The Liebster Award 4.0

On April 25, 2020April 29, 2020 By Elisha McFarlandIn Awards, Blog Posts26 Comments

Alright, and we are back with another award- our fourth Liebster award! Thank you so much to Debby from DebbySEO for this nomination. While I usually don’t participate in awards I’ve already received, I seriously liked the way she’s changed it to make it more special, and so here we go.

The rules are simple:

Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you and provide a link to their website.
Use the same Award image as your nominator.
Share 11 facts about yourself & mention 3 blog articles
Answer the 11 questions the blogger(s) asked you
Nominate 11 bloggers and make them happy!
Make up 11 questions to ask your nominees
Notify your 11 nominees

11 facts about me

I have 5 siblings.
My dad is a pastor.
I am extremely addicted to coffee
My favorite book series is Lord of the Rings.
I am extremely bad at math.
I have swam in Loch Ness (Scotland).
My favorite movie, besides Lord of the Rings, is Avengers: Endgame.
My favorite subject is (surprise) writing.
My favorite American food is pizza.
I have 26 cousins
I have been blogging for four years.

Three best articles

Answers to Debby’s questions

1) What is in your opinion the best SEO software currently on the market? If you haven’t used SEO software, how informed are you about SEO services and software? Likely Moz.com’s features or Ubersuggest. I have used both and they are fantastic for learning about SEO. The best paid software, however, is the “Yoast SEO” plugin.

2) If you could eat as much food as you wanted without ever getting full or fat, which food would you choose? What is your favorite restaurant? American food, because there’s a lot of variety. My favorite American restaurant is Wendy’s or Cracker Barrel.

3) If your pet could talk, what would it say to you? She’d probably say, “why did you never want to be my friend?” I dislike guinea pigs, so I don’t usually pet them.

4) What is the weirdest thing you have ever seen someone do? I once saw a random girl dancing….innapropriately in front of a crowd of five-year-old children for a fundraiser in Uganda.

5) If you had enough money that you never needed to work again, what would you do with your time? Probably spend most of it playing basketball, although reading is also tempting.

6) Name three of your favorite songs. “Armies” by KB, “Paid My Dues” by NF, and “Set Me Free” by Lecrae.

7) Name three of your favorite books. “Lord of the Rings”, “Ender’s Game”, and “Sherlock Holmes”.

8) Would you lie to your friend or spouse for a large sum of money? How much? Absolutely not. As a Christian, I am called to be honest at all times.

9) If you had $10,000 to spend on whatever you like, what would you do with the money? I’d donate $2,000 to my ministry, New Hope Uganda, and invest the rest to use when I go to college next year.

10) If you would be granted one wish of any kind, what would you wish for? Assuming I couldn’t wish for unlimited wishes, I’d ask for the greatest, most complete guide to women’s minds. With that, I’d teach men and would eventually rule the world.

11) Who has been the biggest example in your life? Why? My dad, without a doubt. He has a massive impact on my life, from the way he has taught me to the example he sets.

My 11 questions for my nominees:

1: Who’s your favorite actor/actress?

2: Do you work out? If so, describe what you do.

3: What’s your favorite dessert?

4: If you geeked out about something, what would it be?

5: What are your thoughts on the COVID-19 breakout?

6: Is social media beneficial or harmful to a teenager?

7: What is the most views you’ve had in a day (on your blog)?

8: Do you have a hobby?

9: Recall a childhood memory.

10: What high-school subject would you gladly re-take if given the chance (anad time)?

11: Favorite animal?

Sadly, since I have very little time, I can’t nominate specific people. If you would, however, like to do this EPIC award, I nominate you! You, my reader, are nominated (I know, it’s a lazy thing to do, but I don’t have the time to hunt down 11 people). Go forth and complete the award!

Alright, that’s all for today. Thanks so much for reading, and thanks to Debby for the nomination! Guys, if you enjoyed this post, make sure to click that Follow button below (or to the side). Then, when I release new posts like this on, you’ll get notified. Thanks again, and I hope you have a great day!

Last post: Four Crucial Tips For Young Bloggers

Featured post: What The Holiness of God Taught Us About Speech

Related post: The Real Neat Blogger Award

Join 1,230 other followers

4 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Being Read

On March 2, 2020March 22, 2020 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts, WordPress23 Comments

Let’s face it. Views are the name of the game when it comes to blogging. Nothing is cooler than being able to say, “I got 18,000 views on my last post.” Of course, getting to that level of writing takes a long, long time and a lot of perseverance. But even if you have a small blog like mine, averaging 115 views per post, you can still usually tell if your views are starting to decline.

