Skip to main content

Mobile-first indexing: Should you worry about your current ranking?

 

From 2015 to 2016, Google has gradually rolled out the Mobilegeddon – a series of updates aimed to index and rank websites that are mobile-friendly. This update prompts most website owners to make sure their websites are responsive to the screen sizes of mobile devices.

With a few things going around the Google SERPs in the past weeks like FRED and other ranking changes, SEO experts have buried again in their desk figuring out what could be done to adapt to these algorithmic changes in the SERP. Until recently, Google confirmed that it is starting to roll out the mobile-first indexing in July.

Mobile-centric Culture

In the past years when the primary device to browse websites are the desktops and laptops, Google crawlers crawl and index websites based on their performance on the desktop. But as the lifestyle of being on-the-go become the new norm, people started to be mobile. The usage of mobile gadgets has increased drastically, especially in terms of personal searches. A year ago, Google announced that 60% of global searches were from mobile devices.

Other vital contributing factors are smartphone cost and internet connectivity. These two supports oxygen to heat up the usage of smartphones. With the continuous evolution of specifications, and rationalization of smartphone and data cost, people are more and more pushed towards mobile.

Mobile-first indexing

To support the increasing activity using mobile, Google has started to be a devout evangelist of better mobile experience. And other evidence of their commitment to this crusade is the release of mobile-first indexing on top of the mobilegeddon in 2015.

Mobile-first indexing is a little different and less disruptive than the mobilegeddon. It aims to prioritized indexing and ranking of websites based on their collective mobile presence. If mobilegeddon prioritized ranking based on mobile-responsiveness, mobile-first focuses on compliance and equivalence.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Should I get worried about my current ranking?

If you are worried about your current SEO, you might be asking yourself whether that worry is qualified or not, and here’s the answer:

 YES and NO

YES – if you have a mobile version, but don’t deliver as a good as the desktop version

NO – If you are mobile-responsive and delivers valuable content, or with a mobile version that is equally the same with the desktop version.

Another issue that would cross your mind is, will affect my ranking and traffic?

Answer: There might be no great impact on the rankings, but there is in traffic. Remember the premise of having a mobile version which disconnects the user experience when one jumps from desktop to mobile? Well, that one can have a greater impact on traffic.

The bottom-line of mobile-first indexing is to make mobile searches better for all users, and that includes consistent user experience across devices.

Why do you need an SSL Certificate?

 

The demand for data security these days is increasing as e-commerce sites and social media networks continue to grow at faster rate. You cannot go online completely without having to log in your important details and credentials. From as simple as subscribing to a webinar to as confidential as online shopping and e-banking, a netizen has to log in their credentials. This particular setup has online phishers and hackers drooling.

For some users, sharing information is not a big deal. However, there is a huge portion of the global community who take these matters seriously as incidents of identity theft and malicious activities have gone on the rise.

On the other hand, businesses and organizations who ask for personal information from their users must protect their user’s information by securing their website against online theft. And this challenges most of the online sellers and e-commerce sites regardless of the extent of their daily online transactions. And that is what SSL addresses – data encryption.

What is SSL?

According to GlobalSign.com, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificates are small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic (secretly written) key to an organization’s details. When installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the https protocol like this:  2017-03-09_105446 and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser.

Different Levels of SSL Validation

Secure Socket Layer certificates vary depending on the level of encryption needed to be implemented on the website. And there are some trust indicators that you can see in the address bar of the browser about SSL certificate of a certain website:

Standard SSLs are classified into two:

 – Domain Validation SLL:

Domain Validation is the basic form of SSL certification which automatically signals the browser that the connection between the server and the browser is secured using SSL certificate, thus a change in the standard HTTP to HTTPS.

EXAMPLE:           2017-03-10_131942    Domain-validation

– Organization Validation SSL:

The organizational SSL Validation is a high assurance SSL certificate that provides instant identity confirmation of the organization owning the website and a stronger SSL protection. It activates a green browser padlock and HTTPS. When you click on the trust indicator padlock, it will reveal the corporate or organization identity of the website owner.

