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WordPress for SEO: 5 Free Plugins

Excerpts from my latest article at NBC 5 Chicago’s Inc. Well blog: “Five Free WordPress Plugins for Better SEO.”

WordPress is a simple and flexible publishing environment used to create blogs, sites and even simple ecommerce sites. One of the reasons it’s so popular is the prevalence of plug-ins that make customizing its functionality a snap. These are my five favorite free plug-ins for SEO on WordPress.

  • WordPress SEO
  • Simple 301 Redirects
  • Google XML Sitemaps
  • Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
  • Sharebar

Read the article in full at Inc. Well »

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Originally posted on Web PieRat.

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SEO When a Redesign Stands in Your Way

Excerpts from my latest article at Practical eCommerce: “SEO: Working Around a Redesign.”

When a redesign or platform change looms in your site’s future, it’s easy to turn off all search-engine-optimization work and focus on planning the new site. After all, why bother making changes that will just be overwritten when you launch the new site? Focusing on a few key areas will enable you to continue improving SEO without fear of wasted work when the new site goes live.

  • Focus on Stable Areas
  • Target Title Tags
  • Build Links and Shares
  • Build Relationships

A redesign doesn’t have to halt your SEO efforts. Look at the areas of the site that aren’t impacted by the redesign. If there aren’t any areas unaffected, focus on title tags and link or relationship building until the way opens for SEO work again.

Read the article in full at Practical eCommerce »

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Originally posted on Web PieRat.

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Infographics for SEO Benefit

Excerpts from my latest article at Practical eCommerce: “The SEO Benefit of Infographics.”

Search engine optimization professionals don’t usually recommend creating more images, but infographics can have a real benefit to SEO. Typically, images are used in place of textual content to convey the same message visually. Consequently, images tend to be viewed as detrimental to SEO efforts. Infographics, however, are in a class by themselves because they can quickly convert to links and shares that benefit SEO.

USA Today’s print newspaper popularized infographics in America years ago with its bite-sized front-page informational images. The same concept applies to the Internet, where visitors expect to receive information and entertainment instantly. The instant digestibility and visual appeal of infographics lure visitors to learn more.

  • Creating Successful Infographics
  • Hosting and Promoting Infographics
  • Infographics Gone Wrong

Read the article in full at Practical eCommerce »

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Originally posted on Web PieRat.

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Three Free Keyword Tools for SEO

Excerpts from my latest article at NBC 5 Chicago’s Inc. Well blog: “3 Free, Web Newbie-Friendly Keyword SEO Tools.”

Analyzing keyword data can be fast and fun. No, really! From collecting keyword data to analyzing, visualizing and present it, these three free tools have earned bookmarks in my SEO folder.

  • Tagxedo
  • Ranks Page Analyzer
  • Google Keyword Tool

Read the article in full at Inc. Well »

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Originally posted on Web PieRat.

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Keyword Research for Business Decisions (and SEO)

Excerpts from my latest article at Practical eCommerce: “Using Keyword Research beyond SEO.”

Keyword research is one of the foundational pieces of search engine optimization because it illuminates the exact words real-life customers use to search for the products we sell. But why stop there? The insights that keyword research provides can inform other many other areas of the business as well.

Keyword data is free and readily available via Google’s keyword research tool. This article is less about how to collect and analyze keyword data, however, and more about the various uses of that data. For a detailed account of how to conduct keyword research, see “Optimizing a Page for Search Engines, Part 1: Keyword Research,” my previous article on that topic. Once you have the data, it can be leveraged in all kinds of ways to improve your ecommerce site, your understanding of the customers, and inform business decisions. All it takes is an open mind and a little determination to make sense of the data.

  • Content Planning
  • Information Architecture
  • Market Research
  • Product Development

Read the article in full for more information on these other uses of keyword research at Practical eCommerce »

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Originally posted on Web PieRat.