Tag: Seo

  • Rank Math Pro Review things I didn’t Like

    Rank Math Pro Review: Things I Didn’t Like

    When it comes to SEO plugins, Rank Math Pro is often hailed as a powerful tool for optimizing WordPress sites. However, no tool is perfect, and while it has its strengths, there are certain aspects that left me wanting more. In this Rank Math Pro review, I’ll share my honest thoughts, including what I didn’t like, how it compares to other industry players, and whether it’s worth the investment. Let’s dive in!


    What is Rank Math Pro?

    Rank Math Pro is the premium version of the popular Rank Math SEO plugin for WordPress. It offers advanced features like local SEO, schema markup, and WooCommerce SEO, making it a favorite among website owners and marketers. But is it the best choice for everyone? Let’s find out.


    Things I Didn’t Like About Rank Math Pro

    While Rank Math Pro has many advantages, there are a few drawbacks that stood out during my experience:

    1. Overwhelming Interface

    For beginners, the plugin’s interface can feel cluttered and overwhelming. The sheer number of options and settings might confuse users who are new to SEO.

    2. Limited Customer Support

    Although Rank Math offers documentation and a knowledge base, their customer support can be slow to respond, especially for non-Pro users. This can be frustrating when you need immediate assistance.

    3. Pricing Tiers

    While the plugin is affordable, the pricing tiers can feel restrictive. Some advanced features are locked behind higher plans, which might not be ideal for small businesses or bloggers on a budget.

    4. Performance Impact

    On some sites, I noticed that Rank Math Pro slightly slowed down the backend. While the impact isn’t significant, it’s something to consider if your site already has performance issues.


    Rank Math Pro vs. Competitors

    To give you a better perspective, let’s compare Rank Math Pro with two other popular SEO plugins: Yoast SEO Premium and All in One SEO (AIO SEO).

    FeatureRank Math ProYoast SEO PremiumAll in One SEO
    Pricing$59/year (1 site)$99/year (1 site)$49.60/year (1 site)
    Ease of UseModerateBeginner-friendlyBeginner-friendly
    Advanced FeaturesLocal SEO, SchemaRedirect ManagerVideo Sitemaps
    SupportLimitedExcellentGood
    Performance ImpactSlight slowdownMinimalMinimal

    Advantages of Rank Math Pro

    Despite its drawbacks, Rank Math Pro has several strengths:

    • Affordable Pricing: It’s one of the most cost-effective SEO plugins in the market.
    • Comprehensive Features: From schema markup to WooCommerce SEO, it covers almost everything you need.
    • User-Friendly Setup Wizard: The setup process is straightforward, even for beginners.
    • Regular Updates: The team frequently updates the plugin with new features and improvements.

    Disadvantages of Rank Math Pro

    Here’s a quick summary of the downsides:

    • Complex Interface: Not ideal for beginners.
    • Limited Support: Slow response times for non-Pro users.
    • Performance Issues: Can slow down your site’s backend.
    • Restrictive Pricing: Advanced features require higher-tier plans.

    Pricing Comparison

    Let’s break down the pricing for Rank Math Pro and its competitors:

    PluginPrice (1 Site)Key Features
    Rank Math Pro$59/yearLocal SEO, Schema, WooCommerce SEO
    Yoast SEO Premium$99/yearRedirect Manager, Internal Linking
    All in One SEO$49.60/yearVideo Sitemaps, Image SEO

    While Rank Math Pro is the most affordable, All in One SEO offers better value for money with its lower price and robust features.


    Who Should Use Rank Math Pro?

    Rank Math Pro is ideal for:

    • Intermediate to Advanced Users: Those familiar with SEO who can navigate the complex interface.
    • Small to Medium Businesses: Businesses looking for an affordable yet comprehensive SEO solution.
    • WooCommerce Stores: The plugin’s WooCommerce SEO features are a standout.

    However, beginners or those on a tight budget might find better alternatives like All in One SEO.


    Final Thoughts

    While Rank Math Pro is a powerful SEO plugin with many advantages, it’s not without its flaws. The overwhelming interface, limited support, and slight performance impact are notable drawbacks. However, its affordability and comprehensive features make it a strong contender in the SEO plugin market.

    Have you used Rank Math Pro? Share your experience in the comments below! For more SEO tips and plugin reviews, visit Netnaps.


