How to check if a website has been serving up malware

In SEO links are the golden commodity that make or break a campaign. Not only are inbound links critical in ranking, but who you LINK TO can also be a serious consideration. Google has said many times that you really can’t be hurt by who links to you, but you can be damaged for linking to bad neighbourhoods.

One area that can certainly get a website flagged is by serving up malware or other nastiness. Most often this is done by hackers/crackers that have accessed the site and installed malicious scripting on the server. But how does one know if a potential link target has had issues in the past?

Enter the Google diagnostic tool

There is a handy little too at Google for checking the recent history on domains which is well worth using when link building (link exchanges, link drops) as well as checking websites you may be linking out to within your content or blog posts. It is a simple query; http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=site-reference.com (replace the end part with the domain you’re investigating)

What does an infected website look like? Here’s one example; http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=news.com.au



It can happen to anyone

And yes, I mean anyone… look at a search for Google.com - or eBay - and Joomla (as recent as yesterday) - you get the idea. While these sites seem to be good at catching it, there have been attempts.

How reliable is the application? It’s hard to say at this point as it’s only reporting problems that Google has seen; they don’t seem to be testing entire websites. What is important is that you remember that malicious actions can have an affect on your site’s presence in search engines. Be vigilant.

This only takes a few moments and can be invaluable to the search optimizer. Add this little toy to your toolbox and take the time to check out those sites you’re considering linking to from now on…. Better safe than sorry. I’d also suggest checking your own site every month as well to ensure you haven’t been compromised. All in all.. and groovy new tool in the box.

L8TR

(thanks to Jim Stewart for the tip )

Read more

What not to ask when hiring an SEO

Are you looking to hire an SEO consultant or in-house staffer? Then do me a favour, don’t even bother asking an SEO about what keywords they have ranked in the past… and screw the references while we’re at it ok? No really, I mean it.

After an idea born on Twitter took grasp and I found myself writing a resource post on places to find work in SEO, I read a lot of job postings. And the variety of questions, il informed employers and business folks were asking, had me shaking my head. Allow me to explain…
Why rankings and references are dirty signals

Yes, we all know that these are things to ask a potential SEO… but let me burst that bubble right here and now. No one is going to show their failures and all rankings were not created equal.

For example;

Rankings – that SEO company you’re thinking of hiring is showing you all kinds of pretty first page rankings, or even worse ‘#1’ rankings (which is a bit of a stretch). Why? Because without the accompanying analytics, it means little or nothing. Any seasoned SEO has targeted terms they thought were killers just to find out the traffic (and conversions) were minimal compared to other terms in the program.

This means that your prospective SEO company are going to show you magical SERPs that may or may not be successful. And I’d add that any trustable company isn’t about to start showing you their clients data due to non-disclosure agreements. So what does this leave you? Not enough to be getting excited when hiring an SEO.

References; I was listening to a career coach on the boob-tube the other day whom used to be in the HR dept and read thousands of resumes. What he said about references makes as much sense here as anywhere;

“People aren’t going to put the problem people in there. I spend very little time looking at them because these are people they know speak highly of them”

The cards are stacked essentially. I can easily drum up a ton of people to sing my praises, but it is not ultimately going to show the truth, or at least the full picture. Thus this is another area you should put minimal weight on.
How would I hire someone?

I really find talking to them is the best way to go about it. One wants to see what type of grasp and enthusiasm they have for the project. This once more highlights the need to be an educated consumer and at least learn the basics of SEO. It enables you to more readily understand what you’re looking for and what constitutes common practices.

To me, flowery rankings and slanted referrals make for a ‘noisy signal’. Sure, I’d ask what query spaces they’re played in. What they’re favourite tools and methods are… strength’s and weaknesses. These are important factors when hiring an SEO; experience and knowledge.

I will come up with a ‘Questions to ask an SEO prospect’ in the near future – seems a good idea.

Read more

Using Google Search Insight for keyword research

I just wanted to take a moment to highlight a few very interesting videos from Google on their ‘Insight’ tool. For those of you that didn’t know, Google has more than a few handy tools for conducting KW research including;

Google traffic estimator sandbox - a tool that gives estimated traffic clicks and cost for given terms on Google Adwords. This is another handy metric to have when doing KW research.

Adwords Keyword calculator - Google’s adwords estimator tool. Also handy… but still, more PPC data for cross referencing.

Google Search based KW tool – this one generates keyword and landing page ideas highly relevant and specific to your website. In doing so, the tool helps you identify additional advertising opportunities that aren’t currently being used in your AdWords ad campaigns.

Read more