What’s in a CNAME?

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Julie

As described in RFC 1034 and detailed in RFC 1035 back in 1987, a CNAME, or Canonical Name, DNS resource record is an alias for a host.  By example, let’s take a look at a fictitious host (sigma) in a fictitious domain (example.com) with the following A (address) record:

sigma.example.com      IN   A                     192.168.1.100

This would make sigma.example.com resolve to an IP address of 192.168.1.100.  We could use a CNAME record to make an alias for sigma.example.com:

www.example.com        IN  CNAME          sigma.example.com

A DNS query for sigma.example.com or www.example.com would return both the CNAME and Address resource records.  All modern web browsers would then use the Address resource record to connect to the site.  This enables a single physical host machine or server to mimic multiple individual servers, without the typical user knowing that the web server that their browser connects to is a shared resource.

Using our fictitious host, sigma.example.com, and our fictitious CNAME or alias, www.example.com, we could include the following in our Apache 2.x configuration:

NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>

DocumentRoot                 /server/www

ServerName                      www.example.com

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>

DocumentRoot                 /server/sigma

ServerName                      sigma.example.com

</VirtualHost>

Our configuration would allow the single real host, sigma.example.com, to serve web pages for both sigma.example.com and www.example.com.

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website-speed

Website Speed and Its Relevance in Google Rankings

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Emman Alcide

One particular aspect not to be overlooked by web developers is to make sure that the website loads fast. It is a common problem for eCommerce sites such as those developed using the Magento framework. I recently worked with a Magento web development team but I joined a bit late. The site was already launched when I started doing the SEO. I conducted the usual keyword research, link building, article writing and competitors analysis. i was surprised that website loading speed keeps popping up in the reports of the SEO software that I used.

After a month of SEO implementation, I noticed that that the progress seems a bit slower compared to my previous works and with the competitors of the niche keywords. Since the SEO plan involves SEM using Google adwords as well, I receive a notification from google analytics that the site has a slow loading rate and can be optimized using their productivity tool.

I conducted research regarding website speed and it indeed is a factor for google ranking now. Last year, Google updated their algorithm and it now includes the loading speed of the website as one of the basis of ranking a website in their SERP (Search Engine Result Page). According to google, they have to add website speed as a factor for it creates a happy experience for the user when a website loads fast plus it can also save them operating costs for data is transferred faster.

Here is the official statement from a google blogpost last year:

Speeding up websites is important — not just to site owners, but to all Internet users. Faster sites create happy users and we’ve seen in our internal studies that when a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there. But faster sites don’t just improve user experience; recent data shows that improving site speed also reduces operating costs. Like us, our users place a lot of value in speed — that’s why we’ve decided to take site speed into account in our search rankings. We use a variety of sources to determine the speed of a site relative to other sites.

There are ways where the problem of website speed can be solved. There are available services in the net for free and for a fee. Even google themselves provide website speed optimization which makes me think that it gives your website a bit of advantage in google’s SERP since you are using their services.

Here are 2 of the most useful tools available in the web for speed optimization:

 1. Page Speed by Google – This is the site tool that solved my problem. Since scraping the entire magento website just to make it load faster and it would be a nightmare for the developers and the website owner for the site has been launched, I recommended that we sign up for Google Speed for it is the only available solution perfect for eCommerce websites. The service is free as of now but Google will be charging a minimal fee when it is officially launched.

Click the links below to know more on Google Speed test:

http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/

http://www.webpagetest.org/

2. YSlow for Yahoo – YSlow is a free tool from Yahoo which provides you ways to improve the speed of your website. Although Yahoo is not considering the speed of the website as a primary factor for their search engine rankings, their tools are effective and very useful.

http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

Always consider the speed of your website, conduct test speed for no matter how pretty your domain name is or how many backlinks you have and well written web contents your website have, it can still be dragged down in search engine rankings due to slow website loading.

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backup_mx

MX records are our friends!

