seo

The Infamous Yoast SEO “Green Bullet” & Why You Should NOT Obsess About It

21st March 2018 - By Ahmed Khalifa - Tagged With: seo, wordpress, wordpress plugins

Header image on why you should not obsess about Yoast SEO green bullet

We are all familiar with the traffic light system on the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin. We equally have the desire to get that precious green light or bullet point.

Since it has been introduced as clever gamification, this tool has helped to encourage many of us to ensure our content is optimised for search engines.

It has helped to make our lives so much easier, not just for those who are in the SEO industry and are considered to be experts, but also for those who are more in the beginner or intermediate stages and want to have a checklist.

And to be honest, I use it myself too as it allows me to keep myself accountable for what I need to do.

However, there is also a dangerous part of Yoast SEO as it can make you “cheat” your way around it to get that green light, which can eventually be detrimental to the quality of your content.

[Read more…]

Free Keyword Research Tools: The Complete List of 31 Free Keyword Tools You’ve Never Heard Of

5th March 2018 - By Ahmed Khalifa - Tagged With: google, seo, seo tools

If you want to have a chance of being found on Google, you need to carry out some form of keywords research.

Sure, you should know how you expect your audience to find you online, but there is a good chance that you have missed out on some golden keywords.

And it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert at SEO – you are not able to do that without carrying out some form of keywords research.

For those who are on a tight budget, you might feel as if you have no options, but this list will prove you wrong. The free keyword research tools listed here are all available to use today and without registration, credit cards or the need to go on a free trial before paying for it.

That’s right – there’s no catch!

And that also means that Google Keyword Planner is not mentioned on this list either.

[Read more…]

KWFinder Review: An Alternative Keyword Research Tool You’ll Love

21st February 2018 - By Ahmed Khalifa - Tagged With: seo, seo tools, tools

If you intend to create content which attracts traffic from search engine, keyword research should be among your first steps.

And for that, you will need to use a keyword research tool.

Back in September 2016, I got really fed up with Google’s Keyword Planner. Sure it’s the de facto tool for keywords research, and it’s free to use.

But it’s a frustrating tool to use.

Google Search by File Type: The File Extensions You Can Find Indexed on Google [Video]

31st January 2018 - By Ahmed Khalifa - Tagged With: google, seo

Google Search File Type header image for blog post

Maybe you have been to a conference or lecture where the speaker has shared a PDF or PowerPoint presentation.

Or perhaps you are looking for a Microsoft or OpenOffice document uploaded online but you can’t find it.

Or you might be a developer who is looking for examples of files such as .html and .java.

If you seriously want to raise your Google searching skills to another level, or you actually need to find a specific file type/extension online, Google has a powerful search operator which can help you do just that.

[Read more…]

How to Search & Find PowerPoint Presentations on the Web [Video]

12th January 2018 - By Ahmed Khalifa - Tagged With: google, seo

Blog post on using Google to find PowerPoint presentations

If you had been to a lecture, conference or some kind of presentation and you wanted to find and access the PowerPoint slides, the most natural thing to do is to search online.

But where do you go? How do you search for it? Are there special tools or tricks you can use to find the right presentation?

The answer is yes.

[Read more…]

10 Ways ‘Google Trends’ Can Seriously Help Take Your Content to the Next Level

23rd August 2017 - By Ahmed Khalifa - Tagged With: content, content marketing, google, seo

Blog post about Google Trends: How it can take your content to the next level?

You know when you’re in high school, there is the pressure to be one of the cool kids?

It’s not necessarily because you want to blend in, but because you want to move with the crowd and go in the same direction as them.

And if you don’t follow the trend, you risk falling behind.

It’s kind of the same when it comes to understanding the search trend before creating your content.

[Read more…]

In Response to Troy Hunt about HTTPS, SEO and…that guy

11th August 2017 - By Ahmed Khalifa - Tagged With: community, personal, security, seo

—

Just a quick backstory on what I want to talk about in this post.

There was a story written by Troy Hunt on his site about not taking security advice from SEO experts and psychics.

I urge you to read it…it’s fascinating. It can make you laugh, it can make you cry.

But also shows what is wrong with the SEO industry.

What Are The Benefits of Using WordPress Genesis Framework & Why You Should Use It?

7th August 2017 - By Ahmed Khalifa - Tagged With: seo, wordpress

If you have being researching for the best themes and plugins, you may have come across StudioPress and its infamous Genesis Framework.

You may not have noticed it but a number of websites uses Genesis and this begs the question: why do they use it? What’s so special about it? What are the benefits of using Genesis Framework on a WordPress site?

After all, there’s no nothing “sexy” about it. It doesn’t make your website look any differently or add specific functions to it.