Tag: search engine optimization

How Website Optimization Can Save You From The Google Penguin Update?
Are you doing any website optimization? If you have not, you better do as the next Google Penguin Update is on it’s way.

Don’t freak out as this article will explain in detail how you can prepare for the next Google Update (and probably rank better with the correct search engine optimization techniques).

As we all know, the latest Google Penguin update was rolled out recently (22nd May 2013 to be exact). Many websites were affected from the update including some of mine.

I was lucky that I managed to run several test websites prior to the Google update and let me share with you how website optimization can save your website from all the negative things Google Penguin can throw at you.

Before that, here are my Google Analytics results with two different websites:

Website A
- Tons of backlinks (without considering quality)
- Lots of external links in posts
- Lack of SEO focus and website optimization
Without quality content, websites are very prone to receive penalties from Google

Website B
- Backlinks are done carefully (no backlinks from penalized websites)
- External links in posts are regularly check to ensure no broken links
- SEO is highly focused with very specific website optimization techniques
Quality content, search engine optimization and keywords all play a huge factor in terms of increasing website traffic

Google Penguin Update happened on 22nd May 2013 and I marked it right on both the charts. Website A was hit badly with an average of 25% traffic reduction right after the Google update. On the other hand, website B (with good SEO and content optimization techniques) was not only able to escape the traffic reduction but slowly but surely, increasing in traffic on a daily basis.

Now, what did I learn from the latest Google Penguin Update?
1. Google doesn’t care on cheap or low quality backlinks anymore.
2. Google algorithm is ‘adapting’ to human behavior; readers love to read quality articles and thus, good posts will benefit from this update.
3. Search engine optimization (especially website optimization) techniques are very important to increase website traffic.
4. It doesn’t matter on the number of posts the website has or the domain age. It is all about quality.
5. Content is still king and SEO had just became more important.
p/s: Website A is having a domain age of 3 years while website B is just 6 months old

How to perform website optimization for your websites?

I am pretty sure I got your attention with the result images above (well, please lie to me if they didn’t attract you that much). Now, take a 5 minute break and jot down what you have in your mind when it comes to website optimization. Yes, I will wait for you right here.

Now, let’s say you have five ideas which you believe are the best for website optimization. Let’s compare with mine, shall we?

What are the tooltips when it comes to optimizing websites?

Website optimization technique #1 – Reduce your website loading time

Serious mate. If you want Google to love your website, then start boosting your website loading speed. We all hate slow loading websites right? For me, if the website takes more than 5 seconds to load, I am going to close it. Sorry!

Still not convinced? See what major search engines say about website loading speed below:
- 500 milliseconds of extra load time caused 20% fewer searches – Google
- 400 milliseconds of extra load time caused a 5-9% increase in the number of people who clicked ‘back’ before the page even loaded – Yahoo
- 100 milliseconds of extra load time resulted in a 1% drop in sales – Amazon
Website optimization technique #2 – Keywords are as important as content

Search engines such as Google loves to index blogs and websites which are loaded with good quality articles. And yes, you got it right! One of the basics of writing good quality articles is by using the right keywords.

There are many SEO tools bloggers and webmasters can use when it comes to choosing the right keywords. All it would probably take is a few hours of your precious time and Google (and other search engines) will really appreciate your hard work by giving you more ‘ranking points’ for your websites.

For starters, Google Keyword Tool is one of the best free SEO tools available for bloggers. If you are running a SEO agency or would want to perform SEO for a small scale business, I would highly recommend you to try this premium SEO tool for free!

Website optimization technique #3 – Forget about short posts

I remember writing a SEO guide on HubPages, stating that each article we published should be at least 300 words long in order to get ranked well on search engines. It was true at that time though but for now, the tide had changed.

This is one of the ‘error-free’ website optimization techniques I always use. When you are writing an article, try to keep it above 700 words. I know! It used to be like 300 to 500 words but with the latest Google update, I believe it is time we need to increase the mark.

Depending on topics you are writing, sometime it is very challenging to write quality articles with the said word count but at least, try your best to achieve it. Always remember that a little hard work goes a long way.

Website optimization technique #4 – Update your (old) posts regularly

Google loves updated stuffs and so do I. Do you have any articles that had been collecting dusts and have not been updated, say 6 months or more? You can (and should) easily optimize your website and your articles simply by updating the content.

Now, you don’t need to do a full rewrite. Instead, try to perform small updates such as adding a few lines of new information or even a new image.

