Friday, July 29, 2016

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Thursday, July 28, 2016

Choosing the Best Keywords for Your Posts

   

What Are Keywords?


Keywords are the words and phrases your audience uses to search for your product, service or benefit.

For example, a women’s shoe shop might sell a range of sandals for weddings. After talking to their customers and doing some research online, the owner identifies that “white wedding sandals” is one of the phrases her audience uses. It matches with their most popular shoes in this category so the decision is made to target the phrase “white wedding sandals” by writing a blog post called “The Perfect White Wedding Sandals”.

This post could talk about recent trends in wedding footwear, the particular white wedding sandals on sale, and important considerations when choosing a pair. The words “white”, “wedding” and “sandals”, the phrase “white wedding sandals” and related phrases such as “white wedding shoes” would appear throughout the blog post giving Google and the other search engines a really clear idea that this post is about white wedding sandals, and significantly increase the blog’s visibility for this phrase on Google.


keywords you use for your Google SEO, how do you decide which to use? Do you look at what competitors are doing and use that? Do you guess what keywords potential clients would use to find your site and use those? Or do you spend time researching?
According to Dr. Peter J. Meyers, one of the experts at Moz.com. “Keyword research is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field. Ranking for the right keywords can make or break your website. By researching your market’s keyword demand, you can not only learn which terms and phrases to target with SEO, but also learn more about your customers as a whole.”
When it comes to crafting a great SEO plan, it can’t be only about driving traffic – that traffic has to then convert into customers. That means using keywords that result in conversions.
The basics of keywords
What is the value of a keyword? To determine if a keyword is right for your business, answer the following:
  1. Does this keyword relate to my business, product, or service?
  2. Will an internet search using this word result in a user finding relevant and useful content relating to it on my site?
  3. Will any traffic this keyword drives to my site result in conversions?
You need to know how keywords will impact your business. A keyword may rank well on Google, but that doesn’t mean it is the right keyword for you.
In today’s Google searches, it is rarely useful to use only a single word instead of a phrase. If you’re a plastic surgeon, you wouldn’t want to break that up into separate keywords because the term “plastic” will most likely bring up things very different from what you’d like users to find. Instead, use a longer phrase, such as “plastic surgeon Long Island.”
Phrases that are two to four words long and that accurately describe you are the best to use. It’s also good to think about the terminology the general public would use when searching for you. For instance, the term “attorney” has 38.6 million searches each month, but the term “lawyer” only has 20.8 million. So almost twice as many people are using the word attorney, rather than lawyer.
Common mistakes to avoid
At Millionairium, we often see these mistakes when we analyze clients’ previous SEO strategies:
  1. Using only single-word terms that are too broad, and having highly competitive results. Keep in mind that single word searches rarely result in what the user is actually looking for.
  2. Terms that are too broad, or don’t focus on your product or services. The goal of SEO isn’t just to rank at the top of Google, but to get traffic that will convert into customers. “San Francisco attorney” might be a broad search, but “San Francisco divorce attorney” might be a better search term for converting clients.
  3. Terms that are too specific and narrow your audience too much. You may find a keyword that isn’t highly competitive, so you can rank at the top for it. But remember that as the competition associated with a search word goes down, so does its popularity. You may be at the top, but if no one is searching for it, it doesn’t really matter.
Creating a list of effective keywords should be the first step in a great SEO program. But it doesn’t stop once your first list is created. Because the way people search constantly changes, you have to continuously research for new keywords to use.
So, where do you start?
Let’s start at the very beginning
Begin by brainstorming. Think about who you are, what you do, what you offer. Create a list of services and products you offer. But then, dig deeper.
Let’s say you are a plastic surgeon in San Diego. You provide a lot of different procedures, but let’s look at one, breast augmentations. You could simply use “breast augmentation San Diego,” but don’t stop there. What else can go under the term breast augmentation? You could also use breast lift, breast implants, breast reconstruction, breast reduction, and nipple correction.
Then, take it even further, and include keywords that include phrases such as “cost of,” “recovery time of,” “before and after.” Using these additional terms might just increase traffic and conversions even more.
In highly competitive markets, it’s also important to include suburbs of the city you are in. If you’re in San Diego, target cities such as Carlsbad, Del Mar, Escondido, etc., and widen the net of potential patients you reach.
Research, research, research
Now that you’ve got your list of keywords, which ones are the ones to put the most effort in? It doesn’t have to be hit or miss – use a research tool like Google’s Keyword Planner to tell you exactly what users are searching for.
You can take your phrase and, looking in your area, check to see variations on that search term that searchers are using. From there, you might even find words you hadn’t thought of, and ideas for strategically optimized blogs.
Research can actually lead to ideas new opportunities for your SEO program to seize.
Put your keywords to work
Now it’s time to put those keywords to work to convert searchers to customers.
Organize your keywords into manageable groups that you can use for targeted optimization. Keywords should be used throughout your site, from page titles, to the body of text, to URLs and even meta tags on file names.
We know that many SEO programs begin after a site is already up and running. If you’re new to SEO and want to incorporate keywords into an existing site, that can work. Just avoid keyword stuffing – trying to cram too many keywords onto just a few pages.
In an ideal world, an SEO program is integrated into your overall internet marketing campaign. That means that you create your keyword list, then craft your website content with those in mind.

