Canadian Webhosting Forums

[ftp]

Hi there,

I see that a new set of features popped up in Cpanel regarding SEO optimizations. I'm a little concerned about what they do and who they're affiliated with as there is no info in Cpanel about this without clicking the links.

1) Who am I being directed to? Is it a 3rd party commercial SEO company?
2) Will the links change my website? I clicked one and it changed my robots.txt file without asking permission to do so (not happy about that). What links do EXACTLY what?
3) Can you improve Cpanel to have more information about this company and what will be done to a website's files? Asking explicit permission before altering any files or submitting information to search engines absolutely has to happen (after clicking the one link I discovered that the company has submitted my information to various search engines, and they did a crappy job with the sitemapping...again very unhappy about this).

Thanks.

[mattm948]

Dear FTP,

First off, let me thank you for your comments and feedback. All to often customers remain silent when they have questions or concerns about products being offered through our service. In addition to my responses, I have forwarded off your questions to Attracta, a 3rd party Search Engine Optimization company to validate and compare my answers with theirs. If there is any variance, I will make sure to update this post with those answers.

1) Who am I being directed to? Is it a 3rd party commercial SEO company?
In relation to our SEO capabilities within cPanel, Canadian Web Hosting has recently partnered with an long-time Search Visibility Technology company known as Attracta. This decision was based on several factors including our desire to give our customers another tool and capability to get their websites recognized by the leading search engines. Attracta, as a leading technology company that has been delivering XML Sitemap services since the late 90's and today serves more than 65,000 customers each day. In addition to adding more SEO services, we also liked the usability, or ease in which customers could sign-up right their cPanel. Here is the recent post I put up that overviews their service and how the engagements works - viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1751.

2) Will the links change my website? I clicked one and it changed my robots.txt file without asking permission to do so (not happy about that). What links do EXACTLY what?
The links should in no way change your website, and Attracta's primary function is to crawl your site looking for links or pages to make sure they are listed with the major search engines. During this process, the crawler will also identify any broken links, or areas for improvement, and list them off for you to review and change. You cannot actually make edits with Attracta, and in no way should they be able to make any changes whether requested or not. In relation to the robots.txt file, in order for Attracta to be fully utilized you do have to install a robots.txt file. Since the process is entirely automated, their does need to be some code that will direct the bot where and how to look. I do have some concerns about the file not asking your permission, and would like to follow-up with you further on this comment.

3) Can you improve Cpanel to have more information about this company and what will be done to a website's files? Asking explicit permission before altering any files or submitting information to search engines absolutely has to happen (after clicking the one link I discovered that the company has submitted my information to various search engines, and they did a crappy job with the sitemapping...again very unhappy about this).
First off, let me apologize if the service was in anyway not to your satisfaction. I would be the first person to say that unfortunately not every service works to perfection each and every time. This is the reason that we have built in safeguards for our customers and to offer a layer of protection in the event that something doesn't work the way it is supposed to. For example, every service we offer is backed by a 60-day money back guarantee, and we would gladly refund any changes for your service. Secondly, with Attracta each customer is provided with a "Starter" account that essentially lets customers test drive the service before they actually buy it. I have reached out to Attracta about their permission parameters and have stressed the importance of asking and validating with our customers before any action is taken. I will post the reply to that comment as soon as I have it. With that being said, there are some changes on the horizon with the plug-in that will hopefully address some of your questions. The plug-in will be available by the end of June and offers:

• Improved user experience and interface iwth additional information about the company and the service.
• Resolution of potential installation errors of new accounts.
• Handles all detections of subdomains and redirects.
• Added SEO Consultation icon. Includes: Provides and sets a meeting to discuss SEO results and answer questions with our SEO advisory staff.

Hopefully I have addressed some of your questions, and if you would like any additional clarification you can reach out to myself or our support team directly at 888.821.7888. I will update this post as information comes in from Attracta. Again, we appreciate your comments and value your business.

Best regards,
Matt

[ftp]

Thank you for the detailed reply Matt. I've found the customer service through CWH to be the best I've run across ever since hosting through your company (I actually had the company I work for move their hosting to CWH based on the customer service).

