Do you use the +1 button? Leave a comment on our Facebook Post if you do.

Since Google’s release of Google’s +1 button, webmasters have wondered about the effect of this on their web page rankings. In an interview, Google’s Matt Cutts commented on this and on the effect of authorship on your rankings. 

At this time, +1 clicks are not that important

In the interview, Matt Cutts said the following about the importance of +1 clicks:

“In the short term, we’re still going to have to study and see how good the signal is. Right now, there’s not really a direct effect where if you have a lot of +1s, you’ll rank higher.”

Authorship seems to be more important

In the same interview, Matt Cutts commented on the effect of authorship:

“There are things like, we have an authorship proposal, where you can use nice standards to markup your webpage, and you’ll actually see a picture of the author right there, and it turns out that if you see a picture of the author, sometimes you’ll have higher click through, and people will say, ‘oh, that looks like a trusted resource.’

So there are ways that you can participate and sort of get ready for the longer term trend of getting to know not just that something was said, but who said it and how reputable they were.

If you look further out in the future and look at something that we call ‘social signals’ or ‘authorship’ or whatever you want to call it, in ten years, I think knowing that a really reputable guy – if Dan has written an article, whether it’s a comment on a forum or on a blog – I would still want to see that. So that’s the long-term trend.”

What does this mean for your website rankings?

1. Google +1 clicks:

Google +1 clicks have no direct impact on your rankings but they can still help you to get more conversions. Many people see Google’s +1 button in the search results and a high number of +1 clicks could create more trust. If the number of overall +1 clicks increases, Google could also use +1 clicks as a more important ranking signal in the future.

2. Authorship:

Authorship could be a more important ranking signal in the future. If your website provides content that can be attributed to a particular author, authorship verification could help your site. At this time, the effect of a verified authorship on the rankings of your website seems to be low.

This could simply be an attempt to get more Google+ users.

Google +1 clicks and authorship can be the icing on the cake if your web page already has good rankings. These signals alone won’t get your website on Google’s first result page.

If you want to see your website in the top 10 results, your web pages must have all the signals that are necessary to please Google’s algorithm. Google uses more than 200 ranking signals in its algorithm. Apparently their own +1 isn’t one of them.

Archive: mhs
Original Post: Google +1 and YOUR Rankings in Google
Originating Website: HostUtopia Web Hosting
Website Description: HostUtopia Web Hosting - Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers, WordPress Hosting, iWeb Hosting

Many webmasters think that SEO has become more difficult after Google’s recent updates. That’s not case if you invest your time in the right things. If you want to be successful with your website, there are five things that you should know.

1. Techniques are continually evolving

• Google and other search engines are continually improving their algorithms. Things that work today might not work tomorrow. There is no ‘set and forget’ in search engine optimization. Either stay educated or use an SEO software tool that is continually updated to work with the latest ranking algorithms.

2. It doesn’t pay to game Google

• Gaming Google’s ranking algorithm requires a lot more work than following best practices and doing it right the first time. Sooner or later, Google will detect all new spam tricks.
• Your website will be penalized then, you will lose a lot of money and you will have to invest a lot of time to get your rankings back. If you play by the rules, you will get much better results that last, even if it takes a little longer to get high rankings.
• Companies that promise you instant results for little money are lying to you. Like most things, a successful SEO campaign requires time, effort and a good strategy.

3. Your website is the only thing that you can control

• You cannot control what your competitors do, you cannot control what Google does and you also cannot control if some startup will release a tool that will change the market in the near future.
• Make sure that your website would offer your website visitors a value even if search engines didn’t exist. Your website is your most important asset. Treat it as such.

4. The content of your website is very important

• Getting traffic is pointless if your website is disappointing to your visitors. Low quality content won’t help your rankings. Tell your website visitors why they should use your products or services. Tell them what’s in it for them.
• Make sure that your web pages look good and that your landing pages have a high conversion rate.

