Black Hat Techniques

What are Black Hat Techniques?

When a browser such as Google or Bing is used to search for a specified result, the search engine is not exactly searching the internet, instead, it is searching an index it has created by crawling the web previously and indexing all the information. Because of this, website authors use search engine optimization (also known as SEO for short) techniques. Using search engine optimization allows the browser to understand the information it has sorted through, and better organize this information for the purpose of someone searching for something to find, efficiently. An example would be that the websites which are most high up in the search results are often found so easily because they are optimizing their site to be easy to use, make practical sense, and keep it up to date which tells Google or another search engine that the website is still relevant. Also the fact that it is frequently visited by many people, and people stay on it for a significant time tells google (etc) that you are important. The system is designed to match people with genuinely accurate search results based on what they want to see. It is about good tagging, semantic code, and good clear descriptions.

 However, just like every other system throughout history, there are people out there who wish to find a way to abuse it. These methods for abusing search engine optimization are called black hat techniques. White hat techniques in contrast are like the example above, with good descriptions, frequent updates, etc.

Why is it Important to Avoid Black Hat Techniques?

Black hat techniques are by no means ethical and are not beneficial in the long run. While using a black hat technique does not make someone an actual criminal, it does cause search engines to eventually stop showing the irrelevant results as the algorithms continue to evolve to keep search results relevant to the searcher…after all this is the point of a search engine.

An example of a black hat technique is to use white text on a white background with enticing news about a popular topic that is completely unrelated to the website in question. With a technique like this, you might get a ton of visitors, due to the flashy headline, but these people will get to the website and be disappointed, and leave. This type of black hat technique used to be commonplace, and an example of how the search engines dealt with this by improving their algorithms, was to start measuring “bounce rate” which is the rate at which people get to a site and leave immediately…because this clue the search engine in that people are not satisfied with the search result which means the search engine did not deliver the true best results. 

What to do Instead?

Although black hat techniques gain notoriety from search engines at first, it becomes inevitable that the search engine will continue to get algorithm updates like in the example above to continually get better at showing appropriate results.; usually within a year or so. With all this being said the best way to get a website’s name out to the public crowd is to simply be honest, descriptive, and clear about exactly what your website presents. Use laymen’s terms and don’t try to beat the system. After all, Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information, not to help out a specific business owner in getting traffic. This process might take longer, but with patience and honesty comes trust and potential brand loyalty, and the reward of being found in the search engine results when what YOU have to offer is the best result for what someone is looking for!

Sources

Lahey, Connor “What Is Black Hat SEO? 9 Risky Techniques To Avoid.” Semrush Blog, Semrush, https://www.semrush.com/blog/black-hat-seo/?kw=&cmp=US_SRCH_DSA_Blog_Core_BU_EN&label=dsa_pagefeed&Network=g&Device=c&utm_content=515816481746&kwid=dsa-1053501806627&cmpid=11769537497&agpid=117334844311&BU=Core&extid=167368305027&adpos=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxdSHBhCdARIsAG6zhlULG0fww1SH-38sb7Te0ShblCschFu60z3UxKQujIKMisKHEz22G4AaAjzTEALw_wcB#header3

How to Create Websites With Disabilities in Mind

People with disabilities can not always access the web the same way that people without disabilities can. For this reason, the Americans with Disability Act (or ADA for short) requires that websites of companies that have at least 15 employees and operate for at least 20 weeks in a year must properly accommodate people with disabilities, or face a potential fine of as much as $30,000.

A good rule of thumb to follow in order to make sure your website is accessible and compliant is to follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (or WCAG for short). The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines consist of simple and straightforward questions that someone can ask themselves about their website, such as…

• Is the website easy to navigate?
• Is the website easy for different types of impaired people to perceive?
• Is the content easy to understand?
• Is your website compatible with assistive technologies?

These factors can be addressed in the design of the website. Another way to accommodate people is that website designers can create their own software for accommodating those who have special needs, however, it is usually better to purchase premade software from another company. A good example of a company that someone can purchase this software from is accessiBe. A few examples of what programs like accessiBe can do are…

• Change Color in ways that can help colorblind people see the website’s visuals.
• Change the size and shape of the font for people who struggle with reading.
• Provide subtitles to videos for the deaf.
• Provide audio readers for the blind.
• etc.

Responsive Design

When a web page is created, the content being displayed is set up in a certain order for the purpose of keeping the structure organized. It can easily be noticed that the organization of a web page changes when a person is using a tablet or smartphone. This is because every section of a web page contains mark-up and styling telling the browser how to display the site including which section should be shown first, and what should be eliminated, or added depending on the situation. Responsive design takes into consideration data such as screen width then had a variety of displays depending on this data. An example is when on a desktop you may see three or 4 products per row with images appearing to be 2’x2’, but on the phone, instead of seeing a scaled-down version of this, you might see the content re-arranged. The images may still be 2’x2’, but it is likely that they will stack and be arranged in a row of one or two for easier viewing on a phone, or tablet. See images.

Desktop: 

Mobile:

Web pages typically contain more details and sections on a desktop display, and more simply on phones. Responsive design is needed in order to adapt to different forms of common technological devices to make them easy to use for the person visiting the website. For this reason, when a website is being designed it must be designed to adapt and be tested to see if it works on all types of devices so that it can be confirmed that the organization has designed its site to be flexible and responsive, and free from errors or difficulties for the user.

