If you are unable to log in to the HuffPost Contibutor Network blogging platform, you should know that the system has shut down. Most people think it shut down due to a pending lawsuit and so that HuffPost could control the direction of their content. | Continue reading
For years, dispensaries providing medical marijuana to sick patients were stuck using random categories such as "medical clinic", "herbal medicine store" or "alternative medicine practitioner". Now, there is a category called "Cannabis Store". | Continue reading
In December 2017, a client pointed out to me that another local business’s blog content was displaying in Google News. I was perplexed at first, as indeed, an article from their blog was displaying in Google News. I checked the site out and it did not appear | Continue reading
On December 11, 2017, I discovered something new in Google’s local search results and also in the Maps results – reviews are displaying for some types of businesses. This appears to be a test at the moment, so who knows if it will roll out to all | Continue reading
On September 1, 2017, the remnants of Hurricane Harvey were passing through central North Carolina after devastating Texas and blew the transformer out on my property a few acres away from my house. So, we went out for a drive. We are near the new development of | Continue reading
As of December 5, 2017, I've been able to get 300 character snippets in Google's mobile search results. Starting this month, Google is now showing larger snippets in both desktop and mobile search results, and to better control the snippet displayed you can now use 300 character … | Continue reading
SFist.com, the website about San Francisco, abruptly shut down on November 2, 2017. It was part of DNAinfo and Gothamist, and other similar sites which closed up shop included the DCist and LAist. Like these other sites, SFist.com had a loyal following and dedicated group of free … | Continue reading
As of December 2017, you can now create Meta Descriptions well over the previous 160 character limit. I have now run multiple tests, and while Google can indeed show its own Snippet in search results, you can influence the snippet shown by using a large, 300+ character meta descr … | Continue reading
A few people have asked me: How long does it take to get a featured snippet? How long does it take to take someone else’s featured snippet? Featured Snipets in Google may be produced instantly, or within 1 second of a page going live on the Internet. | Continue reading
In a change which occurred in November 2017 that most people won’t notice until 2018, page descriptions in Google search results have recently become significantly larger. These page descriptions are technically called “snippets”, not to be confused with “featured snippets”. Most … | Continue reading
Google, Facebook, and a few other tech companies have announced they will team up with Santa Clara University’s Trust Project. By including Trust Indicator icons on web-based news content, tech leaders hope they can help readers distinguish between credible journalism and “fake n … | Continue reading
There are lots of searches where no Featured Snippet (aka Answer Box) exists, but the question is asked frequently enough that if someone put together content answering the search query specifically an answer box would instantly appear. For years, I thought this was common knowle … | Continue reading
Black Friday was quite possibly the biggest missed digital marketing opportunity for Brands in 2017. Google Posts is completely free to use, yet almost no companies used it. Here is an example of Cabella’s using Google Posts which obviously showed tens of thousands, if not hundre … | Continue reading
The Google Local Results are called a variety of things – the Maps Results, the 3 pack, the Snack Pack, the Trifecta, you name it. They are constantly changing. On November 22, 2017, a significant change took place affecting personal injury lawyers. Please keep in mind this | Continue reading
One of the most overlooked things in the world of On-Site SEO in improving existing content. Improving content to better cater to a searcher’s intent is a form of search engine optimization (SEO). Improving content can result in better rankings in Google’s search results. This is … | Continue reading
Content quality is a well known ranking factor. If you have a page which could use improvement and you make those improvements to the page, that page can indeed move into a higher position based on that single on-site SEO improvement alone. | Continue reading
Google tends to roll out lots of new features around the holidays, and in November 2017 there were several updates. One of which is going to hurt Amazon’s organic traffic JUST as they begin their Black Friday week. Did Google intentionally do this to Amazon? If you | Continue reading
I love the Wayback Machine but it has some bizarre and crippling flaws which make it incapable of preserving the web’s content. In fact, the last 5 or 6 times I went to recover old content via the Wayback Machine, the Internet Archive had lost all of | Continue reading
A major change to personal injury search terms took place on November 22, 2017. | Continue reading
I have the fortunate opportunity to work with websites all over the world in a wide variety of niches. Some are business sites which get 10 – 15 great hits every day. On the other end of the spectrum I work with publishers which occasionally get 20,000 | Continue reading
Stop disavowing your links, you old dinosaur. | Continue reading
According to Talos Intelligence, a banking trojan recently targeted people trying to bank online in India called the Zeus Panda banking Trojan. You can read on their blog all about the attack vector and how it works. I’m a sucker for security blogs but this one in | Continue reading
I was on CNN.com earlier today and saw an ad which interested me. No, thankfully I do not have psoriatic arthritis, I was just curious about the ad as I’ve been studying misleading ads lately. So I clicked it. I was surprised to see a search engine | Continue reading
I recently test drove a Pushcrew account. Maybe I do not have the dedicated following a Push Notification service demands. If I had that, would I even need push notifications? Anyways, after about 100,000 visitors to the site, I had around 150 subscribers to my push notifications … | Continue reading
