Tips Tuesday – Outdated SEO, Good Hosting, Firefox vs Chrome

Tips this week include:

• A squirrel’s tale of price vs value
• The real value of site tech
• Why to never call the host for site fixes
• The cost of crap hosting
• Why a good host is worth paying for
• Why to get help migrating to a new host
• Firefox browser security/privacy has gone too far
• Why I don’t use Chrome for everything
• Other browser choices I’m testing
• WP 6.6.2 will roll out in early September
• Are you getting the feedback you need?
• It’s all about conversion
• Update on Google Recommendations
• New Google Trends Tool update
• Is your SEO info outdated – by 20 years?
• Google’s new AI crawler

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BlogAid Happenings

Last week there was a little nip in the air with morning temps in the high 50s and afternoons in the low 80s with low humidity. Around here we call that False Fall. This week we are returning to a string of days over 100 with high humidity. 

So, summer is certainly not over, but folks are primed for the change of season for sure. 

And every marketing agency I follow says to get your seasonal offers out earlier than normal this year too.

A Squirrel’s Tale

I can see the change of season coming with the behavior of all the squirrels here as well.

My second-story deck is right off my office. It’s like a tree house with lots of huge, old walnut trees spanning across my yard and the neighbors on each side, with a variety of other trees mixed in where the squirrels make their nests.

This time of year the squirrels are in what I call berserk mode – hurriedly gathering those walnuts and hiding them everywhere.

They scurry across my roof, nut in mouth, then bounce across the aluminum deck cover, then jump from it into a nearby redbud tree. Drives my dog, Zak crazy.

Well, on Friday of last week I was in my office and heard boom-bang-boom.

I went out onto the deck to see what the heck was going on.

One of those squirrels must have lost his grip on his walnut and it rolled into the gutter.

The nut must have tipped into the downspout with him chasing it. 

At least that is my best guess as to how a squirrel got trapped in the first of several elbows in that downspout.

And of course the little thing was freaking out about being trapped.

I gave it 2-3 hours to try to figure its way out, but it ended up slipping down from the first elbow and falling 8 feet to the next elbow joint landing. From there it was going to be another 10 foot drop and then a 20 foot crawl through an underground pipe to get out.

Plus it was heating up with the sun shining right on the downspout.

At that point, I figured I was going to have a dead squirrel blocking the pipes, so I started making calls.

Price vs Value

My first call was to Animal Control, which was free, but they couldn’t help.

Then I called the local branch of the Wildlife Agency, which was also free. They couldn’t help either.

Then I called an animal removal service. They would charge $595 and couldn’t come until Monday.

Then I called the company that hung my gutters 6 years ago and who I hire every other year to clean them (all have cover guards except the smaller deck gutter). They wanted the same $250 they charge as if they had to send a whole crew to do a full gutter cleaning, plus they couldn’t come until Monday either.

A started calling other gutter companies. One could send 2 men out later that day and would only charge $125.

They took off the section of gutter where I thought the squirrel was and sure enough, he jumped right out and ran off at full speed.

The whole job took about 15 minutes.

While the men were here I asked them to give me a quote for cleaning all the gutters. It will be $175.

Guess which company I’m going to call next year when it’s time to clean them?

Yep, the guys who rescued the squirrel.

This whole thing was a price vs value situation.

I valued someone else getting on a ladder to disassemble a second-story gutter downspout. That is not something I feel comfortable doing.

I also valued someone else dealing with a wild, freaked out animal, or a dead animal, whichever way that would end up.

But I didn’t value either of those things to the tune of $595, or even $250.

What I chose was someone who could come the same day for a reasonable price to do something that I could not do for myself.

The Real Value of Site Tech

A full 99% of site owners don’t value site tech until they have a problem, or until they see other site owners having a problem that they were able to avoid because their tech warned them about it early.

When site owners have an urgent problem, they may or may not shop price. The value is in the urgency and who can resolve it quickly.

But, those who want to avoid issues, will price shop for a package that includes some type of maintenance as well as urgent issues.

My site audit Hub clients value me every day because my partnership service fits all their needs at a reasonable rate.

If they have an issue, they get help the same day – and it’s not a wild guess by a host who has no clue how to fix anything other than an actual hosting issue, which most site problems aren’t, or the advice they do give opens up the client’s site to more issues.

