How to Optimize Your WordPress Website?

WordPress Web Optimization

WordPress powers more than 24% of the web-a figure that rises every day. The entire world is transforming into a digitized ambiance step-by-step. From simple websites to blogs, to complex portals and enterprise websites, and even applications are built with WordPress. WordPress combines ease for the users and publishers with under-the-hood difficulties for the developers. This makes it flexible while still being easy to use.

What sense does it make to have an enchanting theme and a killer portfolio that doesn't search engine optimized? Google and the other search engines could care less about your appealing images and web design. They actually focus on ALT tags, file names, keywords, and other boring techno-savvy aspects. However, those “boring” elements are loved by search engines.

To subsist in this hard-hitting ambiance, it is very requisite to influence the audience in some jiffy. When an individual lands on the website for the first time, you have a few seconds to grab their heed to convince them to hang around. If your webpage is slow, the visitors will turn away in troops. The chances are very high that they even click on the ‘close’ button before your website will load. Moreover, the factor-page loading speed is already considered as an important ranking signal by Google.


Tips to Optimize Your WordPress Website

·        Content At Its Best!

The search engines can’t see a site. They can only “read” a site. How a site is looking is not the element that a search engine considers. What “talks” to the search engine are the words or the content, the components in the site that explain, share, educate, and babble. Most WordPress themes are designed with the content as close to the peak of the unstyled page as feasible, keeping sidebars and footers towards the bottom. Ensure that your Theme puts the content near the top.

·        Manage Your URL Structure

Set up the pretty permalinks. A permalink is the structure of the URLs produced when you publish a new page or post. WordPress has the default setting for this, but don’t use it, as it reveals nothing about what your page or post will be about. If you can’t read or understand it properly, then no search engine bothers you about that. But, don’t worry; WordPress makes it facile to choose the permalinks that are SEO friendly.

For e.g.- 

1.    Bad Permalink- www.yoursite.com/?p=3423 (Default option in WordPress)

2.    Pretty Permalink- www.yoursite.com/this-is-easy-to-read (Post Name Option in WordPress)


·        Enable Browser Caching

A website has some larger files that rarely change. This includes CSS files, JavaScript files, the website's logo, etc. One way to take benefit of this is to allow browser caching. It simply allows internet users to speed up the loading time of their beloved sites by storing a cached copy of your website locally.

This will eventually reduce calls to your server and save the user from downloading the same files again. Moreover, if the files get expired, then they will be re-downloaded. 

·        Use a CDN

CDN or Content Delivery Network or Content Distribution Network is beneficial for pretty much everyone, as it distributes your data across the globe. Generally, CDN boosts page load speed by taking the pressure off of your server.

KeyCDN is the alternative CDN provider. It provides a step-by-step WordPress integration guide on its support page. You can also consider MaxCDN, which is a pay-per-usage CDN. These two are the most affordable CDNs and effective enough to beat the pricing of competitors like Amazon.

·        Monitor Your Plugins

Plugins are the most influential parts of WordPress and can be the strongest rationales for WordPress websites being slow. Therefore, it is pivotal to analyze before installing any plugin, is this plugin indispensable?

The more plugins you install without more research, the more likely you will face performance issues. However, the sheer number of plugins you have installed is not a reason for the slowness of the WordPress website.


·        Enable Gzip Compression

Use Gzip compression for your images, CSS, and JavaScript files to reduce the size of data that is to be transferred between your server and your visitors.

Gzip can be enabled via the WordPress options page. You can find this page at www. yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/options.php. Simply, change the value of the Gzip field from 0 to 1, to enable Gzip. 

·        Minify Your JavaScript and CSS Files

The PHP5 application Minify combines CSS and JavaScript wraps into a single file. This greatly reduces the number of HTTP requests. Plus, this also intends to remove the unnecessary data from double spaces, empty new lines, comments, etc., and thus lowers the size of the files.

