SEO Hacker 2018 Round-up

Last updated on December 27, 2018 at 02:28 pm

2018 was a big year for us here at SEO Hacker, from growing our team to establishing more business connections that brought in more opportunities for the future. the year also brought in a lot of new tools, updates, and news that have affected the ever-growing SEO industry. this has led to us writing about some of the biggest news, along with bringing in important tips and guides that help fellow SEO professionals and enthusiasts.

These articles have not only helped us gain traffic and establish more partnerships, but this has also shown how far has the SEO industry grown over the years in different parts of the world. With this in mind, let us take a look at some of the most important articles for each month of the year.

January: Daring SEO Strategies You Must Try This 2018

We started off 2018 with an article that featured SEO strategies that would provide you with the best results for the rest of the year. From optimizing voice search to building your mobile search presence, these strategies surely helped websites grow this 2018.

February: Google Images Update Removes View Image and Image Search

Google has had numerous updates and big news during 2018, and this is one of the first major changes that they have launched for one of their services. With Google Images being the largest image search engine, removing image search and view image surely caused numerous users to adapt and adjust their method of gathering images from the internet. In SEO terms, this update benefited website traffic, as users now have to go to the source webpage in order to view the image.

March: Exploring the Google Lighthouse Chrome Extension

Google Lighthouse is one of the most reliable and effective free website audit tools around. With the Google Chrome Extension becoming available, users would now be able to set up website audits within a few clicks. We reviewed this amazing free tool, and see how it can help find the best ways to optimize our websites.

April: Best URL Shortening Tools For 2018

URL Shortening services are one of the most sought after on the internet. With Goo.gl shutting down their services, looking for alternatives is a must. This article provides users with some of the best URL shortening tools that users can make use of.

May: A Look Into the Upcoming Google Maps Update

Google Maps is one of the most important Google services around, as it helps people around the world navigate through various cities and streets and reach their destination. We looked into some of the upcoming updates and gave our thoughts on how this could impact SEO.

June: Low-key SEO Strategies Worth Trying Out

Finding the best SEO strategies are essential in bringing you high amounts of traffic, and have your web pages show up in Google SERPs. However, there are a good amount of underrated and effective SEO strategies that a lot of people might overlook, which have the potential to turn your traffic around.

July: How Hashtags on YouTube Can Improve Searchability

YouTube has become the most popular online video streaming platform, along with also being one of the largest search engines on the internet. With YouTube SEO becoming more important than ever, adding new elements such as hashtags allows videos in the platform become more searchable.

August: WordPress 5.0: What You Need To Know To Get Ready

WordPress is one of the most popular CMS software around, allowing users to create a wide variety of websites. WordPress 5.0 is one of the most important releases of the year, as it introduces a new editor that makes content creation a much smoother experience.

September: A Guide to Using Google Dataset Search Beta

Google is always expanding their search platform to accommodate different kinds of data that users would be able to use. Google Dataset allows users to be able to track various datasets from educational, government, and corporate institutions, and make them more searchable.

October: SEO Strategies and Trends That Will be Big in 2019

2018 is surely a big year for the SEO industry, with new strategies and tools that help make our job much more efficient. With 2019 on the horizon, here are some strategies and trends that might prove to be useful once January rolls around.

November: A Look into the Google PageSpeed Insights Tool Update

The Google Speed update has helped the search engine push towards a more mobile-friendly experience. This makes monitoring your loading speed more important than ever. Here’s a look into the latest PageSpeed Insights Update, and how it helps you monitor your loading speeds.

December: How to Recover From the Google Medic Update

The Google Medic update is one of the most impactful algorithm updates of the year, affecting websites related to health and commerce. This guide will help you recover from the update and regain traffic.

Key Takeaway

2018 was surely a big year, and this year-end round-up truly encapsulates the most important things that happened. With 2019 on the way, looking back at the rest of the year allows you to find the best steps to take moving forward.

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Merry Christmas SEO Hackers!

Last updated on December 25, 2018 at 04:20 pm

2018 has been a year of continued growth that helped us create new ways to innovate and establish new connections. This makes Christmas a very great time to be thankful for the journey we have had during the year. With that in mind, we would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

The holidays are a great time to rest, spend time with friends and family, and take a look back on some of the best things that have happened to you over the course of the year. When it comes to looking back, we have put together a reading list featuring our December articles that you could read over the holidays.

Understanding Trust and Citation Flow

Trust and Citation Flow are two key metrics that help users understand the trustworthiness and quality of a website. From link building to content marketing, it is important to assess these metrics in order to find the best websites and links that would help you gain more traffic.

Optimizing your Videos for SEO in 2019

Video content has become one of the most important forms of digital content in 2018, and with mobile internet and social media marketing becoming more significant than ever, it is important to deliver quality content that stands out amongst the abundance of choices. This guide will help you create great video content, and how to promote it on social media platforms.

Google Allo Shutting Down, Duo and Messages Support on the way

Google Allo was the platform where people were introduced to Google Assistant for the first time. With the messaging app shutting down in 2019, Google is planning to streamline their messaging and communication platforms to create a more comprehensive system that allows seamless and smooth communication.

WordPress 5.0 Out New Features You Need to Know Before Updating

After months of anticipation, the newest version of WordPress has finally been launched. Here are our thoughts about the new Gutenberg editor, and how it makes WordPress more accessible than ever for both new and old users.

A Look Into the Top Search Terms of 2018

2018 has become another big year in the world of search, with numerous updates from some of the largest search engines, along with new tools and services that make it more reliable and accessible. With that in mind, a look into the top search terms of 2018 show how people use online search and how it as affected SEO in general.

How to Recover From the Google Medic Update

The Google Medic Update refers to one of Google’s Algorithm updates that affected numerous websites related to e-commerce and YMYL websites. Here’s a guide that would help you recover your traffic by optimizing your website.

Key Takeaway

The holidays are the best time to rest and relax with your friends and family, and this Christmas reading list would keep you company until the New Year arrives.

If you have questions and inquiries about SEO, leave a comment below and let’s talk.

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The Fastest Way to Write Better Blog Posts Today

I can tell you how to write better blog posts immediately. Ready? Start with the most important stuff first. That’s it. Start where you’re going to end. Start with the guts of what you’re covering. All of that. Up front. Start there.

I could end the post already. I just told you what you needed to know. But I’ll elaborate.

The post The Fastest Way to Write Better Blog Posts Today appeared first on chrisbrogan.com.

