Mark Zuckerberg wants us to run a mile a day in 2016, but he's doing it wrong

It's a commendable goal for anyone who doesn't run and wants to get a little healthier: Run 365 miles in one year.

That is what Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is challenging his billion-plus users to do in 2016. "This is a lot of running, but it's not a crazy amount," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "It's a mile a day, and at a moderate pace it's less than 10 minutes of running per day."

He's right in one respect: A mile a day is not a crazy amount, and you'd be surprised how quickly you can get used to it and build up your mileage. (Personally, I started running by training for my first 5K in 2010, when a mile seemed like a long distance; two years later, I ran my first marathon).

But he's wrong in another important respect: A "less than" 10-minute mile is nowhere near what a beginner would call a "moderate pace." It's quite fast, even for many experienced runners.

If you're going into this challenge expecting to run anything less than a 12 or 13-minute mile, you're not only going to be sorely disappointed, you're also going to be extremely sore, out of breath and unlikely to keep it up for a year.

As any seasoned runner will tell you: The first mile always sucks, so take it easy if you can.

There's yet more wrongness in the photo that Zuckerberg posted of himself running in Delhi last year with a couple of fellow Facebookers. We're not just talking about the fact they're all fine physical specimens — perhaps too fine to encourage the beginner runner that anyone can do this.

Nor are we talking about the fact they're all holding their smartphones rather than wearing them on armbands or in fanny packs. (Someone's going to be guaranteed a cracked screen running like that.)

No, we're talking about what is quite clearly a heel strike in Zuckerberg's running form. This is a fancy term for landing on your heel instead of the ball of your foot, and was thought in the 1970s to be preferable because it gave you a longer stride.

Since then, heel striking has been fingered in a large number of running injuries because it sends a dangerously large jolt up through your skeleton that can damage bones and joints over time. See for example this landmark study [PDF] from Zuckerberg's alma mater, Harvard, which found forefoot runners get way fewer injuries.

Zuckerberg has started a Facebook group dedicated to the 365-mile challenge called A Year of Running, so hopefully he'll introduce more tips and nuance as the year goes on. But here's what we'd advise: If you're a beginner, start out really slow — so slow that it almost feels like cheating. Accept that your body is going to take some time to adjust to running, but also that just about anyone can and should do it — the health rewards from even a moderate amount of running make it one of the most efficient exercises around.

And you don't need fancy shoes, you just need proper forefoot running form, which you can practice by imagining how you would run uphill. (If you tried landing on your heels, you'd fall over.)

For more information and a tremendous dose of inspiration, read the excellent Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. And stay safe out there.

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Facebook Makes Changes To Its Real Name Policy Enforcement Process

After over a year’s worth of controversy around Facebook’s real names policy, Facebook has announced a couple of changes to its process in order to better serve all of its members, including those in the LGBTQ community.

Last October, Facebook promised it would make changes to its real name policy after a number of false account flagging incidents led to the suspension of LGBTQ members’ pages. Facebook requires people to use the names their friends and family know them by. For many drag performers, for example, their drag names are the names people know them by, but that didn’t prevent the suspension of their accounts.

While Facebook is not getting rid of its real names policy, it is starting to test new tools to improve the policy in order for it to work better “for everyone, especially for communities who are marginalized or face discrimination,” Facebook VP of Global Operations Justin Osofsky and Product Manager Todd Gage wrote on Facebook’s blog.

For one, Facebook’s new reporting process requires people to provide more information and context around why they’re reporting that name in the first place. Before, reporting a potentially fake name was as easy as the click of a button.

Secondly, Facebook is testing a new tool for people to defend and verify their name if someone else flags it. So, if your account gets flagged, even though you’re using your drag name, or are using a different name in order to protect your privacy out of fear of abuse, harassment or stalking, you’ll have a week to be able to describe your situation before Facebook suspends your account.

“SF Pride is committed to our diverse community and is encouraged by the positive steps Facebook has both taken, and continues to work on, in addressing the reporting tools associated with their Authentic Names policy,” George Ridgely, Jr., executive director of SFPride, told TechCrunch in a statement. “We appreciate all of the engaged community leaders and Facebook for their contributions in this effort. It has been our priority to work closely with all parties to facilitate ongoing working-group meetings, as well as a forum that will bring together members of the community and Facebook to discuss these changes.”

