GNIDESIGN

Raleigh Black Hat SEO... Really? - Part One

2010-01-02T16:45:00.003-05:00

Black Hat SEO Companies in Raleigh, NC? - Part One

So first of all I want to wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year! Let's hope 2010 is more of a blessing than 2009 was! I thought I'd start the New Year with a 2-Part post on Black Hat SEO techniques and how to spot it. This way when you spend money on improving you website rankings on google and other search engines, you can be confident that you are not getting scammed! Are there Black Hat SEO scam firms in Raleigh? Well, let's just say I'm not going to make a whole lot of friends with
these next 2 posts but hey, it's business, nothing personal!
;-)

In the last year I have seen a plethora of self proclaimed North Carolina Web Design and SEO companies pop up. In Raleigh, NC in particular there are hundreds of companies offering SEO services. In my previous post "SearchEngine Tricks at the Top", I posed the question of whether a company should be considered reputable simply because they are on page 1 of your google search results? No, do go and re-read the article I will just tell you the answer is "No Way!" There are too many SEO companies and Internet marketing agencies out there that dabble in Black Hat SEO Techniques to base your trust in Google page one results alone.

Why Should I Care?

So What? May be your first response. Well, I'll tell you why you should care. If you are a business owner who is concerned about traffic to your website you need to know who and what kind of agency you're dealing with. Why? Unfortunately there are SEO firms in Raleigh, Charlotte and across the US with one thing in mind... get you quick results, make you smiile & take your money. The problem is many of these so called "Professional" web design and search engine optimization companies are going to cause your domain (http://www.yourcompany.com/) to be banned by the search engines, google being the most strict, because of their greed, negligence or ignorance. By the time you catch on that you've been dupped they'll be well onto the next client and have no need to return your calls.

Ethical SEO Companies

How do I determine which SEO company I can trust? I am going to tell you right now. You don't buy a car or a HDTV without researching the product right? Well then let's go check out the SEO companies website that came back in your google search and see if they practice what they preach, shall we? These are important steps if your business and clients are important to you, so follow closely.

Looking Under the Hood

Open up your web browser, Internet Explorer, FireFox or whatever and go to http://www.google.com/. Let's do a search for an SEO company now. In my area, I am going to do a search for "raleigh seo companies" but for you it may be "charlotte seo companies" or "new york, ny seo companies." Now go down your results pages until you see one that you are drawn to and click on the link to go to that SEO company website. When you arrive at the SEO companies website stop and let's do some detective work to see how they attracted us there. Now in the toolbar of your web browser select "View >> Source" so that you can see the HTML source code.

Search engine robots or spider's crawl the web regularly to index web pages in their vast databases. These robots are concerned with just 2 area's of each page. The content that is in between the <HEAD> tags and also content that is between the <BODY> tags.

The <HEAD> Tag

The <head> tag is where the page title & meta data (information about that specific web page) is placed by the web developer. Search engine robots like Google, Yahoo & Bing only care about 1 of the tags of the head section and that is the <title> tag.

The <title> meta tag

The title tag of your web page should be relevent to the page contents with no more than 80 charecters total. Any more than 80 characters is considered SPAM and a great way to get your domain banned
by the googlebot. In the following examples I have changed the company names to protect the not so innocent.

This is a good title: Relevent, to the point, no repeat words and LESS than 80 characters in length.
<title>ACME Widgets & Gadgets | Raleigh, NC</title>

This is a bad title: This title that I found although relevent to the page, repeats the same keywords over and over. They get a strike against them for keyword stuffing and another for SPAM. It's also 170 characters in length and they claim to be SEO professionals?
<title>Web Design Raleigh | Raleigh Web Design | SEO Raleigh Web Development Web Hosting Raleigh Graphic Design Advertising Ad Agency Raleigh NC SEO`Name Changed - NameChanged</title>

The <description> meta tag

The description tag has very little relevence anymore because Google generates it's own description based on snippets from the description tag and the contents it collects from your website. You should keep your description tags to 1 or 2 sentences about your business overall.

This is a good description: Again, this is relevent, to the point, and contains no spam.
<meta name="description" content="ACME Widgets & Gadgets - Raleigh, North Carolina based manufacturer of Widget and Gadgets since 1984. Shop online or call (919)555-1212" />
This is a bad description: This description from my example site is bad practice. Keyword stuffing is SPAM and will cause poor seach engine results and finally domain name banning.
<meta name="description" content="Raleigh Web Design. Name Changed Web Design Raleigh. NameChanged SEO Raleigh Web Development Raleigh Web Hosting Raleigh Graphic Design. Raleigh SEO Raleigh Advertising Agency Raleigh NC. Name Changed a Raleigh Ad Agency Specalizes in Web Development And Print Advertising." />

The <keywords> meta tag

"Oh, but what about the keywords tag? That's important right?" No. The keywords tag is not used anymore since so many web designers and would be SEO agencies in the late 1990s used it to mischeiviously attract web surfer's to irrelevent websites. For those search engines that may still use the keywords tag, less is more so never go over 20 total keywords and don't repeat yourself to the point of spam.

