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Penguin 2.0 Rolled Out May 22 2013

May 23 in Google Algorithm Update, Matt Cutts, SEO by chameleon | No Comments

Matt Cutts has confirmed that Google rolled out their latest algorithm change dubbed Penguin 2.0 on May 22nd 2013. This change capitalises and goes further than the Penguin 1.0 change rolled out in 2012. The aim of this update is to prevent spam sites ranking, whilst putting emphasis on quality content and excellent user experience of real sites.

Google expects Penguin 2.0 to affect 2.3% of English language search query results which whilst this does not sound like many, 2.3% of billions of searches is in reality a lot of sites.

Many SEO companies and webmasters will be worried and affected by this latest update as it targets black-hat SEO practices and poor link building. However, at Chameleon we have a commitment to quality content and practices; it is this which has meant that our clients have not been affected. If anything, the Google shift to emphasise quality has resulted in our clients improved rankings. All Chameleon’s “real” hard work and efforts are showing positive results.

Matt Cutts Link

Tagged Penguin 2.0 Rolled Out May 22 2013

Woolwich Attack

May 22 in Social Media by chameleon | No Comments

Streets cordoned off in East London after a serious incident in Woolwich 22/05/2013.

The BBC’s latest information from an eyewitness who wishes to remain anonymous:-

“I was walking my dog and heard some shouting about 50 yards from me. A man was running down the road and being chased by a car. The car then screeched to a halt and two men got out one had some kind of sword. They literally swung at the other guy’s head. The armed police turned up and there were some shots. We were told to go home and now they won’t let us out. We’re in lockdown. There actually now seems more activity than there was before. I can hear helicopters and there are police officers with guns.”

The serious incident tent now covers the area around the scene. There are army officers talking with the police but the details are not being released as to what has happened and why these events have taken place.

The first reports stated a man wearing Help For Heroes T-shirt hacked to death by machetes. Unconfirmed twitter releases stated that the victim was beheaded in broad day light.

BBC reported that three victims were down. “3 people lying on the ground surrounded by police & paramedics”, said BBC on Twitter.

The headteacher of Mulgrave primary school David Dixon said that the air ambulance had landed in the school playground.

One report stated “Some black guys have ran a white man over and started hacking his head off with a machete”, “Then the Armed response come, one guy goes to attack policewoman, she shoots him dead ‘like Robocop’. The other guy tries shooting a gun, it backfires and blows his finger off”.

A spokeswoman for London Ambulance Service has said that “We were called a 2.20pm to reports of an incident at John Wilson Street.

View Larger Map

The latest information we have seen is that police have removed a substantial number of weapons from the scene which includes knives and at least one firearm.

BBC LIVE FEED

Michael Adeboloja is reportedly one of the London attackers in the Woolwich killing who speaks at scene

He allegedly answers to his Muslim name “Mujahid,” which we are told means “one who fights Jihad.”

Our thoughts go out to the family of man who has died here.

To donate to the family follow this link:- Help For Heroes

Tagged Woolwich Attack by Machetes

Google Penguin 2.0 Update

May 21 in Social Media by chameleon | No Comments

We have been informed that another version of Google’s Penguin update is coming in the next week or so, the date is to be confirmed. As more information becomes available and more official webmasters and SEOs will either be in a state of panic again or simply wondering how this will effect the rankings of their own business website and their clients websites.

The previous Penguin update which was launched April 24, 2012 made a mess of Google affecting not only black-hat SEO sites but also some legitimate sites so this new update is something we should take notice of. What makes this update even worse is the fact that this is said to be even harder on sites than the previous updates.

This video was created 13th May 2013 and Matt Cutts explains that Google are working hard to ensure only high quality websites are found in the search results so as long as we all work hard to ensure our websites contain high quality unique content and users like what they see we should be ok.

The Google Penguin 2.0 Update is a Web spam update aimed at blackhat SEO which is going to dig deeper than before and looks for sites selling links and more.

Part of this Penguin update is improved link analysis which is aimed to prevent bad linking sites ranking.

Matt Cutts explains that if you use Black Hat then you will have a busy summer.

