Last updated on February 28th, 2019
It was discovered this week that over a million WordPress websites using the popular SEO plugin Yoast are more vulnerable to hackers due to a critical security flaw.
Developed by a Dutch website optimization company, the Yoast plugin is susceptible to cyber attackers looking to gain control over a site’s database and add counterfeit administrative accounts—known as a blind SQL injection vulnerability.
Search Engine Land and other news sites quickly sent out a warning, saying:
“If you are on WordPress, there is a good chance you are using this Yoast plugin. To fix the issue, upgrade to version 1.7.4 immediately.”
Yoast creators later announced that they have released a WordPress update for their plugin (both free and premium versions) that should automatically patch up the security hole; however, site admins are strongly encouraged to update as soon as possible if WordPress hasn’t installed the update already.
In other news, Yahoo turned 20 years old on March 2nd, and how did they celebrate? By setting a new world record for the largest simultaneous yodeling of course… That’s right folks, yodeling. You can read the story here.
Here’s a list of some other top SEO articles, stories and headlines from the last couple weeks:
SEO
- The average SEO-engaged brand saw its natural traffic rise by 19.8 percent year-over-year in 2014, according to this study. Only time will tell what this natural search growth explosion means for SEO.
- For millions of web browsers, Google’s Search Engine Results Page is considered the face of the internet. But don’t let the simplicity of the SERP’s design fool you – it has actually evolved to become one of the most complex pages on the World Wide Web. So put on your adventurer’s hat and check out this WordStream field guide to the SERP.
Link Building
- Could there be a “linkpocalypse” on the horizon? Recent comments made by Matt Cutts and John Mueller, not to mention Google talking about “a new approach that relies on endogenous signals, namely, the correctness of factual information provided by the source,” has SEOs whispering about what the future holds for link-building.
- In his most recent Whiteboard Friday, Rand Fishkin talks about whether on-topic links matter more than off-topic links. You can watch the video on Moz.
Analytics
- From experience I can tell you that data segmentation is one of the most useful functions of Google Analytics, which is why you may want to check out this introduction to using custom dimensions and Enhanced Ecommerce to figure out which product sizes and colors are most popular with your client’s customers.
Content Corner
- What’s newsworthy about your client? Discover creative ways of keeping your client in the media spotlight by reading this article.
- Test how optimized your landing pages really are by checking out these 4 landing page elements primed for A/B testing.
- See this handy content marketer’s checklist to SEO to identify ways you can get better results from your content.
- Here are some great tips on how to make boring brands sounds sexy.
Google News
- Everyone has been wondering about Google’s goal with mobile search. Will mobile be a ranking factor? How much? How soon? Well we finally got some answers in a recent Google announcement on Webmaster Central. The gist: Go mobile or become irrelevant. Read more here…
- On the same note, see this article on how to evaluate the potential impact of Google’s mobile friendliness update on your site come April 21.
- Google webmasters have said that “over 80% of the eligible HTTPS URLs are not being displayed in Google’s search results as HTTPS URLs, instead they are showing up as HTTP URLs simply because of webmaster configuration.” Since HTTPS is now serving as a ranking signal, this oversight could be affecting site performance. Learn what else SEOs should know about Google’s stance on HTTPS here.
- Find out what the new Google+ changes mean for marketers.
See you in a couple weeks for the next SEO roundup! Until then, be sure to stay tuned to the SEOe blog for our bi-weekly Friday Trivia, commentary from other members of SEO Advantage team, and much more.