Top 10 Favourite WordPress Plugins by a Pregnant Chick

It’s embaressing how long it has been since I posted on SEO-Chicks, it’s months, agh…I have kind of got an excuse, being 8 months pregnant at the moment, but then again the baby is not growing in my head is it. Although sometimes it feels like it, when I find my keys in the fridge, throw the rubbish in the sink and the plate in the rubbish, or forget what I was talking about half way through a new business pitch. Apparently it’s the hormones affecting your brain, great thanks, like looking like a waddling hippo isn’t bad enough my brain is the size of a shrimp.

But as the guilt of not writing anything has finally taken hold of me, I’ve decided to do a “straight forward” blogpost. A Top 10 favourite list, and if you find it boring don’t leave a mean comment, who would do that to a pregnant chick. Ha! I’ve got the trumph card.

Ok, let’s get to business: one of my clients recently launched a blog on their site and asked me for my reccomendations on plugins, I started writing a list and found it surprisingly difficul to stop. So here are my top 10 “Must-Have” WordPress Plugins:

1. WordPress Database Backup
Website: Creators Website or WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: This plugin does on-demand backup of your WordPress database. Highly recommended as it makes sure you don’t lose anything.
Why you need it: You think it won’t happen to you, but it will, you will fiddle with something and down the blog goes, at least having a backup you can restore it pretty quickly. It only takes a minute girl….(jeese am I turning into Julie quoting songs in my blogposts? Albeit less cool songs that Julie’s mentions though…again “pregnancy trumph card” I can’t help it, it’s the hormones. Oh and I also downloaded an entire album of Roxette. And if you don’t know who Roxette are, bugger off, that means you are youger than me and it’s mean to make a pregnant girl feel old, she is already fat.

2. WordPress Firewall
Website: Creators Website or WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: This plugin blocks any suspicious-looking requests to WordPress.
Why you need it: Because there are mean little geeks out there trying to get your blog down, it happened to SEO-Chicks once, luckily Dazzlin Donna saved our “derrieres”.

3. WordPress Automatic Uprade
Website: Creators Website or WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: Allows a user to automatically upgrade the wordpress installation to the latest one provided by wordpress.org using the 5 steps provided in the wordpress upgrade instructions.
Why you need it: It is very important that wordpress is upgraded regularly as old version might leave you prone to attacks! And I’m not talking attacks by raging hungry polar bears, I’m talking seriously pissed off and spotty virgins, that happens to have an IQ of 200 and a high spec computer.

4. All in One SEO Pack
Website: WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: This plugin allows you to specify title, meta descriptions and other information to the search engines. Why you need it: Because you want to be able to specifiy the title and meta description of your blogpost, “it’s SEO in’it mate”. There are loads of these SEO plugins around, it might not be the best one but it’s a pretty easy one to use. I wouldn’t spend money on “pro version” though I don’t think, it’s a bit cheeky isn’t it? WordPress plugins are suppose to be free, although, yes yes, you are right, they spend allot of their time making the plugin, but hey links is money, be grateful.

5. Tweetmeme
Website: Tweetmeme Plugin Homepage or WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: This has fast become the most used “social plugin” for twitter, it allows people to “tweet” the blogpost by simply clicking on the “tweetmeme” button on the blogpost. You would be hard pushed to find a blog without this plugin now.
Why you need it: Because this whole “Twitter” thing is a pretty useful channel, who would have thought..This is such an easy plugin to use for your users, one click and it’s tweeted (surely I’m preaching to the choir on this one). Once the plugin is installed it looks something like this:

6. Sexy Bookmarks
Website: Creators Website or WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: This is a very useful and nice looking (although I wouldn’t say sexy) plugin for including all social networking and bookmarking sites within each blogpost. Gives the reader an easy way to “spread the word” about the blogpost.
Why you need it: Making it as easy as possible for your readers to “socialise” increases your chances of your content being spread through social channels, simples! When implemented it shows up at the bottom of each blogpost and looks something like this (you can chose which social and bookmarking sites to include):

