Make Money from Blogs » Help

Quick Security Checklist for Webmasters – from the Google Blog

ashish — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:54:25 +0000

For many people, getting content onto a web page is the most important part of developing traffic and ensuring that you increase the chances of earning revenue. However, consider that you need to ensure that your page remains on the internet, and does not get hacked, something that is happening with a higher frequency nowadays. But what can do you ? Well, you can find out more, learn about the steps you can take to increase the security level of your site, and you can read the information at this Google Help Page (link to article)

Check your server configuration.
Stay up-to-date with the latest software updates and patches.
Regularly keep an eye on your log files.
Check your site for common vulnerabilities.
Be wary of third-party content providers.
Try a Google site: search to see what’s indexed.
Use Google’s Webmaster Tools.
Use secure protocols.

What to do if your site is hacked and Google penalizes your site

ashish — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:32:13 +0000

Sites getting hacked is not something that is so rare nowadays. You have a good site that is getting more viewers, but have not kept your site (maybe built in WordPress) totally safe in terms of frequent updates, security patches, and so on, and you find that your site behaves a bit strange. However, once this happens, a lot of bad karma happens to your site
- It could have bad software loaded that infects viewers computers, and now browsers are quick to catch that and warn users, and there go your page views down to 0
- You have some small changes in the page that are not fully visible, but these are picked up by the Google crawler (some porn words, or links) and these in turn reduce your Adsense earnings and reduce your site viewers; in addition, some sites may flag your page as ‘adult’, thus ensuring that your viewers go down
What do you do in these cases ? Well, Google (and other search engines) would have a list of things you can do after something like this has happened. In the case of Google, here is the relevant page (link to article)

1. Getting your site off-line:
Take your site off-line temporarily, at least until you know you’ve fixed things.
If you can’t take it off-line, return a 503 status code to prevent it from being crawled.
In the Webmaster Tools, use the URL removal tool to remove any hacked pages or URLs from search results that may have been added. This will prevent the hacked pages from being served to users
2. Damage Assessment
3. Recovery
4. Restoring your online presence

Read the full article if you are in the position of having had your blog hacked.

Why your site may not be appearing high in Google Search – some tips from the Google blog

ashish — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:10:00 +0000

A site needs to appear high in Google Search in order to generate a high number of visitors. In fact, a number of onliness businesses consider visitors from Search Engines (particularly Google) as a significant source of their visitors, and consequently, of the revenue that they will make. Getting your site high on Search Engine Ranking is a big quest, and needs considerable work and effort. Paying some expert on Search Engine Optimization is something that you should really consider on priority, and at the same time, also try to figure out whether you will benefit by reading any of the guidelines on this Google Help page (link to article). This site talks about problems that the Google crawler may be having with your site:

Is your server treating Googlebot like a normal visitor?
Does your website have systematically broken links somewhere?
Is your website redirecting some users elsewhere?
Is your server unreachable when we try to crawl?
Has your website been hacked?

For example, if your website has been hacked, then the recommendation is to make sure that you clean your site, and plenty more information. You also learn some tips about how to detect if your site has indeed been hacked, and this can greatly help if you this is indeed the case.

Learn about using Google Webmaster Tools from the official Youtube channel

ashish — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:12:06 +0000

The Google Webmasters is a great resource for learning more about how to optimize your site. Visit this site (link) to learn much more. The Webmasters Tools are an invaluable set of tools that will help you optimize your Google experience, which includes easier indexation of your page and its contents with Google Search. You will learn how to add your site to the list of tools, as well as how to add a sitemap such that Google will be easily able to learn about updates of your site.
If you want to learn more about how to use Google’s Webmaster Tools, then there is no better way than to learn from the Webmasters Youtube Channel, located at this location (link). Some of the more common queries are:

Should I expect increased traffic if I optimize my images?

Webmaster Central and Best Practices – Adam Lasnik – Google India SearchMasters ’09

And many more ..

Your Adsense account was disabled. What can you do ?

ashish — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:49:09 +0000

For a lot of users who have Adsense accounts and started dreaming of making big money, there are a fraction of them who see their dreams get smashed when they suddenly get a notification that their Adsense accounts have been disabled because of some sort of inappropriate behavior, either in terms of the site, or in terms of around the ads themselves. When this happens to people, they can’t believe that their activities were detected by Google, or that Google would bother with individuals.
However, there are a few tips you should keep in mind. Google Adsense program has a list of Program Policies available at this page and you should read this page. These policies control how ads should be placed, who should click ads (you should never click ads yourselves, or encourage people to click on Ads). Google (and other advertisers) have click fraud as one of their high priorities, and determining and removing people who indulge in click fraud is one of their top priorities.
Now, for whatever reason, your Adsense account has been disabled, and you are struggling to determine the reason, next steps, and what you can do to convince Google that you are innocent.

First item, read the Disabled account FAQ (available at this page). Remember, if you are looking for Google to provide you with a lot of information about why your account was disabled, which specific clicks, etc, then you will have to wait for a long time. Google does not provide any help in terms of detailed information, it is for you to convince them that you have a genuine account, and have not committed any wrong doing.
Some of the queries answered on this page are:
Why was my account disabled? Can you tell me more about the invalid click activity you detected?
Can my account be reinstated after being disabled for invalid click activity?
My account was disabled and my appeal was denied. Is there any way I can rejoin the program? Can I open a new account?
My account was disabled for being related to another disabled account. Can you tell me more about this relation?
Will I still be paid out for my AdSense earnings?

If your account has been disabled due to Invalid activity, then please go to this form:
Invalid Activity Appeal (link)

Read more before appealing, since that helps you present your information in a more convincing way. For example, refer to this article (link)

Finally, do refer to this FAQ on invalid clicks, and remember, Google takes invalid clicks very seriously.

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