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Are You Ready For The Next SEO Penguin At Your Blog?
SEO Penguin Is Updating Soon Again – Get Your Blog Ready Today
Will your blog be ready for the next SEO Penguin update? According to Matt Cutts Penguin 2.0 is coming soon! How can you get your website or blog ready today before the penguin 2.0 marches into your site soon? Learn all you can about the upcoming changes and latest updates needed to comply for Google rank in search and Pagerank.
SEO Penguin 2.0 – 6 Steps You Can Take Today
- Delete Spam - Get Rid of All Spam Now! Spam can hurt your blog or website. If you have spammy comments and you put them in spam, be sure to delete the spam files regularly. The new SEO Penguin 2.0 will not tolerate spam.
- Prevent Hacking - Prevent your website or blog from being hacked. Be sure to change passwords regularly and use hard to detect passwords. No AdMin for your username please! Also use WordFence (a plugin) to help protect your WordPress site. (Thanks Tim Bonner for that plugin tip!)
- Delete Paid Links – No buy or selling of links will be tolerated. So if you have any delete, delete, delete. Even paid ads will not pull pagerank. You can have ads but be sure to have disclosure, etc. Your site and the other website will BOTH get penalized by Google.
- Get Social - If you are not social yet, social signals will heat up your site’s being found in search. You can see it clear in this chart by SEO moz. Crank up your social signals today! Google+ will be a must.
- Be Lovable – Your site or blog should be lovable to users and readers. This comes right from Matt Cutts as you can see in the video below. Sounds easy right? But what does be lovable really mean? It may mean different things to different people, users and readers. This could be a hard one. One must do research from their Google Analytics and surveys to learn more. Or get your site reviewed like the one I just did for Dukeo.
- Webmaster Tools – Be sure to use them! If you haven’t yet sign up today and start to use these FREE Google tools. Matt hints that they will be giving more information especially helpful to small businesses. LOVE IT! Don’t forget Bing webmaster tools too. There are differences between the two tools and using both do help. I have found errors from Bing that I did not find from the Google webmaster tools.
Other Penguin 2.0 Changes
- The last Panda update will udpate itself – and it may soften some past results and not penalize an entire website as it has in the past. This will be refreshing for many webmasters.
- A different link system is being analyzed and will be different from the past. We have seen that already with some sites being hit in the last updates. I sure hope they give us more information on this update as it rolls out.
The Video from Matt Cutts
Have you taken the 6 steps above to ready yourself for the next SEO Penguin 2.0 coming to your blog’s door soon?
Dukeo Review and Your Chance to Win Contest
Dukeo Review
Dukeo Review is a review of a blog and a contest all in one. Have you seen Dukeo’s blog posts in your Triberr stream? I have and loved the idea he has come up with. You can review his blog Dukeo and have a chance to win $1000.00.
What is Dukeo all about?
Dukeo’s blog is written by Ste. He teaches SEO, traffic generation and marketing for others to make money online. He launched his website on his 30th birthday back in 2011. John Chow quoted “That kind of stuff works. I think Sté does a great job.” If John says that I think maybe we should read Ste’s blog. Ste offers 3 FREE guides on his website to to help guide you along the way to making money online. Just sign up for his updates and you can get the FREE guides.
The Dukeo Review
What I love about Dukeo’s website and blog:
- It’s easy to read. Very clean text and a great font size. No squinting needed.
- It’s very clean all over with not too much on the sidebars. There is nothing to keep you from reading the posts. No nasty pop-ups!
- The language is simple and easy to follow – love that!
- The blog posts often, both a great and not so great thing. I can’t always read if someone posts more than once a day. But the content is always FRESH. So I’d give it an overall plus for it.
- The About Page really rocks. Simple and easy to read about Ste. Ste doesn’t brag either. Some about pages are more of a brag page, not Ste’s.
What Could Be Better on Dukeo’s Blog?
- The comment system could be better with CommentLuv for the commenting system. Ste I cannot believe you don’t have CommentLuv on your blog. Curious as to why.
There could be more images in the posts to make them stand out. Right now he is using the image I have above for every post. Great way to promote the contest but there could be other images in the posts to seperate the paragraphs and give more eye appeal. I say let’s spruce it up! Add a little color along the way. (A side note: The FREE guides have nice artwork in them – it breaks up the awesome reading material.)
What Do You Think of a Blog Review Contest?
