With the rise of comprehensive digital marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) has been somewhat on the sidelines. Why would you spend your time on keywords, tags, and links (all this technical stuff) when you have paid ads, social media, and content? Though a bit ignored, SEO is still increasingly important to a site’s overall performance in search. Utilizing the power of on-page and off-page optimization, you can bring your site to the next level (i.e. increase rankings, drive more traffic, bolster conversion rates). The bad news is, doing SEO the right way is easier said than done. It is evolving quickly, and Google continues to throw out search algorithm updates, one after another. It can be hard to stay on top of things and keep your site optimized for the new realities of search. No wonder SEO professionals are constantly skimming the Web to fish out crucial bits of info about upcoming changes and updates. But the problem is, being deeply afraid of missing out on the … [Read more...] about 5 Silly but Harmful SEO Mistakes Digital Marketers Need to Avoid
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What Makes WordPress the Best Platform for SEO
WordPress sure has a come a long way since it’s initial release in 2003, hasn’t it? What started out as a simple blogging tool has become arguably the leading content management system in the world. In fact, WordPress is now used by 23.8% of all websites in the world. Sites powered by WordPress include brands ranging from NASA, CNN, Forbes, The New York Times, TechCrunch, IZOD, Best Buy, GM, eBay, and even Jay Z’s LifeandTimes.com, to name just a few. Even Google’s Matt Cutts is a fan of WordPress, calling it “a fantastic piece of software.” If you’re a WordPress user, it’s easy to realize why WordPress is such a powerful platform. It’s easy to use, it’s free, and has more than enough plugins/add-ons to help customize your site or blog to fit your needs. That’s not to say that other content management systems – such as Joomla or Drupal – aren’t worthy options, it’s just that WordPress is pretty … [Read more...] about What Makes WordPress the Best Platform for SEO
SEO requirements for a new website platform
Many times, those choosing a new enterprise platform to serve their website to the world are not well-versed in today’s SEO requirements. Systems integration and indexation are the focus of many IT-minded project managers. CMS features will often be key to marketing directors’ and CMOs’ decision-making. Even for savvy marketers, some platform requirements may slip under the radar in their due diligence. To support all of those tasked with selecting a new website platform, let’s recap the top elements to consider when vetting different solutions. Platform SEO requirements In my experience, the following are must-have elements when assessing new website platforms. Missing one or more of these elements likely means your site will see poor representation in search engine indices and/or miss an important quality guideline. 1. Hosted on dedicated IP (IP shared with dev site OK) Too often, I see major websites or blogs hosted along with dozens or hundreds of other … [Read more...] about SEO requirements for a new website platform
3 WordPress Plugins for SEO in 2013
Some of you are likely already aware of these plugins, while others will be hearing about them for the first time. These plugins are specifically for WordPress websites. These are only 3 of thousands of plugins available for WordPress. But these 3 are considerably strong and I would recommend them for most WordPress sites. Personally, I love working with WordPress. It is the most popular CMS (content management system) for good reason. Building a simple website is incredibly easy and adding new functionality is only a plugin or development project away. Although this is true, there are also good reasons why companies choose other systems like Drupal, Joombla, Magento, etc., as WordPress is limited in certain ways that can demand another CMS at times. While some WordPress developers would rather build plugin functionality themselves, there are thousands of high-quality plugins out there to use. For those of you who haven’t used plugins before, they simply allow you to create … [Read more...] about 3 WordPress Plugins for SEO in 2013
New Search Engine Attrakt Focuses On Curated Content
Ever amassed a collection of Web bookmarks on a particular subject and then wanted to search through their contents? Delicious users will be familiar with link curating and sharing, but there’s no ability to actually search the contents of the bookmarked pages and sites. A few Florentines, mostly former colleagues from the Italian internet company Dada, set out in April 2011 to develop a new search engine, Attrakt, which would focus specifically on hosting specialized search engines curated by the Web community. Attrakt’s Index Relies On Curator Contributions As such, Attrakt isn’t a generalist search engine, with a broad index ready for everyday searches. Attrakt’s index is primarily seeded through links specified by curators of custom search engines, what Attrakt calls boxes. As in the early days of Wikipedia, if you’re lucky enough to search on a topic someone has already curated, then you might be impressed. But for the most part, Attrakt is fairly … [Read more...] about New Search Engine Attrakt Focuses On Curated Content