How To Achieve Success with the Google Penguin 2.0 Update

Simply do not cheat the system. If you have a website that is great and full of unique content, laid out well and the user experience is a positive one then you have nothing to worry about.

Avoid Advertorial Spam

Search engine marketing techniques that use advertorial spam such as the selling of links or entire advertorial pages that have embedded links containing nondescript content with the end goal to pass pageRank should be avoided.

Penguin 2.0 has a focus on selling links that pass PageRank and now this is going to be able to monitored and due this violating Google’s quality guidelines website thats are carrying this out will end up with consequences such as the loss of trust, PageRank reduction and this will end up with lower rankings for websites.

Sophisticated Link Analysis

Google has come up with a more sophisticated way to carry out link analysis and this now means that any dodgy linking can result in a penalty where as before you may have avoided this by luck, now Google has an improved understanding of spammy links.

Hacked Website Detection

One of the benefits of this update is to help find hacked websites and remove them from search results to reduce the amount of problems on the Internet. The introduction to also allow us to report sites with virus’s using Google Webmaster tools provides us more reach to work with Google.

Tagged Google Penguin 2.0 Update

SEO Package Prices

May 17 in SEO by chameleon | No Comments

The price of SEO services varies greatly between different companies and depends heavily on the sector in which your website is a part of in terms of competition and the amount of keywords you wish to rank for. Ultimately, it all comes down to time; the more time that an SEO company needs to spend on optimising your site, the more expensive your SEO package will be.

Many SEO companies provide packages with different levels of service being described as Gold, Silver or Bronze or similar denominations. Obviously, the higher the quality of the SEO package, the more features you will receive such as more keywords optimised for, social networking pages optimised and more articles created and submitted. The overall SEO package prices are set at the discretion of the SEO company.

If you are trying to research the cost of SEO then looking at SEO package prices is a good place to begin. It will give you an upfront idea of the general prices and the sorts of services that you can expect to receive for these prices. However, it is not always the best strategy to sign up to a package deal as the services on offer may not exactly suit your individual requirements.

This is because your SEO campaign should be bespoke and therefore the pricing structure based upon your exact requirements, rather than a generic overview. No two SEO campaigns are the same so it is impossible to set a price for a successful campaign which is chosen by the client. For example, an insurance company would face lots of competition for its keywords whilst a local mobile hairdresser chasing local location terms would not; in theory they could both choose the same package but experience very different results.

In order to get the best experience, choose an SEO company who offer a bespoke service.

Tagged SEO company, SEO Package Prices

How Much Does SEO Cost?

May 17 in SEO by chameleon | No Comments

SEO professionals are asked ‘How much does SEO cost?’ everyday and everyday have to give the same answer of ‘it depends’. The process of SEO is not an exact science so setting prices is an impossibility without first completing research into the website and sector that the customer is enquiring about.

When a customer goes into a shop and buys a new DVD there is a set price tag on it as every copy of that DVD will be exactly the same. However, SEO cannot work like this as every website is different and has many outside factors and influences which will have an impact on the level of SEO needed to make it a success.

The internal factors of the optimisation of a website include adding quality content, ensuring that the meta data is updated and relevant to each page and headers are appropriate. Whilst the basic principles are the same, the execution can be very different. For example, updating and making relevant the meta data for a website with 15 pages will take a lot less time than a site with 50 pages; the service is the same, but the time taken to complete the task is different therefore the SEO cost for the 50 page site will be bigger than for the 15 page one.

External factors pay a large role in the cost of SEO as they determine the amount of research needed into the sector and how difficult it will be to gain a place on Google page one. For example, a client has a website selling car insurance who wants to be on page one for the term ‘car insurance’. This is a very competitive term as there are many websites in the industry all optimising for the same key words; therefore, this will take a lot of optimising, link building and time to see an improvement in ranking. In contrast to this, a company in a niche or specialised market will have a lot less competition for keywords and so it will be easier to rank for preferred keywords. This is also the same for companies who wish to focus on localised searches e.g. Chelsea hairdresser rather than London hairdresser as less people will be fighting for that keyword.

