Posts
100
Questions
222
Hey all, if you aren't already aware of this, Google has a new algorithm update called BERT and after reading many, many, MANY posts about what it means to bloggers and webmast
Thanks for asking this question, Matthew. I had not heard of Google's BERT and have been trying to work out why one of my sites has lost so much traffic very recently.
Within the past 10 years since I first started affiliate marketing, there have been several Google algorithm updates. My websites were not greatly affected by any of those. But, with BERT there is a considerable loss of traffic with one site.
At least it's good to now know the reason.
Hey Matthew,
Denis asked two days ago and I shared such a post with him in a comment here: Bing vs google page rank? Hope you find this helpful.
Thanks for this, I'm still none the wiser though as the article was really aimed at people searching and not us webmasters.
I'm sure I will eventually get what to do, probably when the next update comes along, lol
Just updated this question with a link to a post that I found very useful so if you see anyone asking about the BERT update then you can send them here
https://www.thehoth.com/blog/google-bert-update/
See more comments
What does the new bert google update mean?
Hey all, if you aren't already aware of this, Google has a new algorithm update called BERT and after reading many, many, MANY posts about what it means to bloggers and webmast
Thanks for sharing this Matthew, I hadn't realized there was yet another one of Google's algorithm updates going on...BERT.
However, I kinda figured something was going on since one of my sites went from being the best traffic it's been yet for a few months in a row, and now it suddenly dropped quite a bit after their update...
Either it's that or a recent change I made with allowing automatic Adsense ads, which I did about the same time as this new algorithm was being rolled out. Oh well, after seeing my results, especially sales being affected, I just changed that again yesterday.
I sure didn't like where certain ads were placed...so I guess I'll see if removing those will help the issue...and, of course, I really need to get to work on some posts I've been meaning to write on that site as well, lol.
Thanks again for sharing and asking about this Matthew!
Best wishes :) ~Sherry
I thought the same thing about adsense, have you seen any changes in traffic since you changed the ad set-up?
Well, so far it looks like things are slowly going back up again now that I removed some of the ads, especially the ones they stuck up at the very top of my site, which I didn't care for at all.
Guess I'll have to wait a bit before messing with the ads again and watch how things go with it since it's still pretty early yet to tell whether it's just the usual up and down, but at least it's now going back up and not continuing a downward spiral, lol.
Definitely going to have to go in and remove ads from the review posts yet though. Actually, I think I can exclude them from ads if I understand it correctly...I'd rather have visitors clicking on my affiliate link than be distracted by ads.
Anyways, writing long-tailed keywords is a great idea to keep doing, and thinking of how you'd actually write it in as a search if you're looking for something. Hopefully your traffic has picked up a bit since writing this post here?
Thanks for asking this question, Matthew. I had not heard of Google's BERT and have been trying to work out why one of my sites has lost so much traffic very recently.
Within the past 10 years since I first started affiliate marketing, there have been several Google algorithm updates. My websites were not greatly affected by any of those. But, with BERT there is a considerable loss of traffic with one site.
At least it's good to now know the reason.
Hey Matthew,
Denis asked two days ago and I shared such a post with him in a comment here: Bing vs google page rank? Hope you find this helpful.
Thanks for this, I'm still none the wiser though as the article was really aimed at people searching and not us webmasters.
I'm sure I will eventually get what to do, probably when the next update comes along, lol
Just updated this question with a link to a post that I found very useful so if you see anyone asking about the BERT update then you can send them here
https://www.thehoth.com/blog/google-bert-update/
See more comments
Hey all, just checking some bad or broken links on my website and a lot of them are from urls that people have left when they leave a comment on my site
Is there a way to
Mathew, you shouldn't need a plugin. If you pull up the comment in WordPress just click on 'Quick Edit' and the commenter's URL will appear, along with the commenter's name and email address, directly below the text of the comment. Just delete the URL and then hit 'Update Comment'. Always check your website live to make sure the URL has gone but that has always worked for us.
Colette and Philip
Yes I have been doing that but not all of the url are bad links so I didn't want to delete them all as I wanted to keep the ones that were ok to give other members here backlinks which helps a lot
Thanks for your help though much appreciated both :)
Hey Matthew,
If you only have one or two broken links in your comments, you could save adding yet another plugin by removing them manually. Here's how: Fix Broken Links In Comments Hope you find this helpful.
I have been doing that but I have been using this great free website for finding broken links
https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com (not an affiliate link)
It even gives you the links to the url that they are on so you can go straight to them and correct them
I just wanted something for future comments instead of going back over them and deleting them
Really appreciate your help though and if you are looking for a broken link finder yourself I really recommend the link above :)
Thanks again :)
Yes Matthew, Loes created an amazing tutorial on the broken link checker: How to Check and Fix Broken Links and I have grown to depend on it too.
