BrodNeil Digital Marketing Consultant

Blog

  • New Ranking Signal: HTTPS

    Security should be a top priority for all website. It is a top priority for Google. Google is trying to make sure that websites people access from Google are secure. Google has created resources to help webmasters make their sites more secure. At Google I/O, Google called for HTTPS everywhere across the web.

    HTTPS is also known as  HTTP over TLS, or Transport Layer Security.

    Google is starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal after running tests on sites using secure, encrypted connections with positive results. It is still a very lightweight signal compared to other signals such as high-quality content; but Google might strengthen this new ranking signal overtime to encourage the switch.

    Google promises to publish the detailed best practices in their help center to allow an easy transition.

    1. Decide what type of certificate: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate?
    2. As recommended – use 2048-bit key certificates.
    3. Use relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain.
    4. Use protocol relative URLs for all other domains.
    5. Check out our Site move article for more guidelines on how to change your website’s address.
    6. Don’t block your HTTPS site from crawling using robots.txt.
    7. Allow indexing of your pages by search engines where possible. Avoid the noindex robots meta tag.
    8. If your website is already serving on HTTPS, you can test its security level and configuration with the Qualys Lab tool.

    Read the original article at https://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html

    More about HTTPS as Ranking Signal By Google.

  • Category Pages Showing No Post or Only 1 Post

    Category page with less or no posts at all? Try to check Settings > Reading: Blog pages show at most. See what you have: Is it 1 or 0? Change the figure to suit your need.

  • Are You Making or Generating Money from All These SEO Campaigns

    Are You Making or Generating Money from All These SEO Campaigns

    “How to Calculate Your SEO Campaign’s Return of Investment (ROI)?” is usually the question for both parties: 1) the business owners and managers and 2) the SEO specialist or agency. Variations thereof can be:

    • Business Owner/Manager: Are we making money from the SEO campaign?
    • Business Owner/Manager: Are we making the right decision to hire or contract an SEO specialist?
    • SEO Specialist or Agency: Are we generating money for the client?
    • Business Owner/Manager: Is the ROI worth the time and money?
    • SEO Specialist or Agency: Are we expanding the people’s brand awareness of our client’s products/services?

    We can create a list of questions, which boils down to one thing: ROI (return of investment). This is basically the reason why SEO campaigns are implemented. So it might be good to calculate it.

    Do you have an SEO strategy? You better do. Result-oriented SEO boils down to proper planning and strategy.

    See the infographic below. Thanks quicksprout.com.

     
    Courtesy of: Quick Sprout
    howtocalculatetheroiofyourseocampaign 1

  • Shocked with the Multiple H1 Tags in HTML5 Sites?

    Thinking of fixing the multiple H1 tags in your HTML5 site? Wait… read this before doing a fix.

     

    It has been somewhat a cardinal rule in pre-HTML5 that every page should only have 1 H1 tag for 2 reasons:  1) to ensure that search engines can properly index the page, and 2) to ensure that the markup is according to W3C standard.  With HTML5, it is not just possible to have these multiple H1 tags, it is in most cases the recommened course as Kezz Bracey explained at The Truth About Multiple H1 Tags in the HTML5 Era.  The sectioning elements in HTML5 makes it possible for an  H1 tag to be used for each section of a page.  This is typical for HTML5 blogs.

    If you still wonder what Google thinks, here is something from them in the person of Matt Cutts:

     

    Whether or not you stick to the single h1 tag when using HTML5 is up to you. The question to really ask would be: are you delivering quality content to your readers?

  • Are your sites safe from Penguin 3.0?

    The objective of every algorithm update is to return relevant search results to users. And spamming the search results does not make that happen. Hence the ongoing algorithm updates like that of  Penguin (from 1.0 to the most recent 3.0).

    According to Neil Patel of quicksprout.com, here is what to expect from Penguin 3.0. Well – he said these are his best guesses. Being an avid follower of his posts, I should say his best guesses should not be considered lightly.

