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SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the process of getting traffic from the “free” and “organic” search results on search engines. Major search engines such as Google and Yahoo display web pages and other content such as videos and images based on what they consider most relevant to users. Websites and content have a rank. The exact mechanism involves a lot of factors unique to each engine.
If you're interested in knowing more about SEO, read Moz's article here. SEO is a giant industry in itself and encompasses a myriad of specialties. To spare you the time and effort of learning it, there are a lot of sites that offer free SEO services on a golden platter, complete with an accompanying spoon and fork.
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If your site is new, it needs to be submitted to search engines. Attracta offers tools that increase your site's traffic. They have Google blacklist checking, search engine submissions, link building, and a lot more. EntireWeb is another site that offers free submissions. They also have an automatic re-submission feature to ensure your website is on the list at all times.
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a website that combined most of these tools into one service? Well, stop wishing. SEOptimer, and WooRank are an ad-free SEO auditing services. The audit is pretty comprehensive and comes with recommendations too. Try them out.
Ahrefs have a free web master tools in their free plan. Moz have lots of free SEO tools.
Admit it, there's at least one time you've searched yourself on Google, and maybe got the surprise of your life with the results. Your name may be linked to something very nasty, but it's not really you. Such a coincidence wouldn't matter much. But if you're applying for a job, or you are offering a professional service or have a business, then any negative information on the web associated with your name may have a big impact on your chances of getting hired.
If you're one of these unfortunate individuals, don't despair; Brand Yourself is here to the rescue. The free DIY tool has a set of steps that you need to follow in order to get back ownership of your name. You even get notified as your profiles improve in Google's search results.
If using WordPress, it is highly recommended to use an SEO plugin, and the best one out there is Rank Math. They offer a free version that's powerful with Google Analytics integration. It is lightweight and has fewer nags. with additional features like 404 monitoring, redirects, sitemaps, auto image alt and title attributes and more. Another good choice is Yoast SEO.
It wouldn't hurt to use Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights too.
To remove content in Google Search results for sites that you own, follow these steps, requires a Google Search Console.
Easily create a robots.txt using SERanking's free generator tool.
Generate XML Sitemaps.
The titles of posts and articles also play a big SEO role. LSIGraph helps with choosing the keywords in the content and title. Title Maker by Portent, HubSpot's Blog Topic Generator and CoSchedule's Headline Analyzer might provide you with catchy phrases that can elicit a page view. ContentNow's Headline Generator is also worth looking at.
Google Structured Data Markup Helper is a schema markup generator, other options are here and here. More free SEO tools here.
Buy articles/content at Constant Content. Hire influencers, writers, and creators at Izea's marketplace. Hire budget-friendly freelancers at Fiverr.
Short.IO is a URL shortener that gives a full-featured account with up to 1,000 branded links and AI suggested slugs for free. It supports custom subdomains for up to five domains. It also allows export of links. Another option is Cutt.ly's free plan that provides 1 branded domains, but limited to 30 links/month. Spoo.me and Come.ac which is a product of Shorten World allows edit of destination URL, while Tinu.be doesn't.
YoURLS, and PolRProject are free and open-source self-hosted URL shortener. Sleeky is a modern theme for YoURLS. Sink is a serverless link shortener with analytics that run on CloudFlare Workers. More options are listed here.
Pretty Link plugin shorten, and track regular or affiliate links.
Sur.LY alters the outbound links on your site so that visitors can get to external target pages without leaving your domain.
In WordPress, when updating or deleting post or pages use Redirection to automatically create redirects.
Cloudflare Workers is a serverless computing platform that allows developers to run JavaScript code at the edge of Cloudflare's global network. This means, the code executes close to users, resulting in faster response times and reduced latency. It can handle various tasks, such as building APIs, caching content, and processing requests without the need for traditional server infrastructure. Here's how to use CloudFlare Workers for URL redirects.
Take note of these limitations:
Bulk Redirects: 10,000 URLs(across up to 5 lists).
Single Redirects(Rules): 10 rules per zone(domain).
