Category: Archive

Step by step guide in setting up WordPress SEO by Yoast
Search engine optimization or SEO in short is one of the most discussed matter for both bloggers and serious content writers. For those who are using WordPress SEO by Yoast, you are really lucky. It is one of the best free SEO plugins for WordPress and it serves millions of blogs daily.

As easy as it sounds, configuring WordPress SEO by Yoast is challenging and there are probably a dozen or more guides on this topic itself.

Yes, this is how important this plugin is to many bloggers.

Personally, I have been using this plugin since 2005 and it had never failed me (badly) before. Don’t be fooled by the years of me using this plugin; I am always finding the best settings for WordPress SEO by Yoast that could bring my website to the next level.

When I redesigned my website recently, I decided that I need to cut down on the number of plugins and I am using more than one SEO plugin. Being a lazy person, I had ‘integrated’ Scribe SEO, SEOPressor and WP Social Booster Pro into my SEO blueprint as well.

Now, that’s 4 different plugins to do one job; SEO. So, I decided that it is time to ‘get up from the couch’ and do my homework. I basically ditched all of those and left with WordPress SEO.

What are the best settings for WordPress SEO?

What are the best settings for WordPress SEO by Yoast?

Listen to me.

WordPress SEO by Yoast is so powerful that the wrong settings could easily disrupt your SEO strategies to dominate the SERPs.

I did many research overtime and found out that there are many different settings that could work depending on your blogging style.

Disclaimer: I had personally tested these settings and they work fine for me. Certainly, I hope these work well for you too.

Generally, WordPress SEO plugin allows you to configure many SEO aspects such as NoFollow and NoIndex. There are things that you need to consider if you are going to enable them.

Dashboard

This part is rather easy. You can decide to enable or disable the tracking as it has no effect on SEO. I am being a security freak and I disallow that. Same goes to the Security settings. However, I highly recommend to enable it if you are running a multi-author blog.

As for the Webmaster Tool settings, copy and paste the meta tags given by the respective sites. As easy as 1, 2 and 3 right?

Titles & Metas

As you can see above, I enabled:
- Noindex subpages of archieves
- Use mate keywords tag
- Hide RSD Links
- Hide WLW Manifest Links
- Hide Shortlink for posts
Some experts advise to enable the ‘Force rewrite titles’ but for me, I rather leave it out.

Enabling meta keywords tag is also your decision. Disable this option and you will not need to enter any keywords in posts and pages anymore.

Google does not use meta keywords anymore for ranking. However, other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing still use them but on a very limited basis. Even Yoast recommend to disable it.

1. Homepage settings

For title template, I am using %%sitedesc%% – %%sitename%% but you are free to use your own methods. Some even ditch the sitename since it is just for branding.

As for meta description, I would recommend between 100 to 120 characters count. Remember that this will only be visible for your homepage. This is where you write a simple description of what your website is all about.

If you had enabled meta keywords tag earlier, you would have the option to key in your meta keywords. You may leave it blank or put in your keywords.

2. Post Types

Here, ensure that you DO NOT enable noindex and nofollow on Posts and Pages. The rest, you can leave it as it is or by default.

You may or may not change the template settings here as the default is rather good already.

3. Taxonomies

One of the biggest concern here is to either enable both the noindex and nofollow or enable just one of them.

For me, I enable nofollow for my Tags only.

Do not enable dofollow for both Categories and Tags as this will create duplicate content.

*I am not going into detail for Other tab as no changes needed to be done there.

Social settings

Yoast WordPress SEO makes Open Graph and Twitter Cards setting easy and highly configurable. Yes, Yoast SEO really saves up a lot of ‘space’ as it replaces many plugins.

1. Facebook

As seen above, enable the Open Graph setting and add your Facebook account. Generally speaking, using your personal account is already sufficient. However, you may also link your Facebook page as an admin too.

Last but not least, adding your Facebook page URL into the right column.

2. Twitter

You can use WordPress SEO to configure Twitter Cards as well. All you need to do is to enable the option and key in your Twitter handler. Of course, you would need to apply it at the first place.

Read more about it here; What is Twitter Cards all about?

3. Google+

So, how about Google+? WordPress SEO by Yoast makes Google authorship easier. All you need to do are:
1. Ensure your WordPress profile is updated with the right Google author link
2. Select your Google+ profile via WordPress SEO
3. Key in your Google+ publisher link (Google+ page) if you have any
Yup! Your Google+ authorship is all set and running.

Related post: How do you enable Google+ custom URL?

XML Sitemap settings

I know some bloggers use this while other doesn’t. If you are using it, you need (or recommended) to enable:
- Enable the XML sitemap feature
- Ping Yahoo!
- Ping Ask.com
- Media
- Affiliate links (some users don’t have it so no worries about it)
- Tags
- Format
- Link categories (some users don’t have it so no worries about it)
You can find your sitemap by clicking ‘XML sitemap’ or search for this on your browser: http://yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

Whenever you update or publish any new posts, Yoast SEO will automatically send the new sitemap to Google Webmaster Tool. All you need to do is to manually submit the sitemap to Bing once a week or so.