Facebook has also received criticism around requiring people to provide forms of legal identification, which don’t always reflect someone’s preferred name.

Facebook has since expanded the options and documents that people can use to verify their name, and early next year, Facebook will look at ways to “reduce the number of people who have to go through an ID verification experience, while preserving the safety of other people on the site. We will also continue to work on making the experience itself more compassionate and easier to navigate.”

Lightsaber Yourself With Facebook’s Star Wars Profile Pics

Show you’re down with The Force this week then hide your Jedi ways with Facebook’s new Star Wars temporary profile pictures.

Just in time for the release of The Force Awakens, click here then hit the Try It button and Facebook will let you add a scary red Dark Side cross-guard lightsaber or a benevolent blue over one of your photos. Then you can make it your profile pic and set an expiration date for when you want to go back to your normal profile from this galaxy.

You can also find the option in the Star Wars Facebook Page’s timeline.

The temporary profile pic feature is the same one Facebook used to let people celebrate Pride, rep their college football squad, and root for other sports teams. Facebook seems to like the idea of Snapchat’s branded selfie lenses.

Is this shameless way for Facebook to cash in on all the Star Wars buzz? Absolutely. But it’s still fun. And at least since they’re temporary, you won’t have friends stuck as Sith Lords.

Chennai rains: Narendra Modi mocked and Jayalalithaa heckled after Chennai floods

Yet, within hours, Modi became the object of mockery on social media after his press office released a doctored photo of him inspecting flood damage. For both him and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the image of strong leadership created by their publicity machines was undermined.

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One of India's most powerful politicians, a former movie star called "Amma" or "Mother" by her followers, is being heckled and abused for going missing in action after floods swept the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, which she rules.

It's a salutary lesson for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who at first drew nods of approval when he rushed to Chennai last week, promising to stand by its people in their hour of need.

Yet, within hours, Modi became the object of mockery on social media after his press office released a doctored photo of him inspecting flood damage. For both him and Tamil NaduChief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the image of strong leadership created by their publicity machines was undermined.

Until the floods that ravaged the city of 6 million, the lofty remoteness of Jayalalithaaadded to the aura around a leader with an almost hysterical following. Devotees of the 1960s screen idol have immolated themselves in her defence in the past.

Now, she faces a backlash from residents fed up with the sight of her image on billboards, aid packets and her own Jaya Plus TV channel. She has been since in public only twice during the crisis - once with Modi.

Angry youths heckled a state minister and officials in Jayalalithaa's north Chennai constituency, where people were sitting on the roadside amid sludge and mountains of garbage, their shanties swept away by the worst rains in a century.

"Forget about Amma coming here, there was no sign of the party cadres," said one of them, called Dorairaj.

About 280 people have died across Tamil Nadu since torrential rains on Dec. 1 submerged tracts of Chennai under up to eight feet (2.5 metres) of water, trapping people on rooftops with no communication.

There was further revulsion after a party legislator put up a poster of Jayalalithaa lifting a baby above the floodwaters, in a scene from a blockbuster movie. "Adding salt to the wounds," said one Twitter post.

Avadi Kumar, a spokesman of her ruling AIADMK party, said there was anger among the people but the administration was doing all it could to bring relief: "It is impossible to reach all areas immediately or be present everywhere at all times."

GOOD DAYS 

Modi's own promise to voters of good days to come for India is also starting to face disenchantment, 18 months into his five-year term, with key reforms stalled by bureaucratic inertia and political gridlock.

Ambitious initiatives, such as a "Clean India" campaign, have made little headway - even as Modi has built up huge followings on social media and addressed enthusiastic diaspora Indians at packed stadiums on his many trips overseas.

"If today he appears to have lost control over his own narrative, it is his own fault," commentator Tavleen Singh wrote in Sunday's Indian Express, urging Modi to hire a professional media team. Modi does not have an official spokesperson.

Jayalalithaa, 67, in the past considered as a possible prime ministerial candidate backed by regional groups, faces an election in Tamil Nadu next year.

Modi's nationalist party has little presence in Tamil Nadu, a state of 70 million. It would rather the iron-fisted Jayalalithaa stays in power, believing she is more inclined to back his reform agenda in parliament than her rivals.

But there are concerns around her health and that she may have to curtail her campaign.