7. Facebook Share New Button
Website: WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: Allows reader to share the blogpost on Facebook, similar to Tweetmeme but for Facebook.
Why you need it: Facebook seems to be having a strong comeback and it’s once again “fashionable” to be on Facebook and even to share stuff..although I still hate it when my relative in northern Norway sends me a “I joined a stupid facebook application and thought you might like it to” request. Even still, I’ve seen a significant increase in “Facebook Share” and “Like” buttons on blogs lately. Once implemented it looks something like this (you can have a smaller button as well as having it after the content if you like, it’s pretty adaptable):

Once the user has pressed the facebook shared button it automatically posts it to their wall and news feedand will look something like this:

8. WP FB Like
Website: WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: Allows users to facebook “like” a blogpost by the press of a button. As far as I know (and correct me if I’m wrong) the “like” functionality doesn’t post a link to your newsfeed but just to your wall.
Why you need this: The “like” functionality is what brings shared items higher up in the news feed of importance, i.e the more people “like” a shared item the higher up it will be in the “top news”. It’s the “thumbs up” of facebook and people are getting very apt at using this functionality so make sure you have it on your blogposts. The plugin looks like this before anyone has “liked it”:

Then looks like this when someone has pressed the button:

And it will look something like this on the users facebook wall:

9. Subscribe to comments
Website: WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: Allows readers of the blog to subscribe and get emails every time a new comment is made.
Why you need it: This is such a simple easy plugin BUT so important. Readers usually wants to know if someone else has commented on their comment and you should to as it encourages continious conversation and increases the number of comments you get.

10. Post Avatar
Website: Creators Website or WordPress Plugin Download Page
What it does: Includes an avatar (picture) of the authors of each blogpost.
Why you need it: This is one of the most important plugins in my opinion (well any avatar plugin), why? Because building a blog (especially when it’s a group blog) you are building relationships between readers and users, knowing what the writer looks like can enhance the user experience in my opnion, and no not from a is she/he “good looking” point of view, but a simple human level. Knowing what someone looks like when you talk to them imitates personal contact, the phrase “putting a face to the name” springs to ming. But saying that, it obviously helps having gorgeous, friendly looking people on the blog staff like “me Julie”:

Lastly, and not at all connected to the subject, because I’m pregnant and my brain wanders (I find I’m not expected to make sense whilst pregnant, which is a relief, finally I can be myself). Here’s a video of what I look like when pregnant and trying to run…

And of course feel free to share your favourite WP plugins with us and the readers in the comments, there are thousands out there, this is just 10 basic ones that I couldn’t “live without”, and if you feel tempted to leave a comment about the phrase”live without”, it’s a figure of speech, don’t be a numbskull..Have a great weekend everyone!

Do You Want To Rank For Large Fish?

I was lucky enough to have coffee with Todd Mintz and his wife recently as they passed through town on their way to somewhere better, with air conditioning and less of a bloodhound smell. He said something that struck me…”I’ve only had one professional link building request.” I could be paraphrasing here, even if I am taking the liberty of using quotes, because my memory is fuzzy and it fits my damn blog post.

Anyway, I started thinking about the link requests that I get…

First of all, I’m annoyed by the link requests that reference my site in some way, then go on to explain why link building works and how to do it as if I am a total idiot who has no clue. While I can easily admit that my site sucks a duck’s ass, I do know that it makes what I do for a living fairly obvious. If you’re going to take the time to personalize your link request email, do more than simply insert my URL and call me ma’am. The best email ever was the one asking if I wanted to rank for the term “large fish.” Um…

large fish goooood

Secondly, I am getting incredibly tired of unsolicited email, period. This of course does not conflict with the fact that my link builders send out thousands of unsolicited emails, of course. I’ve seen their emails, and while they are unsolicited, they indicate that yes, they’ve seen the site and they realize that it’s relevant for what they’re marketing. However, I definitely understand the mindset of people who see an email they didn’t ask for and get miffed. I do not understand the people who flip the hell out about it though, and reply with some truly nasty things that they plan to do, should we ever meet up. I also don’t understand middle-aged Caucasian males with dreadlocks who write nasty blog posts about how unsolicited emails are responsible for killing dolphins and wrecking the psyche of humanity.