Here’s a good example of that.

The site owner is creating a post and clicks Publish.

Then they get an error message that the update failed.

They contact the host who turns off ModSecurity.

No more error messages. Happy client.

And then, before their year of hosting is up, the site owner notices how slow their site is running now.

They contact the host, who tells them they have overages on their resource usage for things like CPU and Memory and that their site has been throttled. If the overages continue, they will have to purchase a bigger hosting package.

Here’s the kicker – the host created this problem. By turning off ModSecurity they let more bad bots hit the site. Their only solution is for the client to get a bigger hosting package that just gives more room for the rats to run. And so starts the endless cycle.

NEVER Call the Host for Site Fixes

I saved one of my clients $2400/yr in hosting just by properly securing the site and kicking out all of the bad bot hits. She had been trapped in that endless cycle by the host of just getting a bigger package every time she ran out of resources.

She left that host and remained my client for the next 6 years until she retired a rather rich lady.

And she learned why to never again call the host to fix a site issue.

None of my clients ever contact the host for anything other than a site being dead down. And 99.999% of the time, that issue was caused by something outside of the actual hosting, like by the CDN network or the internet network itself.

The reason my site audit Hub clients stick with me is because I get their sites into shape so that they don’t have issues, and then if anything crops up with a plugin update or a new integration or such, I show up the same day and get it resolved. Plus, I keep them updated on any changes that need to be made all throughout the year so they can avoid issues that take down other sites and send those owners screaming in blogger Facebook groups where nobody knows what they are talking about much. (Those groups are filled with folks who think the host should take care of everything, and we know how that story ends.)

The Cost of Crap Hosting

I just joined a Facebook group of VAs. Someone had a client on SiteGround and that client was complaining about the cost and wanted new hosting recommendations.

There were LOTS of host names thrown out.

But not one person asked a single qualifying question about what type of hosting that site owner needed.

One of the host names mentioned was Cloudways. It’s great hosting – if you’re a server admin or a dev and need to control your entire tech stack. It’s not a good choice for a non-techie site owner.

And they talk like all server stacks are the same.

Other names include EIG owned hosts like Bluehost – yes, Bluehost, the folks with the most ancient server technology that runs super slow.

Those site owners have the misguided idea that all hosts use the word “managed” the same way too. 

Not even close.

READ: What is Managed Hosting? for details.

A Good Host is Worth Paying For

There is a reason why me and all of my clients are on Iridium Hosting.

I had my fill of hosts that started out big enough to serve, but small enough to care, who had a good server stack at the time, then tried to get too big, too fast, and hired server admins and support folks who had no clue what they were doing.

Iridium Hosting is a small boutique host that is not trying to compete with the big box, crap hosts in a race to the bottom with pricing.

Iridium is built to serve its clients with insanely fast, trouble-free hosting and 5-star support.

In fact, I consulted with the owner about the build to ensure that it met my speed and security specs. And I talk with that owner every week about the ever-changing security landscape and what WordPress is changing or checking, especially the WP Performance team who has consistently overstepped their bounds with what they are scanning and recommending these days, including what the host should include.

Our goals remain in lock step – to serve our clients with the most advanced hardware and software that is kept updated, fast, and secure, and hassle-free.

And if there is a problem, it is addressed immediately by someone who knows what they are doing.

In fact, the owner of Iridium Hosting personally takes care of my clients when we migrate from their crappy hosting. And he goes the extra mile to clean up and delete any junk from the other hosting environment as he manually does that migration.

Are You Ready for Better Hosting?

“I can just get the host to move me for free.”

Yes, and most of those new hosts will just pick up your cPanel (or equivalent) and bring over all the junk from the other host. And they won’t fix the conflicts either.

Nor will they properly secure it.

You have one shot at properly hiding your new host IP to knock out the majority of bad bots hitting your current hosting and site.

Ever hear folks in blogger groups tell someone to move to a new host to help speed up their site?

Yeah, it works for a little while simply because some of the bad bots got kicked when the IP changed.

The new host is not actually faster.

And when new bad bots find the new IP, the slow cycle starts all over again.

End the cycle.

Get expert help with your migration to better hosting. 

Browser Tips

Firefox Browser Security/Privacy Has Gone Too Far

I’ve been using Firefox for years because it has been the best one to render sites correctly, even if its code is not pristine.