  • 20 Definitive Reasons for No Traffic On My Blog in 2020

    Here is a list of 20 Reasons for No Traffic on a Blog in 2020, I have written 20 Reasons you can please add more in the comments.

    Primary Reason: No New Visitors No New Traffic to the Blog

    This post is finding out reasons why blogs quit for no visitors

    If your blog doesn’t get organic traffic new visits even after many good efforts of creating content,
    that can frustrate a lot,

    you just keep on looking at the analytics, who visited your blog from which country what was the time spent on a particular post and so on.

    Well, Does that Make Sense?

    While as they say it all starts with a domain, an idea or a niche, it would never make sense to quit your blog,
    rather finding out reasons for no visitors is what your target should be if you follow your niche correctly just stick to what is required you won’t ever quit writing your blog.

    Finding reasons for No Traffic

    No traffic could be many valid reasons, here are some that I find relevant, you may add more in the comments below.

    Poor Design Worst User Experience Leading to No Traffic

    A poorly designed blog would never engage the visitors to read more, follow a blog or revisit it.

    Blogs that have lots of design elements, poor accessibility scores, for designs usually make the user quit the page and never return,

    It’s just same as visiting a new restaurant that has an ambience and food you are comfortable with and would repeat the visits.

    Always remember that first impression is the last!

    No Traffic for Not having a responsive layout

    This is one of the major reasons for lesser or no organic traffic, mobile-friendly pages that are responsive in all screen resolutions, cross-browser compatible, use technology like AMP for blogs are likely to get more impressions and rank higher.

    If you ignore how your website looks on a mobile screen most likely you will lose the traffic from search results.

    No Traffic as of Slow Pageload Speeds

    A visitor is most likely to leave your page. If the content loads slow, never loads or has errors, reasons can be many like not optimised images, poor hosting, weird server configuration, no use of CDN’s or in short no focus on the core web vitals.

    This performance now includes First Contentful Paint, Time to Interactive, Speed Index, Total Blocking Time, Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift,  Critical Request Chains, Critical path latency, request counts and much more added frequently.

    Here is a list of many tools to check the performance of your website.

    Every page speed tool has its own term to determine the performance like Yslow considers DNS lookups as a performance score, while many other tools don’t consider this as a performance score.

    No Traffic as I am Giving away a damn to SEO

    SEO is not just getting the green lights on your WordPress Seo Plugin, It’s definitely beyond that or much more beyond that, The search engines are smarter than you can imagine, they change with the time improve with the technology stacks, your SEO plugin goes by the wish of the Developer how he wants it to be,

    I can see many plugins most popular one like Yoast has lots of open bugs, pending enhancements from years, ignoring then on its own with the one who suffers is the new blog who would require to match everything to outshine.

    Your blog won’t get organic traffic if you don’t follow how a search engine expects your content to be crawled, Things like Schema, Structured data play a vital role in the correct SEO strategy and plan.

    Posts that are in the Rich Snippets get the most clicks, more impressions. As soon as your posts hit the rich snippets for certain keywords, you would see a jump in your organic traffic.

    Greed to Monetize More More Ads Less Content So No Traffic

    With the greed to make money from a blog initially, placing more and more advertisements after each paragraph, on the fixed widgets on the footer, headers everywhere, adding affiliate links to almost all your lines you write, to monetise the blog whether or not its useful to the readers or visitors is another reason for no organic traffic.

    If you include more advertisements that eventually load more scripts, have more DNS lookups and more cookies making your page slow.

    Wasting time looking Income Reports of an old Successful Blog

    Most of the times new blogs get lured with the income charts, fake or real income disclosures, screenshots of an old blog site,

    Never understanding the real way they made success it wasn’t overnight, decades of work sticking to a single category, working contributing, building a community, helping in forums how pleasant the approach could be,

    only following the income of a blogger would not make you earn the same income even if if you follow them whatever they have done.

    I have seen some old blogs, and it has just become rather I would call it a weird trend to show off the income reports,

    but why only because they want to lure you with success stories, want you to follow them what they did to make money online, and then click on the affiliate links and make them more famous or richer?

    Content creation should be unique in your own way, not followed by how someone made a commission with affiliate programs or sponsored ads. So, Grow Up! Go to Work Create the Content.

    Please keep patience your time will don’t quit, keep on creating more and more good content.

