Know The Importance Of Linux

Over the years, Linux has grown in popularity.  In the mid-1990s, Linux was simply an open-source operating system, which was designed for techs who truly didn’t like Microsoft.  Back then, no technical support was offered for the OS and users were strictly operating on their own.

As the new century moved forward, companies began offering technical support for Linux.  Companies including Red hat were formed.  Recently in 2018, Red hat was purchased by IBM.

Linux now runs in the background of countless fortune 500 companies operating systems. The employees who need to do work can behave as if their system was running on Windows.  Linux is used by companies both large and small because the operating system is difficult to hack.  The fact that Linux has many flavors or versions due to its being open source makes it almost impossible to hack if the system is configured in the right way. Network administrators who have Linux skills earn approximately 9% higher salaries than administrators who don’t have Linux skills.  This information was published by Indeed in their study of network administrator salaries.    Hackers who want to try to operate in the Linux world know that any system they encounter is not a one size fits all.

Network administrators, helpdesk technicians and service techs who want to remain competitive in the information technology field need to learn and become proficient in Linux.  Indeed has over 30,000 job ads, which require a knowledge of Linux for a networking job.

ABCO Technology offers a Linux fundamental course with a certification that will teach you the needed skills to operate in the Linux world. This course is completed in less than six weeks.  The CompTIA Linux + course provides the fundamental knowledge you’ll need to succeed in the Linux environment.

Spearheading the battle for local search is Google’s Search Console (GSC), an amazing tool that makes you visible in search engine results pages (SERPs) and

provides an in-depth analysis of web traffic being routed directly to your business. Here’s some great news, GSC does all this for free.

If your website marks your presence in cyberspace, GSC boosts viewership and increases traffic, conversions, and sales. In this tutorial, Charles Pascal, SEO strategist at ABCO Technology explains how you benefit from GSC, how you integrate it with your website, and what you do with its reports to strategize the domain dominance

of your brand.

What is Google Search Console (GSC)?

Created by Google, the Google

Webmaster Tools

(GWT) initially targeted webmasters. Offered by Google as a free of cost service, GWT transformed into its present form, the

Google Search Console

(GSC). It’s the cutting edge tool widely used by an exponentially diversifying group of digital marketing professionals, web designers, app developers,

SEO specialists, and business entrepreneurs.

For the uninitiated, GSC tells you everything that you wish to know about your website and the people who visit it daily. For example, how much web traffic

you’re attracting, what are people searching for in your site, the kind of platform (mobile, app, desktop) people are using to find you, and more importantly,

what makes your site popular.

Then GSC takes you on a subterranean dive to find and fix errors, design sitemaps, and check file integrity.

Precisely what does Google Search Console do for you? These are the benefits.

1. Search engine visibility improves

Ever experienced the sinking sensation of having completed everything demanded of you for creating a great website, but people who matter can’t locate you in

a simple search?

Search Console

makes Google aware that you’re online.

2. The virtual image remains current and updated

When you’ve fixed broken links and coding issues, Search Console helps you update the changes in such a manner that Google’s

search

carries an accurate snapshot of your site minus its flaws.

3. Keywords are better optimized to attract traffic

Wouldn’t you agree that knowing what draws people to your website can help you shape a better

user experience?

Search Console opens a window to the keywords and key phrases that people frequently use to access your website. Armed with this knowledge, you can optimize

your site to respond better to specific keywords.

4. Safety from cyber threats

Can you expect to grow your business without adequate protection against external threats? Search Console helps you build efficient defenses against malware

and spam, securing your growing business against cyber threats.

5. Content figures prominently in rich results

It’s not enough to merely figure in a search result. How effectively are your pages making it into Google rich results? These are the cards and snippets

that carry tons of information like ratings, reviews, and just about any information that results in better user experience for people searching for you.

Search console gives you a status report on how your content is figuring in rich results so you can remedy a deficit if detected.

6. Your site becomes better equipped for AMP compliance

You’re probably aware that mobile friendliness has become a search engine ranking parameter. This means that the faster your pages load, the more user-friendly

you’re known to be. The solution is to adopt accelerated mobile pages (AMP), and Search Console helpfully flags you out in the areas where you’re not

compliant.

