WordPress is one of the most commonly used content management systems (CMS) because it is user-friendly and offers the ability to integrate with a variety of useful plugins. We’ve come across several WordPress SEO plugins on different client websites and some of them deserve a shout-out. These are our favorites:

1. Yoast SEO

If you’ve only ever heard of one WordPress SEO plugin, it was most likely Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO is widely regarded as the number one WordPress SEO plugin because of its wide range of features for both its premium and free versions. 

Why it stands out:

Free and Premium

• Metadata is easy to view and adjust
• Schema is easy to update for faster indexing and better search visibility
• Duplicate content and metadata are identified for quick fixes
• Full breadcrumb control with options to tag or categorize content
• Readability checks

Premium

• Internal linking suggestions
• Content insights
• Redirect manager
• 24/7 technical support
• Ad-free

The Yoast SEO plugin is a solid choice for agencies and website owners alike. With seamless WordPress integration and an easy-to-use interface, it’s no wonder Yoast SEO tops most lists.

2. All-In-One SEO Pack

All-In-One SEO is one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins, having been downloaded over 50 million times since 2007. All-In-One SEO Pack has many of the same features as Yoast SEO and is also easy for beginners to use. Some of the advanced features, however, are what really steal the show.

Why it stands out:

• XML Sitemap Support
• Image XML Sitemap Support
• Advanced Canonical URLs
• Only free plugin with integration to eCommerce sites
• Translated into 57 languages

All-In-One SEO Pack is a great option for webmasters of all abilities. It can impressively optimize page titles and metadata automatically, so you can spend more time on website health, linking structure, and other optimizations that require more time and analysis.

3. Broken Link Checker

SEO isn’t just about keywords and metadata. Your website needs to be easy to navigate and free of errors in order to gain authority and subsequently rankings. Landing on an empty page or coming across a lot of 404 errors does not provide a quality user experience – and to Google, this is easily identifiable.

Why it stands out:

• Reveals all broken links within minutes
• All changes to broken links are done through the plugin, so you don’t have to go to each individual page
• Monitors comments and custom fields
• Also detects missing images and faulty redirects

Broken Link Checker is an amazing WordPress SEO plugin for staying on top of your website’s health and crawlability. Anything that may confuse a reader or GoogleBOT as they crawl through your site is quickly detected and easy to fix.

4. Rel NoFollow Checkbox

Rel NoFollow Checkbox is a compact WordPress plugin that can help you improve your SEO immensely. Linking is incredibly important to Google as it looks at the quality of the websites you link to and vice versa. Google looks at your outbound links to get an idea about the quality and subsequent authority of your website. If your website has affiliate links, or advertisements, this is a fantastic plugin to use. It simply allows you to add a “rel nofollow” attribute to any of your external links. This will ensure that your links don’t influence the site.

Why it stands out:

• Cuts down on time originally spent sifting through HTML code
• Easy for non-coders
• Excellent tool for affiliate marketers
• Lightweight – installs quickly and doesn’t slow down your website

5. Squirrly SEO

Squirrly SEO is marketed to those who aren’t experts in SEO. It offers SEO insights and functionality without complicated elements. Squirrly SEO really drills into the “content is king” methodology. This WordPress SEO plugin differentiates itself in that it helps you optimize your content for SEO while you write it. Simply type in your article topic and desired keyword, and the plugin will give you additional keyword suggestions and insights as you write.

Why it stands out:

• Real-time feedback and insights for keyword optimization
• Competitor analysis tool
• Content reports that you can send within your organization
• Progress monitoring with a tool that shows recent tweets about your topic
• Bulk SEO settings
• Focus page designation

Squirrly SEO is a great WordPress plugin for websites and businesses that focus a lot on blogging. The focus page option is especially useful for those who aren’t familiar with SEO. When you designate a focus page, the plugin will outline for you the specific actions you need to take to get it to rank higher in the SERPs. This is a huge win for less experienced marketers who want to make sure their most important content performs.

SEO plugins are part of what makes WordPress such a great option when building your website. There are so many useful plugins – did we cover your favorite? Visit our SEO & PPC blog for more marketing tips and subscribe to our newsletter for fresh insights.

One of the modern miracles of tech’s omnipresence in our day-to-day lives is the increasing granularity at which marketers can connect with their audiences. We’re speaking, of course, about location data, geo-targeting, and geo-filters which afford marketers the ability to reach a specified audience based on their location.