Knowing how almost everyone views unsolicited emails, particularly emails in which they are asked to do something, how should you successfully craft a nice opening request?

If you’re buying links, you might assume that money is going to knock down all of those barriers, but that rarely happens. In fact, sometimes mentioning money in your initial email has the same effect of using the wrong fork at the country club. People gasp and turn away in disgust. If you can establish a connection and get a response, then you can work it into the conversation. We have had success with being very upfront and indeed mentioning money first, of course, but many money-related keywords trigger spam filters, so be careful. Sometimes it’s just…tacky. If tacky rears its head in the form of my dead gran’s silver sequined disco belt, I like it. If it’s just vulgarity, I don’t.

this is not me, thanks

Please, please don’t call me sir. If you’ve found my contact information that clearly has my name in it, there’s no excuse for this. Julie is not a man’s name. Sure, my daughter has a male name and there are men named Nancy I imagine but it’s not statistically high enough to warrant making this mistake. I understand that if you can only find an info at site.com address, you may not know the gender of the webmaster, but if that’s the case, don’t assume it’s a man. I know it’s hard to believe that we do things other than vacuum and giggle but it’s true.

Pretend that you’re writing to your high school English teacher who isn’t the fuddy-duddy that you remember, but a hip techno-geek who likes the appropriate use of a semi-colon and also is aware of how to use a computer. Nothing annoys me more than a very poorly written email, especially when it contains glaring errors such as using your when it should be you’re. I imagine George Bush saying new-ku-ler when I see this and immediately discount the sender as being a moron of..well, Bush-like stature. If your command of whatever language in which you’re writing is poor, for whatever reason, please ask someone who’s a bit smarter than you to review it and correct the errors. It will save you loads of time spent reading insults about your mother.

No one wants to read War and Peace in the form of an email so don’t go on about all the reasons that you love my site, including its utterly mind-blowing design and amazing content. Don’t tell me that it’s relevant to your site about Viagra, because I will comb the damn content looking for injected code and that wastes my time and makes me mad and then I’ll knock an employee down the stairs. Accidentally. I’ve seen some beautifully written emails that are lengthy, and I’ve scanned, and deleted, asap. I don’t have time and I doubt you do, either. I would ask that you don’t simply email with a caveman-like “Give me link!” though, although that will get a laugh.

this is also not me

Here’s what I hate the most, mainly because of its creep factor. Please don’t figure out who a site owner is, look said person up online, and reference something you’ve found on Facebook or elsewhere. If you happen upon an article written by a webmaster whom you plan to contact, that’s a legitimate thing to mention in my opinion, but if you’ve read my horrible blog and can reference the time when I attended a pig’s birthday party, well ick.

Knowing Why Is As Important As What

A thought occurred to me yesterday, that I just had to tweet,

“One of the biggest causes of SEO mistakes is because people know what to do but not why they need to do it”.

I had a load of great responses to this, but still felt like I needed to elaborate on it a little, so here goes.

There are so many things that I see people recommending for SEO that are not relevant for the site they have been recommended for. Robots.txt files are the example that always springs to mind, it’s not uncommon to see someone state something along the lines of “your site has not robots.txt file and one should be added”. Why? If the site doesn’t want to exclude any specific bots, or prevent any content from being indexed, why would it need the file? The only thing that is accomplished by having a site that doesn’t need one, upload a robots.txt file is wasting a developers time somewhere, probably meaning that something far more important doesn’t get implemented.

This also effects prioritisation of tasks, lets face it, most clients have a limited resource for implementation, and sometimes you have to sacrifice something that is a nice to have in favour of the must haves, but unless you understand why optimisations are required, and what they contribute to the whole, how can those decisions be made effectively? How do you know what to fight for, and what to concede?

