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Wordpress

Top 3 WordPress SEO Plugins to Help Keep Your Articles Alive

by Mahesh Kukreja on February 6, 2012

in SEO Tricks & Tips,Wordpress

This is a guest post! If you want to write for us, check out the Guest Post section.

You could write your absolute best article, get it posted at the absolute opportune time, and get an absolutely huge number of social shares, but then it’s over. You have about one week where people see your article, it gets pushed to page two of your blog, and it’s over. Now granted you probably gained some visibility and quite possible made a few connections via social media, but the article sometimes dies after the initial spotlight. For this reason, writers and blog editors use search engine optimization (SEO) when uploading articles into WordPress.

SEO WordPress plugins

SEO helps revive a dying article because it can help the article continually appear on Google search engine pages for specific keywords. For example, if I were to write an article about “credit card processing,” I could optimize that article for the keyword “credit card processing.” This way, when someone types the keyword “credit card processing” into the Google search box my article could potentially show up. There is of course competition when it comes to keywords, so you will want to make sure that you do a little bit of keyword research if you’re really looking to have your article rank highly with Google. You can learn more about keyword research by visiting Blogging Pro.

Once you know you’re ready to optimize an article, an SEO plugin is extremely helpful. There are a lot of things to remember when it comes to optimizing an article:

  • Put your keyword in your title, preferably at the beginning
  • Put your keyword in all of the subheadings of the article
  • Put your keyword in the first paragraph of your article
  • Make sure your keyword appears a lot in the text
  • Make sure the keyword is in the meta tag

It can be tough to remember all the things you need to do to optimize your article, so an SEO plugin will help make sure you do everything you can for that article. The plugins will also give you a number and let you know whether or not you’re on the right track. Consider some of the SEO plugins below:

SEO Plugins to Help Your Company Stay on Track

1. SEO Yoast

SEO Yoast plugin is a little bit newer, but it is quickly becoming one of the most popular (and my personal favorite). It’s a free plugin and will keep track of all the components of SEO. All you have to do is fill in your keyword and then fill in all your usual information (article, Meta description, SEO title, etc.). The plugin will then let you know whether or not you have met all the SEO goals and what you need to do to fix them. Below is an example of the WordPress plugin:

SEO Yoast

As you can see, this page is somewhat optimized for Google search. It lets me know exactly what I need to fix and what I have accomplished.

2. SEO Smartlinks

SEO Smartlinks plugin works well because it helps you interlink efficiently. In other words, once you specify keywords it will do the linking for you. This will help you with your affiliate relationships and make things easy for you so that you do not need to go in and do everything manually. This will also improve navigation for your readers, and the plugin is completely free. Below is a screenshot of this plugin:

SEO Smart Links

3. All in One SEO Pack

All in One SEO Plugin plugin will also help readers improve their SEO by letting them know what they need to improve and what they have done correctly (much like Yoast). The basic version is free, although the service does offer more advanced, paid versions of the tool. It allows you to insert a custom HTML had tag and is a good compliment to Google Analytics support. Below is an example of what the plugin looks like:

All in one SEO Pack

SEO plugins are typically easy to install and easy to use, so they work great for someone who needs a little bit of help in the SEO department. Knowing how to optimize an article is a great way to make sure that the article is seen time and time again. This is the absolute best situation for an article.

Author Bio

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to 401k contribution limits. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including small business loans to small businesses and entrepreneurs for the leading business directory, Business.com.

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What Are My Favorite WordPress Plugins – and Why?

by Mahesh Kukreja on January 29, 2012

in Webmaster Tutorials,Wordpress

This is a guest post! If you want to write for us, check out the Guest Post section.

WordPress happens to be an exceptional platform that enables all the Internet site owners to easily take control of their web portals and customize them as per their needs and requirements. There are various different things that make the blogging platform of WordPress more useful and beneficial and they are called as the plugins. These are actually teeny applications that, when installed into your portal, helps to enhance your portals functionality to a great deal. The WordPress plugins are exceedingly useful in making sure that your blog based on WordPress platform runs at peak performance and all those that enable you to make that happen are some of the best WordPress plugins available and are most favorite and preferred ones.

