Peter Warwick-Mahoney

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Moving email between servers

February 27, 2017 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney Leave a Comment

Moving email between servers Peter MahoneyThere are plenty of reason to move servers for your website, but email is often an afterthought. Even though it’s something we use hundreds of times a week.

Speed issues, cost and possibly (hopefully) needing to upgrade to cope with all your traffic are all excellent reasons to consider a server move.

Moving the website is one thing, files, databases and DNS work all need to be done – but what about all your emails? Inbox, folder, sent items, drafts. How do you get those across?

And if you’re a server admin with full control over them, then this post isn’t for you. Because you have some clear pathways to move email from the old server to the new one.

But what about everyone else? The 99% of people who just pay for shared space with an existing hosting company, who just have a web based control panel (like Plesk or cPanel) they log into?

If that’s you, prepare for pain. Well, to varying degrees.

Simply put there’s never been a decent tool made to move email from server to server.

If you connect to your email currently via POP, that will mean you’re downloading your email to you local computer and therefore have a local copy. So losing the email from the existing server wouldn’t be a problem.

If you connect via IMAP (and most people do) then all your email is stored on the server, and would be lost. In this case you have 3 courses of action*:

  1. Be prepared to lose your existing email.
  2. Change it so you do connect via POP, then have all that email download to your local machine. The downside with this is usually you’d only end up with the emails on one machine. If you’re used to checking the same email accounts via perhaps two computers and a mobile, then you’d lose the option to have old emails on those.
  3. Get the new server setup and running. Set up the new email address (using IMAP too) and get those all setup on your computer. Then connect to the old email accounts again (you’ll need to change the server address to the IP address, which is a tad cumbersome). But then the really awful bit comes in, you have to drag the emails from the old accounts to the new – and because they’re set up on your local machine it downloads them all then uploads them as it copies them across. Sometimes I can copy a folder at a time, sometimes you need to do emails one at a time – it depends on the setup of the old server.

That last one is a horrible job. I’ve done it on request before, but for an average small office email setup it can easily take a day.

My preference is to start again. Suck up that there’s going to be email lost, make sure you have copies of any current message threads and communication, and bite the bullet.

 

* = If you’re moving from one type of hosting control panel to another one that’s the same (for example cPanel to cPanel) – you have another option fortunately. Again it’s messy: you need to download your mail folder then recreate all the same email accounts on the new server and upload the mail folder to the same place on that new server. This often falls down though because of permissions issues, or server settings you can’t control (where mail is stored, etc.)

 

Filed Under: Hints & Tips, Hosting Tagged With: change webhosts, cpanel, email, hosting, move servers, server, whm

Turning off comments in WordPress

July 27, 2016 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney Leave a Comment

Turning off comments in Wordpress Peter MahoneyI get asked this a lot. You’ve made your WordPress site, launched it, then noticed all the empty comment sections and wondered where they came from.

Commenting in WordPress is turned on by default.

To switch it off, got to:
Dashboard > Settings > Discussion

and untick:

  • Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks) on new articles
  • Allow people to post comments on new articles

That sorts out all your future posts and pages. But what about the ones you’ve already published?

For all current posts you have to do each manually. The easiest way is to go to:
Dashboard > Poststhen click “Quick Edit” under them one by one, and unticking these options:
Turning off comments in Wordpress Peter Mahoney

Being sure to “Update” after each one.

It’s a faff, especially if you’ve already published a lot of content. But a learning experience nonetheless.

Comments on this post are (incidentally) open.

🙂

Filed Under: Hints & Tips, Wordpress Tagged With: comment, commenting, discussion, turn off comments, wordpress

3 Approaches to PPC Advertising

December 31, 2015 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney Leave a Comment

3 Approaches to PPC Advertising Peter MahoneyI don’t actually offer PPC advertising services (Pay per click). I’m very specialised at what I do already, but clients do regularly ask me for advice garnered from 18 years experience across a variety of technologies.

So I do have some thoughts to share with you.

One very effective technique with PPC is to target what is known as a “spread” of search queries and phrases. That’s based on making the most of the three different “tracks” people take when planning PPC campaigns.

  1. Many people make the mistake of just targeting the most popular searches, which of course is a valid technique but places them firmly, exclusively, in a very competitive market. It also costs a lot more to run campaigns of this nature.
  2. Conversely some people will try to do the opposite, target only the less common searches to save themselves money spent on the campaign, but of course they see a lot less traffic.
  3. There is a third-road, which is trying to find searches with a statistically slightly higher popularity, but lower competition. However, the vast nature of Google Adwords and other PPC markets tends to even these “gaps” out pretty quickly, so even when they can be found the gap is very narrow.

