==content_digital==

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All things web and tourism!

#Hashtags 101

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What is a hashtag?

Hashtags are now an integral part of how we communicate and market online. Originating with Twitter, they are now included in most social networks. They can be used ironically (#sorrynotsorry) to punctuate a message, but the true purpose of the hashtag is much more important!

Hashtags are, quite simply, a search tool. It’s a tag, similar to organising a product on a shelf, with the hash symbol in front of it. (Tagged with a hash symbol = hash-tag.) Adding this to a post makes it searchable for anyone with an interest in your business or topic. When a user clicks on a hashtag or enters it in the search field, they find all content that includes the term. Hashtags can be used within Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to help target your audience and collect...

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Good bots, bad bots and ghost spam

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You may have noticed lately that there has been an increasing amount of odd-looking referral websites cropping up in your Google Analytics reports. This is known as referral spam.

Whilst this traffic doesn’t normally harm your website, it can skew your web traffic analytics because they often have a low visit duration and high bounce rate (yuk!).

There are three types of spam traffic - here’s what it is about and how to deal with it. Maybe grab a cuppa tea first because, let’s be honest, this isn’t the most exciting thing you’ll ever read.


1. Well behaved bots

A "bot" is an automated computer programme that visits your website to gather information, e.g. a search engine bot crawls your site to determine how to rank it in results.

Many of these bots – aka “spiders”...

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