Wordpress plugins

As there are a large number of Plugins available, there are some best ones that can be considered as some of the most preferred ones, and this is for the reason that they are actually destined to be popular and in-demand because of their functionality. Some of the vital ones have been around for some time, and with the passage of time, they have been improvised to a great extent by their developers and are positive to lead the entire pack.

My Favorite WordPress Plugins

Here are five of my favorite WordPress plugins:

WordPress SEO

WordPress SEO happens to be one of the best and most favorite plugins used by most of the bloggers. This is simply an unbeaten plugin that enables users to easily optimize their Internet sites for the leading search engines. Joost De Valk has developed this particular plugin, and is considered to be a legend in the world of SEO. it is useful to optimize the blog pages and also helpful in creating a lot of various other features such as the XML sitemaps, The users stay more focused with the appropriate keywords while the content is being written.

Akismet

This is also one of the most favorite WordPress plugins especially when you are considering protecting your blog from spam. Akismet is one of the most effective and popular spam filter and people make use of it to guard their sites.

Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is just another beneficial plugin related to WordPress. The plugin enables you to easily manage various different contact forms, easily personalize them as well as the mail contents easily. The plugin also supports spam filtering, Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA, just as Akismet and various others. To this point, the plugin has been downloaded more than 5 million times and it is also available for free.

Cart66

Cart66 is one of the best plugins when you are considering using it for your E-commerce portal. It is now available in two different versions; the first one is the paid version, and the other one is available for free.

Sharedaddy

As the social networking portals are becoming more and more popular than ever before, there is a requirement for a useful plugin that enables you to provide different options for your portal visitors to easily share your content with Sharedaddy. You can configure the services easily and make them appear as icons, text or both. The plugin basically includes PressThis, Print, Email, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Facebook.

Author Bio:

I am Susan Hannan from Examsking. Looking for Examsking.co.uk exam assistance? Let’s take benefit of Exams King self-paced CCIE Certification training material and clear your IT certification on first try.

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How to Start a Membership Blog using WordPress Platform?

by Mahesh Kukreja on January 23, 2012

in Blogging Tips, Tricks,Webmaster Tutorials,Wordpress

This is a guest post! If you want to write for us, check out the Guest Post section.

With the seemingly endless stream of information that we can find online there are some people that question whether there are still individuals that would actually pay for content. The truth is that last year more than a billion dollars was spent on internet content: so hopefully that not only surprises most people but also answers the question. But how do we get started creating a membership blog?

WordPress does everything we need

When it comes to a membership site, it may seem hard to believe but WordPress does everything you could possibly need. Specific plugins for WordPress will do most of the work for you. For example, the plugin Mingle Forum will help you easily create a forum where your users can discuss your blog and even SEO work is made easier than before to ensure that you get the best possible ranking. What are some of the major players on the WordPress membership plugin market?

Magic Members

Magic Members

Many people consider Magic Members their favorite membership plugin for WordPress, and for a reason. If you are going to start a membership blog using WordPress, this plugin offers almost everything you need. Getting it installed is like installing a standard WordPress plugin. These are some of the features you can expect:

  • Easy integration with existing or new blogs
  • Control subscription length
  • Flexible membership options
  • Payment modules integration

Magic Member costs $97 for a single site license, $197 for 3 licenses & $297 for unlimited licenses.

Membership Pro

Paid Membership Pro

Membership Pro is another rather nifty membership plugin. There are two different versions available: the free version and the paid version. Of course, the free version offers fewer features than the paid version but it is a great way to get a feel for the plugin and see if you like it. This plugin does not just work with each WordPress site, but also with BuddyPress and multisite. It allows you to transform your BuddyPress, WPMU, or WordPress site into a fully functional membership site. This means that you go beyond the blog and allow access to support, forums, videos, online content, and downloads through flexible membership levels and options. These are some of the features to expect:

  • Serial renewing subscriptions
  • Finite or indefinite subscriptions
  • Offer free memberships that turn into paid subscriptions after a certain number of days

You can download Membership plugin for free, but if you support or hosting services for your membership site, then the pricing starts at $19/month.

