Internet users never learn. No matter how many times we hear about obvious, hackable passwords, people keep using them. And the situation doesn’t seem to be getting better.

Below is a list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011, compiled by SplashData. The security software developer generated the list from millions of actual stolen passwords, posted online by hackers. Not surprisingly, the most common passwords are also the worst, including “password,” “123456″ and “qwerty.” Even passwords that seem kind of unique, like “trustno1″ and “shadow” are actually quite common. And why does “monkey” always show up on these lists?

Anyway, here’s the full list:

1. password

2. 123456

3. 12345678

4. qwerty

5. abc123

6. monkey

7. 1234567

8. letmein

9. trustno1

10. dragon

11. baseball

12. 111111

13. iloveyou

14. master

15. sunshine

16. ashley

17. bailey

18. passw0rd

19. shadow

20. 123123

21. 654321

22. superman

23. qazwsx

24. michael

25. football

SplashData has a few recommendations for keeping your data safe:

First, create a strong password consisting of letters, numbers and symbols. If you’re worried about remembering long passwords, try using phrases of short words separated by underscores, such as “shiny_phones_rule_1.” A phrase is easier to recall than a long, abstract mish-mash of characters.

Second, try not to spread the same password all over the Internet. At the very least, use separate passwords for important uses like online banking and e-mail. The last thing you want is for some poorly protected web forum to hold the same password as your bank account.

To make things super-simple, you can also use password management software, such as LastPass, Roboform,eWallet, SplashID or the free KeePass. These programs remember your passwords, allowing you to create long, complex strings of letters and numbers that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to remember.

Also, see PCWorld’s guide to creating better passwords, and advice on protecting your passwords. If you follow any of these tips, you’re in better shape than the person who uses “abc123.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

BY Jared Newman | PC World

Have you seen the potential of SEO but are struggling to convince your boss or colleagues?

You are not alone. SEO can often be viewed as a difficult, techy oddity, and not something that every company needs. Small-scale businesses often think they won’t benefit from spending money on online marketing.

To help you explain the potential of SEO and justify your request for increased spending, I’ve compiled this list of 10 statistics that I find particularly compelling:

1 – There are over two billion people online

A study by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) discovered that the number of internet users across the globe has now exceeded two billion.

In 2010 alone, more than 226 million people came online for the first time. Market researcher IDC predicts that by 2015, an astounding 2.7 billion people worldwide will be online.

That’s about 40% of the world’s population, which is a lot of potential customers.

2 – 38 million of them are in the UK

If your business doesn’t want to target international business, then your boss may not care about the rapidly growing number of internet users in the developing world. But even so, the numbers for the UK market are compelling.

Research from the Office for National Statistics shows that 38 million UK adults used the web last year. Of those, more than 30 million accessed the internet at least once a day.

You’d pay a lot of money to have a shop on a street that had that kind of footfall!

3 – 31 million are actively shopping online

The ONS study found that 31 million people purchased goods or services online in the 12 months to August 2010.

What’s more, the higher their income, the more likely they are to use the web. The research body found that 98% of people with an income exceeding £41,600 used the internet. That compares to just 69% of adults with an income of less than £10,399.

So, many of your potential customers are using the internet to shop – and the wealthier they are, the more likely they are to do so.

4 – These customers spend hours online

On average, an online adult in the UK spends 22 hours and 15 minutes on the internet each month, according to the UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM).

That’s an increase of 65% compared to just three years ago. Interestingly, 22.7% of that time is spent accessing social networks and blogs, showing just how important a social marketing campaign is alongside your SEO efforts.

5 – People spend billions online

Despite the economic woes, spending online continues to grow. In August 2011 alone, UK shoppers spent £5.2 billion on the web, according to the IMRG/Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.

That’s 14% more than in the same month, the previous year.

6 – 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine

So, people are spending a lot of time and money online. But does that necessarily mean that you need SEO?

The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. A study by Forrester from 2006 found that 93% of all internet traffic comes from a search engine. You cannot afford to be missing out on that many potential visitors.

7 – Google dominates all

Although you should rank for all search engines, it makes sense to prioritise Google.

Google received more than 92% of search engine traffic in 2010, according to Statcounter.com. The runner up, Bing, gained just 3.17% of search engine traffic.

Such a compelling statistic also shows that it’s a good idea to funnel paid search spending towards Google.

