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I have been struggling to recall what life was like before the internet, and I honestly can’t remember much of it at all. It’s just a hazy blur of moping around, standing at bus stops and reading things that I believe we used to call books. Sounds hideous, doesn’t it? The www has enriched our sad, pathetic lives by allowing us to access ANYTHING we want. The world is out there and we can peak at it anytime. Want to take a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel, then tap in this catchy little URL http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Pano/CSN/Visit_CSN_Main.html and you can.

If you’re curious as to what every Beatles song played at the same time sounds like, then go here (I warn you now, it sounds blooming awful) and if you have ever wondered the height of every American president, then you need to visit the Presidential Height Index which is here – Abe Lincoln is the tallest at a staggering 6ft10!

With all of this knowledge and art available to us at just a few taps of a keyboard, why then do we spend 98% of our time looking primarily at pornography and pictures of cats (statistics from The Office Of Made Up Statistics)? These two things dominate our online experience. Luckily, no one has yet managed to successfully combine these two experiences.

…Oh hang on, I just Googled it. They have.

You can find that for yourself, you mucky little things. There is no chance of me fouling up my history folder on my browser with filth like that. Again.

By the way, if you own more than one cat you are mental. If you film your harem of cats and put those films on YouTube, you are completely certifiable. If those videos then get nearly 30,000,000 views, you’re still mental but also a genius, a bit like Ronald McDonald. Japanese cat-o-phile Shirone Koshiro is all of these things. Why are these films so popular? I have literally no idea. Have a look and see what you think.

Speaking of mental, after a plea for websites that I could write about in this column, I received loads of suggestions (send them to iainATiainlee.com – you know replacing AT with @ so the spammers don’t get me please). But as soon as I saw the subject heading ‘Women Laughing Alone With Salad’, I knew this month’s search was over. Whoever came up with this site is either a lunatic on a par with The Joker from the hugely popular Batman series of comic books, or a genius on a par with Brainiac from the virtually unknown Superman series of comic books. It is literally pictures of women. Who are laughing. On their own. Whilst being near salad. Even thinking about it is making me chuckle. Seriously have a look now, because this will be your new favourite website of all time ever for today. It’s websites like this that make me think some people have way too much time on their hands. Why would you do this? Why?

Finally, I feel bad for pointing you in the direction of that unlistenable Beatles ‘thing’ at the start of this piece. Let me try and rectify that by playing you the most amazing mash up of songs by the 60’s mop-top-pop-quartet. Every note comes from Liverpool’s finest and Hank Handy really has done a fantastic job. Magical.

You can read Iain Lee’s very own take on the internet here on the 123-reg blog every last Friday of the month.

A familiar face on television since he got his first break landing the job hosting Channel 4’s thrice weekly topical comedy show the 11 O’Clock Show at the age of 25, Iain is also an award winning radio presenter, top podcast creator and a genuinely funny guy with an eye for the bizarre.

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You’ve heard all the furore about Google’s (relatively) new social platform, your online marketing manager or agency has explained the implications for search, and your business now has a page on the network; it’s time to start making the most of the features it offers.

One of these features is Google+ Local, a new combination of local and social search, and Google’s replacement for their old Places pages. If you haven’t already got a Google+ Local page, it’s a good time to get to grips with the service. If you have, now’s the time to revisit it and make sure you’re using it to its fullest potential.

Let’s start with the basics…

What is Google+ Local?

Google+ Local is the new name (and face) for Google’s location-based search service. Basically, it’s the page that appears when a user clicks on a Google Maps result for your business:

A user clicks on ‘more info’ and is greeted with:

 Key Features: What’s new?

Well, for a start Google+ Local pages are a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the old, static, Places pages. Google+ Local also brings us:

• The integration of local search and Google’s social hub:

• The introduction of the Zagat reviews system, meaning place scores are calculated on a 30-point scale based on user reviews.
• A new ‘circles’ feature, allowing you to filter out local reviews and recommendations from people in your circles.

Why is it important?