Permalinks

For this part, do not configure anything else unless you are absolutely sure of what you are doing. Changing permalinks on a live site could easily make your links go 404-error.

Recommended settings (enable these):
- Redirect attachment URL’s to parent post
- Remove the ?replytocom variables
For the record, both the settings above are recommended and highly optional.

Internal Links

This is the breadcrumbs settings. You can enable or disable it according to your liking. For those using Genesis Framework, breadcrumbs are pre-installed and just like WordPress SEO, you can just tick to enable or disable it from the Genesis settings.

If you have no idea what this is, it is absolutely safe to disable it.

RSS settings

This basically configures your RSS settings. Just like the above, if you have no idea what this is all about, then just leave it alone.

Congratulation! You have successfully configured your WordPress SEO

Phew, that was long right? Basically configuring WordPress SEO is rather easy. Once you had set it up, you can basically leave it alone for a long, long time.

Remember that WordPress SEO or any SEO plugins doesn’t help you directly in terms of improving your ranks. These SEO tools usually helps to provide crucial suggestions to further optimize your blog post.

Now, over to you. Do you have any special WordPress SEO settings you would like to share? Tell me more using the comment form below!
January 20, 2024
What Is Google+ Custom URL And How To Enable It?
What the heck is Google+ custom URL? In short, Google+ custom URL is a new ‘face lift’ for the old and long Google URL. When it comes to linking my Google+ account with any other services (where you need to provide the URL), it is a huge hassle for me. Firstly, the URL string is long and secondly, I need to login to my Google+ account just to find the exact URL.

A lot of work right?

Introducing the all-new Google+ Custom URL

What is Google+ custom URL?

With the Google+ custom URL, everything becomes shorter and easier. This is how my Google+ URL string looks like (before and after):

Before – http://plus.google.com/100463551691770040057

After –

Now ask yourself something, isn’t this cool?

For me, it was a blessing in the skies. How on Earth could I (or anyone in this matter) remember ‘100463551691770040057’ as my Google URL link?

Therefore, having to add +ReginaldChan at the back is REALLY helpful indeed

Now, if you are really interested to know more about this program, you can head over to this article here.

Oh wait, you want a quick rundown of it instead of reading it? Check out the video and detailed guide below:

Requirements to get a Google+ Custom URL

This program will roll out to nearly all Google Plus members but it will go on batches. In order to be in the first batch (or getting eligible as soon as possible), you need to satisfy these requirements for your Google+ personal profile:
- Ten or more followers
- Your account is at least 30 days old
- A profile picture
And there are two simple ways you can get your own Google Plus Custom URL which are:
1. Direct email notification from Google (check your inbox now!)
2. Login to your Google+ account and head over to your profile page
The direct email notification is rather straight forward and all you need to do is to click ‘Get URL’. The rest are self explanatory. Kim did a great explanation here if you require additional information.

However, I was unlucky was I did not receive any emails and I thought to go with method #2; Applying myself.

All you need to do are:
1. Login your Google+ account
2. Select Home > Profile
3. If you are eligible, you will see a blue colour floating bar on the top of the screen asking you to apply for it.
By default, Google+ will provide +yourname and if you would want to change it, that is your ONLY chance to change it.

You can only change Google+ custom URL once.

Yes, once the custom URL is set, there is NO WAY of changing it back. So think twice, my friends.

Confirming your Google+ custom URL takes less than 5 minutes to complete

Once you are all done with the selection and happy with your new chosen URL, you will see this box:

Verify that’s the custom URL you want and hit ‘Confirm Choice’.

Wait for the screen to refresh as Google need to verify that the URL chosen is still available … which will takes less than 5 seconds and leading to this page:

You’ll receive notification once the change is completed

Walaa~ You are done!

Wait a minute … how about local Google+ pages and non-local Google+ pages?
- Eligibility for Local Google+ pages: Must be a verified local business
- Eligibility for Non-local Google+ pages: Must be linked to a website (linking your website in the ‘About’ setting as contributor)
How does Google+ custom URL work?

Basically, it makes a long string of URL (numeric) to something shorter and more memorable. Google+ custom URL also works well in terms of categorizing your links such as:
- Profile –
- About –
- Posts –
- Photos –
- Youtube videos –
- Plus ones –
For me, it takes sharing easier and yes, putting Google+ up on par with other social media platforms. Could this possibly be a way Google want to compete with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?

If you are wondering what happens to your old URL, don’t worry. Everything is now redirected to your new custom URL.

You might also want to read Google+ Is Rolling Out Custom URLs To Make It Short And Sweet [ Claim Your’s ] by Amal Rafeeq.