Page Rules: 3 rules total(can be used for redirection).
Cloudflare Pages: 2,000 static redirects and 100 dynamic redirects.
Cloudflare Workers: While there is no specific "limit" on the number of redirects a Worker can handle, Free Workers are limited to 100,000 requests per day and 10ms CPU time per request.
Here's how to redirect pages using CloudFlare.
Check the different redirects and status codes of a URL using HTTPStatus.IO, and WhereGoes.
Check of image's alt text using Image Alt Test, Image Alt Text Checker, and Image & Link Analyzer.
It is not good to have dead links on your blog or website. Your visitors might have an impression that it is not maintained, and they may not come back again. The site the link is connecting to may have already closed, and that happens a lot. It is important to check for dead links from time to time.
The W3C has a link checker to make this task a lot easier. It tells you what's wrong with the link and possible actions you can take to fix it. AtomSEO's Error404, Dr. Link Check, DeadLinkChecker, and BrokenLinkChecker are good online options.
LinkChecker is a free self-hosted website validator running on Python.
If you're using WordPress, use Broken Link Checker plugin.
Xenu's Link Sleuth is a desktop based broken link checker.
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Is your site loading fast enough? Here's Yahoo's best practices to speed up your website. Guide on how to speed-up a WordPress site. Check the speed here.
Use BitCaptcha, to check how fast your web server is.
GTMetrix.Com measures your site's loading speed using Page Speed and YSlow. The results show which part of the website is slowing it down, so you can rectify it. Other options are Pingdom's Website Speed Test, DebugBear Website Speed, SpeedVitals, CatchPoint Web Page Test, and ByteCheck.
Dramatically improve your website's performance, security, and reliability and gain more insights using CloudFlare. CloudFlare speeds up your website using global CDN and caching. It enables your server to support new protocols such as IPv6, HTTP/2 and SPDY and WebSockets without any hassle on your part. It provides protection from content scraping, comment spamming, and DDoS attacks. Encryption keeps data communications secure. Their DNS is superfast. There's no downtime when updating nameservers. It keeps a static version of your content, so it's available to visitors even if your server is down. The analytics provides interesting insights about your site. CloudFlare offers these services and more for free. You can easily add and set up your website in a few minutes, and viola, it is safe and fast.
Check if your website is down using DownDetector or DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.
Google Developer Tools aim to improve your internet's speed and website load time. They have a public DNS IP and PageSpeed Insights. PageSpeed Insights analyze and provide suggestions on how to further speed up your website. They also host widely used libraries such AngularJS, Chrome Frame, Dojo, Ext Core, jQuery, jQuery UI, MooTools, Prototype, script.aculo.us, SWFObject and Web Font Loader so you don't have to.
Here's a list of public DNS servers.
In WordPress, speed up your site using W3 Total Cache and optimize it with WP-Optimize. Use LiteSpeed Cache, if its your web server.
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CloudFlare offers a free Content Delivery Network or CDN service.
GCoreLabs provides 1 TB traffic for free, but requires credit card information. BelugaCDN charges just $0.01/GB of global bandwidth, with minimum of $1/month. If you hate monthly plans, BunnyCDN is pay as you go, however they have variable GB rate per region, but still cost-effective.
For my WordPress site, I don't upload images in the server as it could easily fill-up any space. Instead, I use free image hosting services like ImgUr coupled with the Featured Image From URL plugin. ImgUr is 100% free, allows hotlinking with no limits whatsoever. While ImgBB have an in-page upload plugin. To make it easier to integrate ImgUr, I use ImgUr Uploader Google Chrome extension. Just right-click and select “Rehost image” on the context menu, and it opens the image in a new tab, you can then copy the URL and paste it as Featured Image.
If preferred, use the PixaBay Images plugin to search and download the image within WordPress.
CloudFlare Image is a cheap pay as you go image storage that also resize and optimize. Pay only $5 per 100,000 images stored and $1 per 100,000 images delivered. Here's an image resizing plugin for WordPress that uses CloudFlare's Image Resizing service.