8 – Customers click on top-ranking links

If you operate in a niche market then you are potentially already appearing on the first page of the search results for the major keywords.

This might make you think that it’s not worth investing in SEO to drive you to the very top of the results pages.

But you’d be wrong. A study by Optify showed that the top ranking website has an average click-through rate of 37%, while 60% of the clicks go to the top three results.

9 – Britons are online on the go

If you want to target customers on the move, you might be advertising on buses and in free papers. But market research agency IDC has predicted that soon more users will access the web through their mobile phones than through computers.

And according to the Office for National Statistics, 71% of 16 to 24-year-olds are accessing the internet using their handsets, so clearly you should be advertising to them online.

Who needs a poster on the bus?

10 – 41% of businesses are winning customers using social media

A successful SEO campaign works hand in hand with a social media strategy – and it’s never been more important to be targeting customers socially.

Research by workplace provider Regus shows that 41% of UK firms are successfully winning customers through their social networking efforts. Not only that, but 48% use social platforms to engage with their existing customers.

Your SEO spending will boost your social marketing – winning you business through two different channels.

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

BY DANIEL BIANCHINI | Search Engine Journal

Search Engine Optimization is an integral part of a business’s presence on the internet. To highlight this point, consider the fact that several studies have shown 90%+ of internet users will not go past the third search engine results page. Think about it; how often do you go past Page 3?

Every day, more and more users turn to the internet for business or product information before making a purchase. There is no difference if your business is landing on Page 4 or Page 1,000,000; chances are good you are not being seen. Thus, it is vitally important to have some form of SEO working for you on your webpage to enable people to find you.

Can I Learn SEO And Utilize It Myself?

SEO tactics are not incredibly difficult to learn yourself. There are a number of websites that highlight tactics and how to go about building a presence for your website That choice will largely boil down to time versus money. SEO can be an incredibly tedious discipline to learn and understand. In addition, it is a continuously evolving one. So while your past efforts will be useful, repeating them may not prove to be as useful in the future. The only way to know that is to keep up with the industry.

A number of outsourcing options are available. You can purchase individual services from an SEO company, hire a team to do the work for you, or even hire a person in-house to do it. A large business can afford to hire a firm or a team to handle their SEO work. A small or medium business will instead be looking for self-sufficiency or a lower cost alternative. There are plenty of professionals across the internet that can provide a better option to a company with a lower budget.

When I Should Start Worrying About SEO?

The best time to start formulating your strategy is before you ever put a website up. On-page and domain SEO take things into account such as website structure, linking, and content. The content itself should be written in such a way to include relevant keywords that will help generate the hits you need.

If you already have a website, you will need to familiarize yourself with on-page SEO or hire a professional that is knowledgeable in it. An amateur built business page will likely need tore down and rebuilt to incorporate these details into it. It will matter a lot further down the road.

How Important Is Profit Versus Expense?

Your budget should speak to what is a comfortable amount for you to spend on your effort. SEO efforts do not provide an immediate translation to profit. Instead, it provides you the opportunity to generate more profit by bringing more potential customers to your page. Understand this, any knowledgeable effort put into your SEO effort will have a positive affect for your business moving forward. Though it is impossible to provide a numerical translation to expense versus benefit; it is a certainty.

Consider the metaphor of a locomotive at rest. SEO acts in much the same way that a locomotive does. At rest, it is difficult to move and get moving. It takes a lot of effort and doing the right things in the engineer compartment to get it moving. Once it is moving, however, all it takes is some regular attention to keep it plowing ahead at a fast pace. It also becomes extremely difficult to stop due to the weight and momentum. The only difference with SEO is that it never completely stops, though it may slow down without the right attention.

In Conclusion…

Your business website needs an SEO effort to help you stay competitive. Even if you are only attempting to generate business locally; your website coming in above your competitors’ will bring your business the attention it deserves. It is perfectly possible to learn SEO yourself and work at it for positive results. However, is it worth the time to do so? Would those hours spent on learning and executing SEO strategy not be better spent on growing your business and providing service to your customers? Ultimately, that is the question you must answer based on your specific circumstances.

