Hey authority hackers welcome to this Week’s episode You love tools mark and i love tools we All love tools so today’s episode is Going to be about Tools well that was a little bit Anticlimactic but in all seriousness the Tool stack that we use every year to Build websites is evolving rapidly and There’s new players coming onto the Playing field And then some tools are actually getting Worse so we know that you guys are Interested in knowing which tech we Recommend you use exactly to build your Sites In 2021. so in this episode we’re going To be talking about the hard tech tools We use from the registrars to the Hosting To gutenberg versus page builders to cdn And page speed services We are going to be covering absolutely Everything that we would pick if we Started a brand new website today And why the options that we pick are Better than the competition And in this episode we are also Introducing some new segments to spice Things up A little bit so let’s get started and Not easy anymore Hey everyone welcome back to the atari Hacker podcast before we get started
With this week’s episode i just want to Make a point We will never ever talk about email Marketing again apparently because Uh like the last podcast mark and i did Together uh the last two podcasts we did On email marketing Were absolutely disastrous in terms of Views i’m not blaming the audience or Anything but it’s quite interesting Uh it was a bit of an experiment for us In the sense that uh We wanted to see whether people would be Interested in us going off that topic of Like building links and ranking on Google Probably not i mean i just i disagree With that Uh i think yeah if we just follow the Numbers the whole way you know we just Talked about content and links For eternity and nothing else i think we Have so much more in our repertoire That certain people are interested in And if it means you know A lot of our audience skip that week uh So that few people can get a lot of Value at it that week that i think it’s Worth it I i i i would agree in principle i’m not Sure the youtube platform Agrees and will reward you for that um So it’s like we’re not really gaming the Youtube platform with our podcast so
Much to be honest though Hey i can see if we’re if we’re doing a Proper youtube style youtube channel Which you know may or may not be coming At some point in future then Yeah might be a different story but Anyway yeah it’s okay but like i just Wanted to highlight that because i think A lot of people should check it out Actually uh As after the seo is becoming a lot Harder and a lot of things are changing Etc i think it’s quite important for People to Uh you know try to develop new traffic Sources new monetizations et cetera so Uh if you have missed these podcasts on Email uh You should go check them out because we Have made quite good money using email Marketing On affiliate sites as well and it’s a Really good method to generate Extra income on the site even though in The last podcast together the first part Actually Explains why we still think that rank on Google is superior in terms of absolute Earnings it’s still a good complementary Source of income Pretty much uh but anyway back to the Main topic which is How’s it going mark It’s going good i i actually had an
Answer prepared for this but i forgot to Write it down in the notes so i’ve got Nothing i’m afraid Ah that’s uh disappointing you have to Wait wait Wait for my next witty answer Unfortunately i don’t think people can Wait that long you’re gonna have to like Make a video on twitter or something Like this too To make up for that like event but uh You have something New this week for us to get started with The podcast so What’s going on with that yeah so we’re Introducing a new segment to the this Podcast Every week at least when gail and i are Doing it and it’s going to be called Content of the week so it’s just a piece Of content From not necessarily ourselves but from Around the community which we See and think there’s some good value And so you know Want to share it with with our audience Uh so the content of the Week this week uh was actually published Last month By ahrefs on their blog and it’s the Uh i did a pretty good detailed Beginner’s guide to link building Now i remember back in the day when moz Ran fishkin wrote the beginner’s guide
To seo was one of their most famous Uh really actually quite good pieces of Content that they Not so much anymore right a little bit Out of a date uh These days uh to be honest i haven’t I’ve read it in a few years so Maybe they’ve they have updated it’s a Bit bit more A bit more accurate for 2021 seo i don’t Know but The when we have new people coming to The team We like to show them uh certain pieces Of content and get To give them a fundamental uh Experience i guess of certain elements Of seo and this is particularly true for People who have no Seo experience and we hire a lot of People who have no seo experience no Link building experience If we want to train them to be link Builders because we found that Having the wrong experience is actually Worse than having no experience For certain roles uh so This beginner’s guide to link building’s Really good piece of content to Share with to i think share with new Team members Day one hour one they come on board say Hey read this and then let’s talk about It
