‘Search Engine Marketing’

Google SSL Search has been developed specifically to help protect search terms and the interpretation of the search results pages. In short, it gives a private search facility to protect against malicious attempts to apply keyboard logging and other types of actions to steal personal information.

How Does the User Know That SSL Search is On?

The user can identify the on status by looking at the URL. The normal unprotected URL will have http whereas the secure socket layer or SSL activated URL will have an ‘s’ afterwards such as https. Some of the browsers in use will also give the user an indication that the secure socket layer is in use. The browser indication is normally in the form of an icon.

An alternative method for ensuring that the user will be searching in the SSL is to navigate to the secure socket website of Google upon opening of the browser. The full address will then be:

https://www.google.co.za or https://www.google.com

Another means for SSL searching in Google entails going to the URL:

https://encrypted.google.com

Users with Google accounts, can login to their accounts to ensure secure searching.

More about Secure Sockets Layer Technology

The Google SSL allows for all Internet related communication and data transfer to be more secure through an encryption process. When the browser thus makes use of the technology when conducting searches or transferring data through an Internet connection, such searches will not be accessible to other parties.

How Does SSL Work?

Although the information about the user’s query is encrypted, the landing page will still recognise the user as from Google, although the query lodged will not be seen.  One should note that schools using non-secure socket searching will not have encrypted searches. Another instance, where the initial query will be in unprotected mode is when the user directs the browser to make use of the Google unprotected URL. Upon entering the query and clicking for the search to take place, the query will be redirected to the SSL.

One should note that advertisers can see certain information, which can be used to improve their marketing to the user. If a person is uncomfortable with the idea, it is recommended that the user then makes uses of the encrypted URL (encrypted.google.com). One can further secure the search through a browser that allows for disabling of any referring parties.

Where is SSL Available?

At present the Google SSL can be found for all the search modes in Google. The only exception to this will be when one does a map search.

Does the Secure Search Affect Speed of Searching?

Unfortunately users can expect a bit slower searching than with normal searches. One does, however, need to take into account that the importance of securing the query may be more important than to be too concerned by the slight delay in search speed.

Does Google Log the Searches?

Even in secured mode users can still expect Google to log their searches. Google receives the same amount of data about the search whether encrypted or not. The web history will also still reflect the searches.

Google SSL in the Educational Environment

Should a school experience difficulties with the secured searching they can opt for the NoSSLSearch and the searches can then be pointed to such when the DNS configuration changes to www.google.com.

How Secure is Secure?

Instead of a third party being able to view the results to user searches including that of Internet Service Providers it is possible that the parties could still identify the sites visited once the user clicks on the search results and exists to a destination which does not reside on the SSL. One should take care not to think that all attacks can be blocked. The browser must be set to trust specific root certificates.  If a computer is already infected with malware or any type of spyware program when the user logs on to the Internet, it will then still be possible for another party to track the queries.

Is Google SSL Available for Google.co.za?

Unfortunately for South Africans SSL is at this stage only available for Google.com. The company has indicated that they will in future also offer the secure searching on other Google domains including the .co.za one.

SafeSearch and SSL for Education

SafeSearch allows for the blocking of adult content from normal search results. It is seen as important not only for parental control regarding what kids view, but also when it comes to educational authority of what school children as well as college students do with the institution resources. One should, however, still take other precautions as the filters cannot be 100% spot on every time.

The user can decide on the level of safe searching. At present there are no-filtering, moderate and strict filtering options. It is recommended that users in addition, to using the SSL facility from Google also make use of safe search features to block third parties from viewing their searches and delivering unwanted and explicit content when searches are done.

More Secure

Parents and educational administrators can lock the safe searching feature at the Search Settings for specific computers. A person with a Google account can further lock the strict SafeSearch to prevent other users of the same computer from changing it. The filtering level will then be applied to any of the Google domains.

With the Google SSL feature then users will have more search privacy and will not have to be concerned about third parties collecting information about their searches. This will also help to build trust amongst users regarding payment systems and will help to reduce some of the computer attacks related to Internet usage.

Users should still enhance their computer security through firewalls and anti-virus software, in addition to applying specific settings for their browsers. The Google SSL feature is not meant as a replacement of all other security for computers. It is, however, a step in the right direction to protect Internet users from becoming the victims of fraud.

