, WOM was just that. One person told another who told another about this book or that technology and word spread. It was self-perpetuating. As the band of “in-the-know” individuals expanded, naturally WOM expanded with it.

'Slinger Goes Hyper-Viral

 

 

Today, within the ferocious sphere of e-commerce, viral marketing has changed tactics but the premise is still based on word of mouth. Today viral marketing includes:

• blog posts on topics of a site owner’s expertise with a back link to the poster’s site

• uploading product “how-tos,” movie trailers and endorsements to YouTube and other sites that rely on user-generated content

• syndicating articles to other web sites, providing a back link

• creating connectivity within a smaller, niche market (building a weblet; see below)

• posting to Wiki sites to establish authority within a market or commercial sphere

There are other viral tactics. Create a billboard on MySpace and Facebook pointing to your site; sign up as an expert on Yahoo Answers; list services on sites like Craigslist; make your site book-markable by providing visitors the option to ping you at sites like digg and other social book marking sites. Digital technology has changed the tactics of viral, word of mouth advertising, spreading the news globally in just seconds. We’ve come a long way fast.

Hyper-Viral Marketing
Hyper-viral marketing employs new technologies to expand WOM exponentially. It’s taken a few years for the technology to catch up with demand but today, web site owners have a number of tools and tactics at their disposal to simplify and automate the process of building word of mouth webuzz.

When blogs got hot at the turn of the millennium, posting to one blog at a time wasn’t efficient, though site owners who recognized the viral aspects of this marketing tactic did, indeed, take the time to do just that. Cut and paste. Cut and paste. Over and over.

Now, software tools, like Feedburner are available to automate the process of blog posting. Using this tool and others like it makes it simpler to post content on remote sites, to measure readership and placement of syndicated content and blog posts, to maintain metrics on subscriptions to newsletters, podcasts and other interest-generating content.

Google recently purchased Feedburner. As of the day of this writing, this software was feeding 870,764 publishers (site owners like you) with 1,549,103 distinct feeds.

Feedburner is an excellent example of a tool that has been developed to turn viral marketing into hyper-viral marketing – automatically.

Facebook Goes Hyper Viral
Ever since Facebook launched and social sites went viral, online businesses have employed the resources of these sites to create some free biz buzz. It’s easy to create a digital billboard for your business on Facebook, which makes it an ideal viral marketing tool.

The social website has recently gone hyper-viral with the addition of its “People You May Know” feature. This addition increases the utility of Facebook as a viral outlet by enabling users to search for quality contacts by geography, specialty, schools attended and so on. The idea is to create smaller communities within the larger Facebook universe.

For site owners, the addition of this feature to an already valuable viral marketing tool increases the utility of the site. However, your Facebook space may have to be revisited. New content to attract Facebook’s site search bots can easily be added to link up with old business acquaintances, classmates, neighbors and so on. The result? A higher quality of contact within the Facebook/social site model.

Blog Directories
Blogs are a great way to go hyper viral fast, especially if you post provocative, controversial and bleeding edge content. Getting your blog picked up, however, is another matter. You can submit to blogs but there’s no guarantee that the blogmaster is going to give you some space without something in return – a blog bribe in the W3 trade.

Blog directories build credibility and make it much easier to find your posts. To list your blog, visit toprankblog.com for an extensive list of blog directories. Using automated technology and current blog posting software, you can access dozens of weblog directories and list your blog with a few clicks.

As blogs take on a more significant role in reporting news, identifying trends and shaping opinions and buying decisions, their importance as a hyper viral marketing tool increases. That means good content. Buzz-worthy content. Sites like Spike.com provide a lot of provocative content. (Word of caution: Spike contains content that may not be suitable for all users so be forewarned. Some of the stuff on the site is crude, salacious and downright weird, but that’s the whole point of provocative content.)

Schemes, Scams, Disputes and Deceptions
Whenever a new technology is developed, there are schemers, scammers and other neer-do-wells out to subvert the process and take advantage of the unwitting so tread slowly in this new age of hyper-viral marketing. The snake oil salesman is knocking on the door. Make sure you know what you’re paying for, what you’re getting into and what kind of measurable results you can anticipate. Oh, and does it come with any kind of guarantee?

There are blogging services and press release syndicators that “guarantee” that you’ll get posted on 10,000 blogs within 24 hours. You gotta question the editorial judgment involved in posting to appropriate blogs. Your erudite musings on the Chaos Theory may end up on an anarchist site in Columbia. Be careful. These services are automated and the results aren’t always what’s anticipated.

Oh, and are you going to take the time to determine how many blogs really got your post. Any busy blogger has enough filters on the incoming chute to keep mass mailings headed straight for the DELETE FOREVER file. The finality of the deletion is indisputable. It’s gone without so much as a look. But the PR distributor delivered on its promise by delivering your release to 10,000 sites. What’s more difficult to measure is how many opened the PR and how many ran it on their sites or blogs.

