Free and Open Campaign

At the start of 2012, many internet companies and brands teamed up to fight against web censorship, in the forms of the SOPA (stop online piracy act) and PIPA (protect IP act) bill. It worked very well, but now a new threat looms over the free internet. And it's headed by the UN.

In December, nations around the world will be meeting in Dubai to discuss proposed changes to how the Internet is operated. Currently, much of the Internet is operated by ICANN, a neutral NGO. Some nations in the UN want to transfer its power to the ITU so that member nations in the UN can have more of a say in how the Internet works.

Open Web proponents immediately decried the idea, and the US has been investigating the potential harm such a change would cause. For their part, Google has started another “Take Action” campaign that asks citizens from around the world to demand a free and open Internet.

Going off of precedent alone, Google may very well be successful with its latest campaign. The search giant, along with other Internet companies, were instrumental in mobilizing US citizens against SOPA and PIPA in January.

Of course, there are some key differences between the SOPA blackout and now that could swing the campaign in either direction. For one, trusted brands and companies like Google, Facebook and Wikipedia all came out against the legislation with blackouts and other extreme visual messages. The proposed changes in the UN have had no such campaign yet, and prolific Internet figures like Mark Zuckerberg and Jimmy Wales have yet to issue strong statements against it.

Google’s campaign, however, could make all the difference. The company could inspire the same amount of fervor if it were to lay a doodle over its homepage again. The company hasn’t done that just yet, but we could see more action on the part of Google as we move closer to the UN gathering.

Making your Website more Panda Friendly (SEO)

The recent Google Panda update has raised the bar not only for SEO experts but also for web designers. It’s getting tougher and tougher to rank well and that means that you really have to pay attention to all designing and Google ranking factors. When we do this, search engines rewards us because we are rewarding our audience and providing them with the information and experience they are looking for. The following points will help you to make your website panda proof:- 

1.Content is key:The Panda algorithm update emphasizes providing assurance only on websites that contain unique and useful content. This will help users better find content relevant to their search. If you provide web page content that is unique, relevant, high quality and preferably 1000+ words, your site will likely be rewarded with improved rankings and therefore, increased traffic. 

2.Above the fold design: Narrowing your header images, removing header banner images and pushing more content onto the top of your site will help with Panda. 

3.Web Page indexing: A website with more than 100 web pages and maximum pages indexed by Google would be considered as a Panda friendly website. 

4.Page rank: Page rank is still one of the most important factors. PageRank is an independent measure of Google’s perception of the quality/authority/credibility of an individual web page. It does not depend on any particular search phrase. Google conveniently reports this as a number from 0-10 (10 being the best). 

5.Check your Domain registration: Domain registration for five years helps to enhance authority points. This is a small tip, but every little bit helps. 

6.Webmaster tools: It enables webmasters to get a better idea of what Google “thinks” about their web sites, how the Google “spider” sees them, and what improvements could be made. 

7.Social media proof: Google Panda takes social media trends seriously and content that is loved by social media sites like Twitter and Facebook gets better position in search engines. 

8.Optimize for Fast Load Times: Avoid flash, single background images in the website. Google tends to favor sites that are snappy, quick, and fast.

Google and Good Deeds

Gone are the days of popping a few coins into a tin on a Sunday to do your good deed for others in need. With the power of social media, donating to charities, community groups and non-profit organisations, giving for a cause has become easier. With websites like kickstarter and just-giving raising funds for individual groups, Causes allowing you to share which campaigns interest you via social networks and organisations like Sparked that gives the user the opportunity to volunteer their expertise to third-sector organisations via the web; doing your bit has become that much easier.

If you're interested in volunteering online, have a community group that lives close to your heart or even want to give a small donation to a charity in mind, then here are a few websites that can help you out:

·         IndieGoGo - The largest crowdfunding platform on the web, IndieGoGo allows users to create campaings in which they wish to fundraise. It can be anything from giving a boost for a small company to helping out with someone's medical bills. What you donate is entirely up to you and allows random acts of kindness to flourish.

·         Kickstarter - Fancy putting some money towards a creative project? Look no further than the largest platform for this on the internet. The diverse selection of projects available range from Game Designers creating apps to History of Art webinars to photography gallery exhibitions. For something a little different that caters for all, Kickstarter is probably your best bet.   

·         JustGiving - JustGiving works differently than the above two websites as it is much more sponsorship-based. Raising for a selected charity, users can fundraise by doing their chosen tasks such as skydiving and sponsored silences.

·         Sparked – Fancy volunteering your specialties or area of expertise online? Look no further than Sparked, an easy way to find voluntary positions online. There are various different avenues in which you can help including web design and marketing.

It has never been easier to do your kind deed for the day, and now you can do it with only a few clicks! 

Getting Search Engines to Crawl to Your Site More Often

If you're interested in making your site more attractive to search engine crawlers so you can generate more free traffic for your site then you've come to the right place. The Google crawl rate is nothing but the total frequency with which their bots visit your site and index new content. Some websites go a long time in between crawls and this prevents new material from gaining valuable page rank. But you can change that by making your site more crawlable. 


It's important to invest a little time and attention to optimize the photos on your site. Images that aren't optimized usually aren't good for the overall performance of your site in the search engines. It can also lead to a less than favorable crawl rate for your website. But the real question is how to get that improved crawl rate. You can do many things to optimize images like placing keywords in the name of the file, resizing images properly, and using captions that are designed to appeal to search engine crawlers. While these may seem like simple steps they can have a huge impact on how often your website gets crawled by the search engines. 


You need to make regular updates to your site's content. 
The problem with this is that this might mean one thing to you and something else entirely to someone else. This doesn't mean that you have to update your site ten times a day; just make it happen more often and you're good to go. Google has a deep appreciation for sites that add new information often and rewards that by indexing their information and updates faster. This is the way that Google uses to let website owners know they've noticed them and like what they see on these sites. 


The most basic thing to do when trying to enhance your site's crawl rate is to submit your website's URL to Google. This is something that is quick and easy but effective. In fact, the more search engines you submit to the better your exposure will be. Additionally you'll want to check that you're getting the right header response. 


Give Google what it wants and you'll have no trouble at all attracting those famous Google bots to your site every other day. These are all steps that are easy to duplicate and apply to every one of your sites for fast results. Most website owners have no idea how important proper optimization is for their websites. It only takes a little effort on your part to make your site more attractive to them but the rewards are well worth that effort.