7. Backlink analysis

The backlinks, the websites that are linking back to your website gives Google an indication of the popularity of your site; how worthy you are of citation.

With Search Console, you get an overview of all the websites linking to you, and you get a deeper insight into what motivates and sustains your popularity.

8. The site becomes faster and more responsive to mobile users

If searchers are abandoning your website because of slow loading speeds or any other glitch, Search Console alerts you so you can take remedial steps and

become mobile-friendly.

9. Google indexing keeps pace with real-time website changes

Significant changes that you make on the website could take weeks or months to figure in the Google Search Index if you sit tight and do nothing. With

search console, you can edit, change, and modify your website endlessly, and ensure the changes are indexed by Google instantaneously. By now you have an excellent idea why Google Search Console has become the must-have tool for optimizing your website pages for improved search results. This also helps

ensure that your business grows in tandem with the traffic that you’re attracting and converting.

Your eight step guide on how to use Google Search Console

1. How to set up your unique Google Search Console account

Assuming that you’re entirely new to GSC, your immediate priority is to add the tool and get your site verified by Google. By doing this, you’ll be ensuring

that Google classifies you unambiguously as the owner of the site, whether you’re a webmaster, or merely an authorized user.

This simple precaution is necessary because you’ll be privy to an incredibly rich source of information that Google wouldn’t like unauthorized users to

have access to.

You can use your existing Google account (or create a new one) to access Google Search Console. It helps if you’re already using Google Analytics because

the same details can be used to login to GSC. Your next step is to open the console and click on “Add property”.

By adding your website URL into the adjacent box, you get an umbilical connection to the console so you can start using its incredible array of features.

Take care to add the prefix “https” or “www” so Google loads the right data.

2. How to enable Google to verify your site ownership

Option one

How to add an HTML tag to help Google verify ownership

Once you have established your presence, Google will want to verify your site. At this stage, it helps to have some experience of working in HTML. It will

be easier to handle the files you’re uploading; you’ll have a better appreciation of how the website’s size influences the Google crawl rate, and gain

a clearer understanding of the Google programs already running on your website.

If all this sounds like rocket science, don’t worry,  we’ll be hand-holding you through the process.

Your next step is to open your homepage code and paste the search console provided HTML tag within the <Head> section of your site’s HTML code.

The newly pasted code can coexist with any other code in the <Head> section; it’s of no consequence.

An issue arises if you don’t see the <Head> section, in which case you’ll need to create the section to embed the Search Console generated code so that

Google can verify your site.

Save your work and come back to the homepage to view the source code; the console verification code should be clearly visible in the <Head> section confirming

that you have done the embedding correctly.

Your next step is to navigate back to the console dashboard and click “Verify”.

At this stage, you’ll see either of two messages – A screen confirming that Google has verified the site, or pop up listing onsite errors that need to

be rectified before completing verification. By following these steps, Google will be confirming your ownership of the site. It’s important to remember

that once the Google Search Console code has been embedded onsite and verified, any attempt to tamper or remove the code will have the effect of undoing

all the good work, leaving your site in limbo.

How important is the CompTIA Security +

While driving to work this morning, I learned that California’s Department of Motor vehicles was hacked.  The news reported that 1.2 million federal identification cards were stolen and sent to a server in Croatia. The 1.2 million federal identification cards will be sold  to customers who will purchase them from the black market or dark web.  Croatia was the former Yugoslavia.  It is widely known in that part of the world that government officials receive kickbacks directly from the hackers who reside in their country. The kickbacks are in exchange for allowing the hacking of other foreign country websites to continue. Law enforcement will track down the country where the hackers live, but law enforcement will take no action against the hackers because they are being directly paid off.

For this reason, all government agencies including federal, state and local are now requiring their network administrators to obtain the CompTIA Security +. This certification provides the holder with a thorough knowledge of cyber-security.  The first step in understanding how to protect a network is to know when a cyber-attack is taking place.  Cyber-attacks do not act like a broken window or busted door.  The hacker first establishes a connection, then in time that connection is used to do damage.  It is also known in the information technology field that computers have 65,036 ports or channels where information can be shared or distributed.  The CompTIA Security + provides its holders with the information about the best tools and methods of monitoring the system to know when someone is attempting to establish a connection,, which will eventually turn into a cyber-attack.