Take care when writing a check for services that are amorphous and difficult, if not impossible, to quantify. If you don’t know how success is measured using a distribution service, man, you got the wrong service.

Also, be wary of “hyper-viral” software coming to market. Some early 1.0 editions are buggy, some over-promise and under deliver and some make promises that may not synch up with your site or server side software. For example, there are several software developers selling RSS to blog software. One of the things that has held back the explosive use of RSS on the web is the hassles of aggregating, monitoring and getting the collected feeds before the site visitor in a meaningful, useful way.

These software packages and associated support services make hyperbolic claims of instant wealth and fame by filling blogs with your RSS feeds. Google “RSS to blog” and enjoy the battle of what works, what’s a scam and what’s worth further exploration.

You Gotta Go Hyper But Not Be Hyper
There are hyper viral tools like Feedburner (and lots of other blogger distribution software; Feedburner isn’t the only one) podcast and webcast syndication software (growing quickly), automated PR software, newsletter software and a bunch of other spam to hit the fan as hyper viral goes hyper viral – starting now.

Take your time. Choose which outlets will deliver bang for buck, which can be measured with specificity and analyzed in a useable format, which players want your money and which want to help by providing a truly potent service or software that makes spreading the word about your site easier, more automated, more targeted and even more personalized.

Six Website Stumbling Blocks: Why Make It Hard For Visitors?

What if you went to your favorite clothing boutique and discovered the door was locked? A note on the door states “Please enter your access code to enter.” Access code? Never mind, I’ll just go across the street to buy a new tie.

In the real-world retail sector, merchandising is a science. Makers of your favorite breakfast cereal fight for shelf position at the supermarket. They all want the eye-level shelf because that’s where most shoppers look first. The boxes of cereal on the top and bottom shelves don’t move as fast because of shelf placement.

And how about those displays of soda and hot dog buns you see at the end of each supermarket aisle. This is prime selling floor real estate and food makers pay the store for these prized locations. Same with all the gum, candy and other “impulse” items by the checkout. Those products are there because people waiting to get checked out buy them on impulse. “Oh, I deserve a treat,” so a Mr. Goodbar gets tossed into the shopping cart along with this week’s fabulous edition of The National Enquirer. The buying activities of store shoppers are studied, critiqued, focus-grouped-to-death, analyzed, utilized and ultimately, the entire store is arranged to generate more sales.

Well, the same principles apply to website design. The design of your website can make it easier or harder for a visitor to make a purchase. Here are six stumbling blocks you can remove from your site today to see your conversion ratios improve in a matter of days. Really.

1. Eliminate the member log-in from the home page. You see this a lot and you wonder what the site designer was thinking. When most visitors see a log-in box, they know they’re giving up their email addresses to gain access to the goodies on your site. And they expect the back sell – the sell that takes place once a visitor opts in.

Why make it harder to place an order?

But it makes no sense to place the opt in log-in on the home page because visitors don’t even know what their opting for yet. Instead, use the home page to entice the visitor deeper into the site. Show visitors that by opting in they get a valuable service or good information – free. In other words, prove the worthiness of site information before making the pitch for an opt-in.

2. Provide good information free. And plenty of it. Articles, stories, pictures of products in use embedded in informational content lends credibility to you, the site and the product.

Often times, buyers don’t know what they don’t know. They’re trying to learn as they window shop and you’re going to teach them by providing good informational content about product pros and cons. You want the buyer to purchase the right product. It saves time, money and the hassles of returns so teach and sell on your site. It’s a potent combination. And it works, too.

3. Make it easy to find the right item. There are two ways to do this. Use both.

There’s a web design dictum: The fewer the number of clicks the more sales. Absolutely true. The easier it is to make a purchase the more purchases will be made so making it easy to find a specific item, or to browse items, is essential.

Most sites use a “Products” link off the navigation bar, which works fine if you only sell a few items. This drill down screen can also be used as a product category directory with links taking the visitor to a specific product ‘section’ of the site. This is especially useful for companies that market diverse inventory.

However, even this drill-down design requires some discretionary thought on the part of the site visitor, and if seems like a hassle, a lot of visitors will get tired of endless clicks and move on to a simpler site.

The second option – and frankly a must-have in this era of site interactivity – is a ‘Site Search’ feature. By far the fastest way to find a specific item by name, by make, model number or any number of other search criteria. A ‘site search’ feature contributes to the reason most web shoppers shop online – convenience.

Everything – everything – about your site should point to ease of use, accessibility, functionality and moving the visitor through the purchase cycle without so much as a blip.

