Google Testing A New Label For Slow Websites In Search Results

Site load speed was all the rage a few years ago, and was considered as a plus point. In fact, it became an important search ranking factor in 2010. But what about all the SEO developments over the years? The paradigm must have shifted? Well, it sure has, onto content quality and usability. So should you still focus on a fast load speed, or will an average speed do the job?

Over the years, Google has released and perfected many pagespeed tools to help analyze and improve your page load speed. Fast loading websites lead to higher visitor engagement, retention and conversions. The first 3 seconds are extremely important for a website to retain a visitor.  The more visitors leave your blog, the higher your bounce rate grows and the lesser your ad impressions.

Now, it has become more important than ever to have a decent loading time. Google is currently testing out a new red-colored label within search results for slow-loading websites. This red label will indicate when a particular webpage is slow to load, thereby warning the users before they click over to that site.

Check out an image of search results below.

Note that this update is currently limited to the mobile version of search. If that remains the case, then mobile optimization could play a part here. Even if a website is loading fast on desktop, it may not necessarily be set up to load equally fast on a mobile device, and vice-versa.

First, let us look at the simplest scenario. If your website contains graphics, blocking scripts and heavy media content, it is bound to slow down the page. Such a page will be labelled anyway. However, even if that isn't the case, it could be that your website is not configured to handle mobile properly. In the wake of responsive design, too many extra scripts can weigh down the processor on a mobile, thus slowing down the loading speed.

So while you are being mindful of this notorious label (which, by the way, is still being tested), always consider the above two possibilities. If you need help speeding up your website, we have a lot of reference material to help you along. Just follow the link given below.

• Push Your Website To Maximum Load Speed

Good luck (:

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Blogger Will Now Automatically Create Sitemap.xml File For All Blogs

There's big news with regards to sitemap files in Blogger. If you have a blog running on Google's Blogger platform, you no longer need to worry about creating and maintaining a custom sitemap and then submitting it to search engines. Google will now automatically create a sitemap file in your root directory, eliminating the need for third-party sitemap services on Blogger.

A good, high-quality sitemap is an integral part of search engine optimization. It offers a really simple way for site owners to share information with every search engine about the content they have on their site instead of having to rely solely on crawling algorithms.

Blogger limitations

Many Content Management Systems such as WordPress let you easily create a sitemap with either native or third-party support. This includes Blogger as well.

Blogger, as you might know, is pretty limited. Blogger users can not access the root directory of their blog. Their content remains hosted at Google even if they have a custom domain. The ftp directory your web hosts creates can allow you to only host files at sub-domains, and if you try hosting files at the root directory, Blogger will return a 404 error.

As a consequence, the only good way of submitting a sitemap for Blogger was to submit an RSS or Atom feed, since it does almost the same thing and is in xml format as well.

Automatic sitemaps

There is good news though. You no longer need to do all that to submit a sitemap. Google will now automatically create a sitemap for your Blogger blog, and that too on your root directory. You can view it at http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml (e.g. http://www.mybloggertricks.com/sitemap.xml)

Not only that, the sitemap file further contains links to pages like:

• http://www.mybloggertricks.com/sitemap.xml?page=1


• http://www.mybloggertricks.com/sitemap.xml?page=2


• http://www.mybloggertricks.com/sitemap.xml?page=3

I think this is a very welcome step, and I hope the Blogger teams will provide customization options as well for the sitemap. If you have any questions, or want to participate in the discussion, then please feel free to join us on our discussion form where we talk about creating a sitemap for Blogger.

Good luck (:

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How To Get Your Content Displayed In Google Quick Answer Box?

Google's Quick Answer box - while useful for the casual searcher, creates a lot of challenges for webmasters. On the one hand, if your content is used by the Quick Answer box, you get prominence. But at the same time, if users can get their questions answered on the SERPs, why would they click through to your site, right? Their utility is debatable. Today, however, we will talk about how to get your content displayed on Google's Quick Answer box.

The Google Knowledge Graph is what powers certain components on a search results page, and the quick answers box is just one of those components. Semantic markup, like that provided by Schema.org, is just one way to help communicate what�s on a page to search engines. According to Schema.org;

On-page markup enables search engines to understand the information on web pages and provide richer search results in order to make it easier for users to find relevant information on the web. Markup can also enable new tools and applications that make use of the structure.

Getting featured in Google Knowledge Graph

Here are some things that can help you get featured in Google Knowledge Graph. 

• Implement structured data on your website


• Use nouns (i.e., entities) in your writing when it�s natural to do so


• Link to relevant sites


• Get featured in Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an example of data organization done right - the way Google likes to use. Google likes organized, easily accessible data. That�s why merging everything you know about SEO best practices with useful content and structured data can help you show up in Knowledge Graph-powered results.

