How to Split Post or Page Title in WordPress

Do you want to split a WordPress post or page title into a new line? By default, your post title is just a single heading, and you cannot break it into a new line. In this article, we will show you how to split post or page title in WordPress.

Difference between Split Title and a Subtitle in WordPress

Splitting a post or page title allows you to break the title into a new line without changing formatting or style.

On the other hand, a subtitle allows you to add two different headings for your WordPress post or page.

See our tutorial on how to add subtitle for posts and pages in WordPress for detailed instructions.

Having said that, let’t see how to split post or page title in WordPress without writing any code.

Split Post or Page Title in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Page Title Splitter plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to edit a post or page where you want to split the title. On the post editor screen, you need to click on the little button below the title field.

Clicking on the button will add a pointer below the title field. You will need to click on the pointer to select it.

After that you can move the cursor inside text field to the point where you want to split the title.

You can also add multiple split points to break your title into more lines. Just click on the icon and then move the marker by selecting and putting the cursor at the right place.

You can also delete a marker. Just click on a marker to select it, and you will notice that the title splitter button will turn into a close button. Clicking on it will remove the title splitting marker from your post title.

Once you are finished adding and adjusting the split marker, you can just save or publish your post.

You can now visit the post or page to see the split post title on your website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to split post or page title in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to add a reading progress bar with your WordPress posts.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Split Post or Page Title in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Change the Author of a Post in WordPress

Do you want to change the author of a post in WordPress? Sometimes you may need to display a different author, then the person who added the post in WordPress. You do not need to copy and paste the entire WordPress post with a different user account. In this article, we will show you how to easily change the author of a post in WordPress with just a few clicks.

Before You Change The Author of a Post in WordPress

If you just want to show your own name on a post written by some other user on your WordPress site, then you are ready to follow the instructions in this article.

On the other hand, if you want to show a different user as author, then first you need to make sure that this user exists on your WordPress site. See our guide on how to add new users and authors in WordPress for detailed instructions.

You can see and manage all users on your WordPress site by visiting the Users page when logged in with your WordPress administrator account.

If you just want to change the way your name is displayed, then check out our guide on how to add or change your full name in WordPress.

Having said that, let’s see how to quickly and easily change the author of a post in WordPress.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Changing Author of a WordPress Post

First you need to edit the post or page where you want to change the author name. On the post edit screen, you need to click on the Screen Options menu at the top right corner of the screen.

This will show a flydown menu on the screen with a bunch of options. You need to check the box next to ‘Author’ option.

After that, you need to scroll down on the post edit screen just below the post editor. You will see the Author box there.

Simply click on the drop down menu and select a different author.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Draft or Update button to save your changes.

That’s all, you have successfully changed the author of a post in WordPress.

Quickly Change Author for Multiple Posts in WordPress

Changing author by editing a post is easy. However, if you have to do this for multiple posts, then it would take quite a lot of time to do that.

There is an easier way to quickly change author for multiple WordPress posts at once. To bulk update authors, click on the Posts menu from your WordPress admin bar. This will list all the posts on your WordPress site.

By default, WordPress shows 20 posts per page. If you want to display more posts, then you need to click on the Screen Options and change the number of posts you want to display.

Now you need to select the posts where you want to change the author. After selecting posts, select ‘Edit’ from ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu and then click the ‘Apply Button’.

WordPress will now show you Bulk Edit metabox. You need to select the new author by clicking on the dropdown menu next to Author option.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button to store your changes.

That’s all, you have successfully changed the author for multiple WordPress posts without editing them individually.

We hope this article helped you learn how to change the author of a post in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress backup plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Change the Author of a Post in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Add Odd/Even Class to Your Post in WordPress Themes

Do you want to add Odd and Even classes to posts in your WordPress theme? Adding an odd and even class allows you to style every other post differently. In this article, we will show you how to add odd/even class to your post in WordPress themes.

Why Add Odd/Even Class to Your Posts in WordPress Themes?

Many WordPress themes use an old or even class for WordPress comments. It helps users visualize where one comment ends and the next one begins.

Similarly, you can use this technique for your WordPress posts. It looks aesthetically pleasing and helps users quickly scan pages with lots of content. It is particularly helpful for homepage of magazine or news websites.

Having said that, let’s see how to add an odd and even class to your posts in WordPress theme.

Adding Odd/Even Class to Posts in WordPress Theme

WordPress generates default CSS classes and adds them to different items on your website on the fly. These CSS classes help plugin and theme developers add their own styles for different items.

