Google

SSL and HTTPS is the future of the web

Laura — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 17:08:25 +0000

SSL and HTTPS is the future of the web

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is the name of the technology that encrypts the communication between a browser and a web (or email) server. This changes the standard HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) to HTTPS which adds encryption. This site is secure; you can see the green lock in the header. Why is this important? Well, eCommerce sites absolutely need to be secure since users will be entering private information. It is absolutely essential to encrypt that information. But what if you aren't processing financial transactions? Do you still need SSL? We monkeys say enthusiastically YES! and believe that in the future all sites

We are not alone, last year the White House released their memorandum entitled “A Policy to Require Secure Connections across Federal Websites and Web Services” which outlines the steps that all government sites should follow and why. The

HTTPS verifies the identity of a website or web service for a connecting client, and encrypts nearly all information sent between the website or service and the user. Protected information includes cookies, user agent details, URL paths, form submissions, and query string parameters. HTTPS is designed to prevent this information from being read or changed while in transit.

EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is a not for profit organization, that according to their about page, "champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development" since 1990. One of their goals is to:

… switch hypertext from insecure HTTP to secure HTTPS. That protection is essential in order to defend Internet users against surveillance of the content of their communications; cookie theft, account hijacking and other web security flaws; cookie and ad injection; and some forms of Internet censorship.

Google is actively giving SEO bonuses to secure sites, and has even proposed penalizing insecure sites. In August 2014, Google started boosting search results for secure sites. In addition, they began indexing secure versions of web pages last year instead of their insecure counterparts.

Last month, Chrome proposed actually giving warning notices on all insecure web sites. If they move forward with this, Chrome users will be increasingly aware of secure sites and navigate elsewhere.

Finally, Amnesty International believes encryption is a human rights issue. In their briefing, "Encryption: A Matter of Human Rights" they state:

With online censorship and surveillance a growing threat to human rights, undermining encryption could threaten the ability of people around the world to freely communicate and use the internet, such as human rights activists who challenge the authorities, journalists who uncover corruption, and lawyers holding powerful governments to account, Amnesty International said.

This is just a small list of reasons why a secure web is critical. Is your site secure?

Laura Wed, 04/06/2016 - 10:08

HTTPS

SSL

EFF

Google

Chrome

No HTTPS? Chrome may tag you non-secure

Laura — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 00:29:23 +0000

No HTTPS? Chrome may tag you non-secure

In 2014 Google announced that websites using an SSL certificate would get a slight bump in search results. Last December they announced that HTTPS pages will get served up before their comparable HTTP versions.

Now, it looks like Google will take their support of all things HTTPS one step further in Chrome and will mark all websites that don't serve up an SSL certificates as non-secure.

Web Design Ledger points out that it's not all good news, and I'm sure many small business owners and those running personal websites might agree with their statement that:

This change, though being promoted as something to safeguard the web, is being viewed as more of a monopolistic move by Google. By “forcing” webmasters to use HTTPS, Google may or may not make a safer internet, but it surely is making life difficult for the average user who just wishes to have a generic blog or website.

Just another reason to maintain a current SSL certificate for your website; you don't want your users to think your site is an any way not a safe place to be. We're secure, are you?

Laura Wed, 02/24/2016 - 16:29

Google Rolls Out Core Update for 2016

Laura — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 19:46:18 +0000

Google Rolls Out Core Update for 2016

Google has updated it's algorithm yet again. Last month, I wrote about how they put even more weight on HTTPS pages in search results. This week, Panda becomes part of the core ranking algorithm. Panda came out in 2011 as a way to lower the ranking of sites with low content and high amounts of advertisements with the goal of reducing spammy results. It has been changed and updated many times over the last few years.

I first caught the story over at Search Engine Land where Google execs confirmed when writer, Barry Schwartz tweeted at the company last weekend.

Jennifer Slegg over at TheSEMPost has created "The Definitive Algo Guide for SEOs" and her information has been confirmed by Google. I know I'll be spending hours combing through this. This informative guide has detailed information grouped into the following categories:

Panda's Impact on Content
Word Count & On Page Factors
Advertising & Affiliates
User-Generated Content
Technical Aspects of Panda

The basics of creating SEO friendly content will never change; create well written, unique content on a regular basis.