Aside from the obvious answer (this is a route to your business for potential customers and clients and therefore needs to be maintained), it’s important to have a Google+ Local page if you want to take advantage of local search.

As more and more people use smartphones and tablets to search on the go, which will typically share the user’s location with Google as standard, location-based search and the results it delivers will become increasingly important for businesses.

Statistics already show that smartphone sales overtook PC sales last year (two years earlier than expected) and forecasts predict that in three years time, tablet sales will be bigger than PC sales.

Your Google+ Local page offers a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on these drastic increases in mobile and location based searching. By combining a well maintained and optimised Google+ Local page with Google+ activity such as gaining recommendations for your business from members of the Google+ community, you’ll significantly increase your chances of converting local search users.

Here are three more reasons why it’s important to claim and maintain your Google+ Local page:

• Google+ Local pages will be indexed in Google’s organic search results;
• Google+ users can now use a special ‘Local’ tab to search for businesses in their area. If you’re not represented, or you are but your page is of a poor quality, you’re much less likely to convert potential customers;
• if you’re using Google+ as a business and users in your circles are commenting on your posts and sharing them with their friends, your business is much more likely to appear in their (and their friends’) local search results.

How do I claim my Google+ Local page?

If you’ve already claimed your Google maps listing, you should be able to log in with the relevant Google account and edit your business’s details. If you’re starting from scratch with Google+ Local, here’s how to claim your page:

1. You’ll need a Google+ personal account. This will be the account responsible for managing your Local page and your business page, so choose wisely.

2. Log in and select ‘Pages’ under ‘More’ in the left hand sidebar:

3. Create a new page

4. Select ‘Local Business or Place’

5. Type in your business’s phone number and click ‘Locate’. If Google already has details for your business it should appear; if this happens, you’ll simply be asked to verify the details it has are correct.

6. If your business doesn’t appear, click ‘Add your business to Google’ and enter the basic information requested.

7. Follow the on-screen prompts, including adding a category for your business and setting an age limit.

8. Click ‘Create’ and you’re done. You’ll now be able to optimise your page and add more details about your business.

Maintaining your Google+ Local page

Now that you understand what Google+ Local is, how it works, how to set it up and what the key features are, all you have to do is keep it relevant. Make sure you adjust business hours where necessary, keep an eye on any reviews published using the Zagat service, add photos, use the description tab to sell your business and its services, and add anything else you can think of that has the potential to build trust with Google+ users, such as videos.

The better the job your Google+ Local page does of selling your business, the more likely you are to capitalise on local search.

Google+ Local: Current Issues

As with many new services, Google+ Local still has a few issues that need ironing out. Firstly, there’s the fact that a business page, and therefore a local page as well, has to be attached to a personal account. That’s fine if you’re a local plumber, but not ideal if you’re a larger business. Be cautious which account you use to set up the page, or you could find yourself with no access to it should the employee you delegated the job to choose to move on.

Secondly, there is currently no verification process for Google+ Local pages, meaning anyone can either make up a business, or make fraudulent claims on your business’s address. This makes it even more important that you establish an official presence on the network.

James Roome is a Senior Social Media Consultant at I-COM, Manchester, creating social media strategies and providing training to clients.

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The long awaiting legislation proposals to combat internet piracy were always going to be controversial but the announcement this week of the new rules underpinning the Digital Economy Act have set forums and social networks alight with opposition.

The DEA has been controversial from the start, approved in 2010 and intended to crack down on internet pirates, it places high burdens on Internet service providers (ISPs) to police their customers, issuing warnings to those seen infringing and placing repeat offenders on a Copyright Infringement List (CIL).

Media regulator Ofcom is handling the implementation of the act and this week published documents outlining how ISPs and customers will be affected by the legislation. Under the rules:

• - A copyright owner notices that their content is being pirated online. They then have 10 days to gather evidence and submit a report to an ISP
• - The ISP then has a further 10 days to identify the offending subscriber and send them a warning, if appropriate.