4. Add shopping cart convenience. Even if you sell a limited number of items, offer visitors the opportunity to place items in their digital shopping carts – even if it’s one item.

The shopping cart should allow the visitor to:

• Review items purchased.
• Change quantities.
• Delete items.
• See the total cost of items in the cart.
• See the shipping and handling costs for the items in the cart.

Also, throughout the purchase cycle, reassure the buyer by providing prompts on each page. A perfect example: a link to the “Check-Out” on every page – prominently displayed. Easy, easy, easy. Shoppers want convenience and reassurance that “they’re doing it right.”

5. Check out your checkout. Remember that number of clicks axiom from above? This is doubly true during the checkout sequence. Simplify the process for first-time buyers by limiting the number of pages (clicks) required to “get outta here.”

Simultaneously, provide reassurances that the buyer is doing it right. If a piece of information hasn’t been entered properly, return to the form page and tell the visitor what needs changing. Don’t make them figure out what they did incorrectly. Tell them so they can fix it and get outta here.

Provide a final review page of all order information as entered by the buyer. Even the most seasoned web buyer sits at the monitor reviewing everything – name, address, credit card number, quantities and so on. It’s so much easier to get it right the first time than to hassle with returns or unfulfilled orders because of some confusion.

Finally, there needs to be some trust building going on during the checkout sequence. Knowledgeable buyers look for security logos from companies like VeriSign. They also look at the address box of their browser to make sure there’s an ‘s’ in ‘https’ indicating a secure site. Provide buyers with assurances that all is secure just before they click the ‘Submit Order’ button.

6. Deliver an immediate order confirmation. As part of the checkout sequence, buyers provided an email address. Once the buyer has made the purchase an auto-responder should be generated describing all details of the purchase, including tracking information. This assures buyers, cuts down on customer care calls and enables quick resolution of any customer complaint. (Good customer care is a basic building block of any retail business, online or in the real world.)

It’s simple, or at least it should be. The first time buyers are gently guided through the purchase cycle, reassured at every stage and in control, and regulars should have the convenience of providing all information required for a one-click checkout. Ship it here. You’ve got my credit card. I’ve got other things to do. Convenience. That’s what today’s web buyers want.

Think of it this way: a confused customer is a gone customer.

 

editor@webwordslinger

Alpha Inventions: Totally Cool Blog Fuel

Something new. Looks like it was created in some guy’s basement but man, does it deliver juice to your blog.

Alpha Inventions gets a total recommend from webwordslinger. NO BS.

Check this out. True use of web dynamics.

Website Features: Pros & Cons

You just registered your domain name. You’re one step closer to that dream of your own website and finally, financial freedom. But now what? Well, if you’ve signed on with a good web host (one who values your site’s success because it ultimately means the web hosting company’s success) you’ve got a box full of goodies to play with in designing your website.

'Slinger Prattles on About Site Features

You don’t need a pricey site designer. But you do have to decide on what your website will display and which features will be left out. There are lots of options which means lots of decisions – and there are pros and cons to each one.

A Secure Checkout
Pros: If you sell a product or service, and you accept payment over the web, you don’t have a choice. You must have a secure checkout with SSL encryption to ensure that sensitive personal information isn’t snared by a bad guy. The alternative is to use PayPal or some other payment service but the more payment options you offer, the more your offerings will move out of the warehouse.

Cons: Cost, for one. If your web host doesn’t provide free checkout software, like osCommerce, it could cost you a bundle. On the other hand, people want to pay with credit cards as long as they believe the transaction is secure.

Also, opening a merchant account – one that allows you to accept credit card orders – is going to cost you – sign-up fees, per charge fees and a percentage of every sale, so if you’re operating on tightrope margins, these additional percentages may mean the difference between a viable business and one that shuts down after three weeks.

Web hosts should offer free checkout software. And, a premium service will let your site piggyback on the host’s SSL certificate, saving time and money.

A Blog
Pros: Blogs are great for keeping a site fresh with new content. A closed blog (one in which posts are limited to your control) is easiest to maintain. They’re also useful for a couple of other reasons. First, it’s easy to post new content when you have a blog module as part of your site’s infrastructure so you can update daily with a couple of clicks.

Blogs also create site communities. Once a reader begins a thread, others follow the lead and in no time, you’ll discover the same people conducting conversations and debate on your blog. These are visitors who return to your site often. A very good thing.

Finally, blog software should come free as part of your tool kit. If it doesn’t, look for another web host that does offer freebies by the pound at a reasonable price. They’re out there.

Cons: Conversely, if you allow visiting readers to leave comments to your posts, maintenance may become a problem. There’s always some foul-mouthed, trouble-maker who stirs up more interest in his online antics than the topic at hand. As the boss of the blog, you can block these distractions, but that doesn’t eliminate the need to monitor threads. You want an active blog but you also have to maintain it with regular posts and constant oversight of readers’ comments. This means part of your day will be used up in editorial duties, a real con.

