Web Services and Tools

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Did you know that most blogging tools and services DO NOT help your site rank higher for your keywords?

In the past, I have always taken the approach that a link to my site, in any form, was a good thing as long as the link text was appropriate and the site had some relevance to my web site. But what I didn’t know, was that some linking strategies do nothing for you when it comes to building links to my site.

I am referring to comments in blogs and the links that are created within your comments.

Many blog engines use a simple attribute called “no follow” for comment links. While there are still many blogging engines that do not use this attribute, many are moving to using the attribute to help eliminate the ever increasing “comment spam” that many blog owners have to cope with.

The details of “Why Leaving Blog Comments is not a Link Building Strategy” have been described in this HubSpot post.

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I am still amazed when I read stories that state thousands of users have credit card information leaked onto the Internet. Especially when it is clear that the reason they were leaked was because there was little concern for the security of the data collected.

In today’s Internet, many of us web site owners store data about our users and those who subscribe to our content. While there are many applications and solutions developed and pre-packaged to make life easier, the truly good applications put a large amount of effort into securing that user data in a secure environment.

This effort should not be discounted by any means. I thought it important to discuss the aspects of ensuring that your users data stays secure from prying eyes on the Internet. What sparked my interest in this topic was the recent news published by the Boston Globe, “Google unveils medical records storage plan“.

This story offers a great example of keeping data secure because it uses a basis that is dear to all of our hearts, our personal medical records. One quote that helps set the tone for maintaining users data is a quote from a Medical professional in the article that states, “We believe that patients should be the stewards of their own data”.

In the same way, we as Webmasters should apply the same level of care and concern about our users data, letting them be the “stewards of their own data”. Some simple rules that can be applied when considering the storage of our users data can be:

1.) Make our policies and procedures for maintaining and storing a users data clear to our users

2.) Provide a clear and easy method for a user to remove their data from our systems

3.) Securing our data systems from outside hackers and data thieves by storing our users data in a secured environment. (i.e. - Not on a laptop we carry around with us everywhere)

By taking care of our users data, and offering it the same level of concern we would to our own medical records, will certainly help us as Webmasters build credibility with our own user communities.

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A software developer has run 10,000 items through the more popular posting portals such as Digg, del.icio.us, etc. and collected some interesting results regarding the popularity of a post and the time of day, and day of the week, it was posted. The blog post and findings are here.

While the post and findings are targeted with a overly high US focus, this article is useful for those that see a high US readership. It would very valuable to see what other regions around the globe have an impact on the popularity of posting. Perhaps this will be addressed in future tests.

Enjoy.

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