InsideOut Solutions

DNS Update for InsideOut Solutions Web Hosting Clients

February 20th, 2013 by

Workstation

This DNS update from InsideOut may mean a little work on your part, but the increased security and upgraded services will make it all worth it.

In recent weeks, InsideOut Solutions has been pursuing an update in services for you, our client.  As always, we strive to stay ahead of the curve in the web industry.  This means that services occasionally need to be updated so that visitors to your site have the best possible experience and so that our services to you run smoothly and efficiently.

Many of the service updates we conduct often take place in the background and without interruption to your website(s).  From time to time, though, we might need to approach you for information to help us do these updates.

This is one of those times.

Currently, we are in the process of upgrading DNS hosting for domains and email hosting into a new, more secure system.  To help us with this, we have hired Josh Wise, an associate of Brad Doss, our Systems Administrator.

Josh Wise, InsideOut Solutions Web Technician

Josh Wise

Josh Wise works from the Northwest Arkansas area (which is why you might notice his area code is 479).  We want to let you know that it is safe to correspond with him either by phone or email for the information he requires to complete the transition of your domain(s) and email.

If your domain is already registered with InsideOut Solutions, Josh has likely already completed part of the transition, and he and Brad may be contacting you within days to begin transitioning your email, as well.

Feel free to contact Pat (pat@insideout.com 1-800-500-8401 ext 302) or Shawn (shawn@insideout.com 1-800-500-8401 ext 307) with any questions or concerns.

To our clients, we say thank you for choosing InsideOut Solutions.  Should you be looking for a managed website hosting solution, please feel free to contact us.

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DNS Services (DNSsvc.com) “Invoice” Is a Solicitation

November 21st, 2012 by
Note: This is not a bill from InsideOut Solutions
The “bill” recieved from DNS Services is not associated with InsideOut Solutions. We are just reporting and educating people to be wary of these services. Please do not contact us disputing the bill.

Money Grab

Don’t pay for services you don’t need.

When Is an Invoice Not at Invoice?

Some of InsideOut Solutions’ clients have alerted us to a purported Domain Name Service (DNS) back-up service provider that goes by the name DNS Services (DNSsvc.com) and lists a business address of Vancouver, Washington.

If you receive what looks like an invoice from this company via mail or email, do not respond to it or make a payment – it is simply a solicitation that our web hosting clients don’t need.

In short: Don’t be fooled – dispose of mail or email from DNS Services.

Read on for more information.

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Plagiarism: Illegal, Unethical…and Devastating to Your Google Search Rank

July 29th, 2012 by

Don’t Copy & Paste Your Way to the Bottom of Search Results: Make Sure Your Website Content Is Always Your Own – and Protect It!

The Bad Artists Imitate, The Great Artists Steal by Banksy

While artists like Picasso and, more recently, Banksy might, with tongue in cheek, condone theft in the name of greatness, doing so online can kill your search engine ranking.

The success of your internet marketing depends a great deal on the text that appears on your website pages, blog posts, directory listings, etc.

There’s been a great deal of controversy over how damaging it is for a business to have “duplicate content” – that is, text content that is copied from one place to another on the web (even on the same website).  While the detrimental effect of duplicating your own content is still hotly debated, there is no controversy about duplicating content that is not your own.

In short: Don’t do it.

It might seem harmless to copy and paste bits or even sections of text from other sources, such as using Wikipedia to fill in information about your area, but it is illegal…and devastating to your search engine rank when (not if) discovered.

Before we get to far into how plagiarism can hurt your search engine marketing efforts specifically, let’s get some definitions:

What Is Plagiarism?

pla·gia·rize verb \ˈplā-jə-ˌrīz also -jē-ə-\
transitive verb
: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source
intransitive verb
: to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

“plagiarize.” Merriam-Webster.com. 2012. http://www.merriam-webster.com (20 July 2012).

So, if writer “A” uses text previously written by writer “B” without proper credit, writer “A” is plagiarizing the work.

What is Internet Plagiarism?

Internet Plagiarism

Copy and paste are useful functions in electronic media, but should never be used to pass someone else’s work off as your own.

Plagiarism on the internet, generally referred to as “content scraping,” is simply copying and pasting content (text and/or images) from a source without proper citation.

Content scraping has been around for a long time on the internet and was used extensively for years, without repercussions, to build search index-able content for websites.  Those days are long gone.  Plagiarizing content now can have serious consequences from a legal and search rank point of view.

What Are the Legal Dangers of Internet Plagiarism?

Today, there are a number of tools used to identify content scraping.  Businesses and organizations that discover plagiarized and/or improperly cited work can slap the plagiarist with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Removal Notice.  If the scraped content is not removed or cited properly, the business or organization may file a copyright infringement lawsuit.