EXAMPLE: Organizational-Validation-Incapsula

Extended validation is the highest level of data encryption of the three. This activates both the padlock, “https” and the green address bar in all major web browsers.

EXAMPLE:  imanila-extended-validation

 

Why do you need to get SSL now?

In line with their mission to promote secured browsing and responsible data protection, Google just recently updated their Chrome browser with a security feature that flags unsecured websites. Yes, you heard that right!

Have you noticed the left-most part of your address bar that indicates whether a site is safe or not? That is exactly what the update is all about. So imagine yourself as a business owner with an unsecured website. Every time audience goes to your website and sees no trust indicator, all your marketing efforts will go to waste.

Why? Because your business bottom-line – which is conversion – is not fulfilled.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Firefox also moved towards a safer online browsing

It was just a few months back when Google updated their Chrome with security plug-in that flags websites that are not secured. This time, Firefox moved forward with the same goal – to promote a safer online browsing.

Firefox will display a gray lock icon with a red strike-through in the address bar when a login page you’re viewing does not have a secure connection. This is to inform you that if you enter your password it could be stolen by eavesdroppers and attackers.

This is a new feature that is available starting in Firefox version 51. Starting in Firefox version 52, you will also see a warning message when you click inside the login box to enter a username or password.

 

Don’t wait for that moment

Don’t wait for the updates to completely roll-out before moving to HTTPS. The right time to secure your website and your users is now. iManila offers a wide range of web security from SSL Certification (HTTPS) to Malware removal.

SSL (secure socket layer) is all about website security. Give your clients more reason to trust your brand online with iManila’s SSL certifications. With this standard security technology, you’ll be able to provide your market the guarantee they need to feel secure about any transaction they make on your website.

Remember, security is all about trust, and trust means business.

Secure your the website now with iManila. Contact us to learn more.

SMEs Guide: It pays to understand your market online

 

As we all know, marketing is an essential business element from small to large businesses. Marketing is both an art and science because it needs both the critical and the creative part of your brain to be executed well.

Having said that, understanding your audience and how they behave is a crucial element before starting with any marketing activities. And if you are considering digital marketing for this, you need to deepen your understanding by coming up with a buyer persona that specifically and analyze their behavior online.

WHY?iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Because digital marketing revolves greatly on timing and a strong grasp of the online behavior of your audience or market.  That makes experimentation and open-mindedness as entrepreneurial essentials to utilize digital marketing well.

To give a strong understanding of Filipino audience online, below are quick fact check to help you make your first step in digital marketing:

1) OVERVIEW

Philippne-Digital-Overview

2) TIME INVENTORY

Philippine-Online-users-time-spent

You can see in the data presented above by We are social Singapore, that more than half of the country’s population are the internet and mobile users. That is a strong signal that a large chunk of the country can potentially see your online marketing efforts.

With such staggering statistics, one must be out of his or her mind to not utilize such data to his or her market advantage. Formulate a strategic business plan centered around the searching behavior of your market’s niche and voila, watch your following increase by multiple folds. Your market is online. You just have to do an in-depth analysis of the data and from there craft a marketing concept.

Shift in Online Behavior

The truth is, your audience behave a little different online. They can transform into a different person or they completely became their true selves without holding back, and that affects how they gravitate and consume content online.

Experiment, experiment, experiment!

The best way to approach this behavior is by preparing different personas that could relate to your brand. Dissect these personas and their possible behaviors online and do experiments. Release different sets of content to a single persona and do with the other. Check which content earns a better response per persona and compared it all together. The one that emerged as the best content that attracts the majority of your potential personas is what you need to stick to.

The key to understanding your market is going beyond one’s gut feel. What you need to do is to go again the same process of content experimentation until you get the right formula that your market really likes.

***

With the advancement in the world of information technology, the audience behavior continuously evolves that it is hard sometimes for marketers and businesses to keep up.

