The merciless malignancy of malware Part 4 (SEM 101)

OK, so I totally geeked out with my recommendations on how to better secure your webmaster computing environment. As a result, I had too much material for one post and thus had to split it up into two pieces. Let's wrap up this long series of posts on malware by finishing up with the last of the security recommendations.
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The merciless malignancy of malware Part 3 (SEM 101)

We're going to diverge a bit from our regularly scheduled programming. Normally this column discusses search engine optimization (SEO) and related elements of search engine marketing (SEM), but we're knee deep into our multi-part series on malware and we're going to begin the wrap-up with a talk about improving computer security.
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The merciless malignancy of malware Part 2 (SEM 101)

Malware infections are no laughing matter. When they afflict your website, they can infect your customers, who won't appreciate your sharing, intentional or not (and I'm guessing it's not)! And if Bing discovers malware on your site, your listing in the Bing search engine results pages (SERPs) will either be completely omitted or the link to your site will be disabled, so when the searcher clicks on it, only a malware warning appears.
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Temporary glitch for adding sites to Webmaster tools

As some of you may have experienced, our “Add a site” page has been unavailable in some locales for the past several days. This is not a site-wide or even a global issue.  Unfortunately, this happened due to an update that uncovered a bug in the original code, which caused us to disable the page in one of our data centers. The good news is that we are testing a fix now and will be releasing it to production just as soon as we are...
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The merciless malignancy of malware Part 1 (SEM 101)

The Web is an incredible place, filled with amazing media, fascinating content, and wonderful social opportunities, and there’s more of each than anyone can possibly ever consume. But unfortunately, it’s not a benign place. There are more than a few malefactors out there who actively seek to take over your computer for a variety of nefarious purposes.
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Search Engine Optimization for Bing

When I attended both SMX Advanced in Seattle back in June and SES San Jose just a couple of weeks ago, I heard a lot of questions from webmasters about Bing, especially pertaining to search engine optimization issues. Typically these included: I want to do SEO for Bing—where should I start? How is Bing different in terms of SEO? What do webmasters need to know and do? Are there any insider tips for successful ranking? I...
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Getting the IIS SEO Toolkit up and running

We recently published a popular blog post called Get detailed site analysis to solve problems that highlights the function and capabilities of the new, beta search engine optimization (SEO) Toolkit from the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) team. The tool works as an extension to the latest version of IIS, version 7. We’ve received some webmaster feedback with specific questions on how to set up IIS 7 before installing the IIS SEO...
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Get detailed site analysis to solve problems (SEM 101)

Last week I discussed common site errors that can inhibit the search engine crawler (aka bot). I pointed out common areas of concern and recommended a few tools to help diagnose such issues on your site’s pages. This week, I wanted to introduce a new tool for your collection that will be of great service to you in checking and maintaining your site. The tool, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Toolkit from the Microsoft Internet Information...
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New tools for webmasters in the Bing Toolbox

Today we’re really excited to announce the arrival of the Bing Toolbox, a new portal for all you Bing webmasters, publishers, developers, and advertisers out there. The Toolbox is an organized set of tools for the entire Bing community, plus links to our Webmaster and Developer community blogs and forums. The Toolbox provides everything you need to work with Bing in one place—as well as the site you’ll want to regularly visit...
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The key to picking the right keywords (SEM 101)

Mark Twain once famously said, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” Twain never saw a webpage or performed search engine optimization (SEO) in his life, but his assessment of the importance of using the right words is, shall we say, illuminated. So why are words important in terms of SEO? Because users type them into search engines to try to find you!...
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