This is a good keywords tag: Again
<meta name="keywords" content="widgets, gadgets, raleigh, north carolina, nc, acme widgets & gadgets" />

This is a bad keywords tag: This is just senseless spam and should never be done. If your pages look like this... fire your web team on the spot!
<meta name="keywords" content="raleigh web design, web design raleigh, raleigh web development, web development raleigh, raleigh web hosting, web hosting raleigh, raleigh seo, seo raleigh, raleigh graphic design, graphic design raleigh, raleigh ad agency, ad agency raleigh, raleigh advertising agency, advertising agency raleigh, raleigh print advertising agency, print advertising agency raleigh, Name Changed, NameChanged raleigh, NameChanged, raleigh web design, web design raleigh, ad agency, agency, internet marketing, web design, website design, web development, hosting, seo, raleigh nc, raleigh north carolina, rtp, triangle nc, Name Changed" />

What are all those other <META> tags for?

I'll run some others down real quick here. Some have an actual function but most have no use to search engines. I'll use the same example I pulled out of my Google search for this explanation.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
Used for web browser page rendering. No SEO relevence.
<meta name="robots" content="index" />
There is no need for multiple "robots" tags as it just confuses the spider. This tag should be combined with the following tag for better SEO performance like this. <meta name="robots" content="index,follow" />
<meta name="robots" content="follow" />
<meta name="coverage" content="Worldwide" />
No SEO relevence.
<meta name="revisit-after" content="4 days" />
Tells search robots how often the site changes. Typically 30 days, 60 days, 90 days,or NEVER, work just fine.
<meta name="author" content="http://www.NameChanged.com" />
No SEO relevence. Just the person who wrote the content.
<meta name="copyright" content="http://www.NameChanged.com Copyright (c) NameChanged. All rights reserved." />
No SEO relevence.
<meta name="classification" content="http://www.NameChanged.com" />
No SEO relevence. For Netscape users only, whoever they are. Deprecated.
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us" />
No SEO relevence.
<meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="false" />
No SEO relevence. This tells IE not to show it's toolbar when you hover your cursor over an image.
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" />
No SEO relevence. Leftover tag from a long abandonned Microsoft project.
<meta name="Rating" content="General" />
No SEO relevence. Provides a parental rating.
<meta name="doc-class" content="Living Document" />
No SEO relevence. Tells the browser the document type.
<meta name="abstract" content="Name Changed is a leading website design firm in Raleigh North Carolina. Our Raleigh web development applications, Raleigh SEO, Raleigh Hosting, and Raleigh Graphic Design Agency Specializes in Web Development, Hosting, SEO and Print Advertising. Name Changed is based in Raleigh North Carolina and proudly serves Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Apex, Chapel Hill, RTP and The Greater Triangle Area of North Carolina." />
No SEO relevence, IMHO, since the top search engines no longer use the description meta tag; the abstract tag is pointless. It used to be a default if no description tagwas found.

In my next blog post I'll show you some basic items to look for in the <body> tag of an HTML document. This is where the bulk of Black Hat SEO takes place. Remember, a little foul-play in your SEO may have great results with the search engines in the beginning, but the robots are built to look for these mischeivious practices. They will eventually catch it and then when you are dropped out of the index completely the results are devastating.

Until Next Time... Happy Surfing

Bill @ GNIDESIGN

Our Disposable Society

2009-12-17T23:33:00.000-05:00

Thesis Statement

Although open trade with the Peoples Republic of China has provided better access to products at lower prices from wholesalers, the Unites States trade deficit with China impacts the US economy as a whole and is a large part of the current economic crisis.

Introduction

The goal of this essay is to present tangible evidence that will show that the downturn in the United States (US) economy can be halted and reversed in 7 days. This is a bold statement, but I believe that the fix is very simple and can be achieved without spending even a single tax payer dollar. The US economy can return to a thriving state once again in as little as 90 days. Furthermore, without the need to bail out banks and automotive manufacturing companies, neither does it require imposing additional taxes on US citizens or cutting government spending programs.

The US-China Relationship

China has become an economic superpower in the last quarter century largely due to its trade relationship with the United States which began in the 1970s (U.S. Department of State). Since the beginning of trading between the United States and China, China has experienced an average of 10% economic growth per year and increased its gross domestic product (GDP) by an impressive 400% (Bureau of Transportation Statistics). United States exports to China over the last 25 years have steadily declined in comparison. The relationship has increased wealth and revenue within the United States retail industries but at a price. China has spent the last quarter century increasing its manufacturing capabilities and perfecting its export processes to meet the supply and demand requirements of a global economy. China is a fine tuned machine and their manufacturing capabilities have expanded to include those export commodities that were once flagship exports of the United States.