A number of tools are available online. You can use WP Minify or Better WordPress Minify. 

·        Use Fast Search Engine Optimized Themes

In the past few years, many WordPress theme authors have stepped up to the plate to create themes that are SEO optimized. Code and Speed are the two significant parameters. Besides these, some more factors can be taken into account:

1.   Correct use of the canonical URL meta tag.

2.   Proper use of heading and meta title tags.

3.   A clean structure that uses proper and valid HTML

A theme can load fast, but as you add the plugins and other elements to a web page, it can change swiftly. However, a good theme for SEO should be lightweight.


·        Optimize Your WordPress Database

It’s a good practice to optimize your WordPress database after a certain span of time. Consider it as running a Disk Defragmenter on your local hard disk. It also plays an equivalent imperative role in making your WordPress website manageable.

Wrapping It Up

Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin is one of the most efficient SEO plugins to make your WordPress website optimized. With over 70 settings available to optimize your website, the plugin is easy to use and apposite for both beginners and advanced users.

Simply have fast-loading web pages and unique, quality, and relevant content, the rest will be automatically a cakewalk.

Feel free to share more tips to optimize WordPress websites.


Aarif Habeeb
Aarif Habeeb is a Digital Marketing Strategist and Technical Content writer in an Indian digital marketing agency. You can also find him on Twitter.


WordPress powers more than 24% of the web-a figure that rises every day. The entire world is transforming into a digitized ambiance ste...

5 Quick Hacks to Improve Your Website's SEO

SEO Techniques

Over the years, SEO has remained a popular choice for digital marketers for improving the online performance of businesses. But at the same time, SEOs have had their fair share of critics. They fail to understand that SEO is not the digital “lightning in a bottle”; it is not an online tool that will deliver the desired results within your targeted time frame.

The power of SEO can be found in its ability to adapt and evolve and therefore, be manipulated to meet the changing demands of the market. The key to successful SEO is to identify the changes and implement the appropriate strategy.

In this article, I’ll talk about the five quick hacks you can apply to improve SEO.

1. Craft Relevant and Quality Content

Keywords are an effective tool for improving search engine rankings. But the use of keywords will not guarantee the effectiveness of your blog or article.

Think about this: Google is primarily a tool for keyword research. For your material to be referenced it must be relevant. You can use all the keywords you want but if there is nothing of value in your content, the reader will opt to click out of the web page.

Here are a few pointers to make relevant content that will also be SEO friendly:

     Length: The minimal length for a blog post should be 800 words; the higher the word count the better. Google views longer blog posts as having better opportunities to present relevant information than short posts.

     Keywords: The last thing you should do with keywords is abused them. Be strategic with their placement. The most important sections to insert keywords are in the title, within the first 200 words, and no more than two to three more times per 800 words.

     Engagement: Remember to write for your audience, not just the search engines. Write compelling content that will encourage your reader to engage or share your post. An effective strategy would be to use the narrative or story-telling approach.

2. Utilize Social Media

Social media is a huge influence on consumers and businesses. Its value in enhancing SEO has been overlooked because people view online marketing strategies as competitive instead of complimentary.

The fact of the matter is people who go online visit their social media networks. Of the 7.2 Billion people in the world, three billion are online every day and 1.7 Billion of them are active in social media. Of the 1.7 Billion active social media accounts, nearly a billion are on Facebook.

By integrating social media into your SEO strategy, you will have access to more than half of the people who are on the Internet every day!

Here are a few tips you can consider when using social media for SEO:

     Length: Again, the length of your post will have an effect on SEO. But unlike blog posts, for social media, shorter generates higher “likes” and levels of engagement. For Facebook posts, 140 characters are the ideal length. Twitter is at 120 words.

     Engage: Whether people respond favorably or not to your post, engage with them. Rather than dwell on the negatives, considering they took the time to read what you wrote. And remember to be courteous. Social media is the last place you would want to get into a heated debate.

