4 Immediate Actions you must take if your Website is Hacked

Has your website been hacked? It's not uncommon to see sites getting hacked these days. Even large websites with lots of protection can get hacked. Indeed, it's usually the large and popular websites that are prone to hacking. Security is a major problem these days. And if your site gets hacked, it can get damaged in a number of ways. You could either lose all your data, or your site could lose its ranking due to a malicious software installed. So while you can do backups and stuff, you cannot prevent someone from hacking into your site. So if your site gets hacked, there are some recommended actions you should take to get it back.

Read more � Read more!

Important things to consider Before Starting Blogging in 2013

Blogging is becoming more and more common these days, and there's a blog for almost everything, from health and fitness to free software, and so on. And no wonder why. Blogging is one of quickest and easiest way to get your views or content online. And before you know it, you're immersed in a whole new world of blogging. You can use this blog for anything, sharing your life with friends and family, earning money, educating others, and so on. Indeed, blogging is one of the best ways you can earn money online. But a lot of people who start blogging don't know where to go, or don't keep a few things into consideration. Such things are all the more important right now for anyone who is thinking of starting a blog. Here, we'll try to list some of them.

Read more � Read more!

What has having your own blog taught you about SEO?

If you have any interest in the web-development industry, you will find that there are countless entries on the internet about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - from so-and-so hot SEO tactics to the best SEO practices, and so on. There are also tonnes of blogs and websites like Search Engine Land, SEOmoz etc that provide SEO tools, guides, tips, and more. But can you learn all about SEO from these sources? For a person working in the SEO industry, or working as a SEO, is it necessary for him to have a blog or a website? Have you learned something about SEO that you wouldn't know if you haven't had your own blog?

Read more � Read more!

Why People Quit Blogging?

Blogging has become very popular, and has become a 'hot' way of earning money online. But while so many people make a fortune at blogging, a lot of others get discouraged, and quit blogging. The major reason for this is, some people just don't know how to avoid some pitfalls that accompany the field. There's a lot more to blogging than just writing and earning money in return. Take a look at the top 10 reasons people quit blogging, and learn to avoid those pitfalls.

Read more � Read more!

How To Turn Your Blog Posts Into A Video?

One of the greatest influence in the online word is the power of the written word. People, especially bloggers mostly make use of writing to convey their message to their readers. But have you ever thought of using images, or videos to do the same? Of course, a lot of people use videos and images on their blogs or websites. But how about presenting your awesome blog posts in the form of a video? Maybe not every follower of yours is following your lengthy blog posts that you share on social media, So why not try something new, and present your blog posts in a whole different way?

Read more � Read more!

5 Things to Remember Before Disavowing Links

As we have previously discussed, Google recently launched a Disavow Links Tool. Using this tool, bloggers and webmasters can 'disavow', or disinherit some selected incoming links to their websites, so that Google won't consider those links when evaluating the website. The idea is to prevent spam-backlinking, that can bring down a website's ranking, because Google considers the quality of the backlinks to a website more than the quantity, and hence penalizes for bad or spam linking. So for any malicious websites trying to link to your site, their links can easily be disregarded. But before you go on disavowing every link that looks suspicious to you, there are a few things you should be mindful of first.

Read more � Read more!

How does Google Treat Websites with Sub-domains?

Making sub-domains on a domain has now become pretty popular, and many bloggers are now using sub-domains to create custom pages, such as contact and about pages. Although they look professional (and classy :P), they raise a concern. Usually, they are not part of a theme or template, and are custom designed. So some of the on-page SEO elements might be present. And Google Panda and Penguin is said to be domain-level penalty, with one low quality page effecting the whole site. So the popular question arises; how does Google view these sub-domains? And what is the difference, if any, between sub-directory structure and sub-domain structure?

Read more � Read more!

Do AdWords Customers get Special Treatment in Search Results?

Do AdWords Customers get special treatment in organic search results? This is a question that's become quite common now among webmasters, especially those advertising their website with Google AdWords. And that's understandable, considering the money they spend in doing so. A lot of people also think that if someone buys that ad spot on the right side of the page, then his website gets some sort of an algorithmic boost, and gets an advantage over others and thus ranks higher. Is there any truth to it? And if so, is it any fair to the other webmasters? Google answers this important question in a latest video uploaded by Matt Cutts.

Read more � Read more!

If I quote another source, will I be penalized for duplicate content?

As you all know, Google is pretty hard-up about duplicate content, now more than ever, because an awful lot of blogs and websites have started making money by blatantly copying material from other sources. This not only is unfair to the original source, it also jeopardizes the integrity of search results returned by Google. Hence the stringent TOS (Terms of Service). But what about adding quotations, or sentences/paragraphs quoted from other websites? It does classify as content copied directly from another website. So how does Google treat such content and is it safe to include it on your website? Well, Google just released a video explaining how Google treats such content.

Read more � Read more!

Basic Tips to know before Starting a WordPress Blog

WordPress is a well-known platform for Blogging and it is being used by millions of webmasters and bloggers. It is a self-hosted blogging platform. MBT is hosted on Blogger.com but, there are hundreds of other popular blogs which are hosted on WordPress. So therefore, WordPress can�t be ignored for Blogging. It is also called WP in short words by webmasters. It is a CMS (content management System) which provides you the opportunity to set up your blog easily. And it is totally developed in PHP, a popular web programming language. In this post I will give you some basic tips before establishing a blog with WP. My tips will be for securing WP, optimizing WP and designing WP. But before going straight to my tips I would like to give you some information about WordPress features and benefits.

Read more � Read more!

How To Create an EBook of your Blog Posts?