American machinery, electrical equipment, garments, textiles, high-tech products, footwear, toys, plastics, furniture and steel were at one time heralded as the best in the world. The quality of those products manufactured and engineered in the United States were desirable, envied by the entire the world and in some cases were built to last for generations. It has been many years since I have found a tag in my Levi jeans or any other product for that matter, that stated “Made in U.S.A.” As a personal challenge I recently went on a search of my home and tried to find any item bearing the “Made in U.S.A.” trademark. My search resulted in null. What was even more alarming to me was that 98% of the items I searched were clearly marked “Made in China.”

Having lived in North Carolina for a few years now, I have heard the cries of those who grew up in this state about the textile mills that sit empty because those products are now being produced in China. I have given much thought to the fact that much of what I use and consume every day of my life is imported from China. What happens to this country, the United States of America, if relations between the US and China turn sour? I assume that the US Government has some checks and balances in place to ensure that this does not occur but are there? I do not believe that this is a good position for any free country to be in and maintain its freedom.

The table below illustrates the fiscal implications of trade relations between the United States and China from 1985 to 2008. In creating this table, two things became clear to me. First, the United States and China established a trade agreement with the help of the World Trade Organization (WTO) that began with a fair and lucrative playing field. This is apparent when I look at the trade deficit in the first year (1985). Although the United States did have a deficit in 1985, China was an emerging Ally and so concessions would be expected. My second observation was that in 25 years the United States never exported to China more than it imported from China. The United States has transacted business with China with no hope of matching their GDP since the beginning and continues to allow this exchange to continue unchanged.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Foreign Trade Division, Data Dissemination Branch, Washington, D.C. 20233

So why does the United States government allow this to continue year after year? Why do the very people American citizens elect to improve our economy and watch out for our best interests stand by and idle while this occurs? I believe they do so for two reasons. The first reason that change has not been implemented thus far is greed. In the case of greed the explanation comes in various forms and is not very simple. But consider the large entity retail companies like Wal-Mart and Home Depot before they put their smaller competitors out of business. They were able to under price their competitors by importing the same products that US consumers purchase every day at remarkably lower cost from China. These large entities wanted to be number one and employed the best minds to create the processes that would forge a global economy and ensure their success.

The second reason that the United States government allows this deficit to continue can be categorized under fear. Having an ally like China that will invest billions of dollars into the US economy during difficult times is very convenient for politicians. Having such an ally means that the core problem of lop-sided trade agreements never has to be dealt with. Instead, the US government borrows more money from the ally and raises the taxes of its citizens in hopes of someday repaying the debt that it has incurred. Does the debt ever get repaid? No it never does, they just alter trade agreements and allow that ally the freedom to export more of its product to the United States and bolster their economy off of the American people. I will save the rest of that thought for another paper.
Conclusion

So how does the United States deal with the current deficit and halt the downturn in the economy in seven days? The solution is simple and to sum it up in one word, I will recant a word touted by a recently elected President in his election campaign and that word is “Change.” The best change that American citizen can make is to buy locally. Begin doing business with local merchants, farmer’s markets and meat butcher’s. This change in purchasing will cost a few pennies on a dollar more but send a clear message to those in power at the same time.

Of course, the United States cannot simply take its ball and bat and go home but one thing is for certain, these God blessed United States of America must begin to manufacture and export gross domestic product from its own backyard again. These textile mills, steel mills and automobile plants have to have electricity running through their walls again and put Americans back to work. This cannot be done overnight and I understand this much. Putting Americans back to work in these roles will take time but not much time. In 90 days congress can easily pass legislation that would impose new tariffs on products imported from China to begin leveling the playing field immediately. Moreover, Congress can set limitations on the ratio of product import versus export with its allies, not just China.

Every American can make an impact by contacting their local US Representative and requesting that change be brought about expediently. I can do this. America can do this. Buy American.

REFERENCES

The U.S. Census Bureau (1985-2008). FTD - Statistics - Country Data - U.S. Trade Balance with China. Retrieved on June 16, 2009 from http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics (1998-2006). BTS
Table 1 - Top 10 Commodities Traded Between the United States and China in 2006 Compared to 1998 Trade in Those Commodities. Retrieved on June 16, 2009 from http://www.bts.gov/publications/bts_special_report/2008_007/html/table_01.html.

The U.S. Department of State; Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (January 2009). China (01/09). Retrieved on June 16, 2009 from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm.