I think it’s a wonderful way to to get feedback on your blog or website. People may have fun entering the contest and give you an honest opinion of your blog or website. It’s a great way to draw traffic to your blog and gain organic links. Can you think of a reason not to do a blog review contest? (Besides not having $1,000 to give away.)
Will you do a Dukeo Review too with a chance to win money? The contest ends May 28th.
Plug-In Happy – Are Plug-Ins Really Magical?
Plug-In Happy Bloggers
Plug-ins are the most talked about blog posts of late. There are probably thousands of them that a blogger can choose from, but should we? Can a plug-in be a magic wand for us? They are quickly and easily installable via WordPress. In just a few steps and seconds a new plug-in can give your blog a new function or useful options. Plug-ins may also slow down your website’s speed or conflict with other ones already installed or with your theme. They cause havoc or even take down your blog altogether. (Always be sure to test one at a time.)
7 Plug-In Posts Around The Blogsphere Recently
- Just Ask Kim – I love reading Just Ask Kim. She is always so informative and a true expert on Facebook. Her latest post was on making contributions on a blog via a plug-in. Have you tried that one yet?
- My Girly Parts – Bren does a wonderful job on her two blogs and is always changing up her themes anad plug-ins. Bren’s recent post was about some new ones she started to use. She is becoming a plug-in expert. Her posts want me to have more of them and I did install the WordFence Security one after reading her post. I also had read about others whose blogs were recently hacked.
- Tim Bonner last week posted on the same topic with WordFence to the Rescue. WordFence can protect your blog from hackers. There have been many of them around of late. I’m sure no one wants their blog to be hacked so this plug-in sounds like a must to me.
- Barry Wells recently posted about some errors via a plug-ins that really caught my attention. This one makes me want to have less of them. They can conflict with each other and with your theme. It’s a massive testing ground for plug-ins to work correctly with your other ones and your theme.
- Ana from Traffic Generation Cafe recently did a post on a plug-in that could increase your traffic conversion on your blog. Who does not want more traffic conversions? It does it by making things on your sidebar sticky. Her post includes a YouTube video as well on it.
- Enstine from Fast Income wrote about 5 plug-ins for backing up your WordPress blog. We know how important it is to do a back-up all the time. So if you don’t want to do it from your c-panel you can just install another plug-in.
- Lisa from 2 Create a Website really inspired me with her post of Are SEO Plugins Overrated in 2013? Whaddya Think? She goes on to explain how Yoast did not work with her theme. She also points out that her organic traffic has since increased since getting rid of Yoast. Now if you remember I love Yoast as it helps me write better while keeping SEO in mind. But is it really helping this blog and is it necessary? I tried to disable it but my titles did not show up and I did not have time over this past weekend to play around with it. But it is something I’d like to test out soon. I recently won a new WordPress premium theme over at Logallot so I may choose to do it all at once with that new theme. I’ll need lots of time to play with that one. Thank you to Sonia for the wonderful prize!
Plug-ins I Cannot Live Without
- CommentLuv Premium – I just love the plug-in for commenting by Andy Bailey. He is also always right there if you have any issues or questions. He always responds within 24 hours and most often within an hour. I don’t get that kind of customer service from any other plug-in developer.
- WPTouch – The plug-in that helps your WordPress site be mobile friendly. I love this one for proofing by posts once I hit the publish button. I also read a lot of blogs on my mobile so having a mobile version is a must today. Do you have a theme that does this instead for you or do you use this plug-in as well?
Plug-Ins I’m Considering to Delete
- Yoast – I think Yoast has taught me well and if I disable will it add some speed to my site? I’m really in a dilmena with this one. Do you use a SEO plug-in for your blog?
- Google Analytics for WP – I think there must be another way to have analytics with Google without a plug-in. A simple code is probably all it takes. How are you using Google Analytics with your WordPress blog?
- WSA Favicon – Is this really a necessary one? There must be another way to upload a favicon.
So back over to you – Do you believe plug-ins can be magical or not?
Which are your favorite plug-ins and which could you live without?
Image courtesy of cooldesign at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Old Twitter Followers That Haven’t Tweeted Being Swept Away
Old Twitter Followers That Don’t Tweet
Old Twitter followers are being sweeped away. It’s Spring and the Spring cleaning continues. Why follow peeps who haven’t tweeted in weeks or months? If peeps are not active on the social network it’s time to say Goodbye!