Search engine placement is important and I'm very guarded (as are others) about any changes to their SEO. Currently I come up in position #6 for the key single word search in my area, so I was not pleased with the unconfirmed information being sent out to the search engines (this sounds like a Attracta software issue).

Unfortunately, I've already scrapped the robots.txt or I'd post it's contents here. If I recall, it was a redirect to Attracta for sitemap information. When I manually followed up through that link it was apparent that the automatic scan of my website done by Attracta was innaccurate. The only link that I used (I believe) was the "Dashboard and Analysis" button, expecting to get a review of my website but not expecting to have any changes made to the site itself or an overwrite of my previously submitted (and accurate) SEO data.

I think that if I were a completely novice web designer, working on a new (simple) site, then the concerns wouldn't be so big. My strong recommendation would be:

1) CWH - Clear information (rollover popup?) about what each of the links do in cpanel
2) Attracta - Display information to users for confirmation/correction before submission to any search engines
3) Attracta - Provide clear statements of any potential changes to site files and ask explicit permission to change them.

Thanks in advance,
FTP

[mattm948]

Hi FTP,

As mentioned, Attracta has provided some responses to your questions as well. I have included them below, and if you have any questions whatsoever please don't hesitate to ask.

1) When clicking our icon within the control panel, yes you are being directed to a 3rd party SEO company called Attracta. You are utilizing a free service that has been tested and promoted by Canadian Webhosting that includes XML Sitemap Installation, placement within the Attracta Directory, and an SEO Badge (upgrade paths are available for more robust accounts).

2) We do not modify your website. We only add a reference in your robots.txt file to your sitemap location and create a ".attracta.conf" file in your home directory with your user information. This is essential because the search engines need to know where to find the XML sitemap in order to accurately crawl your site and index your web pages.

3) As far as altering our message and the clarity of what we are doing I can discuss this with our marketing team and web designers. The messaging on our site is constantly evolving and content changing. The cPanel plugin is always being updated as well. I can reassure you that our service is effective and safe for your website.

[mattm948]

Hi FTP,

Another update as we continue to follow-up on your post -

Here is a comment from Attracta on some updates that they are implementing.

"That was a really good comment that your client brought up about the context and the robots.txt file being updated. I spoke with our VP and we will be revising content in the cpanel plugin to address your customer's concerns."

They will be placing increased controls and verification before any changes are made.

Thanks again for your feedback!!
Matt

[ftp]

How do I get rid of this company from being involved in my website? There is no option in Cpanel that I can see.

Originally they did a horrible job with scanning and submitting my website. My search engine placement actually was hurt by these people. I fixed my submissions and am back where I was. Now their automated system keeps scanning my site and submitted my info and I can't find an option to get them out.

If Cpanel doesn't have an option to remove the company from websites, there needs to be one.

Thanks,
Greg.

[seo-marketing]

thanks for sharing the great post

[Amadi]

While SEM and SEO are now playing a larger role in the major advertising objectives for businesses of all sizes, more consideration and foresight must be given before you choose on any such web content management explanation.

[Samanth]

The major part of SEO technique is White Hat. The White Hat SEO technique includes the SEO features that are sufficient able of producing the long-term results and getting authorized by search engines.

[onzevil]

[Matthew Tim]

It is very informative for SEO. SEO is simply the method that is used to get more visitors to your website via search engines. To make getting visitors a priority.

[mattm948]

Thanks everyone for the great feedback. Given the choice, what other SEO tools and features would you find useful?

[drkelly]

I agree do follow and no follow is important .

[Handyortung]

I think No/Do follow is not a very important think when you prefer real visitor rather than search engine bot.

Backlinking really helps a lot to optimise a site in different ways and one thing should always remember, that is quality content/article/support. Quality links refers to links along with quality content, for the visitor not for the search engine, not any offer, advertisement and have quality materials on target link pages. So when trying to backlink you must have quality content/articles on link sites as well as the sources.