Google Adsense
Pros: There are thousands of site owners who create websites for no other reason than to generate PPC (pay-per-click) revenues. They put up a little content, stuff each page with Adsense skyscrapers and wait for the money to roll in. And it does. Some of these site owners see $200 – $300 a month in click-through revenue per site, and if they maintain 10 such sites, it starts to add up to some real “walkin’ ‘round” money.

Adsense is a simple, easy-to-manage way to monetize a new site quickly. You get paid when search engine users click on your link. Passive income. No extra work involved.

Cons: I don’t care how well designed a website is, Adsense – those cheesy little blue cubes on the top, bottom or side of a web page, diminish the perception of quality in the mind of the visitor. And as we’ve said many times in this blog, on the W3 perception is reality.

If your law firm maintains a website (and it should) you want to project a professional, positive image, not the Lionel Hutz “I Can’t Believe It’s A Law Firm” image.

Affiliate Links

Pros: A great way to make cash fast. Affiliates are companies into which you enter agreements. You agree to display the mother company’s logo and link on your site and, in return, you receive payment based on the number of visitors to your site who click on the link and perform some action. For example, put up an eBay link and collect $35 a head plus a nickel for each bid one of your referrals places.

Get a couple of hundred eBay buyers placing bids everyday and that money can add nicely to your site’s revenue stream. Also a great way to monetize a site quickly.

Cons: Same dealeo as Google Adsense. If you access a site jam packed with affiliate links, it doesn’t add much to the process of building visitor trust. The site looks cluttered and cheap.

More negative news: each one of those affiliate links takes up space that could be used to sell your products or services.

And finally, each one of those affiliate links is a ticket off your site. With a click, they’re off looking at something on an affiliate site. You may pick up a few bucks a month in affiliate revenue, but you aren’t making the real money you make selling your own goods or services.

One suggestion: As we said, affiliates do generate cash and fast, so if you’re runnin’ on empty, add affiliate links to a single page with a navigation link labeled “Our Partners,” “Our Favorites,” or “Our Picks.”

Pictures and Other Images
Pros: Pictures sell more than words. On-line buyers want to see what they’re paying for and, yes, one good product picture is worth a thousand words. So you will sell more with high-quality pictures.

Carts and graphs are useful for providing a lot of information in a small space.

Cons: Unless you own a decent digital camera and unless you know how to dress a set (the place where the product will be shot) and you know that the product should be lit from at least three directions, don’t use product pictures that you take yourself.

Log on to eBay and look at the range of quality of product pictures. Some are ripped from the web so they look okay. But some are nothing more than a front-on flash that blows out the object to a hot white blur floating against a blacked out background. Awful stuff, and not a good selling point.

If you can get product pictures from your wholesaler’s marketing department you’re all set. If not, have those pictures taken by a professional using a hi-resolution camera, lit properly and attractively staged. It’ll cost you some cash but it’s a lot better than using home-grown product pictures that don’t do justice to the product.

Charts and graphs should also be professionally done, unless you know how to create images in Photoshop or some other image manipulation software.

The Choices You Make Now…
…will often determine the short- and long-term success of your site. And remember, your site will evolve. You may start out using Adsense until your site is pulling in enough traffic to make up the lost Adsense revenue. Then, you drop Adsense and…

… your site takes on a much cleaner, more professional look.

webwordslinger

SEO Heresy from a Professional SEO

 

A deep core, seismic analysis of a web site. Naw, just kidding. No such thing - yet!

Lots of people call themselves SEO professionals. Some have actually achieved “guru status,” and these smoke and mirrors prognosticators are getting $1,000 for a one hour telephone consult. Hey, how do I get that gig?

The fact is, SEO is a touch of snake oil, just a dab of blarney and some hoo-doo thrown in for total mojo effect. Here’s the straight poop on search engine optimization:

1. Major search engines are constantly tweaking their search algorithms to plug holes found by SEOs to manipulate search results. Google really hates that.

2. There are no agreed-upon ranking factors – good or bad. SEOmoz.org conducted a survey asking a passel of SEO poo-bahs (higher than gurus) to assess the importance of Google ranking factors. Very little consensus and no factor got a 100% – even from the top-tier SEOs.

3. The math is always fuzzy. Page views, page reach, repeat visitors, heat maps – it all adds up to data that can easily lead even the most experienced SEO down the path to rack and ruin.

4. I can’t take credit for this. An SEOmoz.org poster sagely pointed out that black hat or white hat, all SEOs are trying to manipulate search results for the benefit of the client.