Cyber-attacks will continue to increase as network access becomes easier.  The new 5G technology will create many new opportunities for good network access and along with access, cyber-attacks.

To know more: check ABCO Technology

Barrons article about status of 5G

It was a momentous week for fifth-generation wireless tech. On Wednesday,
Verizon Communications
(ticker: VZ) turned on the
first-ever U.S. 5G feed for smartphones,
bringing blazing data speeds to a few fortunate folks. Like so much of 5G, though, the hype continues to outpace the reality. Verizon’s 5G mobile network
is limited to select neighborhoods in Chicago and Minneapolis. Even there, the 5G service is limited to one specific Motorola phone.

I had my own eye-opening, but limited, 5G encounter in Dallas this past week.
AT&T
(T) gave me an exclusive first look at a live, commercial mobile 5G network based on Release 15, an industry standard agreed upon in June. The demos took
place in a downtown Dallas park and at the Dallas Cowboy’s stadium in nearby Arlington, Texas.

AT&T’s network isn’t powering phones just yet, so this test was run off a 5G hotspot, or puck, as AT&T calls it. The device, the Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile
Hotspot, picks up the 5G waves and rebroadcasts them over Wi-Fi.

It isn’t quite fully mobile 5G, but it was enough to
offer a glimpse of the future.
I sat in that Dallas park—no wires attached—and received staggering connection speeds that blew away anything I get from a wired connection at home or
from my existing 4G LTE phone.
On my antiquated iPhone 6, I saw speeds of 128 megabits per second, up from 23 megabits on my 4G connection. I was about 120 meters from the 5G hotspot
during the tests. Newer phones such as
Apple
’s(AAPL) iPhone X and
Samsung Electronics
’ (005930.South Korea) Galaxy S10 ran appreciably faster. At the park, the iPhone X reached 379 Mbps, and the S10 checked in at 315. A Lenovo ThinkPad
T480s laptop reached 984 Mbps. (For comparison, my home broadband in San Mateo, Calif., comes in at 43 Mbps.)

I tried 5G in a less quaint setting, too: the Cowboys’ 105,000 seat stadium, where AT&T owns the naming rights. There the 5G speeds were even more impressive.
One laptop in a direct line from a 5G antenna reached speeds of 923 Mbps to 1.14 gigabits per second. Another laptop, positioned at a 45-degree angle from
the same antenna, was in the 806 Mbps to 818 Mbps range.

It’s important to note that all these tests are happening in optimal conditions. I was the only one using the Cowboy’s connection. Eventually, there could
be some 99,000 more. AT&T stadium is already equipped with one 5G antenna with at least a dozen more on the way, AT&T says. The company hopes to have a
fully functional 5G network in the stadium by the start of the NFL exhibition season this summer.

Thus far, AT&T is prioritizing download speeds, so the upload connections were no better than what I currently get on 4G. That’s a strategic decision—and
surely allows the carrier to promote bigger download numbers. Depending on future applications and demands of the network, AT&T could need to borrow some
of the download capacity to improve upload speeds.

John Donovan, CEO of AT&T Communications, told me that it’s hard to imagine the potential for all this speed. We won’t know until hardware and software
developers are able to use the connections day to day.

Samsung Austin Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, will begin testing this summer on how 5G can improve efficiency, safety, and security
at its 500,000 square foot Austin, Texas manufacturing facility.

The firm has established a 2,000-square-foot test area to see how 5G and the use of sensors can better track the performance of robotic arms for preventive
maintenance through real-time data. It also plans to use sensors to monitor the safety of its employees, upgrade security at the plant, and explore the
use of virtual reality in the manufacturing process. The tests are part of an “evolution” to determine killer business apps, Jonathan Taylor, corporate
vice president of fab engineering, told me in a phone interview.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys are brainstorming with third-party developers on immersive 5G experiences for fans in the 2019 season. “If you build it, they will
come,” Charlotte Jones Anderson, chief branding officer for the Cowboys, told me from her office overlooking the team’s practice facility in nearby Frisco,
Texas. “We just need to figure out what we’re building.”