To be able to explain what is cloud computing one can first look at the normal way of doing things. If you for instance, store information, it can be done on a personal computer, a server, external drive or on the server of an outsourced company. When using software it is normally loaded on a personal computer or a server to which you have access.

Cloud computing on the other hand entails the provision of computer related applications and storage in the virtual world rather than having the computer applications installed on your computer or server. Resources, applications and storage space as well as sharing applications are provided to client computers over a network such as the Internet.

Data access and storage space are provided without the user knowing the exact location from where the services are delivered. It is not to say that everything is happening in the sky, just that a service provider such as Google makes available the resources and space that can be used by clients.

An end-user typically logs on to their service provider account. This can be done at Google where the user then has access to application software programs such as presentation, word processing, spreadsheet applications, and more. Instead of typing a document on your own word processor, you type it in real time on the word processor offered at Google. The files can be saved online, can be shared with others who have permission to view, published to the web or saved offline. Instead of thus purchasing software that resides on your computer or your company’s server, the software at the Google servers is used.

Why Use Cloud Computing?

Instead of having to purchase or custom design software applications and maintaining such, a company can thus use the applications available from the service provider. Since the applications are in the cloud, and accessible through a network such as the Internet, the users can access and use such from anywhere, provided they have Internet access. Personnel training, infrastructure building and network design are components which will no longer be needed.

Many companies already make use of cloud computing services, not only at Google, but various other service providers. The resources are dynamic and can grow with the number of users. Easy access from remote computers is yet another reason for using the service. The computer resources are located at a central remote location, while the access is gained through the Internet.

Cloud computing has several distinct benefits, some of which are briefly listed below:

• Cost reduction in terms of application purchasing and maintenance.
• Improved security of information as the data doesn’t reside on the company’s servers, but at a remote server accessible with passwords and through a network connection.
• Pricing of programme usage is often based on usage and as such you tend to pay only for what you use, which is beneficial when having to use an application that would have been expensive if you had bought it and only use once or twice a month.
• The user normally can use a mobile phone, computer or a perhaps the computer at an Internet café. In this instance, you thus don’t have to be at office with a computer to gain access to the applications, storage space or information.
• Several users can access and work on the same programme from different locations. This enables companies to have numerous teams work on a project even if the teams are in different countries.
• Cloud computing offers peak load capacity increase possibilities. With normal networks located at a single company, there may be a limit to the number of users that can access a program at the same time without overloading the network.
• Effective usage of resources since you don’t sit with resources only used rarely, but still vital to have.
• The risk of data loss is reduced.

Are There Disadvantages?

As with every technology there are advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is that you must be connected to the network by for instance, using the Internet and a web browser to connect. In the case of Egypt when the Government blocked Internet access to Egypt based websites, many overseas users of cloud computing services where data centres resided in Egypt, could not access the applications and their data. If you have problems with Internet connectivity, you will not be able to access and use applications and resources. Customisation of products can now be done, but in the past it was a problem. It is still not an individualised service, meaning that the rate of customisation possible with in-house applications is thus not the same.

Types Of Clouds

There are several cloud compute models of which the public cloud is the most used. It entails the provision of resources to general Internet users for free or at a fee. Google cloud services are perhaps the best known. Other models are that of:

Hybrids

With the module, two or more types of clouds are connected to give more resources and multiple usage capabilities. A community cloud can for instance, in combination with a public cloud, provide specific computing services.

Community

It is where a network is established between numerous groups or companies with the same focus. It can be a wireless user group such as in South Africa, where services similar to the Internet are shared amongst members in various locations.

Private

A single company can create a cloud for its various branches across the country where specific applications can be shared and information stored.

Some companies partially use cloud computing to for instance, store data offshore whilst others use the public clouds in combination with hybrids, private and community clouds instead of purchasing and maintaining software or large servers.

Should You Move To Clouds?

Depending on whether you are sure that you will always have Internet or network connectivity you may decide to keep applications in-house or make use of the technology for everything. No doubt cloud computing holds several benefits although it may be a good idea to still spread the risk rather than relying on one cloud service provider.

Importance Of Online Reputation Management And How We Can Help Through Monitoring & SEO

Online reputation management entails the regular monitoring of comments, websites, postings, photos and any form of information on the Internet about you in person or your company and the control thereof to minimize damage. Several techniques can be used in the reputation monitoring and management process including that of search engine optimization and marketing to push negative publicity pages down and ensure that positive pages feature on the first two search engine results pages.

