Softinet’s Blog

Any professional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert would agree that keywords are the SEO fuel. All the efforts to fine-tune a web site adjusted for top rankings on search engines will not pay-off if the targeted keywords are not tweaked correctly. The key is to use the most relevant / important keywords on top of the keywords list on a given web page. Finding top ranking keywords set, and inserting them ALL at once on all your web pages will not pay off. Instead, it is advisable to use the keywords tuned to each web page, as well as using those keywords on the content / body of your web page that will pay off higher in search results. Following is a few Best Practices for how to use your keywords as well as other SEO factors:

• <Title> Tag - The Title of the web page must be short and precise, say 6-12 words (maximum of 150 characters)
• Anchor text - Even though internal anchor text-over can result in Google penalty, anchor text with keyword focus from external links is an important factor.
• Headings - The Keywords placed on the heading in H1 is an important factor but the web page should have actual text relevant to the keyword as well (a policy of W3C).
• It is a good practice to keep high-ranking keywords as first words of the heading (to be assured f their inclusion, if any).
• Avoid keyword Stuffing and overloading of a web page with keywords.
• Even though most search engines such as Yahoo and Bing are still relying on Meta tags, others such as Google do not emphasize on them with little or no importance. However, having Meta tags properly filled and inserted will not harm.
• Proximity – In both Meta tags (title, description, etc.) as well as the content of the page, the closeness between 2 or more keywords is awarded with higher ranking.

Softinet SEO experts use over 150 different factors when optimizing a give web site. Access our short list of Best Practices in SEO and Keyword analysis on our web site. For more information regarding Search Engine Optimization and high-ranking keyword analysis and positioning, please contact Softinet.

I was reading an article [1] about Word-of-Mouth driving more clients to our small businesses, and how we can take advantage of the Internet. The article highlights benefits of online reputation of dentists and how to leverage Internet technology to build online recognition. The author mainly pointed out advantages of search engines; in particular Google, and its “relevant keyword positioning” to bring reputable professionals on search results. Unlike its heading, there was little mention of Online Social Networking Communities as promotional vehicles!

Building a successful professional recognition on the Internet is only achievable if we correctly use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. This is just half-way through our action. The other half depends on how we utilize relevant social-networking communities on the Internet to build our recognition. To me these two points are two faces of the same coin; If both actions are not taken concurrently, we can not expect an optimal result.

Be aware that no single solution is applicable to every business. Each business has its own Search Engine Optimization proceeding. Also, individual business entities have created their own social-networking communities on the Internet. Softinet, Inc. has been providing customized marketing solutions since 2000. We have track record of multiple Return on Online Investment (ROI).

There are lots of buzz words regarding online marketing on the Net! I wonder if non-technical crowd knows the difference between online visibility and online marketing campaigns?

Last week I had a call from a colleague regarding one of his clients who had spent over $25K in the past 10 months for his online marketing! Surprisingly, I found his web site is not even on the local search results! For that price, his web site is not even discovered on his local city! Then I was wondering for what level of marketing he has spent so much? After a few hours; checking his web site’s Meta tags, online directories, search engines, etc. I found much of his money was gone for broader keywords on AdWrods! His online marketing spending brought no business to him! His web site is not even discoverable on his local town!

Online marketing activities and campaigns must be done by those who have proven track record. All marketers must track and record their success and prove their competencies. Each business has its own online marketing price, and business owners must be informed for every and all steps of their campaigns’ dollars.

Contact me and I will be happy to provide a short assessment of your marketing activity.
Send us an email ( info@softinet.com) or call us toll free at 1-877-735-3932.

A cost effective marketing involves many parallel pursuit. One of effective marketing activities is online marketing, which entails engaging in, and tracking multiple online marketing channels concurrently. In ever-expanding Internet networks, relying on one-or-two channels to outreach your targeted audience will not be a cost effective approach. To justify higher Return On Investment (ROI), we ought to try any possible online network to downpour traffic to our web site.

We are in an extreme down turn era and all indicators suggest that current economic turmoil will last till at least the end of summer of 2009! Almost all sectors of economy is experiencing hardship, except bio-tech, healthcare, education, and to some lesser degree, IT (Information Technology) that are in slightly better situation! At hard times, we all start to be creative – hence I think many businesses will transform their models and strategies to bypass current financial tsunami.

One of the most cost effective customer outreach is online marketing. Rich-content, high-traffic, user-generated, and community web sites of new Internet era have created highly visible hubs to place targeted advertising for qualified sales leads generation. Online marketing is a first-class spot for leads generation, as most organizations will be relying even more on cost effective Internet presence, to market their products and services.