And Mozilla, the parent company of Firefox, has been leading the charge to implement better security and privacy at the browser level too.

But this year, I’ve had several issues logging into vendor sites on Firefox, namely Cloudflare and Bit.ly.

I can get around those login issues by using an incognito window, but of course, that’s inconvenient.

But, I’m also seeing new apps coming out that explicitly say that they don’t work on Firefox now too.

It’s like the browser wars are happening all over again with more sites/apps dropping support for old Internet Explorer browsers.

Why Not Just Use Chrome?

I run my entire back office on Workspace. So that means I’m always logged in to it on Chrome and have 3 browser tabs always open for email, calendar, and my to-do list.

Chrome is super heavy on PC resources, especially when you have multiple tabs open. In fact, I close it when I have Zoom meetings or live classes because it chews up so much bandwidth.

Plus, for security reasons that I mentioned in last week’s Tips Tuesday, I don’t want to be logged into my email in the same browser that I’m using for general internet use, especially when I’m logging into other vendor sites for myself or for my clients, which is something I do all day.

Using a different profile in the same browser doesn’t protect with that either.

And the biggest issue I have with Chrome is the constant checking that I’m still opted out of all the tracking, as they have fewer privacy settings turned on by default, and they change them at least once or twice a year.

Other Browser Choices

So, now I’m researching other browsers to use, but many others are also Chromium based browsers, like Google’s Chrome.

Chromium is a free, open-source browser framework that provides the underlying code for Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Opera. If you’ve never heard of that last one, that’s likely because you are in the U.S. Opera has long been the favored browser in the world outside of the U.S.

Firefox is one of the few browsers that is not Chromium based, and hence why it is not as resource intensive.

Safari is based on WebKit and is THE worst browser to use for doing anything on your site or to guarantee it renders properly. I wish more iPhone and iPad users knew that.

There are a handful of other non-Chromium-based browsers, but I can’t get enough info on their privacy and security to feel comfortable using them especially considering all that I’m logging into for myself and my clients.

When I asked my Hub clients what browser they use and why, some mentioned that they use Chrome due to the great extensions they have. In fact, there are more extensions for Chrome than any other browser.

And I have several extensions that I use every day on Firefox that I would have to replace if I switch to another browser. So, that is definitely a legitimate factor in my choice.

More Testing

I’m going to be testing other browsers this week to see what I like while monitoring PC resource usage.

I already know that Edge is not a contender. Frankly I don’t find it to be much better than IE for properly rendering sites.

Brave will be the first one I start with, as I used it exclusively on the laptop I had dedicated to doing crypto and stock trading. It has some of THE best privacy and security of all the browsers. It also does a fantastic job of ad blocking. But that might be a serious issue when I’m reviewing or auditing sites that have ads.

Opera will be the next browser I test.

And, I plan to complain as loud as I can to Firefox for the nutty idea of having to use an incognito window to resolve the login issues. That’s just cra cra.

What Browser Do You Use and Why?

Let us know what browser you use and why you like it.

Plus, let us know if you open a different browser window for logging into sites if you still have a tab open with your email and such too.

And, if you use different profiles, let us know how that’s working for you.

WordPress Tips

WP 6.6.2 Coming Soon

A minor bug release of WP 6.6.2 is scheduled for September 10.

It should auto update for you.

Promotion Tips

Are You Getting the Feedback You Need?

I was so tickled to hear this story from one of my clients this past week that I want to share her joy with you.

She got EZ Metrix the day it was released.

Then she used the info she quickly gleaned from those reports to find the gaps in her content so she could build her full Content Silo this summer. (That’s something I teach in the DIY SEO course.)

Now she is using data from hits on those posts to see how her internal linking plan is working to get folks deeper into her content and to spend more time on her site.

She’s also seeing what keywords folks are using in Google Search that brings up one of her posts too.

And she’s using that feedback to go big with those keywords on Pinterest.

In other words, she spent 15-30 minutes a week gathering feedback from her Google Analytics and Search Console.

And then she was able to make a content calendar to build a solid intra-linking structure. That’s something that both readers and Google LOVE!!!

And she used the feedback in her metrics on those efforts to create her Pinterest promotional plan. 

And that has doubled her traffic.

Here’s the truth.