Tips and Tools To Backup Your Twitter Data

   


Twitter is the most popular micro blogging social network and almost everyone is on twitter these days.

When we find something interesting online, the first thing we do is to tweet it. Since you joined twitter, you must have shared hundreds of useful links, videos, images etc. on twitter. So its probably a good ideas to backup all your twitter data to be safe.

Tools To Backup Twitter Account Data

Online Tools To Backup Twitter Data: The best way to backup all your tweets, friends, followers on twitter is to export all of it to your computer using an online tool. Some of the good ones are listed below.

TweeTake: Just login using the twitter OAuth and you can instantly select what you want to backup from your twitter data. You can backup your tweets, followers, following, favorites, DMs etc. The backup data is exported as an excel file. This service is completely free.

BackupMyTweets: Works just like TweeTake. Authenticate and take backup. Its a freemium service, which means you get limited features for free but you must pay to get all features and support. Offers free 1 GB data backup for 1 year which should be more then sufficient for most twitter users.

Backupify: Its not a twitter specific service as it offers Gmail backup, Facebook backup etc. You must register here to start using Backupify. This service is free.

TweetBackup: This service also asks for your email id before you get the twitter backup. Once setup, it sends you daily backup of your twitter data.

Tweet Scan: Works just like the twitter backup tools listed above. Allows you to backup your twitter data from December 2007. Data is exported in CSV format. Tweet Scan is also a free service.

Desktop Software To Backup Twitter Data:

Friend Backup: A java based twitter backup tool. You must have Java version 6 installed to use this tool. The export format is CSV file which you can open using Microsoft Excel.


Twitter Backup: This tool lets you download and save all your twitter data in XML format. The tool is available as a free download.

Post Your Tweets To Delicious Automatically

Packrati.us is a free service that monitors your twitter stream and when you post a tweet containing a link, it automatically bookmarks it on your delicious account. Its a great service to preserve the links you share on twitter, but if you want to save everything your did on twitter, then you better use one of the tools listed above.

Manually Backup Your Twitter Archive

To get a backup of all your twitter status updates, open this link after replacing USERNAME with your twitter user name. You’ll get a backup of all your tweets instantly in XML format.

Backup Link: http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/USERNAME.xml?count=500&page=1

How To Schedule Updates on Google+

   

As posted earlier, you can now Schedule Posts on Your Facebook Page. Google+ is expected to launch scheduled updates very soon but its not available yet at the time of writing. But you can still schedule updates on Google+ using the DoShare extension.

DoShare is a free extension for Google Chrome which lets you schedule posts for your Google+ profile, which are then automatically updated at the specified time in future.
Using DoShare extension is very easy. First login to your Google+ account, then go to this link from Google Chrome browser and install it.

Once installed, you will see a small DoShare icon in the toolbar of your Google Chrome browser. Click on this icon anytime to start writing a scheduled update for Google+. You can add anything to this scheduled update, including text message, links, or images.


Once you have composed the message, select the circles to which you want to share this scheduled update. Then click on the Schedule button to select a future date when this update should be automatically published on Google+.


DoShare extension works great if you want to schedule a post on your Google+ profile but it has some limitations. You can’t schedule a post for Google+ page, it works only for personal profiles. And you must use Google Chrome to use DoShare.

