Google Specialists Robocalls Explained

biddleSEO, TechnologyLeave a Comment

One frequent question I get from our Knoxville website design customers is what are the robocalls from people claiming to be Google Specialists all about? There are variations which also include themes about your Google business listing needing to be updated or claimed, or as you can listen in the one below claiming to be Google specialists offering a front page position that is available, if you qualify that is for a business like yours and can guarantee front page placement on Google with unlimited clicks 24 hours a day at a flat rate on Google. They make it a point in this short clip to use Google’s name twice. As a result, many people assume this is Google actually contacting them, but the call below is not from google, but rather a telemarketer.

Anyone can guarantee that you are on the front page of Google by purchasing Google Ads and bidding high enough on the keywords. You don’t need a telemarketer or specialist to setup google ads, and it’s usually cheaper to have your website designer set this up for you as part of your website design project, or as part of your website SEO package. This way, you can pay google directly for your Google ads, and there is no middle man taking part of the flat rate they refer to. All the money you spend each month goes directly toward your advertising costs.

We are located in Knoxville, TN however, because we have been in business so many years, we work with customers all across the United States and Canada.  Call us today for more information about getting your business in the top 10 search results on google organically or purchasing Google ads.

#RIPTwitter Trending after algorithm speculation

biddleNews, TechnologyLeave a Comment

Twitter Algorithm Apparently as soon as next week, Twitter will introduce an algorithm similar to how Facebook works that shows tweets from people you are following based upon how they calculate it via an algorithm, rather than the natural chronological order.  Today #RIPTwitter is trending, and it’s clear that some people are resistant to the change. Personally I think it may be a good idea. For years we’ve been forced to watch ads and commercials that don’t apply to us, but technology and cookies have allowed ads to be served up based upon our personal interests. People complained about that too, but if you are forced into watching an ad, wouldn’t you rather see one that actually applies to your interests? That’s a win-win for the advertiser and the viewer! Personally I don’t think this is a bad move on Twitter’s part, depending on how good the algorithm is. People are already soliciting for Twitter to offer an opt-out, but don’t expect that to be available! Chances are, everyone will use Twitter moving forward with the algorithm.  I have an active Twitter account with nearly 50,000 followers, so I will be sure to update this article or add a new one with my feedback about how the algorithm affected my user engagement whether that is good or bad.

Update 2/11/2016 According to USAToday “The new timeline will be turned on by default in coming weeks on Android, iOS and the Web, but users can turn it off.”

Don’t forget to share my article below using the icons!



RDC SSL Certificate setup windows 2012 server R2 PCI

biddleTechnology, Technology-Server-Hosting, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

If you are not running ADS active directory services on your windows 2012 server R2 server, you have probably noticed that there is no longer an easy way to configure your RDC SSL certificate in the remote desktop services configuration. I could not find good instructions to remedy this problem so the workgroup server would pass PCI compliance. If you use a workgroup local server self signed SSL certificate like yourserver.local you will get this PCI vulnerability warning:  Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Protocol Server Private Key Disclosure.

These are the easy and complete instructions for changing the RDC SSL certificate on your Windows 2012 server for TSL secure connections.

RDC Workgroup Configuration

RDC Workgroup Configuration

1) Your full computer name in your must match your SSL certificate name! In this case our SSL is secure.websiteworld.com so we have named our server secure.websiteworld.com

2) You need a .PFX export of your SSL certificate, make a note of the location you saved it, i.e. C:SSL

3) You can use this powershell script to install the certificate and make the process easier! Download the file, right click it, and run with Powershell. If you get confused about this part read this blog which explains in detail how to use the script.

When you are finished you should be able to go back into your MMC.exe and the certificates snap in and see your remote desktop certificate there. If it is not there you can import it. You may also want to delete your .local old certificate. It should also be located under Personal/Certificates.  If you have any issues, you can import the certificate into the personal/certificates and then start the powershell script in step 2 again. You can restart the server to make sure everything works and run your Trustwave scan or

Also a warning, make sure you have VNC or something on the server if you only have remote access to the server in case you get locked out!

secure-mmc

 

 

Please Google +1 to help other people find this post!