• You’re going to create new content.
• And you’re going to promote it on social media.

Why not spend a few minutes gathering feedback so that you are SURE you’re putting your content and promotion time to good use?

Or, you can keep throwing spaghetti against the wall and maybe see what post comes into your top 10 vanity metrics when you check them randomly.

More importantly, why not find out what’s dragging your site down with all the content that is no longer getting any hits?

Google’s algorithm updates are on whole sites now, not just individual posts.

EZ Metrix is just that – the easy way to get the feedback you need to make more money and save time.

It’s All About Conversion

Getting folks to read what you put out there is one thing.

Getting them to take action is another.

That action part is called conversion, and it is your bottom line.

The nice folks over at the Content Marketing Institute have a nice post with 21 Great Ideas to Get Your Content Audience to Take Action.

I’ve used about half of those ideas in this post. See if you can find them.

SEO Tips

Google Recommendations Update

A few weeks ago I told you about a new thing in Search Console called Recommendations.

I’ve checked into it and it is experimental and not available to everyone yet.

Plus, even if it does eventually roll out to you, you may not see anything at all as it will only report if it actually has recommendations. Low content or low traffic site likely won’t have enough data for Google to report on.

I do not have it on any of my sites yet, so I’m not in the initial test group, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for it.

New Google Trends Tool Update

A few weeks ago I also reported that Google had made some big updates to their Trending Now Tool, which is part of Google Trends.

I checked into it and I don’t see that the new features will impact my DIY SEO course members much, as the info just doesn’t go deep enough, nor does it cover the kind of topics that my clients write about most.

We already have a 2-part workshop on Keywords and how to use different keyword tools, and that includes Google Trends.

So, at this time, I will not be updating that workshop, nor holding a new live one on it. I’m trying to balance keeping you updated with respect for your time. And I just don’t see this particular update as being worthy of you checking it out, as I don’t believe you’ll get useful insights from it if you are not covering the news. The trends are just that short – here for a day and then gone before you can get any content out about it.

Is Your SEO Info Outdated – by 20 Years?

A lot of site owners only hear about SEO news after they have been negatively affected by not knowing SEO at all.

And when they do find SEO info online, a lot of times it is outdated. That includes everything AI can find about it.

Unfortunately, old info about everything connected with owning a site lingers online in posts, in videos, and in groups for years. And it’s super hard to dispel because so many folks just keep spreading the old ways and info.

In a recent Google Live, John Mueller was asked about some of the recommendations a site owner found in a free SEO audit report, and how a lot of the suggestions that he was given were not mentioned in Google’s own best practices documentation.

John replied that most of the info in those audit suggestions have either always been untrue or they are radically out of date – some by 20 years.

This post on Search Engine Journal has several examples of outdated SEO advice.

Here’s just one snippet from that article:

“Other examples of decades-old SEO orthodoxy are:

• Meta description should be under 164 words
• Belief that keywords are mandatory in titles, headings, meta description and alt tags
• Belief that titles should be “compelling” and “click-worthy”
• Belief that H1 is a strong SEO signal

Those are the things that were important twenty years ago and became part of the orthodox SEO belief system, but they no longer impact how Google ranks websites (and some of those never did) because Google has long moved beyond those signals.”

Combatting old SEO info, and keeping up with SEO changes is exactly why so many folks have been in my DIY SEO course for years and why we do technical SEO checks and live workshops every year.

There is nothing about SEO that is set it and forget it.

Come join us and get your site up to speed with current best SEO practices, not the outdated stuff you see in free audits.

Google’s New AI Crawler

Google has very quietly launched a new commercial AI crawler bot called Google-CloudVertexBot.

One of the nice things about doing so many site audits throughout the year is that I get to see what bots are hitting our sites.

That way I know which bad bots to block at Cloudflare before they even hit our hosting, much less our sites, and which ones to let through.

I also hand pick which AI crawlers to allow and which ones to block too. It’s a super bad idea to block all AI crawler bots, but it’s equally as bad to let all of them crawl your site. Some of the bad ones hit sites to the tune of 10k-30k hits a month. That will kill your hosting resource usage. And we have no idea who they are or what they are doing with the content they scrape from your site.

We know exactly what the good AI crawler bots are doing with the content and it’s our best way to show up in AI query searches.