 

Why The Need For Online Reputation Monitoring & Control?

Some say that if you stay on the good side of suppliers and customers that you should not have to be concerned with negative comments about your company on the Internet. Truth is that even if you are the perfect person and run your company ethically that there are persons out there who will still post negative comments. Online trolls for instance, are persons who comment at blogs and post complete pages with the idea of creating emotional responses. Your company may be their next victim. You may have dealt with a troll and ban the person from your blog, just to have them resurface somewhere else to post about your way of dealing with them.

There is always a disgruntled customer, ex employee, even ex husband or wife, business partner or simply a competitor hiring a troll to smear your name. Legitimate as some posts or complaints may be, you will want to reduce the visibility of such and thus minimize the damage that can be caused. Online reputation management is just about the same as for offline publicity control. Some international actors and sports people had their careers ended within two weeks simply because of negative publicity.

Even something such a picture taken and posted at Facebook can cause severe damage to the image of a company. It is, however, almost a full time job to monitor online reputations and to manage such for optimal positive publicity. With that then one needs to consider how to go about in monitoring your reputation and how to reduce possible damage. Search engine marketing companies such as iLead have large teams of SEO experts and marketers, the required tools, and strategies for ensuring that the negative comments and pages don’t overshadow all the positive attributes of a company or person.

 

Monitoring Process

Consumer reviews, blog posts and comments, newsgroup discussions, forums, and websites are all monitored. The social media networks are scanned and through active content generation, negative pages are thus pushed lower on the search results.

The Google “Me on the web” tool can be used to crawl sites and social media spaces for comments and any information that may pop-up with your name or company name. It is better to be prepared, especially when there are Internet users that misuse the right to freedom of speech to cause reputation damage.

How Will Google Plus One Help?

Fortunately Google +1 makes it harder to leave negative comments and create troll wars since a profile can be connected to the person. It is definitely not so easy to rant and rave online if your name is associated with the comments.

Use Social Media Effectively

Apart from careful selection of friends and social media, set up professional profiles at Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Digg, Facebook and Twitter. Keep the profiles up to date and post regularly to ensure that when a user does a search that they will find your professional pages and not any negative pages from trolls or other users.

Monitor Blogs

By using specific blog monitoring tools in addition to Google Alerts and Me on the web, it is possible to get email updates about any postings at blogs.

Pro-Active Steps To Help Maintain A Solid Online Reputation

Sometimes one has to respond. If there is any form of negative comments, you need not only reduce visibility of such, but also respond immediately to turn the disgruntled user into a positive one where possible. In addition, you need to post at your blog and to answer in truth questions asked about a product.

SEO And Online Reputation Management

Effective SEO is also a pro-active step to ensure that your positive pages stay high up in the ranks, making it difficult for negative pages and comments to come up in the search results. For such you need professional assistance, which iLead can provide. Note that it is today possible for a person with little SEO knowledge to use your company name in their article or posting and reach the number one spot with negative publicity. To win the battle you need a team of professionals that can provide a full range of online reputation management services.

How Can We Help You Manage Your Online Reputation?

There are several methods that can be used to minimize risk and damage to online reputations. One very effective method is to track everything that is written about your company, top employees, your star products and services through means of quick searches, Google Alerts and of course also RSS feeds.

Note that negative comments or publicity will not go away by themselves. You can either use the information retrieved and respond at your own blog to set things straight or comment at the particular blog where the information was posted. In addition, you can ensure that all negative comments. Through regular blog posts that are packed with useful information, it is possible to compete with the keywords of the negative comments to push the pages lower while your blog gets more traffic.

As discussed above, the idea is not to simply ensure high ranking for your page, but in the process also to lower the rank of any negative page about you or your company. The fewer people that see the negative pages, the better for you. Since the positive pages are high up the rank, it is possible to completely eliminate the effects of any negative comments.

The majority of companies now do web searches to find profiles and comments about a person before hiring. In numerous instances, companies looking for business partners do the same and users certainly do. As such online reputation management is essential and if right can help your company develop credibility. iLead Online is here to assist with monitoring and control through a range of professional solutions.

Click fraud costs the advertiser loss of income and also increases the cost of Internet marketing. Advertisers monitor clicks and adjust their marketing spending accordingly. The price per click is adjusted according to keyword popularity and the total of advertisers competing for the keyword.