This issue is never more keenly felt for me than when I am trying to recruit, a recent candidate told me they had set up a blog for SEO on a site, but on questioning couldn’t tell me why that would help, or what else would need doing to make that an effective strategy, they knew the what, but not the why,  so the strategy was doomed to fail, and next time someone suggests a blog to that business, they will respond that it has been tried and failed.

Understanding the whys comes back to questioning, testing and never accepting other people’s assertions blindly, for me that’s what makes the difference every time.

Thanks to

@DKS_Systems
@supaswag
@PrachiDeshpande
@AlunR
@seoidiot
@johnhutson
@cre8tedtweets
@safcblogger
@badams
@Hobo_Web

for joining in the conversation yesterday

What Social Media Can Learn From Traditional Marketing

Nescafe AdvertI recently got into a debate with someone about the benefits of social media. This person (who I won’t name because I think they were being an idiot) maintained that the biggest benefit to social media was getting links for SEO, and I have to admit my heart just sank. There is no denying that social media is great for building links, but it’s a side effect of a marketing technique that is far broader reaching and can have a much bigger impact for businesses that do it well.

Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the attitude of an individual, but something that is quite widespread in SEO, and it’s not only social media that is met with this attitude of irrelevance, quite often traditional marketing methods are met with similar derision. One of the reasons for this is, I think, is the ability to track ROI so accurately for SEO, we are held accountable in a way that our offline marketing counterparts aren’t, but social media means that we are going to have to learn to accept that the SEO way isn’t the only way, and for that we have to look backwards.

Until the internet, widespread pull marketing didn’t really exist (the yellow pages is perhaps as close as it came), TV, DM, Print, they’re all push marketing methods, working to gain brand awareness, and maintain a steady stream of marketing & advertising so that when someone was ready to buy, your business was at the front of their mind.  When you stop and think about it, social media is far more aligned with this than it is with SEO, but SEO’s are the ones in the position, and with the expertise to take advantage of it.

So what can we take from the decades of learning that traditional marketing offers us

Reporting Results

When traditional marketers track the results of a TV campaign, they don’t look at which ad slot generated the most sales, they can’t, what they look at instead is what uplift the campaign as a whole had on total sales. They may be able to get some additional data from a unique phone number or URL on the ad, but that will only give them a limited view of the overall impact of the campaign. In social media we can track a lot more data than this, looking at weather sales had a social media touchpoint, seeing which mentions had the biggest impact on visitors and more, but fundamentally a consumer may never click through on social media, but the persistent presence of a brand can increase click throughs through other channels, look at overall traffic uplift as well as direct referrals for more meaningful results.

Great Concepts Deliver Great Results

I doubt any advertising agency has ever walked into a pitch with the following “we’re going to talk to people through TV advertising, then we’re going to ask viewers how they feel about you”, yet we quite often hear “engage users through social media and monitor sentiment”. It’s the same idea, and equally useless. When you think about the TV campaigns you remember, they’re usually interesting, funny or shocking concepts, they’re always unique and can have a huge impact on sales for the businesses lucky enough to develop those campaigns.

If you’re going to develop a social media campaign, remember that you need a reason for people to engage, and you need to innovate, there are as many ideas possible for social media as there are for TV ads, we just need to get better at finding them (or work closely with an advertising agency, having done this a lot recently I can honestly say that creative advertising agencies are brimming with ideas they would love you to execute)

Plan for the long term

Most Marketing teams will have a plan, not for this month or next, but for the next 12 if not 18 months. They will plan campaigns and marketing outreach around key times in their business cycle, maximising their opportunities and accordingly their ROI. Social media should be equally well planned out, what are the opportunities in your market place, will that exciting idea you’ve had work better 6 months down the line. Online marketers are used to being able to do everything quickly, and see results equally quickly, but biding your time can have far greater results for your campaigns.

SEO Then and Now – The Evolution of Search

At SES Toronto I was one of three panellists talking about SEO from a decade ago to now.  I tackled the past while my fellow panellists tackled the present and future.  As always, I had so much more I wanted to say and thus this blog post.

