Privacy Issues: Deleted Online Photos May Not Really Be Gone!

You know that those embarrassing vacation photos that you posted on your social profile page last year may come back to haunt you, which is why you went back in later and deleted them. Problem solved, right? Maybe not.

A recent Cambridge University study, photos deleted from photo sharing sites such as Facebook were still available thirty days later.

According to the BBC, sites like Facebook store photos in one place and their main page in another, which can account for a delay from the time that you delete a photo to actual photo deletion. Seven of the sixteen sites tested, including Facebook, failed the test.

Facebook allegedly denies the findings of the study, telling CNN.com that “when a user deletes a photo from Facebook, it is removed from our servers immediately.”

Whether the findings of the study are accurate or not, studies like these serve as a warning to anyone who posts photos online—make sure that you aren’t posting anything that would embarrass you if your co-workers, clients, relatives, friends, or potential employers saw it.

How to optimize 1,000 pages with Javascript or Flash

As you know, many search engines ignore JavaScript, and therefore won’t follow the links at your site. If you use flash or images for site maps and links you will have the same problem. The use of NOSCRIPT can be applied, but used with care.

Sitemap Programs with Google

Here’s what to do:

Create a text site map that lists all the web pages. Place a plain text link to the site map on the index page.
Search engines check the beginning of a page for sitemaps. A site map won’t be found if it’s at the end of a long page. Place the site map link at the top of the index page.
Since you have more than the baseline 30+ pages, use Google’s site maps tool. This allows you to submit a list of all URLs to the Google search engine.
Create and account here https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login and get started. Google’s webmaster tools provide you with a free and easy way to make your site more Google friendly.
Scan your site with this free tool and build your sitemap.xml file: http://www.auditmypc.com/free-sitemap-generator.asp. Place that file in the root of your site. (ex: mysite.com/sitemap.xml)
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Thousands of Pages

Since you may have thousands of pages, and only see a few pages indexed, a site map program will definitely be worthwhile. Some companies spend a lot of money on PPC campaigns, realizing that SEO solutions can help them immensely. You should build a search engine friendly crawling environment by building a keyword rich site map. You would allow the major search engines to quickly find and index the pages, thus increasing the index counts at Google and other search engines.

Time to Ramp up

Initially, this will take a long time. You may see your conversions increase weekly, albeit slowly. Then, after a period of time, several months likely, you should see conversions increase to hundreds or thousands per week on a sizable web site. If your site is fairly new, Google places it in what they call the Google sandbox. It is done to make sure you do not spam and it is a valid site. For new web sites you won’t rank high for many months – from two to five months. You will still gain from providing a clean site navigation with good content and backlinks. Tip: Make sure when you register a domain to apply with at least 5 years exclusivity. It shows you are serious (to the search engines).

Next Steps

Natural SEO and link building is still very valid – and building incoming links is always critical, especially when the engines have not yet indexed your page. You should go out soliciting high quality inbound links with the combination of deep interior links from niche sites and top-level links from directories. Additionally you may consider looking at URL and filenames page titles and metadata set ups. The site map configuration, the on page content and internal site linking. Google uses the site maps program and Yahoo still has the site Explorer program at: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

Social Media Helping Pet Owners: Pet-Based Businesses Connect

It’s official—air travel is for the dogs, and the cats too. Pet Airways, which offers flights across the country for four-legged friends only, recently partnered with the ad network DogTime Media in order to get the word out about their services and promote DogTime Media’s pet adoption at the same time.

Other pet-focused businesses are taking a similar approach. Many pet food manufacturers, including Whiskas and Purina maintain, have maintain, or sponsor interactive social media sites, complete with online games and videos. Purina Animal All Stars, for example, hosted by Yahoo! Invites pet owners to send in videos of their talented, funny, or unusual pets. The company’s main site www.purina.com, also has games, downloads, and coupons available for it’s visitors.

“People who go to sites like these are people who love their pets and people who are spending time thinking about the products that they buy for their pets,” Bob Shaw, CEO of Concentric Marketing, the agency that works with natural cat litter manufacturer Feline Pine to help socially promote its corporate website, told DMNews in a recent interview.

“From a marketing perspective, we’ve understood that there is an opportunity to connect with consumers around their emotions to connect with pets.”

For Real? McDonalds Launches Social Media Campaign For McCafe Coffee

The current economic climate has everyone searching for ways to save money, and coffee giant Starbucks, whose name is synonymous with the four dollar latte, has been facing price competition from other chains, including Dunkin Doughnuts and McDonalds, which recently announced the launch of a social media campaign.

The campaign, which includes a website with shareable videos and an interactive sweepstakes,and a Twitter account, McCafeYourDay, was to promote the McCafe coffee line.

“We’re having a lot of fun online, and there’s a great dedicated area for McCafé on the McDonald’s Web site with some really quirky fun things,” Sofia Therios, director of marketing for McDonald’s USA told DMNews.com.

It is clear that more and more corporations are beginning to realize the value, and the tremendous impact of social media campaigns and strategies.