Over to you

Have you enabled your Google Plus custom URL? If yes, what you think about it? Tell me using the comment form below.
January 20, 2024
5 Steps To Become An Influencer In Your Own Niche Like Brian Clark
Have you ever wondered how articles published by CopyBlogger team get reblogged, reposted and shared around the world close to 100,000 times or more for every post they published? Some people say Brian Clark has a black book for contact, having a huge fan base and some believe Brian is an influencer in the industry. Which do you think is true?

Glen Allsopp is another example. He is a great mastermind when it comes to SEO and at times, he shares his thoughts of what Google is doing wrong etc. So, what makes him such an important figure? Could it because of his wonderful creation of OptinSkin, his bold rambling on Google or simply, he is a great contributor to the SEO community?

In order to be an influencer, you need to reach out. Yes my friend … go out the door and say “hello” to your neighbour!

How to become an influencer? What is an influencer?

When I started this site, I was determined to turn myself into an influencer. Yes, while people are thinking of how to monetize their blogs, I was thinking on how to build a bigger audience and brand.

So, how do I make ‘Reginald Chan’ stand out from the rest?

Here are a few goals I had planned for myself:
1. Perform soul searching and explore my talents
2. Building a portfolio of myself
3. Choose the right talents and develop them further
4. Reaching out to others
5. Learning from other influencers
As easy as those may sound, it could take a lot of time and highly depending on your techniques. It took me roughly 3 months to build a good reputation and standing out from the crowd.

1. The talent search process

The first step is to find what you are good at

Blogging is really a saturated industry with over 60 million blogs out there. If your main goal is to blog about general niches, you stand a high chance of failing. This is extremely true especially when you are starting a new blog.

Knowing what you are going to blog is extremely important.

Here’s another cold and hard fact – if you think that you want to start a blog to help others generally, you are creating the recipe for failure. You need to be specific … real specific when it comes to blogging.

As much as it may sound crazy but that’s true. Here’s an example:

Derek Halpern from Social Triggers. He blogs about marketing strategy and this is one very challenging industry. So, what was the trick for him to be at the top of the pile? Adding psychology into his marketing strategies. This means that instead of being an influencer of a very challenging industry, he basically ‘long tailed’ to a smaller but still popular niche.

If you want to reach out and become an influencer yourself, you need to know the facts. You need to know what you are really good at. In this world, I don’t believe you can be successful if you are a ‘Jack of all trades’.

2. Build a damn good portfolio

Portfolio is important for an influencer

I am not talking about those random portfolios. I am talking about great ones.

Look at Neil Patel and how he boost about helping TechCrunch to increase their traffic by 30% in a short period of time.

Yes, that’s what I am talking about!

A good portfolio will convince others that you are an influencer and they should listen or trust your words. Now, I am not saying about deceiving others but you got to be honest with them. For example, you are probably good in marketing and you need to convince others why you are really good at it.

When you are building a portfolio, remember that you are your ‘face’ and stepping stone for your business.

A good portfolio is usually short and precise. Forget about providing 1,000 reasons why they need you. Instead, give them just one great reasons why they MUST use or follow you.

3. Developing your influence and going the beyond of influence marketing

Learning from your influencers is an important step to improve yourself

For this part, it is all about learning and further increasing your influence market. Once you have located your hidden ‘talents’, you need to start reaching out to other influencers of the same niche.

When choosing a person to be your ‘mentor’ or a person who you can look up to, you need to avoid finding for the best. Instead, find for influencers who are more popular than you (obviously) and who are around mid-level. This means that they have yet to be the top 50 or 100 influencers in the world but yet, still play a very sufficient role in the influence market.

You need these ‘mid-level’ influencers as top influencers usually have the money and social strength to get things moving real fast … and something you probably wouldn’t have. A mid-level one would be a better bet for you in terms of time and money.

Get a list of 50 or maybe 100 of them and start contributing on their blogs (and read them of course). Do this for the next few months and they will slowly recognize you as one of their loyal readers.

Now, this is where you start to say “hello” and build a relationship from there. The most important thing is to learn from them. These are people with lots of experience and of course, their guidance are of great help to start ups like you.

Recommended read: How do you create, manage and measure influence marketing?

4. Getting out of your safe zone and reach out to your potential market

You might be thinking that with over 60 million blogs out there, everyone is a competitor which makes no sense on why you should reach out to them right?

This is where you are wrong! We can’t avoid competitions and that’s a fact. However, what we can control are creating more followers and building a bigger reach.

Influence market is all about the number of reach. The more reach you have, the more chance you are going to expand your ‘territory’.

Reaching out to others is always the easy part all thanks to number of social media platforms we have today. Here are some of the popular social platforms you can start with.

Through my experience, Facebook and Google+ are the fastest way to build influence and here are you can get it done correctly:
- Join communities or groups which are related to your expertise
- Contribute and help other members constantly (twice a day is more than enough)
- Share other members’ links on social media platform and tagging them
Do it for a month or so and you will see your influence level grow. You may increase or decrease the level of engagement according to your liking and the above are just my examples.

5. Reverse engineering your influencers

Your influencers made it to fame because of something they did and you got to learn ‘that’ from them.