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How SEO Can Improve HVAC Business

People searching for DHL Mechanical Contractor Calgary  consider experience, specialization, safety, product/service durability and trust factors as the key criteria. SEO can boost all these factors within the shortest time if you can follow the simple guidelines, listed in this article. SEO can boost visibility, attract visitors, provide useful information, help in product and service

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How SEO Can Improve Online Flower Business

Florist business is closely related to every celebration and festival from your birthday to Christmas. It is also closely connected to corporate meetings, conferences, seminars, and other business events. You can go on increasing the list to infinitum.  Consumers for your flower business come from every family, community, faith, and country. Connecting the online florist

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How to kick-start 2019 as a blogger with big goals

2018 is the year I took my blog to the next level: I started a blog series here on yoast.com about SEO for bloggers, I made goals, achieved a lot and failed a few as well. I tried to plan, failed miserably and tried again, with success. In short: in 2018 I found my love for blogging (again) and experimented a lot. 2019 is approaching fast though and I want to prepare properly. I don’t want to make the same mistakes I made this year and I’d like to reach the goals and resolutions I’ve set. So, here’s a plan (for you and me) to kickstart 2019 as a blogger with big goals.

Write down your blogging goals

Whether you want to grow to 50,000 visitors a month, want to launch an eBook, get more collaborations, or all three: write down each and every single one of your goals of 2019. By writing down your goals, you’re already way more committed to them than by just saying them out loud. Take that advantage! Write them down somewhere where you’ll see them regularly, for example on your blog notebook or on a memo board in your office. Seeing goals regularly and thinking about them often, will help you stay on top of them.

Please note that your goal should be realistic. If you want to grow your audience and your blog has 500 visitors now, it might not be entirely achievable to aim for 100,000 visitors by December 2019. Especially, if you’re unsure about how to reach such a growth.

Plan time to work on your goals

The biggest thing we all face, is time. Particularly, if your blog is a hobby – or just not your main source of income – it’s often the first thing you put aside when life throws you a curveball. I didn’t publish blogs for almost two months on my personal blog as I was very busy with other projects, hobbies and making up excuses why I just couldn’t spend time on my blog.

Because I don’t want this to happen again in 2019, I need blog posts written in advance. That’s why I planned a blog weekend in the beginning of January. I’ve done this back in September as well and managed to write over 30 blog posts in just three days. So in January I booked a cottage together with a fellow blogger and we’ll spend our days writing. The goal? To create flow, creativity and content.

Focus on one task at a time

If you’re in a writing flow, you should continue to write, even if your blog post is finished. Do not fall into the trap of finishing your writing to start photographing and scheduling or promoting the blog post. Continue working on other blog posts! If you combine your tasks, you’ll be much more efficient. That could mean that you first write a few blog posts, then start photographing for all blog posts and then schedule or fine-tune them. You’ll switch less between tasks, which makes your focus and the results that much better.

I’ve spoken to bloggers who link certain days to certain tasks. On Mondays they’ll create their images; on Tuesdays they’ll focus on their Pinterest scheduling; on Wednesdays they’ll write new content and so forth. Because you’re focused, you’ll get things done much quicker. You have to find out if this works for you or not, it will help you get the tasks you otherwise wouldn’t do, on your to do list.

Finish your tasks

If you focus on one task at a time, the biggest trap you could fall in is never publishing some of your post. While I was writing in a cottage back in September, the internet was horrible. This meant I couldn’t schedule my posts properly, nor find stock photos if necessary. Now, I’ve only published 12 of the 32 blog posts I’ve written back then. Are the other 20 not worth publishing? No, they definitely are! I just never finished them. I’ve never proofread them, took photos, nor scheduled them. And now, I have an issue with even looking at those blog posts, as it all feels like a waste.

Lock up that critic (or befriend it)

Two of my most popular posts in 2018, were about the inner critic we all have inside of us. The first one was about why you should befriend your inner critic, the second one was why you should quit your blog now. Both got a lot of comments. Some of you were annoyed that I even dared say you should quit your blog and with every right so.

Often our biggest critic, is within us. If we want to grow, we should befriend it and be willing to silence it every once in a while. You can’t write blog posts in advance, if you let your inner critic out too often. You’ll never be able to finish everything, if you let the perfectionist in you speak all the time. Often ‘good enough’ really is good enough.

Find bloggers like yourself

To stay on top of your goals, it’s very helpful to have bloggers to chat to. The last year I met various bloggers like me on blogging conferences. I’ve even become close friends with a few of them. We often message each other for help, tips and the likes. Are you unsure why and if networking is something for you? I’ve written a post on the importance of networking as a blogger!

Reflect each month

Whenever you set your year goals, don’t forget you should set monthly goals and maybe even weekly and daily goals that link to the bigger goals. This way, your goal stays within reach and doesn’t feel like something in the far distance. You’ll make small progress with every step you take. By the end of each month, you need to check if you made progress and if it’s the progress you aimed for. If not, find out why you didn’t reach it. Did you aim too high? Or did you neglect to do what you should’ve done? Whatever the reason is, accept that sometimes you fail. You always have a new month and a new day to try again!

I would love to hear from you what your goals for 2019 are, how you want to reach them and what you would like to learn from me in 2019!

Read more: Blogging: the ultimate guide »

The post How to kick-start 2019 as a blogger with big goals appeared first on Yoast.

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How to Recover From the Google Medic Update

Last updated on December 20, 2018 at 05:01 pm

As every SEO professional knows, Google will always find ways to optimize their services on a daily basis, and this means adding occasional minor updates and launching major updates that shake things up every now and then.

2018 was no stranger to a host of updates from Google, as we have seen algorithm updates during March, July, August, and October. All of these algorithm updates have bought significant changes to various websites, with some changes not really visible until you look further. The most recent update in August introduced the world to Google Medic, which affected numerous websites related to business.

This update surely caused a good amount of issues for a lot of websites, and this means that you would have to optimize to ensure that you would still be able to retain your search rankings and keep your traffic steady. Before we look into how do we recover from the Google Medic Update, let’s take a look at how the previous updates impacted SEO this 2018.

March: A focus on quality content

The March algorithm update is the first major update released by Google during 2018. The March update is a series of updates that focus on content quality, as evidenced by the rise and drop of rich snippets in SERPs. Content quality affects the overall user experience, which means that this update ensures that elements like ads and evergreen content would be able to drive more traffic into your website.

July: Google Speed Update

The July update is known most for the Google Speed Update, which put focus into mobile page loading speed. Mobile SEO has grown immensely over the year, and with Responsive Design and AMP becoming an integral part of website development, this makes mobile optimization a very crucial process.

We have written guides about mobile SEO and AMP that have surely helped websites in gaining more mobile traffic. Along with the Speed Update, websites have also experienced ranking fluctuations over the course of a few weeks. These series of ranking fluctuations were both temporary and permanent, which led to numerous websites making sure that the user experience on both desktop and mobile are well-optimized and perform great.

August and October: Google Medic and YMYL Websites

After launching the Google Speed update, the month after saw Google launch another major algorithm update and another update by October. This update is similar to the March updates, as it contains a series of broad and minor updates that affect a good number of websites. While the update did not state what kind of websites would be affected by the update, SEO professionals noticed that YMYL websites have been affected the most.

A good chunk of these websites is related to health and e-commerce, which contain a large amount of content that is regularly searched by users. This meant that good E.A.T. content is the top priority, ensuring that people would be getting content that is reliable, accurate, and evergreen. With health and e-commerce websites having a huge impact on lifestyle choices, this means content must be accurate and reliable in order to gain more search traffic and authority.