WordPress also comes with a function called post_class, which is used by theme developers to add classes to post item. See our guide on how to style each WordPress post differently.

The post_class is also a filter, which means you can hook your own functions to it. This is exactly what we will be doing here.

Simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function oddeven_post_class ( $classes ) {
   global $current_class;
   $classes[] = $current_class;
   $current_class = ($current_class == 'odd') ? 'even' : 'odd';
   return $classes;
}
add_filter ( 'post_class' , 'oddeven_post_class' );
global $current_class;
$current_class = 'odd';

This function simply adds odd to the first post, then even, and so on.

You can find the odd and even classes in your site’s source code. Simply take mouse to a post title and then right click to select Inspect or Inspect Element.

Now that you have added even and odd classes to your posts. The next step is to style them using CSS. You can add your custom CSS to your child theme’s stylesheet, or by using Simple Custom CSS plugin.

Here is a sample CSS that you can use as a starting point:

.even {
background:#f0f8ff;  
} 
.odd {
 background:#f4f4fb;
}

This is how it looked on our test site:

If you don’t know how to use CSS, then you may want to check out CSS Hero. It allows you to add CSS to any part of your WordPress site without writing any code.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add odd/even class to your posts in WordPress themes. You may also want to see our guide on how to style your WordPress comments layout.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add Odd/Even Class to Your Post in WordPress Themes appeared first on WPBeginner.

How to Link to External Links from the Post Title in WordPress

Do you want to add an external link as post title in WordPress? Sometimes you may just want to share a link with your users. Instead of sending them to a post, you may want the post title to link to the other website. In this article, we will show you how to link to external links from the post title in WordPress.

Method 1: Linking Post Title to an External Link in WordPress using Plugin

This method is easier and is recommended for beginners.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Page Links To plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, simply create a new post or edit an existing one. You will notice the new ‘Page Links To’ meta box below the post editor.

Click on ‘A custom URL’ to add the link you want to add to post title. Now you can save or publish your post.

That’s all. The post title will now link to the custom URL you provided.

It is not necessary to use it for external links only. You can also use it to send users to different posts and pages on your WordPress site.

Method 2: Add External Link to Post Title Using Code

This method requires you to add code to your WordPress site. You can use this method if you are comfortable with pasting snippets from web into WordPress.

Simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function print_post_title() {
global $post;
$thePostID = $post->ID;
$post_id = get_post($thePostID);
$title = $post_id->post_title;
$perm = get_permalink($post_id);
$post_keys = array(); $post_val = array();
$post_keys = get_post_custom_keys($thePostID);

if (!empty($post_keys)) {
foreach ($post_keys as $pkey) {
if ($pkey=='external_url') {
$post_val = get_post_custom_values($pkey);
}
}
if (empty($post_val)) {
$link = $perm;
} else {
$link = $post_val[0];
}
} else {
$link = $perm;
}
echo '<h2><a href="'.$link.'" rel="bookmark" title="'.$title.'">'.$title.'</a></h2>';
}

This code looks simply looks for a custom field containing your custom URL. If the post has the custom field, then it outputs the post title linked to your URL.

The next step is to replace your theme’s default display of post title with this function. You will find it in archives.php, content.php, category.php and other templates. It would look something like this:

<?php the_title( sprintf( '<h2 class="entry-title"><a href="%s" rel="bookmark">', esc_url( get_permalink() ) ), '</a></h2>' ); ?>

You need to replace it with this code:

<?php print_post_title() ?>

The code part is over, now you need to add the external URL to the post. Simply edit the post or create a new one. On the post editor page, look for the custom fields meta box.

If you cannot see the custom fields meta box, then you need to click Screen Options in the top right corner of the screen. This will bring down a menu where you need to check the box next to ‘Custom Fields’.

You will find the custom fields meta box below the post editor.

Click on ‘Enter New’ and then enter external_url in the ‘Name’ field and the URL you want to add to post title in the ‘Value’ field.

You can now save or publish your post. That’s all, your post title will now be linked to the URL you added in the custom field.

Next time you need to add a link, you just need to select the external_url custom field from the drop down menu and enter your external link in the value field.

We hope this article helped you learn how to link to external links from the post title in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to add an external link icon on your WordPress Site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Link to External Links from the Post Title in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

Guest Post: Finding Your Feet with Cron Jobs

alt="Guest Post: Finding Your Feet with Cron Jobs" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

What is so amazing about computers? Most will say that it’s their calculation power; others will state that it’s their amazing capabilities for 3-D applications, rendering, design and gaming.

