SEO Tips : I'm back with the magic!
Don't call it a comeback!
It's the Return of the JAK. (middle name starts with an A, just go with it!).
Anyway.
Mailchimp shafted me and my humble newsletter so I had to move onto greener pastures.
I didn't have time to fight through the BS.
I mean, me and my little newsletter were found in violation of their T&Cs.
No clear indication of what that violation was.
And in order to resolve the issue, I would have had to jump through a lot of hoops.
I don't run and I don't jump.
So.
Here I am, back in circulation with a new newsletter using Buttondown.
Let's see how it goes. (FWIW, Substack and Revue are on my radar but I thought I'd give the little guy a chance first!).
Now back to the world of SEO.
A few things to note:
- You've heard of CWV (Core Web Vitals) and everyone's losing their mind over it.
Here's my take: it's important enough to consider. IE: it will be a ranking signal and it all comes down to user experience.
Regular subscribers know how much I bang on about fast loading sites that look and work beautifully on any screen and any internet connection.
That's what CWV is about: You need a fast loading site that doesn't do the waltzing matilda or hold your browser hostage in the process.
I mean, this is what we should all be working on in general, ranking signal or not. People are getting worked up about it because Google has said that this will be a part of the ranking algorithm and the data can be found in Google Search Console.
So yeah, keep working on your site and making it the best of its kind.
- We lost a great SEO expert recently: Mr Hamlet Batista.
He's synonymous with his combination of SEO and Python, the programming language.
I never met Hamlet but got to know him through his work online. He sent me a connection request on LinkedIn not long ago and I'm still in awe.
Hamlet was a humble soul who strived to serve the community in the best way possible. He was loved by so many.
His departure has left a void that won't ever be filled.
If there's one thing we can learn from Hamlet is to always give back and pay it forward.
Vale Hamlet.
Speaking of Python, it seems its a very polarising thing in the SEO community (up there with subdomains vs subfolders).
Here's my hot take: tinker with it if you feel inclined to do so but you don't need it to be good at SEO.
It's super helpful for automating things and will no doubt make you more efficient. But SEO is about more than that.
As long as you're always learning, testing and finding better ways to work, you will ALWAYS be ahead.
I've dabbled with some Python and will be picking it up again.
Shout out to my homie Ruth Everett who not only inspired me to look into Python but was also a protege of Hamlet Batista. She's also a great SEO and you should subscribe to her Hello World Newsletter.
And lastly, here's some basic but important SEO things to chew on this week:
1. Use more internal links. You'd be surprised at the results if you start creating more logical links between your content.
2. Use more images in your content. And use the alt text - not just for SEO but to make it easier for visually impaired humans. It's also a severely underrated traffic source.
No need for fancy design skills either. I have literally used Powerpoint for images on my own site in lieu of Photoshop.
3. Don't be afraid to raze your site to the ground to start over. Sometimes that's actually the best thing to do when it's been hacked to pieces and nothing makes sense. You may have had many SEO folks working on it and the link profile is dodgier than a gas station sushi roll.
You may still need to worry about redirects and retaining top performing content though.
But if you need to kill it with fire, time to get the Zippo.
OH AND ONE MORE THING:
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I have a podcast going live in 2 weeks God-willing.
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I'm on Clubhouse and have something planned on a regular basis. Hit me up: @jaavedk
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I'm getting a caffeine IV drip to maintain the blog, newsletter, podcast and clubhouse. And everything in between.
Thanks as always for being part of my list. I appreciate you!
Peace,
Jaaved
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