hash-tag

I’ve been recently engaged on a few SEO related initiatives and came across inquiries regarding the usage of “hash” symbols (formerly known as the “pound” sign) specifically in URLs and how they affect SEO rankings. Are these characters simply ignored by Google search crawlers, or does this make an impact that people should be aware of? How should these kinds of characters be used on the web? This is a brief description of where and how to implement these across your dynamic web applications.

A hash sign (#) in a URL is referred to as a ‘fragment’. In the past and with many legacy applications, URL fragments have been used to automatically set the browser’s scroll position to a predefined location in the web page, like a standard HTML4 ‘anchor’ link (used on many ‘link-farm style websites and old school Geocities sites). Applied in this manner, a URL refers to a document, then the fragment refers to a specific subsection of that document (or web page).

In recent years, however, this definition changed through the use of major Social NEtworking sites, primarily driven by the popularity and adoption of Twitter. Any information that appears after the first hash symbol in a URL is referred to as the fragment identifier – sometimes also called an anchor tag. By default, the fragment identifier is interpreted only by the local web browser and is typically not passed to the remote web server. For example, the following two links would both be considered requests for the same document by the web server:

• www.samplewebsite.com/colors.html#red
• www.samplewebsite.com/colors.html#blue
• www.samplewebsite.com/colors.html#yellow

Since the fragment identifiers (tags) in the example URLs above signify two different locations in the same page, search engines like Google, Bing, etc., will consider them both to refer to a single search result: www.samplewebsite.com/colors.html

For this reason, it’s important not to use fragments as a way to represent what should instead be different pages. In short, if you want Google to crawl two different pages and index them separately, you’re better off simply using two distinct URLs without fragments. However, in modern implementations, fragments are often used in a different way – to add dynamic functionality to websites and web applications. In this approach, a series of related requests are all processed by the same URL. So, in order to return different variations of the content, parameters are passed via URL fragments. Javascript is then used to interpret the fragment and update only portions of the page that need to change, without the need for a full page or browser refresh. This is typical of AJAX-style applications.

So, the question is, how does Google index distinct content within AJAX style pages? After all, we just said that Google will not consider the fragments in the URLs. The answer is Google has provided a syntax for working around this problem. It’s known as the “hash bang” syntax. By putting an exclamation point immediately after the hash sign, you’re telling Google that the fragments are not used for traditional scroll positioning but instead for loading separate content variations that should be crawled. With that approach, our example URLs with fragments could indeed be crawled and seen by Google. Our example URLs might then look like this:

• www.samplewebsite.com/colors.html#!red
• www.samplewebsite.com/colors.html#!blue
• www.samplewebsite.com/colors.html#!yellow

Remember, if you’re not using this special syntax, analytics reporting systems like Google Analytics may not be configured to track clicks on fragment links in your site. To ensure tracking works, either structure your content with distinct URLs or configure your Google Analytics code to also track fragment clicks.

Here are a few useful links regarding Hash Tags in URLs…

• Character Escaping (Stack Overflow) – http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5007352/how-to-escape-hash-character-in-url
• Fragment URLs (HTTP Watch) – https://blog.httpwatch.com/2011/03/01/6-things-you-should-know-about-fragment-urls/

Ad Viewability

Viewability is one of the hottest discussion topics among advertisers, publishers, and sales technology organizations. The emerging and immediate threat of revenue decrease and advertiser defections to high quality ad inventory have set off an industry domino effect in regards to viewability enhancement projects and initiatives within many global brands. While there are key areas to increasing viewability metrics that can be technically difficult and costly to execute, highlighted below are 3 key steps that should be considered to begin turning your viewability metrics around quickly.

1) Understand the current definition of a ‘viewable impression’.

According to the latest convention published by IAB, a viewable ad impression is defined as an ad that is fifty percent in view for more than one second. This definition could change over time, but until it does, understand what it will take to make a user keep that ad in the browser viewing area before scrolling away. For each site and brand, this will be unique, so you need to know your audience and what they want from your website in order to make these decisions.

2) Content is King.