I prefer to approach these campaigns as a spread, to include some targets from all three of these categories. That way you achieve a good mix of results, financial outlay, and it gives you greater scope to track the success of your campaigns and decide which of these might be worth higher future investment.

Basically, you get more options, more data and therefore in the long run a much more strategic and lucrative approach.

Filed Under: Google, Hints & Tips Tagged With: adwords, google adwords, online advertising, pay per click, ppc

Lies

July 21, 2014 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney 2 Comments

Lies Peter MahoneyHere’s a pretty typical advert you’ll see online when searching for SEO, “I can create 33 SEO backlink Panda Penguin safe from PR10 (Amazon, CNN, HP, ask,aol) for £18”.

LIES.

I know I bang on about the trouble with buying backlinks. Regular readers will be familiar with my disdain for people selling the impossible—since Google’s Panda algorithm tries very hard to find people buying links, saying any scheme like this is “Panda safe” or even worse, “Panda friendly” is just a plain old lie.

So, at the risk of repeating myself, I’m going to say some things I’ve said before, albeit in a more concise and succinct form.

It is true that Google does like to see links to your site. But they are excellent at discerning real links (where someone liked your site or service enough to link to it) from purchased ones.

I generally stand against buying backlinks, because of my “SEO ethos”. My ethos is simple by the way—Google have given us a swag of information regarding what search engines do and do not want—so I say we give them what they’re after. And avoid what they’re not.

Plus, I have about three jobs a week come in from people who bought back links and got caught—and dropped off Google completely. When they penalise you, they really hit you hard.

Technically speaking, really awesome backlinks would certainly help your SEO. But 99% of the time buying them is not awesome, and therefore I recommend avoiding it.

I, like Google, see SEO as a long game, if done properly. But also, if done properly, it “sticks”. A site with good SEO that’s risen to the top should stay at the top.

And with that, I shall get down from my well-trodden soap-box. That’s the end of my manifesto for the evening.

Filed Under: Google, Hints & Tips, Opinion, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tagged With: back-links, backlinks, buying links, Google, manifesto, search engine optimisation, SEO

What is noindex, and when to use it

June 9, 2014 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney Leave a Comment

What is noindex, and when to use it Peter Mahoney“noindex” is a simple setting you can activate for any page on your site that instructs search engines not to scan it.

Using WordPress you’ll usually find this on each page and post in the Dashboard, in the settings for whichever SEO Plugin you use (All In One SEO pack, Yoast, etc.).

Most other content management systems will have their own setting, or if your site is totally bespoke you can add this to the code in the <head> section:

<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex,follow” />

Why would you want search engines to ignore a page when they come to index your site?

There are many reasons actually, but the most common is duplicate content. If you have two pages on your site that have similar content, you want to mark one as noindex so it doesn’t appear as though you’ve stuffed your site with multiple copies of the same thing.

Google and the other major engines see duplicate content as an attempt to make your site look fuller than it really is, or to have stolen content from elsewhere to try to fill your site up quickly, without much thought, and very little originality.

The other time to definitely use nofollow is if you have used a significant portion of content from another site. Sometimes there is a legitimate reason to grab content from elsewhere and publish it yourself, but you should always stop it from being indexed.

Now, before you get too excited and think “I’m fine, I’ve not got anything on my site that exists elsewhere at all”, let me ask you about your Terms and Conditions. Did you have those written from scratch? Or are they standardised, lifted from another site, or based on a template?

noindex them. Even though they’re just the legal bits, you don’t want Google to have any reason to think your site has a predilection toward duplicate content.

Filed Under: Content, Google, Hints & Tips, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tagged With: all in one seo pack, code, noindex, search engine optimisation, SEO, terms and conditions, wordpress, yoast

Buying backlinks

April 22, 2014 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney 1 Comment

Buying backlinks Peter Mahoneya.k.a. Why it’s best to follow my advice. 🙂

I talk a lot about the importance of doing SEO properly, and not trying to cheat the search engines.

Of all the tricks out there, the most tempting by far is buying backlinks.

Google wants lots of sites to link to us, right? So let’s just get some and get moving up those rankings!

Terrible, terrible idea.

A client of mine bought some from a seller claiming to be Google safe, Panda safe, Penguin safe, PR10, quality links.

