Richard Cummings, Author at The SEO System

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Richard Cummings

Director of SEO, Social Media, and Web Content Development at The SEO System

Richard Cummings has been practicing online marketing for many years and has setup and optimized hundreds of WordPress sites.He founded The SEO System to provide SEO, social media, and online marketing services and software to businesses.

Latest posts by Richard Cummings (see all)

The Ultimate Guide to Dental SEO: How to Rank Higher & Attract More Patients - March 10, 2025
Indexing Requests Currently Suspended [Google Search Console] - October 15, 2020
Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager Code:Do I Need Both? - September 19, 2020

Google & RankBrain: A Simple Example of How to “Time Manage” The SERPs in 2018

Did you know that if you don’t update your web content, you may be penalized by Google’s new algorithm, RankBrain?

Let’s examine how this can happen and what you can do to prevent it!

Have you ever modified your Google search to only show web content created in the past year, past month, or past week?

Of course you have, and I have, and many others do as well.

I do it because I research many technical issues. And often, an article written in 2015 does not serve my purposes in 2018.

But this is not just about technology searches. It’s about nearly every search. Searchers want the latest information! We want now!

Social Shares Vs Inbound Links: Ranking your Website in Google in 2020

To build organic traffic to your web content in 2020, what is the first step you will take?

Get social media shares!

Nope, not even close.

Web Page Title Not Showing on Bing/Yahoo or Says “Official Site”

Several clients have asked me about their web page titles not showing up properly on Bing and Yahoo.

Frequently, instead of the web page title, Bing and Yahoo will say “Company Name – Official Site“ as you see depicted in the image to the right.

These images are taken from a Yahoo and Bing search for the company Intel. However, instead of saying “Intel | Data Center Solutions, IOT, and PC Innovation” which is what their HTML title element (technically, the title is an element and not a meta tag) says, the title of the web page simply says “Intel – Official Site”.

You may take solace in the fact that, if it’s happening to Intel, you probably cannot do anything about it.

But you’d be wrong.

So, let’s take a look at why this is important, why it’s happening, and what you can do about it.

Google Branding Websites as “Not Secure” – Live Examples – August 2018 Update

Since my article long ago exposing the 10 Facts & Myths of Secure (HTTPS) websites and my more recent Definitive HTTPS/SSL WordPress Upgrade Guide, Google has now provided increased incentive for those of you who have not yet upgraded your website to HTTPS — they will brand you as “Not Secure”!

The Google official announcement states that: “Beginning in January 2017 (Chrome 56), we’ll mark HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards as non-secure, as part of a long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure.”

Important Post Update – August 2018: Google Chrome now labels all http sites as ‘not secure’…not just pages with forms on them.

Google AdWords Now Limits Average Monthly Searches for “Low Spenders”

If you’ve recently logged into Google AdWords to get keyword data, you may notice that the “Average Monthly Searches” column is now not nearly as useful.

The Average Monthly Search column in AdWords may now show something like the photo below:

The 10-Step HTTPS/SSL WordPress Upgrade [2020 Edition]

I am going to give you the exact instructions on how to upgrade your WordPress website to SSL in under 3 hours AND in just 10 easy steps.

It’s 2020 and you are falling behind the competition if your WordPress website is not HTTPS/SSL! If you’re still not convinced, here are 5 great reasons your site should be HTTPS.

“But wait,” you ask. “I’ve heard that a WordPress SSL conversion takes tons of research and planning.”

SEO Small Business Statistics 2016: Do-It-Yourself vs Outsource?

Source: Clutch.co

Small businesses, you have a difficult decision to make regarding SEO. Do you do SEO in-house or should you outsource?

As you consider this decision, it’s always beneficial to know what your peers are doing and to find out if they are satisfied with their decision.

The One Giant SEO Mistake That You Are Making

If you were to name the one giant SEO mistake that you are making, what would it be?

“Who me? I’m not making any mistakes”.

You and I know that we all make mistakes and you are probably making this one giant SEO mistake.

My inspiration for this post comes from my SEO article of the week by Stephan Spencer: 5 super-common SEO mistakes content marketers make.

In his article, Stephan lists these 5 SEO mistakes that everyone is making:

Hustling for likes instead of links
Misplacing the content
Targeting the wrong audience
Being activity-focused
No help from a power user

I highly recommend Stephan’s article as he articulates each position thoroughly.Read More

Google Unnatural Links Penalty Strikes Again!

On Saturday, many webmasters received a stinging letter from Google that begins: “Google has detected a pattern of links from your site to other sites that is either unnatural or irrelevant.”

It’s as if it’s 2010 again when many webmasters were receiving Google Webspam penalties and having their websites completed decimated.

6 years later…should this still be happening? I just asked this question rhetorically on Twitter:

@rustybrick Hmm…Google can build a self-driving car but they can't automatically de-value sites without crippling those who link to them!

— The SEO System (@TheSEOSystem) April 11, 2016

How To Easily Repurpose Blog Posts for Video

Video accounted for 64% of all Internet traffic this past year. By 2019, experts estimate this number to escalate to 80%. How will you tap into this market?

One great way to do this is to repurpose your current and future web content — especially your blogs post — into educational and entertaining videos.

What’s in it for you? The benefits are clear: If you don’t do online video marketing, you will be missing out on 80% of all web traffic!Read More

The “Passing” of PageRank: A Round Up of the Top 10 Posts

The tool that many SEO’s have used for several years, Google PageRank, is officially dead…or dying. Sources say that PageRank data will be unavailable within a couple of weeks.

I still see the PageRank data in my Chrome Open SEO browser and stats toolbar as you see below:

But, presumably, this data will disappear in short order.

So, what is the reaction of the masses? Let’s take a look at the top posts with quotable Tweets about the death of PageRank in this weekly round-up.
Read More