SEO is always changing and to be successful you have to keep track of it all. Unfortunately there’s no single, definitive resource that can provide you with all the information you need. Of course, Google provides plenty of guidance and advice including lots of best practice elements to include. However they’re never going to give you a perfect blueprint for success as it would obviously be ripe for abuse. So it’s up to the webmasters and SEO specialists to try and keep up with the search engines algorithms in order to keep that organic traffic flowing. One of the most important factors for many years has been Page Rank but now we’ve no real direct way of even measuring it.
IS Page Rank still a factor for the Google Search engine algorithm, in some ways it doesn’t even matter. By all accounts, Page Rank’s days are numbered at least that Google want’s us to believe. For years it has stood at the core of Googles search results but for the last year it’s been difficult to work out the true rank of a web page. For the search giant has not been updating publicly the relative rank of pages for some time, so although most believe it is still an important factor, we can’t always work out the PR of a site. For instance if you create a new post like this about how to watch British TV Programmes online, the page will be ranked at nothing in most tools, however over the weeks this will rank higher if it is read, linked to and promoted.
The relevancy is important too, in the above example a link for a UK Television company would obviously be much more valuable than even a high powered link from a non related site.
The concept has moved more to the value of authoritative links which was largely the source of Page Rank scores anyway. Google lends a lot of weight to a site’s page rank when it comes to where and how to place that site in the search results. You need to have a high page rank if you hope to place as high as possible in Google’s results, and also if you want more traffic than ever before. But if you are new to the SEO game, you may be clueless as to how to increase your site’s page rank. First of all, your hard work building links is going to pay dividends when it comes to getting a much higher page rank. So if you can gain high quality backlinks from sites that have a good page rank then it will automatically help you reach your SEO goals. If you want to rank higher in the search engine rankings and get more traffic than you’ve ever had before, use the following techniques and you won’t believe what page rank you end up with.
One easy way to really get results for your page ranking efforts is to leave comments on other blogs within your niche that have good PR. This can quickly increase the number of backlinks you have pointing to your site which can be invaluable for your own PR efforts. One of the biggest advantages with this method is that there’s absolutely no limit on how many backlinks you acquire, so the harder you work, the better it is. You can find plenty of automated backlink tools, willing to post comments for you by the thousands, but it’s wise to steer clear of these. Even if you use the latest proxies to hide the location and maximise the number of links they can obtain, the quality will always be low and the effect usually negligible on your rankings. These tools do nothing more than spam your link around to thousands of blogs. This kind of unethical SEO practice will set off red flags within Google, who may decide to penalize your site. Think about finding blogs within your niche, or similar, and work on commenting on posts you find interesting. The blogs you comment on don’t nave to be in the identical niche to your own, as long as they have decent PR and plenty of traffic you’ll see results.
One of the best tools you should be taking advantage of to improve your page rank is social bookmarking. There are tons of social media sites such as Delicious, Reddit, Digg, and Twitter where you can easily submit your site. Once you bookmark your article on these sites you get a link back to the content on your site, which helps in boosting your page rank. It’s a tactic that is not quite as effective in 2021 however it does still work to some extent. There’s other similar links from things like forums and bulletin boards which help too, a tactic used by some of the ticket proxy sites to boost their ratings for a long time. For example, there are many pages on Digg where you can comment and get a good PR because these pages have a PR5 or a Pr6. Many people are aware of this tactic, but not many use it often enough to enjoy the real benefits it can bring.
Last but not the least; make sure you code your site the right way. You need to make it easy for the search engine spiders to crawl your site and view your text. Your site shouldn’t contain JavaScript/DHTML. Remember that search engines aren’t able to read flash, so if you use this feature then create a separate HTML page for visitors. You will have a hard time raising your page rank if your site isn’t constructed with the search engines in mind. You should focus on making consistent progress and building your page rank gradually.
So remember to use all of the strategies we’ve discussed above, and you will gradually be able to raise your site’s page rank and search engine ranking. If you want to increase your site’s visibility and gain more traffic, you have to pay attention to your page rank. You should try to get as much search engine traffic coming your way as possible.
There are lots of desktops to choose from, but the HP TouchSmart 600-1370 All-in-One Desktop is one of the special ones. Well, the name tells you the main ways that this computer is different. It has an all-in-one design that is compact, and it uses leading edge touchscreen technology. All of the main features will be discussed in this article because there is a lot more to this HP desktop. For many years HP have produced some of the best looking desktops on the market usually at a very affordable price and I think this is no exception.
First of all, if you are an avid picture taker, and like to edit your images before sending them to people you know, the HP TouchSmart 600-1370 All-in-One Desktop can help you do this. Want to transfer your digital images from your camera to your computer without cables? No problem! You can do this with the 6-in-1 Digital Media Reader built right in. Anyone that uses standard cables to connect their camcorder or camera to their PC will really appreciate this feature when uploading videos and photos and streaming TV. It is easy to combine your images into a slideshow with the touchscreen. You can even add audio! You will no longer have a problem organizing your photos, or making albums. Just drag your media using the TouchSmart technology, and organizing and sharing will be done in seconds.