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In the age of social networks, you don't want your website to be left behind. Social share button, notification and pop-up widgets are effective in gaining more traffic, it enables your content to go viral. Some social sharing sites offer much more than just the widget. Check out some of the best below.
Social9 is the easiest and fastest widget to integrate ever. To create, select your site framework. In my case, I've chosen “Code your own”, that's because I'm a Web Developer, haha. Then specify the widget's orientation, either horizontal or vertical and finally, check on the social networks you want. Don't be fooled by the limited number of choices, once it shows up on your site, more options are available. Follow the instructions on how to integrate the generated codes. Just like that, your website becomes social. The widget is responsive and there's no need to register, and it's free. They also offer email capture popup, URL shortener, comment, and scheduler (limited to Twitter).
AddToAny is another basic service of the same mold. AddToAny Share Buttons is their WordPress plugin
While ShareThis provide more design customization, registration required. Aside from share buttons, they are providing follow and reaction buttons. They also have a consent management platform for cookies and a privacy-policy generator.
ZotaBox offers forever free social buttons and social mobile bar widgets. That's not all, in total, they are giving away 10 fully loaded tools to help increase sales and subscribers. Aside from the social buttons, the Facebook live chat and contact form are also useful. Slide box, notification box, and promo bar are for link promotion, the easy popup is especially beautiful. Don't forget to check out the back to the top, EU cookie notification and testimonial widgets, you might need them too. The Free plan, however, is limited to only 1,000 views/month. Of the same mold is HelloBar with a higher 5,000 monthly views limit.
If you like ZotaBox, then I'm sure Shareaholic is going to blow you away. They are a content amplification software. For whatever that means, personally, they are a service on steroids! They bundled the social share, follow buttons, related content, content analysis and promotion tools in one account. They also have a URL shortener and cookie consent prompt. But what makes them different is the option to monetize your site. You can choose between anchor, native and video ads. If interested, there is an auto affiliate link. If you are using the related content, it sneakily adds product recommendations. Some may not like monetization, but to me, this is heaven sent. I have trouble getting approved as publisher by ad networks, and this solves the problem. But, they aren't clear about the revenue sharing percentage. Their WordPress plugin is here.
SocialMarker is a free but powerful social bookmarking tool to submit a website to 17+ of the best social bookmarking sites in minutes.
Publish content to social media accounts using Buffer. The free account allows connection to up to 3 channels.
Over-Graph's free account provides 10,000 free monthly credits.
Blog2Social is a WordPress plugin, free account allows connection to 12 networks. NextScripts' Social Networks Auto-Poster is another WordPress plugin. JetPack has a basic social feature in the free plan.
Bluesky is decentralized social media platform alternative to X.
Mastodon is a free, open-source, decentralized social network launched in 2016 as a community-driven alternative to mainstream social media. Instead of a single company, it functions via thousands of independent servers ("instances") that communicate with each other, emphasizing user privacy, chronological feeds, no ads, and decentralized moderation. Joining a server provides access to the entire network and follow an account on another server. Mastodon Social is the biggest server, based in Germany. While Vivaldi Social is hosted in Iceland and fully funded by Vivaldi Technologies, the makers of Vivaldi browser. Requires a Vivaldi account which comes with free and ad-free blogs and forums.
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There are lots of instances in web development where popups are needed. To display an enlarged version of an image or an exit popup are few examples. It looks simple, but it is actually one tough task to work on. Integration in existing design and layout is challenging. It must be able to evade popup blockers, on top of cross-browser and device compatibility issues. Exit popup is a popular and effective tool for milking the most out of a visitor that is leaving your site. It pops up when they're about to close the tab or browser, always catching their attention.
To implement an exit intent popup that is integrated with third-party services, avail of MailMunch or Privy. I use MailMunch for my subscription and contacts are sync to MailChimp.
If using WordPress, Hustle, IceGram are very versatile plugins. List of free WordPress popup plugins.
Hat-Tip is a light notification bar using jQuery. NotiBar.JS, and PNotify have no dependencies.