Laura Fri, 01/15/2016 - 11:46

Google

SEO

HTTPS Pages Now Displayed First in Google Results

Laura — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 18:59:43 +0000

HTTPS Pages Now Displayed First in Google Results

Last year Google announced they would be using HTTPS as a ranking signal with the implication that it would be considered heavier in the future. Well, the future is now! Yesterday Google has taken the next step in security and will now index HTTPS pages over their HTTP counterparts, even if those pages aren't directly linked. The blog announcement states:

We'd like to announce that we're adjusting our indexing system to look for more HTTPS pages. Specifically, we’ll start crawling HTTPS equivalents of HTTP pages, even when the former are not linked to from any page. When two URLs from the same domain appear to have the same content but are served over different protocol schemes, we’ll typically choose to index the HTTPS URL.

Check out their announcement to see the full criteria for a secure page.

Us monkeys believe in a secure, open world wide web and applaud Google for serving up results for secure pages. We always encourage our clients to use HTTPS and will continue to champion for privacy and net neutrality.

GoDaddy has a 50% off deal in place right now. Full disclosure: this is an affiliate coupon from SharedValues.com, a monkey client.

Laura Fri, 12/18/2015 - 10:59

HTTPS

Google

SEO

Microsoft Now Accepting Bitcoin!

Laura — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 23:25:27 +0000

Microsoft Now Accepting Bitcoin!

Last week, Microsoft announced that they are now accepting Bitcoins for XBOX and Windows store purchases. This is another great step forward for Bitcoin and other crypto-currency users. I love seeing more avenues open to spend alternative currencies.

Forbes reports

“For us, this is about giving people options and helping them do more on their devices and in the cloud,” said Eric Lockard, corporate vice president of Universal Store at Microsoft, in a statement. “The use of digital currencies such as bitcoin, while not yet mainstream, is growing beyond the early enthusiasts. We expect this growth to continue and allowing people to use bitcoin to purchase our products and services now allows us to be at the front edge of that trend.”

Almost a year ago, Google announced it's intention of accepting Bitcoin, but I haven't seen any news since then.

Laura Fri, 12/19/2014 - 15:25

Firefox Changes Default Search to Yahoo

Laura — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:13:00 +0000

Firefox Changes Default Search to Yahoo

This summer, Apple announced that their integrated search tool, Spotlight, will use Bing as their default search engine. Mozilla, the company that makes Firefox, is also leaving Google behind and switching their default search engine to Yahoo.

According to the Mozilla announcement, in the U.S.A. Firefox will roll out the following changes:

Under a new five-year strategic partnership announced today, Yahoo Search will become the default search experience for Firefox in the U.S.
Starting in December, Firefox users will be introduced to a new enhanced Yahoo Search experience that features a clean, modern interface that brings the best of the Web front and center.
Under this partnership, Yahoo will also support Do Not Track (DNT) in Firefox.
Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, eBay, Amazon, Twitter and Wikipedia will continue to be built-in as alternate search options.

Click through to the announcement to see what features will change for your country.

Laura Mon, 12/08/2014 - 09:13

Explore 100,000 Stars

Laura — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:21:48 +0000

Explore 100,000 Stars

100,000 stars is an interactive galaxy created by the Labs at Google. Showing off the capabilities of HTML5, you can explore the immediate galaxy using buttons or intuitive gestural commands and learning as you go with the integrated hover tips. Oh, and it's pretty too!

via Wired

Laura Wed, 10/15/2014 - 11:21

Interactive

Google

HTML5

Blogging Best Practices

Laura — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 21:47:31 +0000

Blogging Best Practices

Who

The first question to consider is who is your audience. For me it's our clients and fellow designers. We also have content geared more towards programmers and crypto currency enthusiasts. This means every article isn't written for every user, so we use tagging functionality to keep related content together.

What

My personal blog is where I share works in progress, glimpses into my artistic process, and work by others that I am inspired by. This blog reflects our company, our vision, and our love of sharing knowledge.

When

It's better to post once weekly than to post 5 things at once and then nothing for a month. Currently here and on my art site, I'm blogging for every weekday for 30 days and Dave's helping. This blog post was inspired by an email I wrote to one of our clients this morning.

A standard feature we use for our client blogs is Scheduler. There is a "scheduler" tab in the lower left tabs of our Drupal forms that gives authors the ability to schedule blog posts. I love that a post can go live when when I don't even have time to be at the computer. This is especially handy for content that isn't time sensitive and also helps me to think in terms of ongoing, related content.

On this blog, I often pre-write the Typography Tuesday and Type on Thursday posts and use scheduler liberally for them. Friday is dedicated to Robot Sex Nickel updates and market recaps so those need to be written on Fridays due to their time sensitive content. We sort our content with tagging functionality that gives us the ability to create nice listing pages and tags Google+ pages.