     Social Share Buttons: On your website’s blog page, make sure there are social media share buttons. If you follow the steps of crafting a relevant blog post, you should give your readers the opportunity to share your content.

3. Focus On Quality Links

Link building is a proven effective strategy for improving your SEO. When you reference content to a website that carries the information or validates your data, it enhances the credibility of your content.

It also works for your site when you have a good number of links pointing to your site. It increases your volume of inbound traffic and further enhances your credibility as an authority.

But Google has run its patience with the link-building practices of many website proprietors. For one, Google will penalize websites that purchase links. Second, it will penalize websites that overstuff their pages with links that are not related to content.

With its position on maintaining the integrity of an organic search, it would be best to apply the following link-building strategies:

     Focus only on links that are relevant to your content and the purpose of your website.

     Focus on writing relevant and engaging content.

     Do not abuse guest-blogging strategies; these should still remain relevant to your website.

     Continue to utilize social media to drive inbound interest in your blogs.

4. Ensure Mobile Responsiveness

Nowadays, it is no longer enough to have a website. With 60% of online traffic coming from mobile gadgets, particularly smartphones, you must ensure your website is mobile-responsive. You may consistently write great, engaging content but if 60% of the Internet’s online users cannot access it, your efforts would go to waste.

Mobile responsiveness presents unique challenges for website designers. There are design considerations in order to enhance download speed. Websites that are heavy in images will experience slow download times. Statistically, 40% of mobile users abandon the search if the site fails to download after three seconds.

Another issue to consider is your website’s accessibility across different browsers. It is a daunting task but it will pay dividends for your SEO efforts to have your website available across a wide variety of browsers.

A professional website designer will be able to present other design options for you to consider for mobile responsiveness. But this is no option; your website must be mobile-accessible.

5. Conduct a Website Audit

Every business needs to conduct a general audit to assess its overall performance and identify weak areas. The same goes for your website. Here are a few of the areas you should look into:

     Website Coding: Check with your website developer if its present coding is accessible to the search engine crawlers. Elements such as videos, images, and certain text can inhibit the ability of the crawler to index your web page.

     URL: Review your URLs if they are relevant to your target market or audience. Short and concise URLs are better for SEO and also for social media sharing.

     Plug-Ins: If your website has plug-ins that are rarely used this could affect the site loading speed. In addition, it can compromise the security and integrity of your website.

SEO remains a valuable channel for making your website discovered. But just like the Internet itself, the principles of SEO will continually evolve and conform to the demands, demographics, and preferences of the market. When using SEO techniques, you should be open-minded in implementing its strategies and patient when expecting results.


Felix Tarcomnicu
Felix Tarcomnicu works with Monitor Backlinks. He enjoys doing SEO and helping others to improve their website's organic traffic. You can connect with Felix on Twitter.



Over the years, SEO has remained a popular choice for digital marketers for improving the online performance of businesses. But at the ...

Google Says Structured Markup May Become a Ranking Factor

Google Ranking Algorithm

So, Google’s John Mueller made a very big announcement a few days ago. He provided us with an insight into the search engine’s mind. If you’re like me, then this announcement will surely be an eye-opener. John Mueller revealed that Google might consider structured markup in their ranking algorithm.

His exact words were:

“So, I think in the long run, it will definitely make sense to use structured data where you see that as being reasonable on the website.”

If you recall, Google has repeatedly stated in the past that webmasters can add structured data, but it will not affect how their page ranks on Google. Could it be possible that Google now is considering structured data as a valuable tool to help it rank pages better?

If John Muller is to be believed, they are, but possibly in the future. If I were you, I would closely take what he said into account because when it does become official, you will say, “Been there, done that.”

Now, you will tell me that he’s giving mixed messages, which he does. Just look at this statement:

“I wouldn’t assume that using structured data markup will make your site jump up in rankings automatically. So, we try to distinguish between a site that has done technically well and a site that actually has good content.”