Earlier this year a higher court acquitted her in a graft case for which was briefly jailed which had caused an outpouring of anger from her supporters. Some lay down on roads and tried to persuade bus drivers to go over them.

"She is supposed to be a fantastic administrator. But this time there was no presence of government at all. Ordinary people did all the work that government and police were supposed to do," said S. Raja, one flood-hit resident of Chennai.

WhatsApp Is Blocking Links To Rival App Telegram On Android

Facebook-owned messaging giant WhatsApp appears to have started deliberately blocking links to rival messaging app Telegram so users can’t share clickable Telegram-associated URLs in their chats. The URLs just appear as unlinked text.

Mobile messaging customer service startup orat.io noticed the issue earlier today, and has blogged about it here.

Currently links only appear to be blocked within the Android app, with no unlinking going on in the iOS app. Even in the latest version of the iOS app, which was updated as of November 30 — we checked.

So it’s possible this is a bug rather than a deliberate attempt by WhatsApp to discourage its users from easily tapping into a rival service.

That said, Android developer Jernej Virag claims to have found evidence in WhatsApp’s code that suggests it is indeed specifically targeting Telegram…

We’ve reached out to WhatsApp to ask ‘bug or feature’ — and will update this post with any response.

In a note on its website Telegram also claims its Facebook page has vanished — “for no apparent reason”.

Of the Facebook page deletion Durov was less concerned, adding: ‘We didn’t use it, so we didn’t even notice it.”

The messaging app, which launched in mid 2013, has seen some impressive engagement growth this year — with the volume of messages sent daily via Telegram rising from around 1 billion this February to 12 billion by September. Although its monthly active users remained at around the 60 million mark between May and September.

Telegram is still very much dwarfed by WhatsApp’s massive user-base, of course. The Facebook-owned giant claimed to have passed the 900 million monthly user mark as of this September, so it can’t be far off hitting the magic 1BN MAUs mark.

Perhaps that milestone prospect is encouraging WhatsApp to throw its weight around against upstart messaging rivals.

Whatever the truth, it’s a not-so-gentle reminder that when it comes to dominant commercial platforms the content we the users are allowed to see and access is perennially at the whim of the platform owner and their commercial interests. And no, that’s not cool.

Zuckerberg Responds To Critics, Explains How He’s Spending $45B

On Tuesday, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a powerful announcement — not only did he reveal the birth of his daughter, Max, but he shared plans to give up 99% of his personal Facebook shares over the course of his lifetime and use them to fund causes through a newly formed entity called Chan Zuckerberg LLC.

The revelation generated a lot of attention, much of it due to the sheer volume of Zuckerberg’s net worth — $45 billion! While many people, including Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, praised him for his generosity, others expressed confusion and even questioned his motives for giving his money away.

Looking to alleviate some of those concerns, in a post Thursday,  Zuckerberg clarified how he and his wife Priscilla Chan, plan to delineate their funds.

“Our initial focus areas are personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities. We’ve already made many investments over the past five years in these areas — education, science, health, internet access and inclusion — and you can see a summary of our investments on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative page timeline.”

Zuckerberg addressed the allegations that forming this organization was a way to avoid taxes — he explained that by structuring the Chan Zuckerberg entity as an LLC, that their shares will still be taxed.

“By using an LLC instead of a traditional foundation, we receive no tax benefit from transferring our shares to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, but we gain flexibility to execute our mission more effectively. In fact, if we transferred our shares to a traditional foundation, then we would have received an immediate tax benefit, but by using an LLC we do not. And just like everyone else, we will pay capital gains taxes when our shares are sold by the LLC.”

He also says that this “for profit” structure allows them to make investments that will continue to fuel their objectives.

“This enables us to pursue our mission by funding non-profit organizations, making private investments and participating in policy debates — in each case with the goal of generating a positive impact in areas of great need. Any net profits from investments will also be used to advance this mission….For example, our education work has been funded through a non-profit organization,Startup:Education, the recently announced Breakthrough Energy Coalition will make private investments in clean energy, and we also fund public government efforts, like the CDC Ebola response and San Francisco General Hospital.”

Some of Zuckerberg’s early attempts at philanthropy were also met with controversy, particularly his $100 million gift to Newark schools, which faced challenges in its execution. But with $45 billion to experiment with, let’s hope that much of this money ends up doing some good.

