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WordPress SEO Tutorials
Hi, I'm Tom! I write solid tutorials on WordPress SEO, Yoast, WordPress speed optimization, and how to make money with affiliate marketing. Enjoy!
WORDPRESS SEO
All-in-one WordPress SEO guide with 101 optimizations to make your site rank higher and load faster. This is basically all my tutorials combined into 1. I've spent hundreds of hours accumulating this content - it will soon be an Amazon book. Better than Yoast's? You decide.
WORDPRESS SPEED
See how I got 100% scores in GTmetrix + Pingdom with a <1s load time. Read the comments like "My page speed score on gtmetrix went from 69 to 93" and "this might be one of the most helpful posts I’ve ever read." 38 tips on cache, Cloudflare, images and more.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
I'm grateful to have made $150,000 in 2018 through affiliate marketing - this article talks about niches, affiliate programs, affiliate link management plugins, SEO, and how to increase sales/conversions with social proof. It literally changed my life as I've never had money.
YOAST
A complete guide to Yoast used by over 250,000 people. Configure the ideal settings while optimizing your site with better focus keywords, Google Search Console, and AMP pages. Create perfectly optimized content and stop obsessing over those damn green bullets.
KEYWORDS
Learn what people are searching (keyword research) and whether your site is capable of ranking for it (keyword competition) using tools like Google Autocomplete, Moz Keyword Explorer, and HubShout WebGrader. Find long-tail, localized, and competitor keywords.
LOCAL SEO
Use Google's 2018 local search ranking factors to rank higer in Maps and local organic results. Optimize Google My Business, directories (citations), and create more citations with Moz Local and Whitespark. Create geo-targeted pages and optimize for 1 location, or multiple.
YOUTUBE SEO
Research video keywords in YouTube autocomplete, analyze the competition using vidIQ Chrome Extension, and optimize video titles, descriptions, tags, file names, transcripts, and custom thumbnails. Learn how to rank your video in both YouTube and Google.
SEARCH CONSOLE
Verify Google Search Console with Yoast, submit your XML sitemap, and fix crawl errors (broken pages) with redirects. Find errors with mobile, security, and Yoast SEO titles + meta descriptions. Use Search Analytics to measure SEO which is better than Google Analytics.
RICH SNIPPETS
Add review stars, recipe information, event details, and other information to snippets so they stand out in search results and increase CTR. This can be done using the All In One Schema plugin (free but minimal) or WP Review by MyThemeShop (paid and robust).
CTR
Boost CTRs by getting in Google's featured snippets, jump-to links, adding AMP, and showing blog post publish dates to make them look fresh. Use Yoast's bulk editor to make SEO titles + meta descriptions read nicer, and find pages with low CTR in Search Console.
PENALTIES / MISTAKES
After reviewing hundreds of WordPress sites, I made a list of the 14 top mistakes people make in SEO. By the far the most common have to do with keywords, content, Yoast, and citations for local SEO. Simple solution: add an HTML table of contents and beef up your content.
WHITESPARK CITATIONS
One of the few things you can outsource in local SEO is citation building. Whitespark builds quality, consistent citations for $4-5 each and sends you a report with 1 universal login. They have a 5/5 star review with 200+ reviews. A no-brainer for ranking in Maps.
YOAST PREMIUM
Should you buy Yoast Premium for $89/year? Learn why setting multiple focus keywords, redirect manager, social sharing previews, and other features may (or may not) be a good reason to buy it. Spoiler: most features aren't helpful and I usually don't recommend it.
SITEGROUND
SiteGround was rated the #1 host in 18 different Facebook polls and is who I use. Hosting is the #1 site speed factor, they will migrate you for free, they're #1 in pretty much every Facebook conversation, and also helped me get .5s load times in GTmetrix.
