Author: Graham

  • Yoast

    Yoast

    Congratulations to Yoast and their implementation of AI in their plugin for WordPress. This feature is available for users who have subscribed to Yoast Premium and also have access to redirects and workouts. Recently, I subscribed to Yoast Premium and this IS NOT a paid endorsement of Yoast. I have NOT received any favors, upgrades, endorsements, compensation, or foot rubs for writing this. I’ve written about Yoast in the past and mentioned it is part of my go-to for default plugins when launching websites.

    SEO

    I recently launched a site for a church and installed Yoast for that site as part of the basic install. Along with Yoast, I encouraged the site owner to write articles to keep the site ‘fresh‘ and to also follow the guidelines of Yoast. Also, that feature comes with the freemium version of Yoast along with some really good articles and walk-through videos that can help you write and build better content on your site with regards to SEO. I can’t talk about writing articles and SEO without also mentioning page structure. When using WordPress and it’s posts or pages, you’ll want to include certain text in the posts or pages that also appears in the description and focus keyphrases (formerly ‘keywords‘) – think of it as a hierarchy for site structure. Posts and pages are different but share a similar structure. Yoast greatly helps with the structure and SEO!

    Other Resources

    It’s important to follow (but not be constrained by) these guidelines as it’s a powerful tool to give your site a much needed bump to compete with other sites vying for attention in search engines. I mentioned Google, but I should also mention duckduckgo.com for privacy and the Brave browser, also for privacy but also speed. More on that and my own personal landing page for browsing is here. Bookmark, or set to default landing page, and you’ll be browsing with a private search engine.

    Reference

    More can be found on Yoast’s site here.

  • Upside: Montana

    Upside: Montana

    In a first, a 22 year old resident from Montana, Rikki Held, and a handful of young plaintiffs successfully sued the state of Montana for violating Montana’s constitutional protections. In the state’s constitution, there are protections for the residents of Montana which Ms. Held pointed out. The issue was over a bill (971) that was passed in Montana that prevents the state from considering the environmental effects of new projects. This, to me, is horrible and I’m extremely glad to see this young woman stick it to the politicians that tried to pull this off. I’d like to see this more in the country but only a few states have verbiage, that protects the environment, in their constitutions preventing these situations.

    So, this is a win-win for the residents of Montana and also Ms. Held. One could also say this was a win for Our Children’s Trust, a non-profit that advances environmental protection. So, I’ll say it, “Congratulations to all involved! You did good work and I commend your efforts as well as your victory. Please keep doing awesome work.”

    Video short and more detailed article available at Mashable.

     

     

  • Upside: Free Online Course

    Upside: Free Online Course

    Ever wonder what could be done with your time / career to help others? Or maybe you are helping others and would like to learn more about similar opportunities in your career with a free online course? Viola! Non-Trivial.org is providing just that. Whether you’re a seasoned office hustler or the new gal on the block, here’s a free course to help out with making decisions with a altruistic outcome. Plus, it’s always good to “shop-around” when looking for positions in other organizations in today’s work environment as merited pay increases have slowed since the late nineteen seventies.

    Let’s say a social worker is employed by the state or your county. Let’s also say there is a lateral position in the private sector that offers more, or has a better organizational structure, or has different benefits for that same person. They can weigh the pros and cons, but here’s another tool to help assess the path and what that person would like to do if it is aligned with serving a greater good. Use this free online course and other resources on the site for career development.

    https://course.non-trivial.org/

    Also, there’s a scholarship in the site that this appears on. It’s for younger folks (ages 14-20) that have not entered higher education, yet. It awards up to 15,000 (minimum of $500) and gives access to guidance from staff at universities, and applications close on August 25th. I’m not aware if this will recycle or that this year is the end. The application requires an email, a form, and a memory quiz, which I did not attempt even though I’m very curious.