Ultimately then, asking ‘How much does SEO cost?’ is like asking ‘How long is a piece of string?’, it depends. A price should be individual to the client and campaign, taking into account all outside factors and a realistic time frame in which results are expected.

Tagged cost of seo, how much does seo cost, seo cost

Aston Villa beat Sunderland 6 – 1 on 29.04.13

April 30 in Social Media by chameleon | No Comments

Aston Villa Win 6 – 1 Against Sunderland

The football season is rapidly coming to an end, and all eyes are on the close relegation battle happening in the Premiership. There are at least 6 teams competing to stay in the top flight of football, including Aston Villa and Sunderland. This prerequisite made for a very interesting and potentially closely fought battle on Monday 29th April 2013. However, the final outcome was an unprescendented 6 – 1 win for Villa. Here is a quick run-down of all goals and highlights.

The game began and the teams were quite evenly matched. Ron Vlaar was first to score for Aston Villa in the 31st minute, but Danny Rose was quick to equalise for Sunderland in the 32nd minute. With half time fast approaching, Villa made their move and managed a second goal in the 38th minute, courtesy of Andreas Weimann.

With a 2 – 1 lead going into the 2nd half, Aston Villa really capitalised on this opportunity and took control of the match. One player in particular can be noted for his input into Villa’s 6 – 1 victory; Christian Benteke completed a hat-trick, scoring in the 55th, 59th and 72nd minutes of the game. This ensured Villa of the much-needed 3 points. At this point, Sunderland were well a truly beaten, but the Villa boys were not finished. To add insult to injury, Gabriel Agbonlahor finished the match with a final goal in the 88th minute.

The last time that Aston Villa scored 6 goals in one game, Stiliyan Petrov was playing in the team and scored that memorable goal from near the half way line.

All eyes will be on Lambert’s young team this Saturday 4th May to see if they can continue this excellent form against 14th place Norwich City.

Tagged Aston Villa vs Sunderland 6-1 All Goals, Aston Villa vs Sunderland 6-1 All Goals & Highlights 29.04.2013, Aston Villa vs Sunderland 6-1 Highlights 29.04.2013

How To Fix Magento Admin 404 Error

April 29 in Coding Help by chameleon | No Comments

If you are having a problem with the Magento admin area showing a 404 error then this maybe due to many things.

If you have moved the site to a new server then this is normal as Magento requires you to delete the session temporary files and run a query on the database.

Using an FTP client go the folder location /var/

Now remove the content of the following:-

Cache
Session
Tmp

Confirm you have the database configuration correctly setup which is located at /app/etc/

Here you have config.xml and local.xml

Now open the database using a Database client.

Go to your database
Select the main table over area
Run the following SQL Query:

SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=0; UPDATE `core_store` SET store_id = 0 WHERE code='admin'; UPDATE `core_store_group` SET group_id = 0 WHERE name='Default'; UPDATE `core_website` SET website_id = 0 WHERE code='admin'; UPDATE `customer_group` SET customer_group_id = 0 WHERE customer_group_code='NOT LOGGED IN'; SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;
You should get the result:-

[SQL]
UPDATE `customer_group` SET customer_group_id = 0 WHERE customer_group_code=’NOT LOGGED IN’;
Affected rows: 1
Time: 0.036ms

[SQL]
SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS=1;
Affected rows: 0
Time: 0.033ms

Now try going to your admin area.

If you are still having issues then try www.domainname.co.uk/index.php/admin

Tagged How To Fix Magento Admin 404 Error

Unison CCTV Company Corporate Video

April 24 in Corporate Video, YouTube by chameleon | No Comments

Chameleon provides local Birmingham CCTV company with corporate video for website.

Tagged Corporate Video, Unison CCTV Company Corporate Video

YouTube Video Controls

April 23 in DIY SEO, HELP, Web Design, YouTube by chameleon | No Comments

If you are using YouTube and do not wish to show other videos afterwards then you can use the command to prevent showing suggested videos when the video finishes.