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Sarah Faglio | Busienss 2 Community

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Sarah Faglio | Busienss 2 Community

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The social networking service Facebook was first created for just that reason – a network of social connections between friends, family, classmates etc.  Since its launch in February 2004, it has evolved into much more than just a social network between peers.  As of date, Facebook has over 800 million active users with more than 900 million objects of interaction (this includes pages, groups, events and community pages).  This social networking platforms has become a vital resource for businesses that want to extend their marketing campaigns virally to reach potential customers on the Internet.  Facebooks has continuously madebreakthroughs for many companies by enhancing their online presence and reach.

 

When businesses set up company pages on Facebook, they are able to reach out to a whole community of followers.  These pages can be as simple or thorough as the company wants – it depends on how well they use all the resources available to them through Facebook pages.  Once your company creates a page, they need to continuously update it and post new content to establish and maintain interaction with its followers.  After a user chooses to “Like“ your company page, they will receive your post updates onto their mini-feed.  How efficiently you use your company page will determine how effective it will be. 

 

Top 10 Ways To Get the Most Out of Your Facebook Company Page

 

1. Creative title that is descriptive of your business
2. Location tab makes it easier for followers to find your business location.
3. Information tab has basic information and an overview of your company describing what it does and what it offers to its customers.  It also provides website and other social media links.
4. Post updates on your page’s wall that provides valuable information and are interesting to followers.  This includes blog, website, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and news updates pertinent to the industry.
5. Photo and video updates of products, business, events or campaigns that are appealing to followers.
6. Quizzes and opinion polls/surveys that envoke engagement and interaction with followers.
7. Contest and promotions allow followers to interact with company offers or contests in the hopes of winning a prize.
8. Calendar events update and remind followers of dates and times of business campaigns, fundraisers, gatherings or other events.
9. Facebook advertising allows you to display ads to a targeted market to direct them to either your Facebook page or company website.
10. Notes lead to discussions among followers and business owners and fosters communication between the two.

 

Recent research shows that it is important to keep posts short.  Study results show that posts with 80 characters or less had 27% greater engagement rate than longer posts.  Hard-selling approaches are also the least effective.  Posts using words like “events” and “winning” gained more activity than those with words like “buy” and “shop.”  Also, the best days to post updates to your page are Thursdays and Fridays, which were 18% more popular than other days.  Posting after regular business hours increased engagement by 20%.

 

Facebook is an excellent application that offers companies a free resource to enhance their online presence and reach potential customers.  By creating a company page you are able to develop a following and create fan engagement through valuable and relevant content on a regular basis and use resourceful interactive applications.  Facebook pages give your company the opportunity to engage followers, publicize sponsored events, promote campaigns and discuss topics of interest to your industry or mission.

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Sarah Faglio | Busienss 2 Community

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As businesses both large and small start off a new year of online marketing efforts, a lot of which are focused around social media marketing and Inbound Marketing, it’s important to step back and evaluate if you’re overlooking any areas of low-hanging fruit that can make an immediate impact. One area that is commonly overlooked is the discipline of social media optimization (SMO), which starts with the proper optimization of your social media profiles. Here’s an overview on how you can ensure your Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube profiles are properly optimized for search. Note: The optimization of LinkedIn company profiles will be covered in a future post.

 

Facebook

 

Facebook continues to be the golden child and area of focus for many company’s social media marketing efforts, especially for B2C companies. Although the optimization of a Facebook page is probably the most straightforward of the social platforms highlighted here, companies still overlook the basics.

 

 

Page Title Tag: similar to the page title tag on one of the pages of your website, search engines pull the main name of your Facebook page as the page title tag. Although you can work keywords into your page name it’s best practice to establish the branding of your page with your official company name.

 

Page Meta Description: the ‘About’ field on your Facebook page acts as the meta description for your page, so it appears in search directly below the page name. This is your opportunity to describe your page with the use of some target keywords, keeping in mind you have 140 characters to do so.

 

Keyword-rich Posts: everytime you make a new post on your page is an oppotunity to work in the use of target keywords, so ensure your posts are always keyword-rich without going overboard.

 

Twitter

 

Another widely utilized but under optimized social media platform is Twitter, which similar to Facebook is fairly straightforward.

 

 

Page Title Tag: companies most commonly use their formal company name for their Twitter profile/username, which appears as the title tag for the profile in search, but some have chosen to also work in the use of keywords with their company name if they’re available.

 

Page Meta Description: the ‘Bio’ field on your Twitter page acts as the meta description and is the best place to optimize with a keyword-rich description for your profile.

