Category Archives: Blog

The 5 Best WordPress Plugins to Use for SEO

WordPress, WordPress, WordPress, the most popular open source content management system (CMS) on the internet today. Almost everyone talks about it, and over 379 million people have viewed more than 4.1 billion WordPress pages every month since its initial unveiling in 2003. However, all of these people are thinking the same thing, “How will I separate my WordPress website from the rest of the pack? How will I rank the best on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing?” Well, alongside best SEO practices your plugin pack could affect your site’s performance and functionality, potentially affecting your online ranking.

Today there are over 23,500 WordPress plugins available, which makes it extremely difficult to discover which ones are harmful and which ones are beneficial to your website so we have tested and compiled a list of the 5 best WordPress plugins to use for SEO.my WordPress website from the rest of the pack? How will I rank the best on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing?” Well, alongside best SEO practices your plugin pack could affect your site’s performance and functionality, potentially affecting your online ranking.

1. WordPress SEO

Write better content with the WordPress SEO plugin.  The WordPress SEO plugin is the best SEO plugin on the market by integrating specific enhancement features including: page analysis, Meta & link elements, xml sitemaps, rss optimization, breadcrumbs, editing your robots.txt and htaccess file, social integration, multisite compatible, and import and export functionality.

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2. Local SEO for WordPress SEO by Yoast

Today local search is more important than ever before. Thanks to searches on the go more people are searching on with local search phrases. It should be obviously apparent that your business wants to be found for these terms. Well, Local SEO for WordPress SEO by Yoast is just the plugin! For just $69 for a single site, this plugin and all its advantages can be yours! It sets up your site in a way that Google loves by emphasizing the most important part about your business, your location!

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3. W3 Total Cache

Ever Heard of Web Performance Optimization (WPO)? Well now you have. Trusted by countless companies and downloaded by thousands of users, W3 Total Cache improves the user experience of your site. By increasing server performance, reducing the download times and providing transparent content delivery network (CDN) integration your user will hopefully leave your site a happy customer because your website will load and run fast. This helps for SEO because part of Google’s algorithm is site speed, which is why this plugin is so important.

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4. Google Analytics for WordPress

Yoast strikes again! Having a website with no analytics is like getting lost in the desert with no map. With Google Analytics for WordPress tracks your site’s stats with lots of metadata and has the ability to build your own roadmap to success by analyzing your user’s behavior and tweak your business model from there.

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5. WPtouch

Have a non-responsive website? No problem, just download the WPtouch plugin for a reformatted mobile version of your site. Your site can now be viewed from iphones, ipads, androids, blackberry, and more! 

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Do you have a favorite plugin that you think should be in the top 5? Feel free to let us know what it is in the comment section below.

Do you know what Wolfram Alpha is? Don’t worry if you answered “no”, you are far from alone. With the tag line “Computational Knowledge Engine”, its not a product that has been positioned for the masses. That changed a a year and a half ago when Apple introduced Siri. The reason is Wolfram Alpha powers a huge segment of what Siri does. Specifically, it is responsible for answering most of the general knowledge questions you ask her/it. For instance, if you ask Siri what the average snowfall is in Flagstaff, Arizona Wolfram Alpha processes your questions and gives the correct answers. It accomplishes this by gathering information from hundreds of thousands of data points — from weather to mathematical proofs and major/minor pentatonic scales. This is where the “Knowledge Engine” part comes from. Unlike Google it doesn’t search for things, it “knows” things and figures out the correct answer to gives you. This process is generally referred to as semantic search because it is based on understanding your search intent and the meaning of terms based on context and the words used, as opposed to looking for the exact verbiage used in a search query and providing matches.

Now you may be wondering, “Dan what does this have to do with web marketing?”, and I’m glad you asked. Lots of people own iPhones. And as Google has been telling us for a while, over 50% of mobile searches have local intent. Since Apple has over 50% of the mobile market share that means that a significant number of mobile searchers have access to Siri. Even if only a fraction of those people are using Siri for search it is still a channel that should be optimized. But besides that, Apple has a large foot in the door of semantic search, which is something Google wants.

What does all this mean?

It means a change in what SEO even is. In the case of Google’s current attempt at semantic search, Knowledge Graph, the information requested in a search query is able to be displayed by Google itself in SERPs rather than displaying pages with relevant data and expecting you to click on them. This is a big change from the document retrieval model of search that we have all grown accustomed to for the past 10+ years. Don’t worry though, there are still tactics and techniques you can use to make sure you aren’t left out in the proverbial cold. This SEOmoz article is an excellent beginning point. The most important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t panic because full-fledged semantic search is still off in the future, and while it is always prudent to future proof your business (and your web marketing) the world isn’t quite changing just yet.

Goodbye Google Reader     

Google Reader, available to the public since 2005, is one of the more popular, free RSS readers. Even so, there was still talk that Google Reader might be going away due to lack of usage and payoff. Google Reader was taken off the Google drop down menu for Google Services from March 19-20. With Google Reader’s complete departure on July 1, 2013, many are wondering if Google plans to launch a new option to take its place. In the meantime, web users have to seek other alternatives.

RSS Reader Alternatives

There are several RSS reader alternatives. Some familiar ones include: MySyndicaat, Superfeedr, Netvibes, Collected, Skimr, Sharpreader, The Old Reader, and NewsBlur.

The above list represents some of the “most used” readers, which may help users filter through the many choices. There are many RSS readers with similar features, but my top five recommendations are:

1. MyAlltop
• Allows user to bookmark sites/blogs as found on the web
• Can view a few updates at a time from each site/blog added on a personalized page
2. Bloglines
• Simple to import/export subscriptions
• Easy to create a blog roll
• Integrates with your Yahoo account and new Google desktop
• Many sites/blogs have it listed as an option to subscribe to without having to go to the reader directly
3. Feedly
• Pulls from both Google Reader and Twitter feeds
• Magazine-style layout
• Option for a “cards view” if like more visual design
• Can “star” items or save them for later
• Integration with Buffer and Bit.ly
4. Fever
• Extremely customizable, able to organize folders and list by how “hot” an item is
• $30 one-time fee
• Must run on own server or hosting account
5. Reeder
• Syncs with Google Calendar
• Integration with services like Read It Later and Instapaper
• Can “star” items or save them for later
• Can save items to social bookmarking services like Pinboard and Evernote

Stand-Alone or Web-Based

There are two types of feed readers to choose from:

1. Stand-alone clients allow access to feeds even when offline.

2. Web-based services require access to feeds only when online, but have features like feed search and feed integration with other sources.

Third Party Apps

With the termination of Google Reader, many third party apps will have to decide whether they can survive without Google’s content.

Some of these third party apps include:

• FeedDemon
• NetNewsWire
• Reeder
• Pulp

Additionally, web users seem excited about Digg coming out with their own reader. This is a smart idea for expanding their services, considering Digg is a social bookmarking site.

News Consumption Alternatives

RSS readers allow users to choose what specific sites/blogs from which to receive feeds.  A casual news reader or one interested in new sites/blogs to follow, may want to use other non-traditional news aggregators that feed trending topics (rather than topics of choice) or a wider variety of news to browse. The alternatives here may be preferred:

• Pulse
• NewsIsFree
• Flipboard
• Paper.li
• Instapaper
• Pocket
• Lockerz

Moving Forward

Some may argue that with social network sites like Twitter, one can see a live news trends easily without having to sign up for feed subscriptions. With the elimination of Google Reader, many wonder if RSS may disappear completely.

For those who still want to use an RSS reader, export your feed subscriptions using Google’s Takeout service. One can upload the subscriptions in the OPML export file to a new reader without having to start from scratch adding subscriptions.