WP Statistics – one great solution to monitor your website
Hello friends,
In this post I will present to you one great solution that will allow you to monitor and analyze important data for your WordPress website. It comes in the form of a plugin and it is called WP Statistics.
What does WP Statistics do?
Love using Google Analytics? Or maybe some other analytics solution for another search engine? Then how about Jetpack and its statistics?
In all of these cases you want one thing – to monitor when you have new website visits, from where and how much are day on a daily, monthtly (and other) basis. And this is absolutely OK since nowadays data can be considered a resource of imperative importance. So the much more data you have, the more analysis you can make and then your digital marketing strategy can be improved further for more conversions and better results in general.
In our current case WP Statistics is another way of gaining access to the precious resource that we call data. So basically the short answer to the question is that this plugin will allow you to analyze your website in terms of visits, search engine queries and other data.
That is awesome but what exactly makes WP Statistics so special?
This plugin allows you to track data without the need to depend on external services. It also tries to respect your users’ privacy whenever this is possible.
What features does WP Statistics provide for any WordPress website?
Lots! First of all this plugin will allow you to monitor the users that are currently online. This is very important as this data can allow you to track the current activity on your website.
Next WP Statistics informs you of the overall visits, visitors and page statistics so that you can know which pages gain higher visits and which are not performing so good. Thus you can take action regarding the latter and improve them.
WP Statistics analyzes the search queries and redirects from the major players on the search engine market. This is really important!
Next is the possibility to view details about your pages. For example which browser are being used to view them and their respective versions, country based statistics, referral traffic (so that you can know who links to your website) and other information.
WP Statistics uses GeoIP location by country. And when speaking of user privacy – this plugin allows the hashing of the visitors’ IP addresses in the database. Thus their privacy is indeed protected.
However you can still monitor the visitors location and this is presented to you on a beautiful interactive map so that you can clearly see from where does your traffic come.
WP Statistics can send you emails with statistical reports if you want this. Also this plugin allows the limitation of the access to the precious data it has collected to specific user roles. This means that if you have multiple users on your WordPress website and you don’t want anyone of them to be able to see your stats, then you simply can hide this information from some of them, while the ones who do need to view it and analyze it (for example your digital marketging and SEO team) will be able to do this without any problems.
WP Statistics also allows you to filter your data collection so that it can be as precise as possible. You don’t want to count your own visits, right? Also you may want to exclude common robots from the data collection as well. Well this plugin will allow you to do this. There are also other criteria from which you can choose in order to clean up your data by leaving only the important visits in it – i.e. the ones that will result in conversions.
WP Statistics can also export your precious data in the form of XML, CSV or TSV files. This is extremely valuable as this can be used with other SEO and digital marketing tools. This plugin also supports shortcodes and widgets in case you want to share some of the data publicly with your visitors. Also there are dashboard widgets for the admin area as well.
What if I need help for working with WP Statistics?
The plugin comes with a comprehensive admin manual that will allow you to understand how it works. Also you can ask for support in the official WordPress.org page of WP Statistics.
How to get this plugin working?
Begin by downloading and installing it. Then you need to activate WP Statistics and adjust its settings. The user manual will help you for this. The plugin can be downloaded from WordPress.org or by using the plugin installer system in the admin panel of your own website.
That’s all friends! Will you give WP Statistics a try? Share any thoughts and questions in the comment section below.
See you soon, friends!
Breadcrumbs in WordPress – what are they and how to enable them
Hello friends,
In this post I will present to you the idea behind one popular and important link navigation for any website. This structure is called breadcrumbs.
What are breadcrumbs?
Have you ever read Hansel and Gretel? If so you are familiar with the trail of breadcrumbs that they leave behind in order to find their way back to their house. Well, the idea is similar when we are viewing breadcrumbs as a navigation structure for WordPress and any other website in general.
Of course your visitors won’t get lost when they reach one page or another and they can always find a way back to the homepage. However the idea here is to make it as easy and convenient as possible for them to go back to any previous page in the trail with just one click.
Imagine the following situation: You have a blog post called “blog-post1” under the category “category-1”. This category has a page that any user can access and see all blog posts under it. Your WordPress website is set to have the following URL structure:
domain-name/category-1/blog-post1
Then a good idea for a breadcrumb navigation will be the possibility to provide a trail for all of these pages that displays their names instead of URL strings.
