​There is nothing more frustrating than working hard to craft the perfect website just to have search engines shun it. I get it, content creators are already stretched too thin. The last thing they want to worry about is dealing with a technical SEO issue. But sometimes we got to put on our digital forensics caps and take a peek under the hood. We will address 3 of the common SEO issues and how to avoid them!


Blocking the site crawling from search engines
Your robots.txt file gives instructions about its website to web robots. Blocking a site to a search engine can occur through a variety of unfortunate scenarios.


For example, blocking a website at the robots.txt level by accident when launching a site into production.


How To Avoid:
This can be avoided by checking your robots.txt file prior to launch. The robots.txt file is located at:"https//:www.example.com/robots.txt".


There are two important considerations when using /robots.txt:

• Robots can ignore your /robots.txt. Especially malware robots that scan the web for security vulnerabilities, and email address harvesters used by spammers will pay no attention.
• The /robots.txt file is a publicly available file. Anyone can see what sections of your server you don't want robots to use.

Internal Site Content Duplication


Duplicate content while does not technically cause website penalties it can still impact search engine rankings. Duplicate content is defined as content that appears on the Internet in more than one place. That "one place" consists of a unique web address or URL. So when the same content appears on multiple web addresses, you've got a nightmare scenario.


How Duplicate Content Issues Appear:

1. URL Variations: URL parameters can cause duplicate content problems.
2. HTTP vs. HTTPs or WWW vs. non-WWW pages: If your site has separate versions like "https://example.com/" and "http://example.com" you've got duplicate content. Also, if your site has "http://www.example.com" and "http://example.com" then you also got duplicate content issues.

How To Avoid:
Properly establish self-redirect canonical tags that point to their original version. This will help combat duplicate content issues.




Compromised Website Speed


Google has been very vocal about their preference for websites that load fast. In fact, they are so gung-ho on page speed they have built a variety of tools to measure your site’s page speed performance.


Page speed is the silent killer of websites!


Additionally, site speed is also important for user engagement. Websites with slower page speed tend to have higher bounce rates and lower than average time on site.


To see if your site has page speed issues you can use GT Metrix to run a quick site speed audit of your site. This neat tool will give you an aggregate performance score. If you get a poor score then behind making plans for site speed improvements.


How To Avoid:
Google has provided recommendations on how to improve overall site speed:

• Enable Compression
• Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
• Reduce Redirects
• Leverage Browser Caching
• Improve Server Response Time
• Use a content distribution network
• Optimize your images

Google’s mobile-first index is coming and page speed plays a critical role. Get a head start and ensure your site renders quickly for your users.


These 3 common SEO issues plagued many sites' optimization efforts. Forewarned is forearmed. Happy optimizing!










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​Entrepreneurship Is Bullshit
 
I know those words will make some cringe, however the truth is we treat starting your own business too much like a magical unicorn that shits gold. The media and even gurus will tell you about all the self made millionaires and billionaires. We are all self made. Even then not everyone is meant to take the same path. Not to mention they leave out something very important. Entrepreneurship is pain and sacrifice and heartache, those overnight successes toiled for years.
I have been an entrepreneur for about a decade now and I can tell you from experience that magical gold shitting unicorns are not real. We are not all meant to be entrepreneurs either, too often we hate our job or life and decide to start a business with no rational or detailed thought into the matter.
 
Most entrepreneurs don’t make over 50,000 dollars a year and many end up running back to a day job and never trying again. Does this mean no one should, of course not but you need a clear concise plan and vision before you even think of beginning the journey. Also be ready to execute and be ready to push yourself more than you may ever have.
 
Here are some other words of advice to keep in mind:
Know your niche
Your niche will tell you specifically how to target your audience and potential customers and how they can be helped with their pain points.
Map out a business strategy
Know what you want to accomplish and write down clear objectives for your business. Have the 1st year mapped out in at least a rough outline.
Trust your gut
Do not be afraid to get outside help but do not hesitate to trust your instincts either. You need to make difficult decisions and you will have to learn become accustomed to them.
 
Hopefully you found some value from this post if so please share so that others can be helped by it.