So, how do you talk the talk, and walk the walk?

The concept here is easy; Understand what makes your influencers popular and how they reach out to others.

By now, you should have realized that there is probably no way you can recreate the same situation. However, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use the information for your own gain.

When it comes to influence marketing, it is all about sharing the right information … at the right time.

For example, you know that your influencer is attracting a lot of traffic due to the topic he or she is blogging. Draft down a list of keywords and niche to start with.

The next step will be writing article related to the keyword or niche you have selected. The trick here is to avoid using the same keywords as your influencer to avoid competitions and even if you are going to compete, chances are you will lose due to your lower credibility.

Related article: Using Google Keyword Planner to find long tail keywords.

The science behind becoming a successful influencer and reaching out to others

There are probably two very distinct ways to become an influencer in today’s market:
- Provide information or services no one else is doing
- Follow what successful influencers are doing and reverse engineer those steps
Both of these methods have their own risk factor which is failing. In the first method, there is a chance of failing because it depends on timing while the second method depends on your research strategy. Focusing on the wrong keyword or target market could easily be a downfall for you.

As easy as they might both sound, the chances of failing is very real. If you want to make it to the influencer’s world, you need to be hardworking and do your homework properly; this means finding the right long tail keywords and the proper target market.

And a simple video for a quick recap.

Did I miss out anything about being an influencer?

I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I do. When it comes to influence marketing, do you have any tips under your sleeves? I bet you do and let’s discuss it over. Tell me if you have any plans when it comes to building an influencer’s portfolio and how that works out for you using the comment form below.
January 20, 2024
Zyma Web Hosting Review
When it comes to choosing the best web hosting, we are really lucky as we are spoil with choices. I was lucky enough to even perform several reviews such as the most affordable web hosting, the best managed WordPress hosting and even professional web hosting services.

Recently, I was contact by Khuram who is the Marketing Director of Zyma web hosting in the UK. Since all my web hosting reviews were mostly based in the States, I took up the challenge and decided to try Zyma instead.

As for the record, Zyma (and Khuram) were very patience enough to wait for this review since I am currently having one of the busiest period (work wise) in this year!

In this review, I will be going through what Zyma Technologies can offer and ultimately, could it possibly be the best web hosting in the UK?

My first impression of Zyma Web Hosting

I am a huge fan of the first impression and being in a marketing/sales industry for sometime now, I believe that you need to provide the ‘killer blow’ within the first 15 seconds.

Zyma landing page is pretty straight forward and I love the green colour. Seriously, that is a great combination for a home page. Just like any other web hosting companies, Zyma offers more than 300+ scripts and is able to support nearly all the major players such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento.

The benefits using Zyma web hosting

This is what Zyma web hosting dashboard looks like

Zyma really attracted me (from the point of view of an user) because they are offering too many freebies. Don’t get me wrong as I am not complaining. In fact, I am really astonished by this!

Moving a domain from one web host to another could seriously be a tough job. Therefore, Zyma offers free website transfer service that includes:
- website transfer
- file transfer
- database transfer
- script transfer
For those who have no idea what these are all about, it is actually the basics information that is required to transfer your current website to a new hosting company (without destroying your website).

The main features for Zyma compared to the rest are probably unlimited:
- storage space
- traffic/bandwidth
- databases
- email accounts
- tech support
- setup and transfer
Again, I got to stress that you won’t usually see other web hosting companies offering free setup and transfer in their hosting packages.

Zyma web hosting for serious users and eCommerce

What I really love about Zyma Technologies is that it caters for corporate or business websites. For example, having shared SSL features, PayPal integration and accepting credit cards on your site are free and available for use.

This is definitely a great plus point if you are planning to operate a business.

Besides that, Zyma Technologies has also bonus features such as Fantastico De Luxe, courtesy backups and custom .htaccess file.

For those installing a new WordPress website, Zyma web hosting offers several additional services such as limiting the login attempts and automatic backups. And all of these can be done easily with just a click of a button!

Zyma dashboard offers a quick server status and even the server load stats

How much does Zyma web hosting cost?

Currently, a web hosting package cost £1.79 per month and unlike any other web hosting services, Zyma offers the same price for all packages such as 12, 24 and 36 months.

After converting to US Dollars, Zyma web hosting is really worth it since it only cost $2.90 per month!

That is probably cheaper than any shared web hosting in the United States right?

What I really love about Zyma web hosting and why should you use it?

Zyma Technologies is an award winning web hosting services in the UK and it is known for two things; service and security.

Now let me be really honest with you. If I would compare Zyma to HostGator, DreamHost or GoDaddy, I would personally say that Zyma has an upper hand advantage.

Here are some reasons why:
1. Zyma Technologies doesn’t allow pornography stored or hosted on its server. This means that your sites hosted over at Zyma has zero chance of being blocked or penalized by Google.
2. Integrated with all time famous, cPanel.
3. Lovely and easy to navigate dashboard.
4. Tons of eCommerce features which is good for business websites.
5. Excellent customer support and service provided.
When it comes to web hosting, gone were the days where uptime plays a huge role in choices. Nowadays, nearly all web hosting are already practising 99.9% uptime.