    • Optimized anchors: Are you still optimizing your anchor texts with exact match keywords?  It might be wise to consider that optimized keyword-rich anchor texts are now dangerous, not just useless.
    • Low-quality backlinks: Are you still creating  or getting links from questionable sites or networks?  Spend your time on things that really matter, not link building from low-quality sites.
    • Guest blogging network: Matt Cutts promised to nail guest blogging networks. Is this not enough to scare you off from guest blogging networks?

    So if you are still stuck with link building, make sure you are getting relevant links from authority sites. Meantime, consider knowing about co-citation and co-occurence.

    A little piece of advice, whatever you do, do the right thing. That should keep you away from penalties and avoid unpleasant outcomes due to algorithm updates. Doing the right thing can lessen the chance that your site will get affected; and if it does, it won’t be as much as those sites that are obviously at the other side of the fence. If you do not know where to start, you can start with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

  • Sen. Bam Aquino is calling an investigation on reported slow Internet speed in Philippines

    The Internet in the Philippines has been improving over the years. Yet, the Philippines, particularly Cebu, is still far from having stable and affordable Internet connections. This particular concern is for residential Internet users and subscribers.

    According to philippineslifestyle.com, a study showed the Philippines fell behind neighboring middle-income countries in terms of critical indicators concerning Internet services. This report said 57 percent or 12.2 million Filipino families still do not access the Internet. At the same time, connected suffer from slow download speeds. The Philippines’ average mobile broadband download speed is 16.76 megabytes per second (Mbps). It’s not just below the global average of 32.01 Mbps; apps, streaming, and the number of household users may require more than just 32 Mbps.

    Why Is the Internet So Slow in the Philippines?

    Internet speed in the Philippines is still terrible, according to spot.ph.

    The Data recorded by Ookla’s Speedtest in August 2020 has the Philippines on the lower rungs of the global index in terms of average mobile and broadband speeds. We clocked in at a snail’s pace of 16.44 Mbps for mobile downloads, placing us at the 119th spot out of 139 and 25.34 Mbps for broadband, landing us at the 106th spot out of 174. Compare that to the magical speeds of South Korea’s 113.01 Mbps for mobile and Singapore’s 218.07 Mbps for broadband, and try not to go green-eyed with envy.  

     spot.ph.

  • Artist Needed: Kindly Share

    We are looking for a graphic artist.

    Post by BrodNeil Company.

  • What to Do When Fixing a Website or in Maintenance Mode

  • Installing WordPress, Genesis Framework, and WP Whoosh

  • Protect Your Facebook Account Against Phishing

    You may want to protect your Facebook account against phishing.

    If you like it, kindly share it with your friends, employees, colleagues or love ones.

    This is a FREE tool of Kaspersky.

    I have been using Kaspersky tools both paid and free since 2009 and so far I am satisfied.

  • SSL Connection Error in Chrome for Google Sites

    I once had problem connecting to Google sites using Chrome. Only to find out that I just had to uncheck Scan encrypted files in Kaspersky to temporarily resolve it.

    I am still hoping that enabling the scan encrypted files in Kaspersky might be no longer a problem when viewing Google sites in Chrome.

    Check out these links:

  • VPS: Virtual Private Server

    In the Internet, VPS can stand for virtual private server.

    What is it?

    A VPS is a specific container on a dedicated server.

    What are its benefits?

    • Affordable compared to a dedicated server.  Dedicated servers are great; yet it might be too pricey for a need you have in mind. So why pay more when getting a VPS is all you need?
    • You usually get a root access with your VPS, which entails more functionality and full control over it – like choosing what applications to run on your server.
    • More Secure and Safe as the container is solely at your own disposal.
    • Far better than a shared hosting environment.
    • White label your control panel for your clients.
    • Access the control panel of your server remotely.

     

    There are many companies offering VPS.  In my experience, I highly recommend ServInt. Its great customer support and service is very solid – a company you should partner with when it comes to VPS.

  • Move Text Only in Suffusion Top Navigation Menu

    This is applicable when:

    1. using Suffusion as theme.
    2. using an image as background in the top navigation bar/menu.
    3. trying to move the text only leaving the background image as it is.
    #nav-top a {padding-top:40px !important;}

    Note:

    • When applied without !important at first, nothing happened.
    • 40 can be any figure.