The biggest issue with it is that, all your scheduled Google+ posts are saved on your computer only. They are not saved (synced) on web. This means that you cannot edit these scheduled posts from any other computer. Also, they will be published automatically only if your computer is turned on, connected to internet and you are logged into Google+ at the scheduled time.


Keeping the limitations in mind, DoShare is a great tool to schedule updates on Google+.

Run an Android App on Your Computer (PC or Mac) Using BlueStacks

   

Android is probably the most popular operating system for smartphones today. With its increasing popularity, hundreds and thousands of Android apps are released everyday on the Google Play store, the official Android apps repository.


You can find an Android app for almost anything on Google Play store. This includes Android games, productivity apps, business apps, finance apps etc. The only issue now is that these Android apps are getting more and more resource heavy with each version. So you have to spend a lot on high power Android smartphones.

There are times when you just want to test an Android app to check if its suitable for your purpose. But you can’t as it needs much more resources (RAM and processor) compared to what you have on your Android phone. But thanks to BlueStacks, you can now run an Android app on your computer (PC or Mac) easily.

BlueStacks is a software, available for both Mac and PC that lets you run an Android app on your computer. You can play Android games on your computer, and use any other Android app on computer just like you would do on your Android smartphone.

Installation and Setup of BlueStacks on Your Computer

Installing BlueStacks on your computer is very easy. Go to BlueStacks home page and download BlueStacks for the operating system you have installed on your computer. It may be Windows or Mac. Once you have the BlueStacks .exe file, double click on it and follow the on screen instructions to install it.

Important Note: If you are trying to install BlueStacks on a laptop, make sure to plug in your power cord while you install it. This is because the laptop battery may not be able to handle the power needed by graphic card while installing Bluestacks

Once installed, you need to setup BlueStacks for your computer. This is one time procedure. To do this, start BlueStacks. It will immediately start downloading the Android apps database and other necessary updated features. It may take a few minutes to complete depending upon the speed of your internet connection
.

Now go to ‘My Apps’ in BlueStacks and click on ‘App Search’. BlueStacks will now prompt you for one time setup where you have to select the preferred App store and enter you authentication details. There will be a list of available App stores including the Amazon App store and Google Play store. Select Google Play Store from the list. Now accept the BlueStacks Terms and login using your Google account. 




Important Note: If the password of your Google account contains special characters or capital letters, you need to use the BlueStacks virtual keyboard to enter it. You can find it at the bottom of BlueStacks window.
That’s it. Your are not ready to run an Android app on your computer.

Run Android App on Your Computer Using BlueStacks


To run an Anroid app on your computer using BlueStacks, you need to first download it. To download an Android app, start BlueStacks, and click on the small search icon in the top right corner of the BlueStacks interface. Now enter the name of the android app you want to install and click on ‘Find’.



Bluestacks will now search for your Android app in all the available marketplaces and it will list them on the next screen. Select the default Google Play store here.

Note that is you want to install some rare Android app, then it may not be available at Google Play marketplace. So you will not see it in the BlueStacks search results. In this case, you can install the app from any other marketplace, but make sure that its a trusted source like Amazon Android market.



 Once you select the market, you can start downloading the Android app.



Once download is complete, go to ‘My Apps’ window in BlueStacks and click on the Android app to run it on your computer. You can repeat this same procedure to download, install and run any Android app on your computer.

Steps to Secure Computer

   

These days, almost everything is done over the INTERNET via computers or laptops. Computers have become a part daily routine. It would be stupid to think living without computers at this age. With a lot of benefits which we are getting from computers there are also certain risks related to it.

A lot of your personal information is stored on your computer or laptop. Its difficult to access this information unless a person has a physical or network access to your computer. You are bound to leave your computer or laptop unattended some time or the other.




Most computers are connected to Internet almost all the time, so there is a real danger of network intrusion. For these reasons, its a good idea to secure your computer or laptop to prevent theft of your personal information and data. Here are 10 steps to secure your computer.

1. Choose a Secure Operating System OR Secure Your Current Operating System

If you are buying a new computer or laptop, try to buy a non-windows based computer. This is because most available threats are focused on Windows operating system, since its the most popular operating system available today. Its best to select Linux or Unix which do come pre-installed on many models of computers and laptops. You can also choose a Mac, since its operating system is based on Unix.

