search engine optimization – Keep Up With The Web

What Is Your Response to Google’s Mobile Friendly Update? #FridayFinds

We’re less than a week away from Google’s April 21^st date to have our sites mobile-friendly. Hopefully, by now, your site already passes Google’s test, you’re implementing a plan to meet the deadline, or you have come to the conclusion that you’ll be okay if your website is not returned in the SERPs (search engine result pages) that are performed from mobile devices. The decision is individual. What we don’t want to do is make rash decisions that could derail our overall business strategy. We need to take a common sense approach to this and not fall prey to the #Mobilegeddon hysteria.

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Are You Ready for the Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm?

Chances are, you’ve already heard that Google has announced a new algorithm update that will include “mobile friendliness” as a ranking factor. The expected “date” for this algorithm will be April 21, 2015. So what does that mean to you and me? Is the solution to use a responsive WordPress theme? Will a WordPress plugin meet your needs? If you don’t make your site friendly for mobile devices, will this Google algorithm update affect how your site ranks in the SERPs (Search Engine Result pages) for desktop computers as well?

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Does SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Confuse You? #FridayFinds

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just write content for our blogs and websites and not worry about SEO? Is SEO even important in 2015? What if you don’t do anything special about optimizing your content for the search engines? What if you just write?

Sure, your content may or may not show up in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) but if you totally ignore meta-tags, descriptions and alternate text tags, would it matter?

If you don’t pay attention to backlinks (both to and from your site) are you putting yourself at risk of a Google penalty or a manual webspam action or being totally de-indexed by Google? Let’s take a step back today and look at the overall picture of SEO through a #FridayFinds round-up of some great articles that I found for you.

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How Can You Get Started With SEO? #FridayFinds

Love it or hate it, organic search traffic is a very effective method of driving free traffic to your website. People search the Internet when they’re researching and buying. It’s a fact. So, what can you do to optimize your website to be search engine friendly while still writing quality content that your visitors will want to read? Last week, in my #FridayFinds series, I focused on new SEO tactics that you can use to help website visitors find your blog in Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages). One of the resources that I cited suggested that we limit the length of our post titles to 55 characters. In this week’s finds, you’ll learn SEO tips and tools to either get you started with SEO or help take you to the next level.

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3 Things You May Not Know About Google and SEO – #FridayFinds

Do you know how to exploit the landing pages search function of Google’s keyword planner tool? Did you know that using underscores in the URLs of your website pages (for example blog posts) could potentially be costing you search traffic? Interested in learning ways to drive traffic to your website that don’t involve SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Find the answers to these three questions in this week’s #FridayFinds.

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The Ultimate Guide to Generating Backlinks – Part 1

Whether you own a non-profit organization, e-commerce business, or simply an informational blog, search engine optimization (SEO) will play a vital role in the success of your website. There are several elements involved in SEO, but one key element many people need help with is backlinking. The Ultimate Guide to Generating Backlinks, Part 1 explains the different options for backlinking, how to search for blogs that allow guest posts, and determining what sites are worthwhile based on Google PageRank.

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How To Set up Google Authorship & the Rel=Author Tag

Recently, I published a guest post “What Google Authorship Means for SEO” that generated a lot of discussion. Many readers asked how to set up Google Authorship on their own WordPress blog. Some readers weren’t sure if there were benefits to it. Others questioned how to add the rel=author tag to their content. There was a healthy conversation in the comment section and I promised to write a follow-up post to help answer some of the questions. Continue reading “How To Set up Google Authorship & the Rel=Author Tag”