To do this you simply add “?rel=0″ at the end of the URL for the YouTube video, example:-

Drop Down Menu Drops Behind YouTube video

This is something on our website we have to deal with and to make the drop down menu sit on top of the video you can use the command “?wmode=transparent”.

An example of this would be :-

Tagged Drop Down Menu Drops Behind YouTube video, YouTube video controls

Marketing that makes you take notice

April 21 in Advertising by chameleon | No Comments

The Evian advert Dancing with my baby-me is an advert that will capture your attention for sure. As part of the Evian Live young campaign.

Music: Here comes the Hotstepper – Evian remix by Yuksek
Agency: BETC
Directors: We are From LA
Production team: Iconoclast & Mikros

Tagged Marketing that makes you take notice

HTML <iframe> Tag

April 21 in How To, Web Design by chameleon | No Comments

An iframe is used to embed another document into a website, this can be a youtube vide, 360 virtual tour or even another webpage.

The iframe is used in Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, Chrome and Safari which means it can be used safely on your website.

The use of iframes can be done in many ways and there is no real right or wrong way to do this as the best way depends on the final output required. Also for example if you use WordPress you use plugins to enalbe short codes.

In HTML5 we have new attributes that we can use such as sandbox, seamless and srdoc which we will show you how to use later.

Basic iframe coding:-

iFrame Attributes

Attribute	Value	Description
Align	left, right, top, middle, bottom	Note this is no longer supported in HTML5. Specifies hoe the alignment of an <iframe> will be plcaed on the page.
frameborder	10	Note this is not supported in HTML5. This specifies whether or not to display a border around the <iframe>
height	number pixels	Specifies the physical height of an <iframe>
longdesc	URL	Note this is not supported in HTML5. Specifies that the page contains a long description of the content of an <iframe>
marginheight	pixels	Note this is not supported in HTML5. Specifies the top and bottom margins for the content of an <iframe>
marginwidth	number pixels	Note this is not supported in HTML5. Specifies the left and right margins to be used around the <iframe>
name	name	Specifies the name of the <iframe>
sandbox	“”, allow-forms, allow-same-origin, allow-scripts, allow-top-navigation	Allows you to set extra restrictions for the content in the <iframe>
scrolling	yes, no, auto	Note this is not supported in HTML5. Specifies whether to display scrollbars in an <iframe>
seamless	seamless	Specifies that the <iframe> should merge in with the containing document. You do this using <iframe seamless>. This is only supported by Chrome and Safari.
src	URL	Specifies the URL of the document to embed in the <iframe>
srcdoc	HTML_code	Specifies the HTML content of the page to show in the <iframe>
width	number of pixels	Specifies the width of the <iframe>

Tagged how to use iframes, HTML <iframe> Tag, iframe

Best SEO Company Review

April 20 in Optimising Website, SEO Company Review by chameleon | No Comments

Tagged Best SEO Company Review

Review SEO Company

April 19 in Optimising Website, SEO, SEO Company Review by chameleon | No Comments

Tagged Review SEO Company

Why Do You Need SEO?

April 19 in Optimising Website, SEO by chameleon | No Comments

If you are asking the question “Why Do You Need SEO?” then take a look at this PDF.

Tagged Why Do You Need SEO?

Keep You Eye Out For The Chameleon 360 Vans

April 19 in 360 Virtual Tours, Advertising by chameleon | No Comments

Keep You Eye Out For The Chameleon 360 Vans in your area taking the photographs for another virtual tour.

360 Photography Van

If your business needs a 360 virtual tour then get in touch today on 0121 663 0456.

Tagged 360 Photography, 360 Virtual Tours, Business Virtual Tours

Google algorithm changes for 2013

April 13 in DIY SEO, Google, Google Algorithm Update, Optimising Website by chameleon | No Comments

Chameleon web services have been working hard to find out what Google are doing next in the Google algorithm changes for 2013. We have teamed up with Emmett Brown better known as Doc Brown to use his time machine to see what it is Google are planning.

There has been Back to the Future, Back to the Future Part II, Back to the Future Part III and now Back From The Future with Chameleon.