Another great aspect of the HP TouchSmart 600-1370 All-in-One Desktop is the enormous touchscreen that comes with the PC. Do you like vibrant colors on your computer screen? The HD 1080p LCD Display is designed to display colors and images in crystal-clear clarity – see here. Very different from a smartphone or a notebook computer, this 23″ screen is something that you will really enjoy watching movies on or just surfing the web. Even though it will take a little bit of time, you will get used to using your finger instead of a mouse to do everything with your new touchscreen. The large screen, combined with the touchscreen technology makes this desktop quite enjoyable to use for entertainment and socializing. I’ve streamed some shows in 4k from the BBC iPlayer service and it looked wonderful. Remember you’ll need a fast internet connection to cope with this too.
Being able to have fun using the touchscreen, and the user friendly design are the primary differences with the HP TouchSmart 600-1370 All-in-One Desktop. It takes up a lot less space than a normal desktop, and the streamlined look is very attractive. You can move the screen 180 degrees and tilt it either backwards or forwards. The only slight criticism is that the screen is not always sensitive enough for some operations. Clicking and selecting blocks of code from my new proxy configuration which I was setting up in text file was kind of difficult.
For your own comfort, it can be put at just the right angle. In the case that you want it mounted on a wall, the base can be removed. If this is what you want to do, then separately, the adapter and bracket will have to be bought. The webcam can even be adjusted and tilted to whatever position you would like for it to be in. Desktops are typical for not being easy to customize, but it is easy with the design of the HP TouchSmart computers. This computer, the HP TouchSmart 600-1370 All-in-One Desktop, is an excellent desktop, free from all of the constraints that a computer usually has, lacking the wires and cables that most computers always need. It is really up to you to make a decision as to whether or not you need this computer. Despite its drawbacks (the price), this might be what you’re looking for.
Education has always been one of the most precious resources that a society can supply it’s citizens. In fact without education, an economy is unlikely to flourish in today’s connected society. Which is a real problem for emerging economies and less developed countries, who simply aren’t able to provide wide spread, high quality learning to it’s citizens. In the developed world, providing education is always a challenge for governments mainly based on how it should be financed rather than availability.
There are however huge developments in the world of online learning which offer opportunity to all countries to upgrade the educational opportunities available to their citizens. To some extent the earliest form of this distance learning was pioneered in the UK with the Open University, a huge distance learning university where you study from home. Initially many of the lectures where delivered on British TV stations and the radio although they too have now moved online.
Did you think that a Physics course from Stanford was out of reach for you, or perhaps a Business course from Harvard ? Well all these and thousands more are available online for anyone with an internet connection to some extent ! Many of these courses have been online for quite a few years but not accessible to everyone. Indeed many major Universities started off with quite limited access, although if you knew how to use decent proxies like this you get through to some. They used similar technology initially as used by the large e-commerce retailers who sell things like tickets to concerts online.
The world of education is changing though and at the heart of this digital inspired revolution is the MOOC. This stands for Massive Open Online Course, although slight variations on this acronym do exist. The concept and implementation varies but it’s basically moving much of the traditional education provision online. This will definitely accelerate after the covid 19 pandemic where many traditional secondary schools have also been forced to move their classrooms online.
So what exactly is a MOOC and why is it so important? Well it offers the opportunity for a student to study a certain course, delivered by a specific professor irrespective of where they live. The secret of course is the internet, which allows a course to be delivered in an open access format across the web. Traditional course material are supplied such as digital lectures, films, slides and documents which mirror the normal formats. Many even offer the chance to earn the same qualification as standard students who are actually attending do. Mostly though there’s a certificate or non-certificate option which recognises you’ve completed the course.
Earlier courses were quite basic and just involved filming lectures and then making resources downloadable, which of course was a extremely popular. However as the format was adopted by more and more educational establishments the courses developed too, with the digital format improved in it’s own right.
One of the first major improvements was to allow for both tutor and pupil interaction concerning the courses. Of course, a tutor wouldn’t be able to respond to thousands of pupils all across the globe. However interactive forums and message boards allow this interaction enabling fellow students, assistant teachers and others to help professors support the huge volume of students. These would also help build up additional resources such as course specific FAQs.
The provision and development of online courses has developed rapidly over the last few years. In January 2012, the University of Helsinki launched a Finish MOOC in programming. It was developed because in many Finish provinces there was no premises or teachers available to provide such a course, the MOOC ensured that any Finish student could study programming if they wished from wherever they were.
There are some difficulties and challenges to the expansion of these digital courses, one of the most important is licensing and funding. In an ideal world of course, these courses could be open to anyone however this can be difficult to finance for most educational establishments. Many have tried restricting the access to specific locations in order to limit demand, however this is increasingly difficult with various tools like this which hide your location.
Have you noticed the increasing number of websites that are becoming inaccessible? Once upon a time you could click on pretty much any YouTube video but nowadays so many are country restricted i.e. you can only watch from specific countries. I was trying to watch a movie clip the other day and I got this message. It was a YouTube video from Channel 4 the British TV channel. Which is odd really as this happened from the UK and I could access all of the actual Channel 4 site and the thousands of programmes on it (including where the clip was from).