For example:
Home Page > Category 1 > Blog Post 1
Then any user that is currently on Blog Post 1 can with one click return to the category page or to the home page if needed. Now imagine this situation in a more complex environment where under one main page there are several sub-pages and each of them have their own sub-pages. In this case a breadcrumb navigation is not only convenient but in my opinion also needed.
Why breadcrumbs are also extremely useful for SEO?
The bots are crawling your WordPress website. You want them to be able to reach any page or post with ease so that it can get indexed and ranked. That is why there is an imperative need of perfect menu and navigation structures so that the bots can be eased in their tasks as much as possible.
When you provide them with a breadcrumb navigation structure you are making it extremely easy for them to find out which page is the parent and which are its child pages. This will result in better indexation and also better ranking.
Also having a breadcrumb navigation structure will change the way your website is displayed in the search results. Instead of showing URL’s, visitors will be able to see the navigation path that the bots have indexed. This will result in an additional keywords that can be indexed. Also in this way there is better usability as the users will be able to read easily the names of the pages in the trail instead of their URL strings.
How to add breadcrumbs in WordPress?
If you are using Yoast SEO then you can use its features and enable great-looking breadcrubms.
This can be done under SEO Settings → Advanced → Breadcrumbs. Choose the way you want to display your breadcrumbs in the fields below. Then visit this link (click here) and follow the guide in order to implement the breadcrumbs in the code of your WordPress theme. Bear in mind that this is not recommended to be done by beginners and you are encouraged to contact the theme developers for a permanent solution.
Another option is to use the plugin Breadcrumb NavXT. You can get it from WordPress.org or by using the plugin installer system in your WordPress admin panel.
A third option is to choose a theme that has a breadcrumb navigation support by default.
That’s all friends! If you have any questions share them in the comment section below. See you soon, friends!
WP Google Maps – learn how to add google maps in WordPress
Hello friends,
In this post you are going to learn how to add google maps in WordPress.
Do you want to display a map that shows your local business or some other location on your WordPress website? And do you want to customize it as much as possible?
In this case you are reading the right post in TheCMSPlace as here I am going to present to you one extremely convenient plugin that will allow you to add customized Google Maps to every WordPress website. It is called WP Google Maps.
What makes WP Google Maps more convenient than the ability to embed Google Maps directly to a post or a page?
For some webmasters and admins this would not make any difference as in most of the cases the idea is to display a standard map without additional customization. In such cases I’d even recommend to use the embed code that Google Maps can provide you. This would save time and effort and also will remove the need of an additional plugin.
But if you want a customized map and you want it displayed as you desire then WP Google Maps is the best solution for your needs.
This wonderful plugin comes in two versions – Free and Pro. For the purpose of this post I will be reviewing the Free version only. It is extremely powerful and it will do what is required for most WordPress websites. At the end of the post I will mention some of the additional features that the Pro version will provide to you in case you need more options.
How to add google maps in WordPress with the use of WP Google Maps?
Begin by downloading and installing the plugin. You can also use the plugin installer from your WordPress admin dashboard. When the installation is complete you need to activate WP Google Maps. Then head to the Maps menu that will appear in your dashboard. Click on it.
You will be presented with an intro overview of the plugin. You can skip this and head to the map creation.
When you do this you will be transferred to the Maps sub-menu. Here a warning will appear that requires to create a new Google Maps API key or to supply your already created one. The API keys are free and there is a link that you can click in the plugin that will redirect you to the API key creation.
Below you can see a sample map that you can edit.
There you will see several tabs. The first one is the General Settings. Here you can see the shortcode that you can add to your posts and pages so that your map will be displayed there. You can edit the map name, its dimensions, zoom level, alignment and map type.
On the General Settings tab you can also add markers to you desired location. You can do this by either providing the plugin with a GPS coordinates or Address or you can right click on the map and the plugin will grab the location for you. You can also change animation settings and whether or not to open the InfoWindow by default.
When done you need to click on the Add Marker button and a marker will be created for you.
On the General Settings tab of the Free version you can also add Polygons and Polylines.
The next tab is called Themes and here you can choose how your map will look like. You can also use a custom theme.
For the Free version the next available tab is the Advanced Settings tab. Here you are able to add some settings however the Pro version is required for the rest of them.
This is all that you can achieve using the Free version of WP Google Maps. The rest of the options and tabs are locked for the Pro version only.
The next submenu is called Settings.