We’ve all seen these tactics in action before, whether it be plugging in the ubiquitous “best restaurants near me” search query, or simply getting served paid search ads for hotels and restaurants within a specified radius within the very same search results. There is, however, a methodology that small and mid-sized brick-and-mortar businesses can use to take location-based visibility even further. It’s called geofencing.

What Is Geofencing?

Geofencing is a method of establishing invisible geographic boundaries with GPS or RFID (i.e. radio frequency identification).

A business can therefore section off a specified geographic area to only communicate with devices existing within that space. Talk about granularity.

Why Geofencing?

For marketers, geofencing offers an abundance of opportunities to engage an audience that is more likely to convert based on locational convenience. Businesses can serve enticing marketing collateral and ads when a person crosses a virtual threshold.

In addition, brands and agencies alike can pull valuable data like consumer mindsets, sales journeys, and overall data analytics from these activations.

Marketers can glean important insights on customer behavior, furthering the targeting capabilities to drive future sales.

Examples of Geofencing in Action:

• A restaurant sets up a geo-fence in a 2-mile radius surrounding their location offering a complimentary appetizer during slower-than-normal business days of the week.
• An auto dealer (notorious for geofencing by the way) hits you with a significantly lowered interest rate on a comparable vehicle to that you’ve just test driven at a competitor’s dealership.

The idea is to serve messages at the ‘right place and time’ to help drive sales – and it can be very effective.

How Do Geofencing and Geotargeting Differ?

Some marketers use these terms interchangeably; after all, they are quite similar. If you’re looking to target any person in a specific area, then geofencing would be your desired strategy.

If you’re looking to target a specific person in a specific area, geotargeting would make more sense.

Geotargeting vs. Geofencing – The Difference in Action:

Geofencing

• Serving messages to concertgoers at a specific event by using the venue to define the location parameters
• Serving promotional ads to students about deals and discounts at nearby retail shops or restaurants within their university’s town

Geotargeting

• Serving ads to women between the ages of 35-55 within a mile radius of a local boutique

Getting Started with Geofencing

Let’s take a deeper dive into the process required to build a geofence within Google Ads and Facebook – our two favorite platforms for enacting this type of activation.

Setting Up Mobile Google Geofencing Ads

1. First, select the campaign you’d like to adjust and go to the campaign settings. You can geofence on search, display, and YouTube campaigns in Google Ads. You’ll then want to break your location down specifically into the following schema: country > state > city > DMA > metro > zip code > radius.
2. Once this is complete, establish your options within the campaign. These include:

• All countries and territories
• US and Canada
• US
• “Enter Another Location” which will allow you to get more granular with your location targeting (i.e. 20-mile radius of your business, 30-mile radius, etc.).

3. For a local Google geofence, you’ll want to use the last option. From here, you can add or exclude additional geographical parameters based on the target audience at hand. You can even boil it down to kilometers vs. miles to further tighten the targeting parameters.

Pro Tip – Navigate to your campaign settings to ensure that your targeting is set to include users in your specified area only. The default setting targets users who are in, or show interest in your targeted locations, which can include users who are not physically in your desired area.

Setting Up Mobile Geofencing Ads in Facebook

1. Navigate to the audiences dashboard and select the desired targeting location to include/exclude if necessary. If you wish to drill this down to a very specified area, begin by selecting the area you’d like to target, then choose to “drop pin” on the exact location (like a university, downtown district, or office park) that meets your desired parameter.
2. From there, simply select the radius to target that exact location (this can be as granular as a mile and even smaller if needed). You can also exclude radiuses surrounding your desired targeting location by dropping exclusive pins around your geographic parameters to get an even tighter radius.

Test different criteria, like promotion types, days of the week, and time of day to see what really drives sales.

For brick-and-mortar stores, geofencing can be a significant revenue driver, and for larger brands, geofencing can be a great supplement to a more global strategy. Either way, geofencing ads allow marketers to get closer to their customers than ever before – and more importantly, capitalize on convenience to drive more sales.

Looking for more Google geofencing insight? Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for fresh tips delivered straight to your inbox.

Signing up with a digital marketing agency is an important decision. You’re entrusting someone to drive your digital strategy, hit your ROI goals, manage your paid media budget, and represent your brand online – that’s a big deal! So, how can you tell if a marketing agency is ‘bad’?