I asserted that nothing has changed and yet everything really has.  At its core, the math for calculating relevance remains very much the same but layer upon layer of sophistication has been added turning the Google ranking formula a complex creature which is likely an engineering feat of mad genius.  I feel that Google engineers are extremely intelligent in their ability to conceive of, and execute the calculations surrounding, ways and methods of organising data on the web.  It’s also a bit scary in a I-could-kill-you-with-a-click kind of way.

A decade ago, I asserted in my talk, the fundamental aspects of the algorithm were fixed.  I feel the really major changes in how things are ranked happened more from 1995 – 2000.  I’m not saying nothing has changed at all, just that the core fundamentals upon which multiple layers of sophistication have been built seem to have been fixed around then.  These core fundamentals relate to links, title tags, on page text which is focused around a single theme, eliminating code bloat and using spiderable techniques.  That is as important today as it was ten years ago.

Ten years ago, it was easier to spam the index.  Buying domain names, creating duplicate sites and owning search results was much easier than it is today.  Spammers would buy multiple domains, create uniquely coded sites and small businesses would never get a chance.  Today while fairer, it is also more difficult for newer businesses to get ranked at times.  Today, the results are a lot cleaner, more diverse with higher quality.  As a searcher, I prefer the search results today and while I may at times miss what used to be possible it is better as it is and as it is becoming.

The world has also started to catch up with search and spammers.  Users are more ready to call out duplicate search results or businesses trying to own all of one search results whether for “Texas hold ‘em” or “bean bag chairs”.  They react badly when duplicity is revealed and they turn to social networks and a powerful word of mouth network further enhanced by the internet.  The law too has caught up making it a criminal offence in some countries to fail to disclose connections, free merchandise, payments or related activities.  Where before the spammer could move with impunity, the law is quickly catching up and making it even riskier to spam.

Today, we have multiple layers of sophistication and additional elements which go in to ranking each page of a site.  No longer are you dumped unceremoniously at the front door of a business from Google or Yahoo.  Searchers now experience richer results and dive deeply directly into the most relevant page of a site.  This is possible through a combination of factors including weighting the content of the whole site, the subfolder the page is in, the page itself, internal links pointing to the page, external links (followed or nofollowed) pointing to the page and mentions of the theme of the page in relation to the site but lacking a link.

To understand the future, we need to understand the past.  Core elements are more important than ever and must be correctly implemented in order to create a well optimised site.  URL structure, unique content, internal and external links (including breadcrumbs), keyword usage on page, themes on site and especially page titles are all very important.  The SEO Chicks are always releasing how-to blog posts about these fundamentals because they are so important.

In the future, the focus on spam elimination will continue and the network of ranking factors will become even more complex.  It has been many long years since an SEO could focus on only one thing and get better rankings.  A site owner, SEO or anyone trying to get a site more visibility online needs to ensure all core elements are in place from launch.  Once that is done, things like citations, social media mentions, social media engagement, and more will factor increasingly into rankings.  Since personalisation renders rank tracking almost irrelevant, analytics will take pride of place as a focus for improvements and on-page conversion analysis will help Google’s Web Optimiser become even more popular.

There is so much more to the algorithm now than there was a decade ago. Things like pagerank sculpting have come and gone, cross-domain canonicalization has helped reduce duplicate content issues, refinement in the method of recognising and eliminating spam links has dramatically changed the search results.  All for the better I feel.

Find A Mentor (Or Some Mentos)

Along with the list of skills that you need to possess in order to be a good SEO, I’d like to add the following:

Knows how to find a good mentor.

I’ve been in the industry for enough years that I do think that, for the most part, I know what I’m doing. I know what’s going on, I can adapt to industry changes very quickly, and I feel confident that the advice that I give is valid and worthwhile. However, I’m not stupid enough to believe that I can’t be wrong, which is why I am so fond of having mentors. No matter how much experience you have, someone else has more of it, and someone else has better quality. Also, if you think this is an arse-kissing post…you’re damn right it is. I owe a lot to these people.