The process could be a little tedious but the outcomes are very rewarding when done right. Always take in mind that success of your marketing campaign always lie in how well you know your market, especially online.

Office Stories: What Makes a Good Boss?

 

One of the unforgettable things I’ve experienced before embracing the life of a salary man was when I was a marketing intern in an appliance distribution company.

I can vividly remember when I was asked by my OJT supervisor to bring a pile of approval sheets to the Marketing Manager, who apparently was her boss.

As what other interns did, I gleefully took the files, walked down the aisle, and passed by several cubicles before reaching a secluded office at the other end of the aisle. There was no signage on the door. So before I knocked, I asked some employees nearby if that was the office of the marketing manager. The three of them momentarily swallowed their nonexistent saliva before they answered “YES”.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

At that moment, I got the slightest hint that this man behind the door wasn’t the type of boss who had a sunny personality. So with much caution, I knocked twice, opened the door and greeted him.

Boss-with-morning-coffee

No response.

I looked at him. He was so engrossed looking at his computer screen with his eyeglasses on.

He was neither a grumpy old man nor a monster that would eat you alive.

Actually, he was a bit young – in his late thirties perhaps. He looked at me and raised his palm in the air as if telling me: Where are the sheets?

I immediately moved forward to his table and placed the files on his desk. He asked, “Are you a new employee?”.  I immediately told him that I was just an intern. He nodded back and then told me that I can leave.

As you can infer, he could be a typical boss who sat on his desk all afternoon, secluded himself from his subordinates most of the time, and was terrified of him.

You could be right and wrong at the same time.

THE bosses

Bosses are chosen to lead. They are highly capable individuals who are tenured and can speak with authority.

But bosses are human beings too. They are prone to errors and mistakes. And in some cases, they also lose their cool and become temperamental at times. Okay, fine, I get you – probably most of the time.

Being in charge as a head, as a manager or as a boss entails a great responsibility of managing a team. More so, it is an endless challenge to prove their competencies and worth in the organization. That is why people like them are potentially vulnerable to any and all work-related stress you can think of.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

What do Good Bosses do?

Most of us will agree that an effective leader not only helps manage conflict but also supports team members to grow professionally, which can take a lot of time. Some would even argue that a good boss is transparent and owns up to his or her mistakes like what everyone should do. But the most important thing a good manager does is to also regular assess themselves and constantly improve his or her leadership skills.

Below is a helpful infographic from the Headway Capital on how to assess yourself as a leader:

Way-to-becoming-a-good-boss

***

You may get mad at your subordinates or makes a little questionable decision once in your life. But just like what every employee needs to do, evaluating one’s self is the best way to reset yourself to make a fresh start.

Is a website revamp or digital marketing part of your marketing plan for the year? Let iManila help you achieve the website that works for your company and achievable digital marketing activities to pumped-up your year marketing direction. Call us at (02) 490-0000 or send your inquiry at [email protected].

 

Source:

  • marketingprofs.com

 

Google SERP ranking: How long does it take to rank on Page 1?

 

How long does it take to make my website rank on top of Google?

When you’re working for a Digital Marketing agency (imanila.ph), this is the SEO million-dollar question and the most crucial. Do you overpromise? Or try your hardest to not look incompetent in front of the client.

For a million SEO dollars, what is your final answer?

IT DEPENDS! And that’s the truth!

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

There is no 100% proven effective method to rank on top of Google SERP in no time – unless you’re cloaking in the dark and doing BLACK SEO, then you ‘might’. What most SEO guys and gurus do is just to follow SEO’s best practices.

In a recent case study published by Ahrefs , only 5.7% of their sampled pages from 2 million random keywords (potentially 20,000,000 unique pages) made it to the 1st page of Google’s SERP (Search Engine Results Page) – and those were the “lucky” ones optimizing for low-volume keywords.

Take note of the words “lucky” and “low-volume”. And the remaining 95%? Not even close.