What Are the Search Rank Consequences of Content Scraping?

How Search Engines View Plagiarism

Search engines like Google, Yahoo & Bing view unoriginal content as a hindrance to delivering quality results and will penalize websites using scraped text.

When (not if, these days) discovered, search engines penalize plagiarized content by lowering rank or, if the content scraping is severe enough, removing a website from its results.  If you re-publish without proper citation, you will likely see a drop in rank and, hence, in visits via the search engines that have made the discovery. 

Google Panda rolled out in February of 2011 and has received 13 major updates since.  Panda’s focus is on both rewarding quality content and slapping sites with little quality content, stolen or duplicate content, and a high ad-to-content ratio.  Bing and Yahoo also penalize scraped content they discover.  An article from your chamber of commerce might be a good resource for your website visitors, but it won’t help you at all of you drop off Google, Yahoo and/or Bing.

Despite the high potential for penalization, there are many websites that plagiarize content and attempt to establish their “version” as genuine, meaning you need to protect your content.

How Do I Protect Myself from Internet Plagiarism?

There are many tools available to businesses and organizations for fining plagiarized content on the web.  If you have a small website or publish new content infrequently, you can generally get by with a free service such as Plagiarism Checker or Article Checker, which allow you to search for duplicate content by (ironically, enough) copying and pasting text or entering individual URLs.

If you have a larger site and/or publish frequently, you will want to consider a paid service from providers such as Copyscape or Plagiarisma.

If you find a site has plagiarized your content and you want to take action on the copyright infringement, you may use the DMCA Online Service Provider directory to find a designated copyright agent to contact.

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Will Bing Go Bada-Boom or Bada-Bust…? A Lot Rides on Microsoft’s Xbox and Facebook

June 27th, 2012 by

Internet Marketing on Bing: What should be your strategy be with recent announcements about Xbox & Facebook?

Bing LogoBing now regularly edges out Yahoo as the second most used search engine and the overall trend indicates that it will continue to eat away at Yahoo’s share of the search pie.

Bada-Bing

The upcoming year may finally seal the fate on whether Bing goes bada-boom or bada-bust. Either way, it’s not going down without a fight.

Thus far, Bing has not been able to take a substantial bite out of Google’s market share, but has instead taken bites out of every other search provider (swallowing some almost whole). As Bing now controls the back-end of Yahoo search, search marketers tend to lump them together as Microsoft when talking about market share. Doing so gives Microsoft about half the market share of Google and that remained fairly consistent as we head into summer of this year.  Even so, Microsoft reported a $2.6 billion loss in its online services division in the last fiscal year.

But there are changes coming that could help Bing finally bite into Google’s dominant share of the pie.  In this article, you will learn about two major changes and what you should do to ensure that your search marketing efforts on Bing will benefit from its increased use.

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Mobile Website Upgrade for WordPress Websites

May 27th, 2012 by

Internet Marketing News: WordPress Websites Have a New Mobile Option

Mobile Devices

The mobile web shows no sign of slowing its growth; make sure you have a mobile website that's ready to compete!

Mobile website standards, as with everything else related to the internet, have continued to evolve at an increasing rate and InsideOut Solutions is proud to announce a new mobile website solution for our Inndx and WordPress website customers that offers greater design flexibility, content management, search engine optimization features.

This totally new version of our mobile website feature for WordPress websites is a major upgrade from the version we rolled out to our clients in May of 2011. The all-new administration interface makes management of your mobile website more efficient. The mobile site as it displays to visitors is more user-friendly with larger, easier to click links.

Have a look at one of our first clients to use this new mobile website service and compare the previous version with the new:

Previous WordPress Mobile Website Header

Previous mobile website was good, but we recognized a need for easier thumb clicking of menu items.

Mobile Website for 9 Cranes Inn

The new mobile website for WordPress is "thumb friendly" and customizable to meet your mobile marketing needs.

The new mobile website is packed with improved features to help clients improve their ability to effectively market their business in the mobile marketplace.

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Will Google’s Changes Hurt Your Website (and Google)?

March 25th, 2012 by

Internet Marketing Weekly: Google is Changing – Not Always for the Better for Your Website

Of the recent and rumored changes at Google, many have one thing in common: they are designed to entice Google users to remain on Google sites rather than click through to non-Google sites.

The reason is straightforward enough: Google is in the business of promoting Google products in addition to being the leading search engine (and online advertising seller).

Let’s break it down:

Google Direct Answers

Ask a question and get a direct answer from Google.

Google acquired this technology from the Squared software of its own Google Labs and from an acquisition of Metaweb Technologies, both in 2010, and have slowly rolled out these direct responses to questions entered into Google search.

Google search result for age of Barack Obama

The direct answer from Google to the query for "age of Barack Obama" appears above the organic results and is only superseded by an ad purchased by the official website.