  • WordPress Theme

    Testing LIVE Testing a New WP Theme

    This is a great plugin to test a new WP Theme without letting your site’s visitors see what you are currently testing. I find this a good alternative to XAMPP (unless you really want to test a new theme in your desktop or laptop).

    Try Theme Test Drive by Prelovac.com.

    https://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wordpress-plugins/theme-test-drive

    Change a WordPress Theme in the Database

    by Melody Reyes

    Last Updated on June 12, 2020 by Melody Reyes

    WordPress themes can usually be changed and managed from your dashboard in WordPress.  If you cannot access you WordPress due to an issue with your theme or after an upgrade, you can change your theme from the database. 

    You can learn the easy steps in changing a WordPress theme in the database here: https://ph.godaddy.com/help/change-a-wordpress-theme-in-the-database-26331.

    jQuery conflicts and WordPress Themes

    jQuery conflicts and WordPress Themes: https://msyk.es/blog/prevent-jquery-wordpress-theme/

  • Modified Broad Match

    Hopefully all advertisers can get a taste of this new keyword targeting feature which rolled out in UK and Canada already: Modified Broad Match.  Get a good read from Google’s official blog: Inside Adwords.

  • Tips on How to Successfully Start Your Business and Make It Grow

    Every entrepreneur dreams of making his business big one day, but no one can do it overnight. It takes some skills, hard work, and some time to begin and successfully let your business grow. Here are some tips I would like to share with you on how you can start your business and make it big.

     

    Starting your business

    • Knowledge and commitment. Your business is bound to fail if you know nothing about running a business or about the product or service you are offering. Before you go into business, learn as much as you can about the business you are into. Know the basics in running a business and apply it faithfully. You have to be committed not just during the initial stage, but all throughout the duration of your business.

     

    • Competent people in the business. A successful business requires competent and dedicated people working together towards their common goal. You need to hire the right people who are willing to work and grow with you and your business. You need to hire people who are committed to providing the best service to you and your customers. You also need to hire the right people who possess the expertise that you need, but don’t have. For example, you want to run a computer business. You may have the capital and the expertise in running a business, but don’t have enough computer skills, then you need to hire a computer expert, who is reliable and dedicated with his job.

     

    • Comprehensive SWOT analysis. Every company needs to develop a business plan that will help accomplish their goals.  Making a SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis will help you develop your strategies or your business plan. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you identify which skills to focus and which ones to develop and improve on. Learning your opportunities and threats will help you take advantage of your opportunities to maximize your profits and do something about your threats to avoid losses.

     

    • Effective marketing strategies. Developing marketing strategies for your new business is definitely challenging. You need to make sure your plans are directed towards you target market. If they don’t, your business is dead. You have to let your target market know about the products and services you offer. Make sure you develop cost-efficient, yet effective advertising strategies, such as starting off with your friends and relatives and taking advantage of the social media. It is very important to generate as much leads as you can that will hopefully turn into sales and profits.

     

    • Good location. Find a high foot traffic location for your new business or at least a place where your target market can see you. If you are conducting an online business, you need to develop a website, where you offer as much information and convenience as you can to your customers, such as user-friendly catalogue and shopping cart, information on shipping details, availability of various payment options, and information on ways to reach you with complete contact details.

     

    Growing a business

    • Excellent customer service. Impressive customer service is what will put you ahead of your competitors and will help you capture your market when your products are equally the same. People usually tend to choose where they are being truly valued. The best way to provide excellent customer service is to put yourselves in the shoes of your customers and understand their needs and wants. Remember that you should not keep them waiting; you should be approachable; you have to be prepared to answer their queries; and always put on a smile. Make sure you value your customers and make them feel that you are always grateful for their continued patronage. Providing excellent customer service also gets more leads from satisfied customers, thus helping you increase your sales and your profits.

     

    • Resource management. Being able to manage your resources well will help you achieve your goals. Among these resources include having and maintaining the right people in your organization, managing your cash that will make your business more liquid, as well as looking into raw materials that can be used to make more profitable products.

     

    • Employee management. All the employees of your business – from production to sales, as well as from supervising units, are critical to the success of your business. Keep your people motivated so they will give out their best in the work that they do. Commend and thank them if they have done an excellent job. Set up a reward system that will serve as a challenge for them to strive harder.

     

    • Flexibility. It takes one business to be open to changes and be flexible in order to succeed. With the ever-changing market, you need to change with it and cope to survive and succeed. You need to be prepared to try new marketing strategies if your current scheme is not working. You might need to tap a different market; try to diversify your products or services; and set smaller, short-term, and more attainable targets that will help you achieve your long-term goal.

     

    • Record-tracking. Financial statements are very important to help you see how your business is actually doing. Keep track of your cash flow and know how much your sales, your expenses, and your profits are. See if you have actually improved over the few months or quarters or years and find out what made you improve or decline. These financial records will also help you strategize how to keep your expenses low without sacrificing the quality of your products and services to generate more income. Keeping track of sales records will help you see where you need to improve, what your strengths and weaknesses are, what product or service you need to improve, change, or phase out after months of poorly performing.

     

    • Market monitoring. Keeping your business successful also entails learning about your market over and over again. You have to keep up with the ever-changing trends and the ever-changing needs and wants of your target market. This way, you will learn how satisfy them with your products or services.

     

    • Study of Competitors. Finally, to keep your business growing successfully, you have to know your competitors. Be on the lookout for new entrants and their aggressive approach. See where you stand among other companies in the industry you are in and how you can do better. Study how the pioneers in your industry have made it big and learn from their approach.

     

    Starting and letting your business grow is not as easy as you think it is. No matter how much you plan for it, there will always be challenges and difficulties along the way. By considering the tips I have shared with you, your journey to a successful business will be smoother, a lot easier to bear, and certainly attainable.

  • Fixing Jetpack Slideshow: this slideshow requires Javascript

    When you see this instead of the slideshow that you expect: “This slideshow requires Javascript,” You can do the following:

    1. Make sure that you have your wp-footer.
    2. Update your javascript. jQuery Updater is a WordPress plugin to fix your slideshow, which is powered by JetPack. See the FAQs as it may also break your site.

  • Auto-update Copyright Year in WP Footer

    Are you tired of manually updating the copyright year in your WordPress footer every year?

    Updating it every year and more so updating it in each post and page is time-consuming.

    If you are wondering how to auto-update the copyright year in your WP footer, you can use this <?php echo date(‘Y’); ?>.

    An example would be:

    <?php echo date(‘Y’); ?> BrodNeil.com

    Which will produce to

    2013 BrodNeil.com

    as <?php echo date(‘Y’); ?> changes to year.

    Hope this makes things easy for non-coders like me.

  • Notes for PPC Users

    Sometimes people need a push or a pull to be reminded of what can work better than the usual. Here are some tips that can remind you on how to take advantage of your PPC campaigns.

    They might be a little too broad for those looking for specifics or details. But this is good for those who just need a poke and a reminder.

  • Important Notes When Using 301 (Permanent) Redirects

    1. Recommeneded: When moving from one site to another site. 301 redirect to a relevant page (from the old page to the new page), not to the root of the domain.
    2. No limit to 301 redirects per page.
    3. But there might be a limit to the number of levels (of 301 redirects) Google might follow.

  • Avoid Losing Your Gains by Knowing How to Use the Fear of Loss

  • SEO (as It Is Today) Is (Almost) No SEO

    Guess what? The way to SEO is to forget SEO (almost as close as it sounds.)

    What matters:
    1. User Experience. It is best to ask your site’s visitors of what they like and do not like from your site. What they expect to find, but did not find.
    2. Site Architecture. Internal Links without a purpose adds to the mess. Internal links that can help improve users’ experience which might also eventually lead to conversion or sale matters.
    3. Marketing and Promotion. Let the world know how awesome is your website and its contents.

    To get it straight from the experts, click the link at the end of this write up to watch the video. These guys, Dan and Leslie, are on my top 3 favorite experts that can help grow a business.

