Tips Tuesday – DIY SEO Workshops, WP 5.8.3 Security, IndexNow Plugin, Opera Web 3 Browser

Hello Happy Site Owners and Webmasters!

Tips this week include:

• The DIY SEO Quick Checks are in progress for a solid SEO foundation
• The first few DIY SEO live workshops have been scheduled
• Update on the Ecomm Coalition
• Progress on getting into TikTok
• 2022 Site Success Goals live session replay is ready for BB Hubbers
• Upcoming chat for Hubbers this week on Content as Product
• New tutorial for how to create and delete a WordPress user
• What was in the WordPress 5.8.3 security release
• The difference in minor and major WP updates
• Why I can’t sleep without my sites being on the Cloudflare Pro plan
• Why I had to wait for the WP 5.9 RC2 dropping today to make new Gutenberg tutorials
• Why we’re not using the IndexNow plugin and what may be coming
• What’s up with hosts having increased downtime lately
• YouTube is testing a custom message for the Super Thanks program to pay creators
• How Opera aiming to be the top Web 3 browser directly impacts your bottom line
• THE most important Web 3 acronym you need to know

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Spill the Beans Livestream tonight

Do join us live tonight at 8pm ET / 5pm PT on the BlogAid Facebook Page. We spill the beans on this week’s news, breaking stories for the day too, and special info just for those who watch. And the replay is available here on this Tips Tuesday post later too. But the live party is so much more fun.

Replay

Who I Help

All BlogAid posts and tutorials are intended to assist business-minded, hands-on bloggers and webmaster designers who are serious about making money and who want to stay up-to-date with site changes. And our BB Hub is a private member site and Facebook group for my site audit clients that has lots of extra perks and support.

BlogAid Happenings

DIY SEO Quick Checks are Running

Last Thursday we started the daily emails for folks in the DIY SEO course to do quick checks on things that have changed with their SEO foundation.

Checks include:

• Theme scheme markup output that may conflict with the SEO plugin
• New features in Yoast
• Yoast setting changes
• What’s new in Google Search Console

Not only does this help everyone that’s repeating the course ensure that all of their settings and such are up to date, we’re getting reports from folks taking the course for the first time who have different themes and plugins and what they are seeing that’s not in the tutorials.

And I’m working with them to check into those things.

Now, if you are new to the DIY SEO course, these Quick Checks are not enough.

You need to take all of the standing tutorials that are above the live Workshop list and ensure all of your settings with Yoast, Google Analytics and Search Console, and Bing are correct.

DIY SEO Live Workshops Scheduled

The first several live workshops have been scheduled in the DIY SEO course.

And there is a brand new one for SEO in 2022 to start us off so we can discuss the major changes that happened with Google and Bing. Plus, you’ll want to know what not to do that may get your posts deindexed in Google.

The order of the next several workshops have changed as well because I need to get some new info out to you before you start making changes to your theme and/or content.

That way you’ll be able to monitor the effects of those changes.

We start our live workshops on Jan 20th, and replays are available.

So, it’s never too late to join the course.

And FYI, I’m removing replays from last year as I schedule the new workshops. All of them are clearly marked for the year they were recorded.

Ecomm Coalition

This week I’m starting my deep dive into membership course setup. 

I used to offer that as a service years ago, and I have my own membership sites, of course, but I’ve been out of the loop with changes to the plugins and such. So, I’m getting up to speed as fast as I can so I can start offering consults again to help you make a plan and find 4x the money you originally thought to make. And then we can choose the best fit tech to make it happen.

The most costly mistake you can make is to buy the tech and then try to figure things out.

That consult pays for itself – over and over and over.

And this week I’ll be checking in with all of the Ecomm Coalition vendors so we can make a game plan for releases of info to you, plus a timeframe for new how-to things for you to get.

I know many of you are chomping at the bit to get digital downloads going or even a member site.

Trust me, we are all working as fast as we can to get you the info.

Getting Into TikTok Course

I pulled the trigger on a TikTok course because it focuses on the business side of things, not the silliness like dancing videos. And it also covers Instagram Reels.

I’ll let you know which course it is and if I like it or not once I get into it.

Site Services Update

We are running ahead of schedule because I have a whole bunch of site audit checkups to do for folks who are coming in for their annual site audit.

Those are super quick and cheap and don’t take long at all.

So, if I guesstimated we would be starting your project in February, we may be able to get going with it this month. And if I told you March, it may be February.

New requests that come in this week will likely be in the Feb/March timeframe too.

