In addition to needing to handle 404 Errors after making changes to my website, I also needed to get visitors going from the old links to the updated links. The following WP plugin handles that nicely…

Simple 301 Redirects Plugin for WordPress

Once installed, access the plugin in the Settings menu, add the old url (url from the “/” address after the domain to the end) and then add the complete url for the new destination. Not only is this 301 Redirect tool very simple. It’s easy to redirect traffic another domain.

Practical Guide to 404 Error Pages: What WordPress is Missing

I saw the above article (Practical Guide to 404 Error Pages: What WordPress is Missing) following blog post from Yoast when it was posted a few months back.  At the time it didn’t mean much to me because the place I would have used it on is running a ColdFusion server. Well, last week I made some changes to my blog while doing some SEO. Then I found myself in the situation where 1 of my old blog posts was showing up #1 in the Google organic search results for a particular query and that link ended up giving a 404 Error. The Yoast post meant something to me then.

Anyway, long story short, I went back and found this article and installed the 404.php code from the article and viola!

Well anyway, see for yourself…  http://clickkinetics.com/archives/9 (The outdated url with the new useful 404 Error page which automatically provides the reader with a link to the correct former page with new url).

Are you considering hiring someone to do SEO work on your website so that you rank higher in search results, but wondered if your money might be best spent doing Google AdWords? Here is short to-the-point article from Bruce Clay AU blog writer, Marc Elison, “SEO vs PPC” considering this very topic. He gives a brief explanation of SEO, PPC and the differences between the two – a great summary for the newcomer.

Having created and managed literally hundreds of Google AdWords campaigns and somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 keywords, I can tell you that PPC is not a great substitute for good web page content. As Marc covers in his article, PPC may be an immediate short-term solution to your web traffic needs, but the sad reality is that you may end up paying BIG $ for your PPC campaigns. This is especially true if your web content is substandard. Depending on your market, there are companies out there bidding $15 a click on general keywords. Can you imagine paying $15 just to get someone to click on your paid ad when they search for the phrase “trek bike”? Now imagine that 100 people did this and only one of them purchased a $500 Trek.

Well, for very popular words linking to landing pages with very poor content, PPC can be a very expensive substitute for basic SEO. You need to have decent content on the landing page unless you want end up in a situation where you pay more for your ads than the expected revenue from PPC generated sales. Yes, SEO can take a long time get your pages to rank in the search engines. Yes, PPC can get you immediate, measurable results. So, I submit to you that you should really do both. If you need fast results, definitely do PPC. However, if you want to get the best results from your PPC while getting the most out of your limited budget, do some SEO first.

Obviously you already have a website or else you wouldn’t be considering SEO. Look at your potential landing pages. Do those pages have the keywords your customers will be searching for? If not, add those key words and phrases by working them into the content. Do this regardless and certainly before you consider starting a PPC campaign. Once those keywords are in your page, start your PPC activities and keep and eye on your organic search rankings.