5. Don’t be distracted by the latest marketing trends

• Pinterest? Cool. Microblogs? Nice. Twitter? You bet. Unfortunately, all of these new marketing trends won’t do your website any good if your website basics aren’t right. Half-hearted social media campaigns can also have a negative effect. For your conversion rate, it is often better to do one thing right instead of juggling too many balls at once.

Your website will get top rankings on Google and other search engines if you do the right things. Avoid distractions and keep working on your goal.

Archive: mhs
Original Post: Five things that you should know about your SEO activities
Originating Website: HostUtopia Web Hosting
Website Description: HostUtopia Web Hosting - Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers, WordPress Hosting, iWeb Hosting

Mistake 1: having a website that is not crawlable

• According to Matt Cutts, the biggest SEO mistake is having a website that is not crawlable by search engines.
• If your website is not crawlable, search engines cannot index your pages and your web pages won’t be listed on Google.
• By correcting these issues, you make sure that search engines can index all of your pages correctly.

Mistake 2: including the wrong words on your web pages

• Using the wrong words on your web pages is the second biggest mistake.
• For example, he says that you should write “How high is Mount Everest” instead of “Mt. Everest Height” on your pages because that is how people search on Google.

Mistake 3: focusing on the wrong things

• Some webmasters focus on link building before they have compelling content on their web pages.
• Although backlinks are the most important factor in Google’s algorithm, it is more important that your website has good content.
• Without good content, your website won’t get high rankings.

Mistake 4: forgetting to think about titles and descriptions

• The title and the description of a web page have a big influence on the performance of the page on search engines.
• Compelling web page titles and descriptions lead to more clicks and more visitors.

Mistake 5: not learning about how Google works and what SEO is about

• But that’s not necessarily the “Webmasters” job. Mastering Google and gaining advanced knowledge about Search Engine Optimization can be (and is) a full time job.
• Not outsourcing these task to a reputable SEO Firm is sometimes the biggest mistake.

Archive: mhs
Original Post: Google: The TOP 5 SEO Mistakes That Webmasters Make
Originating Website: HostUtopia Web Hosting
Website Description: HostUtopia Web Hosting - Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers, WordPress Hosting, iWeb Hosting

The social network joins a long list of companies — from LinkedIn to eHarmony to Dropbox — who have faced account hacks in recent months. Although site hacks are nothing new, it’s becoming increasingly critical to protect passwords, as incidents like this continue to rise. The same password and email login you use for one site could unlock a wealth of information on other platforms, including personal information and credit-card data.

That said, there are a few steps to take to protect your Twitter account — or any account, for that matter. First and foremost, it’s key to create a strong password which includes a variety of upper and lower case characters, numbers and symbols, and is also 10 characters long.

“We highly recommend that you use a unique password for each website you use; that way, if one account gets compromised, the rest are safe,” Twitter advised in a tips post on its site. “Also, please use a secure and private email address to associate with your Twitter account. If you forget your password, you’ll be able to get instructions for resetting it emailed to that address.”

It’s also important to change your password often, and make sure you never re-use passwords, even across social media sites.

“If one site is compromised, it makes it much easier for someone to try logging in (or brute-forcing) with those leaked credentials on other sites,” says Amber Gott, a spokesperson for the password security service LastPass. “It could lead to a compromise of a number of your accounts — a domino effect, if someone was trying. Anything that controls access to your personal identity such as online banking, email and social media should be protected with special care.”

Password managers such as LastPass and KeePass can be a huge help in creating long, strong passwords. These services also remember the passwords and fill them in for you. However, it’s important to pick a password manager that has secure universal access and allows you to check if you are re-using your passwords elsewhere.

Another important way to protect your account is to be cautious when giving your password to third-party apps — these services can gain full access to your account.

“There are lots of third-party programs and applications you can use with your Twitter accounts,” Twitter wrote. “These applications are built on the Twitter platform by external developers and allow you to do an array of neat things with your account. However, you should be cautious before giving up control of your account to someone else.”

To revoke access to these apps via Twitter, visit the Apps tab in account settings and click “Revoke Access” next to the application.

