Archives For SEO

Consolidating plug-ins with Jetpack and WordPress SEO

June 27, 2012 — 2 Comments

Over the past few weeks I’ve been going through the WordPress sites that I manage (roughly 100 of them, between my projects and clients) and refining the choice of plug-ins on each of them.  I’m using InfiniteWP to keep them all updated, but I’ve been manually working through them to add/remove various pluings.  Two plug-ins in particular are replacing 8-10 plugins on most of my sites.

WordPress SEO

[ Get the WordPress SEO plugin here] Joost de Valk (also known as “Yoast”) is a highly respected WordPress developer, and this package includes quite a few great tools to help with the search engine optimization of your site.  I had previously used a handful of plug-ins (mostly from Joost) to accomplish my goals, but this package is now more functional than those individual pieces.

  • Canonical URL’s — To make sure Google knows the true URL of each page.
  • Google XML Sitemaps — To create (and submit) sitemaps of your posts/pages.
  • Robots Meta — To include robot meta tags in certain areas of the site to prevent duplicate content issues.
  • RSS Footer — To add a snippet of text (and a link) at the bottom of your RSS feeds to help take advantage of people that scrape your feeds.

This is an excellent plug-in, and he updates it regularly with new features.  The one piece that this doesn’t replace is PuSHPress, which enables PubSubHubbub support to your site.  In short, it makes new entries go out really fast to people that get your posts using Google Reader and similar tools.

Jetpack

[ Get the Jetpack plugin here ] Similar to WordPress SEO, this plug-in replaces a variety of plugins that I’ve been using over the years.

  • Subscribe to comments — I hate it when I comment on a blog but they give me no way to subscribe to email updates of subsequent comments on that particular post.  This takes care of that.
  • Various social plugins — I’ve used a variety of social plugins (Digg Digg, ShareThis, Sociable, various individual networks, etc), but this takes care of them all in one place.  However, it doesn’t yet handle Pinterest so if you want that you’ll still need to add it separately.
  • WordPress Stats — If you like the WordPress stats plug-in, you now need to use Jetpack to stay current on it.  This offers nice lightweight stats, though I also include Google Analytics on every site.
  • Contact forms — This replaces other contact form scripts (Contact Form 7, etc), though I still use Wufoo most of the time.

Other plugins

So those two plug-ins have replaced many of the ones I used to use, but I still have a decent collection that are also installed for most clients.  They include:

  • Akismet – An excellent anti-spam plugin, which comes standard with WordPress, though you need to activate it.
  • Disqus Comment System — A replacement for the built-in comment system (and replaces the need for Akismet, Highlight Author Comments and some of the features in Jetpack).  I use it on a few sites, but not too many yet.
  • FeedBurner FeedSmith — If you push your RSS feed out via FeedBurner, this a great plug-in to help direct people to the proper feed.
  • Highlight Author Comments — This allows you to style author comments a bit differently then normal comments, so they’ll stand out when the post author leaves a comment on the post.
  • InfiniteWP Client — I manage most of my WordPress sites using Infinite WP, and this is a required piece of that.
  • jQuery Lightbox for Native Galleries — This turns normal WP galleries into cool lightboxed galleries. Here is an example.
  • PuSHPress — As I mentioned above, this enabled PubSubHubbub support on your blog, which means it goes out to RSS readers really fast.
  • Shadowbox JS — Allows you to do some neat shadowbox trick with media on your site, like popping YouTube videos up in little boxes.
  • Widget Logic — Allows you to pick and choose which pages particular widgets should appear on.
  • WPtouch — Creates a mobile-friendly version of your site automatically.  While I prefer to use mobile responsive themes instead of this, it can be helpful for older blogs.

There are a few others that I use from time to time depending on the theme (various sliders, theme-specific plug-ins such as Genesis Simple Edits when working with a StudioPress theme, etc), but that’s my main list.

 What are your favorite WordPress plug-ins?