Mentors Who Are Fun To Socialize With

I have many mentors that are my contemporaries in some ways (although usually much better at everything) and they’re the ones that I value the most. Lisa Myers and Anita Chaperon, with whom I started this blog, are the people who first encouraged me to write about what I do. Before that, I didn’t trust myself enough to do anything publicly. Since then, I’ve realized how important it is to be able to back up anything that I say, and to admit when I’m wrong. Just putting myself out there and open to criticism has been the best learning experience of my career. I can also say with 100% certainty that every single one of the SEO Chicks is just stupidly fun to go out with, if you ever have the chance.

Legends in the Industry

Since then, all of us at SEO Chicks had Dazzlin Donna as our mentor. She was like our mama chick, keeping us all in check and, because she was writing for us and therefore giving us a vote of confidence, it made me triple check every single thing that I said. No one was willing to let her down, and even though she never scrutinized us, she did offer enough guidance to keep us on the straight and narrow, even when I was fighting about how cloaking and paid links were peachy keen.

When I was asked to write for Search Engine Land, Debra Mastaler immediately reached out to me as her fellow columnist and Southern link builder. I cannot tell you how much it meant to me to have someone so revered in the industry act as if I was on her level. Liana Evans asked me to write for Search Marketing Gurus and was the first person to ask to interview me. I was so nervous that for days I could barely think of anything else…and then we had an amazing chat and I realized why everyone likes her so much.

People Whom You Trust 100%

Now, lest you think that because this is a female-written site I only have female mentors, there’s my current favorite SEO on earth…Paul Madden. I love knowing people who are much, much smarter than most of us but they don’t act like assholes. Even though he tries his best to get me to say something mean to him, he’s an amazing man who knows just about everything about SEO. He’s the one I want to bounce all my ideas off, because he will see the holes in my logic, and he’ll point them out without being a jerk. He also has a fluffy bunny that he loves.

Prolific Writers Who Rock

I read absolutely everything that Ann Smarty writes. I am totally in awe of her constantly useful posts and the fact that she never seems to sleep. She has definitely inspired me to try and write about ideas that are actually useful. That may sound silly, but I do have a fondness for the non-useful writing.

Common Sense

Jill Whalen is probably the most logical person in this industry. Whether you agree or disagree with her, her opinions don’t ever seem to be fueled by ego or rage. I’m not saying that she doesn’t care about the industry, certainly. I just love the fact that she seems to speak her mind without getting into a tizzy about things. You don’t usually see her ranting and raving. I admire that. It’s taught me to stop taking things so damned personally. Now, if she’d just turn blackhat…

The Model of Class

Christine Churchill. I don’t think I really need to say much more than that. I’d really like a WWCD bracelet (What Would Christine Do?) I was lucky enough to be able to interview her once, and she thanked ME.

Blackhat Scum

It’s no secret that I like the black hat boys and girls. I’ve learned more about SEO from chats with them than I ever have with strictly by-the-book whitehat types. I love that they have crazy and clever ideas that are just absurd enough to work. I love their passion for constantly figuring out something new to try, and I love that they’re the ones testing tactics that I might be able to use successfully. I won’t mention any names here lest people start making hateful comments, of course. They know who they are.

Your Own Little Flock

I particularly like to think about all of these mentors and what they’ve done for me when I deal with my own staff. I love nothing more than for one of them to ask me a question that I can’t immediately answer. I love it when they think outside the box and can trip me up. I love seeing them grow and become really, really good link builders who also happen to know more about SEO than they think they do. I love that they feel comfortable asking me questions, even if they preface them with “I know this is crazy/silly/stupid but…” and I love that THEY make me think. They make me think A LOT, even my newbies. It’s tough to explain SEO to people outside the industry. It’s tough to start someone out in the field, who has no knowledge of it, but it definitely is a truly worthwhile thing to do.

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