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So for a short time, we can all download a fully functional Windows 10 for free. ”
 

Apparently the free upgrade will last for 12 months, so on that basis, I'll let all the keen people go first and find all the bugs, and then think about it in about 9 months 

Google Removal Tool 3rd June 2015 11:34 AM
Sorry read your post again and missed some thing

Yeah I used to just mark as fixed but they keep coming back again and again and again.”

 

So they are flagged as 404s, you mark as fixed, and then they reflag again?

This is normally because although the page in question has been removed, someone somewhere is linking to it, so it shows up again.

We get it all the time, a business listing that has been removed from the directory, but other websites and pages are still linking to the deleted page. So it shows up again in the Google report. eg:

In this case, the saynoto0870 forum has 6 different links to a page we have removed, but google keeps flagging it:

"Googlebot couldn't crawl this URL because it points to a non-existent page"

Not much we can do about it, and we are automatically deleting pages on a daily basis, so we get lots of 404 Not found errors. If it's because you are removing old content, then don't worry about it. I never bother with the Google URL removal tool unless someone specifically wants details removed asap from Googles cache. Otherwise Google will naturally drop it from the index in around 30 days.

Not much you can do about inbound dead links though, unless you want to manually let people know. 

I suspect like us you are generating lots of 404 errors as you have lots of stale content that regularly needs removing, so I wouldn't worry about it. If it wasn't related to content being deliberately removed, then it is showing you that you have a page that can't be accessed. 

You do need to check out any soft 404 or server errors though as that cab point to genuine problems.

Google Removal Tool 1st June 2015 9:07 PM
Am I doing things right .. I get my errors from the crawl page (webmasters/tools/crawl-errors) and remove them using the removal page (/webmasters/tools/removals) ..

If I am doing things wrong please do tell

Thanks”

 

Am no expert on ecommerce systems or zencart, but it sounds like you are doing something wrong or your site structure needs a tweak.

In webmasters/tools/crawl-error what kind of errors are you getting? If they are in the Not Found tab and are 404 or 410 then thats ok, because Google is just letting you know you've got pages that are no longer there. So it's just informational. You can select them all and mark as fixed and they should all disappear.

If they are server errors or soft 404's then this needs a bit more investigating. What are the crawl errors?

If you are removing your pages and they are correctly reporting as 404's, Google should pick these up quickly enough and you shouldn't need to manually remove URLs from Googles cache. We probably remove a URL once every 6 months.

If you remove a page from Googles cache, only for that page to reappear in Googles index, then there must be a duplicate URL for that particular product on your site?

I've "reserved" my free copy of Windows 10, a "head over heart" decision
 

Aha, I see what the fuss is about now, the "download for free" icon has just appeared on my Windows 7 machine.

So for a short time, we can all download a fully functional Windows 10 for free. Great marketing or confirmation that Windows 8 was a disaster 

Out of curiosity, chose the option to see if it would run on my 3 year old laptop..

Good old Microsoft, so everything's fine apart from my AntiVirus  No doubt Norton will be quick to release an upgrade, but if one of the largest vendors is flagging as unsupported, then that's the reason I'll revisit this again in 12 months after all the expected teething problems.

Pension Auto-enrolment 1st June 2015 12:37 PM

Have you been contacted yet by the pensions regulator?

I got my brown letter this morning:

"The law on workplace pensions has changed. Every employer with at least one member of staff must automatically enrol those who are eligible into a workplace pension scheme and contribute towards it"

In otherwords, anyone who has an employee who earns over £10k per year will now have the right to a workplace pension which the employer (you) needs to contribute to.

Ignoring it will land you in hot water with fines from the Pensions Regulator.

As this is a massive administrative change, it is being rolled out in stages. Big business has been dealt with first, and now us smaller fish are being allocated "staging dates" when we need to be compliant and the law comes into effect. For us, we have a staging date of October 2016, so there is no immediate panic, but you do need to start preparing.

Must admit, I'm not really up to speed on the in's and out's or what the costs will mean. I've heard figures of £300 - £600 a year bandied about, but this is going to be dependant on salaries. I need to appoint a nominated pensions contact by the 30th June, I assume then I'll find out more information about actual costs.

I nominate my accountant!

Team meeting tomorrow - on the agenda, salary reduction to under £10k and redundancies

I can see the idea behind it, as the state pension will dwindle away to nothing in the decades to come. But in reality, any loading or increase of contributions will be carried by the employee, as I suspect most employers will factor this in to the salary costs.

So has anyone else received theirs yet, and are you in the process of getting it sorted out, or are you waiting for Pension police to catch up with you? Any thoughts about the scheme, good or bad?

For anyone worried, here is a link to the Pension Regulator website

Speaking of the devil. Have just received a notice to book the new windows 10 when it becomes available via download ... So possible all window users should have a new icon in the task-bar”
 

I'd give it a wide birth. Windows platforms are notoriously buggy at launch. Let the super keen stamp out the bugs and pain first  

 You might find this useful. 

Yosemite Vs Windows 10

 

Great article. Am very slowly warming to Macs since Win 8 appeared  

Installing the free Classic Shell turned our win 8 machines back into useful tools again, and it's good to know that scrapping the start menu has been conceded as a mistake and will be brought back.

I'll happily sit on Win 7 for another 12 months, let Win 8 wither and die, and Windows 10 bed in and debug (windows 10.2?) before deciding whether to upgrade or bit the bullet and go Mac.

I guess a lot of it is the fear of the unknown (as well as licences etc).

Can I be the first to name the movie?

Fifa Las Vegas!”

 

Your wasted in web design.... 

At least they've got a new president in place to stamp out all the corruption and repair the reputation of world football. 

Oh, it's the same bloke as the last 4 presidents...

Rate the last movie you saw 1st June 2015 11:53 AM
Also watched Paddington Bear the movie and found it rather funny in places and well worth the watch + is put together nicely”
 

I got dragged along to the cinema to see this with the kids, expecting an hour an half snooze, it was actually really good 

Quite fancy the Mad Max movie, so better than the original or worse? Did quite like Mel Gibson in it, so be interesting to see how it compares.

Lead Generation Ideas 1st June 2015 11:50 AM
I also arrange for people to come to events to show them what the company is all about, when they are impressed, they spread the word. These techniques have been very successful for myself & one of my partner's is now earning £50k/mnth so, you can say it is a very successful technique! ”
 

I assume you are talking about Multi Level Marketing? I've never met many (any) earning £50k per month, most end up out of pocket with some aloe vera products, cleaning products or similar collecting dust in the garage   Happy days if it works for some. Had more than a few Utility distributors come and go as well, so I suspect it's down to your natural sales ability and passion, something maybe a lot of folk are missing.

Do agree word of mouth is old as the hills and always the most effective