Hoy en día, ¿Quién no usa usa las herramientas que Google ofrece? Por eso le hecho un vistazo.

¿Qué es Google Site Kit?

Se trata básicamente de un plugin de WordPress, pero desarrollado por la propia Google con la cual implementa sus servicios.

De esta forma, puedes tener fácilmente en un solo lugar los datos de la Search Console, Google Analytics, PageSpeed Insights, AdSense y demás servicios.

En pocas palabras, en una solución robusta. Aún si no llegas a usar todo su potencial.

Veamos un poco de lo que nos ofrece.

Lo destacable del plugin de WordPress

Una de las grandes ventajas, que no está de más decirlo, es que trae toda la información que tiene Google hasta el Escritorio de WordPress.

Con este, es muy fácil el visualizar la información que se genera por la Search Console y Analytics de una forma condensada y fácil de entender.

Si bien no cuenta con todo el poder de dichas plataformas, nos permite ver los detalles más importantes.

Por ejemplo, en el panel principal del plugin, esta es la forma en la cual vemos como adquirimos tráfico:

Pero en esa misma página vemos inmediatamente como se está desempeñando el mismo sitio web en el buscador:

Es de esta forma que podemos obtener una imagen más clara del desempeño de un sitio web. Pero no es todo.

Ya que en la misma página principal podemos ver incluso cuales son las páginas más visitadas y las palabras clave más importantes que se usan para encontrarnos.

Junto a toda esa información, el plugin también nos permite ver información crucial para cada página o entrada.

Cuando vemos la entrada de forma individual, podemos encontrar una G en la parte superior y es que nos muestra lo siguiente:

Pero cuando hacemos clic en More details, es cuando las cosas se vuelven realmente interesantes. Ya que podemos ver la forma en la cual las personas encuentran dicha entrada.

Sobre todo, que palabras clave usan en especial. Ello permite saber, junto con otras herramientas como Yoast SEO, el saber si la estrategia está funcionando de forma correcta para una página en especifico.

Y eso es solo la superficie de lo que nos ofrece este plugin.

Lo menos atractivo del plugin

En lo personal, una de las cosas que no me han gustado mucho del Google Site Kit es la forma en la cual integra PageSpeed Insights.

Si bien tenemos un vistazo del desempeño del sitio web en la página principal del plugin, el mismo no nos da un reporte para cada página individual del sitio.

Solamente podemos ver el reporte de velocidad para la página principal.

Nunca he sido un gran fan de este servicio, pero siento que es una oportunidad desperdiciada el solo mostrar el reporte para la página principal.

Obviamente nosotros podemos, en todo caso, usar un enlace directo a cada entrada o página y hacer la prueba directamente. ¿Pero no sería mejor tenerlo ya listo en un solo lugar?

Otro los detalles que encontré es que no es fácil desconectar algunos servicios incluidos. La única opción en esos casos es desconectar todo.

¿No quieres que se hagan pruebas de PageSpeed una vez activado? Mala suerte, el plugin no te permite desactivar la opción.

Lo cual, invariablemente, puede significar que verás un incremento de visitas a tu página de inicio por parte de Google.

Nada más que si se puede desconectar de forma individual a AdSense y Analytics, por lo menos.

Tampoco hay forma de configurar muchas opciones desde WordPress. Aunque en parte se entiende, ya que la mayoría de las opciones las controla directamente Google.

Problemas al conectar Google Site Kit con AdSense

Otro de los detalles que me llamó la atención es que, cuando quieres conectar Adsenses al Site Kit, a veces suceden problemas con este.

Por ejemplo, al momento de conectar el servicio, a veces veremos algo como lo siguiente:

Esto, a pesar de ya contar con una cuenta creada.

Una pequeña investigación reveló que este es de hecho un problema del lado de Google. Esto debido a que su propia API regresa un error y esto impide que se puedan obtener las cuentas.

Además hay que comentar que más de uno ha tenido este problema. Esto a pesar de que indican de que ya está resuelto.

Es posible que, debido a que se verifican las cuentas de AdSense de forma constante, la propia cuenta asignada para esto simplemente se vea saturada.

Tras varios intentos, finalmente me mostró lo siguiente:

Con lo cual ya sabemos que ha identificado la cuenta y es cuestión de tiempo para que sea validada.

Sin embargo, hay que tener en cuenta que es posible que nos siga mostrando el error en otro momento. Ya que, como mencione antes, se consulta la API de Google de forma constante.