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Julie

MX records have been around since they were introduced in Internet Request For Comments (RFC) 973 in January of 1986, replacing two other DNS record types, MD (Mail Delivery) and MF (Mail Forwarding).  MX stands for “mail exchanger” and simply put, establishes alternate hosts, which can be used for delivering mail to a domain.  MX records have two components, a numeric preference and a host name.  The host name itself must have an A (address) record.

Typically another mail server, which has received an email for a domain that it doesn’t know how to directly deliver, queries DNS for a list of MX records that match the domain of the To: address in the email. It looks for the lowest preference number and contacts that mail server via SMTP.  If there are two MX records with the same preference number, any of them that share the lowest number may be used.  If mail delivery is not successful with the first host, the host with the second lowest preference number is used for the next attempt at mail delivery, typically after a timeout.

All of this provides a level of redundancy and backup to ensure emails can be successfully delivered, even if one or more mail servers are inaccessible.

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hello_my_name_is_blog

3 Basic Tips in Choosing a Blog Name

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Emman Alcide

Blogs dominates the web now. It is the easiest web platform to set up and tons of free blog providers are at our disposal with built in features for interactivity and search engine optimization. The fact that more than 15% of the websites in the internet is built using WordPress means that blogging tools is becoming the leading platform for web development. With its user-friendly features, almost everyone are able to set-up new blogs in 1-2-3 steps but their most common mistake is choosing the right website name or blog name.

I summed up 3 of the most basic tips when choosing the right blog name, this is also applicable when choosing a website name:

1. Your blog name should be based on the theme of your blog – This is the most basic when signing up for a blog name, it should reflect on the description of your blog. If you’re blog is about comic reviews then the name should pertain about comic reviews or about graphic novels. Your blog followers or first time visitors will be confused if the name of your blog is flowersblog.com and you talk about the latest releases of Marvel and DC comics. It will be misleading and your visitors might lose interest.

2. Choose a blog name that is light and easy to remember – A blog name should not be overly complicated and hard to remember. Blogs are supposed to be light reading and you don’t have to over complicate it to be artistic or creative. You can apply your creativity in its aesthetics but leave the blog name easy to remember and concise. If you are blogging about graphic novels and comics then then best name would be something like “The Graphic Novels Depot”.

3. Your Domain Name Should Match With Your Blog Name – This is very essential and a big mistake if overlooked. The blog name of your site must be the same or at least share huge similarity with your domain name. For example this site, DomainTalkBlog.com is about domain names and domain registration so it is proper to name it Domain Talk Blog. The similarity is huge and readers will know about the blog the moment the website is loaded in their browsers.

These 3 basic guides are important for it lets your readers and followers know the blog that they are reading and also for SEO purposes. It tells the search engine what the blog or website is all about and in return search engines ranks it according to its description and blog name.

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network solutions logo

Guide to Network Solutions

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Domain Man

The term “one stop shop” is rarely utilized properly. However I would venture to say that in the example of getting and promoting a new online business it may apply here. You can get online, obtain a website as well as a mobile website, and marketing all from one provider. Follow this link to obtain a discount at Network Solutions and take a look at all they have to offer.

Network Solutions has been around longer than any other domain registrar. However that is just one of the many services they provide. You can create a website and have it marketed. As the first domain registrar it is a good bet they know what they are doing.

Network Solutions Products and Services
We created a twenty page guide to cover the products and services that they offer. Start here and use the right hand side list of pages to learn more. See the Network Solutions Guide.

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dns

Basic Website DNS Strategy

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Julie

Got a great idea for a website?  Check.  Have the skills to implement the website?  Check.  Have a hosting provider lined up?  Check.  Know what you’re going to do for DNS?  At this point, a large number of website developers or owners simply take the path of least resistance that actually works, letting their hosting provider provide DNS service as well.  A better strategy is to use a third party DNS provider.  With a third party DNS provider, in the event that your webhosting provider has a problem (sustained/unmitigated DDOS, bankruptcy, long term data center connectivity issues, etc), with a solid backup and another host, you can change a few DNS records and your website is back up.  You’ll be back up and running with comparatively less hassle and your website visitors or customers won’t know the difference.