How to Recover from Google Medic

The Google Medic is one of the most impactful updates in the past few months, and if your website has been affected, it is best to follow a few necessary steps to ensure that you would be able to keep your search rankings and traffic well-paced and steady. Here are some important steps that would help you recover from the update.

Focus on quality content

Quality and evergreen content is what leads to high traffic on almost any kind of website. In fact, our articles have helped us create more connections with various websites and businesses, forming partnerships that have helped us grow. Having quality content opens more doors for you and your audience, as you are able to drive more traffic to your website.

This means doing more research, citing sources from other quality websites to make your content more trustworthy and authoritative. Just like a quality research paper, choosing the best sources is a good indicator of successful content. Adding images and video also helps, as you are able to provide more details that support your content. Content such as infographics and statistics provide an in-depth analysis of whatever data you want to present.

Quality content means being elaborate and detailed, which means that longer content usually gets more traffic than usual. Articles that have 1000-2000 words will be able to perform much better, as Google would be able to have a better understanding of what your content contains.

Update old content

Along with providing more detailed content, it is also worth looking into past content and giving them a much-needed update. We have been updating some of our older content in the past few months, and this has helped us gain even more traffic to existing content. Updating can be as simple as adding another entry, updating statistics and data, or even changing paragraphs to accommodate current facts. It is important to note that updating content is best limited to the likes of how-to articles and informative articles, as news articles are best left unchanged to ensure journalistic professionalism.

Recently, we have updated our Black Hat and YouTube SEO articles to add new information from 2018. With the latter article being one of our most visited, it is important that we add new information that coincides with YouTube’s latest updates, such as adding hashtags. Sometimes it is surely worth looking back to older articles, as they can have the potential to attract more readers, and even expand its traffic to help you rank higher in SERPs.

Landing pages are another set of important content that could use optimization. It is best to add authoritative links, and even add or update existing information, as landing pages are the first step in the buyer’s journey. Landing pages are meant to provide comprehensive information that helps a potential buyer make a decision that will lead to conversions and polishing them up will only provide better results.

Check Google Analytics to see drastic traffic drops

The impact of the Google Medic Update can be tracked using Google Analytics, as it monitors your traffic in real-time. If you see any drastic traffic drops that happen seemingly overnight, it is best to keep track of this and optimize your content accordingly. To make this process more efficient, it is best to come up with a plan that enables you to create the best steps to solve each issue step by step.

If you follow the processes that we have mentioned above, you would be able to see the positive effects of having optimized content. You can view the data in Analytics and repeat the same process to each of your web pages. The process might not happen as quickly as you would expect, which is why it is best to monitor your traffic daily until you see your traffic on the way to recovery. Content optimization goes a long way in making your traffic grow and seeing it grow day by day makes it something worth doing.

Key Takeaway

The Google Medic Update is one of the most important updates of 2018, as it impacted numerous websites, and placed even more emphasis on creating quality content that is trustworthy and authoritative. With the steps mentioned above, you would be able to regain your traffic, and even have the opportunity to grow your traffic even further.

If you have questions and inquiries about Google algorithm updates or SEO in general, leave a comment below and let’s talk.

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Out now: Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin training for the block editor!

Yoast Academy has just released a new training course: the Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin training for the new block editor! The block editor is part of WordPress 5.0 and was previously known as Gutenberg. If you want to find out how to best use Yoast SEO in this new editor this training is for you! We’ve also added information to the course on all the latest functionalities in Yoast SEO, such as the recognition of word forms, word order, related keyphrases, and synonyms.

It is temporarily discounted at $29, so get it before the offer expires!

Get the Yoast SEO for WordPress training for the block editor ▸$39 $29 (ex VAT) for course, certificate and badge

If you already have the Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin training, the new course will be added to your account automatically.

Refresher: What is the block editor?

You’ve probably heard a lot about it during the past weeks, but let’s freshen up our memories. The block editor, previously known as Gutenberg, is the new, cutting-edge editor in WordPress that came with WordPress 5.0 on December 6, 2018. It’s one of the most talked about new features of WordPress ever. This new editor uses the concept of blocks to offer a more visual way of organizing your content. We like to compare these blocks to LEGO blocks: they allow you to build your own content all from one box, following a standardized and straightforward set of instructions. This means you no longer need shortcodes, custom fields or external code to get something done.

Yoast SEO in the sidebar

In the classic editor, you’ve always found the Yoast SEO meta box below the post editor. However, because of the block design in the block editor, most meta boxes fit best in the sidebar. That’s why we designed a brand new version of the Yoast SEO meta box, in the sidebar, which has been part of Yoast SEO since our 8.0 release.

What’s new in the training course?

The revamped Yoast SEO meta box called for a revamped plugin training. In the new Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin training, we teach you where to find the functionalities of Yoast SEO in the sidebar, so you can use the block editor and the Yoast SEO plugin to their fullest potential.

But this isn’t all we’ve done. We’ve also updated the course so it’s now up-to-date with the newest functionalities of the Yoast SEO plugin. In the new training, we explain everything about the brand-new SEO analysis, which was introduced in Yoast SEO 9.0. We teach you about word form support, the synonyms check, and the recognition of synonyms and related keyphrases, so you won’t miss out on these awesome features.

Updated training for the classic editor

If you don’t want to update to WordPress 5.0 yet, we still offer the plugin training for the classic editor as well. When you purchase the plugin training, you get access to the training for the block editor as well as the training for the classic editor. The Yoast SEO plugin training for the classic editor is now up-to-date with Yoast SEO’s latest functionalities too.

Not sure if you want to update to WordPress 5.0? Joost has written a blog post in which he gives advice on whether you should update or not. Note that it’s still possible to try the block editor if you don’t upgrade to WordPress 5.0. Just install the Gutenberg plugin, and start working with it!

Improve your editing experience and your rankings!

The new Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin training really is your chance to improve both your editing experience and your rankings. Make sure you get the most out of Yoast SEO for WordPress and don’t miss any of the useful features the plugin offers. Get the course by clicking the button below. It is temporarily discounted at $29, so get it before the offer expires! This is your chance to start working with the new block editor!

Get the Yoast SEO for WordPress training for the block editor ▸$39 $29 (ex VAT) for course, certificate and badge

The post Out now: Yoast SEO for WordPress plugin training for the block editor! appeared first on Yoast.

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Reddit For SEO: An Extensive Guide to Drive Traffic Through Reddit

Last updated on December 19, 2018 at 11:39 am

Reddit is an amazing source of traffic generation.

If you’re an online marketer or running a website/blog, then you must’ve heard of Reddit- even if you haven’t explored it yourself.

 

Now you must be wondering how Reddit can be used to increase your website visibility and grow your visitors exceptionally.