Here are some tips for optimizing for the answer box.

• Select a topic that�s interesting for your users


• Create quality content relevant to the theme (use �buyer persona� studies, focus groups, and engagement analytics to determine the content mix)


• Structure the page with user experience in mind


• Where relevant, clearly define a how-to list, including the phrase �how to� in content and bullet points clearly present answers


• Implement SEO practices like basic on-page optimization, theme-relevant cross-linking and technical SEO tactics

This is still a new feature, and optimizing for the Knowledge Graph in general is still fairly novel for many, We'll be sharing in-depth articles about optimizing for the Knowledge Graph. One I'd particularly like to talk about is Wikipedia and its importance for ranking well on Google. So stay tuned for some really useful posts :)

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How To Fix Your Website When It Gets Hacked?

It's not uncommon for sites - even large ones with lots of protection - to get hacked. Security is a major problem these days. And if your site gets hacked, it can get damaged in a number of ways. You could lose all your data, or lose its ranking due to malicious activity. So while you can take periodic backups, you cannot prevent someone from hacking into your site. The best and most practical thing to do in such an event is to recover your site as fast as possible so that the effect of the attack is neutralized/minimized.

Here are some tips shared by Google for getting your website back on track after it has been hacked.

Clean up malicious scripts

Hackers can target your site for any number of motives. From taking down your website and deleting its content to simply adding backlinks discreetly, there's a lot that can be done. If you notice suspicious content appearing on your website, delete those unnecessary pages immediately. However, don't just stop there.

Hackers will often insert malicious scripts into your HTML and PHP files. These could automatically be creating rogue backlinks or even new pages. Make sure you check your website's source code and see for any malicious PHP or JavaScript code that could be creating such content.

Maintain your CMS

Websites often get hacked due to vulnerabilities in a CMS that get patched with updates. If you're running an older version, your site is more susceptible to attack. Make sure you keep your CMS updated, and use a strong password for login. If possible, enable two-step verification to secure the login process.

www vs. non-www

www and non-www URLs are not the same. http://www.example.com is not the same as http://example.com - the former refers to a sub-domain 'www', whereas the latter is the root of your site. When checking for malicious content, verify the non-www version of your site as hackers often try to hide content in folders that may be overlooked by the webmaster

Other useful security tips

• Avoid using FTP when transferring files to your servers. FTP does not encrypt any traffic, including passwords. Instead, use SFTP, which will encrypt everything, including your password, as a protection against eavesdroppers examining network traffic.


• Check the permissions on sensitive files like .htaccess. Your hosting provider may be able to assist you if you need help. The .htaccess file can be used to improve and protect your site, but it can also be used for malicious hacks if they are able to gain access to it.


• Be vigilant and look for new and unfamiliar users in your administrative panel and any other place where there may be users that can modify your site.

Got any questions? Feel free to leave a new thread in our discussion forum. You can read the post from Google along with a couple case studies here. Good luck (:

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Google Labelled Your Site As Hacked? Here's How To Fix It

Is your website being falsely labelled in search results as a 'hacked' website even though there's nothing wrong with it? There isn't cause for concern, because it might not be something 'hidden' that you apparently can't detect. Google is reportedly working on a new hacked page classifier, and as a result, a number of websites are getting incorrectly marked as 'hacked' in search results.

This was acknowledged by Google's John Mueller on Google+.

We're slowly rolling out a new hacked page classifier and noticed a small number of misclassifications. We're sorry for any trouble this may have caused -- we are working on addressing the issues.

Obviously, this is a very serious problem, because nobody in their right mind would visit a hacked or malicious website intentionally, right? So if your website has been effected, here's what you do.

How to tell when your website is effected?

First, do a quick search for your site and see if a line of blue text appears underneath the title tag reading �This site may be hacked.� If you don�t see that line, you�re good. If you do see that line, and you�re certain your site is not hacked, here�s what you can do to fix it.

Fixing the problem

All you have to do is, fill out a Google docs form for misclassification of your website. The link is given below.

• Google docs form for misclassified websites

One you fill it out, someone at Google will review it and remove the label if your site is in fact safe. It is not clear how long you�d have to wait before Google removes the label on your site, but hopefully they are quick about it.

Mueller recommends getting someone who is experienced in working with hacked sites to double-check whether or not your site is really hacked, because that�s a whole other issue you�ll need to deal with.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to create a new thread in our help forum, and we'll try to help you our over there. Leave your responses in the comments section below.

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What To Look For When Hiring Ghostwriting Services?

Are you looking to hire a ghostwriter? As you know, there are a large number of individuals and service providers offering such services, and businesses are increasingly hiring them to write business eBooks or blogs to serve their marketing purposes. However, the question remains: how do you hire a ghostwriter? A recent post by Vorongo posted by Cameron on what do you need to look for when hiring a ghostwriter inspired us a lot and we thought we can share our experience on this subject to better help webmasters in hiring authors for their blogs.Check out these five must-have qualities your ghostwriter should have.