Internet is still expanding exponentially! Never before human history has recorded freely-available information, as there are hundreds of millions of web sites full of valuable (and sometimes not-so-useful) content. However, having a graphically appealing web presence, with a mesh if information, wouldn’t bring sales leads anymore. If the content of a web page is not at the top of an online search results (regardless of search tool), its content will be buried under tons of other subject matters. Online marketing of a printed brochure for instance, is very different than its online counterpart. An online brochure needs to have a UI designer to create it for its target audience, a web engineer to correctly construct its feel and look, and a proactive marketer to drive its community outreach for effective Return On Investment (ROI).

With unemployment in double digits and popular spending in its lowest level in the past few decades, it is absolutely critical for marketers to maintain and expand their networks. Online marketing differs from its traditional approach in its effective execution. Just having a web site, including targeted META information is not enough anymore! Search Engine Optimization can not bring adequate traffic to justify the investment anymore! A proactive online marketer ought to utilize all available tools to bring their products and service to customers’ awareness. Internet marketing community reports and newsletter coupled with proactive utilization of online networks (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Youtube, etc.) are a few of the tools exploited to outreach online consumers and target audience.

Contact David at Softinet, Inc. for your next online marketing project.

Early Friday on January 16, 2009, the Finnish firm revised its estimate of the number of computers that had fallen victim to a new worm called Confiker (Known as Kido or Downadup as well).

The worm, which is surging dramatically during the past few days, exploits a bug in the Windows Server service used by all supported versions of Microsoft’s operating system, including Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008. It disables system restore, blocks access to security websites, and downloads additional malware to infected machines. The worm uses a complicated algorithm which changes daily and is based on timestamps from public websites such as Google.com and Baidu.com. The worm’s algorithm generates many possible domain names every day. It concern hundreds of names such as: qimkwaify .ws, mphtfrxs .net, gxjofpj .ws, imctaef .cc, and hcweu .org. This functionality makes it impossible and impractical to shut them all down — most of them are never registered in the first place.

Urgent advice: users are strongly recommended to ensure their antivirus databases are up to date. A patch for the windows bug/vulnerability is available from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx It concern Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 – Critical / Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958644).

Sources/references of this outbreak alert and background information:

Kaspersky Lab
Guardian.co.uk
Microsoft
ThreatExpert
F-Secure
Symantec
NetworkWorld
DarkReading

Kaspersky Lab disinfection/removal tool: http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208279973

There has been a flood of e-mail spasm around the Net these days asking domain name registrars to login to their accounts and apply some changes to their domain information! The links directs to different URLs and extract your proprietary information!

We have received some e-mails from leading domain name registering networks warning their customers regarding these phishing. A copy of a warning from Network Solutions is enclosed.

Dear Valued Network Solutions(R) Customer:

At this time, we know that fraudulent e-mails are being sent to some domain name customers, regardless who the registrar of record is, which include links to sites that
look like networksolutions.com or other domain provider sites; however they are fake Web sites. These e-mails are attempting to capture login information.

If you believe you have received an e-mail of this type, have clicked on the link, and provided your login information, we recommend the following for security
purposes:

1. Log in to your account from your registrar’s web site.
2. Review your account information for accuracy
3. Choose a new password security question and answer
4. Change your password

Internet is the next industrial revolution of human history. It’s the biggest library created by Human and available to all without barriers (at least for now!) But like any library of knowledge, cataloging and efficient categorization of this humongous knowledge base is and will be the most challenging aspect of this system of global information. This is the main reason why search engines are becoming so popular.

Based on many research and publications, over %85 of all Internet users rely on search engines to find their needed information. To effectively put any web site onto this global map, web sites must be planned and developed with search engines in mind. How to be indexed by different search engines have become an art and science of its own. Your site will be more effective if you can get a listing near the top of your category.

Most search engines use automated programs (called Spiders and Crawlers) to index the Internet and place web sites into their databases. These programs access millions of web sties and their document automatically, and based on some predefined metrics, they rank the web sites for their placements when people are looking for relevant information. The use of search engines crawlers come to picture when we know what they are looking for in order to rank a given web site. Some of the ranking algorithm is seeking for relevant information placed on the header of each web page such META information (enclosed within Meta Tags). This is only one way of ranking.

Insertion of Meta Tags into the web pages by itself does equate to an effective Search Engine Optimization. However, this is one way to help crawlers to index web sites. We at Softinet employ different methods to place our clients’ web site on higher search results. Contact us (408.730.0090) or send us an email for a full Search Engine optimization and let us help your web site to reachable by more visitors.