Here you can modify how the plugin will function. Again you are presented with several tabs. From the Advanced tab you can set a new API key if needed. There you can also add custom CSS.
The last submenu is called Support.
There you will find useful links for the plugin Documentation and also links for Troubleshooting. On this submenu you can also find links for the support forum and contact information.
When done you need to add the map shortcode to the desired part of your WordPress website and with this your work is done.
A few words on the WP Google Maps Pro version.
If you want additional customization power you can purchase this version. By doing this you will be able to unlock all tabs and settings and therefore create custom Google maps with high quality markers containing locations, descriptions, images, categories, links and directions.
What do you think friends? Share any thoughts and questions in the comments below and don’t forget to spread the word about this post in social media as well.
See you soon!
SendPulse – the ultimate digital marketing solution
Hello friends,
Today we are going to be discussing one solution that will help you achieve optimal results for your digital marketing campaigns. We will be focusing on its core functionalities and of course its WordPress integration.
This solution is called SendPulse and it is every marketeer’s best friend!
What does SendPulse do?
A lot! SendPulse is a full featured suite that offers you the possibility to create and optimize your newsletter campaigns with ease, then send them via SMTP which is again provided by the suite. Then you can target users with push notifications. But that’s not all! You can also send SMS messages so that your customers will always be notified about your discounts and offers. There is also an API that can be used by the engineers for full control and endless managing capabilities.
But what is most important about SendPulse is that this solution relies on artificial intelligence, hyper personalization and predictive analysis. By using it you can be one step ahead of your competition!
I want to know more about SendPulse.
I am sure that you do! If you visit the official website of SendPulse you will find out everything that you need to know. However let’s focus on the key features of this solution, shall we?
SendPulse is the choice of over 320,000 users for a reason! It simply works as intended. With this solution your digital marketing campaigns will benefit from extremely high delivery rate worldwide. Also SendPulse provides you with speed service (again extremely high).
One of the most important parts of every digital marketing campaign are newsletters. If they are created properly and sent in an appropriate time, then they can result in great ROI. Many users will return to your website and a great amount of them will purchase your products or services. In order for this to happen you will need a solution that will allow you to focus on the most important part – the creation of the newsletter and its sending when intended. So here comes SendPulse with its ability to allow you to create different types of mailings and send them all from one single platform.
Remember that I mentioned that this solution allows you to focus on the important parts of your newsletter campaigns? Well after you create and send them it’s time to start communicating with your customers. And when using SendPulse you can also focus on this extremely important part and leave everything technical to the great team behind the solution.
Sending a newsletter campaign must be done from servers that are known to have good reputation. Period! Everything else can be compared to trying to shoot birds with flak guns. You might hit some but most will simply fly away! But you can relax! With SendPulse not only that no birds will receive any harm, but your emails will just arrive to every subscriber! Nothing is lost!
This solution also allows you to create split tests so that you can achieve higher number of website conversions. There is also support for mobile devices. This means that your newsletters will be responsive and will allow your subscribers to read them with ease on their mobile devices.
SendPulse provides automation features. Using this suite you will be able to create hybrid series of communications and target your users with SMS, newsletters, webpush notifications. There is also an integration with third party systems that will ease the process even more. There are additional features like resend to unopened which is known to increase the original open rate of your newsletters campaign by up-to 80% (industry dependent).
Last but not least – you get an analytics functionality that will allow you to receive detailed reports so that you will know what is the status of your campaigns and how to improve them.
How to integrate SendPulse with WordPress?
There is a plugin that will activate Web Push notifications on your WordPress website. You may get it from WordPress.org or by using the plugin installer in your dashboard. There is also an excellent guide created by the SendPulse team that will show you exactly how you can integrate your website with the suite. Make sure that you read it (click here).
There is also another plugin from SendPulse that allows you to generate subscribers from your own WordPress website. There is a vast amount of benefits of having this plugin installed and activated. For example you can make list segmentation. Make sure that you read more about this plugin from here. And you can also download it from WordPress.org as well.
So what do you think friends? If you are still uncertain about whether to use SendPulse or not, then you need to know that you are able to try it for free. 15,000 emails can be sent monthly when using this solution and without any costs!
If you want to find out more about SendPulse, you can have a look at the official YouTube channel of SendPulse. There you can find great videos that explain how to work with the solution.
Here is an example for one of them which shows how you can create newsletters using SendPulse:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24YOlnB0fU8
See you soon, friends!
