TOP RESPONSIVE WEBSITES PT. 1
Ever since Ethan Mercotte published his seminal article coining the term, “Responsive Web Design”, the trend has near reached its tipping point. Today, client expectations are growing and more and more websites have evolved to respond to the context of the media device.
Thus it only makes sense for us to highlight some of the top responsive web sites on the internet now:
Sasquatch Festival – http://sasquatchfestival.com/
Stephen Caver – http://www.stephencaver.com/
Clear Air Challenge: http://clearairchallenge.com/
Stijlroyal – http://stijlroyal.com
Four Kitchens – https://www.fourkitchens.com/
Looking for more? Here’s Laundry list of Sites featuring responsive designs:
NEW TOP LEVEL DOMAIN EXTENSIONS (TLDS)
Transcription
Eric: Hi. I’m here at Globe Runner SEO and I want to talk about some big news in the world of search today. We’ve got new TLDs. So new domain level extensions, so instead of just .com, .net, .org and the other 26 extensions that are out there right now, the organization that controls the domain names has announced that next year they’re going to allow companies to start buying and producing their own domain name extensions.
So a brand could have their own domain name extension. You could have google.google if you really wanted to.
But here at Globe Runner we thought what is the real business potential behind this? Who would actually do this and why? Now first off, it’s not cheap. It costs $180,000 to register your new TLD. In addition to that you’ve got to have a support team in place. There’s legal work that needs to be done.
I’m actually estimating that it will probably end up costing closer to a million dollars a year for all the overhead that goes into this. It will probably be about a million bucks a year to get this thing rolling.
So if I’m right and it costs about a million dollars a year, who would want to spend that kind of money on a domain extension. Here are some ideas. Here’s some really good business opportunities out there that I think should be explored.
First off, companies like GoDaddy and other large hosting and domain selling companies would want to get into this business. Essentially they’re buying a vertical. If they could buy .shop, for instance, or .web or something that isn’t out there right now that gives them a new extension. This would just be like GoDaddy running that commercial on the Super Bowl this last year for .co.
.co was a way that they could sell lots of new domain names under a new extension. It gave them a whole new vertical. Millions and millions of people registered domains.
So even if it cost you a million dollars a year, if I can sell these for $20 a year or $10 a year and I sell a million of them that’s a $10 million sale, pretty easy ROI case to make there.
Other companies that might use it are large companies that have a large number of websites they want to tie together through an extension. A way that I see this going is like Warner Brothers. Maybe a movie company might want to buy .mov, .movie so that they could tie their network of websites together through this extension and they’re a large enough operation, a large enough organization that it makes sense for them.
Another good example would be sports leagues. So I definitely could see the NFL would want .nfl. You’d have cowboys.nfl and all the other NFL teams would have a .nfl official website. And they could control that and guarantee that when a viewer goes to their website they’re looking at the official website for that particular team. So I see those as two particular ways that this can be used for a business advantage for a company.
The other one that we see potential for is any kind of website that has a large number of sub domains. So a good example is WordPress. If you set up a WordPress website you can set them up two ways. Obviously you can do a self hosted WordPress, but a lot of people just go to wordpress.com, create an account, instantly have a website up, and it’s yourwebsite.wordpress.com.
Well now you’ve got a sub domain. Well I think WordPress might register something like .wp and then you would have yourwebsite.wp instead of yourwebsite.wordpress.com. So there’s those types of opportunities too. I could definitely see somebody like Google trying to make their blog platform more effective and get .blog for instance, instead of .blogger.com.
So there’s a lot of opportunities here for business to really expand the marketplace. I think it’s a good shift. It certainly will reshuffle search some. We’ll see, over the coming few years, how this affects search going forward. If these get preferential treatment or if they’re a little harder to rank. I think there’s arguments to be made for both.
Certainly your TLD having an effect on search today. A .edu will rank differently than a .org or a .com or a .biz. Those differences are less and less important, I think, than they used to be. During the original rollouts of the web we saw that .coms got preferential treatment.