1. They Must Have Industry Knowledge

Your ghostwriter should understand the genre or industry you need them to write for. Having a firm understanding of the in�s and out�s will make your manuscript, blog post, or article stand out.

An exceptional ghostwriter is one who intentionally follows up on industry news and current trends. Your ghostwriter should not have to do a vast amount of research to take on your project. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, so it will not make them a bad person if they do not meet your qualifications. It just means they are not meant to work on your project.

2. They Must Sign and Respect the Confidentiality Agreement

You are hiring this person to be your writer and make your publication stand out. You, however, don�t want the masses to know that it was not you doing the writing. So signing a confidentiality agreement is a must and may not be a complication for them to do so. However, just because they have signed one, does not mean they are adhering to it.

Conduct a thorough interview with the potential writer. Remember, your ghostwriter must not only sign a non-disclosure agreement with you, but must adhere to prior ones they have signed as well. So in asking for their published articles, if you find they are showing you pieces of work they�ve completed for others, it means they would turn around and do the same to you. This is not ethical practices, and they are not the ghostwriter for you.

3. They Must Show Proof of Publishing

Now, although it�s been stated that they should not show off their ghostwriting work, they can, however, show you their own publications and other writing pieces. A ghostwriter does not become one overnight. In fact, they may have had a terrible time writing as a career for themselves so turned to ghostwriting. Ask to see their portfolio of which should include:

• Their current publications


• Articles, blogs, novels, and other literature pieces clients have given permission to use


• A list of references

You want to see proof they can write better than you can. Check for organization of their writing and if they have ideas to help you shine.

4. They Are Flexible and Able to Meet Your Needs

Flexibility is key in the writing industry. You have deadlines to meet and need your ghostwriter to help you maintain them. The ghostwriter that you choose should understand and be capable of showing you that your time is valuable. They should:

• Coordinate with you for interviews, transcription, and idea creation


• Work around your schedule


• Show patience with revision requests you may have

5. They Represent You Well

Finally, your ghostwriter should match your voice and represent you well. When someone reads your work, it should accurately reflect you to the point where a close friend or family member believes you wrote the piece. In the samples they show you of their work using their name, it should reflect one particular style. If they show you ghostwritten pieces, keep in mind it�s meant for that particular client, so the style of writing will change.

Remember, the purpose of your hiring a ghostwriter is to reflect your story on your timetable. Choose one that will compliment your unique style and respect the relationship you two must build to create the perfect story.

Questions and feedback is warmly welcomed! Do share your precious views on ghostwriting buddies!

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How To Get Free 100 GB OneDrive Storage?

When it comes to online productivity wars, no one probably does it better than Microsoft. With their recent transition into this whole 'cloud first' persona, it has become harder for competitors to stand their ground. A few days back, we shared Google's offering of an extra 2 GB free space on Google Drive. Today, we were staggered to see Microsoft offering a humongous 100 GB of free space for OneDrive users.

This free OneDrive storage offer can be claimed before the end of February, after which it will expire. The free storage will remain with you until February 2017, so you have a good two years to enjoy your free storage!

As a Blogger, I cannot do without certain cloud applications. Be it a note-taking app such as OneNote or Google Keep, or a cloud storage I can host my personal website on. From backing up your website data onto the cloud, to keeping your photos synced across devices, there's a lot that can done with these productivity applications.

To me, just how Microsoft is giving away so much free space is amazing. A few GBs here and there are the norm. You get free 3 GB for turning on camera upload, and so on. Dropbox had a space race going an year or so ago, and even that gave you 25 extra GB at max. So for OneDrive, an extra 100 GB for free is a big deal!

How to get the free 100 GBs?

The free space is available, courtesy of Bing Rewards. It is a program where you are rewarded for using Bing and various other Microsoft services. Unfortunately, it is only available for residents within the U.S. Despair not, however. There's a workaround!

Step 1: Connect to a US-based proxy

If you live inside the states, you can skip to the next step. For non-US residents, you can use a VPN service or a US-based IP address. TorGuard is one such service that gives you lots of servers within the U.S. to connect to. VPN.CC is another example that offers free trials as well.

Step 2: Join Bing Rewards

You can claim free credits just for signing up with Bing Rewards using your Microsoft account. This credit can be used to get free storage and other such offers and services on OneDrive.

Step 3: Claim your reward!

All you now need to do is click on the reward offer within Bing Rewards dashboard, and 100 GB will be instantly added to your Microsoft OneDrive!

Which cloud service do you prefer, and why? Leave your responses in the comments section below, or post a new thread to our forum for further help! Cheers :)

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