Google’s Next Algorithm Update – Summer 2013 – Should you be afraid of the Penguin?
Probably not.
Preface
1. First let me preface by saying what I and many others have said here for years – and that s that at its core, Google is a search engine company and their goal (other than to make piles of cash) is to provide the best search results they can. Because once their search results become inaccurate (you search for hats and get shoes), then users will find another search engine.
The Advantages of Using a Content Management System for your Dental Website
As website technology improves and improves, we as dentists are no longer limited to being entirely dependent upon a website developer or IT person to make updates to our websites. There are many advantages to using a content management system (CMS) for your dental website, and this article will review a few of these factors.
Two Types of Websites
Generally speaking there are two types of websites – those that you can update yourself, or those that you need an “IT Person” to updated for you. In both cases there is some underlying technology that needs to be configured – usually by a technical person – but the idea with a CMS is that you or your staff can easily handle the day-to-day management of your dental website.
4-16-13: Important WordPress Security Alert
Situation
As you may or may not have heard, there has been a recent rash of attacks agains WordPress websites that have now increased. The key thing to note is that this security threat mostly targets WordPress websites where the administrator login username is “admin”. The sites that are the most vulnerable appear to be sites where “admin” is the login and the password is something very simple. As you will read in the article I’ve referenced at the end of this post, the motive behind the attacks is not known.
Solution
1) You will need to talk to your web developer to check the status of your site, but one of the things that you should consider doing it changing the “admin” username to something different, and to reset your password to something complex.
2) A further step you could take it to install a WordPress plugin that limits the amount of password guesses.
3) While not directly related, make sure you always have a current backup of your files.
Reference
Here is the article I’ve referenced above, and it’s worthwhile read: http://ithemes.com/2013/04/15/ongoing-wordpress-attacks-details-and-solutions/
SEO for Dentists: Beware of Comment Spam
First a little background:
1. We all know that one of the most important factors in determining a web page’s ranking (remember we rank pages, not sites) is the number of and quality of links TO that page. So if you have a page about dental implants, and the “ABC Implant Company” links to your implant page, that’s a good thing.
2. It has been mentioned that anchor text is less important these days, but it still cant hurt. Let’s take a hypothetical look at an example link from “ABC Implant Company” to Dr. Smith’s website — the anchor text is underlined in these examples:
SEO for Dentists: Google Plus and the Google Author Tags
Google is always looking for way to enhance search results for users – and for this reason Google is now promoting is “authorship tag”. In plain English, this meta tag is used to verify the author of an article or other piece of web content, and thereby supposedly improve the search engine ranking for that piece of content.
You Need a Google Plus Account First
Normally a business should have a Google Plus Business page. In order to create a Google Plus page for your business, you first need to create a personal Google Plus page. As with Facebook you first create the personal page, and then create the business page – these two pages are separate entities even though your personal profile controls both.
Verifying Authorship
Once you have a personal Google Plus page, the goal is now to link this personal profile page with the posts on your website. As with many things Google that are relatively new, setting everything up is a bit messy and the steps do change (as it is with Google), but unless you want to handle the technical end of it, your web developer or SEO person can handle it.
An Example
I, David Wank, have a Google Plus personal profile.
And Short Hills Design, LLC has a Google Plus page (my business).
(Feel free to click and join my circles in either profile or in both!)
I have linked my website, www.shorthillsdesign.com, so that every time I post a blog article on the site, Google recognizes that the “David Wank” who wrote the article is the same “David Wank” who owns the Google Plus profile. Moving forward, my posts should get some type of preference in search engine results because I’m now a verified author. In addition, my articles should show up with my picture next to them – an addition that is said to increase click-through rates.
Conclusion
Becoming verified with Google’s authorship program is a great way to get more use out of your new and existing web content (albeit with a complex setup mechanism). Of course you need to have a Google Plus page first, and a blog on your site, but once you have these two parts in place, using the authorship tags may give your blog posts a big boost.