Month: November 2012

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Did You Know Most Infographics Have Hidden Links?

Infographics are the new web rage, but did you know that most have hidden embedded links in them? The next time someone offers to allow you to use their infographic or solicits your posting their infographic on your website or blog, be aware that you may be unknowingly promoting their hidden link agenda.

The marketing of infographics with hidden links has proliferated so much on the web that Google is now discounting links from infographics. You can read more on this topic in this interesting article on links and infographics at SiteProNews.

First if you don’t know what an infographic is, here’s one as an example on search engines.  They are a visual story that is interesting to look at and contains graphs and data. Usually a site will embed the whole image in a blog post or on a website page. Another view of just the same image so you can see the length.

Here is the crux of the problem:

“…black hat SEO pros saw an opportunity to trick the search engine. They simply create any infographic based on the current trends and link irrelevant text or images back to the target websites. For example, the infographic would be about Euro 2012 but the image of some footballer would link back to a payday loan website. The intention is not to get as many clicks as possible but to generate as many links as possible. So this is how links are hidden behind irrelevant images or text. The links grow as the infographic is shared by real users without noticing the hidden link. While it is no harm for the people sharing the infographic because they find the information good to be shared, for Google a spammy link is being spread which confuses the bots and may make it rank the payday website in the example high based on this.” More information. 

As a result, Google has now discounted links coming from infographics. Although you may still want to use an infographic on your website or blog as they can be interesting and informative, remember that when you link to spammy sites, your own PageRank and website authority are impacted by linking out to poor quality sites.

So, just be aware that really interesting graphic you were just approached to put on your website, may actually have a dark side to it. Just be aware of the down side!

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Business Blogging Tips from a Writing Pro

My firm has been providing blog writing services since 2005. That’s seven years of professional blogging experience. I have recently read and article called “21 Business Blogging Tips from the Pros” and I think the article is a good one and encourage you to read it for more information.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the articles important points as well as many of my own recommendations.

  1. Treat your blog posts as products.
  2. Differentiate your blog from others with new approaches to your content.
  3. Take your own images and create your own videos.
  4. Give all the information, don’t offer part of the picture and sell the rest.
  5. Target your content to your audience.
  6. Focus on your reader first, not search engines.
  7. Be yourself. Let your personality show through your writing.
  8. Answer consumer questions.
  9. Show your full blog post on your blog home page. People will typically not click to read the rest of the post.
  10. Consider limiting what is on your feed to prevent scraper sites from stealing your content.
  11. Explain topics in an easy to understand manner.
  12. Use bullet points and sub headers versus large blocks of content.
  13. Keep your blog posts around 250 to 350 words long.

Do you have other suggestions? Just add them in the comments section below. By the way, if you are looking for a professional blog writing service, I invite you to find out more about the services we offer to help keep the content on your blog unique and up to date.

 

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Vote for the Blog Writer You Like Best in Our Readers Choice Award

Join Our Readers Choice Award Contest

We’ve created a contest for our staff blog writers where you, our reader, make the choice on which writer or blog post you like best. The writer with the most Google+ +1 votes on their unique blog post entry page will win a nice cash award just in time for Christmas.

It’s easy to participate, here’s what to do:

  • Read each five blog posts that our staff writers have submitted for the contest from our pool of clients and then click the Google +1 icon on the page to place your vote.
  • Or choose to simply vote for the writer you like and know by clicking the Google +1 icon on their blog post page.

You will need to be logged in to your Google account in order to vote and have Google+ enabled in your browser. You’ll only be allowed to vote once. Once you vote the Google+ icon will show your name and open a field for you to share with others on Google+. If you click the +1 button again, you will remove your vote.

Voting will run from November 27th to December 11th. On December 12th we will award the cash prize to the top writer selected by Google +1 votes.

Here are some quick blog post lead ins to read. Just click the link at the bottom of the teaser to visit the blog post page and vote.

Jada

Tips for Saving  Money on Your Summer Vacation While  some people plan and book their summer vacations way in advance, if you haven’t  even begun to make plans, don’t worry. If you are flexible you may be able to  snag last minute deals. And you can take the LorMet Visa Travel Card with you so that you have the security of Traveler’s Checks and the convenience  of a Visa Debit Card. You can check your LorMet Visa Travel Card balance online  and take advantage of Online Banking to check on your LorMet accounts when you travel. Read the full blog post and vote now!

Jeff

The Best Worker is Usually the Most Comfortable One The call for more rain than last year in the fall has certainly been proven correct, especially for the East Coast. The weather gurus have also warned about more snowfall to be expected so the time to prepare is now.  It is a must to have the best clothing available when the weather turns bad as wet jeans just don’t cut it when the snow starts falling. Read the full blog post and vote now!

John

Traveling by Private Jet During Peak Seasons Whether you are flying in your own private jet or chartering an airplane, it can be difficult to travel during peak seasons. However, there are a number of things that you can do to ensure that your trip will be smooth and hassle-free. To get the flight or landing slot you want, you should make reservations at least a month or two before your trip. If you are traveling to a popular destination, you may have to book a few months in advance. Read the full blog post and vote now!

Rhonda

Blinging Up Technology Accessories What do you give a person who has everything this holiday season?  You can   forget about buying perfume or picking up a boring gift card this year.  For   those with money to burn, Apple has a great gift idea.  Along with their release   of the much anticipated iPad Mini, which hit stores on November 2, 2012, was an   interesting iPad Mini case that is not for the faint of heart.  You could choose   to purchase the cheap leather case for around $50 or you could indulge in a case   that is simply out of this world! Read the full blog post and vote now!

Sue

Space Center Offers  Exciting Insider’s View of Space Program Less than an hour from Epcot’s World of Tomorrow and Disney  World’s Fantasyland lays a place where dreams really do come true. The Kennedy  Space Center in Titusville, Florida is where rockets launched man into space  and is a must see if you are planning an Orlando vacation.  The space center is where Neil Armstrong took his last step on Earth before  leaving his legendary footprints on the moon. From this famous spit of land on  north Florida’s Atlantic Coast, every fire-belching Atlas rocket, Apollo  mission and shuttle flight was launched into the unknown as Americans pushed the  boundaries of exploration beyond Earth’s boundary. Read the full blog post and vote now!

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Subdomains versus Subdirectories Per Google

Ever wonder how Google views subdirectories or subdomains when it comes to placement on Google.com? In this video Matt Cutts the Google spokesperson to my industry, talks about using each and how Google indexes each.

Previously some webmasters set up multiple subdomains in an effort to have Google show more results, but Matt Cutts now says that this is not a strategy that Google rewards. Google now recognizes subdomains as part of your parent domain listing on Google.com and “squenches those listings now all together on the search results page”.

Further he says the historical reasons on why you would have previously wanted to set up your website with subdomains do not apply as much on Google today. His personal preference and mine as well is to structure your website with subdirectories and not subdomains. However, he ends the video stating whichever tactic is easier for you, you should use that way for your own purposes.