I’d say it is the Internet and automation capabilities.

There are 1,7 billion Internet users today and this number grew 300% since 2002. A lot of these people have href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/hosting-reviews/">web hosting accounts for their personal blogs, pages, forums, web sites, e-shops and so on. So if you are one of those people, think about how often you find yourself in need to repeat simple operations numerous times a week to keep your site clean, optimized and safe. If your answer is “often” and you are tired of this – here you’ll find a tip how to make your life a bit easier.

This article is about the cron – a unique automation utility for Unix based servers.

Cron daemon

To describe the concept of a cron job we should first of all consider a service running on a server. Most things executed on any computer are processes, browser being the most familiar one. If you open your browser and then go to your Task Manager, you will discover that it is running as a process.

Simply speaking process is an application, your computer is handling at the moment. The service, on the other hand, is a long running application, that is usually started automatically on system start up. It runs in the background, consuming as little resources as possible when it is not needed. When the time comes for it to perform an activity it “wakes up”, does what it must and then returns into sleeping mode? again. Examples of server processes are http service, MySQL service, ftp service and so on. On Unix servers (i.e. servers powered by Unix, Linux or FreeBSD) such services are usually called daemons.

The Cron Daemon is a special service capable of executing tasks at specific points in time without user’s intervention or control. It can be called an automatic scheduling machine. The name href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron">cron comes from the word title="Chronograph" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronograph">chronograph . By using cron scripts, you can create sets of commands you want executed on a scheduled basis automatically.

Crontab and commands

Cron commands are stored in a special file. It is called crontab(which stands for cron table). The list of commands you can execute manually can be performed with a cron as well. Normally cron tasks include the following:

• making backups;
• any kind of file operations (deleting, copying, moving, renaming etc.);
• sending and receiving updates emails;
• installing software updates;
• checking links on other websites;
• optimize databases;
• many more;

The mentioned crontab is a file that usually has the following content:

01 * * * * interpreter-1 script_path-1
02 4 * * * interpreter-2 script_path-2
22 4 * * 0 interpreter-3 script_path-3
42 4 1 * * interpreter-4 script_path-4

In the example above the first 5 items in each line are the time scheduling parameters. First number stands for the minute field, second – for the hour field, third – for the day field, fourth – for the month field, fifth – for the weekday field. The possible values and field descriptions are shown in the table below:

class="border" width="560" cellpadding="2">bgcolor="#dddddd" width="101">Fieldbgcolor="#dddddd" width="93">Valuebgcolor="#dddddd" width="356">Descriptionvalign="top" width="101">minutevalign="top" width="93">0-59valign="top" width="356">The exact minute that the command is executed.valign="top" width="101">hourvalign="top" width="93">0-23valign="top" width="356">The hour of the day that the command is executed.valign="top" width="101">dayvalign="top" width="93">1-31valign="top" width="356">The day of the month that the command is executed.valign="top" width="101">monthvalign="top" width="93">1-12valign="top" width="356">The month of the year that the command is executed.valign="top" width="101">weekdayvalign="top" width="93">0-6valign="top" width="356">The day of the week that the command is executed. Sunday=0, Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, and so forth.

Working with precise time and dates may be somewhat uncomfortable. Therefore, a special syntax is introduced: “*” – stands for any (so called wildcard symbol). If you want to configure the script to run at 15th minute of every hour you simply use the following sequence:

15 * * * *

If you want the script to run every 15 minutes you use the sequence like this:

15/* * * * *

The interpreter item in this example defines the shell or program you want to run the script with. For example, to a run a regular shell script daily with the bash shell, you use the following line:

* * 1/* * * /bin/bash /scripts/script1.sh

Here “/scripts/script1.sh” (script path from the cron tab file example) is an absolute path to the file your script is located in.

To edit crontab, use the command “crontab –e“in console. Editing crontabs in the console as well as using console itself is usually very inconvenient for regular users. Therefore, almost every hosting control panel contains a graphical user interface (GUI) for working with crontabs and configuring crons.

Crontab GUIs

The number of hosting control panels is quite large today, but there are a few most widely used by hosting companies due to their friendly interface and good integration with operating systems. Let’s take a look at how to configure the crontab in the two very popular panels: cPanel and DirectAdmin.