Zuckerberg previously signed The Giving Pledge, promising to give away over half his fortune, along with Richard Branson, Warren Buffett and other billionaires.

By timing the latest announcement with the birth of his baby, it seems that Zuckerberg is trying to send a message that he’s not hoarding his personal fortune for the next 100 generations of Zucks.

Welcome to the world, baby Max.

Stone Temple Pilots’ Scott Weiland Dies at 48, Says Guitarist

Scott Weiland, the ex-frontman of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver who battled substance abuse over the years, was found dead on Thursday. He was 48.

Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro first reported the news on Twitter. “Just learned our friend Scott Weiland has died. So gutted, I am thinking of his family tonight,” Navarro wrote.

Weiland was found unresponsive on his tour bus in Minnesota, where he and his current band The Wildabouts were scheduled to perform at the Medina Ballroom, but the show was cancelled, according to TMZ.

It’s unknown what caused the singer’s death.

Weiland, who battled heroin and cocaine addiction over the years, was known for his flamboyant and unpredictable persona onstage.

Wielding a megaphone alongside his bandmates for sound effect, the fiery-haired frontman led the Southern California-based Stone Temple Pilots for two decades.

Also known as “STP” by their fans, the quartet first broke out in 1992 with hit single “Creep” before going on to become one of the most popular rock bands of the 1990s and 2000s with power ballads like “Plush,” “Big Empty” and “Interstate Love Song.”

Their music still plays in heavy rotation on alternative rock stations alongside ’90s grunge acts Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

But it was Weiland’s rock star ways that often got him in trouble offstage.

After spending five months in prison for possession of heroin in 1998, he was later charged with domestic abuse for assaulting his wife.

In 2008, he checked into rehab after being arrested for a DUI and once, after a fight with his wife, leapt from a moving car to score heroin.

“People have this misconception about me,” he said in an interview with USA Today in 2011. “OK, I struggled with heroin and cocaine and I was a big rock star. But music is not what defines me. I’m a brother, a father, a son.”

Weiland later split from Stone Temple Pilots and formed supergroup Velvet Revolver with ex-Guns N’ Roses rockers Slash and Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum. The band eventually split up, again because of Weiland’s substance abuse.

“I’m still on the verge all the time,” he said of his fight to remain sober. “My brother passed away [from a drug overdose in 2007], and that’s something that will always stay with me.”

In 2008, Weiland reunited with STP for the last time before leaving the band again and embarking on a solo career. But not, of course, without Weiland storming off in dramatic fashion.

After ex-members of Stone Temple Pilots sued the two-time Grammy-winner in 2013 for playing their material during his solo shows (STP was later fronted by Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington), Weiland countersued, calling his ex-bandmates’ claims “ridiculous.”

The group eventually reached a settlement out of court.

“I apologize to those fans out there who are, feel like they’re caught in the middle of it,” he said at the time. “‘Cause I sure feel like I’m caught in the middle of it emotionally, and all I want to do is play music.”

Known for his baritone vocal style, Weiland has also performed with the remaining members of The Doors for a VH1 “Storytellers” special.

He is survived by his two children, Noah and Lucy.

Facebook Partners With 50 Publishers To Launch Instant Articles In Asia

Facebook is bringing its Instant Article media format to Asia after more than twenty media from eleven countries in the region — including China, India and Indonesia — went live on the platform. A further 30 more media have agreed to begin publishing Instant Articles “soon,” Facebook said.

The U.S. social network giant said it created Instant Articles to help load news stories and features faster than they do when a user has to leave Facebook and open a web browser. The media format went live in the U.S. first back in May, with a host of initial partners that included the New York Times, BuzzFeed, National Geographic.

With the Western launch completed, Facebook has turned its hand to bringing the media format to new markets.

Facebook extended Instant Articles into Latin America earlier this week and, after mediareported its rollout in India last month, expanding into Asia Pacific, where Facebook has over 500 million monthly active users, will massively increase the potential reach of the service.

“Expanding Instant Articles to Asia is a significant milestone for the product and for each of our early launch partners,” said Andy Mitchell, who is the director of global media partnerships for Facebook said in a statement. “Instant Articles has been designed with extensive feedback from publishers, and we’re excited to bring this collaboration to our publishing partners in Asia to help them distribute fast, interactive articles to their readers in the Facebook app.”

