How To Do WordPress SEO Like a Boss

If you make SEO mistakes on your WordPress site, you could be seriously limiting your search engine ranking. Search engines don’t care about how pretty your website is or the cleverness of your blog design. Learn how to properly optimize your WordPress website or blog with the following tips.

Install SEO WordPress Plugin

Install a WordPress plugin, even if you’ve optimized your site as much as possible without the plugin. Adding a plugin that’s specifically for WordPress SEO will help optimization even more. There are a lot to choose from (Yoast, All-in-One, and SEO Ultimate, to name a few) so weigh the pros and cons of each and make sure to read user reviews.

Optimize Permalink Structure

The URL for each page should contain keywords, not numbers. For example, if you have a page about SEO tips, the page name should be mywebsite.com/seo-tips, not mywebsite.com/?878787. Using understandable permalinks will also help you build trust with your social media audience – nobody wants to click a link that they don’t understand.

Add XML Sitemap

There are a ton of WordPress SEO plugins available. When deciding which one is right for you, make sure it has a function that auto-generates XML sitemaps. Since organization is so important when it comes to SEO, an XML sitemap is a necessity. Also, the plugin should update the sitemap every time you update the website and auto-submit the updated sitemaps to search engines.

Include Meta Titles & Descriptions

Add a custom meta header and description, which is different from the header that your visitors will see. Meta titles and descriptions are just for SEO purposes and search engines. Make sure to use the right keywords; cleverness should take a backseat to search effectiveness when it comes to the meta sections.

Link Internally

Link to other posts within a post. Let’s say you’re writing about SEO tips on your blog. If you’ve already written other related blog posts, link to those posts within the current post. Getting links to your content is a big part of SEO and ranking – one of the easiest ways to increase inbound linking is to do it from your own posts. Just make sure that you’re linking to relevant content. If you have a blog post about traveling to San Francisco, you don’t want to link to a blog post about training a new puppy just for the sake of getting more backlinks.

Noindex the Right Pages

While you should index relevant pages, avoid indexing every single page on your website. Certain pages shouldn’t be indexed – anything that doesn’t provide value to a regular reader or that might be considered duplicate content (e.g., landing pages for pay-per-click campaigns) should be left out. An other example, you probably have a “Thank You” page for new e-mail subscribers – this is the type of page that doesn’t need to be indexed.

Write Great Content

If you run a business writing company and your main priority is finding new clients who need press releases, you may want a blog post or a page about “Why You Need a Professional to Write Your Press Release.” You’ll add important keywords and try to drive traffic to this page. However, if the writing and the content is low quality, you won’t get much attention, which means you’ve wasted a lot of effort. Search engines favor high quality content that a lot of people want to visit – make sure your content is great from the beginning.

Natural Keywords

When it comes to writing that great content, using keywords is important, but having high quality content is even more important. The secret is that if you’re sticking to the topic at hand, most of the necessary keywords will get in there naturally. If necessary, hire a professional writer. You can have the best SEO plugins in the world and master all of the tricks, but you’ll get nowhere if you don’t have excellent copy.

SEO for Images

Whenever you use an image on your website, come up with a good, keyword rich file name. Google uses images when calculating ranking. Instead of File879.jpg, rename your image something like SEO-Tips-2015.jpg.

Choose the Right Theme

Pick a WordPress theme that’s SEO optimized. Certain themes use a ton of code for the design and layout. When Google has to get through all of that code to find the actual content, it’s more difficult to rank your website. More code means less keyword density and content. Pick a theme that performs quickly and that’s highly compatible with SEO.

When it comes to implementing SEO on your WordPress site, you can read all of the up-to-date articles on the topic and learn the ropes yourself. If you don’t have time to do it right, though, consider hiring a professional to handle it for you or using plugins that walk you through every important step.

Victor GonzalezHow To Do WordPress SEO Like a Boss
read more

Five Tax Tips for Small Business Owners

If you own a small business, tax season remains one of the most important times of the year. Here are five essential tax tips for small business owners.

Keep tabs on all business expenses

In regards to business expenses, it is critical that you track every single payment. However, business expenses should never be placed on your personal account. For instance, you may need to purchase paper for a fax machine. This is the perfect example of a business expense. Remember, small purchases are just as important as the larger ones.

Home office deductions

If you have transformed an unused bedroom or storage building into a home office, you are likely eligible to receive extra deductions. However, keep in mind that the IRS takes home office deductions very seriously. The home office should always be used for business purposes only. Some of the typical home office deductions include computers, printers, office supplies, electricity, and even furniture.

Remember all of the critical deadlines

While most people understand that the deadline to file annual returns is April 15th, some small business owners forget to pay their estimated taxes. Basically, every small business owner who expects to owe at least $1,000 in taxes will need to make quarterly payments. If you fail to pay your estimated taxes on time, the IRS may charge you a penalty.

Business-related trips

When it comes time to file your taxes, do not forget to include your business-related trips. If you are traveling via car, you will be able to deduct the cost of your fuel. Some of the other business-related deductions include food, interstate highway tolls, cab fees, and the expense of a hotel room. Even short trips to the local post office count. Nevertheless, you still need to keep detailed records of everything.