Today I think that if you have a really good .net and it’s got good information it can rank just as well as a .com. So we’ll be interested to see how that rolls out and how those changes make.
But if you’re in the business of buying TLDs, you’re in business now.
DRUPAL COMMERCE FIELD DELETION FAILURE AFTER UNINSTALL
I thought i’d share with everyone a helpful solution to a nasty bug in drupal / drupal commerce
Issue:
You’re excited. A new drupal module version is released. You’re trying to upgrade and now you’re ridden with a fatal error.
Problem:
There’s a nasty bug in Drupal entity fields that is currently trying to be sorted out. When you upgrade you may be unable to fully upgrade because modules are unable to delete previous database fields. It’s best if you uninstall then reinstall particular modules. There’s no direct path to upgrading for some particular modules Dependant on the entity field system.
At this moment of writing, when you upgrade a module there’s not a way to delete existing entity fields in the database. They’re currently working on this issue in drupal 7/8.
Thus, when you upgrade modules there will be lots of zombie fields in your drupal database. So when you upgrade you’ll
Solution:
- Backup your database.
- The only way of dealing with this issue is to manually delete all the database fields in drupal.
- Using a script remove the database fields: Commerce Clean up Script for versions alpha2-alpha4 (Use with lots of caution. I do not provide any warrantee for this script):
Related Drupal.org Issue queues:
Drupal Commerce uninstall field failure: https://www.drupal.org/node/858722
Drupal Commerce Uninstall Instructions: https://www.drupal.org/node/858722#comment-4165896
HOW WILL SCHEMA.ORG AFFECT SEO?
Google, Bing and Yahoo announced today that they all were adopting a new extended markup called schema.org.
This extended markup allows webmasters to add additional markup to their site to help search engines better understand their content.
The elements of your site that you can use the schema.org markup on are:
- Creative works: CreativeWork, Book, Movie, MusicRecording, Recipe, TVSeries …
- Embedded non-text objects: AudioObject, ImageObject, VideoObject
- Event
- Organization
- Person
- Place, LocalBusiness, Restaurant …
- Product, Offer, AggregateOffer
- Review, AggregateRating
Google has a rich snippets testing tool that will validate the code on your site.
We here at Globe Runner SEO anticipate that sites which utilize the schema.org markup will see increased traffic as the search engines more accurately place pages in search results. Search engines will give natural preferences to pages that give a clear window into their content.
Transcription
Eric McGehearty: Hi, it’s Eric with Globe Runner SEO, and I want to talk about something new, it’s Schema.org. Today Google Bing announced jointly that they were going to use Schema.org. Schema.org is basically very similar to what I’ve talked about before, which is microformats.
It’s a language system, it’s an add on system to an HTML markup that you would have on your page and your website page that Google, Bing, Yahoo have all agreed to use. It’s going to continue to grow, it’s going to be a library of markups that we can add to a webpage. The whole idea is to make search engines smarter so they can better engage with your content.
Honestly, it’s really not that complicated. There are extra codes, extra tags that I can put next to specific types of elements that allows a search engine a greater depth of understanding. So for instance, the example that they give on Schema.org is “Avatar”. If I put in my website a headline that said “Avatar”, how does the search engine know that I want to talk about the movie “Avatar” or if I’m talking about an avatar for representing a person’s face, right? How do they know?
Well, I could put in, from Schema.org, these additional microformats that would then tell the search engine, “This page is about the movie ‘Avatar’.” I want to also put in some extra text in there and I could in a person’s name and I could specifically label that name using the microformats and say, “And the director is,” right? So I’m able to actually tell the search engine all the nitty gritty details about the pieces of content on my page.
Here’s what’s neat microformats have been used been used for a little while, but the initial push of microformats was, for instance, reviews were a big push on microformats so that the search engine could put star ratings next to search results. That’s certainly still part of it, but now there’s an emphasis on people, places and things as well. Events are still part of it, that was part of the initial microformats rollout.