I see it more and more, sometimes with more information but very rarely. The reason is normally due to licensing issues or restrictions, the technology used to block you is called Geotargeting. The restrictions are based on your IP address – many web sites now look up your location from this. Sometimes it’s for good things perhaps to customise your experience of their site. All the search engines for example will customize your results to your actual location. So if you just search for ‘plumber’ you’ll get results of local plumbers not from the other side of the world.
The problem is that there seem to be far, far more restrictions than there are benefits to this technology. I watch a lot of shows on Channel 4 and love this one in particular – Escape to the Chateau which is broadcast on Channel 4 live and through their website for free. However as soon as you step outside the United Kingdom our old friend geo-targeting will block access to not only Channel 4 but all the other UK TV sites too.
For example try and watch something on Hulu when not in the USA and you’ll get blocked, watch the BBC Iplayer outside the UK and the same thing happens. More and more sites are doing this – literally thousands of different websites will only allow you to watch certain things on their sites depending on your location. Sometimes the lookup gets things wrong, this is because the database which lists all the IP addresses and their locations doesn’t always get updated. I’ve often managed to watch UK shows from a French hotel because my IP address is incorrectly listed as British. However this is all a bit haphazard and you certainly can’t rely on this happening.
To ensure you can watch what you like you need to start using VPNs or proxies to obscure your location. These middle man servers present their own IP address to the web servers when you connect. Therefore if you select an elite proxy or VPN in the appropriate country you should be fine to access the sites.
The service I use has lots of servers in different countries in order to make this more accessible. For example the above site is watchable from Switzerland despite being blocked in the UK. Connect via a Swiss server and you can watch the above video with out a problem. If you want to watch the BBC or Channel 4 then you need a UK server, for Hulu or NBC then select a US one and so on.
There can be some restrictions and issues with using this technology primarily because the media sites try and block their use. Some sites are better than others at achieving this, the BBC was quite relaxed until recently when it started blocking a lot of VPNs. There are plenty that work though and you should always check before investing in a long term subscription to see if it works properly with the stations you need.
When you get the right VPN though, you’ll wonder how you lived without them. They open up literally thousands of great sites from all over the world. Most of the best VPNs come with subscriptions that cover lots of countries so don’t restrict your viewing. I recently used a VPN to watch the Test Match cricket on Indian TV then switched to watch Match of the Day on BBC later all from a US based computer.
Blocked and filtered, monitored and restricted – this is the reality of the internet today. Ever clicked on a particularly funny looking video to be greeted by the message – ’we’re sorry that video is not available in your area’. Perhaps you’ve tried to watch the latest episode of that TV programme while on holiday. Maybe you’ve simply tried to place a bet while travelling using your online betting account. There’s a very good chance that none of these will work simply because of your physical location.
When did the internet change like this? It was once open to all, it didn’t matter if you were in a cyber cafe in Karachi, an Airport in Harare or sitting in a Starbucks in London – we all saw the same online, we were all equal. But that’s not the case any more – commercial interests, government filters and restrictive licensing meant that whatever you see online is highly dependent on where you live. Much of it is promoted as improving the user experience, while that’s partly true the majority is simply to boost profits or to control what we see online.
Mostly it’s geo-targeting that’s to blame, a website will check which country your IP address is from before deciding on what you can see. If you don’t believe me check out any media site in a country apart from yours – Non US residents try and watch something on ABC or Hulu, or if you’re in the US go and try to watch something on the BBC iPlayer website. Put simply it won’t work simply because the internet is now layered in Tiers and not all open to all. Media sites like these are a great example, virtually every single one works perfectly when you’re in a specific location (usually the domestic market). However as soon as you travel, then they’ll stop working. These huge international barriers being placed on something where location really shouldn’t matter.
We’ve mentioned some benefits and they’re definitely are a few. Search engines for example will tailor your results to match your location. So if you search for electricians you’ll get results located in the same area as you. Search for film times and you’ll see them matched to cinemas in your local area too. All this is useful in most cases but the blocks and filters are much more pervasive than these.
It doesn’t seem right that your physical location should be so important on a global communications network like the internet. Some people are seriously disadvantaged by their location with access to many important internet sites like PayPal and eBay restricted based on their location.
As always though there are work arounds, mainly in the various technologies that can be used to bypass these blocks. The vast majority of these sites determine your location using the IP address of your computer. Now although you can’t change this, you can hide it to a certain extent. By connecting through an intermediary server you can hide your real location and use that of the server. These are called proxy servers which you can gain access to through many different locations. You can use a BBC Iplayer proxy or a VPN to access Hulu and Pandora and it doesn’t really matter where you are – read this. In fact for internet surfers in most developed countries, a subscription to one of these services is becoming a necessity.
Many services offer access to servers across the world meaning whenever you get blocked you can simply select the appropriate server and you’re back in business. But of course this has meant that slowly the internet is becoming accessible to some and inaccessible to others. If you can afford one of these subscriptions you’ll be fine but others will have to live with the handicaps. It’s not really how the internet used to be and I suspect it’s not how most of us wanted it to be!
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