The GUIs of these two panels use the same concept as a regular cron table file. The time scheduling parameters remain the same, as well as their syntax. To specify months, days, hours and minutes, you still have to use numbers and the approach described earlier in the text. The interpreter and script path are defined in a separate field in these GUIs. This is also true for the email address for sending logs (available only for cPanel, while DirectAdmin will send the logs to the default e-mail address of the user). If you want no logs sent at all, you need to add the following command after the script path: “>/dev/null 2>&1“. DirectAdmin’s panel has a special button for this, as shown on the screenshots below.

cPanel Cron Job Menu

To get to the crontab GUI, find the Cron Job button in the home of your href="http://www.cpanel.net/">cPanel:
class="border" alt="cPanel " src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2010/0303-1.jpg" width="750" />
style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 1: cPanel “Cron jobs” menu icon

class="border" alt="cPanel Cron Jobs menu fields" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2010/0303-2.jpg" width="750" />
style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 2: cPanel Cron Jobs menu fields

DirectAdmin Cron Job Menu

Locate the Conjobs button to enter the href="http://www.directadmin.com/">DirectAdmin crontab configuration GUI:

class="border" alt="DirectAdmin CronJobs" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/images/2010/0303-3.jpg" width="750" />
style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 3: DirectAdmin Cronjobs menu

Cron scripts

When you know how to correctly configure the crontab scheduling, all you need to do to run a script. You can either write one yourself, using a regular text editor (like notepad on Windows), or you can search for it on the web. What’s good about cron scripts is that they can easily be modified and can be used with almost any software installed on your server. Writing your own scripts requires knowledge of the commands of the specific interpreter you are planning to use; thereby, before searching for specific instructions, decide which interpreter you’ll use. C shell is the most widely used interpreter, so if you are interested in creating your own scripts, then the best place to start is href="http://www.freeos.com/guides/lsst/">Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial.

Bottom Line

Automating tasks performed for a hosting account can save you a lot of time and ensure the safety of hosted data. One of the best and easiest ways to schedule autonomous execution of various actions is to use the cron job utility available on most Unix, Linux and FreeBSD servers.

Great advantage of cron jobs is the fact that tasks are performed without any intervention from the user’s side. Distinctive features of cron jobs include easiness of configuration, solid execution reliability and ability to use any installed interpreter for scripts. Additional comfort comes with the use of hosting control panels, as they provide GUIs for scheduling tasks. For more information on crons check the crontab href="http://linuxmanpages.com/man5/crontab.5.php">manual page.

About Sergey Smirnov.

Smirnovi4 graduated from Ukrainian National Aerospace University in 2010 with Master’s degree in “Propulsion systems and power installations of spacecrafts”. Currently he enjoys working as a writer for the href="http://svhostingblog.com/">SiteValley official blog and occasionally assists with marketing tasks. Author likes extreme sports (skateboarding, snowboarding, parachuting and scuba diving particularly). Music of his choice is punk and indie rock. His free time he dedicates to reading news of IT industry and music. Two of Smirnovi4’s greatest weaknesses are Dr. Pepper and flight simulators.

Page 29 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

Blogger Tutorial (3/6): Writing Your First Post

alt="Blogger Tutorial (3/6): Writing Your First Post" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/default-image-500x308_c.jpg" />

Hi again, how have you guys been? Remember in our href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/blog-hosting/blogger-tutorial-26-setup-your-first-blogspot-blog/">last tutorial (Setup Your First Blogspot Blog) we created our Blogger account and also configured it to our liking? Today, we’re writting our first post! I hope you’re as excited as I am. I still remember writing my href="http://confirmcekap.blogspot.com/2005/11/meaning.html">first post on my birthday year 2005 describing what my blog is all about. It’s really great fun having your own place in cyberspace and writing down part of your memory and sharing your joy/sorrow with others. And now, we are going to do just that!

The writing interface on Blogger.com

This is your writing window and you might want to get a bit familiar with the interface:

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/1002-1.jpg" alt="Writing window at Blogger.com" />

Some key functions on the writing panel:

1. The Undo/Redo button
2. Strikethrough, YEAH! So you could write something like this: “Although I’m a rocket scientist smart, I tend to be humble.”
3. The highlight button, example “That freaking T-shirt costs style="background-color: yellow;">0?!? NO WAY!”
4. Hyperlinking. This is really useful to lead you readers to another site by clicking some text. For e.g., please click href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/">here. (Ooppss, I mean the word “here” is demonstrating a hyperlink, not an example on how to hyperlink is available there, haha!
5. Insert Image button. We’ll talk more about this.)
6. Preview gives you a snapshot on how your post will look like when published. It is always advisable to preview your post before really hitting the “Publish” button.
7. Labels functionality. For your posts, you are able to tag them into categories of your wish, e.g. Food&Travel, Work, Rants, etc. If your reader clicks on Food&Travel, all posts with the associated label will be sorted out and presented to him/her. How convenient!