This can be seen in a few ways. Firstly, you might see a decline in your average daily views. Last month, my blog averaged about 85 views per day. Not terrible, not amazing, but pretty much average. That took almost a solid year of work just to reach in the first place. If, for example, I checked my average next month and found that I only averaged 60 views per day, warning bells would go off in my head. Obviously, something would be wrong, and I would attempt to find an answer.

Another way to tell this is by looking at your comments/likes on a post. My posts average 21 likes and 17 comments, and I can usually tell if one is above or below average at a glance. If it’s below average, I’ll start thinking- is it the time I published? Did I offend someone? There’s almost always an answer.

Finally, the last way to tell if your blog is losing readers is by looking at your average post views. My average post gets around 100 views after about a week, since some readers can take a bit of time to read them. Of course, if you’re publishing wintergreen content on a regular basis (content that could be read in ten years), your readers will continue coming back, making this statistic irrelevant. If you, like me, publish half-wintergreen content, now is the time to check your average post views. You can do so by clicking the WordPress stats panel, clicking “Months” to show your monthly statistics, and scrolling down. Under “Posts & Pages”, you will find your posts ranked by views, highest to lowest. This can be a fantastic indicator of which posts do better than others. If my Africa posts were towards the bottom of the spectrum, and my SEO posts were nearer to the top, what does this say? Obviously, some posts are read more then others.

There is, of course, a way to troubleshoot this. But before we get to this, let’s take a look at four reasons your views are declining in the first place.

Continue reading →

WordPress Free Plan Tutorial 3: Manual Off-Page SEO

On January 31, 2020April 27, 2020 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts, WordPress6 Comments

Last week we discussed the non-manual forms of SEO, pieces of search engine optimization that cannot be manually added, but must be worked for. However, there is more to off-page SEO then what we previously discussed. There are other things that must be done outside of our websites, boosting our rankings and increasing our traffic. Because these do not apply directly our website pages, they are categorized as off-page SEO. But since last week’s post on off-page SEO was over 2,500 words, we are going to break these up into bite sized pieces.

I call this section of off-page SEO “Manual off-page SEO.” The post written last week would fall under the category of “Automatic off-page SEO”, as it will automatically boost your rankings after you put in the work. Many of you, my readers, are already familiar with this section of SEO, but if you haven’t learned about pinging, Google Search Console, site audits, and blogging tools, get ready to dive in.

Continue reading →

WordPress Free Plan Tutorial 2: Off-Page SEO

On January 24, 2020January 31, 2020 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts, WordPress15 Comments

SEO Search Engine Optimization Africa Boy Off page

Last week saw the publication of one of Africa Boy’s longest posts, a near 2,000 word article on the subject of on-page SEO. The post covered nearly every piece of on-page SEO, including internal linking, title tags, and image optimization. If you haven’t read this post, be sure to read it by clicking here. On-page SEO is the easiest way to manually control your websites rankings, so if you haven’t read this highly informative post, you should make sure to check it out.

Off-page SEO deals with just that- the parts of Search Engine Optimization that are not found within your page. They cannot be manually controlled but must be worked for and developed naturally. Thankfully, users on the WordPress free plan can use all of these tricks as they don’t apply to a website’s customization options. If you are on the WordPress free plan, your full focus should be upon off-page SEO.

But what is off-page SEO? Neil Patel, owner of NP Digital and creator of the fantastic tool Ubersuggest, describes it perfectly.

Continue reading →

WordPress Free Plan Tutorial 1: On-Page SEO

On January 17, 2020January 24, 2020 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts, WordPress11 Comments

WordPress Free Plan Tutorial Africa Boy Computer

On page SEO is one of the most tricky (yet rewarding) SEO fundamentals. Without a base in On-Page work, your site won’t get very far. So, before you go off ready to conquer unknown places and acquire “backlink juice”, slow down and pour yourself a cup of coffee, because this is going to be fun.

Now, because this is a WordPress Free Plan tutorial, there will only be so much we can do. If you haven’t paid for the business plan, certain options will be locked by WordPress, unusable and useless. However, there are still some awesome things we can do to help our sites rank higher on Google. Let’s dive in.