What Does He Mean? 

Friends, it means you need to have a combination of the two, structured markup and rich content. Google’s goal has always been to present users with the most relevant content. I wouldn’t want to search for the name of a car and get results of an animal with the same name.

I want relevant content to show up in my search results and so do you. Google’s aim is to make our search experience better, which is why they focus on keywords, rich content, and rich snippets, but now, they have thrown structured markup into the mix. 

Why Structured Markup? Why the Confusion? 

Don’t you see what I see; the big dog of search engines is struggling to meet its goal. How did I see that point? Why would Mueller even hint at including structured markup into its algorithm rating in the future, if there wasn’t a chance of it actually happening?

Remember, they have adamantly said countless times that structured markup will not help your rankings. So, why hint at adding structured markup into their lineup? Well, I like to think that they are struggling… a few rank pages.

Hence, the structured markup is becoming a reality down the line, which means you will have to get with the game plan and add it to your site if you want to rank better in the SERPs (search engine result pages) and increase your average CTR (click-through rate).

How Exactly Will Structured Markup Help You? 

When you add structured markup to your site’s HTML, Google will generate that information in the search results. From your site, it will grab rich snippets to display the Meta description.

Let’s say, you are looking for a particular restaurant. When the results come up, its name will not be the only thing you see. You will also see additional information such as stars, pricing, and hours. When you implement structured markup, it will display a richer snippet.

Google already displays a snippet of your website in the search results, but when you structure it, you will manually tell Google to display this, that is, your chosen snippet in the results.

Listen to Mueller or Not to Listen to Mueller 

Right now, Google is generating your snippets from stored databases. When you include structured markup, you are helping Google gain a better understanding of your site, your services, your location, your product, and more.

I will leave you with this and you can make your decision on whether to use structured markup or forgo it. Indirectly, structured markup can increase your site’s CTR, if not ranking. If you use the right kind of markup then your ranking and CTR also increase. 

Google may not use it as part of its ranking algorithm, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. The structured markup will give you indirect gains, and I think that is what Mueller is trying to tell us. 


Kyle Gustin
Kyle Gustin is the President of Executive SEO Inc., a Search Engine Optimization company based out of Winnipeg, Canada.

So, Google’s John Mueller made a very big announcement a few days ago. He provided us with an insight into the search engine’s mind. ...

Wikinut- Best Blogging Platform to Enhance Your Content on the Internet

Wikinut Review

Important Note: Wikinut currently closed their content monetization program described in this article.

"Content is King". This phrase is very much familiar to Bloggers and Web marketers. Obviously content is a key element in blogging as well as a source of income for writers or bloggers in the web world. There are several online money blogging platforms available for bloggers on the internet. For instance, SponseredReviews, iWriter, and many more.....

Recently I have interacted with an online content distribution platform "Wikinut". This not only provides an opportunity to share your content but also earn enough money from it. So in this article Seogdk reviewed Wikinut and extract valuable information to make money from it with the inclusion of benefits and limitations.

What is Wikinut?

Wikinut is an online blogging community that allows users to contribute and moderate their own content. It is free to join and open to all, including hassle-free approval process.

Basically, you register on the Wikinut, submit an article as an author or you can choose to become a moderator. If you decide to register as an author, wait for your article to be approved and to be published. You are now ready to start earning money from their revenue sharing program. You can also make money through referrals and royalty programs.

How to Make Money from Wikinut?

Wikinut's revenue comes from Google AdSense and Infolinks ad platforms. When you contribute an article on the Wikinut, the Google Adsense and Infolinks ads are displayed along with your articles. If a reader viewed and clicks on the ad are taken to the advertiser’s website and Wikinut gets paid based on the agreed cost per click (CPC) and cost per impression (CPM).