What matters most now are quality of service and the web hosting features.

Zyma web hosting is a great hosting company if you want to host over at the UK, good hosting feature and of course, affordable hosting prices. And to be very honest, this is probably the cheapest web hosting which provides excellent service … something that we don’t always find out there.

Will you give Zyma a 30-days trial?

With all the rich features and affordable web hosting price, I believe there is no reason why you shouldn’t give Zyma a spin. Don’t forget that Zyma is also offering several free features such as free domain, transfer and website builder which are totally … a no-brainer if you don’t try it today!
January 20, 2024
3 Steps To Design Mouth Watering Business Website Templates
Business website templates are more than just pretty looks for eCommerce websites. When choosing a name for your business, consider registering an LLC to protect your personal assets and give your online presence a professional touch, ensuring an appetizing first impression for those visiting your site.

When I started this website, my plans were to make this solely a niche blog and within a month or less, I knew I got to change the plan. Obviously, I have some monetization issues back in my head and I was determine to turn this into a full-fledged business website down the road.

Four long months past and my traffic was at an average of 200 visitors per day. If you call this a victory, think again. I was converting less than 10% of my visitors to become potential clients.

The truth is … blogging isn’t going to make me much money but my services will. You may benefit from this article: 5 Insights You Should Know About Make Money Blogging.

Before we go into much details, here’s a simple video on why you need a high converting template for your business website.

What are the best business website templates that REALLY convert?

WordPress makes it easy to build a website from scratch and Dynamik Website Builder makes it even easier to do so. However, building a business website with the right designs that increases conversion rate is the hardest part.

In order to build the right business website template, you need stats, figures and lots of data. In this case study, I used ClickTale to do the analytics for me.

With ClickTale analytic tool, I realized that I was driving traffic to my ‘Hire Me‘ page but honestly, I got only 3 inquiries over 4 full month of hard work.

Now think back (real hard), why only 3 inquiries? What had I done wrong?

I was determined to change everything on this website to look more professional and the first step was no other than to choose the best business website template.

Before I even think of a design, I need stats and figures to point me to the right direction. Yes, I am not talking about any website design; I need the best.

So, here are 3 simple steps which I took to design the best business website template that fit my niche.

Step 1: Using the right website analysis tools

Analytics and stats are important in order to build a great business website theme

In order to do any visible changes, I decided to analyze my blog completely. My main goals are to figure out:
- Why is the conversion rate is so low?
- How to increase my signup rate?
- What attracts my readers most?
The above three are just the main ones. I had over a dozen smaller goals but all these are just to give you a simple outlook on what you should be doing.

Analytics isn’t cheap and if you are thinking of the good old fashion Google Analytics, trust me that it is not going to bring you that far. Sorry Google but I am just being truthful.

Bear in mind that even though Google Analytics does offer you information such as click rates, heatmaps and bounce rate, you need more than that to do a complete analysis.

My first step of analyzing my website is my front page. I don’t know about others but my front page (or homepage) is capping over 35% of all my traffic. Taking an example of 200 visitors a day, I am losing about 2,100 potential clients in a month.

Imagine the ability to convert 10% of those traffic into business. Guess I would be a very happy blogger right?

The analytics tool that I use is ClickTale. For the record, ClickTale is a freemium tool. On a free account, it offers up to 5,000 recorded pageviews per month and probably a dozen more features.

ClickTale does slightly more than what other web analytics companies are offering and what really dig me in was the customer service.

Mitchell Schneider (Social Communications Manager) and Melody Frank (my product consultant) were great in ensuring that I had no issues trying to get ClickTale running on my site.

Kudos to them.

Step 2: Analyzing and fixing the loopholes

A poorly configured website theme can easily affects the sales and production of a website

ClickTale offers a huge range of services such as heatmap, clicks and web analytics. However, I basically uses ClickTale to focus on improving my visitor’s engagement.

So, why is ClickTale such an useful tool especially when you are designing a business website template?

I use ClickTale to track:
- Where my readers are clicking
- How long it takes for traffic to click on my CTA (and ‘Hire Me’ page)
- How much they like my homepage and my blog posts (engagement level)
I allowed the tool to run on my site for about 3 days (okay I couldn’t wait to see the results then) and I was given the biggest shock of my life. The results are devastating and here are a few examples:
- Navigation bar – 70% clicks on ‘Blogging’ and 30% on ‘WordPress’
- ‘Hire Me’ page – 85% traffic to homepage hit that link (bear in mind, only 2 inquiries over the months)
- 95% of readers on my blogs are skimmers
Now, tell me. Does all these sounds alarming to you?