How to reset your password:

We recommend the following steps to help keep your account secure.

1. It will say “reset password” on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Click “reset password”, the website will prompt you for a code, you will then be sent an email containing that code, that you will enter on the platform’s website. You will then be logged in after you enter the code.

2. Provide a phone number or email address on the platform’s website, where it can be used to recover your account for security purposes, such as if you get locked out of your account, you can enter your phone number or email address to verify that you are the owner of the account. It will say on the site were to enter this information.

3. When entering passwords or other important information on a website, make sure it is the correct address, and not a fake account used for phishing purposes. For example, there may be sites that impersonate Facebook, Twitter, etc, to get your log-in information so they can access your account.

4. When choosing a password, make it the most secure by using a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Always write your password down and keep it in a safe place, even if you think you will remember it

Relative Vs. Absolute Links

Absolute Links

When a user searches the internet for a specific website, they will often use an absolute link. An absolute link is a link that uses an http request in order to instantly search through the world wide web for a specific (or absolute) address or URL. Absolute links can be used from any webpage across the internet, rather than just stay relative to a specific page.

Example of Absolute Links…

https://website/blog

Relative Links

Most websites use navigation bars at the top, side, or maybe even bottom of their webpages, as well as other buttons on said website. It is not uncommon that some of these buttons are what is called a relative link. Relative links are links that do not make an http request, and therefore do not possess the power to search the world wide web, but rather link to things in nearby directories.

Example of Relative Links…

<a href=”blog.html”>Go to Blog Page!</a>

Pillars and Clusters

Whether it is known to most or not, the most important thing someone can do to make their website appear closer to the top of more user’s search bars is to simply make it neat. Search engines search through content with what is called a crawler. A search engine crawler quickly scans through countless web pages in mere moments; while the crawler scans these articles it tends to favor websites with neatly organized web pages. For this reason, steadily organized structures of a website’s pages are important to not only the appeal to a customer but also to the appeal of the crawler. The best organization method for appealing to a crawler is pillars and clusters. The structure of pillars and clusters can be better understood by the laid out picture below

Pillars

As can be seen in the picture above, the pillar is the core of a properly organized website. Overall a pillar is a web page that is composed of many hyperlinks that lead to other web pages. These other web pages are the clusters.

Clusters

While the pillar is the core of all the web pages the clusters are the smaller subpages that are all directly linked to the pillar webpage to discuss the pillar’s listed subtopics.

Consequences of Not Using Pillars and Clusters

Most website creators do not take the time to properly organize their web page’s content which often causes the structure of the website to look something like the picture down below. Although the crawler will see that there is a pillar for a web page it will not favor the fact that the clusters are randomly thrown about rather than directly attached to the pillar.

Social Monitoring

The two key components to keeping your brand relevant, above the competition, and your
customers happy in social media are social monitoring and social listening. These useful ways to gain insight on what people are saying about your brand work together, but are two different things. Social monitoring is a look at all the data from your metrics, and social listening provides the mood behind this data. It’s about what the customers are feeling that is leading to the metrics results, such as the engagement rate and brand mentions.

Social monitoring consists of metrics such as these:
● Brand mentions
● Relevant hashtags
● Competitor mentions
● Industry trends
● Engagement rate

Social listening consists of:
● Engagement with customers
● Social media sentiment
● Customer service
● Lead generation
● Product feedback
● Reputation management

You should monitor all channels to see what they’re saying about your brand. This is not easy to do all hours of the day, using a service like Google Alerts can help you know what is occurring concerning a specific topic. Taking a look at what is happening in your industry can be very helpful, and you can even see if your business or company is mentioned and if it’s in a positive or negative way. This is a good example of how the service Google Alerts can benefit you and your company. Anytime a topic that you pick relating to your industry is found on the internet, you will get an email with all of the articles related to that topic you chose. You can even put your business or company as one of the alert topics to monitor who is talking about your business.

You can use services like Facebook Business Suite(Page Manager) and Constant Contact to
help with customer engagement from social listening by using the platforms to write posts with the content, reply to comments, give customer service, and reach out to customers via email to offer sales or links to blog articles.

We use all of these services to help you to reach your customers the most effective, and get
the most return on your business.

You may think that social posting is more important than social listening, well it’s actually just as important. You can make posts all day, but if you’re not paying attention to what people are saying about the content of that post, you’re missing out on the opportunity to reply to comments, make relationships for social selling, give customer service, and manage problems if a customer complains about your product. You can take control of the situation and offer them a product replacement, a coupon for their next purchase, or whatever else fits the situation to make the customer satisfied. This then is handling the important concept of social media sentiment, you want everyone to be happy with your product and brand, and be commenting in a positive fashion, talking about your product in a way that makes others want to try it too. Social listening is also the time that you can offer helpful information to the customer, which in turn will not only help them but is another way to build a relationship with the customer. So when you make a post to any platform, you can’t leave it, you must be waiting to engage with your customers. It shows that you want to have a relationship with them and that you care about any problems a customer is having with your product.

We offer both social monitoring and listening to help you with all these aspects of managing
your brand and business on social media.

In summary, social monitoring and social listening are important parts of maintaining and
managing a brand and business. It can help build social business relationships, help you know how much of a return on your money you are getting for your ads, and get an overall picture of how your business and products are thriving. Taking the time to invest in social monitoring and listening, is a very wise, and lucrative choice that every business owner and company should make.