Solo es cuestión de tener paciencia.

Conclusiones sobre Google Site Kit

Hay una cosa que es cierta, este plugin de Google es lo que muchas personas querían ver. El poder tener acceso a datos importantes de forma fácil.

Si bien el mismo apenas acaba de salir de su fase beta, es evidente que se encuentra prácticamente listo en sus funcionalidades básicas.

En lo poco que he podido usarlo, he quedado más que satisfecho. Y en el futuro se espera que la gente de Google agregue nuevas funcionalidades.

Podemos seguir el desarrollo del plugin directamente GitHub. En donde se menciona esto y podemos ver incluso la solución de problemas que aún tiene el software.

Personalmente, tras lo que me sucedió con tumblr, estoy más que contento del poder contar con esta herramienta. Para saber, aún más rápido, de que es lo que sucede con un sitio web.

Y, por lo menos para mi, este se volverá en un plugin imprescindible. Y posiblemente para muchos más.

The post [Review] Plugin Google Site Kit: Esencial para WordPress appeared first on Endless Manifesto.

Claro, una cosa es el SEO y otra el sistema schema.org. En el caso del primero, se rige básicamente bajo un principio: El contenido es rey.

El otro, nos permite definir aspectos adicionales al contenido. En otras palabras, le agrega un valor semántico que le da a los datos una razón de ser. Los vuelve humanos. Eso ayuda mucho a que los usuarios encuentren lo que están buscando.

Pero como para desgracia, a veces algunas características son un tanto oscuras.

Relación SEO y schema.org

Ambos aspectos se relacionan debido a que uno le dice a los buscadores que contenido tenemos y que tan importante es. El otro, permite realizar una catalogación correcta de dichos valores. Eso es al menos lo que mis horas de lecturas han dicho.

En lo personal, ya había escuchado y visto de schema.org antes. Pero hasta ahí, ya que no había tenido tiempo de realmente moverle al aspecto.

Sin embargo, algunos sitios web indican que el uso de dicha característica puede ser bastante benefica. No tengo duda de ello, pero parece ser bastante omitido.

Implementándolo

En el caso de WordPress, implementarlo es sencillo. Si no le tienes miedo a mover el código de tu tema. Igualmente, existen multitudes de plugins que ayudan en el proceso de implementar dichas soluciones de forma gratuita.

Incluso, esta opción ya viene incluida en el popular Yoast SEO, aunque no es tan evidente. Se podría decir que si llenamos todos los campos, nosotros le estaremos aportando mejor información a los buscadores. Eso siempre será bueno.

Pero una cosa es hacer ello y otra es saber que es lo que los sistemas están realmente viendo. Es ahí en donde esta herramienta entra en juego.

En mi caso, me ha permitido ver errores que pase por alto. Datos que no deberían de estar ahí desde hace tiempo.

Solo queda probar los schema

Con lo que he visto y leido, tengo mucho material para mantenerme un rato entretenido. Los esquemas que se encuentran disponibles son muchos. Por desgracia no todos están disponibles de forma «fácil».

Por supuesto, siempre hay entradas que te pueden ayudar mucho a saber hacia donde puedes ir para sacar el mejor provecho de una nueva herramienta descubierta.

Aunque parezca un poco intimidante y confuso para algunos, al principio. Pero uno nunca debe dejar de aprender.

The post SEO, schema.org y experimentos appeared first on Endless Manifesto.

While there are many reasons on why one should blog, even including marketing, I will not just focus on that really, but more about the person itself and out why it is important to have stuff written out. And will use me as an example.

What are your reasons then?

1. Starting to write at home, to create a blogging habit

While it may sound silly, it is one of the main reasons out why I am doing this. At work, I write a bunch… but it is mostly «mindless writing», automatic one. You type what you are seeing or hearing. You are done.

Does it improve you? No, not at all.

You can’t get better if you do not have access to review what you have written and then create a review of it. Hard when what your type is mean for other functions and it is gone. When it is ephemeral.

During a time since the last time I had a blog and this new reborn, I almost did not want to write at home. Long sentences? No thanks.

I am trying to change that, as I really like to write. So I am working to create the habit.

2. To see how often I come with new stuff to write about

I have read a bunch of things about that you usually need to write a post a day or such. Given my situation that can be a whole much sometimes… as I am pretty much captive during eight hours already.