 

Inbound Link: although it’s considered a nofollow link make sure you include the link to your website or blog, which can be good for referral traffic.

 

Keyword-rich Posts: the same rule applies here; everytime you tweet is an oppotunity to work in the use of target keywords.

 

Google+

 

It’s already known that Google+ business profiles have search engine optimization (SEO) benefits, especially if you take advantage of fully optimizing your profile.

 

 

Page Title Tag: it’s been said that Google isn’t as lax about the use of keywords in your page/profile name, so stick with using your actual company name.

 

Page Meta Description: the ‘Headline’ and ‘Introduction’ fields act as your page’s meta description in search, so once again be sure they include the use of keywords.

 

Inbound Links: Google+ pages present the option to embed links within your profile’s introduction in addition to the ability to feature numerous “recommended links”. Although these are nofollow links this can be a great way to drive traffic to your site, blog and other social media profiles.

 

YouTube

 

Last but not least is an overview of how you can optimize your YouTube channel.

 

 

Page Title Tag: knowing YouTube is owned by Google and Google’s position on the use of keywords in your profile name, it’s best to stick with your company name which acts as your page title tag in search. This will also ensure people will find your channel when they search your company.

 

Page Meta Description: your channel description acts as the meta description.

 

Inbound Link: once again this is a nofollow link but it’s worth adding for potential referral traffic.

 

Keyword-rich Copy & Tags: as you build out the profile on your channel take the time to work in target keywords.

 

Optimized Video Postings: similar to every post on Facebook or tweet on Twitter, every new video post on your channel should contain an optimized title and description, and use appropriate tags. Read our post on 5 Ways To Optimize YouTube Videos for SEO Success.

 

Hopefully this post gives you the motivation and know-how to ensure your social media profiles are fully optimized for search. If your company is leveraging the power of LinkedIn, be sure to check back for a future post on optimizing your LinkedIn company page.

 

 

 

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Frank Isca | Busienss 2 Community

Many have tried, and failed, to write a good post about how to SEO a Facebook fan page.

For example, optimizing the filename of your profile picture is one popular piece of advice that doesn’t really matter, considering Facebook just renames the file something like 198135_10150109366….jpg. Another popular tip: you should link to your main website from your Facebook page. Yes, you should for visitors. But this doesn’t optimize your fan page because Facebook just nofollows, redirects, and clusters your URL in a mess of code anyway.

So let’s take a different approach to Facebook SEO today.

I want you to imagine that your Facebook fan page is your website – or another website for your brand at least. While it may not ever rank first for a keyword, you still want it to be optimized.

If you want to keyword optimize your Facebook fan page, these are the areas that actually pull SEO elements from your page’s content for additional optimization.

Your Facebook Fan Page SEO

• SEO title: The name of your page plus | Facebook.
• Meta description: The name of your page plus the About description of your page, followed by | Facebook.
• H1: The name of your page.

This is like the search optimization of the homepage of your fan page / website. If you didn’t consider keyword optimization when you created it, and you have less than 100 fans, you’re in luck. You can still change your page’s name.

Two things to keep in mind aside from search optimization includes:

• Branding: It may be more important to have your page as a recognizable brand than a specific keyword phrase.
• Appearance: Whenever you comment as your page, or people tag your page, your entire name will come up, so if you’re page is Your Brand – Keyword, Keyword, and Keywords it might look a bit excessive (and lead to less tagging).

Your title can be as long as you choose, but keep in mind the standard length of SEO titles (70 characters) before getting too crazy. Also, since your page name is also a part of your meta description, you might not want it to make it too long and overshadow that.

To edit your About information to make a great meta description, go to your page and Edit Page > Basic Information, and fill in the About field with a 140 character description like you would with any website meta description.

Facebook Fan Page Updates

• SEO Title: The first 18 characters of your update.

If you’re posting a standard status update, the SEO title will be pulled from the first 18 characters (approximately 18 characters, sometimes a bit less). The following update by Search Engine Watch’s fan page has a title of Yahoo Search, which is pretty good.

If you’re posting a link to your fan page wall, you’ll have an option to “Say something about this link…” – the first 18 characters of what you enter in this field are going to be the SEO title for the individual page of that status update.

If you don’t post something there, the SEO title for your update will just be Facebook. Plus it won’t take up as much real estate in someone’s news feed, which means it will be less noticeable. So I would suggest that, regardless of whether you care about the SEO, you fill this part out when adding a link to your wall.

