Once upon a time, all that a business had to do was to produce. Customers were called “consumers” then. Today, that term just won’t apply. No one consumes anything. Before customers patronize, they wield a huge list of expectations that businesses have to match up to.
Last week, Matt Cutts got the blogging community in an uproar over whether or not guest blogging was dead. (It’s not.) Actually, what Matt said was that guest blogging for “backlinks” was no longer going to be tolerated by Google and that we should be especially concerned with spammy links in guest posts intended for SEO. He cautioned us to only accept guest posts from trusted bloggers who we could vouch for. That got me thinking about the backlinks that are left in the comments of blogs that use the CommentLuv WordPress plugin.
Over the past year, Matt Cutts (head of Google’s Webspam team) has been fielding questions about guest blogging and whether or not it hurts or helps with SEO. Well, it’s January 2014 and yesterday Matt Cutts made it very clear (on his blog) that if you’re guest blogging to gain links stop.
This is not another website hosting review. If you’re interested in a review of GoDaddy, I suggest reading this GoDaddy Review. What I want to share with you today is this great infographic of 5 reasons that you should not use GoDaddy for hosting (which I found on Tom Jamieson‘s blog). Years ago, I hosted with GoDaddy (before they became famous for their Super Bowl ads). So, I also felt compelled to share my personal experience with you too.
What started as a seemingly innocent looking pingback on one of my articles quickly turned into the discovery that someone had violated my copyright! They had stolen my entire article without giving me any credit at all. There was no mention of an author or of my blog. I honestly felt that I had been robbed. A quick search of the Internet presented me with lots of horror stories from other people who have encountered the same problem.
This week in my #FridayFinds series, I share links to: a motivational video, seven statistics on Facebook engagement, tips on improving your website performance and a step-by-step tutorial on how to delete the “Admin” user in WordPress (a known security risk).
This week’s post in the Friday Finds series highlights: the new LinkedIn features for beefing up your profile, techniques that can get your site flagged as spam and another look at Google’s commenting system. As always, I’ve chosen posts that add value and also have healthy discussions going on in the comment sections. I hope you find them as valuable as I have.
There’s so much to do when you first launch a website (and yes, a blog is a website). So, today, let’s take a look at some of the basic steps that everyone should keep in mind. These tips range from avoiding a very common WordPress security vulnerability, to basic WP plugins, xml sitemaps and some tips on getting started with social media.
This week’s #FridayFinds showcases 11 website redesigns that are sure to inspire you, a Matt Cutts’ video on linking, common mistakes made on Google+ and highlights of an interview with Dan Roth, executive editor of LinkedIn. I’ve also included a link to a free virtual presentation from PRWeek.com showcasing presentations from Pizza Hut, General Motors and the public relations firm Weber Shandwick.
This week’s Friday Finds includes tips from 33 influential bloggers who share their insights and experiences on how to improve reader engagement. Also asked this week is the question: Were you hit by the recent Google penalties? Do you know how to check to find out and what would you do if you were hit? You won’t want to miss an epic post featured on SocialMediaExaminer that lays out steps to getting the most out of Google+. Also, get more info on designing a responsive design for mobile computers including an excellent case study of how one company developed a responsive website and were able to eliminate their separate mobile site.