Tips Tuesday – Metrics Equals Money, Restrict Dev Site IP, AI in Yoast SEO

ByMaAnna Stephenson

Hello Happy Site Owner!

Tips Tuesday – Metrics Equals Money, AI in Yoast SEO, Restrict Dev Site IP

Tips this week include:

  • Why metrics = money
  • New metrics checks tutorials
  • Watch out for the WordPress email scam going around
  • The difference in staging and cloned sites
  • New restrict IP on dev sites tutorial
  • What Google’s Incognito Mode Tracking lawsuit settlement means for us
  • Why to pivot out of ads and where the real money is now
  • AI in Yoast SEO premium review

Welcome to Q1 of 2024!

Do you have big plans for this new year? 

Do you have big pivots coming? 

Pivot is the word for me and many of my clients in 2024.

Let’s dive into what’s up.

BlogAid Happenings

2024 Predictions and Pivots

I was so delighted to meet live with my site audit Hub clients last week.

And I’m jumping up and down with excitement for the big pivots and plans they have for this year that will put the into big money.

In fact, some of my clients who are already in big money are pivoting too.

They are looking for ways to streamline their efforts and make the most of what they are already doing.

Metrics = Money

I also shared with my clients what’s coming from BlogAid this year to help them in their efforts.

For those who have followed me for a long time, you’ve heard me say this over and over.

The folks who watch their metrics like a hawk make the most money. 

They spend 90% of their time going over their metrics like Google Analytics and Search Console to see what’s getting traction and converting and what needs more attention.

And then they spend 10% of their time creating or updating their content.

If you’re still on that hamster wheel of cranking out content without looking to see if it’s even working well, and especially looking to see how it performs over time, whatever money you’re making is being done the hardest and slowest way possible.

That’s why I’m up to my eyeballs working on ways to make is WAY easier to get real answers about your metrics that tell the whole story.

And I’m using AI tools to help do that.

I’ll have more for you as I start releasing it.

DIY SEO Course Happenings

New Metrics Checks Tutorials

And I’ve already released part of the new ways of seeing what’s really going on with your Google rankings.

There’s a new Workshop in the DIY SEO course for using downloaded reports from Search Console in Google Sheets, with a few super simple formulas so that you can see trends and changes with your average position, impressions, and clicks.

And you can sort your post titles by a combo of those metrics, not just by individual one, so you can get the whole story on what’s happening.

This is super important for you to be able to see if any Google algorithm update impacts you, and exactly which pages and posts it affected.

We’ll be doing that live workshop in just a couple of weeks.

Right now we just finished up with our Quick Checks for all the big changes in Yoast SEO.

And this week we’re checking our GSC for errors and such to ensure that Google isn’t having any issues with crawling our site or ranking our content.

Security Tips

WordPress Email Scam

Friday night I sent an email to everyone on the BlogAid News list about a new email scam that targets WP site owners.

It appears to be from WordPress.org and states that the WordPress Security Team has found a critical vulnerability on the website – and then it gives the name of the site.

It’s bogus. Don’t click anything in that email.

But, don’t just blindly disregard such emails either.

WP does have a real Site Health Check in the core. You’ll see that module in your WP Dashboard, if you haven’t turned it off. And any real issues will have notifications there.

So always check.

You can see more about this new WordPress email scam here.

Difference in Staging and Cloned Sites

I think every host on the planet says that they offer staging sites now.

That’s not at all what 99% of them are offering.

A true staging site:

  • Is below the public_html directory where you live site is
  • No bots should be able to access it
  • Does not require extra security measures
  • You should have a mechanism to push/pull things from the staging to the live site and vice versa
  • You can leave it active for as long as you like

What most hosts offer is a clone of your site on a sub-domain.

  • It is in the same public_html directory where your live site is
  • All bots can access it, good and bad
  • It requires the same security measures as your live site
  • You can’t push/pull elements/updates from one site to another
  • You should only leave it active for a short time

Restrict IP on Dev Sites Tutorial

Some designers create a clone of a site on their own computer, but most don’t.

Instead, they use their own dev hosting to create sites for clients during the design project, and then they migrate those changes to the client’s hosting.

Because these sites are usually on a sub-domain and in the public_html directory, they need extra security.

This past week I added a new tutorial to the Webmaster Training course for how to restrict access to that dev site so that only a couple of IP addresses can see it.

That means that no bots of any kind can get to it, including bad bots for hacking, or good bots for crawling, like Googlebots or other search engines.

But, the designer and the client will both be able to access it.

Monetization Tips

Google Settles Incognito Mode Tracking Lawsuit

Google has finally agreed to settle the dispute about the fact that they continue to track user movements even when using the incognito mode in the Chrome browser.

It’s a $5 billion dollar settlement.

Google has been kicking the can down the road for 4 years on multiple tracking lawsuits all over the globe.

But, they are saying 2024 really is the year that they will be dropping 3rd party cookie tracking from the Chrome browser. Every other browser on the planet did this years ago.

Pivot Out of Ads

If you’re betting on ad revenue for your entire income, I’m going to tell you what I’ve been telling me clients for the last 4 years – pivot.

Find another way to monetize with your own products, affiliate products, or course and membership sites, or even via video and brand deals.

My clients who listened to me and made these pivots are in big money now. And they are well established now too.

Don’t wait for every blogger on the planet to pivot when their ad revenue starts tanking.

Do it sooner rather than later and get yourself established as the go-to-person in your niche.

AI Plugin Tips

AI in Yoast SEO Premium – Review

Yoast SEO has included an AI generator to help you write better SEO titles and Meta Descriptions.

Here’s how it works.

Tips Tuesday Plus subscribers got the rest of this tip. Subscribe now.

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MaAnna is a geek who can still speak in plain English. She helps DIY site owners plus webmasters and designers create sites that are secure, perform well, and get noticed by search engines and readers.