Gary Eckstein

The objective of a business Website should be stated in business terms. All too often poor Website designers convince their clients that to get as many unique visitors as possible is the objective of any Website; But, just because many people visit a website doesn’t mean that that is good for the client. What matters is that the needs of the client are being served by their Website and this is usually best measured through defined objectives. For example, suppose I have a Website for my company that sells high price tractors. The primary objective of my Website may be to get two sales leads a week through the Website by visitors filling in the Online enquiry form. Getting several hundred Website visitors per day is largely irrelevant if those visitors aren’t looking to buy a tractor. If I’m getting three visits per day and this is resulting in two Online enquiries per week then my Website is a success. If however I’m getting hundreds of visits a day and none are resulting in sales then my Website is a waste of time and money.

This objective setting (and measurement) process is what often separates the good Website designers from the bad. Good Website designers try to understand their clients’ business objectives and model the Website to help in meeting those objectives. It takes experience, a service culture and business knowledge for the designer to understand and factor in these business objectives. Of course, designing a Website to meet the specific objectives of a client results in a more expensive Website. The investment in a Website however should be seen by clients as an income generating investment where a favourable Return on Investment (ROI) is necessary.  Ultimately you are going to get a better ROI by engaging a good designer that aims to make your Website meet your business objectives.

• SEO Objective Setting
• WordPress Reliability with VaultPress
• Word Clouds (and a great Wordle tip)

This week is ‘Privacy Awareness Week’ 2010 and as such it is urged that we familiarise ourselves with our rights, obligations and best-practice in relation to privacy.

The few recommendations below, from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, are related to Computer identity and information theft. They are well worth reading through:

• Make sure your computer has firewalls, virus protection and online security and privacy safeguards.
• Your online accounts should only be accessible with passwords that you create and change often. Your passwords should be hard for anyone to guess.
• When you shop or bank online, or fill out online forms, look for the padlock symbol at the lower right corner of your screen. This symbol means the information you provide is secure.
• When you log on to your e-mail or bank account from a library or other public computer, make sure no one can watch over your shoulder as you type in your password and other private information. Log out when you leave.
• Be careful about any personal information you divulge online, including in chat rooms and over social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Be suspicious of e-mails that appear to come from financial institutions or government agencies, asking you to provide personal information online. Real banks and governments don’t do that, but scammers will often hijack real logos to make their fraudulent messages look authentic.
• Delete any e-mail soliciting funds unless you can verify independently – for example with a phone call – that it’s from a reputable organization.

• computor

• Is your Site Blacklisted by Google?
• Ten Days of Information HELL: A Tale of three Information Pirate attacks.
• Top 10 Free Software

Want to know if your website has been compromised by Malware or spam links? Part of Search Engine Optimization is ensuring the integrity of a Site. There are two excellent and related free Online Tools out there to assist with knowing if your site is ‘clean’ or not:

This great Tool notifies if Google recognizes your Site as ‘suspicious’ i.e. does the site ‘appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites’? The Google Safe Browsing tool may be accessed by going to http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=example.com (change ‘example.com’ to your URL).

This Site records Websites containing damaging software such as Malware. As defined on the Site itself: ‘StopBadware.org is a partnership among academic institutions, technology industry leaders, and volunteers, all of whom are committed to protecting Internet and computer users from the threats to privacy and security that are caused by bad software’. StopBadware.org has some notable partners such as AOL, Google, Trend Micro, PayPal and Mozilla. The Site has a Tool available to check if a Site is listed as containing ‘Badware’: http://www.stopbadware.org/home/reportsearch

All the SEO in the world is unlikely to help much if your Site has been compromised by Malware or related ‘Bad’ links or software. Use the Tools above and use the guidance if your Site is listed as a ‘blacklisted’ Site.

• is my site black listed
• check if site is blacklisted
• check if site is blacklisted by mozilla
• check site for badware
• online website malware check

• Speed up your Website to keep Visitors
• Privacy Awareness Week – Computer Protection Tips
• Save WordPress (and Ferris)