Webmaster Blog

In the world of the SEO, an efficient link building strategy has always relied on getting as many quality references on the web as possible. As most of us have learned so far, the keyword here is “quality” and any attempt at search engine manipulation gets penalized, rather than appreciated. Apparently, some so-called “SEO experts” still neglect the quality-over-quantity mantra when it comes to developing link building strategies, which is what leads Google and all the other major search engines to constantly sharpen their measures against such practices. Now, even if you are aware of the importance of quality, there exists a possibility that your website gets some unwanted backlinks. This is usually, though not exclusively, the case with companies that hire random SEO agencies to help them build their online reputation. These agencies typically offer unnaturally short period for your website to get listed in Google’s search and promise thousands of backlinks that would eventually get your website loved by the engines. Another possibility is that your competitor has started a negative SEO campaign against your website, which can result in dozens or even thousands of bad backlinks pointed to your website. What are bad backlinks? The first step in...

Due to fact that WebmaisterPro is user content driven social network, we've received warning in Google Webmaster Tools on 20th of March 2014. Obviously user generated content was not the main reason. Many members of WebmaisterPro submit quality articles linked to official sources, unfortunately many submit “garbage” blog posts, with main purpose of link building, even probably link selling! Actually, I have figure out that something is not quite right on 18th of March (2 days before receiving penalty). Practically, I was already prepared with appropriate action. On 20th of March, few hours before I read the news regarding MyBlogGuest, I used to know that Google will not stop here and actually WebmaisterPro is one of the probable targets. We've got the warning message and 5 minutes later, I've pushed WebmaisterPro “security” update and submit reconsideration request. It was quite strange that only the website PR was affected, but actually all SERP was standing, even during the Google penalty period, SERP were intact and WebmaisterPro even achieved higher rankings (probably due to another algorithmic update) About 30 minutes ago, we've received a new message in Google Webmaster Tools that manual action and penalty are revoked. So it took about 5 days...

This article represents the truth behind Google actions related to link buying and selling, though guest blogging. On 20th of March the biggest guest blogging network MyBlogGuest was penalized by Google, but in addition to this, publishers blogs that were members of MyBlogGuest also received Manual Penalties and notices in Google Webmaster Tools. The news were covered immediately by some of the top SEO portals like SearchEngineRoundtable, SearchEngineLand, SearchEngineWatch, etc... , though none of this article covered in depth of what exactly is going on and why Google took action against guest blogging. This article will do exactly this, to explain the truth about guest blogging! As owner of one of the biggest blogging networks – WebmaisterPro, I will share what trend I have seen in the last few years and tell you what need to be changed in the mindset of bloggers, ghost writers, link builders and self proclaimed SEO experts. We've also received warning regarding large number of outbound links! Google is Right To Penalize Guest Blogging Guest blogging is a system that is terribly abused! I will put few bullet points and try to explain every single one. Guest blogging is abused mainly because: low quality guest blog...

Many companies and individuals have fell into trap of the rising trends related to developing own social networks. Following dreams of success without proper planning, technical skills and knowing what does it take equals to wasted efforts, money and time. Probably before you try build your own social network, you should start with you first successful web project or even just a blog. You can learn how to be successful online with the following article - Brief Overview of Successful Blogging. Without going into details related to technical part of developing your own social network, I will try to explain the first steps of taking the challenge and start the project on a “right foot”. Just scratching the surface of critical areas that will build strong foundations of web social network project. Planning Stage Planning involves a lot of knowledge and team work. A great idea, even unique isn't enough. Social science is extremely complicated and the fact that your unique idea doesn't have any competitors, doesn't automatically mean that project will be successful. Briefly every web project should be looked like any other business, a lot of the basics related to off-line business strategies apply with full power: Knowing your...

I am happy to introduce David Leonhardt a.k.a.The Happy Guy Marketing - journalist, writer, blogger, social media marketer, etc... Successful professional, well recognized in his field, in addition good friend of WebmaisterPro.   David, would you introduce yourself with few sentences?   My background is in public affairs - media relations and consumer advocacy - but I've been a freelance writer and promoter for the past decade. I run The Happy Guy Marketing.   Dave, without stepping into your personal space, would you share what drives your creativity?   Electricity, of a sort... What I mean is, when I can put ideas together, I feel a charge and I get motivated and passionate. That applies equally when planning an article or blog post, or when I am planning a promotional campaign. Sort of like Dr. Who, just not as cocky.   Does it require courage to be article writer, blogger and Internet marketer?   It takes courage or stupidity or both to take a leap of faith and jump out on your own. The fact is that when I did it, my goal was actually to become a motivational speaker. I had my book and I had become a DTM (the...