Search Engine Tricks at the Top

2009-12-10T21:58:00.002-05:00

I started researching facts for this article tonight when I stumbled upon the Associated Press (AP) website. Lo and behold, I see the article I had been planning to write! OK, sort of. My article was leaning toward a slightly different context but had the same premise. So rather than recreate the wheel, I thought I'd just bring out the important stuff and point you all to the meat and potatoes over at the AP site.

The bottom line is this, just because a company achieves a number 1 or 2 ranking in the search engines, should you trust them? Absolutely not! Although we all aspire to be number 1 on google, Jordan Robertson quickly points out in his article that it is very easy for deviant people to achieve high search ranking by exploiting the algorithms of top search engines like google search, yahoo search and bling search.

According to the article, security researcher Jim Stickley performed an investigative experiment where he created a website that mimicked the legitimate financial institution website of the Credit Union of Southern California. By implementing known "black hat" Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies, Strickley's phishing website obtained a "No. 2 ranking on Yahoo Inc.'s search engine and landed in the top slot on Microsoft Corp.'s Bing, ahead of even the credit union's real site" (Roberton 2009). These results were achieved seemingly overnight.

You can read the entire article at the AP website but the important point I want to bring out as a SEO expert is this, -there are real Search Engine Optimization firms in Raleigh, as there are SEO companies in North Carolina and across the United States that specialize in black hat SEO techniques. These companies will happily take your money and even get you a top spot in the Search Engines Results Pages (SERPs)... BUT... this comes at a high price because the large Search Engines are looking for this and will quickly remove your site from the index and ban your domain. This is not a good a position for your business to be in, no pun intended.

Until next time...

Happy Surfing!

Bill @ gnidesign.com

Oh I almost forgot! If you want legitimate search engine results that will last and are done right the first time, ask me for a free search engine analysis of your current website.

Can You Get Me Page One Google Search Results for My Keywords?

2009-12-05T02:17:00.004-05:00

Since I started GNIDESIGN and got into the business of web design and search engine optimization in 1996, there is possibly no other question I have been asked more than the one in the subject line of this blog. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked the question "Can You Get Me Page One Google Search Results for My Keywords?" I could retire from the glamorous life of software architecture and become a prize Bass fisherman, partner with Bill Dance and focus on winning the Bass Masters Tournament.

But all kidding aside, the short answer is YES! Of course, I can get first page Google ranking results and you can see my results in the images to the left and at the bottom of this page. Page one, second position is pretty good considering I only used Organic SEO methods on this. But the reality is, depending on how much competition is competing for your targeted SEO keyword or phrase, page 1 Google results can take a lot of time and money. This is why it is important to first qualify your clients intentions and budget before wasting a lot of their time as well as your own.

What a client usually doesn't understand is that there are so many variables that affect search engine results. Even as an experienced search engine marketing professional, it is possible that I could perform perfect organic search engine optimization, research and pick the very best keywords and phrases for my clients target audience, and still wind up on page 99 of the search engines. Thankfully, I've never had this experience but it can happen!

For this reason, I never promise my clients that I will obtain 1st page SEO results on Google, Yahoo, Bing or any other search engine. Even clients that have been with me for 10 plus years will not hear me make that promise despite the fact that I HAVE been able to achieve those first page rankings for them (see below). In fact, I always advise my clients, should they have a firm that does promise them first page Google results, they should turn and run in the opposite direction because they're probably dealing in black hat SEO techniques.

So Why Do I NOT Promise 1st Page SEO Results?

Several reasons really, here are the half dozen that come to mind right away.

In the case of an existing website, there's no clear way of knowing what the practices of the previous webmaster or firm might have been. If they practiced black hat SEO techniques that resulted in the domain name being blacklisted I may never get the site indexed.
How saturated is the client’s targeted area with similar businesses competing for the same SEO keywords and phrases?
How old is the client’s domain name? Google definitely prefers domain names that have been around for a while. Preferably 2 years or more. So if you have a domain that was just registered last week, you increase the challenge of reaching page 1 in most of the search engines but it can still be done.
How much content is currently available and how much will be available on an on-going basis for the website? Content is KING! If the clients site consists of a single home page with very little meat and a contact form, there is going to be quite a lot of work to do and a price tag to match. This is especially true if you have to hire additional writers.
How much budget is the client willing to spend on a thorough SEO and SEM campaign? Are they willing to sign up for the long haul if need be or are they looking for an overnight fix? Getting to page 1 on Google requires a large commitment, can take several months, and cost thousands of dollars to get there. Granted, once you get high rankings the cost is irrelevant in contrast to the amount of profit coming in, but can the client make the investment?
Most importantly, does your client get it? Are they willing to listen to your expertise on the subject or do they have all the answers? I had a potential client tell me recently that NOBODY ever looks beyond page 1 on Google and was quite adamant about it. Frankly, he's missing the whole point of SEO. Search Engine Optimization is an ongoing process. It’s not like a newspaper ad you run once and hope customers come to the store on the day of the sale. You do your SEO work on the site and then you wait to see the results. That wait could be a few weeks or it could drag out a few months before you begin seeing your results. But results you will see.