Although it sounds obvious, Twitter users should also be suspicious of malicious links and phishing scams that occur on the site.

“If something seems out of character from someone you follow or a tweet/DM you receive, always exercise caution about clicking links,” Gott adds. “This is especially true of sensationalist-sounding posts about celebrities because they are common fodder for phishing links and spam.”

If the message comes from someone you know, send them a message to see if it’s legit or ignore it.

Archive: mhs
Original Post: Hacked Twitter Account? Protect Your Twitter Account!
Originating Website: HostUtopia Web Hosting
Website Description: HostUtopia Web Hosting - Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers, WordPress Hosting, iWeb Hosting

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com has given its Jetpack plugin a big update.

Think of Jetpack as a bridge that brings all the added functionality you need for WordPress in a single plugin. It adds in lots to the core WordPress features, such as stats, social comments, email subscriptions and more.

With Jetpack 2.0, the plugin gets lots of new functionality, including the ability to automate sharing posts to various social networks.

With Publicize, users can configure their WordPress blogs to share posts with social networks including Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo and Tumblr.

In our tests, the Publicize feature worked incredibly well. It allowed us to instantly syndicate a blog post to Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Tumblr.

While this functionality has been available via other plugins for years — Jetpack has an edge over some other plugins in that setup is very, very simple. That simplicity comes at the cost of customizability, so if you’re the type of person who likes to syndicate content in a specific way or with a specific syntax or style, you might want to stick with more advanced solutions.

Other New Features

• Photon — This is a service that handles image resizing and caching on WordPress sites. This is especially handy for users who have updated their websites for retina displays because it handles choosing what size image to serve to different devices.
• Post By Email — WordPress has had the ability to post by email for years, however, the process of actually accomplishing this task was complicated and unreliable. Jetpack now brings Post by Email to WordPress sites the same way it exists for WordPress blogs. Just email a secret address and the formatting will be taken care of.
• Infinite Scroll — Users can now get rid of “next” and “back” pagination buttons and load new pages dynamically and infinitely instead. For this feature to work, your theme needs to support it.

For Social Media Marketers, the real jewel is the Publicize feature. Couple that with the ability to add share buttons to posts and pages and WordPress sites can be quickly configured to share socially almost out of the box.

Archive: mhs
Original Post: Connecting your WordPress Blog to your Social Media Outlets
Originating Website: HostUtopia Web Hosting
Website Description: HostUtopia Web Hosting - Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers, WordPress Hosting, iWeb Hosting

What’s the name of the new search engine?

The name of the new search engine is Samuru.com. It was developed by Stremor, the company of Brandon Wirtz. Brandon Wirtz previously tested many different ways to game Google for fun and profit. As he worked on the ‘dark side’ of SEO, he knows which methods spammers use to manipulate the results.

What is special about this new search engine?

In contrast to other search engines, Samuru does not rely on backlinks to specify the relevance of a web page. The technology behind Samuru is called ‘Liquid Helium‘:

“It converts written content into mathematical values and algorithms for predictable analysis, extraction, and manipulation.

Liquid Helium factors information about sentence and paragraph structure, word usage, parts of speech, grammar, writing style, punctuation, and inherent bias through a vast collection of proprietary rules, filters, and custom language libraries. [...]

The ability to extract sentiment, bias, reading level, technical level, formality, urgency, and whether or not content is editorial in nature are just a few of the language scores that can be returned.”

Samuru is still work in progress. In an online discussion, the founder of Samuru said: “When you are building a technology, you have to isolate and test. We use indicators that are harder to game than inbound links like traffic. But it is a balancing act. We have just shy of 100 score factors we can tweak, and getting them right takes a bit of time.”

How to game Samuru.com

Samuru can find out if the text on a web page makes sense or not. To ‘game’ Samuru, you have to write useful and helpful text. This is something that will help your website rankings as well as visitors who find your website on the Internet.

Samuru has an interesting concept and we wouldn’t be surprised if Google added similar methods to their algorithm.