Today, if you have a company page and you have your employee page, you can add microformats in there to say, “This is a person. Here’s their email address, here’s their contact information,” things like that. If you’re a small business, a local business, or if you have locations of any kind, this is a really great opportunity to tag your location. You can tag your phone number, you tag your address, tag your business name, and you can really optimize that content so that the search engine really understands that you’re referring to yourself.
Also, let’s say that you had your address and then an alternative location on that same page. Well, you want to make sure that you tag your address properly so in local search results you come up, but that other addresses on the page are tagged differently to represent that those are representing other places on web, other things that you’re listing on your page. So there’s a lot of ways you might think about using it.
There was one that I found particularly interesting as an SEO person. There’s actually a way, using these microformats, to indicate a link without having a clickable link on your page. So, for instance, if I was referencing something, and I wanted to reference the Wikipedia article so Google knew that I was talking about this specific thing that Wikipedia is talking, I could do that without linking to Wikipedia.
I don’t actually affect the user experience, the user doesn’t even see a link, there’s no clickable text on my page, but Google sees that there’s a link out to Wikipedia. That would almost certainly affect search results in the same way that links now affect search results as a vote or passing credibility.
So Schema.org, visit it. If you’re a web developer and you’re interested in SEO, it’s a must have. You must learn this stuff if you want to stay on the cutting edge. Here at Globe Runner, of course, we’re staying on the cutting edge for our clients, and we’re excited to start integrating this in. It was announced this morning and I look forward to talking to you again soon.
GET YOUR TWITTER FOLLOW BUTTON!
Back in February, we did a blog post about Twitter redesigning its interface with additional features and rich media integration. Now, Twitter has recently rolled out another change that may have a large impact for businesses; the Twitter Follow Button. Users can now click an embedded Twitter button to follow Twitter accounts directly from websites that interest them.
Officially released on May 31st, this new feature allows businesses with a Twitter presence to generate a simple code for the follow button that embeds on their website, allowing users to follow the company’s account on Twitter with a single click. This single-click action is important because it allows visitors to remain on the company’s domain without being redirected in order to access Twitter, preventing them from having to leave the page and alter their train of thought. Users must be logged in with Twitter to be able to one-click follow- if they are not, they will be prompted to log into Twitter through a pop-up window.
With the option for a business to show how many Twitter followers they have next to the follow button, companies can flaunt their massive amount of followers. Or, companies can choose to hide their number of followers if they don’t feel confident with the figures. It’s common for consumers to judge the validity of a business based upon the number of followers, friends, and reviews they have, so some may find this feature beneficial.
Social media marketing strategies are very important, and social media sites are adapting to the changing consumer and the way they interact with businesses. Sites like Twitter allow companies to communicate with consumers in a unique and personal manner, but driving traffic away from a company’s main site to access another communication channel is superfluous and unnecessary. The Twitter follow button presents a simple solution to growing your Twitter community without disrupting the user experience of your home site.
WORDPRESS SITE HACKED: HACKED AFTERMATH GUIDE
This is very common these days. There are lots of hackers that want to insert unwanted links into your website. This guide will provide you solutions to neutralize the situation.
WordPress itself can be properly secured when taking into account the appropriate standards and procedures. Spending a little time and proactive steps will allow you to overcome any issues that may arise from an intrusion into your wordpress blog or wordpress site.
How do you detect if your website has been intruded upon?
- Utilize TAC: This plugin will allow you to detect if your theme has been hacked or altered with malicious links
- Review Source: Look over your website in code view. See if they’ve comprimised any links.
What are some common causes of any security intrusion:
- Simple Passwords
- Plugins that expose security risks
- Non-secure File Transfers
How do you avoid being hacked again?