    And lastly, yes to paid search. One of the quickest way to get a sale or lead (but can also drain your wallet easily). Get help from experts.

    SEO BrainTrust Insiders.

  • Designing a Great Business Logo that Talks to Your Audience

    Designing a Great Business Logo that Talks to Your Audience

    This is a very informative infographic about the logo you’re using for your business.

    Your company logo talks to your audience. But is it talking for or against your business?

    What do you want your target audience to get the message from your logo?

    Check out this guide to designing the perfect company or business logo!

    Source: About Logo for Your Business.

    what does your logo say about your business 5200ff12154ab w1500 2

  • Know what type of file you are viewing

    Want to know what file you are viewing in wordpress? This is a tool you can use to easily make changes to the right file.

    What The File adds an option to your toolbar showing what file and template parts are used to display the page you’re currently viewing.

    via WordPress › What The File « WordPress Plugins.

  • No Indexing WP Taxonomies and Other Tabs and Optimize Pagination

    Two things learned from SEJ:
    1. Optimize pagination
    2. No Index Taxonomies and Other tabs in WordPress SEO

    Although the index of variables three and four plummeted, organic traffic skyrocketed. Traffic on variable three increased by 30 percent within two weeks, while variable four increased by 20 percent.

    via No Indexing WordPress Taxonomies: Do or Don’t | Search Engine Journal.

  • Hire the Right People and Increase Your Profits

    Do you know that hiring the right people can help increase your profits?  According to Adam Baker, the founder of Blotter.com, “Smart, talented people will make a bad product great.  Bad people will kill your business.”  With great people in your business,  you’ll reach heights you’ll never expect you could achieve.

     

    What does it mean to hire the right people?

    In as much as you want to do everything just to make things right, you are going to need a team to help achieve your goals.  When you hire the right people, it means that you are hiring people who are experienced in the field of your business and probably some people smarter than you.  Yes, it takes a lot of humility to hire people better and smarter than you in different aspects, but that’s what it means to hire the right people.  You need a strong team and you need people who will help develop your ideas and make it even more brilliant.  In the process, working with these people will give you opportunity to learn more about whatever their specialty in your team may be.

     

    How does hiring the right people increase your profit?

    Micromanagement is one of the biggest problems many CEOs and business developers face.  It is such a waste of time and energy telling your people how to do even the smallest things or fix almost everything they deliver to you.  If this is happening to you, you really need to hire the “right” people.  By having the right team, you don’t have to worry about micromanagement anymore.  You and the others on top would be more productive.  You will have more time to focus on other areas of your business that will help increase your profits.

    Hiring the right people will help ensure that your brilliant business idea will turn into a reality.  Before your business can even start, you already know that it’s going to earn you money.  With smart and competent people working for you, they might have great ideas to improve your product or service, ideas to minimize your expenses, and other strategies that will all help increase your profit.

     

    How do you hire the right people?

    It might be very easy to say that you need to hire the right people to earn more from your business, but how will you know if you are hiring the right ones?  Here are some ideas:

    • Know the role of each team member you need.  Find candidates and see if their field of specialization match your needs.  Look at their work experience and ask for work samples for deliberation.
    • Ask questions to compare candidates from each other, as well as yourself.
    • Involve other people in your team when screening candidates.  This will help ensure that the other members of your team approve of the new team member, thus forming a stronger and more effective team.

     

    How do you retain the right people?

    Once you have the right people in your business, another challenge you have to face would be how to keep them working for you.  Especially if you are just starting a business, you probably won’t be able to afford  large salaries for your team.  Instead, what you can do is to let them know the vital role they’re playing in your group.  Let them understand the vision of your team, as well as your team’s direction.  Let them know that they are important every step of the way and complement them in any way you can for a job well done.  Listen to what they have to say and involve them every step of the way.

    If you want your business to succeed and be more profitable, you need to hire the right people and take good care of them.  You need to work with a team who are as smart as you are or even smarter so you can go even further than you think.

  • Show a specific category on homepage

    if (is_home()) {

    query_posts(“cat=3”);

    }

     

    here’s another hack to show what category you want on homepage

    <?php if (have_posts()) :query_posts($query_string .'&cat=3'); while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

    And if you want to exclude a specific category from homepage, instead of '&cat=3', put'&cat=-3' .

    via WordPress › Support » Show a specific category on homepage.

  • WP Google Fonts

    Check out this WP Google Fonts.

    The WP Google Font plugin makes it even easier to use Google’s free service to add high quality fonts to your WordPress powered site. Not only does this plugin add the necessary Google code, but it also gives you the ability to assign the Google fonts to specific CSS elements of your website from within the WordPress admin. Or if you would rather, you can target the Google fonts from your own theme’s stylesheet.

    The Google Directory has hundreds of great fonts, and the selection is steadily growing. As new fonts are added, we will release updates to the plugin quickly so you can start using new fonts as they become available. It truly is an exciting time to be creating websites, and I hope this plugin helps you create some great stuff.

  • Make Your Blog a Priority to Promote Your Business

    If you are leaning toward digital marketing to promote your small business effectively, the link to this post might be best for you. There are 35 tips you can follow or implement (in https://socialmediatoday.com/node/1418256).

    Of those tips, 1 tip struck me: making your blog a high priority.

    Why does it strike me?

    • This is because I believe that blogging can generate more leads compared to sites without blogs as mentioned in the article.
    • Blogging can build credibility to your brand.
    • Blogging is a good foundation where you can find new opportunities along the way.

    Though making a quality blog post may not be easy for some (or for most), the consistency of your publishing frequency might be another challenge to really consider (if you want your blog to deliver the results you expect).

    This also makes me think of launching a blog for our soon-to-open bakery. (More on this soon.)

    What is a blog?

    A blog is a site  where an individual or group of users can record information regularly. There are many types of blogs. They can vary according to the type of content being recorded as well as to the type of platform the information is being stored/recorded.  Personally, I prefer to use WordPress for my blog.

    How to blog?

    There are many tips to blogging and I don’t pretend that I know them all. However – regardless of the type of platform, content, or purpose you have for your blog – there are 3 things I find as constant when working your blog to success:

    Quality

    • Your blog posts should be considered as informative or of value to your target audience.
    • At least, it is grammatically correct and easy to read if you find it hard to meet the standard editorial guidelines.
    • Your blog design, at least, should look professional. Whether we like it or not, impression matters; and your site’s visitors can  knowingly or unknowingly experience it through your overall blog design.

    Consistency

    • How consistent you are in your publishing frequency is important to your blog’s success.
    • How consistent you are in blogging about your niche or topic(s) is also important. People subscribe to your blog because of the topics you write; and they expect to read similar or related topics moving forward.
    • Your style of writing is also something to consider. How you write your blog including its tone is another element why people subscribe to your blog; it is not just because of the topics you write. However, I am not saying that your style of writing should be same across all your blog posts. You can always change or  experiment on your tone or your style of writing from time to time.
    • Your blog’s design should be relevant or consistent with what you blog is about.

    Marketing

    • Market your blog; in other words, promote it.
    • Since marketing can be inbound or outbound, search engine optimization (SEO) is best known to help your blog’s inbound marketing.

    This blog post might be too broad for many of you, but hopefully it can be an eye opener to those business owners who are just starting up with making a website or blog. I would like to introduce you to a site with informative resources for web beginners. Included are free in-depth guides, video tutorials and other helpful blogging tools to assist people who are ready to start an online presence on their own. You can see it here: https://firstsiteguide.com/resources/

  • PPC BlogAdwords to Adsense Arbitrage: A Tutorial ~ PPC Blog

    Good news for Adword users who really have a business website aside from just making money out of ads.

    New Rules of the Game

    The new guidelines make clear that your “intent” as an advertiser is what really matters when they’re determining if you’re an arbitrager or not (bolding added by moi):

    As of today, those guidelines state:

    Google AdWords doesn’t allow the promotion of websites that are designed for the sole or primary purpose of showing ads. This practice of promoting sites where the main purpose is to get users to click on ads is called arbitrage.

    via PPC BlogAdwords to Adsense Arbitrage: A Tutorial ~ PPC Blog.