Notibar, Easy Notification Bar, WPFront Notification Bar, and NotificationX are free WordPress plugins.
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Web or browser push notifications are messages from a website you receive in your browser, regardless of the device. It may be a smartphone, laptop, or desktop. They notify you about promos, important updates, or new content. It's a new marketing channel and a good supplement or alternative to email marketing. It is, in fact, easier, as people do not need to give away their email addresses to subscribe.
OneSignal gives you unlimited mobile push, but web push is limited to 10,000 subscribers only. It has a WordPress plugin that can send a notification when a post is published. It is expensive though.
SendPulse also have a web push product for free up to 10,000 subscribers. WebPusher is free for up to 10,000 subscribers and overall cheaper.
ntfy.sh is a 100% free self-hosted HTTP-based notification server. It sends notification to both phone or desktop via scripts from any computer, and/or using a REST API. Requires technical knowledge to install.
Take note, unlike email subscribers, you can't migrate web push subscribers to another service provider, so choose carefully. Here's a tutorial on how to create a web push using Amazon's AWS free tier. To unsubscribe from web push notifications, follow the instructions here.
Google Firebase Cloud Messaging is a cross-platform messaging solution that reliably send notification messages. There is no explicitly stated maximum monthly limit, with evidence suggesting over 21 million messages per month is supported. But there is throttling with a quota of 600,000 tokens per 1-minute token bucket. How tos for here and here.
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Live chat is a must for all websites, especially if you are offering services like mine. Visitors may need to talk about a possible project, and I must be there to reply in real time. What features am I looking for? It must be a totally free service, no sneaky pay for upgrade gimmicks. I'm sure there are other more creative ways of generating income. It offers private one-on-one messaging. Highly customizable settings. No limitations whatsoever. Most importantly, it should be very easy to use and integrate. Wow, that's too much to demand for a free service, but I did find one that meets all the criteria.
Tawk.To offers a full-featured live chat widget. Although it is free, it has all the bells and whistles of a commercial version, such as visitor monitoring and advanced trigger support. There are no limits to the number of agents you can add or how many messages you can send and receive. Integration just involves pasting a short JavaScript code.
If you prefer a public chat room, check out Tlk.Io. It is free too, and it doesn't require registration. Using free is good, but being a blogger for several years, I've learned the advantages of always having a backup. Such services tend to shut down, some without prior notice.
So, what's better than free? Of course, a free plan from a paid service, haha. Commercial websites can support their operations for a long time and are generally more stable. Obviously, these types of services come with limitations, but hey, it works for me. You might find those drawbacks deal breakers, but don't fret.
Chatra is free for 1 agent only, but their WordPress plugin has WooCommerce and ECWID support with an exit-intent feature. Chaport provides 2 operators and unlimited chats and websites. UserLike gives out 1 operator and 1 widget. Crisp Chat offers 2 seats for free. The most generous is JivoChat offering the first 30 agents free and unlimited chats and websites.
ArtiBot is a free chatbot service. SnatchBot is another option with live chat support.
ChatBot + Conversational Forms for ChatBot, and Messenger Customer Chat are free WordPress plugins.
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A majority of the world's population aren't well versed in English. If you intend to cater to this segment, you'll need to localize your website. It means providing your visitors with the means to read the content using their preferred language.
LibreTranslate is a Google Translate alternative.
Google Language Translator, and GTranslate are free WordPress plugins.
Free Website Translation offers a nifty free-to-use button that shows a selection of popular languages to translate content into. It's easy to generate the code for website integration. Plus, no registration is needed.
Avail of JigsawStack Translation Widget with a free, but limited account.
Speaking of translation, if you are interested in knowing the English equivalent of Hiligaynon terms, then head on over to Bohol.Ph. The dictionary is based on Kaufmann's Visayan-English Dictionary which is considered as one of the best dictionaries with regard to the Hiligaynon language. The dictionary has over 1000 pages and was first published in 1934 in Iloilo. Hiligaynon is spoken in Panay and Negros islands and is the fourth most spoken dialect in the Philippines. Do you know what higugma means?
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