Beyond the initial launch press, Facebook said it has plans to add further content partners from more countries in the region, so we can certainly expect to see more.

Instagram Now Testing Support For Account Switching, No Log Out Required

A feature Instagram users have wanted for some time – support for switching between multiple accounts directly in the app – is now being tested, according to a new report out this morning. Select members in Instagram’s official beta testing group for Androidhave spotted the option in Instagram’s settings in their beta build of the mobile application. The feature allows users to add or create additional accounts for use in Instagram that you can then switch between without first having to sign out of your current account.

News of the beta test was first discovered by the blog Android Police, which was pointed to the feature by way of a tipster who also provided screenshots of account switching in action.

Instagram declined to comment on the tests, when reached earlier this morning.

However, we have been able to duplicate this report independently.

 

 

To access the new option, beta testers can scroll down to the bottom to the bottom of the Settings page in Instagram, then look for the “Add Account” option just below “Clear Search History” and above “Log Out.”

From here, you’re able to enter in another set of Instagram credentials or set up a new account using either a username and password combination, or by authenticating with Facebook. After the account has been added, you can then switch between them using a new selector that appears at the top left of the screen on your user profile page. Instagram’s app also confirms when you’ve switched accounts by way of a green pop-up banner notification.

The option to switch between multiple accounts is something Instagram users have been demanding for some time. And the request doesn’t only come from those whose jobs require them to maintain different accounts, like social media managers, for example.

While obviously useful for those in the business world, account switching is a common activity among Instagram’s younger user base, as well. In fact, there’s even teenage slang related to this – “finstagram,” or “finsta” for short, stands for “fake Instagram account.”

This is a separate account teens maintain outside of their “real” Instagrams, which are far more polished. Ironically, the teens’ finstagrams actually portray a truer version of their lives. They are filled with the photos that only their close friends get to see – like unflattering pictures, screenshots of text messages, and other, more mundane images that don’t make the cut for their real Instagrams that are shown to the world.

The rise of these secondary accounts came about because many teens felt their main Instagrams weren’t presenting an authentic images of their real lives. As is the case on a lot of social media services, users tend to present the best version of themselves in their posts, but that can also be limiting. Teens’ real Instagrams, sometimes called “rinstagrams” or “rinstas,” are filled with aesthetically pleasing photos, those that make them appear popular and successful, and are also safe to show to parents. Finstagrams include everything else.

It’s unclear at what point Instagram will finalize testing of the account switching option and then roll it out to the larger Instagram user base, or if such plans are even on its roadmap. The company may also consider trialing different means of offering this option before committing to a public release.

In the meantime, Instagram users interested in testing account switching for themselves can join the Instagram beta test group here, then install the updated version of Instagram on their supported Android device.

5 Tips for Successful SEO Marketing and Yes, Quality Content Is Still King

Did you know that only one out of four people goes past Page one of Google search results? Most searchers are only willing to look through the results on the first page. They are also more likely to be satisfied with what they find from those results.

This goes on to tell you one thing - how you rank matters a lot because it determines how much traffic you get from search engines. So how do you improve your SE ranking? Through SEO!

Search Engine Optimization is crucial to your website/blog.

This list contains five of the most important tips for enhancing SEO success:

1. Post Quality Content on a Regular Basis

One of the most important parts of SEO is content. Search engines are focused on giving searchers the most relevant results. Thus, they "sift" through the different sites to get the best results. Your content should not only be relevant but authentic. Using other people's content will only get you penalized. Therefore, focus on fresh relevant content and post on a regular basis.

2. Make Sure Your Content has Proof Terms

Search engines like Google are determined to provide the best experience for searchers. Therefore, they constantly improve their algorithms for best semantic search. Hence, proof terms. These are terms related to the keywords. For instance, searching a movie title could bring back results with different character names or soundtracks.

3. Make Use of Social Media

To provide the best results, search engines can also analyze your social media presence to determine how much engagement your content gets. Therefore, it is important to promote the content you write and post.

4. Optimize Your Site for Mobile Devices

More and more people are using mobile devices like tablets and smartphones to access the internet. You don't want to lose all this traffic by not having a mobile-optimized website. Search engines will also look at this when giving back results.