Write to Jon Swartz at
jon.swartz@dowjones.com

Need More info : ABCO Technology

Know About 5G

The technology of 5G is getting a lot of new press as the media prepares for its arrival. This morning, Apple announced that its new line of iPhones will include 5G capability.  Apple believes the new phones will be available before the end of the summer of 2019. Companies including Verizon, AT&T and Spectrum Communications are in the process of building 5G networks, which are scheduled to be in full operation by early 2020.  Partial role outs of 5G are occurring in many cities, which includes Los Angeles.

As we have stated in earlier posts, 5G will in some cases deliver information up to thirty times faster than your conventional 4G phone. With 5G your smartphone will be able to get information faster than your home computer. You will be able to download a complete movie in less than sixty seconds.  Gaming will take on a new dimension as the experience is heightened by the faster technology.

As 5G penetrates the market, career opportunities will expand at a rapid rate.  The careers, which will be available include: cyber-security for online crime protection, network administration to keep things running, game development, which will be needed to fill the public’s appetite for new games, jobs involving self-driving vehicles and specialized technical areas, which serve the medical profession.

The majority of these career opportunities do not require a two or four-year college degree to get hired.  A college degree may help with promotions, but the degree in itself will not be the stimulus, which results in an employer sending the offer letter.

ABCO Technology has opportunities in all of the high potential career areas listed in this post.  Call our campus at (310) 216-3067 between 9 A. M. and 6 P. M. to learn more about these opportunities. It’s time to change your working life today!

Do you have an event, conference, Webinar or educational seminar you want to promote?  This short article about a new Gmail feature will be of great help to you.

Boomerang’s popular “Send Later” function makes it simple for you to schedule an email to be sent at a later time. You can draft an email now, then schedule it to be sent automatically at the perfect time. Just write the message as you normally would, then click the Send Later button.

The most important new Gmail feature in years isn’t coming from Google.

Matt Bowman, vator.tv

Schedule an email to:

• Communicate with people in different time zones
• Send emails when they are most likely to be read
• Write emails when you are free and have them sent at an appropriate time

Share Boomerang with your friends:

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on Google Plus

Schedule an email

Boomerang’s popular “Send Later” function makes it simple for you to schedule an email to be sent at a later time. You can draft an email now, then schedule it to be sent automatically at the perfect time. Just write the message as you normally would, then click the Send Later button.

Schedule an email

Use our handy calendar picker or our text box that understands language like “next Monday” to tell Boomerang when to send your message. We’ll take it from there.

Send Tomorrow Morning

New York Times

Charles Pascal
School counselor

ABCO College of Technology

11222 South La Cienega Blvd. STE #588

Inglewood, CA 90304

Phone: (310) 216-3067

Fax: (310) 216-4311

Email: cpascal@abcotechnology.edu

www.abcotechnology.edu

Know about MCSE & Network Administrators

Microsoft still dominates the corporate server market by controlling major use in over 80% of corporate servers throughout the country.

The Microsoft certification to handle corporate servers is the Microsoft Certified Systems Expert or MCSE 2016.  This certification covers onsite and cloud operations.  The MCSE 2016 is completed with candidates passing four exams.

Passing the first exam will provide its holder with the Microsoft Certified Systems Professional.  Passing the third exam provides a second certificate of Microsoft Certified Systems Associate.  Finally after passing that all important fourth exam, candidates are granted that coveted MCSE 2016.

In 2018, millions of companies are upgrading their servers to run on Microsoft’s 2016 software. The cloud is now a major factor in corporate networks.  Server upgrades run in cycles.  The main upgrade cycle for software after a major software release comes about two years after the first introduction of the new operating system.  Companies use special depreciation schedules with respect to software upgrades.  When they can no longer depreciate the last version of their software and documented significant improvements have been made, companies will decide to spend money for that all important upgrade.  At this point in the cycle, new job opportunities open up for candidates holding the Microsoft MCSE 2016.

