With programs you need follow up on their terms and conditions to what's allowed and what is not cloaking links. In some instances it may render your affiliations void if you do not follow.

However generally speaking, a shorter or customized one is easier to remember vs a long URL. How To Use Pretty Links How To Edit Pretty Links

One advantage of Pretty Links that not everyone understands is that it turns what would be an external link to an internal one, at least as far as the search engines are concerned. This has some advantages.

Some places may have shortened urls because lack of character space. Also, some use to cloak urls (affiliate links) as Frank mentioned.

Unless you are wanting to shorten for looks (If so use a pretty links as Todd mentioned), I wouldn’t worry too much about the length of the url and don’t believe there really is a benefit to either. More of a preference or allotment of character space where you are wanting to place your URL.

Hi, Nikki

I believe that Amazon does not want you to “cloak” links, but they provide you with both short and long links for their products.

Other than that, I am not aware of a distinct advantage of using one verses the other.

Frank

I do, from time to time, have that problem. I have to take a break and return to it, and I always find out the problem. The focus keyword, or keyphrase, has to be in your title, the SEO title, and the meta title. The words must match and ensure it's in the H2 and H3 and the first sentence in the first paragraph. Sometimes the SEO can be aggravating, stay calm, walk away, and come back and you will have figured out the problem. At least this has worked for me. I hope this is helpful for you.

Hi, Nikki

If you're using AIO SEO, the Focus Keyword field helps you double-check to ensure you have an internal & external link, keyword in the first paragraph, etc.

So it is simply a tool to help you include all the relevant things and proper grammar (transition words, etc.) you need for good on-page SEO. If this field is not filled in, it won't make any other difference as far as the search engines are concerned.

Frank

Not sure which SEO plugin you are using.
But the message is telling you to enter a keyword so the SEO plugin can give you some ideas on how to optimize your post. If you follow the WA training and apply it you do not need to be concerned about those warning messages. The message you are getting is not one that should stop you from continuing to create new content posts. You cannot predict when your posts will be indexed and ranked. But they will be and you are doing what you need to do to keep on writing new ones.

Don't even worry about indexing. It happens inevitably when you continue to create content. One thing you can do is request Google to index it via the url inspector inside Google search console. All it does is nudge Google a little bit, but it's nothing to even worry about. You're doing great.

Keep up the good work!

The message you are getting is probably from the SEO plugin you are using (ie All in one SEO or Rank math). This is just a "warning" from the plugin that you have not set the SEO keyword so it cannot score your article properly.

It does not affect your indexing. To get you article indexed you have to tell Google by entering your article's URL to the search console.

If you edited a document in site content and published it, future edits has to be done in WordPress. Site content and WordPress work independently.

I'd place my images in a document in site content and publish it to my site. it will be added to my WordPress media library. Then delete the “temporary image” doc in site content so that it does not get indexed as well.

If you would really like to keep track of your word count you could use a site such as wordcounter .net (remove the space).
You can create an account to track activity and set goals. There are also some more useful features on the righthand sidebar showing things like reading level, speaking time, keyword density, etc.
As said below though, tracking your word count is good for when you start out and for encouraging you to write something every day. But, it's not a metric you'll likely be tracking in the long term so try not to get too caught up in it.

What I love is how I'm now having this problem too.thanks for getting into my mind and pulling out questions Nikki. I would of never known the answer if not for you lol.

Yes, site content only tracks what you initially write there before publishing it. Once the posts are found on your WordPress backoffice any changes or additions are not counted in Site Content.

Initially it is fun to track word count and see progress, but eventually you will probably want to focus more on traffic growth per post and bounce rate and where your audience goes after the initial post.

Hi - once a post is published, it is no longer connected to Site Content. Any changes do not transfer back to it.

If you know who they are, absolutely! But it isn't easy.

I have left small suggestions in the comment I have written to point something out. However, those are the only comments that I have had rejected. If you know their WA profile name you can write there.

To contact the owner of the site probably the only way to contact them is through the contact address they leave.

If you are finding errors in what you submit, it would seem wise to create your response in another doc first (like notepad) so you can review it and correct spelling or what ever it may be. Website owners are very busy people, and it seems like we should respect their time. and if we make a mistake let it be rather than take more of their time.

I don't see why you can't do that, Nikki.
I also think is a very good gesture to do that.

Joe

Hi - yes, you are quite correct in not wanting to leave "feedback" on a site comment, as it would likely be disapproved. And there is no specific way of knowing who the website belongs to, to be able to PM them in WA.

The only option really is to find their website email address, and if its not immediately apparent, then it should definitely be in their Privacy Policy.

Perhaps if you can find a better keyword that is similar to your original, you can update your blog post content and write naturally to include that keyword.

Hi - it's very early days to be judging whether a post is successful or not. With a brand new website, it takes a minimum of 6 months from when a post is published before it finds its final ranking position on Google.

At this stage, it is much more important to be continually adding new content, rather than going back over the older posts.

You could change your keyword phrase but make sure you do not change the URL. If you wish to have a different URL then you could create a new posts.

You can edit ALL except changing the URL , if the URL changes to Google it would be a new post, any ranking that has been done would be lost.

I frequently update keywords on posts that aren't getting the traction they deserve and it always helps. Every blog post can be improved.