The sky is your limit and creativity is always welcome!

Do this before you leave…

I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I do. Have you sign up for the free SEO newsletter? Moving forward, do you want to add any additional information on website optimization techniques? Feel free to comment below 🙂

Like this article? Please help me to share using the red button.
December 21, 2023
Top 6 Blogging Tips That Helps Building Blog Ranking
Blogging is an ever growing business and what we are to do yesterday, might not be able to work today. Well, like it or not, that’s the reality of life! I often ask myself what are important blogging tips as I managed to grow my blogs at Blogspot (some call it Blogger) with hundreds and thousands of viewers a day.

Lucky for you, the answers are right below. So, let’s dive in now and I hope you enjoy this post! Feel free to contact me if you have any question though.

Hold on! This article has more than 1,800 words! Feeling lazy? Don’t worry mate! I even prepared for you a slideshare PowerPoint just for you!

Important blogging tips: Blogging is all about content

Let’s face it guys. You could probably not go far without content. You may spend thousands of dollars (and time) on marketing and social blasting but without content, you are basically nothing.

Good bloggers maintain their blogs. Great bloggers on the other hand, make blogs even better.

Let’s take a moment and see how famous people do with their blogs:

Darren Rowse from ProBlogger.net. He created great blogs because he had great ideas. He did his own book, and even had writers trying to get into his blogging business. He didn’t started big but he did created a path for himself. Good for you Darren!

Now you see, he didn’t get famous simply by blogging nor he was some great blogging tips like this. He became famous by providing good content and articles to his readers. He started from scratch just like all of us.

Lisa Irby from 2createawebsite.com. I followed her recently and I totally love the way she blogged. She started blogging just with an intention to help out others. She did not ‘˜just blog’ but she did quality blogging. All her blogs are filled with important information on blogging and creating websites.

The above two are pretty clear examples in my books. For those who think that SEO has taken over content in blogs, think twice. You are wrong!

Good content attracts people and that’s what you need to target!

I even wrote how you can boost your blog or website content optimization just by using this SEO tool: Simply The Best Content Optimization Tool for Bloggers.

Don’t just blog blindly

I don’t know you but I used to blog blindly. I am not sure if this is a very common term but for me, it means creating an article but has very less content. Consider this as quantity over quality.

Yup, you got it right there. Most readers don’t read articles because they want to but the fact is that they need to. Huh?! Let me explain below.

Where comes readers? Websites or articles are usually visited by others because readers (like you and me) need to find for information. If the blog has very less information, you are going to lose potential traffic within the first 10 seconds!

Keep your article or blog as simple as possible but packed with information. Avoid blind blogging anytime of the day if you want to be a successful blogger.

Importance of Search Engine Optimization a.k.a. SEO

Do you know what SEO really do?

SEO basically means the ability to be ‘˜visible’ in the eyes of the public. Good SEO skills will bring the website to fame. Seriously.

You can’t learn or master SEO, not today and not in the future. So, how can you probably be an SEO expert?!

If you want to be good in SEO, then make sure you understand how SEO works. Most bloggers (and even myself few years back) made the same ol’ mistake. Focusing too much in SEO!

At that time, I thought I could understand SEO and make my website great. Well, I was wrong big time. I came to realized it when I came across an article written by one of the local guys in my country, Malaysia.

That article really struck me like a train hitting me face first. I thought to myself, ‘I made the wrong approach and it took me years to realize it!’. Yes, I wasted probably a few years but I learned from it.

Understanding the SEO concept will actually help you in the blogging career. SEO is needed to create good blogs but it takes more than just that to at the top of search engine result pages.

My tip here is if you are just starting off writing, then focus in your blog contents first. As time passes by, slowly go with SEO approach way.

You can check this article out for more information, Boost Your Website Ranking Using SEO Keywords.

Understand what and how blogging works

One of the best blogging tips I ever learned is blogging is not a one day business. Well, I wish! I am going to admit it, at times, I wish I could start up a blog and make it to the first page of Google. Well, probably in my dreams.

One of the best blogging tips I ever learn is blogging takes time. It is like growing a fruit tree from scratch. Nurturing and taking care of the tree for a few years and then, you might see the tree bearing fruits.

For me, the biggest mistake done by most bloggers is that they assume that blogging is a quick way to make money. Well, you could but chances are pretty slim buddy! Of course, this eBook written by Darren from ProBlogger on how you can earn a six-figure income just from blogging.

