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Help My Meta Description Has Been Hijacked!

This is a real case study and has happened recently to one of our clients. We present it as a cautionary tale to anyone who has dropped significantly in Google search results.

We follow the organic placement for this customer on a monthly basis. This past month we saw that on many of his important keywords he had dropped totally off the radar screen on Google. Additionally in the Google Webmaster control panel in the brand new keyword section word were showing up for his account on casino, blackjack, and gaming.

I closely reviewed his website and any insertions of code and saw none. The client and I got with the web host to review any problems, there were none. Then when the client was reviewing Bing, he saw that his meta description for certain pages of his website mentioned gaming and casinos. This was serious.

I started doing research on the hijacking of meta tags and found on Webmaster World another person who was asking for help to resolve a similar situation but over a year ago. The savvy response was that there was code inserted and cloaking had been done to deliver a page for search engines that no one else could see.

The client got with Network Solutions and a security tech was able to identify that there were two files in the clients WordPress blog that had been altered. One was a 404.php file in the current theme template directory and the other was hidden in this directory: wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/spellchecker/classes/utils/utils.php.

If this ever happens to you make sure to check these two places first. The tech support person at Network Solutions said that using a script like this allows the perpetrator to deliver content just for a search engine on any page they desire of your website.

Man, was that a wakeup call! What a nasty situation! What was even stranger was only certain pages in the website had been targeted. The home page and then just some of the inside directory pages.

Now I don’t know if this client’s site was just randomly targeted or if a sneaky competitor in his highly competitive field was stealing his Google placement, but what I do know is that to me the attack was invisible. I tore up the site looking for code and there was none. I never thought to look in the blog as the blog we had confirmed was not affected with the malicious meta tag problem.

Needless to say we have enabled some serious security, changed all the passwords, and destroyed the code. This example can be a lesson to any person with a website who has experienced and unusual and significant drop in Google. But most telling of all is the brand new tool in the Google Webmaster control panel for popular keywords is an excellent heads up if you have a problem.

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New Blog Writing Client Showcase

We’ve had a ton of new blog writing clients start services in November and want to showcase a few of our new blogs so you can check out our writing and services.

Marco Island Luxury Estates
This is a fun blog done for a real estate firm that specializes in estate properties and condos in Marco Island, Florida. The blog is used to build keyword density on real estate tagged with their location to become the real estate firm of choice for clients looking to buy or sell in Marco Island.

Heritage Pest Control – Crickies New Jersey Pest Control Tips
This blog is being done for a residential focused pest control firm located in Fairfield, New Jersey. Topics include pest control tips and insect and pest profiles specific to New Jersey. The client specializes in bed bugs, animal removal, and termite control services in Northern New Jersey.

Grand Furniture Gallery
This blog is done for an online furniture store located in North Carolina. The blog focuses on specials and promotions as well as provides the opportunity to showcase new products and furniture trends. Check out this excellent online furniture store blog.

Rosenbaum and Associates Law Blog – Philadelphia Top Injury Lawyer
This blog is being done for a top personal injury law firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The topics selected by our writer are chosen to dovetail with the clients services and to provide keyword density on their key services. Blog posts are built around newsy items that are pertinent to their ever growing practice in personal injury law in Pennsylvania.

To visit more client blogs please visit our blog writing services page to find links to other blogs that we currently are writing for.

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Put Testimonials and Ratings to Work for You

The first time you visit a website for a firm that you are considering purchasing products or services from, you will typically check to see if they have reviews or testimonials. This is a great place to see what others who have worked with the firm have said about their experience.

Testimonials are worth their weight in gold when it comes to establishing consumer confidence in your product or abilities. I strongly recommend that every business work hard to solicit testimonies from existing and past clients. I routinely hear from clients, “what if someone says something bad what should I do?” My first response is, if the comment is bad wouldn’t you want to know about it so you could fix the problem and then change how you are doing something to be better?

Here is an example of a 4.5 star rating comment we received that we posted on our website as we felt that the testimony created legitimacy for the other 5 star ratings on the page for our writing service.

“The quality has slowly improved over time as our writer has gained experience with the topic. Our suggestions and criticism were taken well and understood perfectly. Some of the articles are quite inspired, and the embedded YouTube videos and images really make the blog stand out. Overall, it’s really better than I expected.  I will be using your service for another project/website very soon.”

Although this testimony appears possibly not glowing look carefully it addresses that we took criticism and improved to cater to the customer’s needs that they are already considering using our services for other projects. By not editing the comment, we give legitimacy to other 5 star comments on the same page.

“I’ve had a wonderful experience with you. I am really excited to check out my new blog postings. They have helped my sites search engine rankings within 2 weeks. I love how organized you are and how efficient your system is set up. I feel very taken care of and I don’t feel that I have to worry about much.”

Remember however, when it comes to testimonies, you are choosing to show them on your website or not. If you get a bad comment, I would contact the customer immediately to work actively to repair the problem and relationship. I would not place a negative comment on my own website. Sometimes a comment after the resolution of a problem can be even more valuable to your business.

That being said, if you sanitize your comments and edit wording, the comments you place on your website appear fake. For me, I post customer testimonies warts and all. When I post a testimony that is not a perfect score of five stars it gives legitimacy to the other ratings on the page. I will however never publish on my own site a negative rating that hurts confidence in my abilities. That being said I have never gotten a negative rating from a clients – I work very closely with them and work hard to provide exceptional service. I use my rating system as a double check of my service to make sure I am staying on course and focused on my customer’s needs.

You can view all our ratings pages here to get an idea of how you may want to use ratings for your own website:

Blog Writing Ratings

Google AdWords Service Ratings

Web Design Service Ratings

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Lack of Can Spam Compliance Can Cost You

It does not benefit you to not follow the federal Can Spam act. Not only can you have a financial penalty if prosecuted, but you can waste time and money trying to send to a spammy list.

If your e-newsletter list has been created by getting email addresses off of websites, from organization directories, or harvested from publications you read or subscribe to you are in violation of the federal Can Spam act. Your names fit into the “harvested” category. Many clients simply say “no one will catch me” and they decide to play the odds. Yes, it is true they may not be caught, but they may end up spending more money than they bargained for in trying to email to this type of list.

In several cases clients that came to us did not truthfully divulge where their large 6,000 member lists had come from. In both cases they paid money to us to set up subscriber accounts with a service to use to send out their mailings. One client purchased over 10 hours of additional time to scan his printed subscriber lists to create a digital version. In each cases after the first mailing the professional e-newsletter sending services shut down the accounts. One closed the account outright, and two forced these large lists to become double opted in. This means that a confirmation message was sent out and anyone who did not respond would never receive mailings again. Out of the nearly 6,000 that were on these lists under 100 responded that they wanted the mailings. So in essence with a spammy list the customer just threw money out the window in trying to send email to a harvested name list.

The lesson to be learned here is that a spammy list does not do you any good. You may end up spending more money trying to send to this type  list and still end up being shut down. It is simply not worth the effort or risk.