Reddit is a social news aggregation, web content rating and discussion website. It has more than 51 million unique users and over 1 million communities catering to different industry niche. Reddit has a thriving and dedicated community which is responsible to generate more than 25 million visitors every day. Use the relevant communities to grow your following.

Moreover, 2018 was a big year for Reddit. The company is pushing toward a new area of growth with a new design and features.

The company has increased a 22% YoY increase in gross interactions- comments, posts, and votes. It has gained 14 billion views per month.

Let’s dig into what happened in 2018:

• 153 million posts to Reddit
• 2 billion comments (and counting!)
• 27 billion votes

Simply awesome, isn’t it?

Reddit is an amazing source of traffic generation. You need to educate yourself and start using Reddit to deliver the target audience to your website.

You can submit links from your site as well as from other resources that are relevant to each specific community.

However, users can submit text posts known as self-post. It enables you to submit your original content to drive quality traffic to your website. Redditors can upvote or downvote your submission and the concept is known as karma.

You need to get a high positive karma score for your Reddit credibility.

Find a unique community in Reddit

Reddit community is highly diverse and extremely dedicated. You can build a community based on your specific interest, which is known as subreddit.

Each subreddit is identified by the URL structure- https://ift.tt/2tHMkjs.

For example, you need to search a specific community related to Digital Marketing. Simply search for a Digital Marketing in the search box on Reddit or you can use the URL as:

https://reddit.com/r/digitalmarketing

You can start participating in the related subreddit discussion.

But, your journey on Reddit must start with participation in other relevant communities, where you can discuss the related topics to build your credibility. If you start posting your content after creating your account, then you might get lots of downvotes.

So, it is advisable to earn some reputation by participating in other and related community’s subreddits or discussion groups. That’s how you can earn some positive karma points to build a reputation.

Initially, your goal should be gaining a reputation as an esteemed member.

Start with your first submission

Once you have some good karma score, you can start posting your content.

Some people directly jump to sharing their posts and didn’t get any results

Submit your link with the relevant description and start driving targeted traffic to your website.

Capitalize your submission properly and use tags wherever it is possible. It helps users easily identify what kind of post they’re looking at and help Reddit to give better user experience.

Some subreddit require tags with posts, so make sure to check the FAQ in the sidebar before posting. Add the relevant tags to drive only related and interested people to your post and website.

Reddit and SEO

You can get the huge traffic to your website if you use it properly or otherwise you’ll be wasting your time and efforts for nothing. First, you need to understand what type of content ranks well on Reddit.

If you’re creating valuable content, then there is a greater probability of more people visiting your site and sharing valuable information across the social media channels. And you’re also building high-quality backlinks that will drive you direct traffic for a long time. Get the double benefits for your SEO efforts with Reddit.

The simple mantra to drive traffic lies in creating a linked post for your specific discussion group or subreddit related to your industry niche.

First, create a good and valuable post and publish it on your website. Then create a post on Reddit with the relevant and unique description. Here you can post your original content link to drive direct traffic from Reddit to your website. Ultimately, it will help you increase your chances of getting organic shares/links to your website.

Effective SEO is all about the tools you’re using. Reddit can be an effective tool to attract more and more targeted traffic. Reddit is one of the best channels with a substantial SEO value and it is worth considering your SEO strategy in 2019.

Video on Reddit

It’s been more than a year since Reddit started hosting native video and its tremendously changing the way people are consuming multimedia content- videos and GIFs.

It’s a surprise to see that Redditors are already averaging more than 1 billion views of native video per month.

It’s interesting to see that almost 70% of video consumption on Reddit occurs from the mobile application.

Create rich content to boost conversation within communities in an authentic way.  This is how you can drive more traffic to your website.

Conclusion

Reddit is an effective marketing tool. It is a growing platform for content creators. Redditors are passionate, you just need to present the right content to the related communities. Get in the discussion board, build your credibility and start sharing your content.

Reddit community is continuously evolving and growing. Consider it as a part of your marketing strategy and start exploring different subreddit groups to increase your brand’s visibility and hence the traffic.

Provide tons of value with your content and you’ll be all set to generate more conversation, engagement, and traffic to your website. That’s how Reddit can be used to make all the difference in getting your brand in front of engaged eyeballs and visitors.

Author Bio:          

Nick Patel is the head of marketing at WebbyMonks – An agency specialized in White label SEO Services, helping business across the globe to grow their visibility online. When not writing for technology, he spends his time fishing, clicking awesome pictures and digging into the mankind history. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter & LinkedIn.

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WordCamp US 2018, WordPress 5.0.1 and what’s next?

In case you missed it, WordPress 5.0 was released almost two weeks ago, one day prior to WordCamp US 2018 (December 7-9). At WordCamp US, Matt Mullenweg gave his yearly ‘State of the Word’, outlining what’s been going on with the WordPress Project. A reflection, but, most certainly also a look at the future. Let’s dive in!

WordPress 5.0.1 and what’s next?

As discussed before, WordPress 5.0 is the biggest change in WordPress in years. The introduction of the brand new Gutenberg editor into core is by far the biggest change we’ve seen in the writing experience. Since there are so many things hooked into the editor, this update has a lot of consequences. So many, that we at Yoast, in fact, recommend postponing updating to 5.0 to January. If you do decide to update now, we recommend you test WordPress thoroughly, but, again, we suggest you wait until January before updating to the 5.0 branch.

We’ve already seen the first update to the 5.0 branch in the shape of 5.0.1 which addressed a bunch of security issues. The next point release is scheduled for this Wednesday and this upcoming 5.0.2 release will focus on performance improvements. Specifically in relation to the new WordPress editor.

WordCamp US 2018

Team Yoast was present at the largest WordCamp in the United States in Nashville. We attended, sponsored, spoke at and volunteered for the second WordCamp edition in the Music City of the US. And it’s been a great one! There are a couple of talks I’d like to highlight:

• Morten Rand-Hendriksen gave an inspiring talk about Moving the Web Forward with WordPress and introduced the WordPress Governance Project initiative. It’s an initiative that intends to explore how to effectively represent and embody the spirit of democratized publishing. With WordPress now having 32.5% market share, the project leaders’ decision-making processes need to be clearer than they are now. Anyone can sign up via this Google form to participate in future meetings.
• Marieke and Joost co-presented an inspiring talk as well about the importance of valid business models to surround our (but any, really) open source community so it can thrive. Their presentation explained that a community becomes unstoppable when every company in an open source community gives back to it.
• Gary Pendergast gave one of the first Gutenberg-related presentations on the first conference day with the title The Future of WordPress is Gutenberg. Gary brought up an interesting view stating that the next iterations in WordPress will move us closer to platform agnosticism. In other words, with Gutenberg, we’ll end up with true separation of content from presentation.

(As soon as these presentations are uploaded to WordPress.tv, I’ll update this post and link to these presentations directly.)