I just i think succinctly and Efficiently uh goes into enough detail About The landscape of link building to give People the sort of solid Fundamentals of what it is so i think It’s a really good piece of content Uh and would be very useful to share in That situation It’s not really for advanced people Though it’s really no it’s not But you know one thing that is Interesting for advanced people is like Trying to understand the Seo strategy of agents behind how They’re doing things here Uh so that’s typical of like this is a Hot page this is This is basically how you do a content Hot page i’ve given several experience Examples in the past but that’s a really Good one because they essentially have Like five or six chapters five chapters And at the end of each they have Essentially a list of their other pieces Of content on link building that would Be targeting like guest posting as a Keyword for example etc so That page is a hot page that targets Thing building it ranks on page one Folding building Bottom page not bottom bottom but like Middle bottom like second Second half of page one but i can see
What the Plan is here the plan is to make this Kind of like a pr You know promote it a lot on their Social channels get maybe like search Engine journal to write about it Blah blah blah link to this stuff and Then they are Passing link juice with a keyword rich Anchor text to Their other posts sounding building like For example guest posting or pr Or something like this so like uh what Is anchor text and these kind of things And it’s quite Interesting because it’s something that We do and i think ahrefs overall Does a really good job with the blog and Seo strategy you know it’s not like The ahrefs blog is not a blog that like People get super excited about and talk Necessarily a lot about on like social Media et cetera that’s very buzzing With brand new case studies etc but They’re doing a really good job at Matching search intent yeah Capitalizing on their domain authority It’s a good library of content And like when you actually search for Something and you get on their content It’s like it’s good you know it’s like It’s useful and it’s like i would i Would read it whenever i care about the Topic like i’m
Working on like a new blueprint for toy Hacker right now and some of their Content was actually useful and is in my Resources For that and i was happy to read it at The time when i cared about a specific Subtopic so Um and i think that’s really like what a Modern blog is these days like blogs are Not really A social interaction vector anymore as They are like A useful library of content That at the same time like you know you Will engage with it if you care about The topic but if you don’t care about The topic you will kind of ignore it Essentially what happened with our email Marketing podcast you know Like some people are engaged with that But it’s only like hopefully They rank on search or something and Eventually who care about that will Watch that but it’s not necessarily made For like a broad audience and like Everyone that’s following it it’s kind Of the same with ahrefs so If you are an example of a strong Hub page top of silo page that then Passes link juice to sub pages while Being a piece of content that can rank For a really good keyword Aka link building this page is actually A good case study for your own seo
Knowledge and how they’re doing stuff so I wanted to highlight that because i Think For the more advanced people that’s the Interesting part about this article you Know Um something something you said there Reminded me what my answer to how is it Going mark was going to be And that is that at the time of Recording we’ve actually started Working on the next authority hacker pro Blueprint and by the time this goes out Uh we’ll have started on two authority Hacker Pro blueprints uh so lots of new Good content coming out for for Authority hacker pro In the not too distant future so keep an Eye out for that one Yeah last year was a bit more focused on Your toy site system and this year is Going to be A lot of love for toy hacker pretty much Um Anything else to add on this uh no Continuous new section Let’s talk about what people came here For the tools Okay okay let’s talk about the tools These this we know people would like i’m Not worried about that one Um and so it’s something that we kind of Like do every year where it’s like okay
What are the tools we use to build Websites And there’s more and more options out There that are viable and so it’s going To be interesting there’s gonna be a bit Of debate Around everything and we’re just gonna Go by technical layer right so the first Thing you do when you build a website is You buy a domain and so We’re going to start with the domain and Uh I delete for us yeah i just want to say That if You want to get a list of these or the Links to these are affiliate links Especially Then if you go to authority hacker dot Com forward slash 253 253 that’ll redirect you to the podcast Show notes with with all the links to All these These tools and it’ll also be in the Youtube Description i believe yeah it will be But like it’s funny because the first We’re gonna mention i think we’ve made Four bucks ever in total from this Because it’s a pretty bad effect program So We’re definitely not gonna make a lot of Money from that recommendation we still Use it And it’s called namecheap.com so that’s