Writing is one of the most important part of blogging. A blog is nothing but a sequential order of your writings online, available to all who have internet access. But wouldn't it be great if you could create your very own eBook, say from your own blog posts? You could then boast to your friends about authoring a book! Here is a great web app that will create an eBook from your WordPress or Blogger blog, and will then allow you to download it in PDF form so you and others can read it offline!

Read more � Read more!

Should You Remove Backlinks to avoid Penguin Penalty?

Google Panda and Penguin have been some of the most infamous algorithmic updates Google has ever made. They have effected tonnes of websites and blogs, and are still working to devour any website with malpractice that comes their way. We have many times discussed about how to avoid penalty from such algorithm updates. And in them, we have talked a lot about Google's interest in you links, out bound and incoming both. It's common knowledge that Google is now concentrating a lot more on the quality of the links than on the quantity. So a common question easily arises: If you are hit by a penalty, does it help to remove your backlinks?

Read more � Read more!

Guest Blogging For Backlinks - What Does Google Think?

Guest blogging is a very popular way of getting backlinks for a site. It is an effective marketing strategy for a blog, and allows you to publicize you content to places beyond your reach. In short, guest blogging is when you write for another website, free of charge, in return for a backlink (or two). And we have already talked about how linking is important for your website. But doesn't it all look a bit convenient? As in, anyone can write (or spin) articles, and get them published on other websites and get more links to rank higher in Google? Here is Google's take on the subject, along with some best practices.

Read more � Read more!

How To Do Blogging Using Your Voice Only?

Blogging is fun. Not only is it a great way to earn money, it also helps take your mind off things. But sometimes, when the burden becomes great, it is all a blogger thinks about. Juggling your blogging career between academic or professional, and family life can be tricky, because a blog requires some serious time and hard work. Maybe this is the reason why a lot of bloggers can't concentrate on the quality of their content. If only there was a way to reduce the time taken to write a post, so that bloggers could focus on more important issues. Well, luckily, there is! You can do blogging by voice only using voice recognition apps, so instead of writing long posts, you can simply dictate them!

Read more � Read more!

Best practices to help Google find, crawl, and index your site [Latest 2012]

We have already talked about avoiding Panda Penalty for your website, and what to do if you get hit, because apparently, Google isn't very forgiving, and has impacted tonnes of websites. But that is about as far as we can go to avoid a penalty. The next step would be to facilitate Google, and help it find, crawl, and index your website. The easier it is for Google to find your site, the quicker it will be indexed. And the better it is, the faster it will be crawled on a regular basis, hence giving you more organic traffic each day. Here are some of the best practices recommended by Google that you should apply to your website in order to get the most out of it.

Read more � Read more!

AdSense For Feeds Service Shut Down

Google AdSense is one of the most popular ways to monetize blogs and websites. A lot of bloggers and webmasters monetize their sites in different ways to make money. One of the lesser used way to earn money is through tweaking your blog feed to include ads. This is particularly useful for people who have a large number of feed subscribers, so they might as well tap into, and harness the benefits. Ordinarily, Google AdSense for feeds would be a good option for such monetization. But now, Google has decided it's perhaps better off without AdSense for feeds, which might be cause for concern for some popular bloggers.

Read more � Read more!

5 Internet Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Should Avoid

When a new business opens up, it always has to start small. And usually, there's not much margin for error, because being the rookie or the under-dog means handling challenges better than what's expected. For any business, start-up or otherwise, the online presence part is very important, and usually involves a lot of work, from setting up social profiles to producing great content and then promotions, aka Internet Marketing. Such start-ups usually don't know much about the process, and hence end up making mistakes that should not be made. Some of these mistakes could hurt the initial phases of the business. Here are the 5 most inconvenient mistakes that should be avoided.

Read more � Read more!

Access Blogger Blogs and YouTube safely in Banned Countries

We have been receiving a lot of queries regarding some on-going problems with some Google services, especially by those residing in Pakistan, and some other countries where sites like YouTube have been banned. Besides YouTube, the PTA has even blocked Google services such as Chrome web store, and Picassa web albums. As a result, many bloggers, and internet users can't access many sites, and are experiencing issues with some blogger-based websites, and websites that have a lot of content that has been blocked (such as YouTube videos). Some people also have redirection issues. If you are experiencing these issues, here is a way you can safely access these websites, so you might want to give this a read.

Read more � Read more!

5 Tips To Note While Sending a Reconsideration Request To Google

Google has been pretty active lately, and has been releasing various updates to its algorithms such as the Panda algorithm. Tonnes of websites have been hit as a result, because Google clearly has defined some very strict rules with regards to what it classifies as 'spam' or 'low quality'. If your website has been hit by any of these updates, it might not appear in the search results, or it might perform poorer than it used to. In such a scenario, you might want to start creating original, quality content. And if you think you have been unjustly hit, and that it's all a mistake, then you can submit a reconsideration request to Google.

Read more � Read more!

Now you can Create RSS FEEDS For Google Plus

As you might know, RSS Feeds are an alternative way of delivering your content to your readers. Not everyone that visited your site and liked your content will return again and again. Instead, you will have to deliver your content to them if they liked to your content, and say subscribed to your blog. They are, in fact, subscribing for your RSS feeds. These feeds will appear in their email inbox. Additionally, you can use your RSS feed to drive content on other sites of yours, or provide content to users on RSS readers. Feeds don't necessarily have to be from your blog. They can be from anything that's updated regularly, even your Google Plus. An engineer at Google developed a Chrome app, Feed+, that will allow you to create RSS feeds for your Google Plus!

Read more � Read more!