Google Site Ranking Secrets!

Google recently filed a patent showing how they rank your web site.

Here are the highlights!

1) Domain name registration

How many years did you register your domain name for?

If it's only one then that's a point against you.

Why? Most Spam websites only register a domain name for a year.

A domain registered for a longer period implies that the owner is more likely to be legitimate and serious about their web site.


2) Links to your site

Google relies heavily on inbound relevant links to rank a site.

As well as the number, quality and anchor text factors of a link, Google considers historical factors.

Googles 'sandbox' or aging delay begins countdown the minute links to a new site are discovered.

Google records the discovery of a link and link changes over time. The speed at which a site gains links and the link life span.

You must grow your links but be careful who you exchange links with.

Your link anchor text should vary but remain consistent with your site content. No more using your main keywords on every link exchange you gain. That's 'anchor Spam'. Instead vary them around your top five to ten keywords.

Link exchanges are still very important but you must work and utilize them ethically.


3) Click through rates (CTR)

CTR may be monitored through cache, temporary files, bookmarks and favorites, as well as via the Google toolbar or desktop tools.

Sites are rewarded for good CTR with a raise in ranking.
This is similar to how Google Adwords works.

CTR is monitored to see if fresh or stale content is preferred for a search result.

CTR is monitored for increases or decreases relating to trends or seasons (yes seasons - think Ski Resort websites).

• Web page rankings are recorded and monitored for changes.

• The traffic to a web page is recorded and monitored over time.

As Google is capable of tracking traffic to your site you should closely monitor the small amount of copy returned in search results. Place a call to action in there to increase CTR.

Clicks back to the search results are also monitored. Make your site "sticky" to keep visitors there longer. Ask your visitors to bookmark you.


4) Updates

The frequency and amount of page updates is monitored and recorded as is the number of pages.

Depending on your market, fresh content may not be needed. If the information your pages contain does not go out of date then updating may not be necessary.

Changes don't have to mean fresh content. They could involve simple edits to current content.


5) Use of keywords

Changes in page keyword density is monitored and recorded as are changes to anchor text.


6) Domain owner addresses

The domain name owner address is considered, most likely to help in a local search result.

7) The technical and admin contact details are checked for consistency.
These are often falsified for Spam domains.


8) Your hosts IP address.

If you are on a shared server somebody else on that server may use dirty tactics or Spaming. If so your site will suffer since you share the same IP.


Whew! That's a lot to consider! So what does a small business owner do?

Any of these tactics will help:

1) Grow your site as organically as possible.

2) Carry on with link exchanges but consider each site carefully.

3) Vary your anchor text.

4) Add small amounts of good quality content to your site regularly.

5) Check your search engine listings. Edit your site to include a call to action in them if possible.

6) Make your site more 'sticky' to encourage visitors to stay a while.

7) Encourage visitors to Bookmark your site.

8) Register new domain names for at least two years.

P.S. Kahl Consultants is experienced in performing these tasks.
Please contact us for further details!

Recycle your old Hardware!

By now it almost goes without saying that you should reuse and then recycle all your old computer hardware.

For those of you also here in Marin County you can drop off your outdated computer equipment at the warehouse of RENEW COMPUTERS, a San Rafael based company.

Visit their website for further details:
Renew Computers

Want to learn more abour GREEN COMPUTERS? Check out the "Green PC" section at our KC Shopping site:
The Green PC

Resolutions for E-mailers

Dear Fellow E-mailer,

My resolution is:

I WILL NOT FORWARD ANY E-MAIL THAT IS A TYPE OF CHAIN LETTER.

I WILL NOT FORWARD ANY E-MAIL INDICATING GOOD OR BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN SHOULD I FAIL TO DO CERTAIN THINGS.

I WILL NOT FORWARD ANY E-MAIL THAT MAY BE A HOAX WITHOUT CHECKING WITH AT LEAST TWO AUTHORITATIVE WEBSITE SOURCES TO BE POSITIVE IT IS NOT A HOAX.