In Site Content, WordPress , , , ,
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Google+ Business Pages are now live; here’s how to get started

November 9, 2011 — Leave a comment

Google has finally launched their business pages feature, and it’s open for everyone to sign up.  You can read more about it on the Google Blog, or watch the video below for a quick overview of how it works.

Business pages work very similarly to personal profiles, with a few notes:

  • You cannot create an account for a business page; you create it via your personal profile (similar to Facebook).
  • You can create multiple pages from a single profile.
  • Each business page can only be managed by the profile that created it, so choose carefully the right person in your organization to create the page.  Support for multiple admins is “coming soon”.
  • Pages cannot add users to a circle unless the user adds them first.  This is an awesome anti-spam move by Google.
  • There aren’t any vanity URLs yet (like plus.google.com/pepsi), but those are presumably coming in the future.

Direct Connect

Tied to this release is a new feature called “Direct Connect”.  If you begin your Google search with a +, it’ll show brand pages that match the query in the auto-complete results, as shown here:

Over time, it’s possible that this could become a trendy thing to promote.  I can image someone like Pepsi having something like “Google +Pepsi” for more at the end of a TV ad.  If it does take off, it’ll be important to get your page listed there.  But how?

Badges

Today, Google released “badges” for business pages.  These allow you to add nifty widgets to your page, and people can add your brand to their circles directly from your website!  It’s pretty slick.

Even more important is the snippet of code that they have you put in the <head> section of your site.  This is there to prove that the page in question is really yours and will qualify you to show up as a Direct Connect option.  No word on how soon those will start appearing, but it’d be wise to get yours connected so you can show up in Direct Connect as soon as possible.  You can learn more about badges from this Google blog post.

Have you built a page yet?

Have you built a page for your company yet?  Leave a  link to it in the comments and show us your work!

In Companies, Google+, Marketing, Social Media , , ,
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My favorite WordPress plug-ins

May 1, 2011 — 4 Comments

Three years ago I wrote up a list of my favorite plug-ins, and decided that it was well past time to give the list a fresh look.  While many of them have stayed the same, I’ve got a few additions and a few deletions.

The ones that stayed the same

These plug-ins have certainly been updated in the past few years, but remain part of every blog I manage:

Akismet – Amazingly awesome spam fighting plugin.

FeedBurner Feedsmith – I still run all of my blog RSS feeds through FeedBurner, and this is a great plug-in to quietly redirect visitors over there.

Google XML Sitemaps – A simple way to generate an XML sitemap and automatically notify search engines of your new posts.

Highlight Author Comments – Make your replies stand out when you reply to comments on a post of yours.

Subscribe to Comments – Allow users to get email notifications of new posts after they leave one.  I love when blogs have this, so I can be notified if someone replies to my comment and then we can continue the conversation.

The ones that I’ve moved away from

Here are the plug-ins that I no longer use regularly, for one reason or another:

All in One SEO Pack -Most of the themes that I use (typically from StudioPress) have great SEO baked right in and this is less important.

Enhanced WP Contact Form – I’ve switched to Wufoo for virtually all of my forms.

Fancy Zoom – I still use it from time to time, but most themes have better image management.

Top Commentators – This isn’t really a bad plug-in, I simply don’t use it any more.

Sociable – I’ve removed this in favor of Twitter and Facebook-specific plug-ins, shown below.

Twitter Tools – I now use dlvr.it to handle this instead, but I use it rather sparingly; be fresh on Twitter, not automated!

WordPress.com Stats – Still a great plugin, and I use it on a few blogs, but I primarily rely on Google Analytics.

The new additions!

I’ve dropped some plug-ins, but also added some new ones over the past few years such as:

Canonical URL’s – A very simple plug-in to add the canonical tag to your pages.  Not overly helpful in many cases, but can be excellent for your SEO sometimes.  (What is the canonical tag?)

PuSHPress – This enabled PuSubHubbub support for your blog. In short, it makes sure that RSS readers and others will get your posts instantly, rather than the next time they check in a few hours.  (more about the PuSHPress plugin)

RSS Footer – This adds a line of text (with a few links) the bottom of each post in your RSS feed.  The basic idea is that if someone is scraping your site and posting it as their own, you’ll at least still get some free links back to your site!