Archive: mhs
Original Post: Samuru – A new search engine challenges Google
Originating Website: HostUtopia Web Hosting
Website Description: HostUtopia Web Hosting - Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers, WordPress Hosting, iWeb Hosting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nr9CJrMsX0

Archive: mhs
Original Post: 15 Tips on Getting MORE Subscribers on YouTube
Originating Website: HostUtopia Web Hosting
Website Description: HostUtopia Web Hosting - Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers, WordPress Hosting, iWeb Hosting

This warning is for WordPress users only.

Change your WordPress Username ASAP!

Most users are using a common username for their WordPress login ie; admin, your name etc…

The default username that WordPress gives you is admin. This needs to be changed.

Security experts are warning that an escalating series of online attacks designed to break into poorly-secured WordPress blogs is fueling the growth of an unusually powerful botnet currently made up of more than 90,000 Web servers. The easiest way for these hackers to break into your WordPress is via a common username. The user of a more complex username may further protect anyone from breaking into your WordPress Installation. Using some of these characters #$%@!&* in your username and password greatly increases your security level.

Over the past week, analysts from a variety of security and networking firms have tracked an alarming uptick in so-called “brute force” password-guessing attacks against Web sites powered by WordPress, perhaps the most popular content management system in use today (this blog also runs WordPress).

Full Article: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=14752

How do I change my WordPress Username?

• We have included instructions on changing a WordPress username in our online Knowledgebase at: 
• https://hostutopia.com/system/knowledgebase/823/How-to-change-your-WordPress-Admin-Username.html

Archive: mhs
Original Post: WordPress User Admin Change Warning
Originating Website: HostUtopia Web Hosting
Website Description: HostUtopia Web Hosting - Shared Web Hosting and Dedicated Servers, WordPress Hosting, iWeb Hosting

1. Relevance is the new PageRank

• We’ve said it before in our newsletter: do not focus on the PageRank of a web page. The PageRank that is displayed in Google’s toolbar is not the PageRank that Google actually uses in the algorithm. In addition, Google now uses other factors to determine the value of a backlink.
• Andre Weyher confirmed this in the interview: “Getting a link from a high PR page used to always be valuable, today it’s more the relevance of the site’s theme in regards to yours, relevance is the new PR.”
• A link from a web page that is related to your website is more important than a link from an unrelated high PR web page. Finding these related pages is the difficult part.

2. Link building has become relationship management

• Andre Weyher says that you shouldn’t use automated tools for link building:
• “Off site link building has dramatically changed since the recent updates. Anything that you can do automatically or at scale puts your website at risk. So keep the following in mind; link building has changed from an almost purely technical process into something that resembles a relationship management campaign. Building a network with owners of sites that are related to yours for example.”
• Relationship management can be a tedious task.

3. On-page optimization is still important

• It’s very important that your web pages must be optimized. Backlinks won’t do your website any good if your pages aren’t good enough:
• “On page tactics are often overlooked, while in reality they should be a key element in your SEO strategy.”

Check out the Attracta SEO Tools included in every HostUtopia Web Hosting Control Panel, all the tools you need to for professional relationship link building and on page optimization. All the SEO tools you need built right into your hosting account.

Archive: mhs
Original Post: Google web spam team member: how to optimize your web pages
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What is a Reconsideration Request?

Sometimes referred to as a reinclusion request, Google has a formalized process by which it considers removing manual actions taken against sites in violation of its guidelines. It is essentially an apology letter to Google. You admit you messed up, tell them how you fixed it and promise you won’t do it again. If they think you’re sincere and that you have fixed the problems and aren’t going to do it again, then they lift the penalty.

After the website owner conducts checks to determine that Google has blacklisted the website (search for your domain in Google, and click the link to visit your site), the only recourse available is to fill out a “reconsideration request” via an online form.

Tips on submitting a Google reconsideration request.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA5I3HHApYk

Archive: mhs
Original Post: If Google detects malware on my website, how long does it take a Google Reconsideration Request to process?
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