    For the bloggers flaunting the income reports can let success make the noise please,

    Publishing Irrelevant Baseless Stuff for No Traffic

    I follow many blogs, even subscribe to the newsletters but why would I follow or subscribe?
    Only for some very good reasons like,

    Blogs that have helped me solve a problem, or have given me a reason to explore what’s new with them, as a visitor I would never return to a blog that has irrelevant and baseless stuff,

    With irrelevant I mean no relevance to the title and the post, like in this post I am writing about “Why the Blogs Quit”, So I should not write the tips what can be done along with each reason in detail.

    Yes, maybe a separate post would make sense.

    No Niche Topic, Blogging about Everything

    I have seen some Tech blogs discussing hosting. Also, writing about yoga, organic farming and writing about how to get admission to that Great University, to me as a visitor that looks like a piece of scrapped content nothing more than that, and I quit reading that blog.

    If you need to blog, you have to stick to your niche. Remember it’s your blog and not a country’s national newspaper.

    Backlinks From Everywhere

    When a new blog is built, you just thrive to get a backlink, irrespective of where the referral traffic comes from how authoritative the domain is, whats the class of the IP address it has?

    The link from a social media posting, again and again, spamming in social media groups, in comments to every other blog you visit just to make a backlink can also get you banned and your social media account can be suspended for spamming with posting links everywhere.

    The backlinks from social media sites, spam posts emails and forcing people to click with backlinks gradually makes a blog rank lower and with no organic traffic at all.

    No Traffic With Shared Hosting

    Hosting with a good host plays a vital role in getting organic traffic making your domain more authoritative, secure and available, get more and relevant pings and crawls from the search engines.

    A Class C Static IP address could also result in a better SEO,

    In short, when you get a Shared cheap hosting plan and start your blog, it’s mapped with many domains on the same IP address that could make your domain a culprit of another domain’s bad behaviour on the web.

    Longer Domain Names

    Usually, people don’t type or remember longer domain names. This can be a major reason for no traffic at all. Indexing is ok, but what if someone visited your blog and wants to reconcile with your post again to open it directly when he needs to refer the post again a shorter easy to remember name should preferably have good traffic.

    Selecting a wrong TLD

    When it comes to domain selection, and you see a list of available options if you select a wrong TLD for an example a most common TLD with .com is likely to get more traffic from all over the world than a TLD from a specific geo-location like .in for India .ca for Canada and so on.

    Geo-targeted TLD’s are often stuck to certain areas of the defined country that can be a major reason to get less traffic.

    Policy Violations No Indexing

    You might not even know, but you could have violated a policy of the search engine and they might have stopped indexing your site, could be another good reason for no traffic, regular check on guidelines best practices should be followed to avoid violations,

    You keep on creating the content but if your blog is not properly indexed would result in no organic traffic.

    No Security of the Visitor

    Search indexing will be better for a secure site on a secure hosting than a non-secured blog, I am not talking about getting the free SSL, security is beyond that the rating of your SSL the authority that has signed it, HSTS preloaded domain, How are cookies managed on your domain, If you allow users to signup how safe they are with signups. How you treat the privacy of the visitor?

    Everything for safety counts if you need traffic for your blog.

    Very Long Articles

    A blog with very very long articles, more than 2000 Words, are most likely to adversely affect the user engagement with the content, posts that do not stick to the title and the topic if you write irrelevant to what is not required for the topic or suddenly shift from the topic and start writing in between for another topic just to make the post contents long.

    The long blog post should be presented up in points, or with a table of contents at the top for users to jump to the relevant topics.

    Also its recommended to make short paragraphs that have a good readability.

    Lesser Posts Not Updating Content Frequently

    If you don’t post frequently have been or posting very fewer posts, that could be a reason that affects the visitors you receive.

    Visitors seek for blogs with new content every day if your blog is not updated; you are not likely to get organic traffic.

    If you created a HOW-TO a year ago and it has now changed completely, you should also update the same with updated steps, else that would become irrelevant for the visitor.
    Updating your posts and content is required regularly to maintain the user experience and get organic traffic.

    Switching over Hosting Zones and IP Addresses

    If you continuously shift over with hosting accounts, shift your sites entirely with where its available and hosted one zone to another zone and do not have a static availability can impact your traffic with my personal experience I shifted to Cloudflare for a day and suffered a loss of organic traffic for at least 14 days till everything became normal.