In Los Angeles, the Chamber of Commerce estimates approximately 15,000 companies will be looking for candidates holding the MCSE 2016.

If you are interested in a career in the field of network administration, it’s time for you to obtain that all important MCSE 2016.  Your skills will be in demand after you pass that important fourth exam.

Call ABCO Technology today to learn more about these opportunities.

To know more visit: ABCO technology

Know About Cisco Certified Network Associate

Cisco controls over 80% of all router traffic in the United States.  Over the years, Cisco has gained market share in both home and commercial routing.

For our readers who are new to information technology, your router serves as your gateway to the Internet.  Your router is that small box with those blinking lights that flash.  When you call technical support, someone always asks you to describe how those lights are flashing.

In the corporate world, Cisco routers control hundreds or in some cases thousands of computers wanting to access the Internet.

Most network administrators will need to be familiar with routers when they begin employment.  One certification, which shows an employer that you have the necessary skills to manage a network is Cisco’s Certified Network Associate or CCNA.

The Cisco CCNA is an excellent certification to combine with your Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert or CompTIA’s Network +.

Under the CCNA category, Cisco has three other certifications, which can be obtained only after the candidate passes the Cisco CCNA exam.  These Cisco certifications include: CCNA Wireless, CCNA Security and CCNA voice over IP.

If you are interested in moving beyond the Cisco CCNA status, Cisco has two other advanced certifications, which are the Cisco Certified Network Professional and finally the Cisco Certified Internet Expert.

Students who have passed their Cisco Certified Network Associate report that they receive a raise of 9% over the first salary after they passed the Cisco CCNA.

Cisco is an excellent certification path for information technology.  Train and certify for your Cisco CCNA today!

Financial aid for students

If you’re a person who wants to study information technology, and you don’t want to obtain a two or four-year college degree, this article is for you.

Vocational schools who are accredited by an accrediting agency affiliated with the US Department of education can offer financial aid.  The financial aid to students who want to train and certify for a career in the field of information technology can receive federal financial aid.  This financial aid comes from the government and this aid is distributed through the FAFSA or Free Application for Federal student Aid.  A typical FAFSA application will provide the option to obtain a federal Pell grant, which is money that doesn’t have to be paid back to the government.  Pell grants are given to students who can qualify for the funding provided they meet a set of requirements established by the US Department of Education. Programs offering federal financial aid will have a set number of hours of required study ranging between 600 and 900 hours.

In addition to Pell grants, many states offer training funds through Workforce Opportunity Employment grants.  The state workforce grants are in truth money given back to a worker because that worker had a portion deducted from their check to meet state withholding payment requirements.

If we combine the money from the Pell grant with state funding, many students find that 100% of their tuition costs for training, books and supplies is covered.

A good vocational school will also provide job placement assistance, which if used properly will help a student find employment after graduation.

In addition to the funds described above, state departments of rehabilitation have federal money set aside for students who have a disability.  State vocational rehabilitation departments have many sources of funding for students with disabilities.  If you have a disability, it would be an excellent idea to give your state rehabilitation department a call. A counselor will help you through the process of getting funds for training in the occupation of your choice.

If all grant and state options fail, the government provides loans, which can be spread over a 20 year period.  The loan payments are very affordable and if you believe you can work in the information technology industry, this is an excellent way to get started on your new career.

If you need any help contact ABCO Technology

Do you know about the perfect piece of content

You are now living in the midst of a content revolution as the great minds of user experience (UX) and search engine optimization (SEO) finally collaberate to produce beautiful on-page content designed to rank in search results AND engage or educate the user.

Gone are the days of plugging in keyword phrases into your blog posts to get the density just right and building landing page after landing page targeted at keyword variations like, “automobiles for sale”, “cars for sale” and “trucks for sale”.

Since the introduction of RankBrain, the machine-learning component of Google’s Core Algorithm, in late 2015, Google has moved farther away from a simple question and answer engine and has become a truly intelligent source of information matching the user’s intent — not just the user’s query.

