Technically Easy

Search results for: “label/Web%20Site%20-%20Design”

  • Using Google Alerts to Track Copies of Your Web Content

    In my last post I wrote about What to Avoid When Designing Web Sites. I mentioned various points that you should not do when designing a Web site. One of the points talked about copying the work of others and posting it on your site as your own. It was then mentioned in the comments about monitoring such copying of your own work.

    In this post I will look at one easy-to-use method of monitoring Google results for duplicate work of yours, which you can then use to take the appropriate action.

    What is Google Alerts?

    Google Alerts are simply e-mails sent to you when a specific set of criteria you setup is found. The search criteria are a set of search terms against the Google index, and when there are new items for those search terms an e-mail is sent to you.

    An alert can be setup for searches against News, Web, Blogs, Video and Groups.

    You can easily setup Google Alerts by visiting the Google Alerts home page and enter your search criteria on the form provided. You can then manage your alerts from your Google account.

    Using Google Alerts to Monitor Your Content

    Now that you have an idea of what Google Alerts actually is, let’s see how we can use that to monitor your Web content. Keep in mind that this isn’t 100% foolproof, but it can help you find those who duplicate your content.

    Within my posts I try to link to other posts within my blog. This helps to provide more information to my visitors, but it can also help to monitor my pages with Google Alerts. Here is how I do that:

    1. I navigate to the Google Alerts home page. This is where I will create a new alert.
    2. Since my posts usually contain a link to another post on Technically Easy, I will use that as a search term. Beside Search Items I will enter link:technicallyeasy.net. This will alert me when another site contains a link to my blog.
    3. Beside Type I select Comprehensive.
    4. For How often, I select once a day as I don’t need more alerts than that.
    5. I then enter my e-mail address to receive the alerts, and then click Create Alert.
    6. You should now receive a confirmation e-mail. You will need to click the link in the e-mail to activate your alert.

    You can use any search terms you would like to use to monitor the Google search results. The search criteria above won’t work if someone were to change the location of the links, or if a post doesn’t contain another link to your blog or Web site. You can always come up with your own method of keeping track of your hard work.

    As a side note, the above alert will also inform you of who has linked to your blog or Web site.

    Summary

    This post provided a brief overview of Google Alerts as well as step-by-step instructions for creating an alert. A simple example was provided that can allow you to track other sites that may copy your content and post it on their site. I have been able to catch a few sites that have copied my content.

    If you have other ideas of finding those that duplicate your content, I would like to hear them. Just post your ideas in the comments section.

  • Do You Quit Too Early?

    I am active in a forum called Website Babble, and while I’m not an expert on many subjects, I try to help out others where I can. Recently, however, I noticed a post where a member was getting fed up with his web sites since he was having trouble getting visitors.

    For many people it can be frustrating when starting a web site or blog. It is usually slow going in the beginning, but for most people they seem to quit before their site generates a substantial amount of visitors.

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  • How to Test Your Web Site on a Smaller Browser Window

    How to Test Your Web Site on a Smaller Browser Window

    Many new computers and laptops sold today include a widescreen monitor with a nice high resolution. For many applications, such as games and movies, having a large widescreen monitor makes the experience much better. Movies were meant for widescreen, and games, well they always look better in a higher resolution.

    The one aspect where the widescreen monitors may be more of a pain is in web development. The reason is simple: creating a web site that displays great on many monitor resolutions is not easy. The web site can look good at one resolution and monitor size, but not on another. If you do have a widescreen monitor you can easily test your site with various resolutions with a free application.

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  • 8 Powerful Dreamweaver Extensions For Your Website

    8 Powerful Dreamweaver Extensions For Your Website

    Dreamweaver is one of the favorite web development applications for developers. It is due to large numbers of available extensions. Users’ expectations are kept in consideration in these extensions and are also followed by developers around the globe.

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  • Can You Make a Business With WordPress Design?

    Can You Make a Business With WordPress Design?

    This article was written by Ben Anderson. Ben enjoys blogging on many topics concerning the internet including web design, SEO, and internet strategic marketing.

    WordPress has revolutionized the way we use our websites. You can have a website up and running in minutes, that is professionally done, and easy enough to add your own touch. However, there seems to be a certain taboo with using WordPress as an official web developer.

    In all reality you are hardly doing any work and folks who are not savvy with the web may not know the difference between a WordPress site, and a site that is manually coded. So the question is which is more valuable, and how can you sell you WordPress development of a website to potential customers? This is a pressing issue, and doesn’t always have an immediate answer.

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  • Question: Are You Cut Out to be a Web Designer?

    Question: Are You Cut Out to be a Web Designer?

    Do you want to be a web designer and are thinking about what you need to be one? Like all jobs, even this one has certain qualities that you require in order to make it big. In this big wide web world, there are thousands of web designers looking to make their mark. You have to really stand out in order to make it big. Here are a few skills that you should ideally possess to be a good designer. Obviously there are no hard and fast rules though.

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  • What You Need to Do to Secure Your Internet Connection

    What You Need to Do to Secure Your Internet Connection

    The Internet is a haven for both viruses and malware that infect millions of computers each year. These types of software are coded to do a specific task, such as steal personal information, restrict access to a computer to extort money, or just make a computer inoperable. There are many bad things that can happen because of malware, and most, if not all malware, originates from the Internet.

    While it may seem like an impossible task to prevent malware from being installed on your computer, in reality, it can easily be controlled by practicing “safe computing.” My current desktop is over 4 years old, has the same first install of Windows 7, and has had no virus or malware installed because I practice “safe computing.” Safe computing isn’t complex to understand, and usually just requires setting up both your computer and network to help protect all devices that are connected to your network – most settings you will only need to change once.

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  • 5 Tools to Secure Your Windows Computer

    5 Tools to Secure Your Windows Computer

    Since the days of using DOS, personal computers have always had the risk of being infected with malicious software. Over the years, malware has evolved from basic viruses, to rootkits, and now ransomware that encrypts your data. With each new release of malware, it seems anti-virus software developers are always playing catch-up to make sure their software can protect a computer from the new malicious software.

    The fact that anti-virus, or anti-malware, software has always been reactive to the changing threats has made such software unreliable, at times, to protecting a computer. While I am an advocate of using anti-malware tools, my entire computer security policy isn’t based on those tools alone. Computer security today requires more protection depth than just an anti-malware tool and a firewall.

    To help with creating a more detailed security policy, I have compiled my list of 5 tools to secure your Windows computer. I use each of these tools, and feel confident in recommending them.

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