• - Receive three warnings within a 12 month period (the first tow via email or standard mail, the third via tracked mail) and the customer downloading the pirated data will be placed on the CIL.
• - Copyright owners will then be able to take action by obtaining a court order to obtain personal details from the ISP and then pursuing the copyright infringer.

Even the largest of ISPs opposed the bill originally and civil liberties groups have been campaigning hard against the proposals too, but the biggest issue may have only just been realised. Under the new rules, customers accused of infringement will have to pay £20 to appeal apparently disregarding the British tradition of innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, just as the world appears to have recognised the need to offer free WiFi to customers in public spaces the act now looks like it will treat open WiFi network operators such as hotels, libraries, and coffee shops not just as ISPs but effectively the ‘infringing’ customer as they will be unable to identify the exact miscreant. This could feasibly see the end of open WiFi networks as businesses retreat from any risk while many also fear that too many innocent people will end up in court because the law seems too stacked in the favour of the ever powerful big media and copyright owning companies.

What do you think about the new rules and how the Digital Economy Act will be applied?

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Spam email is so irritating! It’s also time-consuming because you have to go and delete each and every unwanted email if no other anti-spam method works. You’re probably tired of seeing your email invaded by offers for pharmaceutical products, adult services or loans. So, what can you do to stop getting spam emails?

The bad news is that spammers are getting smarter every day which makes this task even more difficult. Take the recent LinkedIn password breach that triggered an awful spam campaign. People were getting emails that appeared to be from LinkedIn, asking them to confirm their email address by clicking on a link. The URL actually led them to an illicit online pharmacy.

However, the good news is that there are some things you can do to stop spam emails.

Using spam filters

Check to see if your email hosting provider has an anti-spam filter. For instance, the email hosting from 123-reg has built in spam filters that keep unwanted emails away from your inbox.

Other methods to stop spam

Don’t use your email everywhere on the web, at least ensure that the site is safe and secure. Once your email address is in the hands of spammers, unwanted emails will come pouring in and it will not be pleasant.

Consider using a disposable email address. You can always create a second email address for less important emails, such as subscriptions to blogs or sites, writing comments on forums or buying products online.

Don’t bother unsubscribing because if it’s a spam email, the unsubscribe button is there to confirm your email address once you click on it. This means that instead of stopping unwanted emails from that address, you are subscribing, which will attract even more spam.

On your own website, set up a contact form instead of putting your email address. This way you avoid spambots collecting your email address.  If you prefer including the email, an efficient solution to mislead spambots is to write it in a different form, as you’ve probably already seen on several sites: myname[ at ]mycompany[ dot ]com.

How are you dealing with spam?

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After a redesign in April 2012, Google+ is gradually increasing its presence in the vast array of social media. One feature of the social network that stands out from other platforms are ‘Circles’.

What are the purpose of Circles?

Ultimately to organise people and share information with the relevant target audience. Google state that Circles help you organise your connections “according to your real-life social connections”, therefore enforcing the social aspect that some social media sometimes forget.

Creating Circles

Google embrace simplicity, reflected in their latest redesign of G+. It is simple to search for people or brands then drag and drop them into the relevant Circles to group them as you wish. ‘Google is working hard to introduce new algorithms to match users based on friend connections and interests, ensuring that it can continue to boost engagement on its network.’ reported The Next Web.

Targeting

Circles can allow businesses to specifically target content to the appropriate users. Therefore, in theory, people only see the information that is relevant to them and they aren’t exposed to irrelevant posts which could cause annoyance. This could be likely to increase the chances of sharing and interaction.

Sharing

As well as sharing content with people in your Circles, the Circles themselves can also be shared. So, if you were to create a specific Circle containing news sources for a particular field, then this could be shared with another Circle of people who would be interested and find it of value.

Transparency

Circles can also be used for businesses to display their employees publicly and to communicate with them. The employees Circle implies transparency online and can make the experience more personal for users.

Building Circles and being connected to a large number of other people’s Circles is one way to try and get your business profile ‘verified’. The advantage of this is that as usernames cannot currently be secured on Google+, duplicate pages can be created by anyone. If a page is verified then it demonstrates authority given from Google.