Sometimes, you come with an idea earlier in the day but you can’t just write that down into a post… when you get home, with a headache and many other ailments, I bet you it is not easy to write then or either remember what you wanted to share.

Also, I have noticed how my «eureka» process works. Usually, an idea for something to write comes after a few couple of days or as a subset from another post.

It can work, but if you write when you feel like, it is better than to force yourself and to end with a mess. Find your own pace, really.

3. Improve my English skills

I do not know if you have noticed it, but have you seen the domain? It totally points to México. In fact, my native language is Spanish.

This blog, in this new iteration, serves me as a way to make me better at writing at English, even if I have some kind of help on that. So, spending some time into forcing me to write in this language can help me in the long run.

Despite that, I have been tinkering with the idea of write once again in Spanish.

The reasons are simple: It is my main language and the past iteration of this blog was about «anime» events that were happening in the place where I live.

I still get a lot of traffic from people that are searching for such topics. Sadly, such content it is not there anymore and there is no way I can recover it. That is because of the owner, me, just spend a lot of time away and this was overtaken by «an infestation«.

Do not let that happen to you.

4. To create a personal blogging archive of things that I like

This is the kind of things that for what a blog should be about.

When one spends time blogging, one should do it for any reason he or she may like… not only because «you are to do money with it«. Of course, what will be better than do money with what you like? But not always that is the case.

But sharing your mind around can come with a lot of benefits, as sometimes it even serves as a way to discover yourself and to «talk with oneself», to train the mind and remember.

Of course, blogging about what solution you have come with a specific problem can be very useful too. And if you like to help others, that for sure will bring you some sort of benefit.

Like some people may say: «your space, your choices». But be smart.

5. To move forward

My life was stuck before I did recover this little space of the internet. While you may say that sharing stuff like this on facebook or twitter is enough… sometimes it is not because such platforms are very ephemeral.

Sometimes you want to move forward looking at the past and what you have done to have a much more solid future. Sometimes that is not possible with other platforms. That is why blogging is my answer because I like to write about a bunch of things.

This is my true way to move forward.

What’s next then?

First of all… continue to move where things are heading, then keep growing and make this a strong habit.

I am very likely to start to write stuff back in Spanish one of this days. No idea if I will totally swap off English from this place or simply… mix English and Spanish (no, not like Spanglish), but for sure with every new post I will get the seed for the next blogging iteration.

Life is about enjoying what you do, and this is part of what I like to do. Create.

The post The importance of blogging or to blog appeared first on Endless Manifesto.

Projected Price

Some sources say that the price of the console will range from $500 to $700, or maybe more. If so, it’s going to be really very expensive. Probably because it is aimed at a different niche this time.

For example, the Switch here was released here at a tag price of USD$500. This for a handheld console that may work as a static one. Already more expensive than the PS4.

Could be that the price was high because of it being new and so on. But that was only for the console, no games or another plus included.

But some sources have pointed out that maybe the specs and price are because Microsoft is aiming to a different market than Sony has with the PS4. They could be targeting those that want cutting edge technology.

That for sure might make a lot of sense.

Console Niches

For one side, Nintendo has sure had success with the Switch and its targeting campaign. They aim especially to the segment they are really strong: Portable Consoles.

The only two that seemed to be competing for the same segment were Sony and Microsoft, while both alternatives were quite different in key points.

But we shall see what happens with the Xbox. Moving to the «premium» segment seems a bit risky… but it may be a good alternative to those wanting Virtual Reality and other features that are still not fully present in the day-to-day gaming experiences.

They are aiming to get 1 million sales during the Q4 2017, when it is expected to be released.

The post Xbox Scorpio, a change in niche market? appeared first on Endless Manifesto.

Collecting information about what people thinks is very important. That is for what polls exists, and that is why so poll software, like LimeSurvey, was created too.

At this point, you may ask: Why not just use Google Forms or even Facebook directly? Or even Typeform? Well, one of the major issues is that your own data may not be yours.

Some platforms like Facebook are quite clear on that. Or even impose ways to limit the number of rows you can import.

Self-hosted LimeSurvey

LimeSurvey seems not to consume a whole lot of resources. But has a quite steep learning curve. As not everything is quite easy to set up.

Comparatively, the look of the software is not perfect. But can be worked out so it looks much better. If you are not used to editing HTML or CSS, doing such changes can be a problem. So moving to use Google Forms may be viable. As they save its data in the form of spread sheet.