Any revenue generated by the ads displayed along your contents is tracked by the Wikinut system. You will then earn 50% of this revenue. The pay rate is not revealed but from my computations, considering the statistics for my first post it pays approx £0.001 per 15 views.

Use a few popular options proposed by Wikinut to earn more:

-Writing Pages

You earn more by writing frequently on Wikinut. The more pages you contribute, increase the chance of earning and visibility. Your page royalty rate is 50%

-Invite Friends

Invite your friends! For every friend, you referred to Wikinut earn fix amount of share. Your referrals royalty rate is 5% typically equivalent to 10% of the author's share.

-Review Pages

Each article passes through reviews and once its approved, it is published live. You can review pages submitted by other members to earn extra bucks. Your moderation royalty rate is 5% usually equivalent to 10% of the author's share.

In addition, you will continue receiving these royalties as long as the article remains published on the site.

Why Wikinut?

Basically, Wikinut has a very high Google search ranking so your articles will appear high in the search ranking. If you have a good article that you would like to publish, you can put forward it right now and start making money via Wikinut. However, if you are able to write high-quality content that can attract many readers, you are more likely to make some good money on the website.

Wikinut pays your payments via Paypal on a monthly basis or Net-30 system. Mostly you receive your payments on or before the 10th of the month. Payments will be made to any Wikinut user whose balance at the end of the last but one month was £5.00 or greater.

For instance, A user joins Wikinut in June and writes a few pages. Later he/she makes £7.5 of royalties by the end of June.

Next, he/she will not receive a July payment as their balance at the end of May (the July cutoff point) was 0. Further, he/she make another £10 of royalties throughout July.

He/she will receive an August payment of £7.5 (their balance at the August cutoff point). The remaining £10 balance is then carried over into the September payment period.

Benefits of Wikinut

Wikinut provides extensive benefits to share content on it as well as earn money from it. So first we discuss benefits:

- If you one that can make enough web traffic to your articles, then definitely this is one site you would like to experiment, for increasing your residual income.

-Hassle-free content sharing and approval process which builds engagement with bloggers.

-It builds the online reputation of bloggers as well as increases readers' list.

-It is an ideal alternative to make money by sharing your quality content.

Limitations of Wikinut

We very well knew that every coin has two sides, likewise, Wikinut also has some limitations as below:

- The minimum payout is £5 and it seems to be low to achieve by writing for Wikinut, but it may not be an easy job unless you are able to successfully drive web traffic to your articles.

- Once you join Wikinut, there is no option for deleting your account or any of your articles. Therefore you losing control over your own work, once it has been published.

Conclusion

From the above information, Wikinut is a website that I would not recommend to those looking to make huge money from writing online, but if you are looking to reach a bigger readership it may well be for you. So friends send your valuable feedback to this review post via comments and emails. Till then take care and enjoy your life.....!!!


Important Note: Wikinut currently closed their content monetization program described in this article. " Content is King "...

How To Build Links If You're An E-commerce Website?

Ecommerce Websites

The world of e-commerce has come a long way in the past couple of years. It has been traveling swifter than the speed of light. In the past few years, it has crushed expectations, created many jobs, and introduced entirely new selling channels to retailers. The word ‘eCommerce’ is not just a word in today’s era, it has become more than the buzzword for today’s youth. And, in the near future, the boundaries between “conventional” and “electronic” commerce will become increasingly indistinct as more and more businesses move the sections of their operations onto the internet. 

Having the straightforward option to shop and pay, sitting in a single place, seems quite enthralling. E-commerce makes it simpler and worthier and most importantly a time saver.

“You can’t wait for the customers to come to you. You have to figure out where they are, go there, and drag them back to your store.”

Myriad websites are tussling to subsist in this content-smogged business milieu. And the competition is getting tougher day by day as more and more are evolving with distinct and modern services. Plus, the customer is that stubborn insect who is always seeking something new but effective plus cost-effective. Contemplating these parameters, it has become requisite to endorse your marketing campaign to advertise your products and services and to establish a robust position in the corporate environment. 