Step 3: Drastic solutions to turn my blog into a business

Website designs often play an important role when it comes to the eCommerce industry

This is probably the last and most crucial step; designing my business website template. After being hit by Google Hummingbird and Penguin 2.1, I was determined to come back with a bang. Therefore, this design must REALLY make the kill.

In order to complete the project in a very short time period, I divided it into 3 crucial parts which are:
- Change website theme
- Provide easier navigation
- Turning skimmers into profit
I did a quick survey on 20 popular websites and I noticed that they had many things in common such as landing pages and packing too many things (or choices) on one page.

On top of that, data and stats taken from ClickTale explained on what I needed to improve on my website (specifically) if I want to completely turn my website into a ‘money generator’.

With all data and information packed in my mind, the first step was to choose a professional and business like website theme.

Choosing a website design is rather easy since I am a Genesis Pro Package user that comes with over 40 child themes to choose from. Alternatively, you can just choose a beautiful child theme using this tool or build your own WordPress theme.

After choosing the right WordPress theme for myself, it was time to customize my theme.

I decided to place a huge Call To Action before the fold and this is done for only one reasons; to increase conversion rate and getting my readers going through my ‘sales funnel’. In other words, landing potential clients to where they want to be … finding solutions to their problems.

If you are wondering how important CTA is, you need to read this: How did I build a MASSIVE mailing list?

Now, you might think that displaying all the categories on your menu bar might be the best choice … and even I do too. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. Too many navigation bars will confuse your readers. Therefore, the lesser is better. I have 9 navigation bars before this and only 4 are ever clicked.

Make any sense to you?

Lastly, it is all about skimmers (traffic). My readers are mostly skimmers and maybe that is due to the fact that most of my blogs are way above 1.5k words. So, this means that my bounce rate is rather high and I ~~probably~~ got to do something with it.

Here are a few things I could do:
- Having a floating bar with the latest articles or RSS pull (such as using FooBar plugin)
- Share some eye-catching stuffs (links in this case) right before my comment form
- Pop up (not for newsletter but for related articles)
Now, I tested all of these for a period of time (very specific) and sharing related posts seems to do the trick. That’s where I uses a related post plugin and this is what I had created:

My favorite ‘related post’ plugin at the end of each posts

You can also try using images and catching titles but personally, I think colours do best and it is followed closely by images. If you have a very engaging audience which are NOT skimmers, you may use more wordings for a change.

Putting all the above into one stunning business website design

I am not sure if you can call this a step but the last part is all about using the right widgets at the right area.

My sidebar is really ‘cold’. I was only converting about 3% of my total traffic to click on my sidebar and I was given the choice to either ditch the sidebar or do something with it … fast.

I removed several ads and place only important information on the sidebar. This helps to reduce my website loading speed too.

My fiancee is a great critic and I convinced her to check on my site. Within minutes, she pointed out some changes and I did accordingly. One of the most obvious parts is using colours and images to attract readers.

Before this, I am always Genesis Extender plugin to make easier modification but this time around, I was determined to do it with CSS codes. Changes were done and perfected in the next 48 hours.

Hard work + luck + stunning business-like website design = Win

Improvements started to be visible within the first 3 days after the design changes were done to the website

Now, after reading over 1.4k words, you would be wondering what was the outcome of my ‘so-called’ business website template.
- Bounce rate reduced from 78.52% to 62.26%
- Average visit duration increased from 1.44 minutes to 2.45 minutes
- Page per visit increased from 1.47 to 1.81
- Securing two SEO huge projects which would last between 3 to 6 months each
In my 8 years of blogging, this is probably the best moment ever experienced by me. Being able to see the effects right after days of implementing was definitely a marvelous feeling.

Over to you …

I hope that with this article, I am able to share some lights on how to really build a good business-like website from scratch. It is never easy but certainly, doable!

Therefore, do you have plans to change your website theme anytime soon or you are happy with the current ones? Share with me what you think and the criteria needed to choose the perfect business template for your website using the comment form below.
January 20, 2024
Master These Organic SEO Strategies And SEO Tools To Dominate SERPs
If you thought that Google Hummingbird was the only surprise for us, you are terribly wrong. In just a short period of time, Google had released two huge updates (with Google Penguin 2.1 as the latest) which had basically shaken the whole blogging industry.

I cursed and swear at Google as I was hit not once but twice which affected me dearly. Both my affiliate revenue and traffic plunged down the ravine and it certainly felt like it’s the end of the world. Of course, I tried my best and kept the anger under wraps with this post.

Here’s a quick recap of what I think about both the updates:

Google Hummingbird – focused on small sites that are ranking rather well even though they are new

Google Penguin 2.1 – focused on longer and more specific search queries

So, how did Google updates affected my blog?

I lost 50% of my keywords ranking, 75% daily impression count and my earnings was affected so badly.

Yup, it sucks to be me right? Haha!

What do we know about Google Hummingbird?

Google Hummingbird was released from the cage for that one main reason only; Penalizing and slapping hard on sites which are relatively new but are ranking very well.