Don’t leave children and pets in the car!

biddleUncategorizedLeave a Comment

It’s really disturbing how many times I see pets left in cars in the parking lot even during the summer! Even more disturbing is people leave children in the car! A lot of people seem to be really ignorant to the fact that even with temperatures outside as low as 57 degrees, heatstroke can occur! In as little as 10 minutes, an automobile can heat up at least 20 degrees! Rolling down a window does very little to keep a car cool.

I have a great demonstration I tried myself after I saw that law enforcement officers are often required to be tased before using a taser. I sat out in my car in a parking lot on a hot day, and it didn’t take long before I was sweating like crazy! (Try this at your own risk, I’m in good health) It’s amazing to me that people don’t realize how hot a car gets inside. I think some people are just lazy and leave the pets in the car because they cannot bring them inside the store.

So what do you do if you see a child left in a car? According to Safercar.gov you take action! Call 911 and do whatever necessary to get the child out of the car if they are in distress! Good Samaritan laws protect you, so don’t worry about getting involved. If you have to break glass, make sure you break a window away from the child, unlock that door, and then you will be able to open the door near the child. Me and Kendra Maples carry a small glass breaker in our glove box for emergencies.

Download this information sheet from Safercar.gov

Additional Resources • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – safercar.gov/heatstroke • San Francisco State University, Department of Earth & Climate Sciences – ggweather.com/heat • Safe Kids – www.safekids.org • Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – www.chop.edu

The dogs owner came out shortly after this video was shot and were thankfully okay.

something happened windows 10 installation failed

biddleUncategorizedLeave a Comment

Something happened windows 10 installation failed anyone else getting this error? Microsoft fails again. What exactly do they mean by “something happened” wow that narrows it down! Please comment below if you had the same problem! I will update the blog when information becomes available so bookmark the page!

something happened windows 10 installation failed

something happened windows 10 installation failed

Periscope Samsung Galaxy S4 black screen audio only

biddleTechnologyLeave a Comment

If you have a Samsung Galaxy S4 and you are getting audio only and a black screen when trying to broadcast, you are not alone! This is a known issue as of mid July that other users have reported and Periscope has confirmed they are working on. At the time of this post the latest version of Periscope is Version 1.0.3 released on July 14, 2015. It DOES NOT work with the Samsung Galaxy S4. Hopefully version 1.0.4 will be released soon! Please comment below and +1 and share this blog on Twitter/Facebook/Google+ so other people are aware of this known issue.


Follow me on Periscope I am @ActorMike

UPDATE: 7/30/2015 Version version 1.0.4.1 fixes the aforementioned problem! Update the app and you can now broadcast! Yeah!

actormike-pariscope

 

Knoxville SEO through website content

biddleNews, Website DesignLeave a Comment

Top 10 results on Google & Bing Knoxville SEO

Knoxville SEOIf you want your website in the top 10 results on Google or Bing, and you want to stay there, adding content to your page is vital. The days of sitting back on auto pilot and simply optimizing your page are long gone. Most of the websites we design allow you to login and write posts which automatically appear in your blog section of your web site or under articles.  In most cases, we can also automatically display the last five blog posts on your home page and also notify Google and Bing of these new pages on a daily basis for quick indexation.

I also suggest writing several blog articles while you have time and then scheduling them to publish at future dates. This is especially helpful for small businesses who have a lot of responsibilities. When you write your blog articles for SEO you want to make sure the article is between 300 and 500 words and includes at least one image and optionally an embedded Youtube video. Take the time to make sure your permalink or page URL helps promote your keyword. Do not just use what is there by default! Also, use the build in tools we provide to analyze the page and make optimization suggestions. It is extra work to enter a meta description, keywords but it only takes a few extra minutes and the payoff is worth it! 