BB Hub Happenings

2022 Site Success Goals Replay Ready

I was delighted to meet live with my BB Hub members last week to chat about our site success goals for 2022.

And I revealed even more of the plans that I have for BlogAid and new stuff coming for our village, as well as to the public.

The replay is available in your member area in the Meetings section. And the discussion is in our Facebook group.

Content as Product Live Chat

One of my 2022 goals for BlogAid is to have more live sessions with my peeps everywhere.

And this Friday BB Hub members will be meeting live with our special guest, visibility expert Denise Wakeman to chat about a recent email she sent to her peeps, of which I am one, asking “Are You a Content Entrepreneur?”

What she’s talking about is exactly the mindset switch I’ve been mentioning that you will want to adopt to start thinking about your content as the product.

So, we are delighted to be able to have Denise come chat with us live about it this week.

She gave me permission to share that email with the Hubbers, and you’ll find it on the meeting page in your membership.

Then look for the post in our BB Hub Facebook group to input your questions and comments prior to the session on Friday and we’ll address them. We’ll be taking questions live too.

How to Create and Delete a WordPress User

Another one of my 2022 site success goals for BlogAid is to create more videos, including new tutorials.

For the last 3 years I’ve been making lists of posts to write and tutorials to make and that’s just not getting them done.

So, I started in November with a “throw everything down and do it now” resolution to get them done as the need comes up.

Last week I made a new tutorial on how to create and delete a WordPress user, as all of my site audit clients need to create a new user for me, and then delete it, as well as all other users who don’t need access anymore.

Extra users are a security hole you need to close.

So, I made this tutorial, which you can also find on the Helpful Posts page. And I’m including it in the email I send to open our project, along with the link to the secured client folder where you can share your logins with me.

You’ll see more about the security of sending those logins to the new user in the tutorial too.

Your site security starts with you.

And it doesn’t help to pay someone to help secure your site if you’re careless with logins and such, like sending them in open emails.

Be the first to know about new tutorials

I likely won’t be sending out a separate email to BlogAid News subscribers when I post tutorials like this.

That’s what this Tips Tuesday weekly roundup is for.

But, if you want to be the first to know when a new video tutorial goes live, then subscribe to the BlogAid YouTube channel.

You’ll receive a notification when the video is uploaded there.

That’s all the happenings around here. Let’s jump into this week’s tips.

WordPress Tips

WordPress 5.8.3 Security Release

Last week WordPress released version 5.8.3 with 4 security bug fixes.

This was a minor release and should have auto updated for you.

Difference in Minor and Major Updates

If it didn’t auto update for you, you need to have your site settings checked as you do want minor releases to auto update.

But, you want to control when major releases update, like the one we are about to do next month with WP 5.9.

FYI, all sites created on WP 5.6 and since have both minor and major auto updates turned on.

I’ve been installing a directive for my site audit clients that only allows minor updates no matter when your site was created. So, you should be all set.

This is why the Cloudflare Pro plan is worth paying for

Two of the security bugs in WP that were fixed with the 5.8.3 release were SQL injections.

That’s a hacker putting malicious stuff into your database where all of your content is stored, as well as where your login credentials are stored.

Folks, SQL injections and XSS, or Cross Site Scripting security issues pop up in 15 plugins a day. 

The Cloudflare Pro plan has extra security rules that address these issues and will bridge security on your site until WP or the plugin dev releases a fix.

And this is why I can’t sleep without having that extra security on my money-making sites.

Fixing a hack would cost way more than the little $20/mo I pay for the Cloudflare Pro plan.

Plus you get extra speed perks with it too.

You can upgrade to the paid plan at any time.

And if you are a BB Hub member, just contact me for a quick live session and I’ll help you configure all of your new security settings, as they are not on by default.

WordPress 5.9 RC2 Release Today

The second Release Candidate for WP 5.9 should roll out today. RCs are about fixing the bugs, and there were a few in the RC1 that impact the new Gutenberg tutorials I’ll be making for the Gutenberg Ninja course.

So, I’ll be having a look at the RC2 today and getting started on the new tutorials list, plus my What’s New in 5.9 post for you.

Get Your WP 5.9 Update Instructions

The final release of WP 5.9 is slated for Jan 25th.

But, we won’t be updating immediately as there are major changes in this release to the core code.

Be sure you are subscribed to BlogAid News so you will get my email for when it is safe to update and any special instructions for how to do it and what to check.

