A while back, I noticed in AwStats that one of my sites was ranking for terms like “buy Viagra”. Since I avoid Viagra stuff like the plague, I started looking around to see where this was coming from. I searched on Google and found the pages in my site with these suspicious search [...]

A while back, I noticed in AwStats that one of my sites was ranking for terms like “buy Viagra”. Since I avoid Viagra stuff like the plague, I started looking around to see where this was coming from. I searched on Google and found the pages in my site with these suspicious search terms - sure enough, they were all in this same little-used folder under one of my scripts, buried about four folders down. And then, of course, these pages of mine redirected them to another site - the people who really wanted to sell the Viagra.

Apparently this is called “parasite hosting“.

It’s a good idea to check your sites and make sure this isn’t happening. If it is happening, congratulations! You have an authority site someone wants to leech off of rather than struggle to create their own, or buy space on yours (the legitimate way to leech off someone else’s authority).

FYI, I got rid of my spammers by deleting all those files they’d created and making the folders all below 777 on permissions (this entailed dumping a script I’d been using since I was a noob, because it simply could not be configured for less than 777 on some folders).

Aaron Wall has updated the SEO Firefox plugin. Now it:

find the most recently cached pages
find the oldest sites for purchasing advertising on them
find the most important internal pages on a site to get a link from. For example, search for site:targetlinksource.com topic, and sort by PageRank, .edu page links, etc.

It also highlights no-follow links, makes [...]

Aaron Wall has updated the SEO Firefox plugin. Now it:

• find the most recently cached pages
• find the oldest sites for purchasing advertising on them
• find the most important internal pages on a site to get a link from. For example, search for site:targetlinksource.com topic, and sort by PageRank, .edu page links, etc.

It also highlights no-follow links, makes it easy to look up a site’s WhoIs, and may even chop your vegetables if you ask it nicely.

UKGimp has a good list of things to check if your site’s falling in the Google results. Nine times out of ten, it seems to me Google’s algorithm changes are the reason behind the changes, and when that’s the case you can usually just sit back and wait for the tide to turn your [...]

UKGimp has a good list of things to check if your site’s falling in the Google results. Nine times out of ten, it seems to me Google’s algorithm changes are the reason behind the changes, and when that’s the case you can usually just sit back and wait for the tide to turn your way once more.

But sometimes it can be a result of something you’ve changed, your host has changed, or a hacker has changed. No harm in checking out these possibilities just to be sure.

Fernando Graphics explains how to make text-resizing available to your visitors using javascript.  Upside: your visitors get to choose the text size that looks best on their browser and monitor or is most comfortable for their eyesight.  Downside: you’ll want to make sure your site actually looks good at all of those text sizes.
Still, it’s [...]

Fernando Graphics explains how to make text-resizing available to your visitors using javascript.  Upside: your visitors get to choose the text size that looks best on their browser and monitor or is most comfortable for their eyesight.  Downside: you’ll want to make sure your site actually looks good at all of those text sizes.

Still, it’s a feature that leaves an impression on visitors.

If you have any domains hosted with Registerfly, you might want to read this: they’ve been terminated by Icann.  Get your domains moved ASAP.

If you have any domains hosted with Registerfly, you might want to read this: they’ve been terminated by Icann.  Get your domains moved ASAP.

So you’re a brilliant webmaster.  You speak CSS, php, HTML and Javascript.  You can design a website, optimize the code, mix a martini and kick some bad-guy ass in just an average morning.
But can you find those windows that go slinking off your computer screen, looking for greener pastures?  You know what I’m talking about.  [...]

So you’re a brilliant webmaster.  You speak CSS, php, HTML and Javascript.  You can design a website, optimize the code, mix a martini and kick some bad-guy ass in just an average morning.

But can you find those windows that go slinking off your computer screen, looking for greener pastures?  You know what I’m talking about.  A program is open.  You know there was a window around here somewhere.  You’ve minimized every other window you’ve got running to find it.  Then you’ve closed every other program.  Still, it hides.

LifeHacker has posted the solution to this frustrating mystery of the missing window.  The original source article appears to be How To Geek, which offers an additional version of the trick - the keyboard solution:

Note: For keyboard savvy people, you can just alt-tab to the window, use Alt+Space, then M, then Arrow key, and then move your mouse.

How simple is that?