What to write in your first blog post?

Now, you may wonder, “How should I write my first post?” The answer, unfortunately, varies. For me, my first post was about what my blog title meant. As a general guidance, you might want to consider these three points when writing your first post:

Who are you?
An introduction of you as the owner of the blog, maybe some particulars on your occupation, location, and interests.

Why are you blogging?
This is quite important to your readers but it is more important to yourself, really. Knowing why you want to blog is a great motivation to keep on doing so and you may find yourself writing more quality posts.

What will you be blogging about?
By having a general idea on what you will be writing in the next posts/future and relating them in your first post, it will get your readers coming back for more as you write.

I must admit that the above is a more conventional way of starting your blogging journey. It should work for most bloggers but there are also available tips on the net on writing your first post, creatively/differently. Have a look!

• href="http://www.copyblogger.com/5-simple-ways-to-open-your-blog-post-with-a-bang/">5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post with a Bang
• href="http://www.mintblogger.com/2008/02/how-to-write-good-blog-post.html">How to Write Good Blog Post
• href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/writing-effective-blog-posts/">Writing Effective Blog Posts

Getting into action

Haha, I think I’m dragging too much on the introduction. We will really write our first post now.

To set an example, I have already created a new blog “E-quan Travels”. The idea of this blog is to share with my readers the places I’ve been to and the memories along the journey. Let’s see if you could get some idea on how to write your first post by seeing how I write mine.

First, a snapshot on my Page Elements:

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/1002-2.jpg" alt="Page Elements" />

Writing the text

On the bottom you could see the words “Draft saved at..”. Blogger automatically saves your work periodically so that you wouldn’t lose it just in case unfortunate event happens, say href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death">BSOD?

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/1002-3.jpg" alt="Writing a post at Blogger.com" />

Attaching a picture

First, you’ll have to click the “Insert Image” button. You will then see the images below:

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/1002-4.jpg" alt="How to insert image" />

Click “Choose File” and choose the picture you would like to attach

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/1002-5.jpg" alt="How to insert image to your blog?" />

After successful uploading, you will see a thumbnail of the picture. You may click “Choose File” to add more pictures or “OK” once you’re done

class="border" src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/1002-6.jpg" alt="Image option" />

You will also be given options on the size of the picture and where to position it. Cool!

id="floatright">src="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.com/images/2009/1002-7.jpg" alt="Inserting video into your blogpost" />

One Year Later: Post Penguin and Google Analysis

alt="One Year Later: Post Penguin and Google Analysis" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-9-500x500_c.jpg" />

Update: A new round of Penguin filter is rolled out on May 22, read my title="Penguin 2.0 Update" href="http://www.webrevenue.co/search-engine-optimization/penguin-2-0-roundups-studies-and-losers-analysis/">Penguin 2.0 roundups, studies, and losers analysis for more details.

When Google first rolled out Penguin, this was published on title="Google announcement on Penguin Updates" href="http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html" target="_blank">the company’s official blog:

 In the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted webspam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.

And that was almost one year ago.

How has Google changed since then? What does the search result look like today? Did Google walk the talk and kill off webspams? How do SEOs adapt and play along with Google’s new pet?

The idea of comparing Google’s before-and-after SERP popped up while I was doing my own SEO test recently. By looking into websites that got filtered and comparing them with those that remain in the top SERP, perhaps we can pick up a trend and come with a better SEO plan in 2013.

And So I Begin…

Designing My Case Study

Using title="Google Adwords Tool" href="https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS" target="_blank">Google Adwords Tool, I picked up roughly 500 popular search terms that were rated as high competition by Google in various industries. Then I tried to sort things out a little and selected 300 search terms with at least 10,000 global searches.