Join in

Targeting Circles effectively with interesting and engaging content can give people a reason to want to share and involve themselves, therefore boosting your profile. Integration with your website, blog, or other platforms can increase awareness and encourage users to add you to their Circles.

The introduction of the Facebook style cover image provides more of an opportunity to personalise your Google+ profile and make it more attractive so it catches the attention of passers by, possibly provoking interaction.

Search

Earlier this year, Google launched “Search, Plus Your World”. When Google+ users are logged into their account then their Google search results will be enriched with relevant information shared  on Google+ by their connections.

Influencers

Each post on Google+ has the option to view its ‘ripples’, in other words how the post spread through the platform from user sharing and re-sharing. This assists in the identification of key influencers that you might wish to add to your circles and interact with.

Google+ Circles are an integral asset to the platform for building relationships, sharing information and improving transparency. For brands, building their Circles is one way to try and get their page verified, therefore increasing authenticity and making it easier for the page to be discovered.

Each time Google+ updates or redesigns, the usability and functionality improves. So what is next for the platform?

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We live in the world of social media and we have to do everything we can to adapt. This is a world where over 400 million tweets are shared every single day and each message has no more than 140 characters. If you’re using Twitter often, you know how difficult it is to convey your message in so few words, don’t you?

When every character counts…

There are some methods you can use to save up space and get more words in. One of them is to get a two letter domain such as .co, .tv, rather than a three or four letter one.

A short domain extension is easy to remember and social because you can squeeze more in your tweets. Also, the number of people using mobile devices to navigate on the Internet is increasing by the minute, so this is another reason short domain extensions are an excellent solution.

Using branded shorteners

Many big companies started using a branded shortener when they discovered the benefits of short domains. Twitter, for instance, has registered t.co to convey the idea that every character counts. Now t.co is one of the most used domains on the web and it currently ranks 22 on Alexa.  Not long after, Google also registered g.co, the official URL shortcut just for Google websites, Cisco got cs.co and Starbucks started using sbux.co.

Why did so many of the big brands choose .co domains? Because it’s short, generic and easy to remember. Also, it’s similar to .com but not as popular just yet, which means the chances of finding your favourite domain name available are higher.

For a limited time only, you can buy .co domains on 123-reg for just £14.99 for the first year instead of £29.99. That’s a fantastic 50% saving that’s hard to pass, especially with such a cool domain like .co, so go grab yours today.

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Did you know that Google blacklists 6,000 websites every single day? You might be doing everything white-hat and running your business website according to Google’s rules but still experience the ultimate ordeal – being blacklisted by Google. If you are excluded from Google’s index, your website will disappear and no one will be able to find you on Google. It’s like your business never existed!

Imagine the negative impact this would have on your business. You can lose revenue and your reputation can go down the drain.  Getting your ban lifted is a long-drawn-out process and recovering from it is not easy. Gaining your customers’ trust back and reassuring them your site is safe may take a lot of effort, a lot more than when you first launched your business online. In other words, if your site gets blacklisted, you could run the risk of losing your business for good.

But my website is safe…

There are so many things that can make your site vulnerable and create an opportunity for hackers to inject malicious code into your site, such as: poor choice of passwords, web-app vulnerabilities that allow users to post comments, subscriptions to newsletters and even popular third party add-ons, as well as others.

Getting blacklisted is not pretty

The main reason Google blacklists a site is because it has been hacked and infected with website malware. It doesn’t matter if you run a legitimate business. If malware code has been injected into your site, it’s considered dangerous and Google takes it down completely to ensure no one can access it and get infected.

If your website is blacklisted by Google, imagine the ramifications for your business. You will lose revenue because potential customers won’t be able to find your site and your actual customers will be unhappy because they cannot buy or review or re-download their ordered products. When visiting your site all they will see is a red page with “Reported Attack Site” and that’s enough to scare them away and maybe prevent them from coming back again.