It is yours or we can say the firm’s task to find the most common services and the targeting audience towards that specific service. Better, do the proper market research, analyze and comprehend all the factors, and endeavor to get web traffic to your website, employing the legitimate approach. Rather than sitting idle and waiting for the customers to reach for you, step outside into the market and make them compelled to visit your website and use your services.

“Retailers that go beyond selling a product and tell a story to establish a firm brand identity and to build a one-to-one relationship with their customers are more likely to thrive.”

Establishing and maintaining the relationship with the customers is the foremost step to entering into the phase of the link-building procedure. And, indeed, the firms having robust and trustworthy bonding with the potential customers will have more chances to grow and eventually lead to the PROMOTION of the website.

Approaches that Assist in Building Links to E-commerce Websites

    Make an Appealing And Interesting Website

Make your website free of cluttering of ads, content, and products if not appealing to the visitors. Create a separate dedicated page for each category so that the customers find it easy to search for any product.

Create the deal pages and consider publishing one, generic deals page to list your current and forthcoming promotions. And then adopt the same, simply targeting the relevant audience.

Grab Low-hanging Fruits

1.    Leverage business relationships: Request backlinks from your business partners, vendors, suppliers, dealers, manufacturers, etc. If you intend to try harder, they will give you at least one.

2.   Leverage personal relationships: Also, you can ask for links from your relatives, friends, and colleagues who own a blog or a website.

3.   Leverage your personal asset: If you have other websites, get the links from those websites. But, don’t get overstuffed. A link from the home page of each domain is good enough.

Focus On Building The Domain Authority

Acquire the backlinks from a large number of unique root domains. Guest blogging and directory submissions are the best ways to develop domain authority. Ensure that the chosen directory is worthy and can pass the link juice.

Push Your Top Selling Product Pages And Categories First

Make an audit of your website determine the top-selling products and their categories and spend time with them to make it more noticeable to the audience. Make them content-rich, the very first, especially in terms of the images.

 Adding And Offering More And More Blogs

If you have the chance to add blogs to your e-commerce websites, then add them unquestionably. This will significantly affect your website ranking. Having relevant content on your website increases the chances of attracting links to your website.

Getting the links by giving the stuff away. Guest posts or blog outreach is the most cogent tool to grab the attention of the audience. Be active in your industry’s community and others also to remain linked with the latest stuff.

For eg- If your business is related to “home décor”, then write the following on the search bar and then request them to accept your content and give you the backlinks.

     “Home Decor” + “write for us”
     “Home Decor” + “guest post by”
     "Home Decor" + “contribute to”
  

Infographics

They are the gold mines for procuring quality backlinks. Data-based visuals are the imperative concepts in link-building techniques in this present era. If other bloggers or content curators love your infographics, then they embed your work on their website and hence, it will create more backlinks leading back to your business.
  

Using Products As Link Bait

In many instances, revamping or redesigning the category pages proves to be a challenging task. If that’s the case, selling the enthralling products on our website can become an efficient form of link bait. 

Find a Way to Use Social Media If Possible

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin, and Instagram… are the most influential social media channels acquiring more and more attention today. You can use Twitter to tweet the coupons for your products or contests, Facebook to share your upcoming products’ information, Instagram for image-sharing, etc. Use these networks to promote your brand swiftly.

Conclusion

It’s all about acquiring higher-quality links. It is easy to explore a number of ways to build links to e-commerce websites. The matter is to get the links from relevant and high-authority websites. You can check the website domain and page authority with the Moz SEO Toolbar


Aarif Habeeb
Aarif Habeeb is a Digital Marketing Strategist and Technical Content writer in an Indian digital marketing agency. You can also find him on Twitter.

The world of e-commerce has come a long way in the past couple of years. It has been traveling swifter than the speed of light. In th...