In conjunction with this DNS strategy, you want to be sure that all of your  DNS A records have a somewhat low TTL (time to live).  With a low TTL, if you need to shift your hosting to a new provider, once you have made the necessary DNS changes, the old DNS A records that pointed to the IP address of the old provider will be more quickly flushed out of the cache of any DNS server that has resolved your hostname.

 

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seo_directory_listing

Directory Listing for SEO: Good or Bad?

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Emman Alcide

Is adding the domain name of your website in directory listing sites a bad practice? Is it a black hat or white hat or something in between? They always say that the proof of the pudding is on the eating and it is applicable in the practice of directory listing for SEO.

Directory listing can be both beneficial when it comes to the relevance of your website but it can also downrank your website when not used properly. So the answer to the question will be Yes, it is good for your website and also Yes, it can be a bad practice. Directory listing has been practiced by SEO specialist and internet marketers to gain exposure and increase the traffic of the website. The domain names are added to directory listing based on their relevancy and categories and will be bookmarked and shows up in the SERPs. Since backlinks are the main bases of Google’s algorithm, directory listing may improve the “trust” rating of your website and may affect the boosting of the website’s page rank.

It is also wise to put in mind that directory listing with lesser page rank or with low “trust” value can pull down your website instead of ranking them in the SERPs or adding points for the improvement of your page rank. This is because your website is being backlinked by a so called “bad neighborhood” website. Some SEO specialists randomly submit their website to different directory listing without even checking the relevancy of the site and the end result is your website being involved in a “bad neighborhood” or sites which purpose is for link farming or black SEO which can affect the health of your website.

Directory listing is an effective method for the visibility of your website. If done properly, it can create a one way backlinks which will improve the health of your website and boost its page rank. Even if it is a “no follow” directory listing, the traffic that it generates is also helpful. Directory listing is not a blackhat nor even a greyhat when done properly such as submitting it based on category and its relevance. If directory listing is done through link farming or for the sole purpose of creating more backlinks then it became a blackhat and can potentially damage your site.

Your website may be visible in the directory listing sites which you submitted but not visible in SERP or Search Engine Result Page due to penalties you got from link spamming.

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Ontario-flag-contour

Tucows Wins on Appeal and Domains Ruled Property

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Julie

Let’s set the stage and here is the background. Always start with the facts. Tucows bought the business Mailbank and in that acquisition they obtained the domain name Renner.com. A company named Lojas Renner S.A. (which is a subsidiary of JC Penny) decided to file a UDRP which is the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy that is administered by ICANN. Tucows did not want to go through the process and filed a lawsuit in Ontario, Canada against the company. The company did not want the case to proceed in court so they attempted to have the case removed by arguing that either the Canadian court did not have jurisdiction or the domain name was not property and therefore Tucows could not own it. The company wanted the issue to proceed under ICANNs UDRP.

Initially the ruling was handed down stating that the court did not have jurisdiction and the name was not personal property. Tucows appealed the ruling and the appeals court ruled just the opposite.

The 3 member Appellate Court cited several points but perhaps the most relevant to domain name owners is the following:

“ …Tucows derives income from being the holder of the rights in the domain name renner.com. It has fourteen clients who subscribe to personal e-mail services using the domain name. If the domain name were to be transferred to Renner, it would undoubtedly assist in unlocking the value of Renner’s business. The registered owner of the domain name has the right to exclusively direct traffic to the domain name’s corresponding website and to exclude anyone else from using the same name. The ability to exclude others from the enjoyment of, interference with or appropriation of a specific legal right was held by Cory J. in Bouckhuyt, as a necessary incident of property.”

It is unlikely this decision will be appealed as the next step in the process would be direct appeal to Canada’s Supreme Court.

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google-adwords

The 20 Most Expensive Keyword Categories In Google AdWords

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Emman Alcide

If you are in the industry of Search Engine Optimization or even in the web development then you probably know what Google Adwords is and its impact to the internet industry and of course to the advertising industry. Google adwords is currently a billion dollar market now especially that the web became a major platform in reaching consumers. In the current trends of web development, the design and getting a reliable hosting provider and pitching a niche domain name for your future blog or ecommerce site are not the only factors to be considered, there are search engine marketing and optimization to ponder.