Most websites that are affected are mainly:
- Less than 1 year old
- Ranking a lot of keywords
- Moderate to low traffic
The above really smells like Google is doing some ‘cleaning up’ on micro niche sites. Frankly, a huge number of micro niche sites experienced between 30 – 70% traffic drop thanks to the Google Hummingbird update.

Why did micro niche sites get affected so badly?

The answer is easy. It is a known fact that most of these sites are ranking well thanks to focusing on keywords only and not facts. Even though no black hat tools are involved, certainly this is definitely not one of those SEO techniques recommended by Google.

Consider this as affecting the balance and ecosystem of search queries.

And it didn’t stop there! Google releases a new update called shortly after.

Read more about Google Hummingbird:
- How Did Google Hummingbird Update Affected My Blog?
- How Will Google Hummingbird Impact Links? Here Are 6 Ways
The wrath of Google Penguin 2.1

Personally, I call Google Penguin 2.1 as ‘the perfect storm’.

For those who missed out what Matt Cutts tweeted on that day, here’s the snippet of it:

Penguin 2.1 launching today. Affects ~1% of searches to a noticeable degree. More info on Penguin: http://t.co/4YSh4sfZQj

‘” Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) October 4, 2013

I read this when I was having my lunch and … I nearly choked on my food.

Google and Matt Cutts said that it was focused on improving search queries and ensure that Google is returning more quality search results. Okay, that part is correct.

However, does it has a hidden agenda behind those words?

Yes, think hard my friend.

When Hummingbird was released, do you remember seeing people’s tweet and Facebook status updates that they are not seeing much traffic lost even though they are running niche sites?

And guess what happened after Google Penguin 2.1 was released. Traffic was scaling down and so does the earning.

More read:
- The New SEO Techniques After Google Updates
- SEO in the Age of Penguin 2.0 and Hummingbird: You’re Doing It Wrong
The secret organic SEO strategies to use after Google Penguin 2.1

Do you REALLY want to know what are the organic SEO techniques after Google Penguin update?

I hate Google a lot and this not because of their frequent updates. It is because every time an update take place, I am off to my secret room down the basement and start planning my next SEO blueprint.

I realized that there are probably hundreds of do’s and dont’s on the best SEO techniques after Google Penguin and you are free to follow any of those that deem fit. However, remember that what I am sharing with you below are mostly organic SEO strategies which could have a very positive impact on your blog.

Here are simple list of my recommended organic SEO strategies to counter attack Google Penguin 2.1 and possibly, any other future updates too (if lucky).

If you are still wondering what is organic SEO, I have explained it using the video below:

1. Goodbye PageRank, Page Rank or PR

PageRank is one of the most discussed topic when it comes to SEO. Seriously speaking, we are all thinking too much about it! Yes, even I do too!

Deny all you want people but trust me, PageRank is going down soon.

Currently, PageRank isn’t dead and it is still functional because there are too many algorithms counting on it. Google updates each website’s PageRank on a daily basis (backend) but the information is not shared out to the public.

Sharing this info out will possibly bring millions of dollars in revenue to SEO agencies around the world and indirectly, messing up the whole SEO ecosystem.

Here’s my take: Google will soon remove PageRank and in return, substituting PR with Page Authority (PA) and Domain Authority (DA). Plus, I am expecting this to happen somewhere in 2014 or 2015 latest.

What do you think?

Adesanmi Adedotun wrote an interesting write up and discussion on this and you can check it out here.

2. Hello Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA)

Both of these have long been in this industry and still, it is very surprising that not many people who actually know about them.

Domain Authority is your root domain score and it is calculated based on the number of links pointing towards it. The higher the authority of that link, the more ‘points’ added to the Domain Authority.

Page Authority on the other hand is the score of your article. The score is calculated exactly like Domain Authority.

Now, do you know that both Domain Authority and Page Authority are inter-related to one another?

For example, having a higher DA score could possibly increase your PA score and vise versa.

Does this makes any sense to you?

Resources:
- What is Domain Authority (DA)?
- What is Page Authority (PA)?
3. Old school link building technique

Backlink or link building isn’t dead yet. Forget about what other SEO experts are saying.

The more links you are building for your website, the better it would be. However, there’s something seriously important when you are thinking of building links.

You need to focus on two very important factors which are:
1. Linking to your domain page (example – https://www.reginaldchan.net) [also known as Domain Authority or DA]
2. Linking to your article page (example – https://www.reginaldchan.net/social-engagement-website-traffic-seo) [also known as Page Authority or PA]
Okay, by now your mind should be telling that you NEED to start commenting the hell out of every CommentLuv website you can ever find to get backlink.

Think again guys.

Personally, I comment on every site that I like and enjoy. It doesn’t matter if they are using Disqus, Livefyre or Google+ comment system.

Leaving good comment doesn’t only increase the chance of traffic but as well as getting a indirect link back to your article.

For those who are thinking of using CommentLuv comment plugin, this article will explain to you the advantages and disadvantages of CommentLuv plugin.