Phishing is an attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information from your computer / your online accounts, such as usernames, passwords, or credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity. For example, there are reports of phishing emails that falsely appear to be your trusted networks such as eBay, PayPal, or even your banks and financial institutions. These fraudulent emails ask users to update their information; billing information, take action on a disapproved ad, edit their account, or accept new terms and conditions.  In some cases, the links may lead to websites that install malware applications and scripts onto your computer.

If you’ve receive a phishing email that attempts to fraudulently collect passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information, please report it to your trusted network immediately and make them aware of fraudulent activities in their behalf.

Tips to protect ourselves from phishing:

1. Don’t reply to, or click links within, emails that ask for personal, financial, or account information.

2. Check the message headers. The ‘From:’ address and the ‘Return-path’ should reference the same source. If necessary, look at the expanded header as some phishing use vulnerable email servers to rout their messages.

3. Instead of clicking the links in emails, go to the websites directly by typing the web address into your browser, cut and paste, or use bookmarks.

4. If on a secure page, look for “https” at the beginning of the URL and the padlock icon in the browser.

5. Use a browser that has a phishing filter (Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera).

6. Use strong passwords. A strong password should be unique; include letters, numbers, and symbols; and be changed regularly.

7. If you ever need to change your account information, such as your billing details or your password, you should always sign in to your account from the main login page of your trusted network (i.e. your bank’s main website) and make the changes directly within your account.

Ajax (asynchronous javascript and XML) is a group of inter-related web dev techniques used for creating web applications. Few major benefits are: usability, separation of data, format, style and function; request and send data to the server without reloading the page, by using http requests.
If you want to know how Ajax become part of the web, checkout this extremelly interesting post, The birth of AJAX - an amazing story.
The XMLHttpRequest object is supported by Internet Explorer 5.0+, Safari 1.2, Mozilla 1.0 / Firefox, Opera 8+, and Netscape 7.
Create the object

function getXMLHttpObject()

{
var xmlHttp;
try{//mozzila, firefox, opera
xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
}
catch(e){//ie6+
try{
xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP");
}
catch(e){
try{//ie. 5
xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
catch(e){
alert("your browser does not support ajax");
return false;
}
}
}
return xmlHttp;
}

xmlHttp = new getXMLHttpObject();

The XMLHTTPRequest object has
Methods:

• xmlHttp.abort() - abort/cancel all activity and reset the object
• xmlHttp.getAllResponseHeaders() - returns all headers in a single string
• xmlHttp.getResponseHeader(header) - takes as param an http header (string) and returns the value of the given header
• xmlHttp.open(method, uri, [assync flag, username, password]) - method - GET/POST, uri , flag - true or false [true if omited], username and password null if omited; this method is calling the server and does not return any value
• xmlHttp.send(param) - data to be transmited to the server; xmlHttp.send() same as invoked with null xmlHttp.send(null); does not return a value; if send is invoked with parameters, the content type has to be set up before via setRequestHeader
• xmlHttp.setRequestHeader(header, value)
  - create or change a header

Attributes::

• xmlHttp.onreadystatechange - of type Event Handler
• xmlHttp.readyState - the status of the request
  • 0 = uninitialized
  • 1 = loading
  • 2 = loaded
  • 3 = interactive
  • 4 = complete
• xmlHttp.responseText - server’s response as a string; the ready state value has to be 3 or 4
• xmlHttp.responseXML - dom compatible xml data; ready state must be 4[otherwise is null]
• xmlHttp.status - numaric value of the server status [i.e. 404]
• xmlHttp.StatusText - text value of the server status [i.e. not found]

Your website; no matter how simple or elaborate, shall convey your messages regarding products and services. Just having nicely designed artwork, or beautiful pictures on your website will not bring viewers to your site. A successful website owner shall seek to promote the site based on the content of the site. A better ranking website ought to be marketed using any available tools to bring more traffic to the site. A thriving website without essential Search Engine Optimization will definitely lack traffic.

A complete Search Engine Optimization shall be focused on many factors. Just adding Title, Description and some generic Keywords is not considered as a viable SEO service to bring your website on search engines’ result page to any higher level. SEO service shall contain a roadmap on what to do and when to apply what action. A practical SEO service shall look at the search engines’ barriers including structural analysis, compliance with W3C for XHTML programming, textual content of their web pages aligned with SEO services, high-ranking and top keywords analysis, back-link analysis, etc.

Once the site is organically optimized for major search engines, it traffic must be analyzed and enhanced for more traffic. This is the only way to ensure traffic increase and more visibility.

Call Softinet (408.730.0090) or send us email. We have extensive consulting services.