There are some simple and low cost proactive steps to make your website become more difficult from being hacked. A handful of these may be obvious steps:
Passwords
- Change passwords often
- Utilize a password generator (See Links below).
- Make sure your password is more than 14 characters long and utilizes capital letters, integers or numerals and various symbols.
Backup your WordPress site
- Backup your WordPress site and WordPress database frequently
- Install a wordpress plugin to backup your website
- Store backups on dropbox
- SCM: Utilize Git or SVN and deploy your files using version control
Utilize Secure Entry
- Transfer files utilizing SFTP or SCP.
- Login using HTTPs
- Force SSL when exchanging passwords
Restrict Access
- Set restrictive permissions in areas of possible intrusions. Especially for your wp-config file. If your wp-config file is exposed; it contains your database password.
- Setup htaccess password for your wp-content folder
- Store database dumps in a folder inaccessible to the web and spiders
- Set up a wordpress salt for your password. This will allow only users with the particular salt entry to your wordpress site.
- Limit access to your mysql database. Limit external access to your database if you can.
Finally
- Update WordPress: Keep your WordPress core updated. There may be important security releases that will avoid you future headaches!
What if my wordpress blog has already been hacked?
Most likely the intruder or the hacker has probably added malicious links to your website.
This may mean removing the code that has been altered.
- Recover as much data from your WordPress theme as you can. If you have a backup restore it from a safe point.
- Backup the malicious theme or site: Doesn’t hurt to be able to have something to compare your changes with.
- If you cannot you must manually remove code in your theme and database
- Reinstall WordPress: The core of WordPress may have been altered or changed. Doesn’t hurt to upgrade and get the latest version of WordPress. There may have been a security release that will save you future headaches.
Resources
- GRC Password Generator – Secure password auto generator. The page itself is also secured via https !
- Random Phrase Generator – If you require remembering your password i recommend using this tool. I would recommend using numerals and different case to increase your password complexity
- WordPress Documentation on Security
- WordPress File Monitor Plugin
Update: Thanks Jon Hoff for the tips
USER AGENT SWITCHER LIST
Optimizing for mobile devices requires you to be able to test your website against different user agents. A “User agent” is a piece of metadata that describes browser or device that it’s being rendered or viewed upon. It’s a string of text that allows the server/client to figure out what browser, mobile device you are using. Being able to manually switch is very important to allow testing and user agent detection.
Personally, I use firefox for web development user. This isn’t built right into Firefox but there’s an extension that allows you to do this:
Firefox’ User Agent Switcher Extension
Chris Pederick has a lovely firefox extension called the User Agent Switcher for Firefox. It’s great to allow you to change manually user agent and to work on your websites with. This will allow you to easily design locally and test for mobile browsers. This isn’t a 100% failsafe solution but it works for the most part.
Once you’ve installed this lovely firefox plugin you’ll want to make sure your user agent list is updated and contains all the important user agents to test against. I’ve searched far and wide for the best user agent list. I made it easier for you and just linked the user agent list below:
User Agent Switcher List
It’s not the biggest but it has all the devices that you need. If you want a super comprehensive list which contains all the user agents i recommend the one from user-agents.org:
Download: user-agents.org allgents.xml 700kb
The list is the most comprehensive out there. It’s really huge and i’m a bit afraid of importing it into my browser. Firefox runs slow enough with all my plugins!User Agent Switcher Extension for Firefo
The user-agent.org user agent switcher list is the biggest i’ve seen so far on the internet. It contains various different mobile devices and has been updated several times. The devices include the major mobile smartphones like: iphone, blackberry, android.
MOBILE APPLICATIONS OF WORLDLY IMPORTANCE
Tension continues to rise in Cairo as civilians encourage tyrant dictator of 30 years, Mubarek, to leave his post in office. The Egyptian government tried to cut off contact with the rest of the world by shutting down the internet and inter-continental phone contact to ease the focus of riots and the revolutionary uproar. This preliminary attempt failed as young people were able to connect with the outside world via mobile devices and social media, being the only link to news for the outside world. This shows us just how powerful this technology is. Eric McGehearty, CEO of Globe Runner SEO https://globerunner.com, shares with us his thoughts about mobile applications and how they can not only impact our personal outreach, but greatly benefit your business.