When interviewing a prospective marketing agency, if you see any of these red flags, don’t just walk away – run!

Red Flag #1 – Promises that are too good to be true

“We guarantee that you’ll rank on the first page organically for your number one search term within a month!”

“We guarantee that we’ll increase your paid media performance by XX% in the first month.”

Good agencies can get you on the first page- sometimes even in the first position. After months of hard work, ongoing in-depth competitor analysis, sticking to a robust technical strategy, and consistent site health audits, great things can happen. They can also have a significant impact on paid media performance but are never able to give a 100% guarantee.

There are no guarantees in this industry.

If a marketing agency guarantees significant results in a short amount of time, that’s red flag number one. They are more interested in getting you into a contract than getting you realistic results.

Another possibility is that they employ black-hat or gray-hat methods that can get your website penalized. No short-term traffic surges are worth the long-term detriment that comes with a search penalty.

Pick an agency that can talk you through a long-term growth strategy and can speak to your company’s progression at any time throughout the contract.

Red Flag #2 – No proof of performance

“We generate amazing results for our clients and can get these results for you too!”

Okay, great. But where is the proof?

Case studies are what differentiate good agencies from agencies that are just full of hot air. If the marketing agency you’re interviewing is all talk, that’s red flag number two.

On the other hand, some agencies will be quick to show off glittering case studies and success stories, but if you do your due diligence and research, you may see a different side to the story. Make sure the agency has a variety of case studies showcasing their success in several industries.

Reputable agencies are happy to offer case studies – but take it a step further and ask for referrals. Even better than a phone number and the hassle of setting up a reference call (for both parties), some agencies have video references where their client talks about the whole experience the client has had with them. There is nothing better than hearing from clients that are currently working with the agency.

Red Flag #3 – Cookie cutter service offerings

“We offer a series of packages and add-ons for companies just like yours.”

If you are beginning to talk with an agency, pay close attention to the questions they ask and the promises they make. The best agencies will try more than anything to understand the intricacies of your business, your products/services, and your niche. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy in SEO, paid media, social media marketing, or cold email outreach.

If an agency starts to give you answers before you’ve explained how you differentiate from your competitors, that’s red flag number three and you probably shouldn’t hire them. This is a sign that the agency is already putting your brand in a box – and you should expect their strategy to be boxed too – generic and pre-packaged.

There is no replacement for a customized strategy executed by talented and detail-oriented marketers. If an agency’s offerings are packaged or if certain services are add-ons, their strategy will most likely be superficial. Hire an agency that can clearly communicate their services and stresses custom strategies.

Take a good look at the prospective agency’s proposal. Does it seem generic, or is the presentation customized to your business? If the agency’s proposal isn’t custom when they’re putting their best foot forward, how do you think their strategy will stack up after you sign on?

Red Flag #4 – Singular focus on website traffic… or any one aspect of service

“We’re focused on your traffic, not your lifetime customer value.”

First, it’s important to remember that you’re seeking a partnership with an agency, not just contracting a service. To that end, beware of agencies that focus singularly on one specific type of result, for instance, website traffic.

If an agency only focuses on one aspect of their work or one specific metric, it is likely that they do not have a holistic strategy. It is likely that they are only looking to provide a service, rather than investing time and resources in a partnership that helps both businesses grow and meet their specific goals.

At the end of the day, you want to partner with an agency who wants to know your target audience and ICP (Ideal Customer Persona) intimately so they can cater their strategy to drive revenue – not just traffic. Beware of the agencies that only hold themselves accountable to KPIs that don’t drive your bottom line.

In other words, don’t hire someone to fill up your steakhouse with vegans.

Pay attention to the questions agencies ask you. They should ask, what is your ICP? What is your average sale amount? What is your close rate? What is your customer lifetime value? These are the kinds of questions that indicate that the agency is vested in your success.

When it comes time to hire a marketing agency, look out for these common red flags, and run if you see them! Do your due diligence and only commit to an agency who is also committed to you.

If you’re actively searching for an agency or considering digital marketing solutions for the first time, you may find our recent guide helpful:

SEO Objections: What Holds Companies Back from Investing in SEO

The guide outlines real questions that have come from real businesses, with insights straight from our team! Enjoy 😊