SEO Tips

Why we’re not using the IndexNow plugin

There is a new IndexNow plugin in the WordPress repository, but I strongly suggest you hold off using it, or the Cloudflare way of doing it.

IndexNow currently only pings Bing and Yandex search engines.

Google is still testing it.

But that’s not the only reason I want you to hold off.

We need to ensure that the only content that pings the search engine matches what you have as available in your XML sitemap.

And that availability is controlled by your Yoast SEO plugin settings.

So, this needs to be coordinated.

Last week, team Yoast posted on Facebook that something big was coming and asked us to take a guess.

I commented that I hoped it was IndexNow integration.

So, even if it isn’t that, I at least planted that seed, and I want to hold off installing anything until we know if Google is going to use this, and if Yoast is going to integrate it.

So, please be patient a little longer as I believe we’re going to start hearing folks screaming about crawl errors with the current offerings.

Hosting Tips

Increased Downtime – Don’t Panic

I see that NameHero and BigScoots and a couple of other popular hosts have had significant downtime over the past couple of months.

Please know that no host is immune to issues with both the hardware and software they use, plus the trunk lines they use to talk with the world.

And I heard Monday that there was an internet outage in Europe that has sites down too. The host can’t do anything about it when the actual internet to and from the servers is having issues.

Jumping host to host is also a bad idea, especially if you are not paying for migration services to do it securely.

Each host also has its own server setup environment and they are RADICALLY different from one another now – it’s not apples to apples anymore.

As frustrating and revenue hitting as it is, panicking and having knee-jerk reactions with moving can be just as costly, if not more so.

And there is no guarantee that the new host won’t have similar issues too.

Video Tips

YouTube Test Custom Message for Super Thanks

Back in the summer YouTube rolled out a Super Thanks feature that allowed fans to donate to their favorite creators.

And now YouTube is testing the ability for Super Thanks fans to add a message along with the donation, which is cool.

The problem with this whole thing is, most creators don’t qualify to receive payments.

It’s the same on other platforms like TikTok where you have to have a minimum number of followers. But at least it’s a lot easier to get to that number on TikTok.

And this is something I’m looking forward to going for on that platform so I can do lives there as well.

Web 3.0 Tips

Opera Aims to be the Top Web3 Browser

I’m betting many of you have not heard of the Opera browser, and certainly haven’t used it.

At one time, Opera was the most used browser in the world.

Chrome took that position, but that is quickly changing, especially in the Web3 world.

Brave is currently the most used browser for crypto and Web3 due to its beefed up privacy and security settings.

And you better believe that’s the one I use on my laptop that is dedicated to nothing but crypto.

Well, Opera is trying to take that top spot.

Recently, it has partnered with Polygon, which is a Layer 1 blockchain that is catching fire in Web3.

Polygon bills itself as the Ethereum Internet of Blockchains and they already have 3,000+ dApps, games, DeFi, and more which is what is making it so popular. And now Opera will have native access to them.

Opera has also partnered with Solana, which is a direct competitor to Polygon, and it is also a Layer 1 blockchain that is catching fire because of the ease to develop on it.

Disclosure – I’m invested in Ethereum and Polygon, but divested from Solana as I don’t think they have the security to put all they want on that chain.

So, what does all of this mean to you?

Both Brave and Opera have a built-in crypto wallet. 

I expect that as crypto continues to come into the mainstream, more folks will switch to browsers that offer this type of convenience. 

And as more folks switch off Chrome to these more secure and privacy-protecting browsers, you will lose even more of the 3rd party cookie tracking data for your ads that has already happened with both Firefox and Safari.

Folks, don’t count on Chrome remaining the dominant browser.

And watch the panic spread through the ad agency world as this happens.

This is one more reason I’m strongly suggesting that you find another way to make income and have ads as a side income, if at all.

Web 3 Vocabulary

And this is also why you need to get in-the-know about Web 3. It’s where the money is going.

Here is the top Web 3 acronym you need to know: DYOR – Do Your Own Research.

Don’t expect me to spoon feed you this stuff. 

There’s too much to it and it will take you months to get a handle on it.

Start now.

What I will be telling you are the effects of the move to Web 3 and crypto, just like the Opera news. 

And, I’ll tell you about the opportunities and the scams, like what’s happening with both in NFTs right now.

You’ll want to be ready to jump on those opportunities!!

Start learning your way into this new country and its lingo and customs now, as it will impact your bottom line, ready or not.

Wrap Up

That’s a wrap for this week’s Tips Tuesday.

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Be sure to visit BlogAid.net for more tips and resources and I’ll see you online.