    The mistake I made was opting for a free plan to test something a few months ago. At the same time, I was saved by taking a quick decision to get back everything to normal AWS hosting, with using a static IP on my domain that has just my domain hosted and is not shared with any other domain name.

    Changing permalinks not monitoring your 404 Hits

    Mostly new blogs when start publishing keeps on changing permalinks and do not monitor the 404 hits, or maintain a 404 page, this could lead with slow indexing as when a visitor browses through the indexed URL, and he is directed to a blank 404 page it makes the worst user experience.

    Many of the blogs to improve change the permalinks make them shorter or change the entire structure of the URL. This can affect organic traffic, adversely resulting in less or no traffic.

    No Interaction with your blog users on comments

    When someone comments on your blog, and you do not reply to them at all, it sounds insulting, Quite similar to inviting someone to talk and not responding to them.



    Most likely the user won’t turn back again to your blog if you don’t respond, for the appreciation of your posts you should thank and reply like ” Glad my post was helpful”,

    For Answers, the author of the posts must be active to respond on the published content if the comment is not a relevant question you can direct them to something more relevant, you know.

    No promotion of your Blog

    If you have worked hard writing and making content, you should take out time to regularly promote your content the same with relevant posts to other authoritative blogs, like Quora, Medium and many more not doing so you will not get new traffic.

    You can also make a Facebook group of users to your blog, building a community to help will achieve regular readers for your blog.

  • Getting an A+ SSL Rating on Nginx Apache Server

    Saturday 8 August 15:18

    Getting A+ SSL Rating on Apache

    Getting an A+ SSL Rating on Lightsail is just a 5-minute task,

    It’s only turning off old versions of SSL from your configuration file.

    Getting a free SSL is well documented by the lightsail team here, in a 9 Step Tutorial, if you have not got an SSL please get one,

    SSL improves your SEO, maintains trust for the visitor and is a must for any website in 2020.

    After reading this post from Qualys, searching some more articles

    I could make out that getting A+ SSL rating and not allowing the previous versions of SSL on a website or a blog is both good for your SEO Strategy and Security part.

    So, here it is Get your site checked here on the Qualys Tool For SSL it’s Free!

    Here is a screenshot of a test when I just started this blog and was continuously improving on its security, SEO, and everything I could do for achieving a simple, secure and a pro website.

    SSL B Grade

    Getting the same as an A+ was just a 5 minutes task, from start to finish on a lightsail hosted website, using apache server, with bitnami image of wordpress.

    Here’s how I got this from B to A+

    Getting A+ Rating on SSL on a lightsail hosted website

    Just head over to your SSH Window and start with :

    sudo nano /opt/bitnami/apache2/conf/bitnami/bitnami.conf

    Soon you are into editing the bitnami.conf file, so we have to just turn off the old versions of SSL

    Find this line with “CTRL+W”, or whatever that line reads near SSL Protocol

    SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 -SSLv3

    Change the same to

    SSLProtocol TLSv1.2

    CTRL+O to write out and CTRL+X to Exit

    Restart the Apache

    sudo /opt/bitnami/ctlscript.sh restart

    Getting A+ SSL Rating Nginx Server


    sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

    Change the lines that start with #SSL Settings to Exactly the code below this would also add the session timeout and Strict Security Header :

        ##
    
        ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
        ssl_session_cache shared:SSL:10m;
        ssl_session_timeout 10m;
        ##

    Once done just restart your server with :

    sudo service nginx reload && sudo service nginx restart

    This gives A+ SSL Rating.

    SSL is a must if you use AMP on your WordPress Blog. , Also here’s a collection of some website testing tools that I keep on updating.

    HSTS Preload on NGINX Server

    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload" always;

    This gives you a HSTS Header on your site, if you use Nginx Server, Enrolling to HSTS list is good for your sites security, this enables browsers to understand that your site is only served on a secured connection.

    You can enrol here for HSTS, First, you need to test on the same link then Enroll the domain.

    HSTS Preload on APACHE Server

    Mod Headers Looks Like :

    First, enable mod headers in your httpd.conf file,

    you can find in the /etc/apache2/httpd.conf :

    LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
    

    then simply add the below line in your virtual host’s file.