If you’re concerned about optimizing your updates while considering them as individual pages for your overall fan page / website (click on the timestamp for any update to see it on its own page), then you might want to consider sticking some keywords right at the beginning of your comment.

Using the above example, I could simply put the post category / main keyword as start the update such as Google Analytics and then write the rest of my comment. If I continued this trend with my updates, my fan page would have lots of “pages” underneath it optimized for my main keywords.

The best part is, unlike Twitter status updates that don’t go that far back, you can see your Facebook fan page updates at least two years – mine go all the way back to when I created my fan page, which was in February 2009.

Facebook Fan Page Notes

• SEO Title: The title of your note plus | Facebook.
• Meta Description: Your page name wrote a note titled the title of your note plus | Facebook.

Facebook notes – they don’t get a lot of love anymore, but they do have a more controllable SEO title when you create them and, of course, they add to the additional “pages” underneath your fan page / website. Notes allow you to add lengthier updates to your fan page without having to take your fans offsite to get more of your content.

Some people use them to syndicate their blog posts on their fan page, but I find this feature is a little inconsistent. Unique notes, on the other hand, could add more value to your page.

Facebook Fan Page Discussion Topics

• SEO Title: The title of your discussion’s topic | Facebook.

Ever wanted a little forum / discussion board, but don’t want to invest in forum software? Facebook has an often-overlooked discussion board, with each topic giving you a little SEO title credit.

It might be a nice place for you to have discussions with your fans that they don’t necessarily want on your wall. If you don’t have one on your profile already, you can get it by going to theDiscussion Board and using the Add to My Pagelink to add it to your pages.

Your Facebook Fan Page SEO Tips

Those are the parts of the Facebook fan page that I’ve found specifically have controllable SEO titles, descriptions, and so forth. What other parts of the Facebook fan page have you tried optimizing for SEO, and what results have you seen?

Editor’s note: This column originally was published on September 20, 2011, and comes in at No. 6 on our countdown of the 10 most popular Search Engine Watch columns of 2011. Over the final two weeks of 2011, we’re celebrating the Best of 2011 by revisiting our most popular columns, as determined by our readers. Enjoy and keep checking back!

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Kristi Hines | Search Engine Watch

 

As technology advances, so does our means of communications with others and the public.  The radio and television were two technological mediums that companies used to advertise to their target audience.  However, since the mid-1990s, the Internet has drastically changed the way we share information.  It has turned into a new way for businesses to market their products or services directly to their target audience.  Online platforms, such as websites and social media, offer a lot to companies such as higher ROI on their marketing campaigns and more business.

Research shows that more than half of all U.S. residents and more that 3/4 of all U.S. adults are online.  A recent survey found that 92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the Internet, with 59% who do so on a typical day.  Of these daily searches, 46% are forinformation on products or services.  89% of U.S. Internet users search online before they make a purchase, even when the purchase is made at a local business.  With an astounding amount of people and potential customers online, it is important for companies to have an online presence so they do not miss out on opportunities and business that could be found on the Internet.

Top 5 Ways to Create Strong Online Presence

1. Website – This allows companies to post valuable information about their company and their products or services.  It is a centralized location where users can learn about what the company has to offer.  60% of all organic clicks go to the top three organic search results.  With correct SEO and keyword placement and number of indexed pages, websites are able to rank on search engine results – helping them get found by users who are searching for topics related to their company.  Stats:

2. Blogging – 65% of daily internet users read a blog.  By keeping a frequent blog, 2-3 times a week, you are contributing to your website’s SEO and are generating traffic to your site.  B2B companies that blog generate67% more leads per month than those that do not.  Businesses that blog at least 20 times a month generate 5 times more traffic and 4 times more leads than those who only blog a few times a month.  Blog posts need to be valuable and remarkable content and need to be of interest to your target audience.  Instead of solely company news, you should write about industry updates or other information that is of value to your target audience.  By continuously updating your blog with industry updates and information you are positioning yourself as a subject matter expert.  Also, by opening up the comment box, you are allowing direct communication between you and your potential customer – a place where you can offer advice and suggestions.

