Can An Employer Demand Employee Facebook Passwords?

Does a potential employer have the right to demand you hand over your private Facebook login details to secure a job? According to the Washington Post, Justin Bassett was subject to just that at a recent interview.  Bassett rightfully refused and withdrew his application, stating he didn’t want to work for this kind of intrusive company. Despite this being a clear violation of a person’s privacy and Facebook’s privacy policy, with the current economy not all jobseekers will be in the position to walk away.

It is commonplace for employers to perform background checks on potential employees using information found on the internet, particularly through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Rather than relying on simplified information provided by the candidate, companies want to understand the person behind the resume to determine whether they will be a good fit within the company.
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Oh the Agony of being in THE SANDBOX!!!

Oh the Agony of being in THE SANDBOX!!!

Another misconception is that once your website is optimized, you no longer have to do anything to maintain it. However, this is far from the truth, SEO veterans have described the theory of the “Sandbox” filter; subsequent to your website being indexed, for a period of 2-3 months your website isn’t allowed to move up to the top of the query results, and should you reach the apex, it will be later moved down.  Speculators, suggest that if a new website, which develops too many links in a short period of time, maybe “sandboxed”, or penalized.

The reason Google has this sandbox period, is to ensure that the old, prominent websites that have “earned” their high ranking position, that they don’t lose their ranks to newly indexed websites who have only recently been competing for highly competitive keywords. This is just to ensure the fairness and integrity of the query results, just like when you first start your career, you have to start on the bottom of the totem pole, but your caliber and commitment to work eventually propels you to be in the position you seek.

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7 Essential Title Tag Strategies of High Ranking WebPages in 2006

The 7 Essential Title Tag Strategies of High Ranking WebPages in 2006

…and how to apply them to each of the three major search engines

Perhaps you remember the days when cutting-edge webpage design boasted animated gifs and focused on keyword density for top search engine rankings. These days, however, standard fare often combines flash animation with a heavy incoming link campaign. But through all the changes, one element remains constant—the importance of the HTML <title> tag. This little tag was, and still is, the single most important onpage element of high ranking webpages.

To lend perspective, let’s wander back for a moment to the late 90′s when all this SEO work really got started. The <title> tag was, to put it mildly, tantamount to success. At that time the immensely popular, but now-defunct, Infoseek search engine bestowed top rankings on pages with the highest number of keyword repetitions within the title. This foremost strategy, combined with page freshness, was key. Bear in mind that, at the time, Infoseek was king and Google didn’t even exist!

Many an SEO worked around the clock constantly reformatting and resubmitting pages to see what they could, frankly, get away with before Infoseek would finally ban the domain. In many cases the SEO would then just begin anew the whole trial-&-error, push-the-limits process with a new domain. Personally, I remember submitting pages with over 100k worth of text in the <title> tag—and then sat back and basked in the glow of success as my pages rocketed straight to the top in a mere 5 minutes after submitting them. Boy, was that fun!

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BLOG stands for Better Listings On Google!

BLOG stands for Better Listings On Google!

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past year, you’ve probably heard the buzz about blogs. It seems you can’t fire up your browser without reading a story about how blogs are changing the way people communicate and do business online.
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But beyond the hype (it does seem like everyone and their cat has a blog these days), blogs just may have also stumbled upon the perfect formula for the ultimate high-ranking page in Google—here’s why:

      Blogs are updated frequently and visited often by Search Engines

      Blogs gain PageRank quickly

      Blogs easily acquire an abundance of inbound links

      Blogs are content-rich and topic-focused

      Blogs can attract intensely loyal readership

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The First Critical Steps To Waging A Profitable AdWords Campaign

The First Critical Steps To Waging A Profitable AdWords Campaign

The past few years have witnessed the morphing of search engine optimization (SEO) into search engine marketing (SEM). And, as you are undoubtedly aware, SEM is a multi-faceted endeavor that demands careful integration of online marketing strategies. Today’s astute SE marketer knows that page optimization, inbound linking strategies, and paid placements all dovetail together to form the winning combinations that drive traffic to sites that generate profits.

Of course, one of the cornerstones of SEM is Google’s AdWords Program. However, unlike traditional pay-per-click advertising where the top placement is awarded to the top bidder, AdWords uses a formula that allows the underdog to triumph over advertising behemoths who might otherwise just buy the top ranking. On AdWords, one can rise to the top of the listings with a lesser bid by simply offering a more compelling ad that motivates visitors to “click” more often.
Perhaps you already know all that – but, what you may not already know are the various ways to beat the competition by making some lesser known, but very smart, choices within your AdWords setup and your keyword selections.

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Search Engine Submission Techniques on Google

Search Engine Submission Techniques on Google

The orientation guide for businesses getting started online

Over the years of its existence Google gained a well-deserved reputation as the top choice for internet users. Providing a comprehensive coverage of the web and returning searched queries with great relevancy in less than a second, Google certainly is the internet’s front door.

Because of the popularity of this search engine, it is critical to get your website listed in Google and achieve a high ranking in search results. There are two types of listing you will find in Google search results: free listings and sponsored listings.

» Free listings

To have your website listed on Google search results for free you firstly need to submit your website to be indexed at http://www.google.com.au/addurl.html. Google is a spider-based search engine that automatically visits web pages to compile its database. After you submit your web site, your site will be first stored in a “temporary” database. Then Google will send a “spider” in a regular time to “visit” your web site to decide whether it should be indexed. This process is called Search Engine Submission.

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The Strategy Of Search

The Strategy Of Search
There’s a reason not every chess piece moves the same way. Together, you can use the tactical advantages of a knight, a queen or a rook to execute your strategy. There are chess players that react to every move as it comes, playing the game at a purely tactical level. This is the way most of us start (and pretty much still the way I play). You don’t think ahead to what the next move could be. Strategy plays no part. Each turn, you look at the board and make what appears to be the best move.

Now, if your heart is set on becoming a competitive chess player, you probably won’t go too far with this tactical approach. At some point, you’ll have to start playing the game at the strategic level. You will need to look at the big picture, and explore the possible impact of all your opponent’s future moves.

In my opinion, search marketing is a game that’s been played at the tactical level for the past 8 years. Strategy hasn’t really been part of the game. That’s going to have to change.

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