Relevant guides:
- Top 8 Link Building Strategies That Work For Search Engines
- Blow Your Competitions Away With SEO Link Building Techniques
4. Confession of a guest blogger

How many of you publish a guest posting just for backlinks? Come on guys, put up your hands.

The truth is, guest posting is a great way to build backlinks. The bigger truth is you aren’t getting a backlink on your guest posting if your writing sucks.

Okay, I am know I might sound bold and straight forward here but hear me out. What’s the point of submitting for a guest posting if you know that you are NOT going to get approved?

You are not only going to waste your time but as well as the editors too.

Now, back to the topic. Guest posting is a good way to build trust and yes, backlinks if you are doing it correctly. The right way for guest posting is to ensure that you are constantly writing quality write ups and be very specific with your anchor texts.

Don’t just focus everything on ‘blogging tips’ or ‘SEO strategies’ for example. Instead, ensure that your links are given a variety of anchor texts.

Secret stash: Important checklists when it comes to guest posting.

5. Could social signal be the next new SEO?

Do you know your articles get ranked better if there are more social shares and engagements?

Reality is that I don’t have the enough data to prove that but through my short experiments done recently, I noticed those articles of mine who receive 100 or 200 social shares get ranked better on search engines compared to the rest.

There are probably tons of websites talking about social signal and the importance of social share as we speak. Personally, I don’t think this is something you should ignore.

So, how do you REALLY get more social shares?

In order to get more social shares, you need to:
- Be more active on social media
- Share more articles of other bloggers or writers
- Build more relationship with others
- This is important … please write something that is worth sharing
When it comes to social media, you do not need to spend all your time on all the social media platforms. Instead, focus on those who gives you the best ROI (return of investment).

Here are a few articles to help you get started:
- The importance of social engagement in the SEO world
- 7 of the best social media platforms for bloggers and corporate world
6. Bill Gates said that “content is king”

You probably hear this saying in nearly every blogging site you came across. The truth is very real and content is more important than ever.

Do you think that you can get better ranks, backlinks and social shares with low quality articles?

Obviously not! In today’s blogging world, you need more than just good content. You need GREAT contents and accompanied by proven facts and data. That is one of the reasons why I have a rather strict guest post requirements.

Just have a look at any of CopyBlogger’s articles. They are sardine packed with facts and proven test results. Well, it is a great tactic since humans are easily attracted to images and stats compared to the plain ol’ wall-of-text.

Writing content is an art and usually, it is called content writing. To be a good blogger, you need to know:
- What your readers are looking for
- The topics and information that could turn heads
- And probably, a killer title too
Anyone can become a great content writer. All you need are a dying passion and burning flame of enthusiasm.

Great resource: Content & Search Engine Success Factors

To recap, this is what organic SEO is all about … in slides!

Popular weapons to build more organic SEO strategies

If your blog is hit or affected by Google Penguin 2.1, it is time that you need to take your SEO to the next level. You may use Yoast SEO for your WordPress but personally, that could only help you that far.

I am talking about precise SEO … SEO tools that are easy to use and possibly, beating most competitors out there.

1. Scribe – Content Optimization Software for Online Marketing

Scribe offers out of the box content optimization that works within seconds. Basically, Scribe SEO (as what it is called) analyzes your keywords, full written article and the whole website itself.

It will then generate a Page Score and Site Score which you can use to further optimize or improve the article.

Scribe SEO doesn’t only analyze your article but the whole website itself. Besides that, Scribe SEO also offers:
- Keyword research (competition and chances of ranking)
- Link building between articles
- Content optimizer to enrich your article by providing relevant suggestions on your post
Scribe SEO is focused to ensure that your articles and websites get a better rank on search engines and dominate the search results. And because of this, Scribe SEO comes with a pretty hefty price tag of $97 per month.

Have a look at what Scribe can do for you (plus a demo video too) or read my write up on ‘The most efficient SEO tool for website optimization‘.

2. SEOPressor – The Best SEO Plugin

I would always consider SEOPressor as a cheaper alternative for Scribe SEO. SEOPressor works in a pretty similar way compared to Scribe SEO and it really makes content optimization easier.

SEOPressor makes content optimization easier thanks to easier and straight forward user interface.

It offers:
- Keyword suggestion
- Keyword density
- Keyword decoration (using bold, italic and H1 to H3 tags)
- Over optimization warning
SEOPressor is a great choice for bloggers especially if you are looking for a SEO tool that has all-in-one package when it comes to optimization.

With the one time payment of $97, SEOPressor makes it easier for you to plan your organic SEO strategies without hassle and with the one-click function, it makes novice bloggers look great when it comes to SEO.

Check out SEOPressor here and sign up for the 14-days free trial.

Share with me your thoughts

I know how much Google Hummingbird and Penguin 2.1 had affected all of you. The biggest question is, what did you do to improve your website ranking? Did you have any organic SEO strategies that you would like to share with us all?
January 20, 2024