Back to the future Delorean Google Trip

Tagged Back to the Future, Back to the future Delorean, Emmett Brown, Google algorithm changes for 2013, What will Google Do Next

Telephone calls saying they are from Microsoft

April 13 in Random by chameleon | No Comments

If you receive a telephone call from a representive of Microsoft saying you have a problem with your computer then this is SCAM.

They will explain that the problem is corrupting your hard drive and motherboard.

They will ask you to hold down the CTRL key and PRESS the R KEY.

This will popup the RUN window.

They will then ask you to type something like “eventvrw”.

The end result will be you paying them £75 and believe it or not people are paying this to the scammers.

Firstly Microsoft do not call you if you have a problem
Secondly and this is the fun part – ask them to confirm what version of Microsoft you are using – they can’t as they do not know. If they had been getting messages from your computer they would know this information.

DO NOT WORRY – If you didn’t give them access to your computer then you haven’t any problems to worry about

Don’t fall for phony phone tech support

Cybercriminals have started calling people on the telephone, claiming to be from Microsoft, and offering to help solve their computer problems. Once cybercriminals have gained a victim’s trust, they can do one or more of the following:
- Trick people into installing malicious software on their computer.
- Take control of a victim’s computer remotely and adjust settings in order to leave the computer vulnerable.
- Request credit card information so that cybercriminals can bill for the phony services.

Microsoft will not make unsolicited phone calls to help you with your computer. If you receive a phone call like this, hang up.

For more information click here.

Organic SEO Company

April 13 in Social Media by chameleon | No Comments

Here at Chameleon we are an organic SEO company and know that following this practice is the best way to become successful online. You may be wondering exactly what it is that we do which makes us organic and ethical in our SEO practices; keep reading and you will find out more about our organic SEO services.

Organic SEO Keyword Research and Analysis

Before any changes are made to your website, we thoroughly research your sector and analyse relevant keywords. This involves looking at what keywords are working for high-ranking competitors and delving into their SEO campaign to see what is working for them. This enables us to target only keywords which will be of value and therefore not waste your money on little-searched or irrelevant keywords.

Our team will pick through your sector and industry with a fine tooth comb to pinpoint the keywords that your website should be optimised for to bring organic traffic and then make the required on and off-site changes.

On-Page Organic SEO

The changes that Google made in 2012 has put more emphasis that ever on the need for quality relevant content on your website. Ultimately, on-page organic SEO simply requires you to write your web pages with a human user in mind, rather than a Google robot (spider) using quality content which is relevant to your industry and desired keywords. We offer a content writing service, as well as including content writing in our organic SEO packages.

We ensure that the content on your site pages is grammatically correct and relevant to the page heading which is vital for the success of off-page SEO practices.

Off-Page Organic SEO

To complement the on-page changes, we help build your organic link profile which acts as endorsements for the quality of your site. Our team creates links from websites relevant to your industry and keywords in an ethical manner which is very important in the eyes of Google. It is important that links are not created through link farms or unnatural methods as this cheapens the endorsement and can result in a Google penalty for unethical practices.

Inbound links are also created by our article writers who write and submit articles to a number of websites, each one having a link back to your site which adds value. Having an organic SEO link profile is imperative is you want to be successful online.

Organic SEO means that your website has to be transparent in terms of having good links and relevant content if it has a hope of achieving a place on Google page one. Our team of SEO experts are skilled in the art of organic SEO and always follow Google guidelines and best practices; perhaps this is why our clients always experience success in their SEO campaigns. Organic SEO certainly is the way to ‘make it’ in the world of online marketing, there is simply no room for unethical black hat techniques anymore as they are being picked up quicker and easier by advanced Google algorithms resulting in some websites being banned from Google altogether.

If you are looking for an Organic SEO company, then get in contact with us today and begin your success online.

Tagged Organic SEO, Organic SEO Company, Organic SEO Keyword Research, Organic SEO Keyword Research and Analysis

UK SEO Expert

April 13 in Optimising Website, SEO by chameleon | No Comments

Our UK SEO expert team at Chameleon have spent years researching the industry and keeping up with the latest Google updates to ensure that they are ahead of the game. You do not get to be an expert without trying a range of strategies and figuring out which bring success and which do not. As we were established in 2001, we have lots of experience in the world of SEO which has helped us develop excellent campaign strategies which bring our clients success on Google page one.