Twitter Button for WordPress – A simple way to add a “tweet” button to your posts.

WP FB Like Button – A simple way to add a Facebook “like” button to your posts.

WPtouch – A great plug-in that creates a mobile version of your site and automatically serves it to mobile phones when they connect.

You?

What about you?  Any other killer plugins that I’m missing from the list?

In Analytics, Facebook, Mobile, SEO, Technology, Twitter, WordPress , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Don’t be everything – just be awesome

February 21, 2011 — Leave a comment

As I’ve been building my business for the past few years, various personal weaknesses have shown up.  Some of them, like my lack of organization, have been corrected using things such as the GTD method.  Other weaknesses, such as my laughably bad graphic design skills,  I’ve consciously decided to leave as weaknesses.  Why?

“I can do anything!”

The easiest way to explain it is to introduce you to Bob.  I met Bob at a meeting last week, and his introduction to the group went something like this:

My name is Bob and I’m a financial planner. I can help you with your taxes, retirement planning, budgeting, estate planning, mortgages, car loans, college savings or anything else you might need.  Just call me!

The problem is that if I need something from that list, I probably only need that one thing.  Suppose I want to talk to someone about retirement planning.  Do I go to a retirement planning expert, or the guy that also happens to do retirement planning?  I go to the expert, of course.

Job hunting?

The same idea applies to job hunting.  If you’re trying to land a job with a company, you need to convince them that you’re the very best person to fill their opening.  If you apply for three different positions at the same company, they’ll quickly see that you’re not much of an expert at any of them, and they’ll fill the opening with someone more suited to that precise position.

Graphics and Flash

Along with weak graphic design skills, I can’t do Flash.  At all.  A few years ago I considered taking the time to learn, but opted not to.  However, projects still come up from time to time that need a Flash element or two.  So why didn’t I learn it?

It’s because I don’t want to be like Bob.  I have a smaller skill set that I specialize in (primarily SEO, WordPress, Social Media) and I focus all of my energy on being the best I can in those areas.  For everything else, I find great people that can serve your needs.  For example:

  • If you need some fancy graphic design, I’ll point you over to the awesome Ali Green.
  • If you need Flash work, I’ll send you to Harrison.
  • Need some copy written?  Talk to Evie.
  • Did your server just crash? Go see Derrick at Human I.T.
  • And the list goes on and on…

However, if you need help making Facebook work better for your company, or need to figure out why your site isn’t ranked well in Google, I’m your guy.  Though my skills aren’t perfect, all of my daily eduction (via Twitter, Google Reader, etc) is focused on being as sharp in those areas as possible.

Don’t get caught in a niche

That being said, be careful.  Five years ago, if I had decided to become a full-on MySpace expert I’d be in trouble today!  You not only need to keep up with the times, but you need to have a wide enough skill set so you don’t have all of your eggs in one basket.  It’s even better if you can make them all work together; for example, I help many clients use WordPress to assist their social media efforts and help improve their SEO.

Do the same thing with your job

Whatever line of work you’re in, you can do the same thing.  Focus in, work hard, and try to become an expert at a facet or two of your industry.

What about you? Have you ever intentionally not learned a new skill in order to stay focused?  Or do you try to learn everything you can?

In Facebook, Social Media , ,
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Has Google changed the way they handle social media links?

April 19, 2009 — 1 Comment

The short answer is yes.  And no. :)

Matt Cutts explains in the video below.  In a nutshell, he says they haven’t specifically changed the way social media links count toward your site, but they’re always changing the algorithm and some of the changes certainly could have had an impact.  They’ve made about 300-400 changes in the last year, and some of those may have had an effect on the weight of social media links that point to your site.

Anyhow, watch the short video below for Matt’s full answer:

In SEO, Videos , , , , ,
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Multiple H1s on a page — not a problem.