I am a very ‘˜karma-person’ and thus, I believe that one can actually make money blogging if they are devoted to help others. From the example way above, both Darren and Lisa are great writers who love to share their ideas.
And, what do they get in return? A pretty smooth sailing blogging career and making money through blogging!

I consider blogging as a full time work where you would need to devote your time and passion into the business. If you want to grow your blog, then ask yourself (first) why you blog. Then work from there with your reason.

Blogging is not about yourself…literally

This is a little tricky and I will try my best to explain. Blogging is not (everything) about yourself or making money online. You need to help others as well, so to say.

I bet you have came across more than one famous blogging website. Do you notice anything in common? Okay, here’s the hint; guest post.

I am going to repeat myself. Blogging is not everything about yourself. If you want to start a blogging business, you should focus a great deal of time in your website and at the same time, other websites!

Websites are nowhere without some help. Let’s face it guys. If you want to have a website with good traffic, then you need to publish your name to the world.

Instead of publishing 10 great articles on your blog, how about publishing 9 great ones on your site and another one in other blogs? You see, sharing one great article might sounds a lot to you (even to me). But, do you know how much traffic you are going to convert?

Yup, you hear me now and I really hope you do. When I contributed my first guest post, I really thought if that is really a good idea. At times, I thought that was a wrong idea. Thankfully, I was able to stick to my ground long enough to see the traffic growth on my own site.

Important blogging tip here is that when it comes to blogging, it is all about giving back to the community. Sharing is caring and in this case, you are opening your doors to even more possibilities just by sharing ideas with others.

Who knows, you might even have followers dying to write for you instead in return!

Build your blogging career correctly

Starting a blog on the right track is important to ensure that the blog will be successful

This is probably the best blogging tip I have for you in this blog. If you want to be somebody in this blogging industry, then you need to make sure that you start the right way. And when I mean starting correctly, it doesn’t mean that you should start a blog on a free website.

I know you might be looking for this. So, here are a few places you can start blogging for free:
- Bloggers or Blogspot
- WordPress.com
*p/s If you want to go pro or serious in blogging, you should get a website instead of those free blogging sites.

To start a new website, you need to buy domain name and hosting services. Here are list of recommended companies:
- NameCheap (domain names)
- GoDaddy (domain names)
- HostGator (hosting company)
- WP Engine (hosting company)
Oh yes, this is the biggest mistake young and experience bloggers make. You may start blogging on a free blog and that doesn’t kill you. However, it is going to affect you in the long run. I know how easy it is to rank well and faster using Blogspot than a website. Now, imagine that you continue your blog for the next 3 years and you grow your audience. Your blog could probably be PR 3 or maybe higher.

I am sure back there somewhere in your brain, you are tempted to have your own brand. Now, moving everything to a new website is easy but building your traffic back? Okay, that is a whole different story.

Don’t get me wrong. You can still make it through without any issue but you are going to waste precious time. It takes months and years to build a brand and it doesn’t come cheap. What I am saying is that if you have plans to develop a blog and probably become a serious blogger, then I would suggest you to get a self hosted domain even from scratch.

Don’t be like me as I wasted a few years with free blogs provided by Blogger and WordPress. I developed my blogs so much that it is a hassle to transfer them over to a self hosted domain. I wasn’t willing to lose the traffic anytime soon and I wish I had started everything with my own website and not with a free blog.

I have to add these useful blogging tips even if there is a gun pointed at my head right now as I type. When you have your own website, you can design it anyway you like. You can publish anything and you are not tied down to any terms and conditions. You are basically the king and the people as well. You can design your website to look anyway you like without having to worry about what others would think (literally).

Final words

I hope you enjoyed this blog post as much as I had writing it. Pardon me for such a lengthy post though and I truly hope that these blogging tips will serve you well in the future.

Feel free to tell me what you think about this post and if there is anything I could improve for the next article simply by replying using the comment form below or using this contact form.

If you like this article, could you please share this for me using the red Google+ button below?
December 21, 2023
Serve Static Content From Cookieless Subdomain for CloudFlare (Updated 2018)
Interesting read: Money Brighter is one of the best LLC in Texas! If you are thinking of speeding up your website, Google might be telling you the answer is to create a cookieless subdomain or domain. Well, that’s easy for you to say. How to serve static content from a cookieless domain? More importantly, what is a cookieless subdomain?