How to lower the bounce rate of your WordPress website
Hello friends,
Do you get high bounce rate reports in Google Analytics? And do you want to know how to lower it?
Then you are reading the right post at TheCMSPlace! Here I will present to you several steps that will allow you to lower the bounce rate of your WordPress website.
Before we begin, we must discuss what bounce rate is.
Let’s imagine the following situation – you visit a page on a website. Then you decide to leave the website immediately by either closing your browser window or moving to a new tab or website. In any of these cases you have made a bounce because you didn’t visited any other page on this specific website. Each bounce increases the percentage of the overall bounce rate and if it is too great then this might be a bad ranking signal for the search engine bots and your SEO strategy will suffer.
There is also a bounce rate metric for any of your website’s pages and its purpose is to define which of your pages are causing more bounces.
What is the difference between bounce rate and exit rate?
Bounce is a immediate leave without any interactions. Exit means that the visitor has made some interactions with your website’s pages and has left the website from one specific page.
Is the zero or extremely low bounce rate a good thing?
First of all you might never experience such a result or let’s just say that this happens very rarely. There is always a fair amount of bounces. But if you encounter such metrics then you should know that the extremely low (or zero) bounce rate is just as bad as the extremely high one. In this case there might be some problem with your analytics tracking code. For example you may have inserted it more than once in the code of your pages. This will send a negative ranking signal so make sure that you discover the problem and fix it as soon as possible.
Remember – a fair amount of bounces is always something normal.
Now to the main point – how to lower the bounce rate of your WordPress website?
If it is too high then you need to make sure that your visitors can interact with your pages. First of all you should consider improving your content. Write useful posts that your visitors will read. Use suitable images and language. Make sure that your text is in a suitable tone and that there are no punctuation and grammar mistakes. Insert videos that are related to your main topic. There needs to be something in your posts that the visitors will interact with!
Once you do this then its time to imrpove the internal link structure of your posts and pages. This is very important for various reasons. It is extremely useful to provide links to related or similar posts in any post/page of your website. Also your menu structure should allow your visitors to reach any page with a single click or two clicks at maximum.
You can find more information about this in point 5 of our post 7 ways to improve your WordPress On-Page SEO.
There you will also find suitable solutions in the form of plugins that will allow you to build better internal links in order to reduce your overall bounce rate.
Another useful technique is to show popups that will ask the visitor to interact with your content before leaving. You may ask them to subscribe for your newsletter or to check a special offer or something else.
A suitable plugin for this purpose is OptinMonster. It is a premium optin popup tool created for marketing purposes. In our specific case you will be able to ask your visitors to make some interactions before they leave your website. And who knows they might even like to stay a while longer and even return regularly.
Another suitable plugin is Icegram. It is free and you might just find it the best solution for your WordPress website.
Last but not least – make sure that you are using your widget areas wisely. Putting a useful content there will also help you reduce your bounce rate. This might be more internal links for related articles or a some social media plugin.
So there you have it friends. If you have any questions or other feedback, please share them in the comment section below. Thank you and see you soon!
How to add web push notifications to your WordPress website
Hello friends,
Do you want to increase your visitors engagement? More clicks and bigger open rate (especially on mobile devices)? You may be surprised to find out that popular websites such as Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others have discovered a way to achieve this by using one specific technology. It is proven to be extremely engaging. It even beats SMS notifications, all of the various email marketing strategies and even social media itself!
This technology is no longer a secret! It is called web push notifications and in this post I will reveal to you several ways of adding it to your WordPress website!
But first things first! You may be wondering what web push notifications are and how do they work. So let’s explain this, shall we?
Web push notifications are messages that may appear on your visitors’ desktop and mobile devices. In order this to happen your website should be configured to use this technology. The next step is to instruct the web push notification system of your choice to work with specific browsers. Finally your visitors should be convinced to accept web push notifications for your website. When this is done the real magic is going to happen! Each new post will result in a small message that notifies the users for it. These notifications will appear even if the browser is not running! The end result will be an extremely high chance of intriguing the users to click on the notification and visit your website.
In SEO’s point of view this means several achievements – more returning visitors, more page views, high chance of increasing the time spent on specific pages and overall visit time, more sessions, higher CTR and lower bounce rate. All of these factors are extremely important for better ranking and web push notifications can help you improve them.
Now to the main point of this post – how to add web push notifications to your WordPress website?