According to Wordstream, a web-based analytic provider for keyword based optimization such as Google Adwords, the following keywords are the most expensive keyword categories right now. You can also use this type of research when deciding on a website name so you can use good keywords.

1. Insurance (example keyword: “auto insurance price quotes”)
2. Loans (example keyword: “consolidate graduate student loans”)
3. Mortgage (example keyword: “refinanced second mortgages”)
4. Attorney (example keyword: “personal injury attorney”)
5. Credit (example keyword: “home equity line of credit”)
6. Lawyer
7. Donate
8. Degree
9. Hosting
10. Claim
11. Conference Call
12. Trading
13. Software
14. Recovery
15. Transfer
16. Gas/Electricity
17. Classes
18. Rehab
19. Treatment
20. Cord Blood

Google makes tons of money through google adwords, in fact, 97% of Google’s revenue came from adwords and in just 12 months (last year) Google made $33 billion of revenue. The top 20 keywords are the most priced when it comes to CPC or cost per click campaigns. CPC is more like an auction rather the purchase. You do not purchase a keyword placement rather you bid on your keyword and google will rank it according to the amount you bid on it. If the competitor has a bigger budget then the domain name or link of his website will be ranked higher compared to your site.

Keywords related to “insurance” actually makes sense because most people flocked to google to find out more about it but I am surprised that “Cord Blood” is on the list. I do not even know what it is. Keywords like “loans”,”mortgage” and “lawyer” are not surprising for their industry is huge and entrepreneurs are using adwords to reach wider audience.

I have a piece of advice though, notice that “hosting” keyword is on no.9. This means that more people are searching for hosting and domain providers which means that many people are registering domain names for their website so if you have a website in mind or a niche business and you want to register a domain name for it then get it before it’s too late.

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Matt Mullenweg

Matt, WordPress, HTML 5 and Great Quotes!

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Emman Alcide

I stumbled on a recent interview by Memeburn of Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress and I found a heavy dose of Matt Mullenweg inspiring quotes, updates on HTML 5 support and the future of WordPress. As a WordPress enthusiast, I find this interview one of the best of WordPress related interview. It’s very right on the spot and inspiring too.

Here is the breakdown:

Memeburn asked Matt how WordPress became the dominant CMS and Matt said it is because people have found themselves empowered to create beautiful blogs and websites without having to learn a ton of technology. Which I have to agree, without a doubt, WordPress allows you to create elegant blogs with ease and speed. Matt also mentioned that WordPress is currently supporting 10% to 12% of the entire webpages in the internet. This surprises me for it would be mean hundred of millions of web pages but this is right. Even top sites such as techcrunch uses WordPress as its platform. WordPress is not only for blogs anymore but it can be a platform even for enterprise purposes.

Another important update Matt mentioned in the interview is that support of WordPress with the new HTML 5 browsers. WordPress will be having faster and better interface suited for HTML 5 and I am seeing it in the new update of WordPress. The interface has  wider screen for writing and a collapsible menu too.

By the way, get a godaddy coupon here.

But my favorite parts of the interview where the quotes that Matt mentioned and it just stuck in my head. It is also the prime reason why I am writing this blog instead of some tips and tutorials about domain registration. I just wanted people to get inspired by these two quotes from Matt Mullenweg.

The benefit to the world of everyone having a potential voice outweighs the folks who might misuse that freedom.

It’s good to build for yourself first, because in the worst-case scenario where no one else likes it, at least you will.

This is so true. Especially in the Open Source community. WordPress started as a humble and small CMS and now it is used by millions and provided the perfect platform for bloggers, enterprise and those doing online businesses.

Matt is one of my idols in the tech industry. It is not because he has  a multi-million dollar industry but because of his contributions in the internet industry through a simple platform called WordPress.


To read the full wordpress interview, Visit Memeburn’s website, the website name is memeburn.com

 

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