I WILL NOT FORWARD ANY E-MAIL ABOUT A VIRUS UNLESS I HAVE CHECKED WITH AT LEAST TWO AUTHORITATIVE WEBSITE SOURCES TO VALIDATE THE VIRUS.

I WILL NOT INITIATE CHAIN LETTERS, HOAXES OR VIRUSES.

Make this your resolution! Also remember:

I WILL NOT FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE ON MY ADDRESS LIST BUT I WILL RECONSTRUCT IT SO IT WILL APPEAR AS MY RESOLUTION AND SEND IT TO MY CONTACTS.

I WILL KEEP A COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

I WILL VISIT THE FOLLOWING SITES FOR INFO ON CHAIN LETTERS, HOAXES AND VIRUSES.

Bookmark these websites for checking on the latest hoax, chain letter, virus, etc.:

http://www.kahl.net/hoax/
(Kahl Consultants portal to hoax and virus infos)

http://www.ciac.org/
(US Dept. of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability)

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
(US Dept. of Energy's site referencing hoaxes)

http://www.vmyths.com/
(about computer virus myths, hoaxes, urban legends, hysteria)

http://vil.nai.com/
(Virus information site)

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/
(Symantec's virus site)

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/
(McAfee's site for virus info and other links)

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blxatoz.htm
(alphabetical listing of hoaxes, myths, chain letters, etc)

http://scambusters.org/
(Internet fraud information)

http://breakthechain.org/
(info on chain emails)

http://snopes.com/
(info on hoaxes, scams, rumors, etc.)

Thanks for helping clean up the Internet.

Business Cards - Good and Cheap!

Time to print business cards? You could do this at to a local Print Shop or a Staples or Kinkos, but better yet check out these two online deals!

1) VistaPrint.com

VistaPrint offers FREE color business cards. And they do postcards, fridge magnets, and other stationery with your name on it. You get high-quality card stock, sharp text and vivid color printing, and some colorful templates.

FREE?? Well not exactly, but almost.

First catch: you have to pay postage, so 250 cards will set you back less than ten bucks.

Second catch: there is a small ad for VistaPrint on the back

Not professional enough for you? VistaPrint premium business cards get rid of the ad and let you upload your own logo or picture for about twenty dollars per 250 cards, plus postage.

2) OverNightPrints.com

Use OverNightPrints for competetive overnight services in premium quality. Create your order online. Choose from their designs and customize or upload your artwork. Prices start at $15 for 100 single sided cards.

So next time you need some business cards save yourself time, money and a trip to the printer and try one of these online services!

How To Stop Unwanted Junk Faxes

If you have a fax machine, you've probably received annoying ads that you didn't ask for.

Like junk mail and spam e-mail, "junk faxes" are another way businesses waste our time and invade our privacy. Problems created by "junk faxing" include:

• Blocked Communication. All fax machine owners can have important communications disrupted by junk faxes.
• Shifted Costs, Environmental Waste. Junk fax recipients pay for wasted paper as well as the ink and electricity required to print the unwanted ads.
• Lost Business. A fax machine cannot receive orders and other business correspondence when junk faxes tie up its phone line.
• Lost Sleep. Some automated junk fax systems ring fax numbers day and night. The ringing can wake people who have fax machines at home.
• Lost Time. Faxes are potentially urgent documents, but a junk fax is a let down and a waste of time.

Often, junk faxes have no business name or address, and even if there is a number to call to be removed from the junk faxer's "list," it takes up a lot of time to call for every ad received.

Junk faxing in the U.S. is illegal under federal law, but many junk faxers continue to ignore the law.

Learn how to use the law that lets you sue advertisers for at least $500 per unwanted fax!