If the keyword is particularly popular, click fraud can lead to depletion of an advertiser’s budget within a day. Given the consequences of such criminal activity, it is understandable that advertisers call for more effective methods to prevent people from simply clicking on their ads.

Clicks mean money and if the clicks are valid such actions mean money for the advertisers, but invalid clicking lead to money loss for the advertiser. It drives up the cost per click while at the same deplete advertiser budgets.

What Is Click Fraud?

Clicking is the action of selecting a sponsored (pay-per-click) ad to go through to the advertiser website or the landing page of the ad with the purpose of learning more about the product or service offered. If, the selection is not based on a sincere interest in the advertiser’s offering, but simply to drive up the cost for the advertiser and thus eliminate competition, it constitutes click fraud. Another reason why such is done is when an Adsense income generator makes use of unethical means to gain more income from selecting sponsored ads on their page. They normally do this from various computers or pay others to do so to get more income.

There are thus two main types of click fraud:

• Network ad publisher fraud
• Targeted competitor ad fraud

Targeted Ad Fraud

In this type of fraud, the fraudster targets the ads of a competitor company and generates hundreds of false selections to deplete the budget of the competitor. Small businesses suffer most as they have limited funds for their online marketing campaigns and as such it is possible to get rid of all the small players in order to drive the traffic to larger players.

Does Click Fraud Cost Google?

Although Google does get money for every click, they also pay out for such. In addition, the whole sponsored ad network integrity is affected. Companies want to know that the click-through rate is accurate and that the actions will generate leads as well as sales.

What Does Google Do About It?

Google has a system in place to detect click fraud and offers the service for free simply because they want to ensure the integrity of their ad network stays intact. The three step system includes filters to assess whether a clicking action is valid. The filter uses data such as IP addresses, rate of click, time spent at the advertiser site and dates. Further offline assessment is done where not only automated filtering and analyses take place, but also human based analysis. The next level is that of Google reacting upon an advertiser report of possible fraud. If the advertiser’s suspicion of fraud is confirmed by the Google team, reimbursement takes place. As such Google also stands to lose a lot if the invalid clicking is done.

How To Identify Click Fraud

If you are an advertiser and suspects invalid clicks there are a number of ways to confirm your suspicion and to stop the actions. For one, if your ad budget is suddenly depleted without any leads or sales then you already have reason to be suspicious. Should the budget for one month be R1000 and be enough to drive adequate, relevant, and valid traffic, but the next month R3000 is not enough, you may want to look into it. Audit the netlog files and if any suspicious clicks are found, report such to Google or the Pay-per-click company immediately.

If you are a second tier publisher, thus have a website where sponsored ads appear, and find that your income from the ads suddenly drops, you need to investigate. There may be another company stealing your Adsense income. If you find that there are many clicks which Google doesn’t pay you for, investigate. Check if there is any malicious code inserted in your code and also change the ad codes. In addition, ensure that only specific sites may display ads from your ad publisher account. If such continues, Google may ban your site from displaying sponsored ads. Report suspicious activities to Google.

Advertisers Still Pay For Fraud

Advertisers stay the victims as the estimate is that around 10% of clicks are not valid. Taken into account that with other methods of advertising one seems to lose more money than with online ads being clicked for no valid reason, the ten percent may not be that much to pay for the convenience of reaching targeted audiences.

New Pay Per Click Schemes

Unfortunately as Internet advertising grows and new methods for detecting click fraud are developed, so too will the fraudsters come up with new schemes to go undetected. One way of accomplishing fraud is by creating a site that offers ad or information space. The advertiser displays their AdWords on the site while thousands of second tier publishers gain commission. The publishers share their commission with the fraudulent site, not knowing that the site is indeed a fraud. Once the affiliate signs up, an email infected with spyware is emailed to the unsuspecting affiliate. It infects their computer and when they then visit valid sites, they receive pop-up windows and often purchase from those ads which they would not have done otherwise. It is more complicated, but just one example of how fraudsters go about to bypass the system.

Google has faced numerous class action lawsuits and Yahoo! has also been on the receiving end of such, but both have taken action through improved click fraud detection systems and through refunding policies. The only way to prevent large scale fraud and becoming the victim of such is to regularly monitor netlogs, Google Adwords budget accounts, clicks, and if you are a second tier publisher, the income statement and channels.