So all of this and I finally arrive at a closing point. Hopefully to help you, the reader, unravel the mystery of SEO. If you have a website that has no search results at all, then you have to start somewhere. If within a few weeks of roll out you suddenly appear on page 10 of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), this is a big deal and cause to get excited. Then the real fun begins as you tweak and add content, you appear on SERPs #4, #3, #2, gaining ground on your competition? It’s very exciting to see with your own eyes that all of the hard work is paying off. These are advertizing dollars that are quantifiable. Using Google Analytics you begin to see the amount of traffic that your website is getting. Then finally one day you wake up and the phone rings. “Wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring …” “This is Bill Kearns, What can I do for you?”

The rest is another SEO success story.

Here is a first page Google result for a client.

Another first page Google result.

Happy surfing!

Bill @ gnidesign

GET A FREE SEO ANALYSIS FROM GNIDESIGN FOR YOUR WEBSITE

Twine Leads The Way To Web 3.0

2009-11-25T11:04:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since my last entry, my apologies. Largely due to the revamping of our own website at gnidesign and an overload of Search Engine Optimization projects. But with the Thanksgiving holiday break I finally have some time to catch up. So without further adue... let's talk about Twine as it relates to your small business and social networking.

What is Twine?
Not to be confused with my Raleigh, NC based social media guru friends at Twine Interactive, Twine is a new type of social network that I find extremely useful. They push the limits beyond the typical bookmarking website and implement some neat Web 3.0 ideaologies. Twine.com offers the ability to gather and stay on top of your interests by providing a method of managing and sharing your knowledge on the web.

I like Twine over other bookmarking websites because of its collective intelligence of both machines and humans. OK, so what does that mean? Like Delicious and Digg bookmarking web sites, you can use Twine as a collection of information that you've acquired. However, by teaming up with other twine social media users, you begin to reap the benefits of a live and growing collection of information based on your specific interests. These collections are called Twines.

The content on twine is added by humans but then the machine logic adds semantic web tags to your content which enables automatic organizing of your information. On the the social media end of Twine. As you add content to your Twine profile, the engine helps you to discover new people and thought leaders who share the same interests as you.

So whether your interests are seo, web design, computer science, football, cooking or scrap booking. Twine is a great place to meet other folks who share those interests and collaborate on new ideas.

Until next time...

Happy Coding

Bill @ gnidesign

Request a Search Engine Optimization Analysis with no obligations.

Social Network Viruses Still On The Rise

2009-10-16T01:43:00.013-04:00

Social Networking web sites like facebook and myspace are used by more Internet users than any other medium in the world today. In fact, 4 out of 5 of us internet users over the age of 35 are logging onto a social networking website at least once a month according to the latest CNET statistics. Facebook is the new leader this month registering over 1 billion users (yup 10 digits) so its no wonder that they continue to be the target of choice by internet evil-doers.

The Koobface virus is nothing new but it continues to be the largest threat to social network web site developers and their users. I recently had an experience where this Koobface virus was sent to me on facebook. Lucky for me, ethical hackers are always a step ahead of evil hackers so I recognized the game right away.

Still, I thought it would be a good chance to run the virus in a virtual setting and show my readers what to look out for whille having fun on FB. As a search engine optimization professional, social networking web sites are an essential part of ranking well on google. That said, I frequent many of these sites. While on facebook, I received an email message from one of my facebook friends that was clearly out of character for that individual. That was my first tip that something wasn't right.

The Koobface virus, once it has infected your PC, gains access to your facebook friends and emails each of your friends a message with a link leading them to a web page to innocently download the same virus. It also hijacks your web browser, email and creates a general hostile environment across your network. Viruses are self-replicating. Koobface is spread by a network or by transmission to a removable medium such as a removable disk, writable CD, or USB drive. It may also spread by infecting files on a network file system or a file system that is shared by another computer. This is why the Internet and social media web sites are such a hot bed for this type of malware.

So enough chatter, here is what you're looking for...
You receive a facebook email message from one of your friends with a comment about "how great you look in this video" with a link to youtube .

You click on the link and then, whoops! The video has been moved? You are now being redirected to a hackers server.

Next you arrive at a web site that looks just like you tube but it isn't. You are then prompted to download and install the latest version of Flash before you can view the video.

The danger is that most people have been trained by now to only accept links in an email from people you know... well I know this person. So hopefully now you're a little smarter and a little wiser and I can go take care of my cold feeling like I've helped someone today :)

Until next time, happy surfing!

