Category: News

Rank math has replaced yoast for my client builds over the past two years now and I’m very happy with the results thus far. Rank Math is quick, user friendly and not an absolute whale of code to push around by the servers.

The clients now running Rank Math have experience with Yoast and they are happier with their experience so far as alot of people tell me Yoast is “too much” or needs a degree to use. Clients I have Rank Math deployed on work with SEO experts to populate, track and tag their pages I do not do that myself but I am responsible for setting up the best most capable tool.

Why Rank Math?

Free Features:

  • Set SEO titles/meta descriptions – create templates that automatically apply to content and manually adjust SEO titles/descriptions for individual pieces of content.
  • Set social media descriptions – control text and images for Facebook and Twitter.
  • Focus keyword analysis (supports multiple keywords) – enter one or more focus keywords and see how optimized your content is for those keywords.
  • XML Sitemap – create a more customizable XML sitemap than the default WordPress sitemap feature allows.
  • Structured data/schema – set up sitewide schema markup and also control the schema markup for individual pieces of content.
  • Search Console – connect your site to Google Search Console to automatically submit sitemaps and view Search Console analytics inside your WordPress dashboard.
  • Local SEO and Knowledge Graph – optimize your site for local SEO (only one location for free)
  • Image SEO – improve image SEO and automatically set alt and title tags.
  • Internal Link suggestions – Rank Math will suggest other content on your site to link to while you’re working in the editor.
  • Breadcrumbs – add breadcrumbs to your site.
  • Link Counter – count the number of internal and external links in your content.
  • Redirections – create and manage 301 and 302 redirects.
  • 404 Monitor – monitor your site for 404 errors. You could then redirect common 404 errors to other pages on your site.
  • Google Analytics – add the tracking code and view information.
  • Basic WooCommerce SEO – set product/shop titles/descriptions.

Premium Features:

  • Keyword rank tracking – track your site’s search engine rankings and keyword performance over the past 12 months (pretty unique)
  • Google Trends integration
  • Google Video SEO sitemap
  • Google News SEO sitemap
  • Multiple locations for local SEO
  • More pre-defined schema types (20+)
  • Google AdSense earning history
  • Automatically watermark social media images

Unfortunately I don’t have before and after speed test or load data to affirmatively say that Rank Math is faster but it’s highly recommended by me at the moment. If you’re considering moving to rank math please feel free to submit that request via your client portal!

Developing streamlined websites and scalable solutions.

In 2022 one of my main focuses will be on providing clients with extremely fast and productive websites. In the past I’ve been very focused on “cost conscious” solutions for clients however, aside from purchasing a VPN solution which is very expensive and complicated to manage there had not been great solutions.

I have recently switch my hosting services over to Kinsta. As an advocate I have become an affiliate for Kinsta as well. However let me educate you on why I decided to do so:

  1. nginx servers
  2. Google CDN and cloud services
  3. Privately owned and operated
  4. Their user interface and how they go about connecting your website

With those four points outlined let me explain each one in detail.

Nginx Servers

Why are they important? Load times. That is plain and simple, on average nginx is 2s faster on load then apache which means your TTFB or first byte to load is that much faster. One of my goals as a business owner was to speed up my clients experience and additional to that make sure they had 99.99% up time available to them. This means they can 100% rely on my business to do as advertised to meet their service needs.

Google CDN

Google is beyond a powerhouse, they are a huge portion of the internet and its services. From hosting to email to domains etc google has been there done that. No a days its very common to websites developed using a CDN or content delivery network. Who better to use than google? Are there cheaper options yes, but does cheap = good? Not always.

I have been running on Kinsta’s platform for a month now and I am extremely optimistic about its future and the money I’m paying for it. They hands down are not cheap, but they hands down are the most performance oriented host I’ve been with, and I’ve experienced everything from Azure to WP engine’s corporate packages.

Privately Owned & Operated

I don’t mean any shade in the following, however some companies such as Go Daddy seem to really carry their corporate culture and business operations into other purchases and ventures. A former media temple loyal customer, my most recent experiences with their services since being purchased by GoDaddy has been anything but positive. My issues?

A ton of downtime on clients websites, at least once to twice a week 500 internal errors, server issues or things unavailable. Do they lure you in with free plugins, yes. Do they have a decent UI system to let you manage your hosting needs? Yes. Do they have decent support? No. I have had 1 of 5 people on their support be decent or helpful. In general they direct you to forums or other areas which for the prices my clients pay is not what I’m looking for.

Kinsta is privately owned and operated and I hope they stay that way. Some times as the larger companies purchase these businesses they suffocate some of the unique areas that make them unique.

User Interface

I have used many CMS, user interfaces for web portals from plesk, securi, cpanel etc. I like WPengine’s interface but Kinsta’s is even better then theirs. Kinsta’s portal took me minimal setup time, domain edits took effect very quickly and more impressively the caching and delivery files seemed to really kick in quickly.

My target for 2022 was to build a fast, robust user experience for my clients. A large part of my web experience is for clients to login and use my client portal to submit information, requests and work related to their service plans. When you deal with an assortment of clients ranging in sizes, there are multiple applications for this form, however one constant remains, speed. Speed is critical and I was not happy with my current host.

If you’re running just a basic info site, they were sufficient if you’re running a business online they we’re not.

Train your staff, build your own templates, create robust media rich posts and much more.

I am currently putting together a library of training materials for clients to access. The library will cover beaver builder items, SEO tools such as rank math and yoast, revolution slider, the grid plus and all of the other tools I deploy on clients websites across the various industries.

The release of this new library of items is TBD however I’m considering trickling them into the platform slowly but steadily. Alot of the videos will stem from client requests, what you want to see most so please remember to leave me improvement tips, ideas etc. This helps in not only content production but delivering you items you want.

More coming soon.

/jy