If you do not have information on your page that will attract user eyes and attention, you have NO chance at improving your viewability. It’s important that content around your ad unit is fresh, and that ads appear in relevant locations on your page in conjunction with actual content and/or data. This might mean you need to change your ad placement locations on the webpage working with your sales and advertising teams, and it could also mean it’s time to start looking at newer ad unit sizes widely adopted today.

3) Know your technical options to make educated decisions.

Don’t start changing things until you’ve taken a solid inventory on how things work today, and don’t be quick to start redesigning which could be costly in terms of SEO and development resources. A few simple solutions that could greatly improve viewability without changing design and layout could be 100% technical. Many brands have decided to increase their site’s viewabilty score by using “lazy loading” of ad units, which programmatically sequences ad rendering and placement until after the user scrolls his browser window to within proximity of the ad unit by a few hundred pixels or so. This will limit ad calls in your ad server by not calling for the ad unless its actually viewed.

Viewability measurement is merely a stepping-stone for the digital ad industry, likely to change in years to come. While it’s a hot topic today it is definitely not the only factor to consider for advertisers. Focus on the overall quality of the content and exposure they will receive, and you’ll have some happy clients.

Here are a few great reads on the ad viewability topic below…

• http://www.chicago-d.com/digital-marketing/google-report-ad-viewability-self-serving-not-surprising/
• http://www.businessinsider.com/the-ad-viewability-problem-explained-2015-1
• http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/viewability-noticeability-counts/238334/

1) Notability (Winner in the ‘Mobile Note Taking’ category)

There are lots of apps for note taking, each that specializes in different features that claim to be awesome. Most of them were rushed to market, with poor usability and UI, and are cumbersome and useless (in my opinion). EverNote, Listy, and a slew of other apps simply are not effective or entirely useful when it comes to taking notes on-the-fly. Notability is an app that is powerful as a note-taking app, but also useful for annotating docs, sketching ideas and even recording sessions. In addition to beautiful layout and design, you can replay notes, mark up documents and pdfs, and sync with every cloud service under the sun. I find the ‘drawing’ aspect of Notability extremely useful, and find new ways to utilize the app during every meeting I attend. Give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.

2)   Trello (Winner in the ‘Mobile To Do List’ category)

Another category overwhelmed with options, the basic ‘To Do’ list app has plenty of competition with lots of options to consider. In my opinion, there really is no option, as Trello leads the pack in terms of simplicity, UX/UI, and design. This app lets you create simple ‘lists’ of items, and uses an agile methodology overlay allowing users to ‘move’ cards from one stack to the other. This is useful for everything from Project Management, Development Backlog Planning, as well as everyday things like Shopping Lists. In addition to being simple and easy to learn, its 100% free and available via Desktop, Mobile Apps (iOS and Android) or natively on a tablet. I find myself making lists everywhere i go, and even like taking advantage of the meta data and tagging options to sort, filter and archive tasks.

3)   DropBox (Winner in the ‘File Storage and Cloud Access’ category)

What’s not to like about DropBox. I could have easily gone with ‘Box’, or other competitive tools, but DropBox has a simple, intuitive installation process and is widely used in many industries today. I am still baffled when i see organizations using Microsoft SharePoint, or even worse, a company Intranet to store files, which usually requires VPN or some other secure access method. DropBox is great on-the-go to access files on a mobile device, and is great for its access controlled ‘sharing’ functionality, giving users the ability to collaborate in a safe and secure manner. For its most simple use, a great way to store personal photos (not unlike Apple’s Cloud storage) and share with friends and family, without worrying about your hard drive crashing and losing all of your precious moments. Get into the cloud, people!

4)   ProCreate (Winner in the ‘Mobile Art and Image Editing’ category)

While typically not considered a ‘productivity’ application, artists and creative people will agree that there is truly an advantage when you have the ability to be productive through powerful apps, other than using a full-desktop or SaaS version of PhotoShop or Adobe Creative Suite. As an artist, I’ve tried many different apps that claim to be the best for digital artwork, but none seem to rival ProCreate for iOS. This elegant and intuitive application mimics the best of what PhotoShop has to offer, in a small package. While not exactly cheap at $9.99, it is definitely well worth it when you have the ability to do proper image editing, and more importantly, drawing and sketching using layers and the toolset available in Adobe. For an ever better experience, try using the JOT pen, which is a truly great way to get a ‘real’ drawing feel. The rubber ‘nub’ pens really don’t work well, and JOT works great with ProCreate.