    <VirtualHost *:443>
    ...
    Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains"
    ...
    </VirtualHost>
  • Avoid Structured Data Errors on an AMP Site WordPress

    Avoid Structured Data Errors on an AMP Site WordPress: A Step-by-Step Guide

    Structured data is crucial for SEO, helping search engines understand your content and display rich results. However, if you’re running an AMP site on WordPress, structured data errors can harm your rankings and user experience. In this guide, we’ll explore how to avoid structured data errors, check for issues, and ensure your AMP site remains error-free in the future.


    What Are Structured Data Errors?

    Structured data errors occur when search engines cannot correctly interpret the metadata on your AMP pages. These errors can prevent your content from appearing in rich results, such as featured snippets or carousels, and negatively impact your SEO performance.


    Why Avoid Structured Data Errors on AMP Sites?

    AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is designed for fast loading and optimal mobile performance. However, if your structured data is incorrect, it can:

    • Reduce Visibility: Your pages may not appear in rich search results.
    • Hurt User Experience: Errors can lead to improper rendering of content.
    • Lower Rankings: Search engines may penalise pages with invalid structured data.

    Steps to Check for Structured Data Errors

    Here’s how to identify and fix structured data errors on your AMP site:

    1. Use Google Search Console

    Google Search Console is a powerful tool for detecting structured data issues. Here’s how to use it:

    • Log in to your Google Search Console account.
    • Navigate to Enhancements > AMP.
    • Review the report for any errors or warnings related to structured data.

    2. Test with Google’s Rich Results Test Tool

    The Rich Results Test Tool allows you to check individual pages for structured data errors:

    • Enter the URL of your AMP page.
    • Review the results for any errors or suggestions.
    • Fix the issues highlighted in the report.

    3. Validate AMP Pages

    Use the AMP Validator to ensure your pages comply with AMP standards:

    • Visit the AMP Validator (opens in new tab).
    • Enter your AMP page URL or paste the HTML code.
    • Address any errors or warnings related to structured data.

    How to Avoid Structured Data Errors in the Future

    Preventing structured data errors is easier than fixing them. Follow these best practices to keep your AMP site error-free:

    1. Use a Reliable AMP Plugin

    Plugins like AMP for WordPress or AMP Enhancer automatically generate valid structured data for your pages. Ensure your plugin is updated to the latest version.

    2. Follow Schema.org Guidelines

    Structured data must adhere to Schema.org standards. Use the correct schema types (e.g., Article, FAQ, How-to) and ensure all required fields are populated.

    3. Regularly Audit Your Site

    Schedule monthly audits using tools like Google Search Console and the Rich Results Test Tool to catch errors early.

    4. Test Before Publishing

    Before publishing new content, validate your AMP pages using the AMP Validator and Rich Results Test Tool.

    5. Monitor for Updates

    Search engines frequently update their guidelines. Stay informed about changes to structured data requirements and adjust your implementation accordingly.


    Common Structured Data Errors and Fixes

    Here are some common errors and how to resolve them:

    ErrorSolution
    Missing Required FieldsEnsure all required fields (e.g., headline, datePublished) are included.
    Incorrect Schema TypeUse the correct schema type for your content (e.g., Article, FAQ).
    Invalid JSON-LD FormatValidate your JSON-LD markup using tools like JSON-LD Playground.
    Duplicate Structured DataRemove duplicate schema markup from your pages.

    Tools to Help You Avoid Structured Data Errors

    Here are some tools to simplify structured data management:

    • Google Search Console: Monitor and fix errors.
    • Rich Results Test Tool: Test individual pages.
    • AMP Validator: Validate AMP pages.
    • Schema Markup Generator: Create valid structured data.

    Final Thoughts

    Structured data errors can significantly impact your AMP site’s performance and SEO. By following the steps above, you can avoid structured data errors, improve your search visibility, and provide a better user experience.

    Have you encountered structured data errors on your AMP site? Share your experience in the comments below! For more tips on AMP optimisation and WordPress SEO, visit Netnaps.


    Key Takeaways

    • Structured data errors can harm your AMP site’s SEO and user experience.
    • Use tools like Google Search Console and the Rich Results Test Tool to identify errors.
    • Follow best practices, such as using reliable plugins and adhering to Schema.org guidelines, to avoid errors.
    • Regularly audit your site and test new content before publishing.

    Have you faced structured data errors on your AMP site? Share your tips or questions in the comments below! For more AMP and WordPress SEO guides, visit Netnaps.