Option#1 One Signal – the free way of integrating web push notifications for any website
Free! Startups, smaller business, non-profits and even bloggers will love this. One Signal will work flawlessly with just a couple of clicks and configurations, delivering web push notifications for your visitors in a flash.
How to achieve this with your WordPress website? Begin by installing its WordPress plugin. Then activate it and start configuring it. What you will need to possess are several API keys and application ID’s – Google Keys, One Signal keys, Apple Safari Web ID. Of course you will need a free Open Signal account as well. You can find a detailed guide on configuring this WordPress plugin here.
What else you will get from One Signal, besides the fact that it is free?
Support for unlimited number of devices and notifications. Localization, unlimited list segmentation, real time analytics, A/B Split Tests and more. You are just going to love it! One Signal also offers premium support if needed.
When One Signal is configured for your WordPress website there will be a button displayed inviting users to subscribe for notifications.
Speaking of this – TheCMSPlace is using One Signal and you are more than welcome to subscribe for our web push notifications.
Option#2 – PushCrew
Here you also need to download and install the respective WordPress plugin. Then you have to also activate it. You will need a PushCrew Account ID for the plugin’s settings. This means that an account is needed as well. You can create one on the official website of PushCrew.
Bear in mind that here you are presented with several pricing plans:
- Startup – free for 500 subscribers
- Premium
- Business
- Enterprise/Agency
The free option is suitable for start. All of the other plans offer very useful features that might be suitable when your WordPress site grows bigger and popular. So you can consider upgrading when needed.
When your account ID is provided into PushCrew’s WordPress plugin then your website will invite visitors to subscribe for your web push notifications. Detailed explanation on this plugin can be found here.
Option#3 – PushEngage
Not quite popular as the two ones above (when speaking of WordPress installations) however its free plan might just surprise you! Up to 2500 active subsribers, unlimited notifications, various browser support, detailed analytics and more features. This is definitely a service that you need to bear in mind. Again you are presented with a WordPress plugin that you can download from here. And if needed a special PushEngage plan with more features then you can consider purchasing some of the paid pricing plans that are provided on the official website of PushEngage.
Option#4 – PushAssist
This may be the easiest to set-up web push notification service of all. Its free plan supports up-to 3000 subscribers and offer great features as well. There are two other pricing plans that might be suitable for bigger websites – Premium and Enterprise.
PushAssist also comes with a WordPress plugin. You can get it from here. More information about this service can be found on its website.
This concludes our list, friends. What do you think? Will you use any of these web push notification services? Share your thoughts and questions about them in the comment section below. Also don’t forget to spread the word about this post in social media as well.
See you soon, friends!
What is CDN and how to use it to increase your website speed
Hello friends,
In this post I will share with you some useful information regarding SEO and image optimization.
And more specifically – what is CDN and how to use it to increase your website speed.
So what exactly is CDN?
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. This type of network can help your server run faster by removing its obligation to provide static content (like images, css and javascript) when a page is loaded. This type of content is provided from various alternative server nodes that are spread worldwide. This means that if a user is trying to access/download something from your website (let’s say images for example), then they will be delivered from the nearest nodes (in geographical terms). Therefore the specific content will load faster on the user’s device and in the meantime your own server won’t be under additional pressure. It’s a win-win situation for both sides!
In other words CDN provides faster responses and content download times thanks to the effect of reduced latency.
How does a typical CDN work?
The typical Content Delivery Network consists of many servers that are geographically dispersed. The Nodes of the CDN are called edge servers. Their job is to cache the static content that you want to provide. Then your content is distributed to each of these nodes and it is stored there. Once this is done it will be accessed from the nearest to each visitor nodes and more specifically – it may be accessed from more than one node. So when a visitor lands on a specific page of your website, its loading time will be drastically reduced due to the fact that most of the content comes from the shortest distance and from different servers. And this short distance that the data travels is called reduced latency.
How to increase my website’s speed by using CDN?
First of all you have to find a suitable CDN provider. Then if you are happy with its pricing plans and features you have to tell the CDN which content should be cached on its nodes. This is also known as mirroring your data on the CDN. The next step is some basic configuration on your website so that each of the requests for accessing the chosen content are directed to the CDN and not to your own server/hosting.
If you are using a CMS like WordPress then the CDN implementation might be even easier. Most of the great CDN providers have plugins that you simply need to install and configure. This is extremely easy and after a few settings you are set up for using CDN.
Here are some honorable mentions that either have their own official WordPress plugin or are available for instant integration via most popular caching plugins or other custom/third party solutions:
- MaxCDN
- KeyCDN
- Amazon CloudFront
- CloudFlare
- Microsoft Azure CDN
- CDN77
- Jetpack Photon
- CDNify
- Fastly
- CDN.net
What are the pros and cons of using CDN?
Pros:
- Faster content delivery and response times for all visitors worldwide;
- Reduced main server load;
- Low or moderate difficulty of configuration (depends on the type of website and chosen provider);
- Provides “next-level” optimization for your website;
- Improves the overall SEO;
- Helps for higher rankings;
- There are free or cost-effective solutions which are suitable for smaller businesses or start-ups;
Cons:
- You still need to optimize your website and content;
- Some providers have high prices which might not fit into your budget;
- Your data is provided to a third-party service which might result in a loss of control and even blocked access;
- In some situations a CDN implementation might not be needed – for example if all of your visits come from near locations and your website is already fully optimized so that the responses are quite fast;
- Possible complexity when configuring CDN for some websites;
- Lack of file optimization and security risks from some providers;
Final verdict – should you use CDN or not?
By now you are aware what CDN is and how it works. You also know its pros and cons. So the decision is entirely in your hands. I am sure that in most of the cases (especially when you have a website with thousands of visits daily) you would like to use CDN.
So my advice (before you decide) is to have the following things figured out:
- Detailed information about your target audience;
- Expected website visits;
- Level of optimization before implementing CDN (focus on the website speed metrics provided from tools like GTMetrix or Pingdom);
- Budget;
- Implementation strategy;
I hope that this post has provided some clarity on the topic what is CDN and how to use it to increase your website speed. Please share any feedback in the comment section below and don’t forget to spread the word about this post in social media as well.
See you soon, friends!
7 ways to improve your WordPress On-Page SEO
Hello friends,
One very important aspect of SEO is the On-Page SEO. I even dare to say that it is the most important aspect. Some fellow digital marketeers would disagree by placing their faith on the Off-Page SEO which aims mainly on link-building. However as much as the latter is needed for better ranking, the lack of great and optimized content will reduce the value of your website in the visitors eyes. Let’s not forget that link-building is a double-edged sword. Why? Because in some cases it might ruin your SEO strategy due to a penalty by the search engines. And I believe that none of you wants this, right?
That is why in this post I will share with you 7 ways to improve your WordPress On-Page SEO. Let’s begin!
#1 – Choose a hosting provider that can guarantee you speed and high-quality backups
WordPress is great – we all know this. However some WordPress websites can grow into memory and CPU eating monsters. It happens quite a lot – especially if you are using low-quality plugins or plugins that are not working correctly with one-another (a.k.a. incompatible plugins). And while plugin management is your responsibility it is also important to rely on a high-quality hosting provider. This will ensure that your website will simply work. So the first thing to do is to check if your hosting provider gives you the quality you deserve and if not, it’s a good idea to migrate your website to another one. It’s also very important to have backups performed by your hosting provider. Additionally you might want to check some WordPress backup plugins like the ones that we have reviewed on TheCMSPlace. Check them out from here.
#2 – Create useful content with suitable selection of keywords and phrases
Without a proper keyword research your content will have little chance reaching a wider audience . This means that your SEO campaign is vital for your business. That is why you need to research all suitable keywords and phrases and use them wisely in your content. This will ensure that your target visitors will find your website in the search results. You should consider using tools like Open Site Explorer or Ahrefs for keyword research.
But having a bunch of suitable words and phrases is not the only thing that will make your content great. Let’s not forget that over-optimization with keywords is very bad for On-Page SEO. You have to use these words moderately in your content. In order to make it great, it has to be also useful and specific. This means that you have to write about topics that are strictly related to the main idea behind your website.
Great content can provide additional value to your visitors. For example a “how-to article” in which you describe the usage of a product will be extremely valuable. Also you have to make it user-friendly by writing in a style that is best accepted by your target group of visitors. Therefore it is imperative to know your audience and their needs and desires.
Last but not least – watch your grammar and punctuation and never forget that content is (and always will be) king!
#3 – Use SEO plugins
These WordPress plugins will make it extremely easy for you to manage your On-Page SEO. They will help you add all the important meta elements to your posts and pages and also to place suitable keywords and phrases in all applicable places so that your website will be crawled and indexed better. Also such plugins will allow you to optimize your content for social media as well. One of the best solutions that is suitable even for beginners is YoastSEO.
#4 – Optimize your images and multimedia
There is nothing worse than a bunch of large, unoptimized images and other multimedia content that make your website slow as a turtle. And this is something that you simply don’t want! Lucky for you we have an awesome collection of extremely easy-to-use tips for optimizing your images. Check it out from this link.
#5 – Improve your website internal and navigation links
WordPress is the king of creating internal links out-of-the-box! This is achieved with the awesome tag and category systems. By using them wisely you will get many internal links between related content. And having more of them is essential for On-Page SEO as it improves the crawling process of your website. Consider using plugins for related posts. They will automatically create even more internal links between posts with similar content.
Here are some great suggestions:
- How to display related posts in WordPress
- Methods for displaying inline related posts in WordPress
- Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) – review
Now let’s focus on navigation. WordPress is equipped with a powerful menu system that allows you to create flawless navigation that will allow the visitors to reach the needed content quite easily. What you might want to do is to create a strategy for improving your WordPress navigation by:
- deciding which elements need to be placed in your main menu and all other menus (if needed);
- choosing suitable sub-elements;
- improving the tag and category structure of your website;
- choosing the menu(s) location(s)
To do this you have to make an audit of your pages and posts. You can use tools like SiteLiner or Screaming Frog. Choose posts and pages that contain great content and allow your visitors to reach them by using the navigation system of your website. Also consider using plugins like WP-PageNavi in order to achieve even better results.
Lastly – always check for broken links and if needed apply 301 redirects.
#6 Use the nofollow and noindex meta elements wisely
These two meta elements are very important for SEO. The first one is used when you want to tell the search engine bots not to follow a link that you have created. The second one tells them not to index the current post or page. In most cases you’d like to add a nofollow attribute to each external link (except the ones that you are sure that you want to share link juice with) while trying to keep the all internal ones “dofollow”. However there are cases in which you’d want to add nofollow attribute to some internal links as well. Based on the results from the content audit from the previous step, you should apply this to all links that point to pages/posts with little or low-quality content. Also you can set some pages to “noindex”. By doing this you can ensure that the PageRank flow will be distributed only between the most important parts of your WordPress website.
#7 Use caching plugins
W3 Total Cache, WP SuperCache or some other high-quality solution like ZenCache will boost the speed of your website. This means that the visitors will get to view your pages faster and also your hosting server won’t get overburdened. Also make sure that you have taken care of your .htaccess file by optimizing it additionally. This will ensure even better On-Page SEO results.
These are my 7 ways to improve your WordPress On-Page SEO. What do you think about them? Share any questions or feedback in the comment section below and share this post is social media as well.
See you soon, friends!
*Image source – Pixabay
Top 10 WordPress plugins for 2016
Hello friends,
WordPress is a CMS that can help many webmasters and admins to achieve their goals by creating the most suitable websites for their needs. This can be a regular blog (the reason why WordPress was created in the first place), a corporate website, presentation website, e-commerce project or something else. Yes, WordPress can be used for all you can think of and it works! That is why in December 2016 the percentage of all websites globally that are using WordPress is 27% with approximately 50.000 new ones added daily (according to expandedramblings.com).
The core of this CMS is quite powerful out-of-the-box, but the real power comes when you add high-quality plugins. This has been discussed many times here at TheCMSPlace and you can have a look at our various reviews so that you can discover suitable solutions with great quality for your websites.
In this post we will present to you our list of top 10 WordPress plugins for 2016 (starting from 10 to 1) so that you can have a head start when planning your next project.
So without further ado let’s begin with number 10:
#10 OptinMonster
This is the most popular software for WordPress in terms of conversion rate optimization. What OptinMonster does is simply to interact with all leaving visitors (the ones that are just about to close your website or move to another one) so that they can be transformed into email subscribers by filling out a unique form. This plugin relies on popups which are highly debated. Many users and webmasters consider them as “pure evil” while others simply adore them. The decision whether you are going to use such a plugin is up to you (and your audience, of course) but here are some things that might make you fall in love with OptinMonster:
- You can create astonishing forms that will attract any visitor’s attention by just using drag&drop;
- There are multiple form types to choose from;
- The Exit Intent® Technology will detect user behavior and will target them at the precise moment;
- You can do split tests so that you can choose from the best form for your audience;
- Page level targeting is included in OptinMonster;
- You can monitor statistics by the built-in analytics functionality;
These are some of the features that have turned OptinMonster into one of the top plugins for 2016 and if you really want to grow your email lists and bring back any leaving visitors so that they can become customers and brand followers, then this is definitely the plugin that you should consider using!