Happy to announce WebmaisterPro's “2nd Blogging Contest”! Starting date 21st of March 2014 and we will accept blog entries until 21st of April 2014. The winner will be announce on 24th of April 2014. Every member of WebmaisterPro can participate in this blogging contest. If you are not a member yet, you can create new account here  or you can simply login with Facebook, Twitter or Google account credentials (top right hand side). Blogging Contest Rules Rules are simple to follow: Create account (if you don't have yet) Submit article for approval at our webmaster's blog Promote your article (social media, your blog/website, etc...) Everybody can participate with unlimited number of blog posts (entries) submitted between 21st of March and 21st of April 2014. The winning article will be the: Article with highest number of visits Most Facebook likes, retweets, pins or G+ For this contest we will introduce new rating system: Number of visits equals to number of points Every G+, Facebook Likes, Pins and Tweets counts as 2 Example: Article receives 2000 visits, 2 G+, 5 FB likes, 20 Re-tweets and 2 Pins got 2058 points. Of course number of likes and retweets definitely will bring more visits to...

In 2013, enterprises around the globe have made flash standard equipment for their storage arrays.  As the end of the calendar year is only days away, it is difficult to foresee a new enterprise-class storage array being developed and deployed without incorporating flash in one form or another. Flash memory has taken the staid storage industry by storm.  First utilized in consumer products, such as the iPod, flash storage has now become the new star of enterprise IT.  A primary reason for this is speed. At speeds of up to 400 times faster than standard rotating disks, flash-based solid state disks, or SSDs, are capable of proficiently handling the growing storage needs of today’s evolving enterprise IT.  When comparing flash storage vs SSD, the speed differential becomes apparent in no time at all. As an established mainstay in enterprise environments, flash array storage is a significant driver of faster system responses and communication channels.  Through the use of flash storage, social networking companies, such as Facebook, are able to better respond to increased traffic burdens.  Flash storage is also behind numerous new cloud-based services.  This new technology is creating a rising demand for enterprise-level storage and digital content distribution.  The demand...

Becoming a successful blogger is not an easy job, sorry I have to disappoint many people, but making decent amount of money fast through blogging is not an easy task either. Probably about 3% of blogger can make living from blogging, may be even less. If you are a blogger (probably you are) and If you are from these 97% that are not happy with earnings from blogging, then this article is for you. If you are looking to make quick buck, than blogging is not for you, SORRY! What Does it Take to Be Successful Blogger There isn't a recipe that work 100%, but there are evergreen guides that should be followed strictly. First of all blogging is a job, blogging is a business and require special attention to all aspect that I will list below! One more thing, these rules apply for any kind of online project. Knowledge You knowledge is the first key to success. In addition to all web development, on line marketing and server management skills that you probably have, you need to understand very well the subject you want to write about, you. Let's say that you don't have much IT skills, then your can...

What else could be better than your own business network? This is how private cloud benefits you. But for business, cloud has many more things and facilities to deliver. Private cloud is now considered the best enterprise solution ever. It technologically connects the real world with everything on the table and in computers. Here are top reasons for using cloud for your business purposes. Highest Security The data storage in cloud is far safe for enterprises than any other data storage facility. The security is completely handed over to the owners and controllers. Manage and control it the way you want. Fortunately, the controlling levels are ideal to enterprises. Limitlessness Do you want to deliver your just-clicked idea to your business partners at 11 PM? No problem! Cloud is there to provide this service. Where public cloud services are restricted to geographies, the private cloud services go beyond the oceans and seas. You can connect with your business friends at any time and from any place. Privacy from Big Three Since more than a decade, the reports about governments overlooking, tracking and reading your data are confusing the businessmen and entrepreneurs. No matter if you set hard security on your system,...

 So many web developers are excited about next version of Drupal, in this case Drupal 8. Drupal 7 had long live as long term support version. My opinion was a step back from Drupal 6 - very similar to one of the most powerful programing language (Python), a lot of modules were not compatible with previous version or were discontinued. Recently we've written Drupal 7 review and listed some of the downsides, but let's see what v8 is going to offer. Now before we start looking at whats new, probably we should take a look on migration options. I've read some positive improvements in this direction. Many trusted blogs claimed that upgrading to Drupal 8 from 7 would be an easy process, though I have to admit that I haven't test this personally. I will keep this preview short as v8 already started making titles in the news and there are a lot of resources, including list of features and improvements on official website: https://drupal.org/drupal-8.0 . Drupal 8 Features and Improvements Authoring A long awaited WYSYWYG is here. Drupal 8 comes with inbuilt CKEditor WYSIWYG editor. In-place editing of content without having to use the full edit form, as well as...