Imagine how disappointed your customers will be to discover your site is not as safe and secure as you claimed. Gaining trust online is already very difficult. Would you return to a website after discovering that it was vulnerable and potentially unsafe? So, aside from potential loss of revenue you also lose your customers’ trust and reputation as a reliable business partner.

Also, hacked sites are often used to launch phishing or spam campaigns that send unwanted emails to users to get them to visit pharmaceutical sites, fake banking sites, or other sites.

What can you do to protect your site from malware?

Prevention is key. Protect your site and your reputation by reducing the risks of your site getting infected with malware. 123-reg will be launching StopTheHacker which is a malware monitoring tool to help keep your site safe and secure. This great tool will scan your site, find security vulnerabilities and show you how to become safe, alert you if you have malware and show you exactly where the malicious hack is within the code of your site so you can act immediately and keep your site safe.

When your site gets hacked, you are taking so many steps back because of a single incident. Is it worth the risk of losing your business after putting so much effort into building your brand, your reputation and your customers’ trust?

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For many big internet companies – Amazon, say, or Google – the idea that there’s a single version of their website is laughable. That’s because these firms are constantly experimenting with different designs, layouts, colours, processes or text.

By using website analysis and optimisation tools, these companies can create multiple variants of a page and then measure which version of the page delivers the best results.

In practice, this means that you might see a different version of Amazon’s checkout screen to everyone else. Or you might get a sneak preview of a new Google feature. These sites are being constantly fine-tuned, as testing tools provide an insight into what page design sparks the best results.

A/B and multivariate testing

The simplest form of this sort of testing is called A/B testing or split testing. It’s where you compare your current version of a page with an alternative version which you think might product different results.

For instance, you might change the layout of your order form to see if doing so results in a greater proportion of people completing their orders.

A more complex option is multivariate testing. When you perform multivariate testing, you can experiment with many different website elements at once in order to determine which combination of elements performs best.

The beauty of A/B and multivariate testing lies in its accuracy. Everything you try is tested in a live environment, on real website visitors. You can measure the results exactly and be sure they’re representative. It’s not like doing a survey or asking for people’s opinions, where people can lie or their answers are open to misinterpretation.

In short, you can prove which version of a page produces the best results, with statistical accuracy.

Getting started with multivariate testing

It could be easier than you think to implement some A/B or multivariate testing on your own website. If you’re willing to pay someone to do it for you, there are lots of companies who can advise you on what to test and set tests up for you.

However, if you’d rather give it a go yourself, there are some excellent free tools built into Google Analytics (Google’s free web analytics service) that can help you. If you’re interested in trying out some A/B or multivariate testing then this is an excellent place to start – but it does mean you’ll need to be using Google Analytics to measure your website’s traffic too.

Assuming you are, you’ll find all the testing tools under the ‘Content Experiments’ option. To find this, log in to Google Analytics, click ‘Standard Reporting’, and then click the ‘Content’ menu.

There’s not enough space here to explain how to use Content Experiments, but there’s heaps of helpful stuff on Google’s pages, plus a good tutorial here.

(Please note that Content Experiments is a new service from Google which is replacing the company’s existing Website Optimizer. If you can’t see it in your Analytics settings straight away then you it should appear soon.)

Deciding what to test

What you decide to test on your website will depend on its aims. For instance, you might experiment with:

• The size, color or position of your ‘Buy now’ buttons (e.g. are blue buttons better than green ones?)
• The fields displayed on your registration form (e.g. with fewer fields, do more people complete the form?)
• How you communicate special offers (e.g. is ‘save 20%’ or ‘save £5′ more effective?)
• The length and format of product descriptions (e.g. does a list of bullets perform better than a paragraph of text?)

You can test virtually any aspect of your site, so to narrow down the possibilities, think about your website’s aims, then consider which elements might have the greatest impact.

Getting accurate results

One thing to remember when it comes to testing on your site is that it takes time to achieve meaningful results. You can’t count on the first ten, 50 or even 100 visitors to be representative of how you users behave overall.

Look for the ‘statistical confidence’ figure in your testing tool. As more people visit your website this should creep closer to the testing standard of 95% confidence, and it’ll give you a really good idea of how reliable the results are.