3 Great Ways to Unfollow Old Twitter Followers
There are some great tools you can use to check who isn’t following and how long since they last tweeted. Why waste your stream with folks that are inactive and / or irrelevant to your tweets?
- Just Unfollow – Just Unfollow is quick and easy. I use the FREE version to sweep away those old Twitter followers who haven’t been active on the social network. You can of course pay for the premium version and get more tools to use.
- Commun.it - Commun.it is a great tool as it recommends which peeps to follow or unfollow. You can also see when they last tweeted and/or interacted with you on Twitter.
- Tweepi - When I did not find enough to unfollow I went to Tweepi. A great way to see who’s tweeted in the last week or month. It was amazing to see how many peeps just tweeted in minutes while I was on that site checking it out.
Old Twitter Followers – Be Careful How Many You Unfollow In A Day
Twitter has rules about how many you can follow and unfollow in a day. You must be careful not to be seen as churning spam particularly by automated means. If you are one to follow and unfollow daily you may get noticed by Twitter and could be a cause for concern. So be careful not to constantly follow and unfollow. You can also read my eBook so you don’t end up in Twitter jail – it really exists!
6 Reasons To Unfollow Old Twitter Followers
- They haven’t tweeted in weeks or months. They are considered inactive.
- They don’t tweet in your areas of interest, why continue to follow?
- They do not interact with you when you tweet or retweet them.
- They don’t have a face or icon associated with their account – why did you follow in the first place?
- No profile – What are they about? What is their purpose for being on Twitter? Bio’s should be filled out!
- They tweet constantly – filling up your stream with not so great content. Maybe they should use the Buffer app.
How often do you clean up your old Twitter followers on Twitter and do you have other reasons to unfollow peeps on Twitter?
Tweeting During Extraordinary Events – A Yes or a No?
Tweeting During Extraordinary Events, Do We Share Too Much?
Tweeting during extraordinary events is the question today. The events that unfolded in Boston really made me wonder whether or not to tweet. I did not use the Buffer or Triberr during those tense 24+ hours. It just did not seem important with what was going on around us. The same can be said for all types of social media. How much should we be sharing when the bad guys may be following our shares and movements? Many tweeted to each other to calm one another down or to share information.
This tweet really said it all:
Boston Police asks public not to publicize what houses are being searched citing officers\’ safety news.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/… #Watertown
— Lisa(@Lisapatb) April 19, 2013
Tweeting Important Tweets?
There were other informative tweets that were important to share and to be seen. What if everyone kept their buffers and triberr settings going and took down the system? Remember the fail whale? Not a good time to see that and thankfully we did not that day. But these important tweets are great to share during extraordinary times. You never know who just got up and glanced at their smartphone or computer. They may need the information before they start their day.
Have you seen these guys? #BostonBombing suspects pics released. Plz share – someone must know them! cnn.com/2013/04/18/us/…
— Nancy Cawley Jean (@NancyCawleyJean) April 18, 2013
ALL MTBA service is currently suspended, at the request of the police according to Joe Pesaturo, PIO. #Watertown #Boston
— CNN West Desk (@CNNBig22) April 19, 2013
Due to police activity, Amtrak service is temporarily suspended between Boston and Providence, R.I.
— Amtrak Northeast (@AmtrakNEC) April 19, 2013
Tweeting Wonderful Tweets?
These were great tweets to share after the events unfolded. And the images on Twitter really are looking great. They have really come a long way with the pictures and Twitter cards.
#BostonStrong at Fenway today. Expect big things and chilly, breezy, dry weather. wxch.nl/OgxQxW twitter.com/EricFisherTWC/…
— Eric Fisher (@EricFisherTWC) April 20, 2013
David Ortiz: “Boston, that’s our ******* city!” So proud to wear our home whites today. #BostonStrong twitter.com/RedSox/status/…
— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) April 20, 2013
This probably won’t be the last time we will experience something extraordinary before our eyes via social media. During weather events sharing is really important. It can help others to safety. But during terrorism events, how much should we reveal about our whereabouts and police activity? It’s really a fine line and a gray area. What we tweet could mean the difference between life and death.
SO, do you tweet more or less during extraordinary circumstances? What about on Facebook?
I’d love to hear your take on tweeting anad sharing on social media during extraordinary events like those from last week.