5. Improve on Speed and Navigation

Research shows that 27% of people aged between 18 and 34 years will bounce (leave) if a site loads for more than a second. As you work to keep this 27%, it is also important to improve navigation between the different pages on your site. This is in an attempt to reduce user frustration and bounce rate.

Final Word

Quality content still matters when it comes to SEO. However, as important as regular posting is important, the quality is what matters most. Also, do not just focus on keywords but also on proof terms as some of the searchers will not search for the exact keyword or phrase. They will search for terms associated with the keyword.

Social media is also an important aspect of SEO and your site needs to be easily accessible through mobile devices. Last but not least, time is money and speed really does matter. Invest in your site to make it as responsive as possible while maintaining easy navigation.

5 Simple Tips To Get Your Website To The Top Of Google

People are more likely to visit your website if it appears at the top of the Google search results. The procedure of getting your website to rank well on Google, without having to pay Google any money to put you there, is known as search engine optimization (SEO). These organic search results are produced when someone types something into Google that is relative to your website. So how do you get your website to the top of Google? Here are 5 simple tips.

1. Your Keywords

Your keywords are the most important factor to help you get your website to the top of Google. These are the words that someone will type into Google when they are looking for information, products or service related to your online business. There is a high level of competition for basic one word keywords so if you use specific keyword phrases of two words or more you are more likely to get on the front page of Google.

2. Update Your Content On a Regular Basis

When someone types a word or phrase into Google, it will search its index and provide results with the most relevant web pages listed first. Google wants to deliver its users with the latest information. If your website content has not been kept up to date for months, it may be regarded as no longer relevant.

3. Use Keyword Descriptions On Your Images

Despite the fact that Google can't 'read' images, it can read the descriptions that you give the pictures, images and photographs on your website. An 'alt image tag' are the words that your website visitor sees when they move their cursor over an image on your website. Google can also read those words so ensure you label your images with your keyword.

4. Links To And From Your Website

The links that go to and from your website to other websites is seen bu Google as a sign of the reputation and value of the content on your website. To get your website to the top of Google you need to have links from quantity websites to your website. Also create links from your website to these reputable websites. Additionally, link to other pages in your website using a keyword as the anchor text. Anchor text are the highlighted words that when clicked, will link to a specific webpage.

5. Publish Content That People Will Find Useful

Even if your website does get to the top of Google, if somebody doesn't click on it, then you really have achieved nothing. Your website has to provide useful information for people to actually be able to read and understand. Ensure your meta deception text encourages people to click on your link. This is the line of text listed below the title of your page when it's listed on Google. Despite the fact that it does not help to get your website on the front page of Google, these words that could make the difference between somebody clicking or not.

What Qualities to Look for in an SEO Expert

Whether you own a small business or a large, if its revenue, marketing, and sales depends majorly upon web traffic, then you either need to master the skills of SEO or need to hire someone who is an expert in this.

The website of your company might look excellent, with several multimedia sizzles, but everything is useless until your website is constantly attracting visitors and transforming them into real-time customers. To make your website work effectively and attract more and more visitors, you need to hire SEO experts. This is because only qualified people and experts can review your website, know the goals of your business, target visitors and find strategies that will improve the rank of your website. But before hiring them, you must look for some special qualities and characteristics, which are highly essential.

Here are some of the most prominent elements that you must look within an SEO expert before hiring him.

Years of Experience in This Field

These days, opening an agency for Search Engine Optimization is not a big deal; anybody can do that overnight and call themselves an expert. But this doesn't mean that they will be able to work efficiently, without creating any troublesome situation for business owners. SEO comprises of several little things, which plays a big role in establishing a company's rank. Years of experience in this profession transform a professional into an Expert.

To succeed in business, every company needs an expert guidance. People with years of experience in his profession can only work upon your website and help it gain more traffic.

Great Understanding of 3 SEO Levels:

There are three levels:

• Technical
• Off-page optimization
• On-page Optimization

It's very obvious that you will not look for SEO experts who are one-dimensional; rather you would look for someone who would effectively approach their tactics in various angles.

Records of Their Success:

Talking about SEO and sharing information about their importance and usage is much easier these days, as there are millions of blogs available on the web, which shares basic information about SEO and its advantages. Hence, you should never rely upon the words of the experts you are about to hire. Ask them to prove their authenticity and give you enough references, which you can cross check.

These are some qualities that you must look within an SEO expert. Apart from these, there are several others qualities that one can look inside experts before hiring them for your company.