5)   HipChat (Winner in the ‘Mobile Communication’ category)

HipChat was recently purchased by Atlassian, the company that makes great software like JIRA, and it’s a perfect combination of everything i love about mobile communication. Similar to tools like FLOWDOCK, HipChat excels through simple integration with other development tools, while combining Video, Emojis, and HashTag# capabilities. I’ve seen firsthand how productivity increases for any team using HipChat, great for groups of all kinds from development, to education, to friendly banter. Oh, and for teams of 6 or less, it’s 100% FREE. For an extra good time, try using my favorite emoji #itsatrap! (admiral akbar).

I hope this list has been helpful to my faithful readers. Don’t waste countless hours and space on your devices downloading and playing with apps that are a waste of time. Instead, try these out … you will not be disappointed.

As with previous changes to algorithm within Google’s search index, this new addition could have a serious impact on click-through rates and external traffic patterns, but it is probably to early to tell if this will have any major impact at all. This will likely have an impact on overall Page Rank (by having mobile visitors turned away from your site), and something to keep in mind when building for the web or deciding upon website redesigns that are mobile-compatible and responsive.

Here are 2 key factors to think about when deciding upon website details impacted by this upcoming change to Google’s search algorithm.

1. Avoid using Flash. I assume this is obvious, but all content within Flash will not be indexed or viewed on a mobile device, unless you happen to be using a Flash optimized browser like ‘Photon’ (but seriously, no one uses that). In general, stop using Flash and build HTML5/CSS based interactives and ads.
2. Readable text (without manually zooming). Web sites should be adjusting content to the screen size automatically using CSS, so end users do not have to scroll horizontally or manually zoom in.

Even if you assume your site is ‘probably ok’, it’s worth it to try Google’s mobile-compatible testing utility. You never know what it might tell you about your own site! The best part about using this free service is that it will automatically tell you how to fix any issues, if encountered. If anything, you’ll know if you need a major overhaul, or just a few tweaks.

This is obviously exciting for players (like my daughter, for example) who are eager to build their own Star Wars Minecraft universe themselves, or even download mods / maps that exist to download for free within the Minecraft community. Star Wars joins a group of other licensed “upgrades” for Minecraft which previously released skin packs for other Disney and Marvel owned characters, such as Spiderman, The Avengers, and Skyrim.

Below is a list of all the available character skins, 55 to be exact (which is more than usual for a standard skin pack), currently available to download for $2.99. As with other skin packs, expect this to drop to $.99 as the holiday season nears.

• Luke Skywalker, Desert / Tatooine
• Luke Skywalker, X-Wing Pilot
• Luke Skywalker, Bespin
• Luke Skywalker, Hoth
• Luke Skywalker, Dagobah
• Luke Skywalker, Endor
• Luke Skywalker, Black Jedi Knight
• Princess Leia Organa, Senator
• Princess Leia Organa, Yavin 4
• Princess Leia Organa, Hoth
• Princess Leia Organa, Bespin
• Princess Leia Organa, Boushh
• Princess Leia, Jabba’s Palace
• Princess Leia Organa, Endor
• Han Solo, Smuggler
• Han Solo, Roth
• Han Solo, Endor
• Chewbacca
• C-3PO
• R2-D2
• Yoda
• Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Tusken Raider
• Stormtrooper
• Darth Vader
• Blockade Runner
• Cantina Band Member
• TIE Fighter Pilot
• Walrus Man
• Hammerhead
• Greedo (he shot first)
• Governor Tarkin
• Lando Calrissian
• Lando Calrissian, Jabba Guard
• Boba Fett
• Bossk
• Dengar
• Zuckuss
• IG-88
• Emperor
• AT-AT Pilot
• Lobot
• Rancor Keeper
• Gamorrean Guard
• Oola
• Nien Nunb
• Bib Fortuna
• Scout Trooper
• Emperor’s Royal Guard
• Admiral Ackbar (It’s a trap!)
• Jawa (Oootini!)
• Wampa Ice Creature
• Wicket W. Warrick
• Rancor
• 4-LOM