Pure Spam – How To Fix It If You Are Tagged As One

If you have received an email from Google Webmaster stating that your website has been penalised for being 'pure spam', and you have no idea what it is, and how to handle it, you have come to the right place.

Let's start with the basics. In the past and recently, Google has rolled out many updates to implement algorithms that filter away spam, discourage 'black-hat' SEO practices and enable the search engine to deliver relevant and genuine search results. Now, to effectively handle the spam situation, Google Webmaster has tagged and penalised the websites that are linked to spam or indulge in spam creation. 'Pure spam' is a tag given by Google to websites that have implemented and performed the most outrageous spam activities.

According to Matt Cutts (head of the Webspam team at Google), Pure spam includes “auto generated gibberish, cloaking, scraping, throwaway sites, or throwaway domains, where someone is more or less doing churn and burn, where they are creating as many sites as possible to make as much money as possible before they get caught.”

Now that your website has been flagged as 'pure spam', the next immediate step is to fix the issue and request for a reconsideration by Google.

Fixing the issue:
• First of all, check the history of your website. Incase, you have bought a new website, do a thorough check on archive.org. This will help you in knowing the complete history of your website, and if there were any spam issues earlier.
• If the domain has some previous spam issues, there are high chances that these have triggered Google Webmaster penalty.
• To recover from this, ensure that whatever you now put up on your website is well under the guidelines of Google's updates. Avoid linking anything that lingers on the line of being a spam.
• With consistent efforts and non-spam actions within the site, you can build up the image in Google's eyes as a reliable website, and worth indexing.
• In the event that your website has been long in the network, and the 'pure spam' tag has been generated by the practices of your own, then the recovery takes a long and consistent effort.
• Before you start, carefully go through the details on Google Webmaster, and strictly adhere to the set guidelines.
• Make certain that every action, link, page that has contributed to the 'pure spam' tagging has been removed.
• Consider building your website from scratch rather than making elaborate changes on it. This way, you will be able to manage the website well, and adhere to the guidelines as well.
• Whether you build a new website or make changes on the existing one, it is crucial to document each and every clean up tasks implemented.

Follow these steps and file for a reconsideration for your website. If you religiously adhere to the guidelines provided to you by Google Webmaster, and aim at staying away form anything that even remotely falls into the category of spam, we are sure you will get rid of the 'pure spam' tag.

A Negative Online Reputation Can Mean A Dead End For Your Business

85% of the consumers read online reviews for the local businesses & their services/products
79% of the consumers trust the online reviews
73% of the consumers trust the business with positive customer reviews
65% of the consumers prefer the business having positive online reviews

These statistics clearly show the power of a single positive or negative review about your brand or product. More than ever, today consumers trust online reviews, and perceive the company as good or as bad as the reviews say it is.

Businesses function in a very dynamic environment where huge changes can occur overnight. With all the various factors that you need to take care of for ensuring the proper functioning of your business, a very pissed consumer is the last thing that you would want on your platter. Given the uncountable consumer forums, and social platforms, just imagine the kind of damage that can be done to your online business image. Don't fall for the illusion that this won't happen to you. If you have a product or services, chances are high that you already are being discussed by someone, somewhere!

If you are still thinking that your business can survive without engaging in online reputation management, then you are in for a huge mistake, probably a blunder.

Taking the example of a recent report from Yelp, a popular, and trusted online review site, let's talk about the impact of the negative reviews. Yelp has rolled out new algorithms to tackle the fake reviews floating on their website. If you think it is for the fabricated positive reviews alone, well, that's not the case. Yelp is keeping a close check on the negative reviews as well. A high percentage of brands suffer a lot due to the negative reviews about their product or brand by an annoyed customer, with no fault of theirs. Also, more often than not, competitors fill negative reviews, and give low rankings, to pull a brand down. You already know the impact of online reviews on your consumers, a negative online reputation is nearly an end for a business.

Therefore, it has become very crucial for any business to manage their online reputation well in time. Why wait for something to happen and, then react to it? It's always better to be on a constant reality check of what your consumers think of you as.

One cannot deny the importance, and merits of a good online reputation, perhaps that is why it is a fast emerging field. More and more companies are hiring professionals who ensure, and maintain a good online reputation of their clients.

smartData Inc. is one such name who has the expertise and experience in dealing with ORM. Our huge client base in countries like, Australia, US, UK, stand as a testimony to our smart and ingenious services.

The Latest Facebook iOS App Allows You To Search FB For Hash Tags

Keeping up with the rapidly changing trends of the social media world, Facebook has recently added the hash tag (#) support to keep a track of the popular topics across this giant networking website. A hash tag used before the word or phrase makes it a click-able link, allowing you to see a feed of public posts. Along with this update, Facebook also added the OpenTable integration and local television listing to its native app. This update allows the users to make restaurant reservations instantly from the Facebook app, using 'Nearby Places' feature and restaurant fan pages. Let's take a sneak peek into the changes these add-ons will bring, and how to go about it.

•  First of all, you need to download and install the updated version of Facebook iOS app to search for a hash tag on Facebook.
• After launching the latest Facebook app, you need to search the hash tag through the search bar. For this, just type the '#' at the start of the word or phrase in the search bar. The search bar will take a fraction of a second to show the listings of the hash tag.
• Now, browse through the posts that include the hash tag, and like or dislike as per your preferences. The hash tag listed at the top of the Facebook screen shows the word or phrase you are browsing through.
• The hash tags become black or highlighted when used in a post. It is because the hash tag is now a link that redirects you to a timeline associated with the related posts. Whenever you see a post with a hash tag, just tap on it to see similar posts or to like or comment on a particular post.  

This upgrade is a good news for businesses who are active on FB, and want to utilise it to garner attention and gain popularity. According to a recent survey, an overwhelming 71% of respondents use hash tags on a regular basis, and 34% of the respondents use hast tags for searching and following their favourite brands on the social media platforms. Which clearly means that by using the right hast tags on your Facebook posts, you become more search-able, and hence, attract ample amount of attention to your brand or product.

This upgrade will definitely make Facebook more popular on iOS devices. While some people (the android or other mobile users) may not be very much excited about hash tags feature, some will find it more useful as a discovery tool as it will enhance your search-ability.

Whatever be the reason behind using it, one thing is sure, it will definitely change the way you interact on Facebook, for better we hope!!