3. Facebook – 93% of U.S. adult Internet users are on Facebook.  As of date, there are more than 800 million active users on Facebook.  When users “like” company pages get updates made to the business’s profile, such as new wall posts (blog and industry news updates), pictures, videos, discussion questions and more.  Facebook allows companies to easily provide updates to followers as well as interact with users via comments.

4. Twitter -  There are 100 million monthly active users on Twitter with over 250 million daily tweets.  Companies with over 1,000 Twitter followers get 6 times more traffic.  70% of U.S. Twitter users are more likely to recommend the brands that they follow.  Twitter accounts allow companies to share quick industry or company news, as well as blog posts to followers.  Since posts are only allowed to be 140 characters, they are read quickly by followers, allowing them to easily decide if the topic is of interest to them.  These updates can link back to your website or blog to drive traffic to updates you have made.  With more than 1/2 of active Twitter users following companies, brands or products, it is important to make sure your company creates a continuously updated page for them to engage with.

5. LinkedIn – As of date, there are over 135 million professionals on LinkedIn.  Company profiles allow businesses to connect with other professionals and establish themselves in a professional setting.  They are also able to provide status updates on industry or company news as well as blog and Twitter updates to its followers.  It grants companies the opportunity to network with others in their industry as well as become members in groups consisting of other members that may be of interest to them.

Establishing your company on the Internet allows your business to develop its online presence and reach towards potential customers.  Websites provide information to help users make an informed decision about their buying purchases.  Social media platforms keep users updated on the company and industry.  Actually, 71% of Internet users are more likely to purchase based on social media referrals.  By making use of what the Internet can offer your company, you have the opportunity to boost your sales and business.

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

By Sarah Faglio | Business 2 Community

here’s a few favorite SEO terms to define and clarify in order to help those wanting to start the road to SEO success.

• Search Engine Optimization: Simply put, search engine optimization is the process of improving the quality and volume of web traffic to a website by employing a series of proven SEO techniques that help a website achieve a higher ranking with the major search engines when certain keywords and phrases are put in the search field.

• Black Hat SEO: Using unethical techniques to gain ranking in search engines. The search engines filter for such techniques and you may get banned from displaying in search engine results. This may include using keyword stuffing, using invisible text and doorway pages.

• White Hat SEO: The use of accepted SEO practices in order to get higher rankings, more traffic, etc. This includes writing quality content, using titles and meta tags and doing keyword research.

• Search Algorithm: Google’s search algorithm is used to find the most relevant web pages for any search query. According to Google, the algorithm considers over 200 factors, including the PageRank value, the meta and title tags, the content, age of the domain, etc.

• Doorway Pages: This is basically a fake page that the user will never see. It is purely for search engine spiders, and attempts to trick them into indexing the site higher.

• Keyword Stuffing: Since keyword density was an important factor on the early search algorithms, webmasters started to game the system by artificially inflating the keyword density inside their websites. This is called keyword stuffing. These days this practice won’t help you, and it can also get you penalized.

• Anchor Text - An HTML tag or text that allows you to create a link to another document or web page or to a bookmark within the current web page. 

• Nofollow Link: A link used to instruct search engines that a link should not influence ranking. They are used when you want to cut down on irrelevant content to improve the quality of search engine results. Don’t use nofollow when linking to internal pages in your website. Use it when linking to external pages that you don’t want to endorse. Dofollow links do not have the nofollow attribute and do pass on link juice to the sites they link to.

• PageRank: The algorithm that Google uses to estimate the relative important of pages around the web. The basic idea behind the algorithm is the fact that a link from page A to page B can be seen as a vote of trust from page A to page B. The higher the number of links (weighted to their value) to a page, therefore, the higher the probability that such page is important.

• Alt Text: This is basically alternative text placed for images, so that when you hover over an image a text box displays describing what the image is.

• Spider (bot, crawler, robots): Programs written to scour the web automatically for various reasons, like indexing pages, for spamming purposes.

• Cloaking - Showing a different web page to a search engine spider than what is normally seen. The purpose is to get the page ranked for specific keywords, and then use the incoming traffic to promote unrelated products or services. This practice is considering spamming and can get you penalized (if not banned) on most search engines.

• Link farm. A link farm is a group of websites where every website links to every other website, with the purpose of artificially increasing the PageRank of all the sites in the farm. This practice was often used in the early days of search engines, but today these sites are seeing as a spamming technique (and thus can get you penalized).