Never leave money on the table

As a small business owner, you should seek to get as much money as possible from your tax return. According to Choice Accounting Solutions Miami tax accountants, thousands of business owners forget to account for all of their out-of-pocket expenses. After making a purchase, the receipt should be promptly scanned and stored in a fire-proof safe.

There is no overlooking the fact that taxes can have a major impact on the success of a small business. Be sure that you are always prepared for the upcoming tax season.


Victor GonzalezFive Tax Tips for Small Business Owners
read more

Don’t Waste Your Money On These 3 SEO Services

Most business owners who are attempting to expand their brand online have a vague idea of what SEO is, but don’t necessarily know how to go about utilizing SEO to help their own business grow. Unfortunately, a lot of major corporations have preyed on business owners’ ignorance about online marketing and have created paid SEO services that are wholly ineffective. Don’t waste your money on these pointless services that won’t give your company the personalized attention that it deserves. Here are three SEO services that you shouldn’t waste your money on, in addition to what you should do instead if you want your business to thrive.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy offers its customers an SEO service for only $2.69 a month. For those who don’t understand SEO or are new to the world of online marketing, this deal sounds like an absolute dream. Who wouldn’t want to get their website on Google and receive a list of these “keywords” we’ve been hearing so much about?

Unfortunately, GoDaddy is pretty much counting on the fact that most website owners are uninformed about SEO. To put it in very basic terms, GoDaddy will submit your website to search engines and give you a list of keywords, i.e., phrases that are popularly searched on Google and Yahoo that pertain to your business that you should include on your website to generate traffic.

Even the most technological greenhorn could master what GoDaddy does for its SEO customers in an afternoon. Furthermore, GoDaddy is offering SEO services the same way that McDonalds is providing nutrition. What GoDaddy is offering isn’t really SEO, it’s an incredibly basic plan that is unlikely to do anything significant for your business. Despite its low cost, this is an extremely pointless SEO option and highly inadvisable for business owners.

Yelp

Yelp is a company that has gained popularity for all the wrong reasons. The concept of Yelp is noble enough: give customers a platform through which to honestly review their experiences with different businesses.

Unfortunately, Yelp saw an opportunity to make an unscrupulous buck and jumped on it. Yelp offers monthly services that purport to offer SEO and increased visibility to businesses that sign up. However, Yelp’s program will do very little to increase your business’ search engine ranking. It won’t even improve your visibility amongst Yelp search results. All Yelp’s program really does is to raise the good reviews of your business and conceal the bad ones. Essentially, this company is blackmailing small businesses into paying to only display the good reviews and censor the bad. Even if your company has received negative attention on Yelp, don’t give in. Instead, work with a reputable SEO agency to improve your company’s presence online.

Yellow Pages

Unfortunately, the familiarity of the Yellow Pages brand causes a lot of customers to erroneously sign up for their SEO service, which costs a whopping near $300 a month. While Yellow Pages offers slightly more than GoDaddy, it ultimately falls incredibly short. It mostly promotes your business on its own website. While Yellow Pages does have widespread recognition as a brand, it is not nearly as popular as Google or Yahoo. Thus, this investment is not even a bit worth the cost.

Conclusion

Ultimately, there is one big thing to remember. Massive corporations like GoDaddy, Yelp and Yellow Pages couldn’t possibly give all of their SEO clients one-on-one attention. Don’t pay for a generic SEO service from one of these giant corporations. Instead, work with an SEO agency that will assign actual people to work with you and help your business to grow and thrive.


seo low cost scam

Victor GonzalezDon’t Waste Your Money On These 3 SEO Services
read more

4 Marketing Hacks You Can Implement Today

Marketing is essential to build a brand whether you are working with an existing company or looking to launch a new business entirely. Understanding a few growth marketing hacks that you can implement today is ideal when you are looking to generate new leads while increasing overall income and sales for your company.

Utilize Multiple Social Media Platforms

Using multiple social media platforms simultaneously is essential when looking to build a following while gaining traction with an online marketing campaign. Using more than one social networking community is a way to quickly communicate with hundreds or thousands of users by implementing trending keywords or hashtags with posts and updates you share.

Create and Use a Genuine Voice

Using a genuine voice that connects personally to your readers and online followers is also advisable when building a brand’s image in any industry online. Having a genuine voice is a way to stand apart from companies who avoid connecting with users and sounding authentic. Standing apart from competition by giving users more individual treatment is a way to gain customer loyalty and to gain additional referrals to other users in the future.

Update With Consistency

Updating weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly is a way to reassure customers of your relevance online. Updating with consistency is a key factor to keep in mind any time you are growing a new business or brand.

Track Online Marketing Campaigns

Analytic programs, tools and software are available to track online marketing campaigns you launch when promoting new products and services. Tracking online campaigns you have running is a way to pinpoint your demographic while getting to know what your visitors and customers are searching for when arriving at your site.

Using a few marketing tips and hacks can ultimately allow you to outperform competition in your market or niche while also building a professional appeal to potential customers or clients. Understanding marketing tactics that are most beneficial today allows you to gain insight into delivering what your customers truly want from your business model.

Victor Gonzalez4 Marketing Hacks You Can Implement Today
read more