To give you a brief idea, here are 10 samples of the search terms I looked at.

width="602" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">nowrap="nowrap" width="271">KWnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">Competition

nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="center">Global

nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="center">Local

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">hosting reviewsnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">90,500

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">49,500

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">canon digital camerasnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">201,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">49,500

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">underwater camerasnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">165,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">74,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">backup softwarenowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">450,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">165,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">cocktail dressesnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">673,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">368,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">fax through internetnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">27,100

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">12,100

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">lace dressesnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">673,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">368,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">cheap flights to zurichnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">14,800

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">1,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">weight loss tipsnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">165,000

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">60,500

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="271">stockmarket tipsnowrap="nowrap" width="131">align="center">High

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="107">align="right">12,100

valign="bottom" nowrap="nowrap" width="93">align="right">1,000

 

I am aware that Google had released X number of Penguin Updates, Y number of Panda Updates, DMCA penalty, EMD updates, ad nauseum updates during the period. Websites that got penalized or kicked out from the top 10 may or may not be caused by Penguin. However, the main idea of this article is to see what works with Google today and what kind of websites that ranked well one year ago were dropped today.

Obtaining the Before and After SERPs

Then, I fired up SpyFu and check the top 10 results for each search term in March 2013 and April 2012, which are the search results before and one-year-after Penguin.

Just in case you were on SpyFu and have no idea how this is done – there’s a small icon in the Classic Search section named ‘Cached SERP Page’, clicking on it will lead you to the search results cached monthly by the system. By looking backward and rewinding back to April 2012, we get to see the difference between SERP today and SERP one year ago.

Analyzing the Results

After I got my before and after results, I analyze the websites using SEO Moz tool and Majestic SEO. The observations (details like link metrics, Moz’s Domain Authority and Page Authority measurements, number of websites dropped in each set of search results, domain age, link profiles, anchor text distribution, backlink citation flows, etc.) and personal comments were then recorded in a messy Excel file.

It was a lot easier to say than to get this done. It took me more than a week of hard work to look at more than 280 search result pages and 1,500 websites. I was forced to skip some of the sites in order to complete the job before Penguin’s 1st year anniversary, which is April 24th.

How the Landscape at Google Has Changed

Without revealing too many sensitive details, here are my key observations.

Observation 1: Minimum 30% Changes

At least 30% of the old top 10 websites were replaced in today’s result. In many cases, four to six websites that weren’t in the top 10 one year ago now rank in the top on Google.

Observation 2: Google A Better Place Today Compared To One Year Ago

Google updates – be it Penguin, Panda, Bourbon, or Florida – were meant to deliver a better search results to the users.

We want people doing white hat search engine optimization (or even no search engine optimization at all) to be free to focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites. As always, we’ll keep our ears open for feedback on ways to iterate and improve our ranking algorithms toward that goal.

Is Google providing a better result for the searchers – in terms of usefulness, relevance, and spam control?

Looking at the 280+ samples, I would say the current SERP is, surprisingly, much better than one year ago. Okay, my view does not represent billions of other searchers, but trust me, the differences between SERP now and SERP one year ago are very obvious.

For example, on a search term related to Internet faxing service (76.5+ million results), three affiliate sites filled with some mediocre articles were removed from the top 10. On a search term related to a very popular underwater gadget (11+ million results),  two extremely famous but useless content farms were replaced by informative websites owned by the gadget manufacturers.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-836" alt="Comparing Google SERP before-and-after Penguin" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-1.jpg" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-1.jpg 800w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-1-300x201.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-1-750x503.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-832" alt="Comparing Google SERP before-and-after Penguin" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-5.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-5.jpg 800w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-5-300x244.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-5-750x612.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />

On another search for cheap flights to one of the popular European destinations, the old result page was dominated by five domains whereas the new result page now displays results from 10 different domains – giving the searchers more varieties and comparison choices. The same goes for a popular fashion search, there are nine, instead of six, different domains on the top 10 results.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-833" alt="Comparing Google SERP before-and-after Penguin" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-4.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-4.jpg 800w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-4-300x201.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-4-750x503.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-834" alt="Comparing Google SERP before-and-after Penguin" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-3.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-3.jpg 800w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-3-300x201.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-3-750x503.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" />

In brief, Google’s search results today have fewer junk sites (those sites with very little meaningful content) and consist of more varieties of sites (hence, benefiting the searchers) – thanks to Google’s Panda Update.

Observation 3: Link Manipulations

Next,  I took a closer look on some of the high ranking sites. Apparently, many high ranking sites are still using  questionable (by Google’s guidelines) link building practices.