Instead, you can consider a cookieless subdomain is a term to describe data transferring from one point to another (in this case, data movement from subdomain to domain) has no cookies attached. Indirectly, this boost the loading speed of your domain.

This is what Google explain in its own words:

Why is serving static content over cookieless domain important?

Static content, such as images, JS and CSS files, don’t need to be accompanied by cookies, as there is no user interaction with these resources. You can decrease request latency by serving static content from a domain that doesn’t serve cookies. This technique is especially useful for pages referencing large volumes of rarely cached static content, such as frequently changing image thumbnails, or infrequently accessed image archives. We recommend this technique for any page that serves more than 5 static resources. (For pages that serve fewer resources than this, it’s not worth the cost of setting up an extra domain.)

What does this means to you?

All static contents or data that are transferred with the accompanied by cookies. Though cookies are not needed for any transaction and do not serve any advantage, they will automatically be available for all data transfer. The only way to avoid such is when static contents are obtained from a cookieless site.

Static content + cookieless domain?

Serving static content or resources from a cookieless domain reduces the total size of requests made for a page. It is also important to note that there is no point setting up static subdomain for this matter if you are using a powerful web host or having very less page.

Now that we had gone through the relationship between cookieless subdomain and serving static content, let’s explore the right way to serve the following static resources from a domain that doesn’t set cookies.

How to create a cookieless subdomain using CNAME?

When it comes to creating a cookieless subdomain, using a CNAME could be the easiest way of all (at least for me). This step is extremely easy to follow and after configurations, you can start serving static resources from a domain that doesn’t set cookies.
- Go to your cPanel (most shared web hosting offers this)
- Create a subdomain (any name would do, e.g. static.domain.com)
This subdomain will serve as a CDN subdomain which is the key criteria to enable the process of serving static content from cookieless domain.

Selecting the right installation path for the subdomain

In order to create a proper cookieless subdomain, you have to ensure that when you are creating your subdomain, make sure it is pointing to your root directory instead of creating a secondary one. For example, my root directory is /public_html and thus, it should be pointed or directed to /public_html and not the default, /public_html/static.

This is what you see when you are pointing to subdomain to the right path

Editing the DNS Zone

Once you have done pointing the subdomain, head over to your DNS Zone Editor. At times, these might be labeled as Simple or Advanced DNS Zone Editor for several types of cPanel but they are all alike.

Pointing subdomain to the right domain

You would need to either create or modify the Name to your subdomain name and CNAME as your main domain. Of course, for the Type, you would need to select CNAME. You may start this by hitting the create button and if there is already a record, you just need to modify the settings to the above.

Still not sure? Let me explain to you, in other words. When you create the CNAME record you want to enter your static domain/subdomain as the label, name or an alias and your A record domain as the content or value. (The CNAME term, which stands for Canonical Name, actually refers to the domain you are mapping to, not the alias. The common practice of referring to the alias as the CNAME is in fact backwards.)

Making sure the subdomain is cookieless

I could not emphasize how important this is but you must not skip this step no matter what. In WordPress, there are two common cookie-setters which are WordPress and Google Analytics. All you need is to do little changes in the configurations and you would be well on your way to a cookieless subdomain.

For WordPress, head over to your wp-config by login into your cPanel. Open it up and add this line to the file. If you are wondering where exactly you may place this file, you can place it at the bottom most of the script.

define(‘COOKIE_DOMAIN’, ‘www.yourdomain.com’);

This is definitely a no-brainer but just to make sure, do remember to change your domain to your own domain name. After that, save the file and you are good to go!

For Google Analytics, all you need to do is to search for the specific code you had earlier placed in on your site and replace the code with the below one. For a quick tip, most Google Analytics code is kept close to the <body>.

_gaq.push( [‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-xxxxxxx-1’], [‘_setDomainName’, ‘www.yourdomain.com’], [‘_trackPageview’] );

Again, change your domain as seen above to your own domain URL and save the file.

Important note: If you are using cloudflare or any type of Content Network Delivery (CDN), please get your hosting and CDN provider to verify on the CNAME. For example, using Cloudflare will give you an error when you are following the above guide in changing the CNAME. Basically, the hosting or CDN provider will give you a new A figure to place in.

You are all done!

Now, treat yourself to a bottle of beer for the hard work and congratulations. You had managed to create a cookieless subdomain from scratch. This is one of the cheapest (and fastest) way to create a cookieless subdomain when it comes to serving static content to improve your website speed.
December 6, 2023