State of the Word

In his yearly ‘State of the Word’ at WordCamp US, Matt Mullenweg discussed a couple of interesting points that I’d like to highlight and share here:

• As Matt Mullenweg demoed in a video how the new editor blocks offer a better experience, he showed a very nice example of copying and pasting from Microsoft Word and Google Docs into the WordPress editor. You should give a try if you’ve updated to WordPress 5.0.
• There is now a dedicated section in the plugin repo where you can find plugins that provide Gutenberg blocks.
• Gutenberg will be available in the mobile apps for WordPress, with a beta release expected in February 2019.
• One of the goals of 2019 is to start working on optional auto-updates for plugins, themes, and major versions of WordPress.
• WordPress will finally start updating its minimum PHP version. The proposed plan is to move to PHP 5.6 by April 2019 and to PHP 7.0 by as early as December 2019.

You can watch the 2018 State of the Word in full on YouTube.

Gutenberg phase 2

With Gutenberg now being the default editor in WordPress, you’d think that’s the last we’ll hear about the Gutenberg project, right? Well, not quite. During his State of the Word, Matt Mullenweg discussed the focus of the next phase of Project Gutenberg. Phase 2 is going to focus on Menus, Widgets and Customizer Integration.

I, for one, am very excited with everything Gutenberg already allows us to do, but this next phase makes me even more excited. How about you?

Read more: Should you update to WordPress 5.0 »

The post WordCamp US 2018, WordPress 5.0.1 and what’s next? appeared first on Yoast.

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Yoast SEO 9.3: Fixes and enhancements

It’s an interesting time for WordPress users and plugin developers. Last week, WordPress 5.0 was released, one of the biggest releases of the CMS ever. Because it was such a big release, there were bound to be issues during the roll-out, mostly because of incompatibility issues between plugins and/or themes. Yoast SEO works well in the new block editor, with only some issues due to external factors, mostly plugins in need of an update. Today’s release of Yoast SEO 9.3, brings several fixes and enhancements, including a speed boost for our awesome structured data content blocks.

Yoast SEO & WordPress 5.0

First, a little recap of the launch of WordPress 5.0. We shared our concern over this hurried release and we’ve been asking users to hold off updating until the new year, when the latest version of WordPress will be much more stable and performant. While WordPress 5.0 and its new block editor are awesome, we think they are not ready for primetime yet. We’ll keep you posted on this, of course. Looking to see how Yoast SEO works in the new block editor? Read Willemien’s visual guide to Yoast SEO in WordPress 5.0.

While Yoast SEO was ready for the editor formerly known as Gutenberg since version 8.0, a lot of other plugins were not. These caused Yoast SEO to crash in the new block editor in some cases. Users reported conflicts with WPML, Pods, and the Gravity Forms Gutenberg add-on. We’re also still investigating another specific issue with a disappearing meta box. Except for the Gravity Forms plugin, all these plugins have been updated by their makers. Now, they shouldn’t produce any more errors. If you run these plugins, be sure to update to the latest versions.

Performance fixes coming in WordPress 5.0.2

The other reports we’ve received mainly concern performance issues. Using Yoast SEO in the new block editor leads to less than stellar performance due to issues on WordPress’ side. This is not something we have much influence on, but things should improve dramatically in upcoming minor versions of WordPress. You don’t have to wait very long for that, because WordPress 5.0.2 — which is due for release tomorrow, December 19 —, features some drastic speed improvements and many other bug fixes. There’s a particular focus on vastly improving the typing experience when there are loads of blocks on a page. WordPress project lead Matias Ventura said up the upcoming 5.0.2 release:

“The cumulated performance gains are around 330% faster for a post with 200 blocks. This might be even bigger for certain setups and plugin configurations — seeing the same test post be 540% faster with Yoast, for example.”

So, that’s looking awesome!

Enhancements in Yoast SEO 9.3

While Yoast SEO 9.3 is mostly about fixes, there are some nice enhancements under the hood. One of the nicest things we added is an improved marker system — you know, the eye icons — for the new block editor that automatically updates itself when you change your content. So, if you’ve marked sentences that are too long, the highlight will update itself once you shorten that sentence.

In addition, we’ve refactored our Yoast SEO structured data content blocks. These blocks are now very speedy even when adding many, many fields. Please check out the content blocks for FAQ pages and How-to articles. These content blocks make it incredibly easy to add valid structured data to your content. We’re bringing you many more blocks in the near future. We’ve also changed the output of Schema to prevent unnecessary escaping of forward slashes and this is only available on sites running PHP 5.4 or higher. Last but not least in regards to structured data, we changed the website Schema @id attribute and now include the home URL as a unique identifier.

Fixes in Yoast SEO 9.3

There are quite a bit of fixes in Yoast SEO 9.3, you can find everything in the changelog. Let’s go through a few of them. In the previous version, Yoast SEO stripped the numbers from keyphrases, e.g. [Yoast SEO 9.3], which is something we don’t want, so we’ve restored that. We can now recognize keyphrases in the URL when the words in the URL are separated by an underscore instead of hyphens. Moving on, the ‘Select primary category’ label in the primary taxonomy picker doesn’t overlap the ‘Add new category’ button and the og:description tag doesn’t stay empty anymore after setting the author description.

Update Yoast SEO now!

As always, please update your plugins to make sure you’re using the latest and greatest. Yoast SEO 9.3 brings a number of fixes that will improve the way the plugin functions. We’re always working on improving our plugins to give you the best possible experience. Remember, if you’re not ready to push an update — of any plugin or update of WordPress — to your site immediately, please test it thoroughly. We have a guide on how to set up a local WordPress test environment to help you with that.

The post Yoast SEO 9.3: Fixes and enhancements appeared first on Yoast.

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A Look Into the Top Search Terms of 2018

Last updated on December 18, 2018 at 03:57 pm

2018 has been another busy year for Google, with new algorithm updates, new tools and services, and more innovative ways that help change the way we search. This year was also the year of some of the biggest news and events, all of which can be searched and found using Google.

As usual, billions of searches have been done through the search engine, which leads to a plethora of search terms that have become viral over the past few months. From some of the biggest sporting events to some of the most asked questions around, Google surely had a field day. Here is a look at some of the top search terms on Google Trends this 2018.

Question-based inquiries

The most popular search terms in Google usually start with a “how to” and “what is”, and this remains the same in 2018. Google has always been one of the first places where users ask the most questions and discover answers with just a few clicks. Based on Google Trends data, the top how to questions are “how to vote” and “how to register to vote”, which ties into another highly searched event, the 2018 elections in the United States.

Other important how to search terms include “how to buy Bitcoin” and “how to turn off automatic updates”, which are mostly tech-based questions that are commonly asked by users around the world. For “what is” search queries, most of the queries were about defining key terms that have become popular over the year, such as “what is nationalism” and “what is Bitcoin”. These search queries show how important and effective Google is when it comes to question-based and exact search terms, and why websites across the world make use of these search terms to improve their traffic and search rankings.

