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What happened, why the shutdown?

Back in November 2018, Google found after a software update, that it contained a bug affecting a Google+ API. With the discovery of this new bug, they have decided to expedite the shut-down of all Google+ APIs after this bug impacted approximately 52.5 million users, with their data being exposed.

Google claims that ‘the bug did not give developers access to information such as financial data, national identification numbers, passwords, or similar data typically used for fraud or identity theft.’

So what does this mean to you? 

If you are one of the 2.2 billion users currently registered on the platform then it’s time to act now. Google+ accounts and any Google+ pages that you’ve created will be shut down and they will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts.

Google will be allowing all consumers to download their content prior to shutdown, but don’t sleep on this, I suggest you act fast.

You can download and save your content and just make sure that you do this before April, as you can see by the image below when attempting a data dump of your content, that archives may take a long time (hours or possibly days) to create. You will receive an email when your archive is complete.

Please note that archives may take a long time (hours or possibly days) to create.

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But unfortunately Chrome has its downfalls in memory allocating that could be used for other open apps and if like me you are running Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft Outlook and iTunes (all RAM hungry apps) your level of annoyance can reach fever pitch.

So out of my own personal frustrations, I found the perfect Chrome Extension to solve my problems and hopefully yours. It’s called The Great Suspender and like its name it cleverly suspends your unused open tabs based on time settings your stipulate when configuring.

The Great Suspender settings options

This handy lightweight extension to reduce chrome’s memory footprint is perfect if you have a lot of tabs open at the same time. Tabs that have not been viewed after a configurable length of time will be automatically suspended in the background, freeing up the memory and CPU being consumed by that tab.

I highly recommend this extension. Download via image below.

Download The Great Suspender – https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/the-great-suspender/klbibkeccnjlkjkiokjodocebajanakg?hl=en

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So, firstly you need to make the decision on whether enabling comments on your WordPress blog will be valuable to your website and its readership and if that is a big YES, then being prepared for spambots visiting and posting to your unprotected comments section is very much a given.

Ok so I hope I haven’t scared you off opening your website comments section, but knowing there are drawbacks as well as positives is just as important as knowing how to combat your websites comment spam.

Don’t get me wrong, comments on your blog posts, positive or negative, can create a sense of community and discussion you may not necessarily get elsewhere and can help increase site visits as part of your SEO campaign. I always recommend new site owners enable comments as a way to engage with their readership and help gain a broader view of the topic raised, but if your site is not protected then it brings the chance of potential comment spam by spambots engines.

Well if like me in years gone past you created a post that you wanted to engage with your viewers and encourage feedback but the thought of approving/disapproving comments meant you blocked all functionality well then worry no more.

Google reCAPTCHA is a free service that protects your website from spam and abuse. reCAPTCHA uses an advanced risk analysis engine and adaptive CAPTCHAs to keep automated software from engaging in abusive activities on your site. It does this while letting your valid users pass through with ease. So get yourself (if you haven’t already) a Google account and enable this free service. For more information visit www.google.com/recaptcha/.

Now that you have enabled Google reCAPTCHA and have your Site and Secret Keys you’ll need to install a plugin that will do all the work for you. Below are just some of the great plugins that will control access to your comments, along with your WordPress Login screen and contact forms.

Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) by BestWebSoft

No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA by MailOptin Team

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With the web being accessed more and more on mobile devices and tablets. So designing your website to be mobile friendly ensures that your pages perform and render correctly on all platforms.

If you are running WordPress then you’re on the right track. WordPress websites, either using a customised theme or the pre-package WP Theme, are all fully responsive so your site looks great on all devices and renders correctly.

In some cases an outdated WordPress installation, basic HTML or (God-forbid) Flash styled website won’t translate to a mobile friendly site due to advances in coding that weren’t available during the build process.

So what are responsive websites?

Responsive web design is pretty much what it sounds like — a website that responds to the device and size of the screen it’s being viewed on. One way to quickly check if the site your are viewing on your desktop is responsive is to take the corner of your Internet browser and drag it in, making the window smaller. Give it a try with ours and you’ll see that the layout changes based on the window size. Now try yours and if your page doesn’t fit the window then give us a call and we can make it work for you.

Another way to check is to use Google’s handy mobile friendly test via https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly. This 2 minute check will provide you with a detailed report on any issues which may be stopping your site from being responsive.

Mobile Friendly Test Results

Can I fix my website myself, what are my options?