You also need to think about how many visitors your website receives overall. High-traffic websites can test many different variations because they have enough visitors to show them all to. But if your website only receives a few thousand visitors each month, it’ll take you much, much longer to see any reliable results.

A/B tests generally achieve high confidence scores much quicker than multivariate tests, so they’re the best way to start if your website doesn’t receive masses of traffic.  However, A/B tests usually only tells you about a specific change to a certain page. Multivariate testing can give you insight that can be used across a site.

Dangers of multivariate testing

Website testing – and multivariate testing in particular – can be strangely addictive. It’s amazing that you can come with an idea, test it, and see scientifically what’s best for your website.

But beware: a devotion to website testing could have you focusing on tiny incremental changes while your competitors make a giant leap ahead. A/B and multivariate testing can be a really valuable way to improve your website and boost your bottom line. But it’s only one weapon in your website-building armoury.

Learn more about testing on your website:

• Smashing Magazine have an excellent and comprehensive guide
• Here’s a good introduction to A/B testing from A List Apart
• Read five good A/B testing case studies from Econsultancy

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When it’s a fully functioning website.

Image courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

The concept of blog hosting should be taken as a mere description of the tools available at your disposal and not the content you are going to use it for.

Yes, WordPress and the like were designed to primarily host blogs and they do that very well, but it is also a great engine to drive almost any type of site.

With 123-apps you have several choices of blog hosting free with your shared hosting package and here are six ways you could use your blog hosting to good effect:

1. Campaign website

If you need a stand-alone site for a one-off campaign quickly and effectively, a blog back-end is the perfect way of ensuring a professional looking website with the minimum of fuss.

2. Online store

Of course there are other more advances options like our eshop offerings but your blog engine with some nifty plugins (most are free) can very easily become a working shop for you. You don’t need high level programming expertise and you don’t need to spend hours trawling through help guides. Using a blog engine and ecommerce plug-ins is usually intuitive and you can produce a very respectable shopfront and link that to payment sites such as PayPal to turn it into a full working shop.

3. Community site

If you are involved in a local club, society or organisation the chances are the majority of people you are dealing with have a very limited techie knowledge but ideally you would want them to be updating the website. With a blog engine that is possible. If people can point, click and type, they can use a blog engine to update content.

4. Portfolio

We all have things we like to show off and if time and money are tight, using your blog to host that is the perfect idea. Using plugins, almost every type of content (written, drawn, photographed, on video, in audio, sculptured, etc) can be presented, promoted and archived. Plus if you fancy writing a bit about yourself, blogs are perfect for those About Us pages.

5. Online News site or Magazine

The Huffingon Post, Mashable, TechCrunch; all blog driven and all rather successful. Blog engines offer the ability to prepare articles ahead of publication, schedule them even update them once live. You can include dynamic content from Twitter, RSS feeds etc and very soon have a dynamic news channel up and running.

6. A traditional static website

Dynamic content is great most of the time, but sometimes something like an online business card or brochure is all that is required and while blogs can also help provide dynamic sites, their great forte is being at the heart of a clean, simple, informative site.

If you’ve got a 123-reg shared web hosting package, you’ve got blog hosting included free, so make sure you are making the most of it. Quick, easy and very flexible it is probably one of the most powerful tools that people on almost any level of web design expertise have at their disposal.

What’s the most unusual use you have employed for blog hosting?

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Tonight England takes on Sweden in their second game of Euro 2012, hoping for their first win in the competition. With iTunes applications there is now no reason you should miss any of this intriguing matchup, nor any of the rest of the tournament.

We all know that the mobile phone app industry has boomed in the past four years. There is a lot more to the competition than just watching the games live. Whoever you are supporting in the tournament, these five great i-Tunes applications will keep you up to date with all the happenings during the tournament.

Whether you have iPhone, iPad or an iPod touch device you need never be away from the action. With Euro 2012 in full swing, 123-reg brings you what we feel are the five best iTunes mobile phone apps for the tournament. Read the rest of this entry »

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