Bill @ gnidesign

The Future of Social Networking

2009-10-04T20:40:00.025-04:00

It's been 10 years of developing the web since the first implementations of Web 2.0 began back in 1999. I can't even begin to count the number of web sites I've rolled out in that time. The number of technologies that I have been introduced to and added to my arsenal are enough to make my brain go numb. Interactive information sharing has indeed come a long way and its evolution still amazes me. We've seen dot-com's grow to mammoth proportions and then watched as they fizzle out. Still others thrive for reasons that we just do not have facts or numbers on. In early 2000 it seemed that the peer to peer giant Napster would take over the world and yet today they are lost in the shadows of iTunes and the Zune Marketplace. Some interactive web sites like SpotLife.com were on top for a fleeting moment and gone as quick as they came. Even MySpace has been steadily losing its edge for several years now.

So what's next for the web? I ask myself this question almost daily as it is after all how I keep the family fed and housed. Without a doubt, social networking is going to break through to a new plateau. Websites like Facebook and Twitter have moved beyond cult phenomenom now and have become the daily web diet of the average computer user. These site are not going away anytime soon as long as they keep us engaged with games like Mafia Wars and Farmville. Personally, I never play the games on facebook and most of my requests go unanswered not because I don't want to be bothered, but I just WISH that I had that much time in my life to play because it looks like fun. The little bit of gaming time I do have is spent on Xbox Live where you can find me as Corinthian06.

That said, I think we will see a new trend in these types of sites because the site owners are realizing that we cannot be bought with banner ads and PPC advertizing. We are abhored by pop-up advertizing and that includes innocent surveys. You might say that some types of online marketing are beginning to sour, perhaps losing its effectiveness. So where do large corporations go next to generate profits? Well... they're going to come to the end users. People just like you and me and leverage our network of friends.

You may recall all of the attention Barnes & Noble, Inc. received when they introduced their associate plan? The way it worked was you put some links to some of their products on your personal website and a user purchased that book by following your link you received a few pennies. That didn't work very well for you and me because the business model was terrible and the associate plan was eventually phased out. Now imagine this idea on steroids, with enough of a profit margin for social network junkies like you and me that it could be lucrative?

Enter blastoffnetwork.com. This is a genius blend of social networks aggregation and multi-tier marketing and frankly... I like it! This is good for people, good for the economy and what the heck, we're hanging out on facebook and tweeting on twitter anyway, so why not get paid for it right?

By the way, you can find me on right here on Facebook, or follow me here on Twitter, and if you are reading this I would be more than happy to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn!

If you are looking for additional information on BlastOff, sorry I can't help you with that but you can contact denisek@nc.rr.com with any sign-up type questions.

Until next time... Happy Surfing!

Bill @ gnidesign

Should I Offshore My Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Web Design?

2009-08-06T10:20:00.014-04:00

The question of off-shoring search engine optimization (seo) and web design projects is one I am faced with on just about every initial client consultation that I walk into. Many business owners are attracted by the promise of first page Google results for very cheap, almost "too good to be true" prices. Being a fan of tongue in cheek clichés, I can tell you that if the prospect seems too good to be true, it probably is! That said, most business owners in desperate times are willing to take their chances on outsourcing their search engine optimization to overseas web design firms. There are many misconceptions with this practice and I do not think that the pros outweigh the cons. I'll touch on a few of them here.

Communication Breakdowns
I am an American small business owner. I conduct my business in the United States. Both my clientele and myself speak fluent English. We understand the inflections and spoken dynamics of the language like second nature and the use of current slang is never an issue. So why would I place my livelihood, my business, into the hands of someone that didn't have the same command of the English language as I do? Unless I have a very detailed, clear and concise Statement of Work (SOW) aligned with an overseas project manager who understands all of the nuances of the English language, -I am setting myself up for a lot of miscommunication, wasted time, wasted money, and probable frustration.

I know what you're thinking, "How can I say something so brash and politically incorrect in 2009?" I can... because I have worked in these scenarios for many years and it is a harsh reality. If you have ever called a large corporation for technical support and you were greeted by someone with a barely understandable accent. If you have ever ended such a conversation feeling like your issue remained unresolved, or if you were frustrated because the technical support person did not fully understand your issue; then you know what I am talking about. This is much the same way that you can expect your search engine optimization or web design project communications to flow.

Humanitarianism and Cheap Labor
I had an interesting meeting recently with a potential client who had a plethora of deprecated web design and software solutions to facilitate his business processes. My specialty is taking convoluted business processes, removing duplicated effort, and streamlining them by developing solutions that are scalable and affordable.