Transcription
Eric: Hi, it’s Eric here with Globe Runner SEO, and I want to talk about a sign of the times. How’s our world changing today, in a more interconnected environment? Today’s events in Cairo, with the political movements that are going on there, and really the Internet and the whole social grid we have was shut down for some time. The only way that we were getting news out of Cairo were through young people using social media Twitter, Facebook through their portable devices and through wireless communication. That is really the way the world is moving, in terms of how we’re communicating with each other. So, as a business owner, how do we take that and really get a deeper, better understanding of how we can communicate with our customers and our client base? It’s about instant, direct communication. How can you and I talk, right now, through the Internet? How can we form a connection instantly, very quickly?
Social media is really the answer to that. Now whether or not it’s young people in a political movement, or a business here in the States, trying to make a better presence, a quicker connection, and a faster access to their customer base, these are the ways that we’re going to be doing it. It’s through mobile devices and it’s through social media.
But, the mobile device is key. The mobile device lets me connect on the street every day. The traditional media now is being superseded or supplemented through word on the street, through individuals who are using their phones to capture bits of information, news updates, and push them out through social media.
If you’re set up properly with your mobile devices, you can very, very quickly get information out. As a business owner, it’s an incredibly powerful and quick way that I can communicate with my customer base, through my device, out and about, and really engage with people and excite them about what we’re doing as a business. If you can incite them, make them interested in your business, and help them connect to you, they’re going to be more engaged and more likely to spread the word about your company.
Thanks so much. This was Eric with Globe Runner SEO. Hopefully, today we can keep connecting things that are happening in our world with how we can grow our business, stay connected, and grow a powerful company. Thanks so much, I appreciate it. Great talking to you.
TOP 3 UPTIME MONITORING SERVICES
When creating a website, you work with a designer to refine the appearance and a developer to build out the code- then after lots of hard work, your site is live. A month later, you check your website and it doesn’t load. What could have possibly happened? Everything seemed normal the day before!
If you have managed a website, I’m sure you must have encountered a similar situaition. Let me tell you, it can be quite frustrating. Downtime isn’t only annoying, it can also very costly: a tarnished brand image, loss of potential business opportunities, etc.- something no one wants.
How do you avoid this? Sign up for an uptime monitoring service: whenever your website goes down, you can immediately contact your hosting provider- potentially reducing your site’s the downtime. Here are three that caught my attention:
Alert Bot (http://www.alertbot.com/)
Site 24×7 (http://www.site24x7.com/)
Pingdom.com (http://www.pingdom.com/)
AlertBot.com
Alert Bot comes with cell phone notifications as a standard service. Also, Alert Bot does not shy away from showing off its customer list, which includes some computer giants like: IBM, Mint.com, and Sony.
site24x7.com
Although most other uptime services check your website’s uptime from different locations, site 24×7 takes it to the extreme by checking your uptime in 25+ worldwide locations. Also, for all developers out there, site24x7 has a REST based API, which allows you to access all of its data from the comfort of your website’s back-end.
Pingdom.com
Pingdom seems the most promising of the three, featuring an iPhone app, SMS, and Twitter notifications, multiple locations monitoring, and a huge list of clients, including but not limited to: Microsoft, McAfee, Huddle, StumbleUpon, Amazon, Twitter, and ABC Family. Also, for all of those who own a wordpress blog, Pingdom has a wordpress plugin that can be easily installed in your blog.
By signing up for an uptime monitoring service, you can be sure to stay in control. Whenever your website goes down, uptime monitoring services take measures to resolve those issues. Find the uptime monitoring service that’s right for your business and sleep easier tonight.