Direct answers  to questions appear below the ad row (if applicable) and above the organic results.  They cite their sources, but they don’t link to them directly in the answer, you have to click to reveal the sources.

Sure, direct answers don’t apply to a whole heck of a lot of queries related to bed & breakfast inns and other small businesses right now, but some queries for events in specific areas do get direct answers, so it may already impact chambers of commerce and visitors bureaus.

The acquisition of Metaweb’s Freebase was made specifically to get software that will increase the sophistication of analysis of questions and supply of answers, so the burning question is this: How will Google evolve their direct answers to keep users on Google?  Google is playing this close to the vest, so stay tuned.

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Facebook Page Plugin for WordPress Websites

March 11th, 2012 by

Internet Marketing Weekly: Manage Facebook Page Content via Your WordPress Website

InsideOut Solutions is pleased to announce the release of our Facebook Page plugin, which allows WordPress website clients to manage content on a specific tab or their Facebook business page simply by logging into their WordPress website.

Use WordPress Plugin to Manage Facebook Content

The Facebook Page plugin for WordPress by InsideOut Solutions allows you to manage the content of a custom Facebook business page tab.

Whether you have a bed and breakfast inn website on Inndx or we host a WordPress website for your small business, dude ranch, destination lodging, association, chamber of commerce or visitors bureau, this WordPress plugin makes it easy to manage a custom tab with photos and information about your business on Facebook.

The Facebook Page Plugin for WordPress

FB Page on WordPress Admin Menubar

Once activated, you'll find the Facebook Page Plugin button between Video Tutorials and Gallery buttons in the left sidebar of your WordPress website administration area.

Content for the tab on your Facebook page is managed via the “FB Page” plugin page of your WordPress administrative area, the link for which is found in the left sidebar, and includes:

Description – Enter introductory text for the Facebook page here. This text may be formatted just like any page or post of your website.

Contact Information – This checkbox displays the contact information of your business that’s entered into the WordPress settings – no need to retype it here and it updates automatically should you change or add contact information.

Facebook Page Plugin Administration

The Facebook Page plugin administration area offers an easy drag-and-drop feature for photos.

Availability Link – This checkbox sets up a button that link to availability calendar or reservation system entered into your WordPress settings, ensuring that any changes you make to your calendar provider on your website is automatically updated on your Facebook page.

Gallery – Drag and drop up to five images from your website, located in the sidebar to the right as thumbnails, into this area. Once in the Gallery, you can reorder the photos and replace them as often as you like.

Facebook Page Plugin Items Administration

Use the Facebook Page plugin Items to display custom content, links and photos for rooms, specials, facilities, services and more.

Items – Items are things you want to list specifically on your Facebook page tab. For a bed and breakfast website we would recommend:

  • Facebook-only or general special(s)
  • Facebook-only or general events
  • Rooms – show each as an item or target rooms you tie to your Facebook-only specials
  • Special facilities or services, such as weddings, spa, tours, etc.

Each Item may be given a Name, a drag-and-drop photo selected from the right sidebar, an appropriate Link (e.g. to an availability calendar, more information on your website, etc.) and a Description.  Each of these may be edited anytime you want.  You may add Items to your tab and you may delete them by clearing all fields and removing the photo.  It’s that simple!

Footer – Enter any closing text for the page here. This text may be formatted just like any post or page of your website.

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Your Website Branding Should Be Your Own Brand, Not Anyone Else’s

February 5th, 2012 by

Internet Marketing Weekly: Don’t Cede Your Website’s Branding to Promote the Brand of a Paid Membership

Post No Bills: Don't allow other brands to dominate your website.

Don't allow other brands to dominate your website content or important code.

Your website is your property (heck, even the place it is kept is called your domain). As a business, your website is the primary place to market your business online. Anyone who reaches it, whether by search engine or referring site, should be enticed to stay there and learn more about your company, not given every opportunity to be sent off to another website before they can get to know more about your services or products.

If a paid membership website asks you for advertising space on your website, which many do, be careful about how far you go in promoting your membership in, and association with, that organization.

We received word recently of a paid membership organization - which we’ll call “X Directory” – offering a “marketing tip” it ostensibly received from one of its members advising each member to add the X Directory name to the “Title line” of their website home page.

This “tip” is recommending that you promote your membership in X Directory on the Title tag of home page: the most important page of your website. The Title tag of a website is the primary tag search engines use to determine validity of your website for keyword placement. The first 65 characters of the Title tag are all that you have to promote whatever keywords you want to be most competitive for on that page.

Also important to note is that the title is also what shows up as the link in search engine query results.

Yahoo Internet Search

Would Yahoo's search query results for "internet search" be improved with "Powered by Bing" in the linked title? It may be factually true, but it isn't helpful for building Yahoo's brand.