Google has the goal of ensuring faster and better search results for users. As such the search engine giant introduces new algorithms and changes to search result displays on a regular basis of which the most recent change has to do with sitelinks.

More Links Displayed

In the past the Google sitelinks were limited to about eight results, but now will be full-size and complete URLs. In addition, each sitelink now comes with a short text description which looks strikingly similar to normal search results and their descriptions delivered upon a search query.

Improved Search Results Display

The main idea of the sitelink is to help the user find sub-pages or links under a main domain. It is particularly useful for searching a large website even before getting to the landing page. With the sitelink the user can click on the relevant link and navigate directly to the sub domain or directory level of the website.

Brands Benefitted Most

The latest announcement by Google indicates that one can now expect up to twelve such links. In effect it will help the large brands to get the best results exposure and thus getter positioning at the organic SERP. With the system brand searches are definitely favoured and upcoming or unfamiliar brands will have to make more use of sponsored links – thus AdWords to get above the fold positioning at the organic SERPs. Top ranked sites will welcome the increase in sitelinks while small websites still struggling for position may find themselves even more alienated from the top of the fold positions.

Main Benefits of Sitelinks

The main benefits associated with sitelinks pertain to brand searches allowing the user to navigate to relevant pages within a website faster and thus increase the search functionality for the user. The intent of the searcher can be predicted better.  Brand owners benefit from sitelinks through more links now available, controlling searches to ensure that the users go to the relevant pages and also ensuring that the brand owner can display parts of a website which may have been overlooked without the sitelinking.

It boils down to top ranking. The better a site ranks, the more it will benefit from the additional links displayed. In effect only the number one site gets the benefit and thus all the more reason to fight for the top SERP spot. One should note that sitelinking favours brand searching rather than normal searches.

When Will the Sitelinks Benefit a Searcher?

If you for instance, want to know which movies show at a nearby movie theatre or want to get an idea of the exhibits displayed by a tradeshow host, you will be able to use the sitelinks. Although the ultimate goal of the search may be for some specific information, most searches start out broad.

Without the sitelinks the user may think that the results are not relevant, but with the links the user can get down to the specific pages because of the prediction of intend characteristics of the system. If the user wants to get an overview of the main or important pages of a site, the links listed will help a lot. Webmasters gain control over pages which may be missed the in normal searches.

How Have Sitelinks Changed?

Google has changed mainly the number of sitelinks (from eight to twelve) and the way they are organised. The links are now in columns for ease of reading and with more links listed, more access to the website is given. There are displays now for more search results. The links are now full sized URLs and with descriptions similar to normal search results, the user is aided in the search to locate a specific part of the site.

Algorithm Changes

Sitelink-rank is now combined with the normal SERP rank ensuring better quality in the lists. With the new algorithm duplication is avoided and the SERP is better organised. As such the results from the top ranking site will be organised under the top domain followed by the results of other sites.

Who will be able to see the Sitelink Changes?

Users with the updated Firefox browser, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 7 will be able to see the changes over the next couple of days.  Users with older browsers will not benefit at all.

The Top Changes Announced by Google

• The links are more visible with full size text and more distinguishable with a green URL.
• More links can be displayed. In the past a fixed number of links was displayed, but webmasters can now optimize for more link displays.
• Links can rank according to queries ensuring better results according to queries.
• Results from one domain in the past could show up in the normal search results as well as the sitelinks. Now the results from one domain will be listed under the top domain and thus make it easier to identify that the results are from one website.

More Webmaster Control

Google provides the webmaster with the required tools to manage the sitelinks for their sites. The webmaster can demote a link if it is not correct while the latest algorithms consider the demotions. One can also block a link and up to a hundred demotions can be made. Webmaster control is available in Google Webmaster Tools.

Areas Not Affected

One line links can still appear on multiple results and the links on ads don’t change.

In Summary of the Changes

Webmasters are encouraged to make use of the control features in Webmaster Tools to ensure accurate delivery of link results. The changes to sitelinks benefit brand searches the most and make for more reason to get top ranking in the natural search results for brand related queries. If a site is not yet in the top ranking, it is recommended that the webmaster makes use of sponsored links to appear above the line when queries are made. The changes in sitelinks have been made to improve search functionality and thus the user experience at Google. Evidently it will benefit the large brands and websites most.