But you can’t be Google-safe. All that will ever mean is they haven’t caught you (or the system being used to generate your links) yet. But they’ve been promising for a decade that they will, and more often than not, they do.

The image above is a bit small, but I’m sure you can pinpoint when they bought the so-called “safe” links.

Their sales fell proportionately.

Filed Under: Google, Hints & Tips, Opinion, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tagged With: backlinks, PR10, safe backlinks

Queen’s “Greatest Hits”

April 10, 2014 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney Leave a Comment

Queen's "Greatest Hits" Peter MahoneyWhat do you blog about when business is slow?

Most of us get inspiration for our posts from what we’re doing professionally. Recent successes, new clients, examples of our work…but what to say when not a lot has been going on?

Dave Burnett is an Essex based wedding photographer I work with, and he sent me this excellent article this morning:
What to blog about when business is slow

Understandably, it’s about the photography business. But there are ideas in there for us all.

  • Musings
  • Our greatest hits (the best work of the year before)
  • Things we want to achieve (our dreams)
  • Explain concepts from your industry

Whatever you do, avoid the temptation to write about having nothing to write about. I enjoyed Queen’s “Greatest Hits” far more than I would have a lonely press statement saying they contractually had to release something.

Filed Under: Hints & Tips Tagged With: blogging, dave burnett, greatest hits, inspiration, queen

Lies Cold-Callers Told Me

February 5, 2014 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney Leave a Comment

Lies Cold-Callers Told Me Peter MahoneyAt some stage in the last six months, every one of my clients has received an email or cold call from a company telling them they’re losing business because their SEO isn’t up to snuff.

Heck, I get these calls regularly myself. I enjoy challenging the people on the other end of the line, and very quickly one thing becomes clear.

They’ve no idea what they’re talking about.

SEO, sadly, isn’t a regulated industry, and because of the level of investment people put into their online presences it’s very easy to frighten them with bogus information.

The people emailing and calling are sales people; often for firms that with a bit of digging, you can find myriad horror stories about online.

My favourite examples of their spiel include, “Your site doesn’t have keyword tags” (search engines don’t actually use them) and “Your site isn’t W3 compliant” (Google has made it clear this has no effect on a site’s ranking).

The latter is particularly nefarious, because although a W3 compliant site is certainly best practice–very few sites do tick all the boxes.

It’s scaremongering at its worst.

Remember, when you get a call out of the blue, or emails that by rights should go straight to your spam folder, always check with a known professional, someone you trust. And if you are considering working with a new company, ask how many sales people they have compared to actual SEO experts on staff.

Do some checking, to make sure what they’re telling you is true.

Filed Under: Hints & Tips, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tagged With: #buffyepisode, cold-calls, cowboys, search engines optimisation, SEO

Blocking the Wayback Machine – Internet Archive

January 17, 2014 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney Leave a Comment

Blocking the Wayback Machine - Internet Archive Peter MahoneyHave you come across the Wayback Machine?

It’s been around for some years, and aims to be an archive of the internet—forever.

I do enjoy having a brose and seeing how far some sites have come, as well as looking back at sites I made years ago.

However, just because it’s fun to browse doesn’t mean you always want your site on it. Now, once a cached version is there there’s not a lot to be done, however you can stop it indexing your site in the first place.

Just add this to your site’s robots.txt file:

User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /

That tells the Internet Archive to ignore your site when it’s indexing the internet.

Easy!

Filed Under: Google, Hints & Tips, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tagged With: block, robots.txt, wayback machine

Taking my own advice

January 6, 2014 by Peter Warwick-Mahoney Leave a Comment

Taking my own advice Peter MahoneyI did my regular search to see where I was placed on Google today.

The answer is number two. 2! I’ve been first for months, and now there’s a pesky LinkedIn directory above me.

My first thought was, “But I haven’t changed anything!” and of course, that’s the problem.

I’ve only blogged a few times in the past four months. I used to keep a regular schedule of three times a week, and Google loved me for it. It got their SEO juices flowing. But now, I’m falling.

It’s ironic in one way (and not in the Alanis sense, but something that actually fits the definition of irony) in that I write to at least two clients a day extolling the virtues of blogging. I’ve been so busy preaching the blogging gospel that I haven’t had the time to do it myself.

Well, all that changes today. Thrice a week, you’ll see me writing. And you’ll see me back at number one as a result of those efforts.

And I won’t feel like such a hypocrite when delivering my sermons.

Filed Under: Google, Hints & Tips, News, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Tagged With: alanis, blogging gospel, irony, preaching, search engine optimisation, SEO

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