There are a number of options available to you, so if HTML coding is your thing then we suggest you dive right in and give it a crack.

Option 1 – Purchase a Mobile Friendly Theme/Template

Sites like ThemeForest or Template Monster offer tens of thousands of mobile-friendly themes for a variety of content management systems (CMS) at reasonable prices. Simply purchase then upload and configure based on authors provided instructions and you’re good to go.

Perhaps a website designing platform such as Wix or Squarespace is more your style. These sites are popular and mostly easy to use as long as you don’t mind paying the monthly subscription costs.

Option 2 – Hire a web developer

If you want to get that professional look and feel and know the job will be right the first time then hiring a website developer is your best bet.

Resources

Learn to code via Code Academy – https://www.codecademy.com/
Design your own using Wix – http://www.wix.com/ 
Create your own Squarespace –http://www.squarespace.com/

Happy coding!

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Google began marking sites in Chrome v56, which was issued in January of this year. They targeted HTTP sites that collect user passwords and credit card details, such as online stores that didn’t provide adequate security measures in protecting websites from being hacked or compromised.

For owners to secure the information being shared among their visitors and their web server, they must start incorporating an SSL certificate. Failing to do this is risky for both parties: sites that allow the sending of information in clear text may also allow its exposure through the Internet.

In an attempt to thwart phishing sites from stealing your credit card and password data, Google’s warning of ‘Not Secure’ will strengthen site security and to protect website visitors from any compromise.

Eventually, Chrome will show a ‘Not Secure’ warning for all pages served over HTTP, regardless of whether or not the page contains sensitive input fields. Even if you adopt one of the more targeted resolutions above, you should plan to migrate your site to use HTTPS for all pages.

We suggest you purchase a SSL Certificate now to avoid any site warnings that may distract from your customers making purchases or interacting with your website.

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Kickstart your career with an impressive digital certification. Our free online courses will guide you through everything from search engines, to social media and beyond. – Google Digital Garage

This smart move by Google in offering free digital lesson plans act as both giving students and job seekers a better understanding of what it takes to develop and market websites online, and also by presenting an easier format to their advertising products. This is one of many new tactics Google is using in targeting students and school leavers in the ever expanding world of online marketing and networking strategies, with the search engine giant only recently announcing its new initiative Computer Science Education, structured for teaching students of all ages coding practices with a view of pursuing a future career.

Find out more and start your free online certification course via https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage-au/

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“Computers are everywhere in our world today and being an educated citizen requires an understanding of the fundamentals of computer science and its underlying problem-solving methodology of computational thinking. Not every child should become a computer scientist, but all children should have the opportunity to explore and create with computing.

Google has developed programs, tools and resources that advance computer science education and provide opportunities for exploration and learning in school, in informal settings and at home.”

Visit Google CS Education

Resources

Computer Coding Courses for Kids

Start with Code – Resources for Teachers

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See how Google crawls and indexes your site and learn about specific problems we’re having accessing it.

See how your site is performing
Learn which queries drive traffic to your site, and see exactly how users arrive there.

Share info with us to help us crawl your site better
Tell us about your pages: which ones are most important to you and how often they change. You can also let us know how you would like the URLs we index to appear.

Get started today – it’s free!
Simply log in with your Google Account and add your site URL to get started. It’s an easy and free way to have a more interactive experience with Google.

source: Official Google Webmaster Tools at http://www.google.com/webmasters

Getting Google’s view of your site, and diagnosing potential problems
Webmaster Tools help speed up the discovery of your pages, which is an important first step in crawling and indexing your website. The first step to increasing your site’s visibility on Google is learning how Google robots crawl and index your site. Creating a Site Map ( listing of pages in your site) in either XML format or basic TXT file than submitting allows Google to crawl your site and is especially beneficial if your site is new and has few links to it.

Malware Detection
If your site ever is compromised by Malware, Google Webmaster Tools will notify you of such problems which can easily be remedied before your site is blocked in Google Search.

What happens next?
Allowing anywhere from a few hours to a few days for the Googlebot to crawl your site after Site Map submission, you will be presented with a list of viewable options on how Google sees and rates your website, these include;

• Configuration – Settings, Sitelinks, URL Parameters
• Health – Crawl Stats & Errors, Blocked URLs, Malware
• Traffic – Search Queries, Links To Your Site, Internal Links
• Optimisation – Sitemaps, HTML Improvements, Content Keywords
• Labs – Site Performance

Google Webmaster Tools is a great resource which I encourage all webmasters and site owners to participate in.

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