 

These are just a few of the many, many SEO terms used to help marketers and small business understand how to optimize their website.  I’m curious to know the terms you find confusing.  Do we need to create another list?

 

Adelaide SEO Experts | HAPPY Technologies

by Ali Goldfield | Social Media Today

1. Start bar

Love it or hate it… well, actually, everyone pretty much loves it. The Start Bar is, some would say, one of the truly original innovations from Microsoft that debuted in Windows 95 and has been with us since. It’s evolved in Windows 7 but the primary function remains the same: the place to launch programs through the Start menu, the Taskbar to monitor running programs, and the System Tray for informative widgets. The Mac OS X Dock combines program launcher and taskbar, but it becomes cluttered very quickly with a lot of programs, which if they’re not on the Dock need to be launched from an equally cluttered Applications folder instead of easily navigated by menu as with the Start bar. Lion attempts to remedy this with the iOS-stylised Launchpad, but it’s simplistic and still not as easy to use.

2. The Taskbar

The Dock is pretty and all, but the Windows 7 Taskbar can have programs pinned to it as with the Dock, whilst maintaining the ability to manage running programs, make use of Jump Lists, and see a thumbnail preview of the window of a program with Aero Peek by just hovering the mouse over its name in the bar. Programs with multiple windows will display all open windows in the preview, and any one of them can be individually closed from th preview. The Mac OS X Dock doesn’t come close to this, and even though Expose allows previews, it also takes up the whole screen to do it (and when it comes to Expose, the Alt-Tab switching of Windows is quicker and less intrusive, but that’s for another day).

 

The Windows Taskbar and Aero Preview is leaps ahead of anything on Mac OS X Lion.

3. No global menu

Oh I hate it. And I know you do too. Mac OS X’s global menu (simply the Menu bar to Apple) tries to make things simpler for Fisher-price users, with a top menu that changes depending on which application is currently selected. But when you’re working with a few programs, and more importantly on a decent sized monitor with a large resolution these days, having to drag the mouse to the top bar and back to access common functions is anti ease-of-use. The global menu was borne of a time before pre-emptive multitasking, when computers only ran one program at a time, but that’s ancient history now and Apple hasn’t moved with the times (lets not get into those old one-button mice! Thankfully gone, but I digress…)

 

Making the user spend more time navigating the screen instead of using the app is an impediment — the easiest to use operating systems are those that get out of your way, not in them.

The problem is compounded if you use multiple monitors, which given how cheap they are these days is a popular option. On Mac OS X Lion programs on a second monitor still have their menus on the main screen’s global menu, making for long mouse movements to use functions. Windows, by comparison, has excellent multiple monitor support.

4. Jump Lists

Jump Lists are much more than Mac OS X’s Stacks, providing a recently opened files list for any app you right-click on the Taskbar, making it a huge time-saver for accessing the documents you work with on a app-by-app basis. On top of this, Jump Lists let you select a program’s common functions specific to the app, for example: launching recently accessed sites, opening an independent tab, or starting private browsing mode for Firefox directly from the Firefox icon in the Taskbar. You can also optionally pin entries directly to a Jump List, and even exchange entries between Jump Lists if two programs work with the same file type. This applies to every app, dependent on the app. It’s exactly the type of feature you’d expect Apple to implement, but Microsoft beat it to the punch.

Jump Lists make accessing recent files, common functions, and special tasks for a program a cinch directly from the Taskbar.

5. Windows management

Lion includes the option to resize windows from any edge, finally bringing it up to speed with Windows — but it still falls far short of Windows’ management abilities. As above, Windows 7 has excellent multi-monitor support, and you can maximise a window to any monitor with Windows 7, something Lion can’t automatically do. And Aero, which drives the Windows 7 interface, has features like Aero Snap to automatically resize windows based on the edge you drag them to: so you can, for example, compare two documents side by side by dragging them to opposite ends and having them resize to fit the half the screen each automatically.

Similarly, managing running programs from the Windows Taskbar, especially with Aero Peek, is a simple point-and-click affair and while Expose and Mission Control try to make it easier for Mac OS X users, these quickly become messy when you have a lot of programs running, something the Windows Task Bar doesn’t suffer thanks to program grouping. Purely from keeping a hold things when it comes to managing lots of programs in this age of multi-application multitasking, Windows wins hands down over Mac OS X Lion.