To put it in a little more perspective, 5.7% of 20,000,000 is 1,140,000. Only 1,140,000 pages will rank in Google’s Page 1 SERP in one calendar year.

Take a moment to let that sink in. We know what you are thinking.

SEO is dead!!

On the contrary, it is very much alive and kicking. As a matter of fact, those who are reaping the benefits of ranking on the first page of Google are experiencing a 5% increase in their web traffic on a monthly basis.

Going back on track, the issues-at-hand discussed that the realities surrounding SEO are more of the duration and domain authority that websites undergo or must obtain before even having a shot of getting on the Page 1 SERP.

So what are the realities that we are looking at? To help us dig into these realities, Ahrefs’ case study analyzed two million random keywords in their database as a sample and analyze their rankings based on the keywords they used, the age of the web pages, and their respective domain ratings.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Below are their key takeaways:

  • How old are the top-ranking pages?

For starters, Ahrefs identified how old the current top-ranking pages are.

They took 2 million random keywords and pulled data on the Top10 ranking pages for each of them. Which resulted in this graph:

websites-age-of-page-days

For those holding up a #1 spot in Google’s SERP, their average age falls somewhere in between 500 – 950 days or 1.36 to 2.60 years old.

Those at the #10 spot averaged at a peak at 650 days or 1.78 years old.

So the next thing they wanted to know is what percentage of pages at each ranking position were less than 1-year-old:

ahrefs-website-ages-since-publication

percentage-of-young-pages

For the #1 spot, only 1% of the sampled pages or an estimated 200,000 unique pages were less than a year old.

While those lingering at the #10 spot, were just a little above 4% or at least an estimated 800,000 unique pages weren’t even old enough to celebrate their 1st anniversary on the web.

Comparing that to the potential sample of 20,000,000 unique pages, clearly, this doesn’t look too promising, right? The SERP is clearly dominated by “old” pages.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

  • How long does it take for a page to rank?

They tracked the position history of each page for any keyword it’s ranked for. Which resulted in this graph:

ranking-performance-by-DR

Only 5.7% of all studied pages ranked in the Top 10 search results within 1 year for at least 1 keyword.

Pages from websites with a high Domain Rating (DR) performed way better than those with a low DR. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise because Ahrefs’ Domain Rating metric (shows the strength of a website’s backlink profile) correlates well with Google rankings.

They then zoomed into this 5.7 % of “lucky” pages to see how quickly they got from nowhere to the Top10.

The majority of them managed to achieve that in approximately 61 to 182 days.

lucky-pages-by-DR-2

SUMMARY:

We all know how powerful SEO can be in time, but doing it is not a breakthrough that can happen overnight. This study is not definitive, but this shines a huge light into the most common question of clients: How long does it take to make my website rank on top of Google?

Their study clearly shows the following key points:

  • 95% of newly published pages don’t get to the Top 10 results of Google’s 1st page within a year.
  • The top 5.7% SEO performing website who are dubbed as “lucky ones” made it to the 1st page within 2 to 6 months and that’s for low-volume keywords.
  • Domain authority is an undeniable factor in ranking.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

To all hardworking websites who have made it to the first page, good job!

Those who didn’t make it, yet working hard to breakthrough, you are almost there! Don’t stop!

To those who are still thinking whether they’ll invest in SEO, re-evaluate your thoughts.

To those who are still demanding to be on top in no time, wake up! SEO is a persistent project that only gets better over time, especially if you hire one of the best SEO guys in the Philippines to do the job for you.

Source:

Jollibee Valentine Series: A content that delivers

 

The Philippine social media scene was taken by a storm of reactions as one of the most popular food chains released a series of ads in lieu of Valentine’s Day tomorrow. Jollibee has taken the heart of many once again with their all new Jollibee Valentine Series.

Some liked it, some had their hearts broken, and some even to a lighter “meme” approach to express their sentiments.

With all these mixed emotions and voices that users posted and shared in the past days, one thing is for sure – Jollibee delivered more than what it was supposed to.