#9 UpdraftPlus
We are really proud to present to you one of the best backup plugins for WordPress. And in 2016 it has become even more popular. That is why it is included in this list. UpdraftPlus has already been reviewed here at TheCMSPlace so make sure that you read our review by clicking here. This is one really awesome plugin that will allow you to create regular backups of your website and also to restore any broken things with just a few clicks. Yes, it is that easy! You get to choose where to store your backups, run automated jobs, manage backups and more.
#8 Redirection
Another high-quality plugin that is still among the most popular ones in 2016. Our guess is that it will continue to be this popular in the following years as well. And this is not accidental! Redirection is the best plugin for managing all your redirects. Having a page moved to a new URL? No problem – just use Redirection to point to the crawler bots its new location. Want to know if there are some 404 errors on your website? Redirection is here for you as well! You will get a list of them so that you can decide what to do. This plugin relies on 301 redirects which are considered to be SEO friendly.
Make sure that you read our post on how to make redirections in WordPress so that you can find out more about this awesome plugin as well as some advanced information for the topic.
#7 WordFence Security
Who wants to have their website hacked? No one! That is why a great security solution like WordFence is needed. We have made a review on this plugin – it is available from this link. Read it to find out more about its powerful features and we are certain that you might want to try it out for your next WordPress project. What you get out-of-the-box is a free (yes, free) enterprise-class protection from various hacking attempts and malware infections. Great, isn’t it?
#6 MailChimp for WordPress
One of the best solutions for email marketing is MailChimp for WordPress. It will allow you to gain more email subscribers and grow your email lists. Then you need to login into your MailChimp account and start creating your stylish newsletters with ease. This extremely popular plugin is also reviewed here at TheCMSPlace. Click here to find out more about MailChimp for WordPress.
#5 SiteOrigin Page Builder
Want a free solution that will allow you to create any page just like you have imagined it? Then you need a high-quality Page Bulider like SiteOrigin’s one. This is one awesome solution that comes with various widgets and functionalities and all you need to do is just use drag&drop in order to create the structure of your page or post. Yes, it is that easy! SiteOrigin Page Builder has been reviewed in details in this post. But it is important to stress out that there are some other high-quality and also extremely popular page building solutions for 2016 as well. You may find a detailed list here.
#4 WooCommerce
The solution that transforms WordPress into a powerful e-commerce platform! There are tons of additional plugins for WooCommerce as well as themes that are intentionally created to improve its functionality. WooCommerce is definitely one of the top plugins for 2016 as it powers a vast amount of e-commerce websites. And believe me these numbers will continue to grow together with this plugin’s popularity.
When you get WooCommerce you receive a solution that allows you to present your products on your WordPress website with extreme ease. This is by far the most robust e-commerce solution that you may find for our favorite CMS and it provides great power right out-of-the-box. Start selling now!
#3 Advanced Custom Fields
The best plugin for creating custom fields cannot be left out from this list. It is definitely a solution that you may find useful. With it you can take full control on your editor screen when creating posts or pages. Add the fields that you need and that will enhance your creativity. There is a review for this plugin available for you on this post as well. You can read it from this link.
#2 Google Analytics by MonsterInsights
This is the formerly known plugin Google Analytics by Yoast. The team behind the plugin is different but its main functionality is the same. There is a review which you can read in order to find out more about this solution. What makes it extremely popular and needed is that you can add with extreme ease the tracking code for your Google Analytics account and start receiving statistical data for your visits and so on. This is by far the best way of doing this.
#1 Yoast SEO
Every WordPress website needs a high-quality SEO solution. And Yoast SEO is probably the best solution you can find. When using it you will improve your content creation, add all of the needed meta-elements and manage the way your content should or should not be indexed. With this plugin you will rank higher and your traffic will increase. A definite must-have for every WordPress installation! That is why Yoast SEO is at the number one spot in our list for top 10 WordPress plugins for 2016! There is also a premium version with more powerful features for even better SEO results.
This concludes our list, friends. If you have any suggestions, please use the comment form below in order to share them with us. We are also open for any questions or other feedback from you as well. Share this post in social media so that other users may find out which plugins they should consider using in 2017.
See you soon, friends!