If you are not very comfortable with Linux or Unix based computer, and you must use Windows operating system, you should make sure that its secure. Always use the latest version of Windows OS with latest security patches installed. Also, make sure to keep Windows updates and network protection on.

The steps to secure your computer that follow, also cover some of the tips to secure the computer on operating system level, irrespective of whether you are using Windows, Linux or Unix.

2. Password Protect Your Computer

The very first thing you should do immediately is setting up a password so that only you, and the person who knows the password, can operate your computer. This is the basic step of security since this will prevent others from accessing your computer both physically and over the network.

3. Use Strong Password

Its not sufficient to setup a password, the password must be very strong.

ALSO READ: Secure Your Accounts Against Cybercrime


Make sure that it is not easy to predict. It should not be your name, your mobile number or anything which anyone can easily guess. For example, if you have set the name of your daughter as your password, it can be easily cracked. A person can see the name of your family members on Facebook and then use their names as passwords on your computer. This is a basic social engineering tactic.

Also, never use a dictionary word for password as most attackers will run a brute force tool on your computer to try each dictionary word as password. This process can be completed in minutes with modern computing.

Generally, you should try to use a password that contains both characters and numbers and also some special characters like @, # etc.

Also, try to keep a pattern in the password so that you can remember it easily. Its not a good idea to choose a very strong password and then write it down on a paper, which can be easily accessed by others.

4. Use an Antivirus Software

One of the easiest ways to secure your computer an laptop is by installing an Antivirus software. If you are using an antivirus software, you are one a safe side since it will prevent you from running a malicious file on your computer. Most modern Antivirus software like Bitdefender Internet Security 2014 also monitor your computer files and network traffic all the time to find and prevent any suspicious activities on your computer.

5. Setup a Firewall

Setting up a firewall will also help you in securing your computer from attackers. Firewall acts as an intermediate or protector between your computer and the entire internet. So if any hacker is trying to enter in your network, firewall will prevent that attack and will stop the connection which was coming to you. There are many antivirus software which have built in firewall, or you can purchase a special firewall program for better security.

6. Keep Software Updated

Make sure that all the software you have on your computer are up-to-date. Never use an older version of a software. Most software companies and developers release new versions of their products only to patch the security holes in them. So, if you are using an older version of software, then your computer is vulnerable to attacks.

7. Download from Trusted Sources

If you are using internet for downloading files and other things then make sure that you download from trusted sources. For example, if you are downloading torrents from un-trusted sources then its highly probable that there will be a virus attached with a torrent. Its also a good idea to first read the comments to find out what other users have to say about a product that you want to download.

8. Use a Good Web Browser

Web Browsers can also leak out your information to the hackers. There are cookies present in the web browsers where there are login details of the website where you have logged in. Make sure that you are using a good web browser which is safe and is trusted by people. Some of the most preferred and safest web browsers are Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome.

9. Never Open Compressed or Unknown Attachment Files in Email

If you have received an email from untrusted source and it has an attachment with it, then never open this attachment. Its best to simply delete this email. Opening compressed or unknown attachment files that arrive in email is one of the major reasons how computers get hacked or get infected with malicious programs like viruses and worms.

10. Secure your Wi-Fi Router

If you are using a Wi-Fi router for accessing internet over a wireless connection then we suggest that you secure the router by using a password on that router. Adding a password to the router will only allow the people who know your password to access the internet and will prevent hackers from getting into your internet network. Again make sure that the password which you are using is very strong.

11. Never leave your Computer Unattended

If you are not using your computer you should simply turn it off. If you want to go somewhere for some time, then just log off from the computer. This way if you are not present in front of your computer no one else can operate it (since its password protected).
Anyone who gets a chance to access your computer when you are not near it can manually install programs to steal your private information. 

 For example, if someone can install a keylogger on your computer while you are away. Keyloggers capture every key log which a user types and will send it using the internet in the form of an email to the attacker. So if a keylogger is installed when you were not present there, all your data might get logged and might be delivered to the hacker. Its best to never leave your computer unattended.


If you follow the steps to secure your computer listed above, you can rest assured that your computer or laptop is safe!