FREICHAT is PHP based free chat script that is developed by Codologic. There are several options related to features and licencing, but in this review we will mainly talk about free version of Freichat PHP chat client. Selecting reliable web chat application/script for your website can be very important step. Adding chat feature can reduce bounce rate and create engagement with members of your social network, blog, e-commerce website or forum. Our team discovered Freichat script about a year ago and we've used it for a while for testing purposes. Recently we've integrated Freichat in WebmaisterPro and we clearly see the benefits of this PHP chat script. Before we continue with this chat script review, I have to say that Freichat is very light self-hosted client with “Facebook chat” alike design, that can be integrated easily with some of the most popular open source CMS and respective components: Joomla Community Builder JomSocial - check our JomSocial review (outdated) EasySocial (not official support yet, but it is working) check our EasySocial review WordPress BuddyPress - check our BuddyPress review WP Symposium - WP Symposium review SkaDate PHPFox SocialEngine vBulletin InvisionPowerBoards custom integrations Freichat Installation Our test involved Joomla 2.5, EasySocial 1.2 RC1...

Web marketing is a complicated beast. You have to write high-quality web content that people want to read, you have to build a vibrant presence on social media platforms, and you have to focus on search engine optimization. As eCommerce levels continue to rise -- web users are expected to spend $1.5 trillion in 2014 -- those tactics are only going to become more important.  While those methods are important, they are arguably not the most important tactics for success online in 2014. Web design is the crucial element of any successful advertising campaign this year. Quite simply, your web design is the lens through which your customers view everything you do. You can write great content, but if it's published on a poorly designed site, it won't matter.  Understanding web design is often reduced to learning code and basic design principles, but to anyone in the industry, it's a much more complex science. Take, for example, web browsers: web pages need to be designed to work with the most popular browsers. This year, that means making sure Google Chrome can display the pages you design as intended.  How Microsoft Lost the Browser Wars Anyone who grew up alongside the internet...

Smart marketers understand how important it is to have a leg up on the trends and changes of their respective markets in order to reach out to the right target audience. In keeping with the success mantra of ‘Go where your audience is!’ it is imperative that the marketers follow the evolving landscape of marketing. With the advent of social media as one of the key marketing tools, traditional marketing is becoming less effective by the minute. While it took television 13 years to reach 50 million users, networking sites like Facebook garnered an audience of 200 million in less than a year’s time. On platforms like Twitter celebrities like Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears have more followers than the populations of entire countries like Sweden! More and more marketers are thus reverting to social media platforms to reach out to a large target base, at minimal operational costs. Moreover, in this competitive market landscape, it is essential that the marketers keep a leg up on trends and changes happening in their respective markets, and accordingly design their campaigns and strategies. Market intelligence shows that 78% of people trust peer recommendations obtained online vis-à-vis 14% who make purchase decisions based on...

Digging out of tremendously deep debt can sometimes seem daunting and an insurmountable task. To tell you the truth, it is overwhelming for most people. Did you know more than 1 million U.S. households filed for bankruptcy in 2013 in a desperate effort to get away from debt? Nevertheless, bankruptcy courts are not the only way to shed debt. There are countless methods to do so, and earning a reasonable amount of money each month is undoubtedly the foundation of them all. Lately, blogging has almost become a profession. There is nothing more amazing than doing something for a living that you are passionate about. If you have decent writing skills, and sharing your knowledge is what you always wanted to do, blogging can definitely be an alternative career path for you. There are countless bloggers out there who are making big chunks of money through blogging, and you could be one of them if you have that fire in you. How to make money blogging? The income streams outlined below (from numerous blogs) can help you earn a 6 figure income every year from blogging, which means you can kiss your debt goodbye very soon. We hope you find the...

With the cloud hosting becoming increasingly popular among the webmasters, it is becoming ever more important to try and identify its influence on SEO practices, but before we dive in, let’s first define the two terms. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is a discipline that deals with increasing a website’s ranking on search engine pages. This is achieved by active outreach, but also by making sure that the site complies with Google’s Webmaster’s Guidelines and as is transparent and visible to search engines’ crawlers as possible. Having your site hosted with a cloud hosting provider means that your site won’t be located on a single server, but instead, in a virtual environment composed of a number of servers, scattered all across the world. One of the immediate benefits to SEO that cloud hosting can have is the redundancy that comes with having a number of servers host your website. You don’t have to worry about downtime due to a malfunction or other server issues, because as soon as one server experiences some difficulties, its workload is relegated to another one. Another benefit that SEOs can get from cloud hosting is the fact that the pages are served locally, which is to...