Sports

Sporting events have always been viral every single year, but when massive events like the 2018 FIFA World Cup come around, even search engines have to optimize their search to be able to track games, news, and social media feeds in a single place. Google was able to do this for the World Cup, while also providing users a way to track results from events such as basketball, motorsport, American and association football, and much more. Using Google to follow sports events has become one of the most convenient methods of following them, and the upcoming months indicate that more will be done to make the experience even better than before.

Along with sporting events, sporting brands and athletes also maintain a good share of search, with some of the biggest brands and most popular athletes dominating online discussions on a regular basis. For standard retail and E-commerce websites, this is surely beneficial for business, as it would potential buyers discover these brands within their websites much easier. Social media has also played a huge part in increasing traffic to sports-related topics, as sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been crucial in following sports events, establishing an athlete’s branding, or even expand the fanbase of certain sports teams. Sports is one of the best indicators that show how search has gone truly global, as you can see people from different parts of the world following these events in any form.

Personalities

Personalities have also impacted search in a big way this 2018, with some of the most popular celebrities, politicians, and business figures dominating search. This also means that personal brands and websites are successful in gaining search traffic, which is great in SEO terms. Digital branding has grown to be one of the most important needs of various companies and organizations over the past few years, and thanks to successful SEO strategies, users are able to see the results through search queries.

Key Takeaway

The top search trends of 2018 give a great impression on how people search worldwide and help us see what their immediate needs and preferences are. 2019 will surely be another year of trending search queries worldwide, and with Google bringing out new updates and features in the fray, expect search to spread worldwide. If you have questions and inquiries about Google news and SEO in general, leave a comment below and let’s talk.

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Google Ads Editor’s Best Kept Secret for Presenting Campaigns to Your Client

You’ve spent the past few weeks working hard building your new client’s Google Ads campaigns. It’s a rather large build with dozens of campaigns and ad groups, hundreds of ads and extensions, and thousands of keywords. The only thing standing between you and launching these campaigns is your client’s review and approval.…

The post Google Ads Editor’s Best Kept Secret for Presenting Campaigns to Your Client appeared first on Seer Interactive.

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SEO basics: What are long tail keywords?

“If you want your posts to rank, you should write about long tail keywords”. You’ve probably seen this common SEO advice before. But what do we mean by long tail keywords? And why should you write about them? Here, we’ll explain what long tail keywords are and how they can help you rank. Including examples!

What are long tail keywords?

In SEO, we distinguish between head keywords and long tail keywords. A long tail keyword is more specific than a head keyword, and most of the times – but not necessarily – it consists of more words. The head keyword is a general term lots of people write about. A long tail keyword is a more specific topic or a subtopic of the head term. Usually, less people create content about this topic.

How do they help you rank?

The idea is quite simple. As mentioned above, there is less content on the web about long tail keywords, because less people have written about them. Less content means less competition! Because the competition isn’t that fierce, it’s easier to beat other web pages with content about long tail keywords in search engines.

In addition, you might find that it’s easier to target a specific search intent with long tail keywords. Search intent is the why behind a search: does someone just want information or is he/she looking to buy something? Or something else entirely?

This illustration shows that a more specific topic (or keyphrase) means less competition

Example of a long tail keyword

Let’s look at an example. An example of a head keyword or keyphrase is [educational books for children]. There are many booksellers, publishers and bloggers writing about educational books. If you just start out with your website, it’d be virtually impossible to rank for this term. You’d have to compete with Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and the likes.

What you should try is focusing on a niche for your blog or your shop. Finding a niche means targeting a very specific group of people. You can do so by creating very specific content: content about long tail keywords! An examples of a long tail keyword could be: [educational books for autistic teenagers]. If you write high quality content about a specialized topic like that, you can beat the competition for those long tail terms. Also, if you are targeting searchers who have an intent to buy books, you can include that term and focus your content on answering this search — maybe throw in a local search as well: [where to buy educational books for autistic teenagers in Vancouver].

Learn all about picking the right keywords for your audience with our Keyword research training »

Long term strategy

You might think: “But I want to rank for the head keyword. That one gets loads of traffic!” It does, but if you rank page 10 for that query, you won’t get much out of it. It might drive a lot of traffic, but nothing that’ll convert to sales or inquiries. So we’d advise to start with the less competitive, long tail keywords. When you’ve written several articles about related long tail keywords and you rank for those, you can aim for a term that gets closer to the head term.

Let’s go back to the example of [educational books for autistic teenagers]. You could write about [educational books for autistic preschoolers], [picture books for autistic children] and [reading stories to your autistic child] too. This way Google will find out you have quite a bit of specialized content on this topic.

If you bundle all this knowledge in one cornerstone article, for instance, [educational books for autistic children] and you make sure you link from all your long tail articles to this main article, you’ll increase your chance of ranking for the main article.

If this works, you can start writing high quality content about other types of educational books for children. Slowly but surely, you’ll be getting closer to the head terms. We call this a cornerstone content strategy.

Higher conversions too!

Less competition isn’t the only advantage of writing about long tail keywords. If you focus on a niche, your visitors will more easily convert into customers, newsletter subscribers or whatever you’re aiming for — especially if you cater to their search intent. Let’s say your visitors are looking for a very specific type of book. If they land on your site, specialized in exactly those kind of books, they’ll likely find and buy the books they’re looking for. Just another reason to focus on the long tail!

Read more: All about long tail keywords and why they deserve your focus! »

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WordPress 5.0 Out: New Features You Need to Know Before Updating

Last updated on December 13, 2018 at 04:42 pm

After a few months of waiting, WordPress has finally released their most important update of the year. WordPress 5.0 aims to make the popular CMS become more accessible for new and old users and create a more streamlined editor that provides a wide variety of options that allow different kinds of content to be created in your website.

The update is centered upon the newest WordPress editor called Gutenberg. This new editor introduces new features that enable more flexibility and versatility to provide better content. Before the release of the update, Gutenberg was released to users for regular WordPress users to experience the new editor before the official release. This early release enabled users to express their concerns and see the benefits of the editor becoming more flexible and accessible.

With these new updates in mind, here are things that you need to know to make sure that your latest WordPress update would work smoothly.

Gutenberg Editor

As mentioned, the highlight of the WordPress 5.0 update is the new Gutenberg editor. This new editor features a system called Blocks, which allow users to be able to add content much easier by adding a block that would allow you to add images, text, and different kinds of media by simply dragging and dropping files.

As discussed one of our earlier posts about WordPress 5.0, there are at least 15 different kinds of blocks to accommodate different kinds of files and content types about coding to be able to create content using WordPress, which makes it attractive for newcomers wanting to set up their own website.

Another handy feature that makes integrating old and new content is the ability to switch to the “Classic” WordPress editor when it comes to modifying old content. This ensures that the transition from the old and new editing systems proceeds smoothly.

With CMS like Wix and Squarespace promoting their easy-to-use systems to a host of new users, the new Gutenberg editor by WordPress allows them to compete by having a more simplified system to create websites that can generate revenue and traffic.

