SEO Archives - This Week in Blogging

7 Conspiracy Theories for the March Core Algorithm Update

April 1, 2024March 31, 2024

A man who looks like Chris wearing a tinfoil hat

Another month, another Google Core Algorithm update was rolled out, and the March 2024 update sure was a doozy.

We're not going to sugar coat it- this one was bad. In fact, it was probably the worst update we've seen for bloggers in our 15+ years of working in the industry.

Still, as the algorithm update is on-going, no one has a clear understanding of what is going on. But that doesn't mean the theories aren't flying. So in this one, we thought we'd share some popular conspiracy theories we've seen about the March 2024 core algorithm update, and breakdown why we think most are just that- conspiracies.

10 Blogging Activities to Perform in Q1 to Start the Year Off Right

January 9, 2023January 10, 2022

Whenever a new year begins, we take the first month or so to take stock of the state of our blogs.

Part of this is because ad rates are so low at the start of Q1 that we're not driven to create content like mad. But the other part is that the new year is simply a good excuse to start new blogging habits to get the year off on the right foot.

But some activities that can be done in Q1 are not necessarily habits that need to be adopted throughout the coming year but are rather one-off tasks that could be accomplished during the downtime as well. So in this one, we thought it'd be fun to share a few back-end blogging tasks you may want to consider doing at the start of the year that you may have slacked on in the past!

How to Optimize Your Content for Voice Search

April 4, 2022October 15, 2021

Voice search isn't necessarily something we put at the top of the pile as bloggers, but at the very least, it's worth being aware of.

Many may remember that Google launched voice search in 2011, it wasn't all that practical, but as technology has changed, so too has demand.

Digital marketing agency DBS Interactive even notes in a recent article that in the US “41% of adults use voice search at least once per day.”

Yes, a large portion of that is for music and weather, but the use of voice search to find articles and news has skyrocketed in recent years.

Breaking Down Core Web Vitals – What Are They and What to Do?

May 11, 2021May 10, 2021

It is never boring running a blog as major players in the field can and do change the rules regularly- often without any advanced notice at all.

Sometimes we do get a bit of a heads up that change is coming, and Google's announcement that Core Web Vitals metrics would become a ranking factor has been known for quite some time. But in true fashion, many of us waited until the absolute last minute to start looking into it, and the time to do these improvements is now.

So in this one, we wanted to break down a bit about what Core Web Vitals are, what each metric evaluates, and give some tips on what to look for when improving scores on your own blogs!

3 Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) Issues and Fixes for Your Blog

May 3, 2021April 30, 2021

Google's Core Web Vitals metrics are said to be a new ranking factor starting in June 2021, and bloggers across the world are rushing to implement improvements on topics like Largest Content Paintful (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

While we could talk about each of these topics individually for days, one, Cumulative Layout Shift, is perhaps the most vexing- so much so that even those who run premium caching plugins like WP Rocket Pro may still not pass by default!

In this one, we wanted to highlight a bit more about what CLS is, what it looks like, and a few unique ways you can possibly improve your CLS score on your site beyond caching plugin settings!

Note: We feel that plugins like WP Rocket Pro are obligatory for those who want to run fast sites (both for CLS and otherwise). Unfortunately, the compatibility of some of the settings found in plugins like these will vary based on your theme and plugin array. In this article, we assume you are using a plugin like this one by default. The purpose of this post is to talk about other CLS issues that are common that you may need to work on.

Is Google a Monopoly? When Search Giants Become too Big

August 30, 2021March 17, 2021

In the blogging world, Google is kind of the elephant in the room. You simply can't avoid their impact unless you've been living under a rock for a couple of decades.

In many ways, it's as if we're able to craft whatever chess pieces we want, but we're ultimately playing on their board.

And that's what we want to talk about. How exactly has that board changed over the years, and how can knowing that information help us in our blogging journey?

Everything You Want to Know About Yoast with Edwin Toonen

February 22, 2021

As you might imagine, here at This Week in Blogging, we get a fair amount of questions as it relates to WordPress plug-ins, SEO , and all the rest of it.

One question that has been asked of us over and over again is whether bloggers and content creators should have Yoast as their primary SEO plug-in. Furthermore, people want to know whether Yoast Premium is going to be worth it for them to purchase. We decided it was best to take your most commonly asked questions, and ask them of the Yoast Team themselves.

On that note, we want to thank Edwin Toonen, a Strategic Content Specialist at Yoast, for taking the time to answer our questions. We hope that this serves our readers and subscribers well.

How to Show Related Posts with WP Show Posts and Ad Inserter

January 13, 2021

When it comes to showing related posts on your WordPress blog, a number of plugins exist that will use proprietary logic in order to display relevant posts at the end of any given article.

Generally speaking, I don't like these. First off is that the level of control you have over what posts are shown varies considerably, and second off those that have built-in display logic can be, at times, slow. The latter may be partly due to bloated scripts, but also because it takes time for the plugin's algorithm to parse your content and return recommended posts.

So what can you do if you want to fix one (or both) of these issues? Well, the way we show relevant content on our sites without interrupting our load times is with a combination of two plugins- WP Show Posts and Ad Inserter.

Today, I wanted to provide a walkthrough of how we do it.

5 Blogging Tasks to Look at When You’re Burnt Out on Writing

January 11, 2021

Oh, burnout. If you have been blogging for as many years as I have, burnout may as well be your middle name.

At some point, writing for your blog becomes a chore. This could be either in the form of writer's block, being discouraged at your current growth rates, or simply not being able to generate new ideas for your niche (as a travel blogger, I call this 2020).

Thankfully, writing is only one small component of what we as bloggers do. When I find myself dreading putting yet-another word online, I tend to take a step back and look at other activities I may be able to look at which benefit my site but do not necessarily involve writing.

In this one, I wanted to share a few ideas to help you get started if you are suffering from this as well.

SEMrush Review – A Comprehensive SEO Tool at a Price

July 21, 2022January 6, 2021

At its core, SEMrush is a one-stop-shop for all things SEO. It allows you to perform keyword research, track positions, spy on your competitors, find common SEO errors, and a whole lot more.

While some of these features may be best utilized by SEMs who have a number of client websites they manage, bloggers may find a few of SEMrush's features especially valuable including their keyword and backlink analysis tools, competitor insights, and more.