Where

Share everywhere, share often! I recommend setting up your blog to auto-update your social media accounts. I use If This Than That to keep my networks current and have posted how to do that here.

Why

A blog drives traffic to your business. Your content shows potential clients your areas of expertise and helps with search engine optimization (SEO). Search engines give preference to sites that have regular updates. Google Trends is an excellent tool that suggest words to help with SEO.

How

Image: Please include an image! I made this list of sites that have photos that are free to use and free of copyright! Some need attribution in the form of the photographers name or a link to their site, but most do not. This image is from Death to the Stock Photo although they do not require attribution.

If your content management system has the option, go ahead and use the same image as the teaser and in the main body. In Drupal, we use these images to make listing pages and social networks often use the teaser image.

Summary: Since CMS varies, if you have a summary field, use it. In Drupal, this is immediately above the main text body and extremely helpful for designing the listing page. Like the teaser image, the summary can show up in search results and social network posts.

Abstract: Use abstract meta tags if your CMS has them. In Drupal, this is one of the vertical tabs in the bottom left corner. It should be 150 characters in sentence format and include hot search terms within a concise article description. In addition to helping with SEO, it can be used to customize search results. My dynamic home page was only showing the copyright line as the description and I used meta tags to dictate what the search engines would display. When writing abstracts, consider using Google Trends to help pick words that are searched for often.

Have fun and happy blogging!

Laura Mon, 10/13/2014 - 14:47

Upgrade to HTTPS and Boost Search Results!

Laura — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:42:03 +0000

Upgrade to HTTPS and Boost Search Results!

Monkeys believe in web security and privacy and have been participating in the Reset the Net campaign. We have been encouraging all web site owners to add SSL encryption to their website for security and privacy for their users. An added benefit is that Google is starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal.

We’ve seen positive results, so we’re starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal. For now it's only a very lightweight signal—affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content—while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.

Namecheap just launched SwitchToSSL.com, a one-stop site that makes it easy to add SSL encryption to your website for just $1.99 and part of that fee gets donated to Fight for the Future & Reset the Net!

Laura Mon, 08/11/2014 - 08:42

Apple Moving Towards Bing Over Google

Laura — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 17:11:20 +0000

Apple Moving Towards Bing Over Google

Apple has announced that their new operating systems' built in search tool, Spotlight, will show Bing results instead of Google results. I'm amazed to see Apple choosing a Microsoft solution over a Google solution and have been following this story closely.

The upcoming operating system puts Apple's Spotlight, a local search bar previously relegated to the top right corner of the screen, front and center as the dominant feature of the desktop. Its tool set has been expanded as well, allowing it to pull up results from local files, mail, calendars, even related iTunes content and results from Apple Maps, as well as broader Web searches. - Fierce CMO

Spotlight in Yosemite goes a step further. If you search for a movie title, for example, it shows nearby theaters and show times, plus related content streaming from iTunes. And it has Apple Maps integration if you search for a place. Spotlight is basically mimicking features from Google Now info cards, Gmail search, and Google search info cards and presenting them in a different way. - Slate

Google is the king of the mountain when it comes to search engines, so will it be enough to knock them down?

Apple's search tool shows only a few results per query, meaning a lot less real estate for results. That means Apple would have to prove that its small number of results are accurate enough to fulfill someone's query. Good-enough search has never been enough to unseat or take share from Google. - Ad Age

In addition to the spotlight changes, Safari is getting some new Spotlight-integrated, Google-bypassing features as well.

You can put a URL into the address bar, or search Google. But the address bar will now also give “Spotlight suggestions.” As you begin typing a prominent public figure’s name, for example, a brief version of their bio shows up in the Spotlight results. Clicking it takes you to their full Wikipedia page. - Slate

Both of these search options will not include Google's ads, which has to be a concern for Google and the companies paying for AdWords. I can only assume that will cut into Google's bottom line.

Google took in 70.8% of the $19.92 billion U.S. advertisers spent on search advertising last year, according to eMarketer estimates. - Ad Age

Their name has become synonymous for searching, so it will be fascinating to watch how it all plays out.

It’s also a sign that Apple might be moving to turning Siri into its own branded search engine. Spotlight is handling a variety of different search tasks, similar to how Siri can. That’s a big change, and it could be a move toward Apple further distancing itself from Google search by using Siri as a stand-in. - Search Engine Land

What this means for us and our clients is that we will continue to optimize for Google, but will increase our and our clients' presence on Bing.

Laura Wed, 06/18/2014 - 10:11

Apple

Bing

Google