This milestone in Philippine advertising proved that content truly delivered when they are done precisely and artistically. The question now is: How can other brands recreate, or maybe even top, Jollibee’s campaign?

The answer to this question varies. Here’s why:

For a brand that has witnessed generations of diners come and go, Jollibee has basically a solid foundation in terms of knowing exactly what its market profile is. The brand has been part of the different phases of a customer’s life such as parties, celebrations, meetups, dates, desperations, and probably even heartaches.

The point here is, Jollibee is few meters ahead in terms of market domination and profiling hence, their ability to pull some stories from their experiences.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

For start-up brands, breakthroughs are very rare especially in terms of marketing virality. You can start by profiling your market step by step. Know them little by little until you get the bigger picture of who they really are. Knowing them well is the initial step in creating the content that they’ll most likely engage with, the one that really appeals to them.

It’s similar to how you try to learn everything about your significant other that getting the “perfect” gift for them becomes second nature to you.

The human emotion is a complex yet beautiful side of humanity. No matter how rational a person is, a dominant emotion – in some cases – overrides the most rational thoughts.

Human emotions are like test tubes of delicate and potentially destructive chemicals in a laboratory. There are vitriols, dopamines, oxytocins, and adrenalines – of which one cannot be mixed with another one without carefully getting the right proportion.

Jollibee has carefully picked the right emotion for each of its Valentine videos. The core emotion served as the binder and reference point of the content. From words, to shot lists, and down to the acting of the cast – all of these speaks to the core emotion of the entire concept of the content.

For start-ups, this process can be achieved by creating content with different emotional inclinations. Releasing it alternately on different channels can give you data where you can draw your conclusion – as to which one works well with your market.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

Admit it or not, we love something that we can fully relate to. Not just on the basis of what we felt when watching but more of the identifying ourselves as part of that content. How did Jollibee achieve that? By tackling social realities.

How many Filipinos have suffered a loss of a family member, a parent, or a spouse perhaps? And not being with the person you love in one of the most celebrated events of the year will definitely bring tears to your eyes.

How about being trapped in a “best friend zone”? How frustrating can it get for someone not to get the one he loves despite being close to her?

Oh wait, did I forget about our crushes? Every one of us has experienced a phase in our lives when we felt that piercing strike of cupid’s arrow.

These realities are what people gravitate towards. It is like speaking in behalf of those who cannot directly express themselves in their most heartbreaking, depressing, and even to the happiest times.

For start-up brands, these can be achieved by stringent observation of your market’s psyche. Frankly, this kind of approach can be achieved when the brand matures, or when the brand has identified its market and their common psyche. Because getting the right social reality to incorporate to your content takes a lot of years to perfect.

—

Content is, and always be the best marketing asset until this age. The channels may have changed but the market is resilient. The best way to make content viral and successful is to always make your audience/market the center of your communications – not your firm or the people running it.

Do you want to know how to kickstart a good social media marketing? Contact Us at (02) 490-0000 or email us at [email protected].

MOBILE FRIENDLINESS RANKING FACTOR: Why You Need to be Mobile-Responsive

 

MOBILE FRIENDLINESS IS NOW A THING — It is common knowledge to most marketers that Last April 2015, Google search has expanded its mobile friendliness algorithm known as “Mobilegeddon”. This update from Google has marked the beginning of a shift of focus from desktop to mobile searches and has affected a lot of websites that are not mobile-responsive. Some of the affected may have experienced a decline in their Google SERP ranking or even to the volume of their monthly traffic.

What is Mobile Friendliness?

There are 75.4 million unique mobile users in the Philippines, comprising 74% of the nation’s population. Almost everyone these days considers themselves to be “tech-savvy” with the advent of the internet allowing even the simplest devices to do an amazing amount of tasks.

iManila-Click-here-to-know-more-CTA

Let’s face it, with a market as large as that, you probably want your brand to be etched on the consciousness of these users.  This is exactly why it’s time for your website to go mobile.