6. Homegroups

Networking is arguably not the bees knees for many home users, but Windows’ Home Group feature makes it possible to share files and devices with other Windows 7 machines automatically, and even stream media. Mac OS X’s AirDrop is also automatic, but doesn’t allow you to browse. Homegroup still provides options to limit access, selectively share files and folders, or provide read-only access while still removing the hassle of configuring networking or sharing. It’s as easy as AirDrop, but more functional.

The key difference with Airdrop is that it can set up an ad-hoc wireless network, but connecting to wireless networks is automated with Windows anyway, as is is automatically joining the available Homegroup. The closest Mac OS X Lion has to Homegroups is Bonjour, which allows you to find shareable resources on the local network for Bonjour supported devices, but this is a shotgun approach as it covers a wide range of services and Homegroups focuses specifically on local LAN sharing.

6. Libraries

Libraries are a great way to group similar file types spread among different folders, and even different devices. For example the Music Library can contain music from your local hard drive, a connected external drive, or even on a remote machine over the network. And you can work on files in the library just as with any other folder. At any time the contents reflect the available resources (so if you remove the external drive, its contents in the Library won’t show up until connected again). Further, Libraries are shared by default with your Homegroup, so your Music Library can be automatically available to PCs on the network for playing.

The closest thing Lion has to this is Smart Folders, but these operate off a search term not location and you can’t, for example, create a Smart Folder drawing from multiple locations.

8. Maximise actually maximises

Contrary to common sense, the maximise button in Mac OS X doesn’t maximise. Or it does. If it’s a full moon, and your offering is accepted by the Great Turtlnecked One. It depends on the application, with some programs maximising, some only partially (expanding only vertically for example) or something entirely different, like iTunes which switches to miniplayer view. Mac OS X calls this ‘intelligent’ zooming — but why is your OS second guessing you? After years of *cough* feedback, Apple finally changed this in Lion: but it now requires the user to hold the Option key and click. Why the extra step? Why not just do it properly? And why are apps like iTunes allowed to break with consistency? Oh, and lets not get started on the ‘X’ quit application button that doesn’t actually quit, simply closing the window and letting it run in the background, requiring the user to forcibly close a program down from the Dock, or use the Command-Q combination (again, extra steps getting in the way of the user — see above re: operating systems helping not hindering).

Wait, can it be? Maximise and close buttons actually do what you expect them to do? Only on Windows.

9. Price

To get Mac OS X, you need to buy a Mac, something Dan forgot to mention. Mac hardware costs considerably more than PC hardware, even from big name brands like Dell. When you add the cost of the operating system to the platform to run it, it’s much more costly to go Mac OS X, a problem further exacerbated for us in here in Australia thanks to Apple’s region-based price discrimination — Federal Labor MP Ed Husic has even raised this issue more than once in Parliament. Despite Apple recently dropping the price of Apps for the App Store in Australia, we still pay more for apps, music, and Apple hardware than other regions, discrepancies that can’t be explained by importing, taxes and distribution costs. If you’re an Apple fan, why are you supporting what is a blatant rip off for you and fellow Australians? As the saying goes, a company will charge what the market will bear — send a message to Apple that its products are overpriced here by not buying until the prices drop, and you won’t be fleeced.

10. Games

Yes, Mac OS X has had games in the past. One, perhaps two. And now that Valve has released Steam on Mac and helped port titles across, there’s a muc larger catalog to choose from (approximately 240, in point of fact, from Steam). But it’s got nothing on Windows. There’s over a decade of quality gaming heritage (since DirectX 1 in 1995) on Windows, and all new releases, big or small, come on Windows first and foremost. You’re lucky if any of them make it to a Mac port, and even if they do it takes time.

Sure, Macs are good for work but when it comes to playing, Windows is your best option. And between work and play, which would you rather do?

I can hear the cries of ‘Bootcamp!’, but this requires you purchase Windows in addition to your shiny expensive Mac with Mac OS X, and you’re still playing games on Windows — and if that’s the case, why not just buy a Windows PC in the first place and get everything a Mac does and more, with cash left over (thanks to Mac products being overpriced) to buy the games you want to play?

Oh, and for the record, that sign documents feature that Dan mentioned of Mac OS X by holding up a piece of paper with your signature on it to the webcam, is very cool.

 

Cheap Computer Parts Online | PC HAPPY

by Ashton Mills  | APC Mag