When the topic of search engine optimization came up, my client’s response was "Oh that's easy to do, I can do it myself or I can get some guy in India to do it for $5.00 an hour. Why should I pay you to do SEO?" At that moment I decided not to go down that road, but I completely disagree with this type of thinking for a couple reasons. First of all, submitting your website to 10,000 different search engines is very easy to do, however, that is not what natural or organic search engine optimization is all about. Sure, anyone can add keyword and description Meta tags to their web site and call it SEO, but true search engine optimization is a very well thought out process of website architecture. The overall web design strategy is developed with search engines in mind, not as an afterthought. Second, I happen to know several of these overseas programmers personally as I have worked with many of them from India, China and South America. They work very hard and they work long hours. They will often work 80 to 90 hours a week to support their families without overtime pay or additional compensation.

Then there is the case of pride and human decency. I would not pay any of my employees $5.00 per hour and I question the integrity of anyone who would. I would be insulted if someone asked me to work under those conditions for that amount of pay. How would you feel working all day and night for that kind of salary... fulfilled?

Keeping with Technology Trends
You also want to be careful because many of the fly-by-night SEO firms that are overseas are using outdated techniques like link farms and keyword stuffing. This was a popular approach to SEO rankings in 1998 but today is considered by most search engines as black hat search engine optimization or search engine hacking. Search engine algorithms are looking for these kinds of techniques and your website will be automatically banned and removed from their index. You do NOT want this to happen.

Face to Face Relationships
This is probably the most important aspect of any web development project. As a business owner, when I'm entering into a new contract with a vendor, I want know exactly who I am dealing with. Upon meeting every one of my potential new clients they get my face sitting across the desk from them. They get my hand extended outward for a hand shake. Furthermore, once a decision to do business has been made that client has my email address, home phone number, personal cell phone number and my instant messenger ID along with the freedom to contact me day or night. My clients, who I am very thankful for, appreciate that type of personalized service. To them, it shows that I care about their website and I do. I treat each and every one of their businesses as if it were my own. You will not find this kind of service overseas for any price.

Conclusion
In closing, things are tough with the United States economy right now and there are tens of thousands of web developers looking for work. Many are willing to work with you on pricing if given the chance and I think that we should first focus on putting our own people back to work. Employing people right here at home is what will get the economy pumping again. Then again maybe I'm just some geek with a website and an opinion, but there it is.

If you would like a NO OBLIGATION Search Engine Analysis for your website, I would be happy to let you know where you stand and what can be done to help your website get noticed on Google and all of the other major search engines. Just fill out our complimentary SEO Analysis form and you will hear from me shortly.

Happy Coding!
Bill @ gnidesign

Special note: To my programming friends overseas that I have had the honor and privilege to do work with. You know me, and you know that I have embraced cultural differences and consider you all family. My comments and opinions here do not reflect what we have accomplished and I respect you all with great regard.

I Started My Own Business and I Need a Website

2009-07-20T11:06:00.008-04:00

I am seeing more and more people these days starting their own businesses. I suppose it’s due in part to the current state of the US economy. The folks who have been recently put out of work are stepping out and trying their hand as entrepreneurs. I love that spirit in the people I meet and their willingness to take risks. The question I am asked very often of late by acquaintances who know my line of business is "Hey Bill, I'm thinking about starting my own business; do you think I need a website?"

Do you want my professional response to this question? Of course you do, -and you should rush right over to our web design and hosting page and purchase a small business web design package (gratuitous plug) today! But seriously, yes, if you are considering a business venture, whether you're a business development professional, a garage mechanic or selling lemonade in front of your home with a cardboard sign; I firmly believe that your business needs a website and you should get at least 3 quotes for web design from 3 local web design companies. It is at about this time that most people who ask that initial question get that glazed look of trepidation in their eyes. Then the floodgate of questions opens up and I do my best to assess their business needs right there in the produce section of Whole Foods or wherever our encounter occurs!

More web hosting questions like...

Do you think I should host my site with ABC Company? They have a hosting package for $1.99 per month and they give me my domain name for free! Two thoughts immediately come to mind for me with this question. First "you get what you pay for" and second, "nothing is free in this world and what you do not pay for in unforeseen service charges you will pay for in frustration." That said, this is what I recommend to my clients. Choose a service provider that you either know and trust personally or will have the opportunity to develop a working relationship with at some form of personal level. When you have trouble with your website, and you will, you want to speak with someone who understands your needs. My reasoning is that nothing is more important to you than your business; it’s like having a child. You want someone who will respond to you and look after your website as if it were their own. I personally have been looking after websites for years and have developed real friendships with many of my clients.

I do not recommend that you register your domain name (www.yourcompany.com) through your web hosting company even if it is free for life! You should always make sure that you register your company website in your own name through Network Solutions. The reason for this is that if you become unhappy with your web hosting company, it can be extremely difficult to get them to release your domain name back to you. With some hosts it can become a very painstaking and bureaucratic process. You will most likely pay more through Network Solutions, I believe they're about $39.95 per year now, but you'll sleep a lot better too.