Opting for a mobile-responsive website or the mobile friendliness of your website enables it to be sent instantly dynamic as it fits symmetrically on any screen size, minimizing usability issues such as links that are not clickable, images taking forever to appear, scrolling problems and lagging issues.

Simply put – a mobile-responsive website enhances user experience.

Want to know how to make your website friendly? Say hi to one of our account executives, or leave us a message on our contact form.

Mobile version vs Mobile-Responsive

On the off-chance that you live under a rock, you might probably be more familiar with the term “mobile version”.

Mobile version is different from mobile-responsive. The former means developing a version of your website customized for mobile users and uses a separate URL commonly beginning with “m” (such as m.facebook.com). It’s like having two unique websites with one dedicated to desktops and another for mobile devices.

The latter, on the other hand, automatically resizes the content of your website based on user device allowing for optimum user experience.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Post-Mobilegeddon Updates

Aside from the ‘mobilegeddon’ released on 2015, other updates released were Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which launched in February 2016, and ‘mobile­first indexing’, which Google has been working on for quite a while now.
The AMP or the Accelerated Mobile Page Project is an open source initiative of Google launched in October 2015. This update works towards increasing the performance of the mobile web, loading web pages instantly, even with rich content or ads.

 

AMP is not a mobile ranking factor, however, its objective is to improve the functions of mobile websites with stripped-down versions of web pages. This enables users to read and scan your content with ease, improving your website’s traffic and in time, improving your SERP ranking. Google AMP lets publishers focus on great content while depending on other components like image carousels and social plug­ins for high performance and great user experience.

 

Another recent update is mobile­first indexing. Google has been adjusting their algorithms to primarily use mobile versions of website content to rank pages, understand its structured data, and show snippets from those pages on their SERPs. Here are some of the recommendations of google about dealing with the mobile­first indexing update:

  • Stay on your responsive site or dynamic serving site on desktop and mobile version;
  • If the two versions of your website’s primary content are different, you should make your structured data uniform, make your mobile website crawlable, and maintain canonical links unchanged;
  • Verify your desktop and mobile website versions against Google Search Console;
  • Launch new mobile sites only when they’re ready, to avoid any unwanted effects on your desktop sites that may arise from faulty mobile ones.

What is for business online?

Businesses that rely heavily on traffic and leads coming from online sources should prepare to change extensively, otherwise, their potential sales will be flushed down the drain. Below are the advantages of making your website mobile-responsive:

Know more about the benefits of a mobile-responsive website or its mobile friendliness by calling our sales executives or by sending us a message through this LINK.

It strengthens your website’s optimization.

With Google recently releasing an algorithm specifically targeting websites that aren’t mobile-responsive yet, now would be the best time to do so. Having a mobile-responsive site brings more traffic to your website which then opens doors to increase sales and revenue. A great search rank on desktop and mobile would be beneficial for your business because that’s brand awareness reaching your market through multiple channels.

It saves you time and money.

With a mobile-responsive website, you can focus your resources instead in building and creating new campaigns and content instead of developing a separate website for mobile devices.

It keeps you ahead of your competition.

There are a lot of businesses who have yet to invest in this new kind of technology because, well, it’s new; and new is a mystery few have the courage to explore.

Going mobile-responsive automatically puts you ahead of the curve because you’re already building your rank up while others are still flirting with the idea.

It provides an optimum user experience for your consumers.

With smartphones and tablets continuously increasing in terms of usage, giving your market the ability to browse through your site with ease is one step to earning their trust. Because everything is organized and made faster, potential clients are more likely to explore your website than leave it the moment they see the home page. Your site will have perfectly scaled images and readable texts so there’s no reason to not give it a chance.

iManila-Talk-To-Us-CTA

Sources:

  1. Straightarrow.com.ph
  2. Webmaster.googleblog.com

Gmail Phishing Scam on the Rise!

 

For most of us, email is a way of life. From work to personal communications to smartphone applications downloads, our email is our virtual online address where most of important documents and updates are sent. That being said, email is an indispensable online asset. Modern life isn’t just the same without it. Unfortunately, it’s the one thing that most of us tend to neglect, especially when it comes to security.