Continue reading →

4 WordPress SEO Practices to Begin For 2020

On January 3, 2020January 3, 2020 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts, WordPress9 Comments

SEO Search Engine Optimization Africa Boy

2020 has arrived. And with it, a new wave of SEO updates has emerged. Last year, we saw a massive update to the industry, penalizing specific sites and sometimes giving others near-overnight fame. When Google releases an update, people watch out. Usually, they release one every so often, so who knows what the future holds for SEO experts and digital marketers?

To combat the constant Google updates, we need to keep up with new information. What may have worked for websites back in 2005 will get you penalized in 2020. If people don’t get with the times and learn the new practices that work, they will never see exponential growth in their websites.

If you are one of those people, don’t worry. There is always time to learn and grow. If you begin to implement these tactics into your site now, you should see a large growth in traffic. Make sure to do them correctly and, if need be, consult experts such as Neil Patel if you need help.

Continue reading →

The Three Best Blogging Tools You Should Be Using Right Now

On December 6, 2019 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts, WordPress11 Comments

Blogging is more than just SEO and post format. At the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do to change your site for the better. However, don’t make the mistake I did in thinking that once I had checked all the SEO boxes, I was fine. This is wrong.

Unfortunately, there are many things that can go wrong with SEO. Websites devolve, mistakes are made, and habits aren’t developed. And so, to combat this yet again, we must learn to use tools.

What are tools? Well, they are internet-based apps or websites that will help your site for the better, one way or the other. Some may be able to actually help your SEO (although these require plugins which, in turn, require you to be operating on WordPress’ Business Plan), while others will prevent you from making crucial mistakes. These are the tools we will be focusing on today. And the best part? They’re all free and you can start using them right now. And so, without further ado, here are three fantastic tools that you can start using right now.

Continue reading →

Five Crucial Mistakes Most Bloggers Make (and how to avoid them!)

On December 4, 2019July 29, 2020 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts, WordPress14 Comments

We bloggers have become lazy. Even in our ever-growing pursuit for followers and views, we have decided that some pieces of blogging are beneath us. And so, in our passivity, we have neglected key parts of our blogs and the posts therein. This has resulted in a lack of blog quality and a lowering of standards. But, if we work hard and learn from our failures, we can overcome the failures of our past and turn the Christian blogging community into a high-quality writing niche.

So, to combat laziness and blog failure, here are five common mistakes that many bloggers make. If you read these carefully and correct the mistakes that you are already making, you will immediately find an increase in your blog traffic and visitors.

Continue reading →

The Beginner’s Guide to WordPress SEO

On October 17, 2019June 23, 2020 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts, WordPress14 Comments

Search Engine Optimization. The forbidden words. Many treat these words as frightening as if they are swear words or something similar. Thankfully, as long as you stay within the rules, SEO will make your blog stronger and increase your traffic. Sadly, if you are using the Free version of WordPress, there are only a few things you can do to increase your SEO. We’ll be covering those today. If you are using the Business plan of WordPress, then there are literally thousands of things you can do to increase your SEO. If you want a total guide to using the Business plan on WordPress, read Rohit Palit’s stuff, found here. His guide will be much more extensive than this one. Disclaimer: I have based several of the following points off of the points given in his article. They are, however, in my own words.

Now, sadly for we WordPress users, SEO goes much further today then Keywords and Backlinks, although those do help. There are thousands of components to Google’s SEO Algorithm. Thus, no website will ever be completely perfect. The best thing we can do is try to cover a few algorithm requirements and wait for Google to bump us up.

Continue reading →

The Beginner’s Guide to WordPress: Day 1

On September 26, 2019December 5, 2019 By Elisha McFarlandIn Blog Posts15 Comments

Untitled Design

I have done well over 30 hours of research on WordPress, SEO, Site designing, themes, and more. So, I decided to share what I have learned with the rest of you, hopefully inspiring you to make your blogs better.

Now, I am not the owner of a 100,000 follower blog. Not yet, at least. However, I request that you don’t look at the number of followers on this blog as the measure of my knowledge, but instead read and decide for yourselves.

So, let’s get to it. This is going to be a weekly series, lasting probably for a few months. I will do my absolute best to ensure that everything I write is completely correct.

Day 1: Blog Creation

Continue reading “The Beginner’s Guide to WordPress: Day 1” →

11 facts about me

Three best articles

Answers to Debby’s questions

My 11 questions for my nominees:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this:

Spread the Word:

Like this: