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Backlinks – How important are they?

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The importance of backlinks in Page RankingsWhat is a Backlink?

Let’s start off by explaining what a backlink is. A backlink is a hyperlink on someone else’s website that links to your website.

An example of a backlink is Spotty Dog Computer Services. This links to my other website which mainly focuses on Computer Repairs.

A backlink from another website to mine that looked like the one shown above is great, but it could be even better if the Anchor Text was related to a Key Word I was targeting.

Google places a high value on backlinks. Backlinks tell Google that other people value the content on your website enough that they want to tell others about it.  Google considers each backlink as a vote that someone thinks your content is worth reading, and consequently places a high value on it.

But what gives a backlink an even higher value is having the Anchor Text reflect a keyword or phrase that you are targeting. The Anchor Text in the example shown above is “Spotty Dog Computer Services”.  Anchor Text that would be of a greater value would be something like “Computer Repairs Morayfield”, which highlights the keywords that I would target. So an example of a higher value backlink would be Computer Repairs Morayfield.

So how important are Backlinks?

To give you a real life example of how a properly constructed backlink can assist in elevating your website ranking, I have a story about this very website.

After creating this website with the intention of trying to rank Number One for the keywords “Website Design Morayfield”, and after spending a lot of time creating relevant content and pages, the best this website could rank was around Number four, and it stayed that way for weeks. It wasn’t until I gained a few backlinks, Website Design Morayfield, that I suddenly shot to the Number One position. So immediately you can see the value of having backlinks with the appropriate Anchor Text.

The trouble is of course, getting the backlinks and getting appropriate Anchor Text. If you have friends or associates with a website, you have a much better chance of being able to achieve this.

How to stop Comment Spam

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Over the years I have used many different Plug-in’s and methods to reduce Comment Spam on my websites.

Those Plug-in’s included the default WordPress Plug-in [tooltip title=”Info” content=”Akismet is a hosted web service that saves time by automatically detecting comment and trackback spam. It’s hosted on their Servers, but they give you access to it through a plugin and an API.” type=”info” ]Akismet[/tooltip] (at last count on my main website it has blocked 3,306 Spam Comments), [tooltip title=”Info” content=”An extremely powerful anti-spam Plug-in for WordPress that reduces comment spam, including trackback and pingback spam. It works invisibly without CAPTCHA’s, or other inconveniences to site visitors. The plugin includes spam-free contact form feature as well.” type=”info” ]WP-SpamFree[/tooltip] (it’s blocked 4,725 Spam Comments), and along the way various other Security Plug-in’s and methods.

But none of them have been 100% effective.

Sure, they “reduced” the amount of Spam, but some Spam has always managed to get through.

Now obviously you need to set your WordPress Discussion Settings so that they must be approved by an Administrator first (see image below), but having to plough through the Spam Comments and manually delete them too, well that is an additional Admin overhead we can all do without.

WordPress Discussion settings

Discussion Settings

Comment Spam has been a real bug bear for me, and to be honest, a pretty big problem. But at last I’ve finally found a Plug-in that reduces Comment Spam to zero, zilch, nada!!! That’s right, it’s 100% effective in preventing Comment Spam.

Well, let me qualify that by saying that it’s 100% effective against automated Comment Spam.

Obviously, if a real human is determined and prepared to take the time to post a bogus comment and physically undertake the CAPTCHA test, then you won’t stop that.

The Plug-in in that I have discovered is [tooltip title=”Info” content=”Fun Captcha presents a mini-game that blocks the bots while giving your users a few moments of fun. It’s a real security solution hardened by experts and automatically updated to provide the best protection.  Users complete these little games faster than other CAPTCHAs, with no frustrating failures and no typing. Fun Captcha works on all browsers and mobile devices.” type=”info” ]Fun CAPTCHA.[/tooltip]

The trouble with most CAPTCHA systems is that they are quite difficult to read (see the image below), and visitors to your website hate using them, and the Spammers are getting smarter all the time and can circumvent them.

CAPTCHA Examples

CAPTCHA Examples

So what Fun CAPTCHA does is stop the BOT’s, and turns the CAPTCHA system into a mini-game.  The visitor wishing to post a comment is required to complete the game with a series of mouse clicks, rather than trying to decipher hard to read CAPTCHA Images, and it works on all Browsers and Mobile Devices.

The best thing is that Fun CAPTCHA is totally free, however you must create an account on their website to obtain some security codes first.

Below is a video that shows how the Fun CAPTCHA Plug-in works.

You can download the Plug-in from the WordPress Plug-in Directory.

Web Designers Caboolture

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Web Designers Collaborating CabooltureOK, so I just couldn’t resist posting this image of two Web Designers at work collaborating on a new “Web” Project hahahahaha.

Note the thoughtful concentration and consideration going into it?

It tickled my funny bone so I thought I’d share it.

Seriously though, if you are looking for a Caboolture Morayfield based Web Designer, give us a call today.

We have been designing websites locally for over 10 years, and have the know-how required to build your Business Website, quickly, efficiently and professionally.

Do you want an online catalogue for your Business Website?

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It is often quite beneficial to display your Business Product Catalogue online in a format that actually behaves like a Print Catalogue.

For a start, even if you have an eCommerce website, a Flipping Book Online Catalogue looks flash and will impress your visitors.

Secondly, it provides a way for your visitors to interact with your website in a fun way, whilst at the same time allowing them to see your Products or Specials or whatever it is you want to display.

Now this can be achieved two ways.  Either using a Flipping Book Plug-in, or my preferred method, using software on your computer to create the Online Catalogue, and uploading the files to your website.

Below is an example of a Specials Catalogue that I created for my Computer Repairs Business.

The latest version of the Flipping Book Software has integrated support for the HTML5 standard which means that your publications are readable on almost all devices, including iPhones and Android based Phones, to tablets like the iPad, and E-readers.

Watch the video below to learn more about the capabilities of Flipping Book software.

Website Design

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Website DesignAnd last but not least, we of course Design Websites. But not just any old website.

Our Websites all employ the use of the Open Source CMS Platform, WordPress.

Our latest websites are Responsive, meaning that when you scale the Browser down to a lower resolution, or you are viewing the website on a Laptop, Tablet or Mobile Phone, the website will display appropriately for that device.

Images and Sliders will shrink to accommodate the smaller displays, and content and sidebars will rearrange themselves to fit on the screen.

All images on the website are optimised for the web to maximise page load times.