March 19, 2009 — Leave a comment

I’ve always shied away from using more than H1 tag on a single page.  I’ve assumed that Google would frown upon multiple H1s on a single page.  I was wrong.

The video below from Matt Cutts explains Google’s position on it.  I may re-look at a few sites where I used an H2 when I really could have used another H1 instead.  Good stuff.

In SEO, Videos , , , ,
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A great video with some WordPress SEO tips

November 5, 2008 — Leave a comment

Here’s an excellent video with some SEO tips for WordPress-driven sites.  This was given by Stephan Spencer of NetConcepts.  He mentions his excellent “SEO Title Tag” plug-in, which can be found here.

The video is about 30 minutes long, but well worth watching.  Even if you’re a WordPress SEO expert, you’re bound to pull a gem or two from this video.

In SEO, WordPress , ,
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Question and Answer time

August 26, 2008 — Leave a comment

Do you have a question releated to Search Engine Optimzation, AdSense, WordPress, or a related topic?  E-mail me (mickey@mickmelseo.com) and I’ll round them up and post the answers in a few days.  Thanks!

In SEO , , , ,
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Taylor Construction likes to randomly bug people

August 19, 2008 — Leave a comment

A few years ago, a number kept calling our house while we were out, but didn’t leave a message.  Finally we were around one time when they called, and it was Taylor Construction looking to drum up some business.  I told them very clearly that even if we needed construction services, they were now off our list.  I don’t deal with companies that cold call.

Today they went further — a home visit!  There’s nothing I like more than people trying to sell me stuff, unsolicited, while we’re getting the girls ready for bed.  Just so it’s clear, they’re still off the list…

So what’s a company to do?  It’s simple — be able to be found.  If I want to hire a company to do some construction work at the house, make sure you’re the first company I find.  In my case, that would mean Google.  Let’s say we wanted to get new windows for the house.  I’d probably start by searching for something like “marietta window replacement”.  They’re not in the first 100 results.

Looking at their site (no, I’m not linking to it), it seems they are targeting the word “Atlanta” instead of any suburb, which kind of makes sense.  Ok, so let’s try “atlanta window replacement”.  No dice — still not in the top 100.

The problems with their site are fairly basic things.  Maybe if they read my SEO blog rather than cold calling and door-to-door soliciting, they’d be in better shape in Google…

In Companies , ,
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Need help getting more traffic to your blog?

August 6, 2008 — Leave a comment

I apologize for not posting very much lately.  I’ve been working with a handful of bloggers to try to get their traffic (and revenue) beefed up, and I’ve not had much time for this site lately.  The techniques I’m using are really working quite well, and now I’m opening it up to other people.  I don’t want to try to assist too many people (it takes a personal relationship with each blog), but if you’d like some help with your blog, let me know.  Here’s the simple version of how it works:

  1. I manage your blog (WordPress updates, plugins, SEO tweaks, ad placement, etc).
  2. You continue to write your blog posts.
  3. I get a 25% split of your ad impressions.

To help explain this idea to potential clients, I’ve set up a simple site outlining how it works.  The first question that most people have is: “Wait.  I’m trying to earn more revenue, and I’m not sure I want to give up 25% of my revenue.”  It’s a fair question.  However, my clients (so far) have all been very pleased, as they’ve started earning much more than the 25% that I get.  Here are some stats froma recent client I’ve started helping.

Those are genuine stats from Google Analytics, snipped just a few minutes ago.  Each dot represents one week, leading up to last week.

The beauty of the revenue-sharing is this — you pay nothing.  Nada. $0.00.  Also, because I’m getting a small portion of the ad revenue, you can rest assured that I will work hard to get your blog running as smoothly as possible.

If you’re already WordPress-savvy and doing well, then you certainly don’t need my help.  However, if you’re having problems keeping your site running well, or if traffic just isn’t increasing as quickly as you think it show, shoot me an e-mail and we can chat.

In AdSense, SEO, WordPress , , , ,
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