The manual method saves having to burden your website with yet another plugin. However, once you have fixed any of the broken links in your website using a plugin, you can deactivate and delete that plugin until the next time you need it.
There's a plugin called "Comment Link Remove" that you might find fits your requirements: https://wordpress.org/plugins/comment-link-remove/
See more comments
Can you stop other urls going on the comment section?
Hey all, just checking some bad or broken links on my website and a lot of them are from urls that people have left when they leave a comment on my site
Is there a way to
Mathew, you shouldn't need a plugin. If you pull up the comment in WordPress just click on 'Quick Edit' and the commenter's URL will appear, along with the commenter's name and email address, directly below the text of the comment. Just delete the URL and then hit 'Update Comment'. Always check your website live to make sure the URL has gone but that has always worked for us.
Colette and Philip
Yes I have been doing that but not all of the url are bad links so I didn't want to delete them all as I wanted to keep the ones that were ok to give other members here backlinks which helps a lot
Thanks for your help though much appreciated both :)
Hey Matthew,
If you only have one or two broken links in your comments, you could save adding yet another plugin by removing them manually. Here's how: Fix Broken Links In Comments Hope you find this helpful.
I have been doing that but I have been using this great free website for finding broken links
https://www.brokenlinkcheck.com (not an affiliate link)
It even gives you the links to the url that they are on so you can go straight to them and correct them
I just wanted something for future comments instead of going back over them and deleting them
Really appreciate your help though and if you are looking for a broken link finder yourself I really recommend the link above :)
Thanks again :)
Yes Matthew, Loes created an amazing tutorial on the broken link checker: How to Check and Fix Broken Links and I have grown to depend on it too.
The manual method saves having to burden your website with yet another plugin. However, once you have fixed any of the broken links in your website using a plugin, you can deactivate and delete that plugin until the next time you need it.
There's a plugin called "Comment Link Remove" that you might find fits your requirements: https://wordpress.org/plugins/comment-link-remove/
See more comments
This Can't be Right!
Just thought I would get one of my old domain names appraised and I was in shock to see the price I was given as an estimate!
Well done Matt, you must be pleased
Where does that estimate come from and how did they value it at that?
I'm not sure how much that is in USD, but whoo hoo! Is there any way you could write a training on how to flip a site? I have flipped a house as a real estate investor, but haven't thought about flipping web sites! Wow!
Christine
It's not far off the same. I couldn't find any training here but this link might help you https://websitebuilders.com/how-to/case-studies/website-flipping/
Hey Matthew,
A similar question was posted either yesterday or earlier today and a member comment with the following blog: Your Website For Sale! Hope you find this helpful.
Thanks Trish. Food for thought. Nathaniel rocks. Don't you wish they had something like this when we were his age?
Try DomainIndex.com. That's one valuation platform. Another is Estibot.com.
Where did you get the above appraisal?
See more comments
Calling all website flippers. I need your help?
This Can't be Right!
Just thought I would get one of my old domain names appraised and I was in shock to see the price I was given as an estimate!
Well done Matt, you must be pleased
Where does that estimate come from and how did they value it at that?
I'm not sure how much that is in USD, but whoo hoo! Is there any way you could write a training on how to flip a site? I have flipped a house as a real estate investor, but haven't thought about flipping web sites! Wow!
Christine
It's not far off the same. I couldn't find any training here but this link might help you https://websitebuilders.com/how-to/case-studies/website-flipping/
Hey Matthew,
A similar question was posted either yesterday or earlier today and a member comment with the following blog: Your Website For Sale! Hope you find this helpful.
Thanks Trish. Food for thought. Nathaniel rocks. Don't you wish they had something like this when we were his age?
Try DomainIndex.com. That's one valuation platform. Another is Estibot.com.
Where did you get the above appraisal?
See more comments
This might sound like a strange question but I have learned recently that Google prefers shorter urls and some of my posts with good keywords might be a bit too long for the se
For anyone who wants to know the answer to this question I have found a great post that has helped me tremendously
https://moz.com/learn/seo/url
Hey Matthew,
It IS recommended that we do that yes, but then sometimes we need to change the title and when that happens then our permalink might not match the title for keywords anymore.
Hope you find this helpful.
I do find that helpful, thank you. But it confuses me quite a lot when I'm trying to find the best approach for my content. Do I stick with the URL keyword or go for the keyword in my post as I can easily change the permalink with a redirect plugin?
Don't think it would matter too much as long as your keyword in title and permalink match at the start.
I've used as many as 3 to 4 keywords in a post but there is always "the best" keyword to use. The best keyword is what I use in my post title and permalinks.