The Fast and Effective Tips For Choosing a Digital Marketing Service Provider

If you want to increase the exposure of your business amongst the online users and if you wish to increase the revenues of your business to a great extent, it is advisable that you should take the help of a digital marketing service provider. This article will highlight on a few essential tips that you should follow in order to take the help of an experienced digital marketing service provider immediately.

The first thing that you should follow is to determine the exact reason behind your requirement to take the help of this kind of provider. Whether you want to develop an effective social media campaign or you wish to build an effective search engine optimization strategy, it is vital that you should be able to accomplish your objective by all possible means.

The next step that you should follow is to find out a reliable digital marketing service provider who has a good reputation and who caters to your requirement in the best possible way. In order to find out this kind of provider, it is advisable that you should request your friends and colleagues so that they are able to give the name, contact number and other relevant details of at least three of four digital marketing service providers as quickly as possible.

Once you get these details of this kind of provider, it is vital that you should arrange for face-to face meetings with them and that you should try out to gather knowledge about the types of services they offer, their total years of job experience and other important things. All you have to do is to find out whether they are suitable for your purpose by all possible means. For example, you should check their client lists in order to find out if they at all work with similar customers in your own industry. If you are able to find out that they have provided good service to them, then there is possibility that you too will be able to get good service from them as well.

It is advisable that you should check out their official websites and that you should try to have a close look at different sections of these websites in the best possible way. You must find out if they are active on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. For example, it is vital that you should check the types of blogs they share on these platforms, the total number of followers they have on these platforms and other relevant details as quickly as possible.

In a nutshell, it is vital that you should choose digital marketing service provider that is expert to make use of all the digital platforms effectively and that offers something to help you to develop your business in the best possible way. It should be able to employ its analytical skills, innovativeness, creativity and other qualities and it should be able to help you to grow your business within a short period of time.

10 Quick Fix Website Optimization Tips

A lot of website optimization tips were made redundant when Google released its Panda and Penguin updates. These updates, which are still updated and released on a regular basis, are designed to help Google users to have a better searching experience when using the search engine.

The Panda update was designed to stop websites with poor quality content appearing at the top of Google's search results. The Penguin update was developed to stop websites spamming their search results, specifically those which were buying links or getting them through link networks designed to boost their Google rankings.

But, even with website owners with the best intentions can find it challenging trying to figure out how to do search engine optimization correctly with keyword placement, keyword density, content length, related keywords, tagging images, inserting links, font decorations and so on. To simplify matters, the following 10 website optimization tips will help you to keep your website out of trouble and keep Google's Pandas and the Penguins happy.

1. Keywords

Make sure that you have a broad variety of keywords on your content pages and posts and don't just stuff a page full of keywords.

2. Quality Content

The more quality content you can have on your website, and the less duplication, the better.

3. A Varied Link Profile

Include a good variety of high quality links on your website with natural looking anchor text.

4. Link To A Good Selection Of Websites

Develop your website using natural mix of internal links along with links to other big authority websites.

5. Link To Websites That Google Own

Try and include links to websites that Google owns, like YouTube. It's unlikely that Google will penalize you for showcasing some of its own websites.

6. Avoid Too Many Links Within The Content

Don't stuff your website with loads of links within each page and post. Aim for quality links and fewer of them.

7. Unnatural Anchor Text

Avoid having the same anchor text lots of times throughout your website.

8. Quality Backlinks

Search engines look at backinks as a sign of the popularity and value of the content on a website. Focus on links from quantity websites.

9.Update Your Website regularly

Update your website regularly to maintain good search engine rankings.

10. Don't Forget Social Media

Search engines will recognise your website more as when people view and share your content on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Facebook’s Internet.org Now Available Throughout India

Internet.org, Facebook’s initiative to provide free Internet services in developing countries, is now available to all Indians through the Free Basics app on Reliance Communication’s network. The project is meant to give people in emerging economies easy access to the Internet, but has been hit by a slew of criticism.

Reliance Communications is India’s fourth-largest telecom operator, with about 110 million subscribers as of June. According to its site, Free Basics will enable users to use Facebook and Facebook Messenger and access sites like Wikipedia, BBC News, Bing Search, Dictionary.com, and local news services.

Detractors say that by making a handful of services available on its platform, Internet.org gives preferential treatment to its partners, therefore violating the tenets of net neutrality.