Here's how to do it:

1. Save and date your faxes.

2. Identify offenders.
More details at consumerwatchdog.org


3. Find out if the business has been cited by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and file a complaint.

4. Send demand letters.
More details at Nolo Press

5. Sue in small claims court.

6. Sue in state court.
More details at consumerwatchdog.org


Good luck fighting back!

Further resources:

Reduce Junk Mail
http://www.kahl.net/reduce/

JUNK FAXES Stealing Time, Resources and Privacy
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/other/junkfaxes/

'PHARMING' - New Twist on 'Phishing' Scam

"The pharmers are coming! The pharmers are coming!" Hang warning lanterns all over the Internet: It's under attack by a new scam.

For years users have been hearing about "phishing," the sending of bogus e-mails - allegedly from a bank or other online business. Those who click on a link in the e-mail are shipped off to a phony but authentic-looking site and asked to enter sensitive information. If they type in their passwords or account numbers, thieves have that data.

Now phishers have been joined by "pharmers," who have made the ruse more sophisticated by planting a seed of malicious software in the user's own computer - or poisoning servers that direct traffic on the Internet. The result: Even if you type in the correct address of a website, the software can send you to a bogus one.

Phishing attacks require participation of the victims who must click on a link within an e-mail. But not clicking on such links is no protection against a pharming attack.

Here's how the scam works. The URL you use, such as www.my-bank.com, is connected to a distinct numerical IP address. Pharming replaces the number with a fraudulent one, sending you to a criminal site instead of the real one.

Besides keeping antivirus and antispyware programming up to date on their PC, users have few other ways to defend themselves from pharming.

Any site conducting financial transactions should be able to maintain a secure website. The corner of the browser should display a padlock symbol, and the address in the address bar should begin with "https," not simply "http." Click on the lock symbol and make sure it displays the address you are expecting to be at.

Another kind of pharming, sometimes called "domain spoofing," "domain poisoning," or "cache poisoning," attacks the servers that route traffic around the Internet. These so-called domain name system (DNS) servers also link the word address to its underlying numerical address.

To corrupt a DNS takes significantly more expertise than attacking PCs. Thieves first will try to get into individual computers.

The Internet was designed to make sharing of information between scholars and researchers fast and easy, not for secure financial transactions. Now new layers of security continually must be added, as criminals probe for weak points.

Phishers and pharmers set up their fake websites for only a few days or even a few hours, then move on before they can be found out.

But even if crooks can't get at your PC or the DNS server, they can always hope that you just can't spell.

Example: a malicious website was set up at www.googkle.com, just one keystroke away from www.google.com. Users who accidentally went to the site (using the Internet Explorer browser) were inundated with spyware, adware, and other malicious software that tried to secretly load itself onto their PCs. Similar attack sites have been created just a slip of the finger away from sites such as CNN.com, AOL.com, and MSN.com.

The people behind the malicious sites can be anywhere. The PC operating the site could be "somebody's grandmother's computer" being remotely controlled without her knowledge.

"Phishing" FACTS:

• Since 2004, the number of sites linked to the scam rose an average 28 percent a month.

• The US hosted a third of the phishing sites - more than any other nation - followed by China (12 %) and South Korea (9 %).

• Financial services are the most frequent target.

• Scam sites only last an average 5.8 days before they're taken down.

Christian Science Monitor May 05, 2005


Also check out KC Virus & Hoax Alert at:

http://www/.kahl.net/hoax

UPDATE:

This website is good source for phishing news - if you get a "phishy" email look for it here:
http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/

T Clock Light - Great Add on for Windows Taskbar

TClock Light is a very handy applications that allows you to modify the clock on the taskbar in Windows.

Highly recommended!

Free download here:
http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/tclocklight

Instructions:
1. download
2. unzip to a directory (e.g., C:\Program files\TClockLight\)
3. create a shortcut to tclock.exe in your START | All Programs | *Startup* folder
4. reboot
5. right-click on your taskbar clock and select "TClock Properties", then "Clock | Format"
6. Configure to your liking.