If you purchase our UK SEO expert services you can expect:

Keyword Research and Analysis – We research each sector thoroughly to ascertain which keywords you should optimise your website for. These will be commonly searched terms or those which are creating a good rate of conversion for your competitors.
On-Page SEO – We will look at all of your meta data and ensure that it is relevant to the page content. With the Google changes in 2012, content has become of the main areas considered when being ranked for keywords; therefore, we offer thorough content analysis and tidy-up if required. To add to this, we also create articles and blog posts to add further relevant content to your site and help it grow.
Off-Page SEO – We know the importance of having organic back links to your site, and also the pitfalls of unnatural link building. This is why we will only expand your link profile using high-quality, relevant natural links. We also write and submit articles to magazine websites which bring more quality links which are relevant to your keywords.

Unlike some companies who claim to be UK SEO experts, we know and appreciate that each SEO campaign is different and so offer bespoke SEO packages for every client. We do not have fixed prices as each sector and set of keywords are different in terms of the level of competition, meaning that the amount of hours needed to be spent on the website to achieve success varies. If your website is in a competitive industry, then more work will be needed to help it on to Google page one; if your sector has little competition then the amount of hours needed to make changes to see an increase in ranks will be low and thus the costs kept low. We never rip off our clients and they pay for the service they receive in terms of labour hours; all our SEO packages are bespoke and suit the clients expectations and budget.

If you would like to discuss your SEO requirements, fill in our contact form and a member of the team will be in contact or alternatively call us on 0121 314 5504.

Tagged Keyword Research and Analysis, Off-Page SEO, On-Page SEO, UK SEO Consultants, UK SEO Expert, UK SEO Experts

What is this WordPress Message from the Hosting Companies

April 12 in HELP, How To, Random by chameleon | No Comments

There are many shared hosting companies that are pulling there hair out due to increase traffic to WordPress websites.

A well trusted company such as HEART INTERNET for example have put this message up:-

Current System Status

Access to WordPress Admin

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:07:24 +0100

We are seeing increased traffic to a large number of WordPress sites on our shared hosting platform. The attack is not unique to ourselves and is affecting many hosting providers worldwide. Many providers have blocked access to the Admin area of WordPress altogether, however we do not want to take this approach as it will also prevent you from administering your own website. Instead, when accessing your WordPress Admin Area you may find that you are prompted for a username and password not previously required. The credentials for this login are:

Username: ***********
Password: ***********

As soon as normal service is resumed, this prompt will be removed and the above credentials will no longer be required. We appreciate your patience during this time, and we will update this page once this has been resolved.

Worldwide Brute-Force Attack

Go Daddy have put this message up:-

Web Hosting April 11, 2013 at 11:06 AM

We continue to mitigate the Internet-wide attack, but customers should be able to access their admin pages. If you need to strengthen your password, we recommend referring to x.co/strongpass for guidance. Thanks for your patience.We are aware of an ongoing, industry-wide attack attempting to gain access to customers’ websites. While we mitigate it, you might not have access to admin pages for Joomla! or WordPress. Your site, however, will remain online. To keep your site and your information secure, we recommend changing your password when you regain access to your site.

What Go Daddy Are Doing

Our Security team continues to identify these attacks, down to the IP address, and block anything that looks malicious. Additionally, we’ve installed new features on every single one of our thousands of servers to block these bad actors more quickly.

What You Can Do

Regardless of whether you use WordPress or Joomla! for your website, this worldwide attack could affect you. That’s why it’s imperative that you use strong passwords.

We all know that “password123” is not a wise idea for a password, but neither are dictionary words, your dog’s name, or the name of the street you live on. Attackers have libraries of the most common passwords, and use those lists in attacks like we’re experiencing.

The tougher and more sophisticated your password, the more difficult it will be for an attacker to gain access

Tagged Access to WordPress Admin, What is this WordPress Message from the Hosting Companies, worldwide brute-force attack