In my case, I expect to start to roll out this starting tomorrow. And use it to collect some opinions running some Facebook Ads.

I expect this to have some success. And if that is so, then I’ll keep running them much more. And even if they does not, it is still a very good learning and experiment.

The only issue is how to convince people to actually fill up the forms. But maybe giving something at the end may help out?

Been reading about that for some time. It is all about luring people to get a benefit from doing something. But not sure if I may have access to such thing, as I am not in the front line of making decisions.

I would like to do so. That way the strategy might be then a bit more cohesive. With more sense and gathering much more information.

Everything is about an strategy, and to make that you need to collect data about your consumers and potential ones. That is part of the marketing strategy.

But we will see how things turn out eventually.

The post LimeSurvey: Let’s make some polls appeared first on Endless Manifesto.

Of course, during the first days of returning… I did not attempt it at all and tried to stick to more traditional methods to develop… messages.

None the less, as the pressure to get some stuff doing increased, the more likely I was to experiment with it… what I eventually did.

I was surprised by the potential it had.

I mean, you are restricted just to smartphones… but yet, with such «broad» market… you have a lot of potential viewers.

I spend like… 3 hours playing with that… adding elements, removing some others, adding photos, text, configuring them, buttons and so on… it was really quite an experience… and I was quickly aware of how much potential it had, of course.

Now, while I have an ad running with a canvas, I have also discovered something: People is more likely to click it than other media.

I still not have clear idea why… maybe because of people just like the interaction that a canvas can give? … I mean, you can basically tease people to move its phone or scroll down all the way down just to see what you did there. It is very interestingly.

I have yet to explore all the potential and do some nice canvas myself… but with them being restricted to pages, for the time being at least, means that they are not going to be VERY common for a long time… what then makes them ideal to play with and see how far yu can get with em.

The post Canvas at Facebook appeared first on Endless Manifesto.

I mean, editing video is not all that hard, specially if you want to do certain «simple» things like editing order, add new sound, add captions and other stuff alike…

Of course, that is… but when you have a computer that can’t handle that all well… then… you end taking hours to do something that should be done quite quickly.

Uh… maybe a little bit too much?

For example, just to render a video of around 50 secs… it takes me 22 minutes to get it done in kdenlive. That is a lot.

Of course, maybe it is also because I am editing it in full HD and is mean to spend more time rendering and so on… still… if I detect a mistake once it is done rendering… it means that I need to spend some more time editing the video and then making sure it is done correctly before to render again… but sometimes, I can’t catch all mistakes until I have rendered once again… so it is kind of an endless circle…

Maybe I just need a new computer… as the one I have dates back from 2011… and also, maybe get my hands in a custom made one for such proposes…

Maybe someday…

But for now, I can live with kdenlive and such as I am getting quite used to it, being really a quite nice alternative to Adobe Premier, that can actually run in my computer without killing it.

I am slowly finding my path along this… even if it is taking a little bit more time than planned. I just need to be given the right direction for the time being… as I am relearning a bunch of things.

PD: Really need to keep giving me time to write this kind of things… or maybe… schedule posts ahead of time? … humm…

The post Video Editing appeared first on Endless Manifesto.

While my experience with «digital marketing» has been… limited… I must admit that it seems a whole new beast, different than what I tough.

Of course… it does not mean that I do not want to tame it. I do want to.

But it is not as simple than just sit down and do «facebook» for a while. It has its own tricks, caveats and others things.

Getting likes from friends is one thing… making people react is another one, especially if you design content with a specific market in mind.

Facebook knows pretty well how people reacts, and to what they do react the more (you know, DAAAAAATAAAAAAA!)

Me reacting to data chunks, basically

So yeah, it is really weird to see a professional video totally failing at sponsored space while 3 random pictures glued together at the last moment does perform better that it.

It tells you many things really… at least one that we already knew pretty much: People does not stay with you for very long.

The 3 first seconds do matter, a whole lot.

Catch people at that moment, or go home. And that must be done SILENTLY… without the aid of sound.

See how complicated it can be then? Maybe yes, maybe not… but an image changing quickly between states may catch one, or another one with high contrast can too.

There is the trick… pull people with just a well-selected image…. an image that just «starts» the idea train… an image that may make your «potential customers» aware of you and interested in you.

That is where the real trick is… not in over production.

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