So, on one side of Google’s site skin you’ve got a bunch of algo-crunching-D-&-D-playing-geeks trying to protect the quality and integrity of search engine results, and on the other side you have professional SEOs who “guarantee to double you site traffic by 4:00 this afternoon!!!!!” Umm, pardon my French, but BULLSHIT!

5. The rules of SEO change daily, even hourly. I can Google a keyword at 10 in the AM and get 160,000 hits, type in the same keyword at 2:00 and get 115,000 results. What happened to 45K results in four hours. Got me?

6. Oh, and any one who tells you s/he’s got the answer is full of crap because search engines are like the “man behind the curtain” in the “Wizard of Oz.” SEOs sell their “best guesses,” which may be extremely valuable, don’t get me wrong. I do a lot of SEO and search engine marketing each week, so I’m a believer.

7. But the facts are these: the metrics change daily and are open to misinterpretation by even the most seasoned SEO.

Because Google keeps its activities under lock and key (I think “penalty of death” is in each employee’s contract somewhere) each SEO is working to figure out what Google wants now.

8.Google is moving (really pushing) personalized search – search based on your past search history, much the same way that Amazon uses active server pages (ASPs) and a database the size of Toledo, and it won’t take long for Google to deliver personalized SERPs.

This is going to destroy SEO as we know it because for whom do you optimize? Returning visitors see one home page, newb’s see something else. Tough to optimize ASPs. Okay, it can’t be done at all.

9. And this will require a whole new view of SEO, one in which we identify the
motivations of the search engine user: search with intent (dedicated to finding answers and solutions) and search with interest (less motivated to complete a most desired action (MDA)).

Look, I consult on SEO all the time and I’m certainly not saying that you can’t, indeed, beat the beast. It’s a time-consuming process that employs guerilla tactics, i.e., free.

So don’t listen to the gurus and wunderkinds who have SEO figured out. No one does and I can prove it six ways from Sunday. Check your Google analytics to determine what’s working for your site and what isn’t.

Even SEOs have a hard time turning empirical data into action to improve site performance.

 

editor@webwordslinger

 

 

SEO Heretic. Burn him! Burn him at the stake!

Top Five Negative Ranking Factors

Okay, I admit it. No one can agree with absolute certainty that these negative ranking factors are the worst Google can deal out but according to a survey conducted by SEOmoz.org, the negatives are sure to drag down your site and your client sites. 

 

What do Google bots hate most?

So what do the cyber-pros identify as the most negative ranking factors within Google’s current algorithm? They’re listed below but note, take these Google negatives with a grain of salt.

 

It could all change tonight while you sleep.

Negative Ranking Factor #1: Googlebots can’t access your server.
If the site is down for more than 48 hours, which is often the case with low-rent web hosts located half-way around the world, a site’s Google ranking drops like a stone.

If your host server is down a lot, search engines don’t want to recommend the site to visitors who will see a 404 error message that the site is unavailable and can’t be accessed.

The solution? Find a host that delivers not only a 99.9% uptime but also has local tech support, backup emergency generators and multiple layers of server side security. You’ll spend about $7.00 a month for quality shared hosting. Double that amount for quality dedicated service if cross-server attacks are a concern. Don’t let a few bucks a month keep your site from higher rankings. It’s just not cost effective.

Note: Server availability as a ranking factor is one of the most contended topics among SEO professionals who spend much of their time trying to out-think Googlebots, so even the experts can’t agree on this one.

Negative Ranking Factor #2: Duplicate or Similar Content.
Most experts do agree on this one.

Repetitious content is a stone-cold killer. Now, that doesn’t mean that you can’t pick up a useful piece of syndicated content of interest to your readers. The warning, here, has to do with site text. A programmer can always upload a syndicated article. However, body text should change from page to page, providing a more useful visitor experience.

Of course, duplicate content can be tagged with a designation, but too many of these “do not enter” signs is also a negative ranking factor. Bots want to be able to crawl pages and when you keep them off of critical content pages, it’ll have a negative impact on your SERPs ranking on Google.

Negative Ranking Factor #3: Links to low-quality sites.
SEO survey contributor, Lucas Ng, sums it up nicely: “Linking out to a low quality neighborhood flags you as a resident of the same neighborhood.”

It’s not just about links and plenty of them. It’s more about the quality of the links on a site. So, link up to sites in nice neighborhoods. On the web, Googlebots know you by the company you keep.

Negative Ranking Factor #4: Links Schemes and Links Selling.
Google’s algorithm employs probability modeling in determining bought-and-paid-for links, which doesn’t always equate to an accurate view of a site’s actual linking activity. Even so, Googlebots make assumptions programmed into the algorithm.

A site with a broad menu of links to diverse sites won’t fare well come spidering time. These links farms are easy for bots to spot. The key to avoiding being mis-indexed by Googlebots is to avoid too many links, try to link to higher-quality-more-visited sites and never buy or sell links. It could mean another web site fatality.

Negative Ranking Factor #5: Duplicate Title/Meta Tags.
Search engine algorithms employ numerous filters to identify everything from questionable links to duplicate content that appears on numerous site pages. The same thing is true of a site’s HTML code. Too many duplicate title tags and duplicate meta data can hurt you.

Survey participant, Aaron Wall, stated, “If a site does not have much content and has excessive duplication, it not only suppresses rankings, but it may also get many pages thrown in the supplemental results.”

Bots read code and if the same title tags show up on page after page, if title tags don’t match page text, or if meta data is cut and pasted into every site page, these crawlers take offense according to some experts.

However, there’s another whole school of thought, here. Many SEO pros and site designers believe just the opposite is true – that title tags on each page create numerous entry points to a site, and because each page is indexed separately, the site maintains a larger presence on SERPs.

The key appears to be in the duplication of inserting repetitive title and meta tags. If the content doesn’t change on a particular page, that page doesn’t call for yet another title tag. However, when topics and functions do change from page to page within a site, title tags do help spiders identify the page’s purpose and do provide greater site access to potential visitors.

What NOT To Do With This Information
The wheels are spinning, aren’t they?

You and a million other site owners are weighing negative ranking factors and the impact these factors have on their SERPs position on Google.

Forget it. Let it go. The time you spend trying to reverse engineer your site to appeal to the perceptions of a collection of 31 SEO professionals (teh survey takers) would be better spent on search engine marketing – promoting to humans.

10 Tips to Lower Your Bounce Rate. Boing

Boing

Boing. Boing.

 

A site’s bounce rate is a measurement of the number of visitors who stopped by the site but immediately clicked off to another site, aka, bounced. There are lots of reasons web users boing from one site to another, which means there are lots of things you can do to lower your bounce rate and keep visitors on site long enough to convert.

Here are ten tips to help you take the spring out of your web site.

1. Don’t assume the visitor lands on the home page. A visitor can enter from a number of access points. For instance, by conducting a search for a A324 converter, the visitor might land on the product page for said converter. (There’s no such thing, btw.)

This means that many different pages may be the doorway to your site so treat each page as a home page. Read on for design suggestions from your web host.

2. Keep critical information above the fold. Above the fold is an old newspaper term that described the newspaper’s front page “above the fold.” This is where the most important (or sensational) news is placed in newspapers today.

In website terms, above the fold is everything seen by the visitor without the visitor having to scroll – prime site space. Your most important information should appear here. A recent study on how different groups of people use the web showed that the 50 and older crowd don’t scroll as much as their web-wise grandkids so if you want it read, keep it above the fold.

3. Web users scan your site pages from upper left to lower right. So, what visitors first see in the upper left corner of their browsers will often determine if they stay or boing, boing, boing.

4. Create compelling headlines. “Who else wants to make a million dollars before bedtime” and other web clichés do not compel visitors to stick around to read your long-form, Dan Kennedy template sales letter. Headlines create interest among human readers and search engine spiders who recognize headlines as important text. So make your point in and add keywords to headlines.

5. Layout your home page in a three column format. Using three columns, you can create three headlines above the fold. If two headlines don’t capture the attention of the visitor, maybe the third one will.

Again, also useful in optimizing your site so make sure to build keywords into your headlines to keep everything in sync and max the utility of both the site text and your top tier keywords.

6. A picture IS worth a thousand words. A visual image (not just text) above the fold naturally draws the eye and attention of visitors so a small image or an image banner is helpful in breaking up blocks of text, and starts off the visitor slowly. A walloping pile of text, no matter how compelling, isn’t going to appeal to those “on-the-fence” visitors looking for a specific service, product, message or arcania.

A couple of points. First, if you’re using a photo, make it a photo worth seeing – a photo that instantly delivers your site’s message. Google “pre-fab homes.” You won’t see innocuous clip art. You see beauty shots of the prefab on a snowy evening with a warm fire going in the fireplace. So don’t waste pixels. Maximize every one.

Charts and graphs are a terrific way to transmit a lot of information in the blink of an eye. You can write pages of text testifying that your stock picking formula is the best, or you can create a chart showing your online portfolio delivering gains of 150% a year. A chart showing rising value (whatever the product or service) makes a strong statement very quickly.

Charts and graphs are also useful in making complex information more accessible to the reader. Your typical visitor won’t read through pages and pages of company financial statements but s/he will make a buying decision based on proof in image form.

7. Make navigation simple enough for a well-trained chimp. If the visitor is confused, even for a moment, you’ll see a bounce. Life is too short to “figure out” how this works. We’ve grown extremely impatient in the digital age and if it even LOOKS hard, boing.

Keep your navigation bar in the same place throughout the site and provide the option to return to the home page from every page of the site. A visitor may get lost and want to start over, learn more or use the links on the homepage to further explore the site.

8. Appeal to the drives of your ideal buyer. Needs-driven buyers have already determined that they’ll make a purchase and pay a lot if the purchase meets their needs. For example, there are a million books for sale on the web telling you how to avoid foreclosure “even if the sheriff is knocking on the door!!!!”

Okay, now that’s a needs-driven buyer. Facing foreclosure. Sherriff at the door – that site visitor will pay $99 for an e-book download if s/he believes the product provides (or is) the answer to his or her foreclosure problems. That’s a needs-driven buyer – a prospect who needs what you market – products or services. These buyers are less concerned about how cool and stylish your site is, how many interactive features it has and so on. These people are looking for solutions and benefits.

Other on-line shoppers are more casual in their buying habits. For example, many browse the web to comparison shop for prices and then run off to the big box store to make the actual purchase. Or, they just may bounce to a competitor site to make their online purchase. It’s a very fickle marketplace. But…

… if something catches the eye and addresses the drives of your demographic bulls-eye, your bounce rate decreases quickly. This means:

• Know your target demographic. Describe your perfect buyer.

• Know your products – inside and out.

• Know the motivations of your ideal buyer – need, the desire for prestige, acceptance, to be part of something larger (to belong) – what motivates your buyer? Example? A site selling acne cures should appeal to the consumer’s natural drive to improve his or her appearance in order to better “fit in.” The human desire to belong and to be accepted is what fuels the cosmetics industry, the fashion industry and other “personal signature” industries.

So, the owner of the acne cure site can create three distinct headlines that address the drives of buyers of skin care products and place them above the fold: (1) Look Better The Natural Way, (2) Why Dermagel Really Works and (3) Stop Covering Up – three headlines aimed with laser precision at a site selling acne cures and other sensitive skin care products.

9. Real information. Not sales hype. If site visitors discover useful information that will directly benefit them on each search engine accessible page of your site, they’re much more likely to stick around and learn a little something.

Sure, if you’re operating on razor-thin margins and “Low Cost” is your prime selling point (WE BEAT ANY PRICE ON THE WEB) then that needs prominent, “can’t-be-missed” display on the home page – somewhere. But to lower your bounce rate, add a little informational content or a big link to your site’s information bank, blog or archives. There’s plenty of opportunity to make a sale once the visitor has begun to explore your site for additional, useful information.

10. Don’t follow the herd. 6,000 new websites hit the W3 each and every day. There are over one billion active websites worldwide. And if your online sporting goods warehouse site looks like every other sporting goods warehouse site you’ll continue to see a higher than acceptable bounce rate. You’ll never get your bounce rate to zero. All you can hope for is to lower it.

One last humbling fact: the average web user decides whether to stay on a site or move on in less than six seconds. Six seconds!!! That’s how long you have to compel the visitor to stay on your site before bouncing off to some other site.

Six seconds. How can your site grab attention in just six seconds? That’s the challenge we all face as site owners.

 

Paul Lalley

Webwordslinger, Paul Lalley

 

 

editor@webwordslinger.com

Selling to the Rich In “Tough Money” Times

 

"Money. It's a gas." - Pink Floyd

First, you might think this a curious subject in the middle of the worse economic downturn in decades but the fact is that the top 1% of the economy is still buying. In many cases, these well-to-do consumers are the only ones with moeny left, so on-line businesses are pulling out all the stops to reach the consumer with discretionary income burning a hole in his or her pocket.

 

So, here’s some insight into the buying patterns of the rich and how you can tap in to this demographic that is all but recession proof, with due creds to Bernie Madoff’s investors who lost it all over night.

Reaching the Rich Via the W3.

There was a time when the world wide web was NOT the place to sell $100,000 diamonds or fine works of art. It was a place to shop for books, a few music downloads and maybe buy some electronics gear. The luxury consumers, the ones with the resources to buy at Tiffany’s without so much as a second thought, weren’t going to buy their diamond tennis bracelets at higgenbottomsjewelrywarehouse.com where the motto is: “If we don’t say ‘howdy’ your purchase is free.” That type of hometown marketing doesn’t work with those for whom money is no object.

And isn’t that the perfect customer? For all of us?

The Nouveau Nouveau Riche
There’s a new species of luxury buyer. This isn’t old Harvard or Yale money. This is wealth created by the class nerd who developed a software company that he sold for $500 million when he was 25 years old! (Who’s laughing now?) This new demographic is usually a professional, well-educated, two incomes, money in the bank and discretionary income at his or her disposal.

Reaching this market segment requires an understanding of the motives that drive these individuals to purchase – especially to purchase on line. From you.

Prestige and Indulgence
These deep pockets buyers are usually driven by the fashionistas – the media segment that tells us what’s hot (just ask Paris) and what’s not. They’re shopping, not just for a winter coat, but a signature statement – a statement that’s made by wearing designer clothes, for example.

The weather on the Riveria is delightful this time of year.

You can buy a warm winter coat at LL Beans for less than $100 but where’s the prestige in that? Instead, this market segment looks for the designer label. The coat won’t keep them any warmer but it does exude prestige and indulgence – because of that designer label.

To reach this market segment, brands must be created and presented in a luxurious manner. Brand names count, whether it’s clothes, appliances or automobiles (especially automobiles).

It’s Not About the Money – Most of the Time
Most of us look for sales, squirrel away money in our IRAs and worry whenever the stock market hiccups. Not so with those who enjoy true financial freedom. When you’ve got millions, a market blip isn’t worth fretting over. So, the natural appeal to site owners to emphasize low prices – a natural selling point for the run-of-the-mill consumer (me) – doesn’t carry any weight with the luxury buyer. In fact, it works against the sale.

There’s a promotion concept called ‘velvet rope marketing’ – marketing designed to appeal especially to the well-to-do. We all recognize the turquoise Tiffany’s box and there’s no such thing as an entry level Jaguar. They’re all pricey.

However, today’s luxury, online buyer is just as likely to visit the Target website as the Tiffany site. It makes sense. These buyers may still look for sales on name-brand cookware at Target because cookware doesn’t have as much power to make a strong, personal statement as a $1,000 Gucci hand bag.

So how do you create a site that appeals to this new breed of online buyer? Here are some suggestions.

How To Convert the Luxury Consumer

1. Perception is reality to this demographic. Consider the coat example above. The LL Bean coat is made well and will last forever. However, the perception is that LL Bean sells to the masses, which they do. And I love my Bean parka.

Create the perception of elegance with a well designed home page and stylish product pages. Create a site free of AdWords and affiliate links. That is NOT what velvet rope marketing is about. Instead, think elegance, distinction and pampering.

2. Speak the language of the buyer. In this case, your buyers know fashion, they know prestige and they recognize the importance of making an independent statement. So, despite the fact that many of these buyers will only purchase brand names, they’ll mix and match brands to create their own, unique signature look. So, no men’s suit buyer is going to go 100% Hugo Boss or Ralph Lauren. That would indicate that the buyer is a slave to fashion.

3. So, build a site that let’s the luxury consumer mix and match from different product pages to see how the whole ensemble works. It’s these kinds of useful, upscale features the new, luxury consumer appreciates. It shows you understand them, their needs and drives and your site is designed to accommodate those needs and drives.

4. Offer special services. Buying services, for example, indicate a velvet rope level of customer care. Buyers provide birthdays and other important dates, provide the gift recipient’s profile, likes and dislikes and you take care of the rest. You, or your professional buyer, picks out the item, elegantly gift wraps it and makes sure it’s delivered on time to the right person.

This ‘concierge’ service can extend in other directions. Using a customer’s previous buying history, you can make gift suggestions for certain people for whom the buyer has previously purchased. Subtle but very effective.

5. Provide a toll-free number and make sure your customer service staff is well rehearsed with complete scripts to manage any contingency. Your phone staff should be courteous, alert and – this may hurt a little – they should also be given the training and authority to make decisions.

The upscale customer doesn’t want to hassle while the client care rep gets approval from a supervisor (who may or may not be available at the moment). This affluent buyer wants answers and resolutions to his or her problems. A well-trained and trusted staff can deliver this level of service routinely. (BTW, client care reps should be U.S.-based and available 24/7.)

6. Hit the mark every time. Track orders, ensure prompt shipment, include an easy ‘return kit,’ including pre-printed return label so all the buyer has to do is affix the return label to the shipping box over the mailing label. Simple and that’s what affluent buyers are looking for.

7. Provide lots of site space for product images. Clothes should be photographed using a model so the buyer can see the outfit or piece of clothing on a human, not floating in front of negative space. Don’t skimp on product pictures. They should be properly lit and shot, which means if you don’t know one end of a fill light from another, hire a pro to snap product pictures for upload.

This is a newly-defined demographic – one driven by the media with TV shows about Hollywood glam and glitz and who’s showing in NYC this week.

Know your brands. Know the motivations of this status-conscious buyer, provide the personalized service these buyers expect in the brick-and-mortar shops they frequent (too bad you can’t offer them a latte while they try on the latest from Europe) and create a site that has the look and feel of fashion chic and online professionalism.

Remember, it is absolutely NOT about the money so play down cost and play up style, distinctiveness and the message broadcast to the rest of the world by the products you sell.

I have arrived.