If you need help with Knoxville SEO content management call us at 865-379-7171. We can assist you anywhere you are located and if you are located in Knoxville, Lenoir City, Maryville, Morristown, Oak Ridge or any others areas close to Knoxville, TN we can meet in person. We have worked with companies since the 1990’s so as a result, we have worked with numerous companies around the world to help them with Knoxville SEO and US SEO.

Website video and SEO

biddleWebsite DesignLeave a Comment

The internet is the fastest growing media in history including television and radio. Websites are capable of playing videos, but most local businesses are neglecting this area. Instead, many business owners focus efforts on the written content or the appearance of the site. The costs of producing a professional video are one reason why many companies avoid adding one, however take these studies into consideration.

– Video increases the chance of a front-page Google result by 53x (Forrester).
– Landing pages with professional video generate 4-7x more engagement and response rates (SearchEngineWatch).
– Customers who watch a product video are 85% more likely to purchase (eMarketer ).
– Given the choice between reading a full page of text or watching a short video, people prefer video.

We live in a fast paced world. People don’t want to read through pages of text on your web site, and studies have shown if that is your goal the way to do that is to get their attention with a video. I have personally witnessed the before and after results of having a video on the home page of a web site, and can confirm that when you have the video on the home page, people stay on the site longer, and visit more pages on the site.

If you don’t have a video on your web site home page, I strongly suggest adding one. Your web site stats will clearly reveal whether or not it helped and based upon my experience, it always helps.

We work with a production team that can service any business in the United States or Canada, and if you are in Knoxville, TN Lenoir City, TN Maryville, TN Oak Ridge, TN we can meet with you in person to discuss your options.

Website World owner Mike Biddle has more experience in this area than most web design companies because he has appeared on several nationally televised shows. The knowledge of this industry in addition to his web design experience will certainly ensure you have a successful video production!


Is PHP 5.3 faster than PHP 5.4 5.5 or 5.6?

biddleNews, Technology-Server-HostingLeave a Comment

PHP 5.3 vs. PHP 5.4 vs PHP 5.5 vs PHP 5.6

Is PHP 5.3 faster than PHP 5.4 5.5 or 5.6?

At Website World, we design and host our websites and have done so since day one in the 1990’s. Recently, Google has placed an emphasis on what they refer to as U.E. or user experience. Simply put, Google realizes that it is important to direct it’s users to web sites that load quickly and work on mobile, tablet and desktop operating systems.  Many web design companies are clueless regarding the server administration and/or don’t care. Most clients are focused on the aesthetics of the site, and don’t even realize the site may be loaded on an inferior web server that is 3-4 times slower than an optimized machine.

Recently while while upgrading wordpress sites to the latest versions of PHP, I realized something disturbing. The server response times for PHP 5.4, PHP 5.5 and PHP 5.6 were over double that of PHP 5.3. This blows my mind and really reflects on the clueless mindset at some of the biggest software development companies. So if you are wondering if PHP 5.4 is faster than PHP 5.3 the answer is a definite no!

 

PHP 5.3 vs. PHP 5.4 vs PHP 5.5 vs PHP 5.6

PHP 5.3 vs PHP 5.4


 Bottom line, it matters how quickly your site loads and the culprit can be a number of issues including WordPress plugins, PHP script errors, server hardware, DNS errors, the list is practically endless. It is important to test your site as seem below to make sure it stands up to your competitors!

Website World Site

Workout Anytime Knoxville

biddleportfolioLeave a Comment

Workout Anytime SEOWorkout Anytime charges members 15.00/month with no long term contracts. Unlike the expensive gyms, they don’t spend large amounts of money on advertising. The challenge here was competing with large gyms like Planet Fitness, The Rush Fitness and National Fitness centers, all which have large advertising budgets and full time employees to manage the web and social media.  As you can see, Workout Anytime is in the #1 spot in their market and business is booming!
workoutanytimeknoxville