Another post in our series on helping website designers with SEO. This one is about the WordPress plugin Redirection.
The Redirection plugin is a bit like the 404 to Start plugin in that it’s purpose is to redirect visits going to a URL and send them to a different one.
Where this is particularly handy is when you’re updating a website for a client. Often when changing from another CMS to WordPress there is a need to change the way URL’s are named. This also happens when refreshing sites and the content is being overhauled.
And it’s in this case where pages no longer exist, which can cause SEO trouble if not handled.
As part of a series of blog posts to help web designers use SEO best practices, this one focuses on the how and why of using a WordPress plugin called 404 to Start.
What the 404 to Start plugin does is redirect 404 errors to either the home page or a page of your choice.
So rather than visitors or the Google bot seeing an error page, instead they are redirected to the home page. This makes both for a better user experience and helps your SEO effort.
The reason why it’s beneficial for SEO, is that it doesn’t let backlinks go to waste.
I found this great 4 and half minute video that I think you’ll enjoy.
It’s about how to pitch anything in 15 seconds, whether that’s a complex consulting offer, someone in a retail setting, or chatting to someone at a networking event – it will help clearly deliver your message.
Straight Talk about How You Should (and Shouldn’t) Use Facebook to Market Your Business
With over a billion users, Facebook is far and away the most famous social network on earth. If Facebook were a country, it would contain the third largest population, behind China and India. And like China and India, Facebook possesses its own unique customs and norms, and you should understand them so that you can fully leverage the site’s potential as a marketing tool. When I see businesses go wrong on Facebook, it’s often because they don’t bother to learn the local customs.
LinkedIn deserves to be ranked among the big three of social media sites, right along with Facebook and Twitter. But LinkedIn is really more valuable for your small business because unlike its rivals, this social-media site focuses specifically on business. In other words, you won’t have people on LinkedIn posting on how good their oatmeal tasted this morning.
How companies are leveraging LinkedIn …
If Your Website Isn’t Mobile-Friendly, You’re Losing Customers (And Money)
Our economy is recovering…slowly. However, these are still difficult times for consumers. Here’s what that means to you as a business owner: You simply can’t risk making it more difficult for customers to buy your products or services. The fact is that, many local businesses aren’t making things easy with regards to their websites. As more and more consumers are trying to find nearby businesses on their mobile devices (according to Google, 1 in 3 searches are for local information) companies are still running antiquated sites that look like crap (let’s be honest) on smartphones and tablets.
Below is a short video (11 mins) that covers the 6 simple principles of persuasion. These are based on the research and book “Influence: Science and Practice” by Robert Cialdini. The book itself has sold over a million copies in the last 10+ years and is a must read if you’re involved in sales and marketing.
An introductory article in the Herald about SEO and Adwords from the NZHearld. Although it is a bit of an advertising piece for Yellow, it still has some useful info.
Every day more and more Kiwis are turning to the internet to research goods and services. Their number one port of call is the Google search page. And businesses looking for new leads and customers should take notice of this trend.
A successful search engine marketing (SEM) campaign can attract new customers in their droves and raise a brand’s profile.
Search engine marketing encompasses a number of different strategies to get customers to visit a business’ website and make contact. The two most common tactics are …
I was browsing through ZDNet.com keeping up to date with what’s happening in the tech world over a coffee and found a excellent article on SEO for small business people who are on a tight budget, time or dollar wise.
The following article comes from their site (see link to the source at the bottom) and I’ve added a few extra comments on my take of the info. Enjoy.
If you could do only three things for SEO, what would they be? This is a question encountered by many smaller businesses, and even somewhat larger companies, either due to not having enough people (time) and/or dollars available to invest in a big way.
If this is a scenario you’re facing, what follows are three minimal SEO tasks you must do …
The other day a colleague mentioned that a big company had got onto the idea of testing and tracking their marketing. Excellent I said.
Trouble is they had taken the concept to the extreme and were only doing marketing that they could track.
The idea of testing, tracking and tweaking your marketing is so you can make marketing decisions based on the numbers, not some gut feel or one that looks nice. First up you run your marketing campaign (in other words you test it). Then you track the response you get from it such as how many leads a week it generates. As you come up with ways to improve it, you make a tweak (in other words a small change) and get this out in the market place (that is, test it). Then guess what? Yes, we track how it does. Compare this to the previous one, essentially keep what works best and cull what doesn’t.
Let’s get back to the story …
One of the many things the search engines use to rank your web pages is how old they are. (See the recent update at the end of this post)
All things being equal old pages rank better than new pages. Just like old sites rank better than new sites. Its all part of the what pages are considered by the search engines as an authority on a particular topic.
Those old pages you want to delete are …
Here are my 5 Rules for Small Business Websites.
Rule # 1, Use a content management system for your website, this means your web designer is focusing on the content and not infrastructure to make it all work. The thinking behind doing it this way is that you …
Here are some quick tips on how to make life easier for people visiting your web site. This will help keep them on the page and within your web site longer and more likely to take the action you want them to take, such as signing up for your newsletter or purchasing from your online store.
Before we get to the top 11 tips, the key is that they all boil down to …
Choosing a domain name need not be a difficult process. Following these easy guidelines will ensure you have the best domain name that is easy for visitors to remember and use as well as search engine friendly.
Your domain name is the text your type into your web browser, for Web Gurus it is webgurus.co.nz and is also what you’d typically use for your email address like [email protected]
Having your own domain name for your web site and email addresses is important because …
What I’m referring to here is how you can tap into people that know, like, and trust you to help grow your business and generate leads.
There’s a saying that goes something like “when you say it about yourself your bragging, when others say it, it’s the truth”.
Research out recently shows how effective third party recommendations are. It was found that 72% of people trust online reviews from other people (people that they don’t even know). This was second only to in person recommendations from friends and family etc. And beat out editorial newspaper articles, your own website, and numerous other sources of where people can get recommendations.
So why is this important? Well this technique can be used in both your online and traditional marketing.
The Web Gurus team is dedicated to helping small and medium businesses get more leads and sales from the Internet. It’s all based on combining our experience from using the web as a sales tool since the 90s with our on-going extensive research and testing of what works today.
We package cutting edge digital marketing strategies making it straightforward for local businesses to incorporate them into their own marketing in a way that grows their profit.
Web Gurus is how we share this knowledge of how to use the web to generate leads, to market your business online and achieve real results. We are a value-added agency; we educate you and give you the tools to get greater results online.
Steve is an expert in Sales and Marketing Automation, using cutting edge techniques to market local small and medium businesses, helping them to generate more leads and convert more of them into clients. With over 20 years in the industry, Steve knows how to achieve online results for your business.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed about website design, Google Ads, SEO (search engine optimisation), or don’t know where to begin, we can help you; contact us today.
Professional Workmanship Guaranteed
Sites That Generate Enquiries & Make You Look Good
Safe & Affordable SEO That Gets Results
See How Ai & Machine Learning Get You Better Results
What We've Done For Other Successful Businesses
Fill out the form below to request your no obligation FREE quote or