Technology has maneuvered its way into almost all aspects of people's lives. From shopping to staying connected with loved ones to helping businesses flourish, there is no denying the technological area of the 21st century is booming now more than ever. So, what exactly does this mean for small businesses and large corporations? Does it mean every employee now needs a handheld mobile device? Many business experts say yes to this question, and they believe a great way to go about doing this is by implementing a bring your own device (BYOD) policy. What Exactly is BYOD? Through a BYOD security policy, workers are allowed to bring their own devices to work and use them for business-related purposes. This of course means it is the responsibility of the workers to provide their selves with such devices. Because of this, lower-level workers tend to have cheaper equipment, while high-earning salary workers take advantage of today's most modern devices. No matter the devices used, there are benefits gained. From increased productivity to enhanced worker satisfaction, the benefits of BYOD are far and wide, and more importantly, BYOD is helping businesses to increase their profit levels. Creating a BYOD Policy When companies choose to...

Do the fonts you use say a lot about your company or brand? You bet. To help you understand this, we're going to go over the specific ways that typography says a lot about you and your business. No matter what industry you're in, you need to make sure you pay close attention to what typography you're using so that you can send out a unified message that people will be able to easily understand. Why Typography Matters Here's a closer look at some specific reasons that typography matters so much when it comes to your brand and what people think about it. Image - Typography matters because it allows you to create an image in a customer's mind. For example, if the fonts you use are clear and easy to read, people are going to assume that you have a brand that's friendly and easy to talk with if any questions or problems arise. On the other hand, a bad font can bring a bad image to your brand. Clarity - If your font isn't clear and easy to read, this says a lot about your company. When people have trouble reading, they're going to think less of your brand...

Magento is a highly powerful and considerably flexible e-Commerce platform that develops fully functional e-stores giving your business an edge over competition. Magento is being currently used by around 2,00,000 merchants globally, each recommending this platform further. Businesses feel powered when they are set up using Magento. If facts are anything to go by than 1 in 4 online businesses prefer to set their web shop using Magento. Businesses love to choose Magento to develop their eStore for its flexibility, ease in functioning and the amount of extensions it provides. Magento community and partner eBay Inc. are just added advantage. Is Magento a Good Option for you? There are many shopping cart platforms available in the market at present. Many of them are highly easy to use and do not have the complexities that Magento comes with. In most the platforms you don’t even  need a developer to build your store. Why then do most businesses consider using Magento as the stand essential platform to develop their eStores? Most businesses use Magento because they are referred to this platform but are not aware of its functionality. If a business is planning to migrate to Magento, it should ideally consider a few...

The most crucial factor of online marketing is to get huge amount of targeted traffic for your website. It does not matter if your website get thousands of traffic to your site, but what matters the most is whether this traffic gets converted into sales and establishes long term customer relationships or not. By making use of vague keywords, you can get thousands of web traffic to your site, but this traffic is just irrelevant and simply a waste of your time and efforts. For this reason, you should make it a point to concentrate on targeted web traffic. Why to consider buying targeted traffic? To enhance your website’s popularity and search engine ranking Enhance your sales to a great extent Increase customer conversions Fast, easy and reliable method to increase your sale and visitors Is purchasing web traffic, a good idea? It depends purely on how and from where you are buying web traffic for your website. Are you just wasting your money for advertising or are buying traffic to achieve real results for your business? If your goal is to buy targeted web traffic to capture highly qualified customers and get buyers in the process, then you can expect...

For the last few years, if someone were to ask you what the key to success in small business was, you would have responded that marketing yourself online was the most important marketing tool for generating local foot-traffic and renewed revenue. After all, eCommerce levels are expected to eclipse $1.5 trillion globally by the end of 2014.  However, you need to consider who is contributing to that huge growth. Is it just traditional web surfers, or are mobile users, the fastest growing marketing demographic, playing a key role? With over 50% of people using their favorite mobile devices to search for locally available goods and services online, the answer should be quite clear: mobile marketing is the key to any small business that wants to generate local traffic and succeed in 2014. Let's Look at the Numbers Depending on your industry, using mobile will have different effects. All of them, however, will be positive. For example, if you work in the restaurant industry, optimizing your website for mobile users puts you in the top 5% of all restaurants. Quite simply, 95% of restaurants don't take the time to optimize their web marketing pages for their mobile users. Further, since 62% of...