By giving prominent title positioning for the name of X Directory on your home page, you are telling the search engines that this name is important to this website. Yet, it’s not your business name, nor is it related to you in any way accept that you pay X Directory for membership; membership that’s supposed to promote your business. If X Directory is advising you to promote theirs in such an invasive and aggressive way, you have to ask yourself if X Directory has your marketing interests in mind.

Whose Brand Are You Promoting?

Brand confusion

Who's in charge here - Sample Inn or X Directory?

We’ve also heard requests from paid membership directories advising members to add their directory’s logo and link placement “above the fold” in the header section of the layout on a member website’s home page (or, in some cases, all pages). As with ceding space on your title tag, giving prime page layout “real estate” to an external link is not recommended from an website marketing point of view. This is especially true now that a Google Page Layout Algorithm Improvement is, as of January 19, penalizing websites that have too much advertising or other “non-content” located “above the fold” of a web page.

The first thing we recommend you do when you see advice like this is check the value of the source. When it comes to a paid listing on an online directory this is easy to do in Google Analytics.

If you have Ecommerce tracking set up, it’s a matter of tracking the that referring site (and any affiliated sites) as sources of transactions. If you pay X Directory $1,200 per year to be listed on the X Directory website and affiliates Y Directory and Z Directory, you would look at those Ecommerce transaction sources to see what your $1,200 bought you in terms of online revenue and take that into account as as a major part of evaluating your membership with X Directory.

Evaluate the Ecommerce revenue of paid directory listings.

Ecommerce revenue should be a primary consideration when evaluating paid directory listings. Looking at X Directory's revenue for the last 12 months, is $1,200 per year worth it?

If you don’t have Ecommerce tracking in place, you can still evaluate your paid online directories with Google Analytics by looking at visit quantity and, most especially, quality from those sources of website traffic.

Bottom Line: “Membership Has Its Privileges” is the slogan of American Express. Of course, membership also has its price. When it comes to paid directory listings, a reasonable price might include a reciprocal logo link with the logo given correct alternate text and placed “below the fold”. It may even require home page placement of that link. From a website and search marketing perspective, it should never include the requirement or even suggestion to surrender valuable space in your home page title tag or the “above the fold” content of your website pages.

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Internet Marketing Resolutions for 2012

January 1st, 2012 by

Internet Marketing Weekly: Use the Lessons from 2011 to Plan Your Internet Marketing Resolutions for 2012 and Increase the Effectiveness of Your Online Efforts

At the start of this new year, you may be experiencing an internet marketing hangover from 2011 and who could blame you? It was a hurricane (no mere whirlwind) of changes this last year. Highlights included:

Google

Panda bears may be lazy, but Google Panda has been anything but with 9 major updates since its release in 2011.

Panda bears may be lazy, but Google Panda has been anything but with 9 major updates since its release in 2011.

Google released 21 major updates in 2011, up from eight in 2010, five in 2009 and two in 2008. Most of these updates were centered around updates named for an endangered bear. In terms of search engine marketing, 2011 could be called The Year of the Panda. These updates were implemented to return higher-quality search query results by placing quality websites near the top of the search results and lower the rank of low-quality sites. Many complaints, a request from Google for help in gathering data, and several updates later, it appears Google Panda is finally starting to deliver on its promises.

Mobile Device Internet & Search Usage

According to StatCounter, the mobile device market for internet use continued to grow throughout 2011, rising to from just over 4% in December 2010 to 6.5% overall in November 2011.  In the search market, mobile devices now account for 20% of search engine queries.

Social Media Marketing

Google Plus logoGoogle+, the search engine’s latest and strongest foray into social media, was opened up for business profiles in November.

Facebook News Feed

Showing up in the news feed of your Facebook fans becomes increasingly important as your fan base grows.

Facebook announced their new Timeline personal profile feature, which rolled out worldwide on December 15, 2011.  The biggest lesson of 2011 for businesses on Facebook, though, is the need to be active and effective in engagement via the news feed of your fans.  The reason for this is the relative lack of traffic to a business page once “liked.”  A PageLever study of Facebook analytics shows that as your fan base grows the percentage of fans visiting the business page shrinks.  This does not mean that you don’t need to worry about the branding and extra features of your business page; it does mean that you will need to increasingly focus on the timeliness and engagement effectiveness of your postings to compete for visibility to your fans.

Twitter announced a new interface that is billed as more “follow friendly.”  YouTube announced a new design to enhance its social interactivity features.  All of these social media outlets are increasing their competitiveness for their slice of your social media marketing efforts.

Recommended Internet Marketing Resolutions for 2012

With 2011 now in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to make sure your internet marketing efforts are ready to meet the challenges as they emerge in 2012.

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