Plugin Compatibility

Like the new update releases, one of the main user concerns is the issue of compatibility of WordPress plugins. This means that some plugins might not be readily compatible with the current WordPress update, which can lead to issues with website functionality. This can lead to some of your standard website functions that working from the start, which can affect traffic and possible revenue.

The best process to solve this issue is to ensure that the developers of these plugins would be able to address the issue and release an updated version. While this issue is being remedied, it is best to temporarily disable the plugin to prevent any functionality issues that may affect other elements of your website.

Impact on Content Marketing

With a user-friendly system of creating content, this makes content marketing on WordPress an even better experience overall. This allows more creative and dynamic content, such as blog posts that contain more interactive forms of media, allowing for visually impressive works to be published. Quality content has been proven to drive more traffic and is an indicator of reputable and trustworthy content that would rank in SERPs.

Creating dynamic content also challenges content creators to craft more diverse articles, making content marketing more competitive. Along with content that is visually more impressive, developers are now able to create a better user experience for users thanks to the new editor. The simplified editor allows users to ensure that navigation within their website is a more efficient experience, which is a definite plus.

Key Takeaway

WordPress 5.0 is finally here, and while it may have taken more waiting, the overall package looks promising, as it allows WordPress to become more accessible than ever. With new CMS software emerging and becoming popular, this new version of WordPress ensures that it would be able to attract newer users while optimizing existing features to make the creative experience better.

If you have questions and inquiries about WordPress and SEO in general, leave a comment below.

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How Many Times Should You Exact Match the Keyphrase?

Here’s a quiz for you…
How many times should you exact match the keyphrase in your web copy?
a. Five times
b. At least once every 100 words
c. At least once per paragraph
d. At least seven times, but no more than 15 for a 700-word article
The answer?
None of the above.
OK, I know that was a trick question. But, I phrased it like that

The post How Many Times Should You Exact Match the Keyphrase? appeared first on SuccessWorks.

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The Awesome List: WordPress SEO Plugins

The Awesome List: WordPress SEO Plugins was originally published on BruceClay.com, home of expert search engine optimization tips.

WordPress is a simple-to-use content management system that’s also free. It offers everyone from solo bloggers to the world’s leading brands a platform to create custom and powerful websites. No wonder almost a third of all websites run on WP!

Still, WordPress was made for users, not for Google or SEOs. That’s why SEO plugins exist — to plug in the holes with added functionality that helps your content be indexed by search engines and found by searchers.

As a marketer, content creator or analyst, how do you choose the best SEO plugin for your sites? Here, we’ll take a look at six plugins, their many features, and finally a price comparison chart so that you can compare them:

1. Yoast SEO
2. All-In-One SEO Pack
3. SEO Ultimate
4. SEO Squirrly
5. SEOPressor Connect
6. Bruce Clay SEO WP (our own)

Plugins often come in both free and premium versions; the premium versions unlock more functionality and service. I’ll address both versions where appropriate.

Plugin No. 6 is our soon-to-be-launched WP plugin, Bruce Clay SEO, which fills in the gaps left by other plugins on this list (see our list of what your SEO plugin is missing).

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is the most popular SEO plugin. It’s easy to use, driven by a simple user interface. The majority of people use the free version.

Here’s what the free version offers (from its plugin page):

• XML sitemaps functionality at the push of a button
• Full control over site breadcrumbs
• Set canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content
• Title and meta description templates
• Content & SEO analysis to write SEO-friendly text
• Snippet preview to show how your post or page will look in the search results (also on mobile)
• Cornerstone content and internal linking features help optimize your site structure
• Integrates with Google Search Console
• Manage SEO roles to give people access to specific sections of the Yoast SEO plugin
• Bulk editor to make large-scale edits to a site

Strengths: As a leading plugin, it’s driven by market awareness and brand presence. It’s easy to use. The free version is typically enough for most users.
Weaknesses: It’s built for everyone and no one industry in particular. As a result, some users feel the SEO recommendations are too generic. In addition, even though it’s fairly simple to use, the features may seem overwhelming to beginners.
Active installations: 5+ million
Rating on WordPress: 5 stars

Yoast’s Paid Version

Yoast offers a premium version for annual fees ranging from $89 for one site up to $756.50 for 15 sites. Additional offerings of the premium version include:

• News SEO, video SEO, local SEO and WooCommerce SEO extensions
• Premium users get one year free access to a support team
• Insights tool shows you what your text is focusing on so you can keep your article in line with your keywords
• Multiple focus keywords to optimize your article for synonyms and related keywords
• Automatic internal linking suggestions of posts to link to
• Social previews to help manage the way a page looks when shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter
• Redirect manager to address redirect errors from Google Search Console, deleted pages and changed URLs

2. All-In-One SEO Pack

All-In-One SEO Pack offers entry-level features to assist with SEO for beginners. It also has advanced features and an API for developers.

Here’s what the free plugin offers (from its plugin page):

• XML sitemap support
• Image XML sitemap submitted to Google and Bing
• Google AMP support
• Google Analytics support
• Support for SEO on custom post types
• Advanced canonical URLs
• Redirect attachment pages to parent post
• Automatically notifies search engines about changes to your site
• Built-in API so other plugins/themes can access and extend functionality
• Provides SEO integration for e-commerce sites, including WooCommerce
• Nonce Security built in
• Automatically optimizes titles for search engines
• Generates meta tags automatically
• Avoids typical duplicate content found on WordPress blogs
• For advanced users, fine-tune everything to optimize SEO
• Override any title and set any meta description and keywords
• Compatible with many other plugins
• Translated into 57 languages
• PHP 7 100 percent compatible

Strengths: As a leading plugin, it’s driven by market awareness and brand presence. Some users appreciate that you can turn off features you won’t need to use.
Weaknesses: This plugin is built for everyone and no one industry in particular. Some people comment that the user interface is not as friendly as they would like it to be, and say that for true beginners, it might be too complex to understand.
Active installations: 2+ million
Rating on WordPress: 4.5 stars

All-In-One’s Paid Version

All-In-One SEO Pack offers a pro version for annual fees ranging from $97 for an individual to $699 for an agency. Additional offerings of the pro version include:

• Advanced support for WooCommerce
• SEO for categories, tags and custom taxonomies
• Video SEO module
• Access to video screencasts
• Access to premium support forums
• Access to knowledge center

3. SEO Ultimate

SEO Ultimate has the most robust feature set of the all-in-one-type WordPress SEO plugins. Check out its plugin page for more details on each of the following features.