Crafting compelling content is tough, especially in such a competitive landscape. How can you avoid vomiting up a 1,500-word blog post that will meet the deadline but fall very short of the user’s expectations? If you follow these 10 on-page essential elements, your brand will be on the right track to provide a rich content experience designed to resonate with your audience for months to come.

The basics:

Title Tag
Always seen in the <head> block or the beginning of a web page’s source code, the title tag is text wrapped in the <title> HTML tag. Visible as the headline of the search listing on results pages, on the user’s browser tab, and sometimes in social media applications when an Open Graph Tag is not present, this text is intended to describe the overarching intent of the page and the type of content a user can expect to see when browsing.

What I mean by “intent” can be illustrated with the following example. Say my title tag for a product page was Beef for Dogs | Brand Name. As a user, I would not expect to find a product page, but rather, information about whether I can feed beef to my dogs.

A better title tag to accurately match my users’ intent would be Beef Jerky Dog Treats | Brand Name.

Query = “beef for dogs”

Query = “beef jerky dog treats”
How do I know what the title tag of my page is?
Identifying what has been set as the title tag or meta description of your pages can be done URL-by-URL or at scale for many URLs. There are distinct uses for each discovery method, and it is always important to remember that Google may choose to display another headline for your page in search results if it feels that its title is a better representation for the user. Here are a few great online tools to get you started:

URL-by-URL inspection:
Slerpee (Free)
Moz Title Tag Preview Tool (Free)
Google SERP Simulator (Free)
At scale:
Screaming Frog (Free Up to 500 URLs)
Sitebulb (Paid)
DeepCrawl (Paid)
NOTE: If you are one that prefers to “live in the moment”, you can also view the page source of the page you are currently on and search for “<title>” in the code to determine what should be output in search results. Lifewire produced this handy guide on viewing the source code of a webpage, regardless of the internet browser you are using.

Are there guidelines for crafting the perfect title tag?

Yes. The optimal title tag is designed to fit the width of the devices it’s displayed upon. In my experience, the sweet spot for most screens is between 50-60 characters. In addition, a page title should:

Be descriptive and concise
Be on-brand
Avoid keyword stuffing
Avoid templated/boilerplate content
Meta Description
Though the text below the headline of your search result, also known as the meta description, does not influence the ranking of your business’ URL in search results, this text is still critical for providing a summary of the webpage. The meta description is your chance to correctly set a potential user’s expectations and engage them to click-through to the website.

How do I build the perfect meta description?

Pay close attention to three things when creating a great meta description for each of your website’s pages: branding, user-intent, and what’s working well in the vertical (competitive landscape). These 150-160 characters are a special opportunity for your page to stand out from the crowd.

Do your page descriptions look and sound like they are templated? Investing time in describing the page in a unique way that answers user’s questions before they get to the website can go a long way in delighting customers and improving search performance.

Take for example the following product page for the Outdoor Products Multi-Purpose Poncho. The top listing for this product page is via Amazon.com, with a very obviously templated meta description. The only information provided is the product name, aggregate rating, and an indication of free delivery.

While not the top listing, the following result from REI Co-op clearly includes the product name, breadcrumbs, aggregate rating, price, availability, and a unique non-templated meta description. The standout feature of this meta description is that it does not copy the manufacturer’s text, provides some product differentiators like “easy to pull out of your bag” and “great travel item” that speak to user questions about portability.

The meta description plays an important role in complementing other elements of a well defined rich result, and it is often overlooked when retail businesses are using rich results to improve the ecommerce search experience specifically. That said, the same considerations apply to information focused pages as well.

Section Headings
Section heading elements (H1-H6) were originally intended to resize text on a webpage, with the H1 being used to style the primary title of a document as the largest text on the page. With the advent of Cascading Styling Sheets (CSS) in the late 90’s, this element has less effect. CSS started being used for much of this functionality, and HTML tags acted as more of a “table of contents” for a variety of user-agents (i.e. Googlebot) and users alike.

For this reason, the primary header (h1) and subheaders (h2-h6) can be important in helping search engines understand the organization of and context around a particular page of written content. Users do not want to read through a huge brick of text and neither do search engines. Organizing written words into smaller entities (sections) will help digestion and lead to better organic results.