Web Application Security - Hacker or Knowledgeable Surfer?

2009-07-18T23:08:00.005-04:00

If you haven’t already figured it out, my blog is all about protecting and educating you, the Internet user, from potential hackers and the ever increasing number of inexperienced web designers. That’s right, I said web designers. New social networking websites are popping up every day and are very popular with many Internet users. Whether they’re a newb or a tech savvy surfer, websites like myspace, facebook and twitter have become a powerful communication platform for everything from making plans with friends for a night out to keeping in touch with distant relatives. But beware friends, what looks like a professionally designed website may not always be professionally done.

Case in point, during my own surfing the other night I stumbled upon this networking site for local clubs and their patrons in some pretty major cities. Once you register as a member on the site, you are free to post messages and communicate with other users. You can also post pictures of yourself and your friends out partying at the sponsoring establishments. Being relatively new to the area I live in, and not really into the club scene, I decided to take a look around and see what’s out there. I got much more than I ever expected!

Secure IT!

While browsing, I realized that there were some areas of this website that were off limits to me until I sign up as a free member. Fair enough, so I click on the "Register Free" link and I am presented with a form into which I am supposed to enter my personal information. I notice the obvious straight away, there is no “https://” preceding the URL in my browsers address bar, nor is there a lock icon in the bottom right corner of my browsers status bar. So what’s that mean? Well, those 2 indicators tell me if the page I am on is using Secure Socket Layers (SSL) as a means of encrypting and protecting my personal information before I transport it over the Internet. HTTPS, or HyperText Transport Protocol Secure on port 443, is a protocol that is simply HTTP but it’s more secured as it uses SSL underneath HTTP.

Ok, so I’d already seen enough to know that I was not going to enter any of my personal data. But wait, it gets worse! This websites developer broke just about every rule of programming basics that I could think of and I was only on the site no more than 15 minutes. Since I was not going to register, I just poked around and looked at few pages when one page gives me this weird error.

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'

[MySQL][ODBC 3.51 Driver][mysqld-5.0.41-community-nt]You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 's Date'' at line 1

/scripts/dataconnection.asp, line 30

Programming Tip #1: Always create a default web page to handle the most common server errors.

So in reading the description of the error on this page, it tells me, the programmer, a few things that might be useful in debugging the problem with the code. It tells me the exact page and line number of code that caused the error. I’ve boxed out the page for reasons you will understand within a few more sentences. So for me, being a programmer of many years, I’m curious now and want to see what the problem could be. So I point my web browser to the alleged problem page to see if I can spot the source of the problem. I immediately roll my eyes and shake my head in disbelief. I can hardly believe that someone would construct a site in such a manner. I quickly disregard the multiple instances of loosely written SQL statements that are now fully exposed to SQL injection attacks. This sites developer had given me the precise name and location of the database that is the backbone behind the entire site.

I’ll spend a little time on the multiple problems with this single page because I’m shocked at what passes for proper web design these days. Another crucial mistake, the ASP programmer developed this site around a Microsoft Access database. MS Access databases (.mdb files) are the least secure databases in the world next to a flat text file. Not only that, but these databases are easily downloaded by a user if they know its location. Since they told me the exact location openly I did just that. Well ok, only long enough to take some screen shots for this blog and then I deleted it because I am a really nice guy.

I didn’t think anyone really used MS Access for such web applications except for in school projects and pre-development pages. My recommendation if you are creating dynamic web applications is to us MySQL Server. It’s free, secure and available by most web hosts for a small additional fee. If you can spring the extra cash, go with my personal preference, Microsoft SQL Server. Budget crunch or not, there were still a few precautions that the lazy developers of this site could have taken. For one they could have moved the database outside of the hierarchy of the websites root directory. That way, the IUSR (assuming the use of IIS here) can still read and write to the database but it is not accessible to be downloaded through a web browser. Too complicated? Try this, one thing Access does provide is a few different security features to lock a database so that its contents cannot be viewed without first entering a password. Apparently this wasn’t a very important step either as I was able to open the database and view all of the personal information of more than 12,000 people in my area.

The database included first and last names, email addresses, passwords, cell phone numbers, home address etc. This in my opinion is just pure negligence on the programmer’s part and this person should be flogged and thrown off the nearest tall building. Especially in today’s society given the focus that is on identity theft. I could go on and on with this topic and I will likely come back to this as an example of basic programming do’s and don’ts. I didn’t mean to rip on the folks who created this site but it was too perfect of an example for my first blog post to pass up.

Hope you enjoyed my first post, now go tell your friends to read it too!

Happy coding,

Bill @ gnidesign