Every once in a while the “age old” question comes up. Is the age a domain or a website a ranking factor? There are many answers to this question. In this quick article I’ll address the important variables along with my insight and even some opinion. Is | Continue reading
To customize and print a poster of your customer reviews, visit smallthanks.withgoogle.com, enter your business name, then select one of the posters or customize your own. You can change the poster template and select your customer review of choice using the Small Thanks with Goo … | Continue reading
In January 2017 I wrote about how Legit News Websites Accidentally Showing Fake News. Shortly after I realized that the “content boxes” distributing the fake news and malicious software we not Outbrain or Taboola but were Google Adsense “Display Ads”. In most cases, when you clic … | Continue reading
Kyokye recently reached out to me and we were chatting about his Snapchat account. I tuned into Snap today and there was was jumping off of a cliff. Here’s a pic he recently posted from Nanakuli: When I asked Kyokye about his Snaps he said: Being from | Continue reading
I have a secret side project I am working on. The site pertains to German Shepherd Dogs. Actually, the site has been on the back burner for many years. I am busy with clients and I’m never going to get to the site if I don’t seek | Continue reading
The UK’s Guardian newspaper gave away 100,000 new virtual reality (VR) headsets to readers in its October 7th publication. This promotion was meant to draw attention to the newspaper’s new mobile app, which will allow users to experience various stories in a VR format. In additio … | Continue reading
I am currently seeking a Veterinarian with a DVM to author content online. (If you’re NOT a DVM feel free to email me anyways, I am always looking to connect with other content creators). I have the content already thoroughly prepared. You can look it over and | Continue reading
Late at night on October 1, 2017, a horrific event took place. A 64yr old man, Stephen Paddock, holed up in his hotel room at Mandalay Bay, opened fire on people having a good time. At this point, the media is still trying to figure out if | Continue reading
On April 28, 2017 Yik Yak closed its app down. On that day, they published an article on their blog. The blog is now gone. I scraped the content and it is here as a “mirror” to be preserved in case anyone ever wants to see it. | Continue reading
Kaan’s Stream Store! I bumped into this online the other day and was blown away. So cool. This is one of those things that made me say “Wow, this is the future of the web”. (Telapost is Latin for the future of the web, too). What is | Continue reading
Tonight I headed over to my local news site, WRAL to see what the deceptive ad of the day is. Front and center was a box which said “Prayers for Sally Field”. I figured this would be a weight loss pill scam like is usually there. But, | Continue reading
Today I was on my local news website, WRAL.com, and I saw one an ad box which screamed “SCAM” at me. Having been online since 1988, I tend to see these things from a mile away. The headlines were just too outlandish. So, of course I clicked | Continue reading
Today I was on my local news website, WRAL.com, and I saw one an ad box which screamed “SCAM” at me. Having been online since 1988, I tend to see these things from a mile away. The headlines were just too outlandish. So, of course I clicked | Continue reading
Should I add 1st Place Medal Emojis to my business name? | Continue reading
This is the question I want answers to. You see, someone began using my identity in May or June 2017. They applied for credit cards in Phoenix AZ, Dallas TX, Durham NC and more. They applied for credit cards from Barclay’s and Wells Fargo and other various | Continue reading
If your data was breached at Equifax, welcome to the club! After the breach, you’ve likely taken steps to freeze your credit at Equifax, or possibly at Experian and Transunion as well. To freeze or unfreeze it, you have to call in or visit the Equifax website, | Continue reading
Toxic link cleanups and disavows are one of the most overblown crocks of BS in the entire SEO industry. I’ve seen various “SEO Experts” and agencies spend months if not years “cleaning up toxic links”. If you have links pointing at your domain that you don’t want | Continue reading
Just two days after h3h3Productions won a monumental fair use trial against Matt Hoss (aka Bold Guy), Akilah Hughes has sued fellow YouTuber Carl Benjamin (aka Sargon of Akkad) over copyright infringement. Hughes, who produces YouTube videos on the channel “Akilah, Obviously,” cl … | Continue reading
No. Unfortunately, if you change the URL on your Facebook Business Page, people visiting the old URL will not automatically be redirected to the new URL. Instead, they will see “The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.” This is shame | Continue reading
Yes. If you change the URL on your Pinterest account, people visiting the old URL will automatically be redirected to the new URL. This week I’ve been assisting a brand with a bit of a rebrand. The company name is changing, so all the social profiles and | Continue reading
During Holidays such as Labor Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Memorial Day Yelp and Google give business owners the ability to set “special hours”. They both added this feature around late 2015, back when I wrote How to Add your Business’s Holiday Hours to Google Maps. Since man … | Continue reading
Internet superstars Ethan and Hila Klein are celebrating a landmark victory for fair use policy on YouTube. A New York district judge just ruled that this couple didn’t violate the U.S. fair use policy in their reaction video to “Bold Guy vs Parkour Girl” by Matt “Hoss” | Continue reading
It is here, folks. August 26, 2017. As a boxing and MMA fan I can confidently state my opinion that Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor is one big circus act which is going to entertain millions and make lots of money in the process. Everyone wants in. | Continue reading
Today Google rolled out a feature they’ve been testing for a couple of weeks now called “Questions and Answers”. The feature now shows up for anyone looking at a business on Google via mobile, and I’m sure it will be available on desktop in the very near | Continue reading