Personally, the only time I use a redirect is when I forgot to shorten my permalink properly. I did that with one post that got published (I had it scheduled) with far too long a link and I could NOT change the permalink. It seems WordPress was preventing me from doing so.
Otherwise I would not bother to use a redirect when changing a title.
Oh the redirection plugin has been abused by me lately as I have spent months updating my old posts from when I first started, lol
Oooh... well THAT is a different subject and a smart move on your part.
Wasn't all that many years ago now that when I updated my old local business website, I merged several articles into one and did NOT create redirects. OUCH did that hurt with Google's temporary drop in rank. Live and learn, right?
Not sure... was too busy to look at Google Analytics but am guessing I must have... or else Google was just really ticked with my making all of those changes.
Too bad... t'is my local business site so I wasn't all that upset. Most of my customers come by word of mouth. I have NEVER gained a customer to my local business from social media NOR from my website. They are only a means of providing credibility for my business and not much more.
If I had of made that mistake with my MMOL site, I woulda' cried f'er sure. LOL!
Sorry for the late reply, I have been super busy. I'm glad you didn't suffer too much for it and I hope that you continue to keep getting local visitors to your site :)
See more comments
Does my url have to be the exact same keyword as my post?
This might sound like a strange question but I have learned recently that Google prefers shorter urls and some of my posts with good keywords might be a bit too long for the se
For anyone who wants to know the answer to this question I have found a great post that has helped me tremendously
https://moz.com/learn/seo/url
Hey Matthew,
It IS recommended that we do that yes, but then sometimes we need to change the title and when that happens then our permalink might not match the title for keywords anymore.
Hope you find this helpful.
I do find that helpful, thank you. But it confuses me quite a lot when I'm trying to find the best approach for my content. Do I stick with the URL keyword or go for the keyword in my post as I can easily change the permalink with a redirect plugin?
Don't think it would matter too much as long as your keyword in title and permalink match at the start.
I've used as many as 3 to 4 keywords in a post but there is always "the best" keyword to use. The best keyword is what I use in my post title and permalinks.
Personally, the only time I use a redirect is when I forgot to shorten my permalink properly. I did that with one post that got published (I had it scheduled) with far too long a link and I could NOT change the permalink. It seems WordPress was preventing me from doing so.
Otherwise I would not bother to use a redirect when changing a title.
Oh the redirection plugin has been abused by me lately as I have spent months updating my old posts from when I first started, lol
Oooh... well THAT is a different subject and a smart move on your part.
Wasn't all that many years ago now that when I updated my old local business website, I merged several articles into one and did NOT create redirects. OUCH did that hurt with Google's temporary drop in rank. Live and learn, right?
Not sure... was too busy to look at Google Analytics but am guessing I must have... or else Google was just really ticked with my making all of those changes.
Too bad... t'is my local business site so I wasn't all that upset. Most of my customers come by word of mouth. I have NEVER gained a customer to my local business from social media NOR from my website. They are only a means of providing credibility for my business and not much more.
If I had of made that mistake with my MMOL site, I woulda' cried f'er sure. LOL!
Sorry for the late reply, I have been super busy. I'm glad you didn't suffer too much for it and I hope that you continue to keep getting local visitors to your site :)
See more comments
Thanks for sharing this Matthew, I hadn't realized there was yet another one of Google's algorithm updates going on...BERT.
However, I kinda figured something was going on since one of my sites went from being the best traffic it's been yet for a few months in a row, and now it suddenly dropped quite a bit after their update...
Either it's that or a recent change I made with allowing automatic Adsense ads, which I did about the same time as this new algorithm was being rolled out. Oh well, after seeing my results, especially sales being affected, I just changed that again yesterday.
I sure didn't like where certain ads were placed...so I guess I'll see if removing those will help the issue...and, of course, I really need to get to work on some posts I've been meaning to write on that site as well, lol.
Thanks again for sharing and asking about this Matthew!
Best wishes :) ~Sherry
I thought the same thing about adsense, have you seen any changes in traffic since you changed the ad set-up?
Well, so far it looks like things are slowly going back up again now that I removed some of the ads, especially the ones they stuck up at the very top of my site, which I didn't care for at all.
Guess I'll have to wait a bit before messing with the ads again and watch how things go with it since it's still pretty early yet to tell whether it's just the usual up and down, but at least it's now going back up and not continuing a downward spiral, lol.
Definitely going to have to go in and remove ads from the review posts yet though. Actually, I think I can exclude them from ads if I understand it correctly...I'd rather have visitors clicking on my affiliate link than be distracted by ads.
Anyways, writing long-tailed keywords is a great idea to keep doing, and thinking of how you'd actually write it in as a search if you're looking for something. Hopefully your traffic has picked up a bit since writing this post here?