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I recently heard a story of a business that got caught with fake reviews on Yelp. They were also an advertiser spending thousands of dollars a month on ads. When they got caught, Yelp canceled their ad account and told them they would be demoting the listing’s ranking for 6 months. After that time, they would re-evaluate, but there was no guarantee that things would go back to how they were before. Yelp’s stance on fake reviews couldn’t be more completely opposite of Google’s. Here are a few ways they differ when it comes to approaching businesses caught with fake reviews:
1. Yelp issues a ranking penalty, Google does not.
2. Yelp stops the business from advertising, Google does not.
This is a free "K2 Content Module" template override for the Joomla component K2 that can be used with any Joomla 1.5, 2.5, or 3.x site.
Download the template override files attached to this post and upload them into your Joomla template here:
/templates/your-template/html/mod_k2_content/
So the full path will look like this:
/templates/your-template/html/mod_k2_content/C2-Optimized/default.php
Video: How to Automatically Send Email Updates from Joomla + K2 using Mailchimp
Written by Nate Covington
This video demonstrates how to use Joomla and K2 to deliver email notifications to your contact list using Mailchimp - you can specify in Mailchimp how frequently (monthly, weekly, etc) and on which day and time you want the emails to be delivered.
The video below will demonstrate how I used Joomla + K2 to build an advanced, custom home page layout using regular Joomla modules. This customization and technique will work on any Joomla 1.5.x, 2.5.x or 3.x site.
Download the template override files attached to this post and upload them into your Joomla template here:
/templates/your-template/html/com_k2/
So the full path will look like this:
/templates/your-template/html/com_k2/home-override/category.php
Now would be a good time to remove the "Google+" profile link from your website, if you haven't already.
Original Article:
Google is about to have its Cambridge Analytica moment. A security bug allowed third-party developers to access Google+ user profile data since 2015 until Google discovered and patched it in March, but decided not to inform the world. When a user gave permission to an app to access their public profile data, the bug also let those developers pull their and their friends’ non-public profile fields. Indeed, 496,951 users’ full names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived, occupation and relationship status were potentially exposed, though Google says it has no evidence the data was misused by the 438 apps that could have had access.
The company decided against informing the public because it would lead to “us coming into the spotlight alongside or even instead of Facebook despite having stayed under the radar throughout the Cambridge Analytica scandal,” according to an internal memo. Now Google+, which was already a ghost town largely abandoned or never inhabited by users, has become a massive liability for the company.
See Also:
(Do ADA (or Section 508) Accessibility Standards Apply to My Website?)
I've had a few clients ask me recently about ensuring that their website is ADA accessible, mainly referring to visually impaired users and their ability to navigate and interact with your site.
I've also spoken to business owners who have already been targeted with litigation because their website was not ADA compliant.
I've inquired with a client of mine (who happens to be an attorney) and asked them for any guidance they could offer on the issue.
Look what the stork brought!
Written by Nate Covington
Introducing...
Carly Jane Covington
8 lbs 4 oz — 21.5 inches
Born June 14, 2018 at 9:03am
How Has Google’s August Broad Core Algorithm Update Affected Local Business Websites?
Written by Nate Covington
TL;DR
- On August 1st, 2018, Google released a broad core algorithm update that seems to have had an impact on both local and organic rankings.
- One of the functions of the update has been to demote advice pages with questionable expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) in rankings.
- YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) websites and pages seem to have been a particular focus.
You’ll no doubt have noticed, whether from reading the news or experiencing its effects yourself, that on August 1st, Google released what it’s called a ‘broad core algorithm’ update. This is the same way it referred to the updates in March and April, perhaps in an effort to move away from the irregular, major updates like Possum, Pigeon, Panda, etc. which inevitably send shockwaves throughout the SEO and content industry.
GMB has a handful of new features and some best-practice confusion. Contributor Sherry Bonelli clears things up and answers five frequently asked questions on fake reviews, random people changing your listing and more.
Not only does your Google My Business listing increase your chances of showing up in the Google Local 3-pack, but when your business is searched for by name, Google often shows a Knowledge Panel that displays detailed information about your company.
These details are pulled directly from your GMB listing, as well as from information Google finds from other online sources and user-generated content (like third-party reviews, Q&As, user-suggested information and so on).
When it comes to building a website, the biggest problem that people generally face with software like Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla is there is so many different ways of building a particular ‘section’ of a site.
You could build your “Meet the Staff” page using one “Article” in the CMS and list out all of the staff member’s head shots, names, titles, and descriptions in one big long page… or, you could create a custom content form for staff members that allows you to enter each bio as a separate article with fields for their image and each piece of information about them. This type of decision makes a huge difference once you add a few dozen bio’s into the site and then decide to change something. It’s not fun going back through them all, one by one.