Happy end of the year, fellow Internet addicts! Matt Cutts just
released a new Webmaster Help video – and this one’s short and sweet. In
it, Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team, offers up a few tidbits
of advice… things to add to your final 2012 “to-do” list before you ring in the New Year.
I’m planning on getting all three of these items accomplished myself,
simply because they’re vital to my business since I work exclusively
online. If you make any portion of your living online like me, then I’d
suggest you think about knocking this stuff out in a hurry as well.
Protecting Your Computer
Cutts vehemently warns that everyone should install Google’s Chrome
browser as soon as possible in order to prevent malware from running
rampant through your hard drive. Of course, he works for Google, so this
is a not-too-subtle plug for using the company’s browser.
Of course, you can use whatever browser you want (I’m a Firefox girl
myself), but he brings up a good point. I’d just like to expand on it a
bit. Run every one of your antivirus scans – in-depth – and clean your
registry. Then run your disk defragmenter. In addition, delete all those
temporary files lurking in your computer and restore all of your
Internet browsers to their factory settings (or, at the very least,
clear your cache).
It’s important to make sure your operating system and all programs
are up-to-date as well. These should all be routine tasks, but let’s be
honest – we don’t always stay on top of this stuff like we should. Take a
day this week and whip your computer back into shape. The “end of the
world” has come and gone (and we’re still here!), so set yourself up for
success in 2013 by creating a secure work environment for your online
business.
2-step Identification
If you’re a Gmail user, set up 2-step identification immediately.
It’s the ultimate way to protect your account against hackers gaining
unauthorized access. Gmail account hacks have become an all-too-common
trend these days, so adding an extra layer of security is essential to
protecting your private correspondence and sensitive personal data.
Earlier this year, I wrote an article about a man who had maintained a
successful content-selling website for the better part of five years.
It was a runaway success, and the site’s stats were nothing less than
enviable. The site followed the membership model, and hundreds of people
were signed up for monthly content-delivery services.
Then, suddenly, the webmaster found himself locked out of his site. I
stumbled upon his story when I discovered his frantic posts begging for
help in a popular online forum. The hacker had redirected his URL to
some random website that he didn’t recognize. When he checked out the
WHOIS data for his site, he nearly had a coronary.
The hackers had transferred the domain to their account, and the “new
owner” was some unreachable guy in Dubai. The registrar was little
help. The webmaster could do nothing but sit back and watch his life’s
work dissipate in the blink of an eye.
He lost his entire inventory of content.
His monthly income.
Everything.
Wanna know how they got in?
You guessed it – they hacked into his Gmail account and completed the
rest of the process quite easily from there. Moral of this story: set
up 2-step verification. It only takes five minutes, and setting it up
now may save you years of anguish and hours of investigation down the
road.
Backups
Matt’s last suggestion is something that I’m seriously guilty of
neglecting myself. One word: backup. We all create content every single
day for our online ventures, but saving it in Word, uploading it to
WordPress, and calling it a day is simply not enough.
If my laptop fell on the floor, for example, my hard drive would be
toast. If I wanted copies of my writing, I’d be forced to track down my
published work and make copies of everything to secure backups of what
I’d have lost. There would be no way I could pull that off – my work is
everywhere now, and I write every day. Think of how long it would take
to track it all down by memory alone.
That’s why you should create backups of your work routinely – whether
it’s making copies to a jump drive, burning your content to DVDs, or
even storing your stuff on a backup computer. Put it somewhere.
Personally, I’m planning on trying one of those online backup companies
in 2013 – seems easier and more secure than leaving a jump drive laying
around. In addition, I could access my data from anywhere.
Remember that the New Year gives us all the chance to reinvent
ourselves. We can fix what we screwed up, remedy sticky situations, and
start ourselves off on the right foot in 2013.
Take Cutts’ suggestions to heart this week and give your online
business a much-needed makeover – I know I’ll be right there with you.
Nell Terry.
Post from: SiteProNews
Google Releases New Holiday Webmaster Help Video