Rand from SEOmoz has a Whiteboard Friday that everyone working online should take a look at. It’s all about Google’s rollout of Panda, their new algorithm level changes in how Google searches the web. It’s been a rocky one so far, as many legitimate webmasters have taken a hit from the new search. It’s thrown SEO into an uproar as people in the field try to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and how to determine best practices when the entire field of play has changed.
User experience is moving to the fore, as this quote from the video shows:
So, Panda kind of means something new and different for SEO. As SEOs, for a long time you’ve been doing the same kind of classic things. You’ve been building good content, making it accessible to search engines, doing good keyword research, putting those keywords in there, and then trying to get some links to it. But you have not, as SEOs, we never really had to think as much or as broadly about, “What is the experience of this website? Is it creating a brand that people are going to love and share and reward and trust?” Now we kind of have to think about that.
If you are working with content online you should keep an eye these developments. They will directly impact your online visibility.
Rising Tide NOLA, Inc., will present its 6th Annual New Media Conference centered on the recovery and future of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast on Saturday, August 27th, 2011, 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. at Xavier University, 1 Drexel Drive, New Orleans, Louisiana. It’s time to register!
The one-day conference will feature speakers, panel discussions and break-out sessions on the status and future of the culture, politics, criminal justice system and environment of New Orleans. We’ll also be discussing Social Media as it relates to the city and the Gulf Coast. Past speakers include Mother Jones’ Mac McClelland, Harry Shearer, and authors Dave Ziren, John Barry, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block.
To learn about the conference’s history and keep up with details of this year’s event as they’re announced, please visit our website at RisingTideNola.com. You can also go directly to our EventBrite Registration page where you can sign up for the conference until July 1st for $25 ($18 for students). The registration fee includes the program, breakfast beverages with pastries, and lunch. There is also, as always, a Friday night social. All details will be announced as they’re finalized.
If you haven’t already, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for programming updates as they become available. You can also visit the Rising Tide Blog and leave us a message. We welcome your input through any of these channels, so please feel free to contact us. We can’t wait to hear from you.
As many of you are already aware I am a regular contributor to the SixEstate Communications blog. Since I’ve recently had a few requests I decided to add a new page to the website that would act as a directory of my posts. Ranging from Wikileaks to Facebook it’s been an interesting run, and one that I hope has provided useful and interesting commentary for our readers.
If you’d like to check it out you can Click SixEstate Posts in the left sidebar, or you could just click here.
Malware on the Mac. To some it is as fanciful an idea as dragons or honest politicians. To others it’s a growing concern.
Just to be up front about things I drive both Mac and PC. I use both in my home office on a regular basis and there are different things I like about each. Unlike many of the starry eyed Mac fanbase I don’t see it as a perfect platform. An excellent one, yes. A perfect one, no. The idea that Macs are impervious to viruses and malware is one I frankly find laughable.
I’ve long said that as Mac consumes more and more market share it would eventually attract hackers and their ilk. You see there is a heavy element of ego involved with the efforts of most hackers, and since Windows machine make up the vast majority of the computers in use it is easy to see that the most widespread chaos could be caused by going after that OS.
Mac’s increased market share is probably behind the recent Mac Defender scare. Malware for the Mac has now arrived and the public is slowly becoming aware of it.
Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica brings us the money quote in her recent piece on the subject:
In fact, users should remain cautious even without MAC Defender on the loose, warns repeat Pwn2Own champion and security expert Charles Miller. He pointed out that we Mac users are no more secure than our Windows-using counterparts, and that we’ve just been getting lucky up until this point.
“Mac OS X is no more secure than any other operating system. It has vulnerabilities, and it will let you download and run malware,” Miller told Ars. “The difference is that there simply isn’t that much malware written for it. The bad guys have focused all their energies at Windows, which makes up the vast majority of the computers out there. However, as market share for Macs continues to inch up, that equation is going to change and bad guys will begin to focus in on Macs, if that hasn’t already started to happen. And as I mentioned above, Macs are no more inherently secure than Windows, so when the bad guys decide to go after them with gusto, it’ll get ugly fast.”
I love a lot of the innovations we are seeing in the wonderful world of mobile technology. As a kid I always wanted a tricorder from Star Trek, now with my iPhone 4 I nearly have one.
Here’s a fresh one, another innovation from the team at Google! Taking a page from the Wii, they are Beta Testing a new twist on their Gmail service – Gmail Motion. Check it out!
I’ve been working on something recently that I haven’t done since moving to Cincy- gearing up to do workshops.
So here is my question: what sort of workshops or classes would you like me to do? Keep in mind these can be geared towards individuals, small businesses, or national businesses. I’ve worked with all three.
Best practices, campaign management, basic how to’s- Let me know!
At the moment the two that I have in mind are Intro to Blogging and Intro to Social Media (there are versions of each of these geared towards both individuals and organizations).
I am planing on both face to face workshops in the Cincinnati area (and possibly in New Orleans periodically) but I am also available to provide custom instruction over Skype (which I will teach you if you don’t all ready use it).
My lovely wife is acting as a teacher’s assistant for a class at DAAP and one of the things she had to grade were student blogs. This is for her students.
This post is to act as a bit of an anatomy lesson on blogs for those students and others just starting out. In it I explain some of the things that get overlooked such as tags, categories, navigation, etc. This is not an in depth study, just a look at the very basics.
Navigation – It doesn’t matter what you write if people can’t find it. All blog platforms have a “Recent Posts” widget that will show, you guessed it, your most recent posts. You can also add an “Archive” widget that will allow your readers to quickly scan prior posts based on date. Make sure that visitors can get around easily.
Categories and Tags- Categories are macro and Tags are Micro. Categories are broad topics, and one should be applied to each and every post. An artist’s blog would probably have some of the following categories- My Work, Shows, Influences, Process, etc. Make sure to display your categories in the sidebar, its another way for people to navigate to the stuff they want to read. Tags are more narrow. Three or four that are pertinent to the post are usually sufficient. While it is not usually useful to have the tags displayed in your sidebar one exception to this is the Tag Cloud. If that option is available use it, it helps. Always make sure to use consistent tags and categories otherwise they quickly become useless.
About Me- For an artist/ designer a blog is also a promotional tool. It’s a means of putting one’s work out there where anyone with a browser can see it. It’s really important to have an About Me page or profile on your blog. Users of Blogger will find that it automatically links to their Google Profile, whereas WordPress and TypePad users will be better served by creating a page for this.
Pages- Speaking of pages, they are a vital tool. Blog posts get pushed down each time new content is published. Pages remain static. With pages you can replicate a lot of the layout and content of a “regular” website. With pages you can present your portfolio, put up copyright and licensing info, and pretty much anything else you choose.
Social Elements- If you want people to find you on social platforms lie Facebook most of them will allow you to create our own widgets to do so. It’s very easy, usually just a matter of ticking off check boxes and then pasting the resulting block of code into your blog. The Facebook box in the right hand column of this website is a great example.
I hope you found this helpful! Please feel free to leave comments and questions, especially if you are one of the aforementioned students!
Malware on the Mac. To some it is as fanciful an idea as dragons or honest politicians. To others it’s a growing concern.
I’ve been working on something recently that I haven’t done since moving to Cincy- gearing up to do workshops.
My lovely wife is acting as a teacher’s assistant for a class at 