In response, Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said Internet.org will focus on offering basic services for free (hence the branding of its app) and is not meant to limit access to other providers. The company has also taken steps to make joining Free Basics easier to join for developers and other potential partners.

This has done little to ameliorate critics who are concerned about the potential drawbacks of having a company as large and powerful as Facebook control what millions of new Internet users see.

In addition to India, Free Basics is available in 30 countries throughout Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

When And How To Pick Your Next Launch Country

International expansion is a challenge any globally ambitious company will face — some sooner than others.

As a long-time investor in both the U.S. and Europe, I often get asked by the venture community about the difference between the two. In my opinion, one of the key elements is the market fragmentation, which is something that European companies tend to come up against sooner than their U.S. counterparts.

While both the U.S. and Europe are consumer markets of more than 300 million people, grasping this potential in Europe is more challenging — and few companies have managed to do it successfully, given the region’s many diverse, distinct markets. As a result, I’m going to talk about international expansion using European examples and context for this piece — hopefully with takeaways that are universally relevant.

Can you go big without going home? Sure you can — if you give enough thought to the dynamics of expansion, starting with when and where to go next.

Is There Such A Thing As The “Right Time” To Launch In A New Country?

The first question the founding team of a consumer service needs to address concerns the timing of the launch in a new country. At McKinsey, and in most books on strategy, you will read that you can only replicate something successful, so you need to wait until your home country is cranking before starting abroad.

This is sound judgment. Unfortunately, it does not play out very well in the startup world. Why? Because by the time you have proven your model is a success in your home country, you already have other startups doing the same model in other key European markets, and competition gets fierce.

On the other hand, if you do a full roll-out with something that is not working or tuned enough, you will waste a lot of resources, which can sink the company.

So when is the right time? Every company will have a different answer. In my view, given the current competitive environment, the sooner the better. However, it is critical to do it gradually and in a controlled manner.

Here’s how I advise startups to approach expansion:

Nail your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) first. You need to have a service with a clear value proposition that works in different markets. You don’t need bells and whistles, just something simple but effective.

Field test your product with a meaningful amount of customers — typically a few thousands or tens of thousands. This should give you a good idea of what to expect.

Complete your initial marketing playbook. You need to have identified acquisition channels (SEM, Facebook, offline…) at a reasonable cost with payback typically in less than nine months. Make sure your approach is scalable.

How To Pick Your Next Country?

Once you’re clear on the ideal time to launch in your next country, the question becomes “where to go next?”

While every business and situation are different, the following three elements should always be considered when choosing your next market:

Market Potential: The “market potential” is a mix of different elements that must be weighted specifically for each business. It includes the market size, of course, but also the competitive dynamics, your network in the country (or your investor network) and the similarity with your home country. For example, in my experience, what works in France tends to also work well in Italy and Spain, but the U.K. can be an outlier.

Cash Requirements: Be clever with your resources. It is very important to assess your cost of capital and how much burn you can afford. If you raised €20 million in your Series A, you can take more risks and launch abroad sooner than if you raised €3-4 million. Picking a large market is attractive, but if it requires a level of investment that would reduce your runway considerably, you may be better off picking a smaller market. I have seen too many companies go big, burn big and then have to retrench, which is not a good position to be in.

Human Capital: Money is not everything; it is reasonably easy to get. The real challenge of international expansion lies in finding the right team, both at HQ to support the local launch and locally to scale the activity.

I typically encourage companies to start their expansion with one country and digest it to the point where it is scaling before launching a new one. It does not mean you need to wait a couple of years — a few months may be enough.

You can then accelerate the number of launches over time if you are successful. It’s key to remember that most technology markets are winner-takes-all — or at least takes most. It is, therefore, much better to be the leader in three countries than No. 5 in 10 countries.

Also, the more countries you support, the higher your cash burn and the fewer resources you can allocate to win in a given market — this is something that needs constant evaluation.

In summary, taking a thoughtful and considered approach to scaling internationally is key — and the sooner the better. First-mover advantage can offer a decisive advantage over competitors — and accelerate a company’s ability to become the global category leader early on.

While there may not necessarily be a perfect time for launching in a new market, preparing your business for expansion early on will support your continued success in a world where scaling internationally fast has become a requirement for any founder with global ambition.