In the example above, the primary topic (How to Teach a Child to Ride a Bike) is marked-up with an H1 tag, indicating that it is the primary topic of the information to follow. The next section “Getting Ready to Ride” is marked-up with an H2 tag, indicating that it’s a secondary topic. Subsequent sections are marked up with <h3> tags. As a result of carefully crafted headings, which organize the content in a digestible way and supporting written content (among other factors), this particular page boasts 1,400 search listings in the top 100 positions on Google — with only 1,400 words.

Over 92% of long-tail (greater than 3 words) keyword phrases get less than 10 searches per month, but they are more likely to convert users than their head term counterparts.

Focus on providing your potential users with answers to the search questions about a particular topic, rather than granular keyword phrases, will lead to a more authentic reading experience, more engaged readers, and more chances of capturing the plethora of long-tail phrases popping up by the minute.

Internal Linking

Internal links are hyperlinks in your piece of content that point back to a page on your own website. What is important to note here is that one should not create a link in a piece simply to provide a link pathway for SEO success. This is an old practice, and it will lead to a poor user experience. Instead, focus on providing a link to a supplemental resource if it will genuinely help a user answer a question or learn more about a specific topic.

A great example of helpful internal linking can be found above. In this article about “How to Ride a Bike”, the author has linked the text “Braking” to an article about types of bicycle brakes and more specifically how to adjust each type for optimal performance.

If there is supplemental information on your own website to substantiate your claims or provide further education to the reader in the article at hand, link to this content. If this doesn’t exist or there’s a better source of information on a particular topic, link out to this external content. There’s no harm in linking out to 3rd parties and in many if not all cases, this will serve as a citation of sorts, making your content more legitimate and credible in the user’s eyes.

External Linking

Linking to sources outside your own domain, also known as external linking, is often seen as one of the major ranking factors in organic search. External entities linking to your content are similar to calling someone you live next to a good neighbor, with a credibility effect similar to the citations you put in a term paper or an article on Wikipedia.

When writing a post or crafting a page for your own website, consider the following:

How can I substantiate my statistics or claims?
Why should my users believe what I have to say?
Can anyone (customers or companies) back up my thoughts?
If you are crafting the best user experience, you will want to take special care in building an authentic, data-driven relationship with your past and present customers.

There are no magic rules or hacks in how you link to external sources. As the SEO industry evolves, you will realize professionals are simply “internet custodial engineers,” cleaning up the manipulations of the past (part of the reasons for Penguin, Panda, Hummingbird, and less notable algorithm changes by Google) and promoting the creation of expert-driven, authoritative, and accurate (E.A.T.) content on the web.

For more information on E.A.T., check out Google’s Official Quality Raters Guidelines.

Images break up large blocks of text with useful visuals,
Alternate text embedded within an image can provide more context to search engines about the object, place, or person it is representing. This can help to improve your rankings in this medium.
According to a study by Clutch in 2017, written articles, videos, and images are the three most engaging types of content on social media. Adding images to your text can improve an article’s shareability.

A great example of using varying types of content to break up a topic can be seen below. In the article titled, “How to Tie the Windsor Knot”, the author has provided an informative primary header (h1) based on the functional query and also included video content (in case the user prefers this method of consumption), origin information, a comparison of this knot to others, and an explanatory graphic to walk anyone through the entire process.

By providing an abundance of detail and multimedia, not only can your business realize the additional search opportunities in the form of video object structured data and alternate text on the images, but meet the E.A.T. standards that will delight your potential users and drive performance.

Open Graph Tags

Developed by Facebook in 2007, with inspiration from Microformats and RDFa, the Open Graph protocol is one element of your page that can be easily forgotten because it’s often built into popular content management systems. Forgetting to review how your shared content will display on popular social networks can kill productivity as you race to add an image, name, description post-publishing. A lack of “OG Tags” can also hurt the shareability of the piece, decreasing the chances for its promotion to be successful.

