Google Panda (Farmer) Update and Algorithm Changes
Today, Google rolled out their Panda (Farmer) update to all internet searches across the world. On February 24, 2011 the first update took place, which affected around 12% of all websites. These algorithm changes are in response to the increasing amount of internet trash and content farms.
Internet trash are websites that steal content from other websites and republish it as their own. Most commonly autoblogging. This is when someone creates a blog about a specific topic, or to sell certain products. Autoblogs use a plugin to grab an RSS feed, or scrape products from other websites, and repost the same content on the blog. This is used to build a fast database of content, despite that it is completely copied.
Content farms are websites that pay people low wages for written articles. These articles are then posted on the websites to create enormous amounts of content about all kinds of topics. The content is often not very well written and legitimate. This creates a problem to search engine users who are trying to find legitimate information.
In my opinion, I think Google’s algorithm update was definitely needed. I know I am not the only one who is tired of seeing poorly written information show up in the top of Google’s results.
Increasing Backlinks for Your Website or Blog and SEO
Increasing backlinks to your website, blog, forum, or other internet property is VERY important to SEO, and will increase your website rankings. I will share several proven, quality methods to increase backlinks to your site which will improve your website substantially. You should continuously try to improve the amount of links to your website appearing on other places on the web.
An easy way to check how many backlinks you have in each search engine, is by using simple tools provided by Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
Google – Create a Google Webmaster Tools account and add your website. It can take up to 24 hours for the data to start appearing in your account. On the dashboard under your site locate “Links to your site”, this is a complete list.
Yahoo – Yahoo Site Explorer Simply type your URL in at the top and hit “Explore URL”. Then, click “Inlinks” at the top. These are all the website indexed in Yahoo search that link back to your website.
Bing – Create a Bing Webmaster Tools account. Locate the “Backlinks” section and you will see all the websites listed.
Now that you have an idea how many backlinks you currently have, here are several ways to increase your backlinks to your website.
- Submit your site to online website directories.
- Write unique and quality content, this will prompt others to reference your site.
- Bookmarking and social network sites like Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc.
- Submit a quality press release to sites such as PRLog, PRWeb, etc.
- If you have an RSS feed on your site submit it to feed directories.
- Update your websites regularly.
- Check for broken links.
- Exchange links with other webmasters who have websites related to yours. This will help your business.
- Blog Commenting
- Forum posting
Remember quality is ALWAYS better than quantity. All lot of the above methods are very tedious and time consuming, this is why backlink building is always an ongoing process.
TLC’s Extreme Couponing
TLC’s latest show Extreme Couponing has definitely caught my attention. I am so surprised with the price these people pay for huge grocery hauls. I am going to share some links that could help you learn how to coupon successfully.
I have no idea what I could possibly do with 50 bottles of mustard, but hey I got them for $2 right so why not pick them up! Some of these “stockpiles” are absolutely insane! If the shoppers can actually go through tons of the same products I definitely don’t have a problem with it.
There is no way I could possibly use all that food and I would probably end up just donating most of it, like a lot of the shoppers on the show.
According to Discovery (owns TLC) Channel’s website 2.1 MILLION viewers watched the December 29, 2010 premier of Extreme Couponing. That’s A LOT of people! Looks like it’s not just me that is fascinated.
I am going to try out couponing this summer when I have the seemingly countless hours required to put into each shopping trip. Below are some useful websites that I found that explain how to get started with couponing based upon their own experiences.
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/ – Shows you where to shop and the coupons to use. Featured on TLC
http://www.couponing101.com/ – Lots of interesting information
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/bargainshopping/a/Coupon_Guide.htm – An About.com beginner article
What are McDonalds’ Chicken Nuggets Made of?
I like McDonalds just as much as the next guy, but I try to keep my intake to a minimum. I decided to find out what McDonalds’ chicken nuggets are made of, since I’ve always wondered what ingredients were used to create those golden nuggets that so many people enjoy.
Obviously, the McNugget is not made up of entirely white meat chicken, I mean just look at the texture inside after you bite into one. Nicely enough, McDonalds makes it pretty easy to find all their nutrition information and ingredients for all the food they serve at their fast food locations right on their website.
These are the ingredients inside the McDonalds’ chicken McNuggets taken from their website (link below).
Chicken McNuggets®:White boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning [yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose,citric acid], sodium phosphate, natural flavor (botanical source). Battered and breaded with: water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiaminmononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodiumaluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dextrose, corn starch. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybeanoil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent. CONTAINS: WHEAT
WOW just look at this long list of ingredients! So to put it simply, most of the “chicken nugget” is made up of corn. Corn is a food that we modify to products TONS of different things.
Dimethylpolysiloxane, an antifoaming agent for the fryers, is actually used to make silly putty. Yummy!
http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/ingredientslist.pdf
GoDaddy Coupons and Promo Code Discounts
I use GoDaddy as my registrar for most of my domain names. Before I purchase a domain I usually look around for a GoDaddy promo code or coupon code to try and save a few bucks (yes I am pretty cheap). Some of them even work for SSL certificates, hosting, and other services offered by GoDaddy.
Godaddy is probably the registrar that I have seen discounts for most often. If you are looking to save some money always look around the coupons, they are everywhere!
Below is a list of promo codes that may work for your next order. You will just have to try and see if they are still active; you may get lucky with a few of them.
Latest promo codes:
cjc749fat - Register a .com for $7.49 (saves a few bucks)
FBF20TLD - 20% off .com, .net, .org, .biz, and .us domains.
gdz334pla - 31% off your order.
FAN3 – Register a .com for $7.49.
gdbb1855 - 15% off $50 or more.
gdz372p - .com renewal for $6.08.
gdz328bw - 20% off an order of $80 or more.
DOTCO1099 - $10.99 .co domains.
FAN749 – .org domains for $7.49 each.
YESSSL - SSL certificate for $12.99.
SPN1 – 10% off your order.