Wishlist Member

Wishlist Member

Easy to install and even easier to use. Wishlist Member can convert your WordPress blog into a complete membership website in mere minutes. It offers:

  • Multi-level access
  • Shopping cart integration
  • Flexible membership options
  • Control viewed content
  • Integrates seamlessly into your WordPress site
  • Sequential content delivery
  • Unlimited membership levels

The Single license of Wishlist Member costs $97 whereas Multi-site license costs $297.

Determine a payment gateway

If you are going to make a membership blog there is a good chance that you want to actually, you know, use that money at some point. You need a payment system to process all your member payments. Some of the industry leaders are 1shoppingCart, Paydotcom, Paypal and Clickbank.

If you already have a specific WordPress plugin you want to use (or a specific payment system you refuse to get rid of) make sure that the plugin integrates with your preferred payment gateway. There is nothing more frustrating than finding out that the two are not compatible and you have to make some major changes to your design.

Do not provide substandard content

The most important thing to remember about creating a membership blog is that you are asking people to pay for information they previously may have had access to for free. Before, when you had no desire to post a blog and sent in a substandard blog post people may have forgiven that. If you charge them for content, it is unacceptable to release substandard work. You must always provide absolute unique, engaging and interesting content for your members in order for them to always want to stay, spread the word and keep on wanting more. Finally, make sure to have fast internet connection for uploading, editing and distributing of content. This part is easy since internet service is getting cheaper and cheaper due to competition by different providers. For example AT&T is offering exclusive Uverse coupon deals and savings on its internet service. Hope these tips help and good luck on your membership sites.

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Why should you host your site on WordPress?

by Mahesh Kukreja on September 28, 2011

in Blogging Tips, Tricks,Webmaster Tutorials,Wordpress

This is a guest post! If you want to write for us, check out the Guest Post section.

I am not going to reveal anything earthshattering. Having said that, I can assure you that you will save a pot of money and a lot of effort after reading this post. WordPress as you all know is a popular blogging platform which comes in two flavors – on-site and on-demand. The on-demand version is hosted on wordpress.com and is free. I recently had a fresh look at this offering and this is what I found –

Girl wearing WordPress T-shirt

[Photo via Flickr]

WordPress on-demand offering is much more powerful than any other free blogging platform

Here the competition is mainly with Blogger, which incidentally belongs to Google. It is an open secret that Google is trying to woo bloggers with a fully revamped Blogger, but it still falls short in many ways. The interface is still cramped and comes with numerous restrictions. WordPress on the other hand is refreshingly open and provides numerous options. I could arrange my layout and design my stuff without hindrance. I could add advertisements from channels which I liked and not restrained by conditions and rules.

Umpteen skins and themes to choose from

Another reason why I like WordPress. There are so many options that you are likely to be spoilt for choice. There are themes and themes to choose from. Another thing which I found extremely useful was the widgets. I agree that Blogger also provides for widgets but the flexibility which I found with wordpress.com was impressive. The look and feel of my blog was definitely much better.

You can host your own website for $2 per month

This factor alone clinched the deal in favor of WordPress. Here you can do away with the need to find a host for your website and negotiate separately for web space. Moreover you need not worry about security which is a big concern. You have to only pay $2 and you can host your website or blog on WordPress. In fact, this is truly on-demand offering. It’s like having the cake and eating it too. You can have a custom domain name with extension .com, .org or .net and in addition WordPress has also added .me recently. This is something one ought to look at seriously. Not only do you get a readymade blog but also get to host it in a secure environment. Those who don’t know much about technology and don’t wish to learn can take advantage of this offering. I for one would go for it anytime.

Native versions of WordPress

Blogging after all is a personal experience and you think best in your own language. WordPress is available in fifty languages and the list is expanding. This feature would be specifically interesting for bloggers who want to share their thoughts with their friends and neighbors. I like this feature because I myself use it for my personal blog.

Conclusion

WordPress is a powerful blogging platform which can be used by amateurs and professionals alike. With premium add-ons you can convert a blog into a full-featured website.

Author Bio

Victor Solovey is the owner of crazyxhtml, where they do crazy stuff including ‘psd to html’ and ‘psd to css’ conversion. Victor is passionate about his work and also likes to write.

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