MHD Problems / Agenda
Google Maps
a. How can we make sure maps work on our site?
The Problem looks to me to be an API Settings Error (billing issues). This is a testing site I use a lot for plugins, this is a page I made to test my own API key with the WP Go Maps Plugin:
b. Making sure we have them for both Missoula Public Health and Missoula Animal Control.
The maps markers are still in there and if the API billing settings get fixed there shouldn’t be any problems
b. Lily bought an API key…is there anything else we need to do?
“Buy an API key” – you only get charged for the API Key if you get a lot of traffic / people using the map. Google Cloud needs a card on file that can be charged so if there’s any issue with the card, or billing, then that error we’re getting can be the reason. However, this should show up as an error in your Google Cloud Platform. I would imagine (because it was working before) that this was the reason the problem popped back up. However, I would be suprised if they did try to make a charge, from my understanding you need a lot of traffic to get charged.
b2. Solutions
If there’s no issue with the billing, what needs to be checked is the API Settings. They should’ve been set up correctly at first because it was working, but that’s the next step! Here’s a basic list of the things that need to be enabled in the API Settings :
– Google Maps JavaScript API
– Google Maps Geocoding API
– Google Places API
– Google Maps Directions API
But Like I said the Error it’s giving indicates a billing error in your google cloud platform. If there’s still issues / you’re having trouble figuring out how to fix it then let me know.
d. In contract: “Take necessary steps to have Google Map location in footer.”
I can’t be 100% sure why there’s billing problems without being able to take a look in the google cloud platform. If there’s a worry about this happening again, I would check if Google Cloud tried to make a charge and it didn’t go through. If everyone’s still hesitant about these solutions or are just fed up with WP Go Maps (It’s not really my first choice) I’d be happy to talk about a different way to show the location in the footer, I just know that in the beginning I was told this was the preferred way to do it.
Making Sure This Doesn't Happen Again
Figuring out why this is happening will let me give a solid answer for making this something we don’t have to worry about. It’s not normal for API keys to stop working if they’re setup correctly, and the settings don’t get changed. I have always used other ways to show maps besides WP Go Maps, but there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the plugin itself.
Google Analytics
Yoast SEO
Our team wants to know when/how you will do this for us.
On all the pages I added a Keyphrase, and (if there wasn’t one already) added a Meta Description & SEO Title into Yoast. I’ll go into more detail about what else can be done for the SEO below. If a meta description / title was already there and I should’ve changed and or optimized them, I can do that too.
Are you able to pull keywords?
This is the site I like to use for looking at SEO Data, Web Traffic, and finding / pulling good Keywords to use. A good keyword is something that closely matches what someone is googling to try to find on a given page, and helps show the right page with the content they need instead of just the home page.
Keyphrases
Here are some things that can improve the SEO of some of the pages :
1. Improving SEO while building pages & Some Common Problems
Many of the things giving the site not optimal SEO scores are because of the keyphrase density & uses, and a few other problems on pages with not much content. The Keyphrase is most important for when people are googling, and what you want is to have that keyphrase be as close to the exact thing they search as possible. Then adding that keyphrase in a few key places.
If you would a more in depth way to improve SEO scores on these pages & my suggestions for some changes to the content I can lay that out. These are going to be the main problems on a lot of pages: Outbound links, No Images, Keyphrase in introduction, Keyphrase in subheading, and Text length.
Keyphrase Density
The Keyphrase density is something that will affect your SEO quite a bit. There’s a few places it’s More Important to have that keyphrase but having it throughout the page is helpful. Here are the places that make the biggest difference for where the Keyphrase should be : Slug, SEO Title, Meta Description, Introduction (the first “paragraph block” on a page), and Sub Headings (H2’s and H3’s). The recommended amount to have throughout a page is 3. Some of these I already put the kwyphrase into on certain pages, others already had content I didn’t feel like I should change (ex: pages that already had meta descriptions, SEO title, and changing the slugs).
Page Content
Pages without much content are generally going to get ranked low for SEO. The things that affect it the most are text length, Readability, and Internal/Out bounding Links. This is basically just good practices for building pages, but is understandable that certain pages only have so much content.
SEO Title
The SEO Title is what people click on to enter a page after searching something, the blue part in the meta description. The SEO title and Keyphrases are important to be similar. However, the SEO Titles are auto generated by Yoast, if it’s decided that I should create SEO title that might be better it won’t be too hard. Whatever guidelines are needed to be put in place just let me know.
In contract: “Enter SEO words and identify which words will lead to which pages for entire website.”
Entering SEO Words
Entering “SEO Words” can mean a lot of things. What I interpreted it as was making sure each page has three things : SEO Title, Meta Description, and Keyphrases. These are always going to be the most important parts when it comes to SEO. If a page already had an SEO Title / Meta Description, I left them the way they were. Some were just the first paragraph of the page, which I optimized. Let me know if anything about that is wrong or changes!
Identify Words
I interpreted this as keeping the Keyphrases for sections of the website consistent. Which throughout the website I use similar / the same keyphrase for certain sections. This is because those sections are related, and what people will search to find those sections are similar.
Moving Forward
If there’s any SEO problems, or any questions feel free to reach out! I am happy to discuss any changes wanted for the SEO on the site, and if what Free Yoast offers isn’t satisfactory, I can lay out some more options. I was just under the impression that SEO was supposed to be done through Yoast so that anyone can see it, and it didn’t get too complicated. (Yoast Premium is not the only option)
Pet Press Plug-in
a. There are still issues with pictures, names and info updating.
I need a little bit more info / a concrete example of what the “two programs not talking to each other” means… I saw in a previous email that the names & information wasn’t being loaded correctly? If I could see an animal this happened with, what info didn’t load correctly, I might be able to figue something out. This is also one of those things that if I can’t see the Pet Press side of things it can be hard to make a conclusion.
a2. Double Info
When I looked at the Adopt page today I noticed the double info was still a problem. I know we found the solution for this (making a separate page for adopting cats & dog and having “Species 0” on the adopt page). If there’s any confusion with that just let me know!
b. How do we fix this?
I hopefully can get a better understanding with what’s going on and figure it out from there. If I don’t see a problem on the WordPress side then I will likely need to see the PetPress side too, or get in touch with the PetPress support.
Questions Comments Concerns
If there's anything else...
Anything brought up in the meeting that might’ve not been on the agenda or maybe I missed let me know. I know there was issues with the blog last time, and wanting a way to make changes to sites without “messing everything up”. I know me and Lily talked about a way to do that but it might’ve got lost over time. These were just the two things I had in mind. If there’s anything that needs to be done from my end I can always help.
Hope making all of this a webpage instead of an email was helpful. It’s the best way for me to do things, and should make sharing with the whole team easier.
– Mason Corcoran