GOFUNDME
Each year I donate a chunk of my affiliate income to a GoFundMe campaign. In 2018, $3,000 was given to feed Denver's homeless, and in 2017, $3,000 to American Red Cross at Hurricane Harvey. Thank you for using my affiliate inks - trying to pay it forward :)
IMAGE OPTIMIZATION
I had no idea there were so many ways to optimize images - there are 20! Fix images in GTmetrix, serve them from your CDN URL, make them format properly when shared on Facebook/Twitter, remove EXIF data and use Cloudflare hotlinking, Polish, and Mirage.
WP ROCKET
#1 cache plugin in most Facebook polls and includes many features other cache plugins don't (database cleanup, lazy load, local Google fonts, integration with Cloudflare + StackPath CDN). It's $49/year, easy to configure with documentation, and is what I use on my site.
SWIFT
Swift is the new cache plugin on the block and has gotten raving reviews in the WordPress Speed Up Facebook Group (which I suggest you join). I still use WP Rocket on my site, but for a free cache plugin, you can't beat Swift. Settings are medium difficulty to configure.
WP FASTEST CACHE
Another top-rated free cache plugin and is probably the easiest to setup. $40 premium version is comparable to load times of WP Rocket and integrates with Cloudflare + StackPath CDN. The developer makes ongoing updates and it should take 10 min. to setup.
W3 TOTAL CACHE
I recommend testing a few cache plugins to see which gives you the best result in Pingdom and GTmetrix. W3TC can be difficult to configure BUT... not when you use my pre-configured settings (zip file) you can upload directly to the plugin. The most popular tutorial on my site.
WP SUPER CACHE
If you're using WP Super Cache as your cache plugin (although I recommend WP Rocket or Swift), this tutorial shows how you to configure it... yes, even the "advanced" tab, and how to integrate it with Cloudflare + StackPath CDN. But, I would use definitely WP Rocket or Swift.
AUTOPTIMIZE
If your hosts bans cache plugins (like Godaddy and WP Engine) but you still want to optimize HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for better scores in GTmetrix, Autoptimize is a great plugin which also intergates Cloudflare + StackPath CDN.
HIGH CPU PLUGINS
35+ slow plugins to avoid since they slow down your site. Common culprits are related post, statistic, sitemap, chat, calendar, page builders, and plugins that run ongoing scans or show lengthy load times in GTmetrix Waterfall.
LOCAL GOOGLE FONTS
Loading Google Fonts locally should fix most font-related errors in GTmetrix/Pindgom. Learn to convert fonts to web fonts, upload them to WordPress, add them to CSS, and be minimal with number of fonts (and weights).
WORDPRESS AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
List of affiliate programs specifically for WordPress including hosting, themes, plugins, CDNs, and outsourcing work to freelancers. I've already done the testing and filtered out the bad ones (my top affiliate programs are SiteGround, StackPath, and StudioPress).
STUDIOPRESS THEMES
If you're creating a new WordPress site (or redesigning an existing one), StudioPress themes are SEO-friendly via the Genesis Framework. They load super fast and are recommended by Yoast, Google's Matt Cutts, and WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg.
TOOLS
Complete list of tools for WordPress SEO + speed optimization, most of which I use, along with some terms. The list is extensive, but it should be super helpful (and I always keep it updated). It's in alphabetical order and paid services are highlighted in yellow.
TOM
Creepin' on me? Here are 50 random and disturbing things about me. I basically live in Denver, sing/rap in the car, and puke in Mobil garbage cans. I'm an introverted, cat-loving libra who loves spontaneous adventures. Affiliate marketing changed my life.
PRONAYA
Need help making your site load faster? Pronaya helped me optimize mine to load in 200ms. He's $40/hour, lives in Bangladesh, has a perfect 5 star review on freelancer.com. I've been working with him since 2011. You can also email him at bdkamol@gmail.com.
HELLO :)
I like to know whose reading my babies so hit me up! I seriously love hearing from you guys. If you have a question about a tutorial please leave a comment there. Suggestions for future tutorials are definitely welcome otherwise, enjoy the guides and I hope you learn a ton!