“OG Tags” as they are commonly referred to are similar to other forms of structured data but are specifically relevant to social media sharing. They can act as a failsafe when a page title is not available, as Google commonly looks to this field when it cannot find text between the <title> elements.

How can I construct and validate open graph tags on my website?
Unless your content management system automatically generates Open Graph tags for you, you will have to build a few snippets of code to populate this information for those sharing your posts. You can find a few tools to help you out below:

Documentation:
Facebook Open Graph Markup
Getting Started with Twitter Cards
Rich Pins Overview
Code snippet generators:
Web Code Tools
Mega Tags
Code snippet validation:
Facebook Open Graph Debugger
Twitter Open Graph Validator
Pinterest Rich Pins Validator
Meta Robots Tags
The content your team produces will never get the success it deserves in organic search if no one can find it. While a powerful tool for ensuring search results stay nice and clean, the meta robots tag can also be a content marketers worst enemy. Similar to the robots.txt file, it is designed to provide crawlers information about how to treat a certain singular URL in the search engine results and following it’s contained links, a single line of code can make your page or post disappear.

Where can I find the meta robots instructions?
This specific tag (if your website contains one) is generally contained within the <head> section of the HTML document and may appear to look similar to the following:

<META NAME=”ROBOTS” CONTENT=”NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW”>

What instructions can I provide to crawlers via the meta robots tag?
At bare minimum, your URL will need to be eligible for indexing by Google or other search engines. This can be accomplished with an INDEX directive in the content field above.

Note: It is still up to the search engine’s discretion if your URL is worthy and high-quality enough to include in search results.

In addition to the INDEX directive, you can also pass the following instructions via the meta robots tag:

NOINDEX – Tells a search engine crawler to exclude this page from their index

NOFOLLOW – Instructs the crawler to ignore following any links on the given page

NOARCHIVE – Excludes the particular page from being cached in search results

NOSNIPPET – Prevents a description from displaying below the headline in search results

NOODP – Blocks the usage of the Open Directory Project description from search results.

NONE – Acts as a NOFOLLOW, NO INDEX tag.

If you are taking the time to produce a high-quality article, make sure the world can see it with ease! Competing against yourself with duplicate articles and/or pages can lead to index bloat, and your search performance will not live up to its true potential.

Canonical Tags
The canonicalization and the canonical tag can be a tricky subject, but it is one that should not be taken lightly. Duplicate content can be the root of many unforeseen problems with your business’ organic search efforts.

What does a canonical tag (rel=”canonical”) do?
In simple terms, utilizing a canonical tag is a way of indicating to search engines that the destination URL noted in this tag is the “master copy” or the “single point of truth” that is worthy of being included in the search index. When implemented correctly, this should prevent multiple URLs with the same information or identical wording from being indexed and competing against each other on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Can my canonical tag be self-referential?
Absolutely. If it’s the best version of a page, do not leave it up to a search engine to decide this. Wear the “single source of truth” badge with pride and potentially prevent the incorrect implementation of canonical tags on other pages that are identical or similar.

Page Speed Test
Last but not least, we can’t forget about page speed on individual pages of a business’ website. While the elements listed above are excellent for helping search engines and users better understand the context around a piece of content, page speed is important for ensuring the user gets a quality technical experience.

The entire premise of using a search engine is centered around getting a quick answer for a particular question or topic search. Delivering a slow page to a user will likely lead to them leaving your website all together. According to a study from Google across multiple verticals, increasing page load time from 1 to 5 seconds increases the probability of a bounce by 90%. That could be a huge loss in revenue for a business.

Source: Google/SOASTA Research, 2017.

Tools for testing page speed:
Page by page:
Google PageSpeed Insights (Free)
GTMetrix (Free & Paid Versions)
Pingdom (Free & Paid Versions)
At scale:
Screaming Frog (Free Up to 500 URLs)
Sitebulb (Paid)
Crafting the perfect piece of content is more than simply understanding your audience and what they want to read about online. There are many technical elements outlined above that can make or break your success in organic search or many other marketing mediums. As you think about producing a blog, an informational guide, or even a product page, consider all of the information a user needs to take the desired next step.

If you need more info Contact ABCO Technology