In the past weeks, a phishing scam over Gmail has circulated and propagated in the World Wide Web, escaping the scrutiny of both experts and new users of this email platforms.

Wordfence  (security team behind WordPress) revealed how the phishing scam worked using its account to send unsolicited emails that contained that same malicious strings that pretended to be an authentic Gmail log-in page.

After the victim is fooled to logging in at the fake Gmail login page,  the attacker gains access to the victim’s account. This cycle continues as the attacker uses the compromised account to send malicious emails to other people in the email’s contact list.

That’s why this phishing method “gained popularity” among hackers in the past year: as it effectively tricked people into thinking that they’re opening content from a trusted contact. Furthermore, the hackers behind this method makes it much deceitful as they emulated the way the victim user sends his/her emails from the subject down to email body.

How to detect this?

The phishing technique is deceiving even experienced, technical users – the kind who are already aware of attacks designed to extract valuable information through online.

What makes this recent uncovered technique so much more dangerous is that the location bar shows the text string “accounts.google.com” – a legitimate Google page. However, in this phishing attack, there’s a text string (“data:text/html”) preceding “accounts.google.com.”

There’s also another large chunk of text appearing on the far side of the location bar, which is the file that ultimately sends one’s credentials to the attacker.

These hard-to-spot text strings differentiate the phishing log-in page from the legitimate sign-in page. Most will see “accounts.google.com”, believe it’s the real thing and continue with the log-in.

Prevention

Wordfence provided advice on how to avoid being victimized by this phishing attack:

“Make sure there is nothing before the hostname ‘accounts.google.com’ other than ‘https://’ and the lock symbol. You should also be keen about the of the green color and lock symbol that appears on the left. If you can’t verify the protocol and verify the host-name, stop and consider what you just clicked on to get to that sign-in page.”

The use of 2-step authentication is highly advised. This method uses a secondary verification mechanism for users, and to regularly change passwords.

Wordfence also received word from Google regarding the attack. The tech giant acknowledged it and said that they’re strengthening their defenses against it.

“We help protect users from phishing attacks in a variety of ways, including: machine learning based detection of phishing messages, Safe Browsing warnings that notify users of dangerous links in emails and browsers, preventing suspicious account sign-ins, and more,” said one of the Google representative.

Wordfence suggested that Google should incorporate a design that allows users to easily identify the malicious, hidden text strings seen in these attacks which is similar to the way that the Google Chrome browser labels insecure “https” pages in red and secure, trusted ones in green.

***

To know more about how to make your website secured and safe for your users, you can check iManila’s hosting page and check how our secured  hosting  packages and safety features such as the SSL certification can help you secure your business online.

 

Source: Wordfence.com

Rappler.com

 

Yahoo Renames as Altaba and its CEO Marissa Mayer Resigns. Hello 2017!

 

Altaba. This six-letter word is yet to be the new name of our childhood-favorite search engine tool, Yahoo. People rendered speechless upon hearing the news as six Yahoo board of directors will soon resign from their positions, including its CEO Marissa Mayer and its founder David Filo. The board’s resignation is “not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices,” Yahoo states on its SEC filing on Monday.

These huge changes will be put to effect after the $4.8 billion merger with the telecom company Verizon is finalized. The deal only comprises the procurement of Yahoo’s consumer web business, Yahoo Mail and Sports. Not the entire Yahoo enterprise.

The remaining sectors of the company after the said deal will be named Altaba. Those sectors of Yahoo are still of great significance to other investors since these have shares from the Chinese e-Commerce kingpin Alibaba, hence the new name Altaba.

Big changes are bound to happen with Yahoo this year, with new set of board members, a new CEO, new regularities, new challenges, AND new chances. That is possibly the best part of this realignment – a new line of chances awaits. But at the end of it all, we will definitely miss the old Yahoo.

If you want to know more about what happened, visit Investopedia and click here.