Here’s what the free plugin offers (from its plugin page):

• Title tag rewriter and meta description editor
• Deeplink juggernaut
• Open graph integrator
• Rich snippet creator
• Author highlighter
• Link mask generator
• Canonicalizer
• 404 monitor
• Permalink tweaker
• Meta robot tags editor
• SEO ultimate widgets
• Plugin settings manager
• SEO/SEM-enhancing custom HTML
• .htaccess editor and the robots.txt editor
• Textboxes to the end of your posts/pages that contain automatically generated link HTML
• Meta keywords for posts, pages, categories, tags, terms and the homepage auto-generated and editable
• “Read more” links include the posts’ keyword-rich titles in the anchor text
• Rel=”nofollow” settings when migrating from other SEO plugins
• Dashboard of green/yellow/red indicators for SEO-friendliness
• Buttons that make it easy for visitors to share content on social
• Remove customizable “filler words” (like “the,” “with,” “and,” etc.) from post/page URLs
• Access search engine webmaster tools

Strengths: This plugin has a nice set of robust SEO features. Also, the ability to import and export data from other sources, including other SEO plugins, is something users find handy.
Weaknesses: The free version is no longer being updated for WordPress. Because the tool is advanced, it requires training to get the most out of it.
Active installations: 100,000+
Rating on WordPress: 4 stars

SEO Ultimate’s Paid Version

SEO Ultimate+ costs from $49 for one site to $249 for 20 sites annually. $500 will get you unlimited sites. Additional offerings of SEO Ultimate+ include:

• Structured data, schema and rich snippets
• Global canonical manager
• Alt attribute mass editor for images
• Improved open graph options for social networks
• The code inserter+ module
• HTML and XML Sitemaps
• Rel previous and next pagination optimization
• SEO data transporter

4. SEO Squirrly

SEO Squirrly is an SEO plugin that aims to be an SEO advisor.

Here’s what the free plugin offers (from its plugin page – check it out for more in-depth information on each feature):

• Keyword research
• SEO Live Assistant
• Audit Suite
• Briefcase, keyword strategy assistant
• Twitter Cards
• Facebook Open Graph support for both images and video
• LinkedIn titles, images and description for better sharing
• Rich Pins for Pinterest
• Snippet preview
• Customize meta title and description
• Sitemap
• Blog feeds
• SEO settings
• Performance analytics
• Works with multisites
• Blogging assistant to help keep readers on the page longer

Strengths: Robust features. Works well with the WooCommerce e-commerce plugin.
Weaknesses: The plugin is free if you do less than five posts per month on one site; otherwise, you need to upgrade to the paid version. Some features that used to be included free are now separate paid products, such as search engine rank tracking.
Active Installations: 30,000+
Rating on WordPress: 4.5 stars

SEO Squirrly’s Paid Version

SEO Squirrly offers a premium version for monthly fees of $29.99 for pro and $71.99 for business. Additional offerings of the premium version include:

• Up to seven sites
• Full access to SEO Live Assistant
• Unlimited optimized articles
• Research on hundreds of keywords
• Free images; find/insert tweets; find/insert wikis; find/insert news; find/insert blog articles
• Advanced site analytics
• Weekly audits on hundreds of pages

5. SEOPressor Connect

SEOPressor Connect is the most advanced of these SEO plugins, in my opinion.

This is a paid plugin ($9 per month), and just some of the things it offers include:

• Multiple keywords analysis
• XML Sitemap generator
• SEOpressor over-optimization check
• Canonical link
• Progressive LSI keywords engine
• 301 URL redirect
• SemantiQ density tells you if the content is related to keywords
• On-page robot rules
• Schema and Dublin Core markup support
• SEOpressor site audit
• SEOpressor local SEO
• SEO trends
• Google Knowledge Graph help
• SEOpressor score manager for optimization
• Optimize the homepage
• SEOpressor smart link manager
• On-page meta settings
• Sitewide link policy
• Facebook Open Graph customization
• Automatic smart linking
• Twitter Card customization
• SEOpressor role settings

Strengths: Can be used on multiple domains and works well with other SEO plugins. Many people find it easy to use with a strong user interface.
Weaknesses: Computes its own scores and tracks them over time, but lacks a connection to performance analytics data or search results. This means that the trends could be misleading since they don’t reflect how your content is actually performing in the search engines.
Active installs & ratings: The plugin does not appear in WordPress’s plugin directory, so this data is not available.

6. Bruce Clay SEO for WordPress (now in beta)

While many of the above plugins compete with each other, our approach is different. Bruce Clay SEO WP is meant to supplement and extend the free versions with powerful needed features.

We gathered input from industry practitioners on what they wanted to see in an SEO plugin. Then we designed our plugin not to replace the plugins you may be using, but to provide much more data than is available today.

Of course, our plugin provides capabilities similar to others as well, but that is just in case you’re not using any other SEO plugins.

What makes this plugin unique: It enriches your publishing workspace with SEO insights based on real-time search results and analytics. In other words, you can see beyond the page you’re working on, without leaving WordPress. It’s the integration with our SEOToolSet and Google Search Console/Analytics that makes this possible.

The Bruce Clay SEO plugin works like software as a service (SaaS). Rather than a static one-size-fits-all checklist approach to optimizing a page or post, our plugin uses a live connection with the SEOToolSet software to analyze your keywords and competition in real time.

As a result, the optimization recommendations you see are customized. So your page can better compete in its specific ranking environment.

There’s no free version, but it’s priced affordably at $24.95/month per domain. (Try it! The first week is free — then you can decide if you want to keep it.)

As a bonus, plugin subscribers can also use the SEOToolSet itself. Data is shared between the plugin in WordPress and the user’s SEOToolSet account. Those who want to can run domain ranking reports and take advantage of many other external tools.

Bruce Clay SEO features are powered by patent-pending technology. WordPress users can:

• Optimize a page or post for more than one keyword.
• See clearly where keywords appear in the content through color coding.
• Know which pages and posts are your top performers.
• Identify problems with mobile usability and performance.
• Check the site for duplicate content.
• Evaluate top-ranked pages for your keywords in real-time.
• Get recommendations for keyword usage in tags and content (even word count) based upon competitors.
• Find out how much content has been written on your site per keyword.
• See how each of your pages or posts is performing, using integrated Google Analytics data.
• View top-performing posts or pages per author/contributor to the website as measured by visitors over a selectable period of time.
• Find out when there is a possibility of duplicate content, like meta information or the content on a page.
• Discover the page or post’s readability and compare it to keyword competitors.
• Use along with Yoast, if desired. Compatibility is built in.

Want to be one of the first to get the Bruce Clay SEO plugin? We ship soon. You can watch our preview video and pre-register here!

Comparing Your Options

Now that you have a sense of what these 6 awesome WordPress SEO plugins do, here is a quick price comparison chart:

Plugin	Free Version?	Paid Version Cost	SaaS?	Domains Allowed
Yoast SEO	Y	$89-$756.50 annually	N	1 to 15
All-In-One SEO Pack	Y	$97 to $699 annually	N	1 to unlimited
SEO Ultimate	Y	$49-$500 annually	N	1 to unlimited
SEO Squirrly	Y	$29.99-$71.99 monthly	Y	1 to 7
SEOPressor Connect	N	$9 monthly	N	1 to unlimited
Bruce Clay SEO WP	N (first 7 days free)	$24.95 monthly per domain	Y	1 to unlimited

I want to know: Have you used any of the plugins in this list? Where do you think they have strengths and weaknesses?

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