Posts By: Mark Runyon

Hack Cleanup: Pharma Link Spam Embedded in WordPress

by Mark Runyon • January 17, 2015

A client called us today saying Cialis had taken over his website. Well not literally, but the keeping-it-up drug was suddenly getting prominent ad space in the header of his website just below the search bar. Our client didn’t wake up one morning and decide to start spreading the word about the cure for a […]


How Not to Get a Job on Craigslist

by Mark Runyon • November 25, 2014

Over the past few years, we’ve looked to Craigslist to find potential employees. We’ve also leaned heavily on eLance, but each channel caters more effectively to different jobs. Our latest ad was looking to add a few sharp sales people to do B2B outreach. We posted ads across several major markets in an attempt to […]


Using .htaccess & .htpasswd to Defend WordPress Against Brute Force Attacks

by Mark Runyon • August 20, 2014

So how scummy are spammers? What kind of low rent individual decides to devote their life to the pursuit of spamming websites? Yesterday, like countless days before it, some scum sucking individual decided to point a botnet at one of our sites and effectively tried to hammer it open with an absolute flood of traffic, […]


How Google’s New Quality Rating Guidelines Will Shape the Web in 2014 and Beyond

by Mark Runyon • July 20, 2014

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the magic curtain at Google? The modern day Wizard of Oz is shrouded in mystery surrounding how they develop their world conquering search algorithm. Most web marketers are left reading the tea leaves, trying to discern which quality signals to focus on this month. That’s why Jennifer […]


How to Spot a Future Google Penalty Lurking on Flippa

by Mark Runyon • June 28, 2014

Thank you for calling the Google Penalty Hotline servicing your Panda, Penguin and Manual Penalty needs. How can I help you? This is how I feel sometimes when I answer the phone. Diagnosing and fixing Google penalties is becoming a larger part of our business and affected owners are reaching out to us in an […]


Can a Natural Link from Huffington Post Spawn a Google Penalty?

by Mark Runyon • June 17, 2014

We have a client we are assisting in getting out from under a partial matches manual action penalty assessed by Google’s webspam team. Our client had not setup an account in Google Webmaster Tools until very recently so wasn’t aware of this issue until a couple weeks ago. The Webmaster Tools manual action section denoted […]


Using AJAX, JSON & PHP Proxy to Call Data From a Remote Server

by Mark Runyon • June 7, 2014

Do you ever go into a project with it all mapped out in your head? You’ve got every twist and turn of the code written before you’ve ever sat down to type a line. How many times does it actually work out like that? That was me entering this project. We have a partner who […]


How to Remove Product Page Links from Your WooCommerce Store

by Mark Runyon • May 25, 2014

I’ve gotta say WooCommerce is a pretty nice platform for setting up a web store within WordPress. We’ve worked with several eCommerce solutions over the years, but keep gravitating back to WooCommerce. Sure, its got its quirks like everyone else, but at the end of the day you can usually get the job done. The […]


Jennifer Ysteboe’s Vision of the Future of Technology

by Mark Runyon • May 15, 2014

The following essay was submitted by Jennifer Ysteboe from University of Missouri as part of the Future of Technology Scholarship competition. At 6:45 a.m. on the dot, my phone firmly tells me, “Taylor, it is time to wake up. Taylor, it is time to wake up,” before I say, “I understand.” I rub my eyes […]


Alden Arnold’s Vision of the Future of Technology

by Mark Runyon • May 15, 2014

The following essay was submitted by Alden Arnold from Alabama State University as part of the Future of Technology Scholarship competition. Winston Churchill said, “It’s always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than what you can see.” In 2040, I will be forty-four and a Healthcare Administrator. It’s quite easy to count […]