Has Google killed off link manipulations? The quick answer is no. But somehow, the search giant manages to sweep out many thin content sites from its search results.

Observation 4: Diverse Anchor Text

Sites that rank well are normally very diverse in terms of back link anchor texts. Below are some samples of sites that occupy the top spots in competitive markets – note that these high ranking sites are having at least 75% diversify anchor text.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-838" style="border: 0px;" alt="Link Profile Of High Ranking Sites" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-6.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-6.jpg 615w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-6-157x300.jpg 157w" sizes="(max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px" />

Observation 5: Domain Authority

Google loves internal pages from a strong domain – I guess that is the  ‘Brand Factor’ in play. I use SEO Moz’s Domain Authority (it’s not the best metric but that’s the best we have) to measure a domain strength and, in most cases, internal pages that rank top five in a competitive market are coming from websites with at least DA score 65.

Here’s five random samples I picked up from my messy Excel file.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-839" alt="Domain Authority vs Google Rank" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-7.jpg" width="750" />

Here’s data driven from a larger samples.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter wp-image-840" alt="DA Score vs Google Ranks" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-8.jpg" width="750" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-8.jpg 615w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/0416-8-300x164.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 615px) 100vw, 615px" />

How To Adapt To Post-Penguin Google

Here are a few tips on how to adapt to the new Google one year after Penguin Updates.

Please bear in mind that these tips were drawn from my personal research and studies – which are limited to the data I can access and dependent on several uncontrolled variables such as the accuracy of the tools I am using (SpyFu, Majestic, etc.). I highly recommend you do your own research before making any important decision and strongly encourage you to post your comment here if you disagree with my findings.

Have Backup Plans For Your Life

At least 30% of Google’s top 10 positions changed hands in the past 12 months. SEO is a volatile game, you’ll need a plan B, plan C, and maybe a plan D. Having some savings and business running on the side is a must for the long run – just in case things don’t work out the way you wish, there’s still something to support you and your family.

Test And Diversify

Scale up; test and diversify everything you can. Study different ways to do web marketing, build different traffic sources to your sites, learn and use different SEO methods on multiple sites – should one or several of your sites under-perform or get penalized, you’ll still have others that should perform well enough.

Be ROI Focused

Try your best to balance your books. Your investments – be it a new link building method or social media marketing campaign – should be measured closely and fine-tuned from time to time.

Create Good Content

Google Panda is very good in catching websites with poor content. Furthermore, title="SEO Theory's link's lifespan" href="http://www.seo-theory.com/2012/02/14/the-average-lifespan-of-a-link-is-six-months/" target="_blank">most links don’t last as long as content, why spend so much effort building links to your mediocre content? Build better content for long-term success.

Build A Domain That Google Trusts

Remember Eric Schmidt said “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.” Unfortunately, in order to succeed in Google’s universe, we have to play by Google’s rules. It’s no coincidence that Google is favoring  websites with higher DA scores in its ranking system. If you want to rank well across multiple competitive search result pages, you need to have a strong domain.

Be Really, Really Good In Playing Catch Up Game With Google

Google’s ranking factors today have changed drastically compared to one year ago. And it’s clear that title="Google Penguin Updates " href="http://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-four-16486.html" target="_blank">even bigger changes are coming in the near future.

Can the system still be gamed? Yes, I believe it can be done.

In fact, many skilled SEOs are still able to beat Google algorithm with their secret recipe. But the window is closing fast and there’s a high risk of getting nothing back in return for your effort. To me, it seems almost pointless to game the system today as it is easier (and more rewarding in long term) to build valuable content and focus on the fundamentals (i.e. thorough keyword research, target on 1,000 long tail keywords instead of 10 short tail, basic on-page SEO, proper site navigation designs, etc.).

Starting Over Is One Of The Options

One last piece of advice, if all things failed, I want you to know that it is okay to start over. I have seen companies pour millions of dollars into trying to revive from a Google slap and get nothing in return. At the same time, I noticed that some new sites, with the right recipe, get to higher rankings easily. If you’re not too concerned with branding, making a new site and starting over again might be the better option.

Page 21 – Web Hosting Secret Revealed

5 Steps to Writing a Blog Post that Goes Viral

alt="5 Steps to Writing a Blog Post that Goes Viral" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/writing-copy-500x286_c.jpg" />

It’s the dream of every blogger to write a post that gets picked up by social media and goes around the Internet like a fast-moving fire. We see these viral topics all the time. It might be a video of a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79oC63H7HbI" target="_blank">baby laughing or an article about a href="http://blog.flickr.net/en/2014/03/21/mothers-storybook-photos-become-viral-sensation/" target="_blank">mom creating storybook photos. Trying to break the code and understand what will go viral and what won’t can seem like an insurmountable task. Fortunately, by studying what others have done and sticking to some tried and true techniques, you’ll have a good chance of tapping into what readers want to read and want to share with others.

Why Do Some Posts Go Viral?

class="alignright size-full wp-image-9084" alt="baby laughing" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/baby-laughs.png" width="300" height="224" />
There was an interesting article in the href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/the-six-things-that-make-stories-go-viral-will-amaze-and-maybe-infuriate-you.html" target="_blank">New Yorker in January. The author, Maria Konnikova, discusses the time she spent while she was a student at Stanford studying what topics were most read in the Wall Street Journal. While she couldn’t find a pattern as far as the topics, she did find some interesting connections in how the articles were presented to the reader and which ones seemed to go viral. Emotion was the number one thing she found that made a post resonate with readers (tugged at heartstrings, made her angry, etc.)

Even more interesting, though, was that if the article evoked EXTREME emotion, then the reader was more likely to share it. Anger over a scandal, for example, had as strong of an effect as something that made the reader laugh hysterically. She ties this into Aristotle’s theory about a person’s ethos, pathos and logos and how emotion makes us act.

In the article, she uses the example of the site Upworthy, which focuses on videos. The entire concept of the site has a positive underlying message and the headlines are all designed to evoke some type of emotion in the reader and because readers have shared those videos, the site now has over 87 million regular site visitors.

For example, some recent headlines include:

• Which Companies Buy Elections? A Scary State-By-State Map.
• A Pregnant Woman Learns Her Baby Has Down Syndrome. People Who Have It Answer Her One Big Question.
• Artificial-Intelligence Researcher Tricked Into Falling In Love With A Robot. Twice.

What do you think? Do those headlines make you want to find out more?

href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-copy-writing/5-steps-to-writing-a-blog-post-that-goes-viral/attachment/share-social-media/" rel="attachment wp-att-9086">class="size-medium wp-image-9086 alignright" alt="share social media" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/share-social-media-284x300.jpg" width="284" height="300" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/share-social-media-284x300.jpg 284w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/share-social-media.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px" />

5 Quick Steps to Go Viral

5 – Make It Easy to Share

The first and easiest thing you can do to help your post go viral is to make it easy for your readers to share that post.

• Install a Plugin such as href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/1-click-retweetsharelike/" target="_blank">1-click Retweet/Share/Like andhref="http://wordpress.org/plugins/shareaholic/" target="_blank"> Shareaholic.
• Share the link on your own social media pages so that people can quickly share or retweet without having to go through too many steps. Ask them to share and retweet in the post.

4 – Know Your Topic

If you aren’t already writing in a niche, you should be. Knowing your topic and knowing it well is what makes for content that can’t be replicated elsewhere and that readers will feel is worthy of sharing. If you don’t have this knowledge, consider hiring someone who does to write for your blog.

Over at href="http://writetodone.com/3-secrets-to-writing-blog-posts-that-go-viral/" target="_blank">WritetoDone blog, Matt Hutchinson talks about the importance of writing to your niche. However, he takes his advice a step farther and also says that it is vital to stay up to date on industry trends and news in your niche. You can’t write trending topics if you don’t know what those trending topics are. He also recommends knowing the community you’re writing for. He says:

“Find out where your ideal readers hang out online. Visit the most popular blogs in your niche. Read everything that’s discussed in the comments, especially for the most popular topics.”

This is excellent advice, because these are the topics your readers want to know more about. Also, these are the people who are already engaged in online blogging. They are more likely to share your posts with others who might want to know the same information.

id="attachment_9088" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright">href="http://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/blog/web-copy-writing/5-steps-to-writing-a-blog-post-that-goes-viral/attachment/catchy-headlines/" rel="attachment wp-att-9088">class="size-full wp-image-9088" alt="catchy headline" src="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/catchy-headlines.jpg" width="300" height="449" srcset="http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/catchy-headlines.jpg 300w, http://whsr.webrevenueinc1.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/catchy-headlines-200x300.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />class="wp-caption-text">Photo Credit: href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/11121568@N06/2119206528/">Alan Cleaver via href="http://compfight.com">Compfight href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">/>