What we use to reach our domains I’ve been using it pretty much since i Started online marketing And buying domains for buying fresh Domains not for buying Expired ones etc they’re the thing about Namecheap is it’s Really i mean they do hosting and other Stuff as well but it’s really just Focused on Selling you domains and they do a really Good job of it it’s super simple For anyone who’s used godaddy and has Had problems with the like automatic Like when your credit card expires like Having to go in and put that back in There i remember once I tried to do that but the 2fa didn’t Work and my phone Said to like call them up and then that Didn’t work and then i spent like an Hour on the phone with someone only to Tell me that oh you have to call Arizona when they’re online and you’re In i was in bali at the time it was just Total nightmare with godaddy honestly uh Name cheap on the other hand i don’t Think we’ve ever had a single problem With them in the 10 plus years we’ve been using them for For all our domains Yeah it’s it doesn’t do it’s not that Fancy or anything it’s not It doesn’t do anything much better it
Just does what it’s supposed to do for a Good price And yeah and the domain names are pretty Cheap these days as well I remember these about 15 bucks or Something now they’re 8.88 cents per Year On on namecheap which is yeah it’s like A Deflation like were kind of like Reversing in this but Uh yeah i like name chip it’s simple uh We still you know in the other side System i want to highlight that we Recommend people buy their domain when They buy their hosting we’ll talk about Hosting in a second Uh usually we make people buy their Domains through siteground And it’s just like they just go through That wizard and they essentially get You know the whole wordpress installed Etc the reason we tell newbies to do That is because it’s just simpler like They don’t have to Meddle with the dns and their site gets Live right away and There’s less issues basically but when You’re a little bit more advanced and You’re not afraid of Playing with dns records then i tend to Prefer separating My registrar from my hosting so that if I decide to change hosting it’s a lot
Easier Because if everything’s under one roof Then You know siteground becomes not so good Anymore at some point whatever You you need to also move your domain Extracts a mess whereas if you have your Domains On another provider then you can just Change the dns records and boom here you Go you are on the new hosting It’s much easier talking about domains That’s something i didn’t put in notes Mark but um we have been buying some Expired domains recently as well So i’m going to talk a little bit about That as well we There’s basically initially when i Started i started the really Old school year i was just on good idea Auctions and i was just like I can’t like i was just looking at the Domains people are bidding on and i was Just like trying to Guess you know what would be popular and Based on the names etc and then just Throwing them in ahrefs and deciding Which domains are You know are good enough for me to beat Them and now i’m using a tool called Spamzilla That essentially has more filters so it Does that it scrapes A couple of marketplaces including
Godaddy And you know you can filter for domain Rating for number of links like there’s Some kind of like link toxicity metrics And Things like that it’s quite fast and Easy to use and If you are in the market for expired Domains To i mean to do whatever you want to be Honest if you want to build pbns if you Want to build Sites on them or if you want to just Redirect them to your site which Tend to be the three main uses of Expired domains i like spongeboy it’s How much is it i think it was 14 bucks a Month or something i’m not sure Let me just check because it’s not too Expensive basically if you are Regularly buying domains and usually you Pay several like you know For a good domain you pay around three To five hundred Dollars uh for that so it’s like spam Delay 37 Per month sorry um so yeah if you’re Doing this regularly i think it’s It’s worth it because you save a lot of Time i would just spend Like every two to three days i would Spend 20 minutes on it and i would Already find All the uh opportunities that would be
Worth looking at and because the Auctions tend to be several days You know you don’t have to check every Day so i I recommend that if you are into expired Domains But it’s something that we’re definitely You know building up our skills on much More than like The rest so there may be better options Uh let us know in the comments if you Have better options actually Um that’s all i had for domains really So the next section is going to be Hosting and here we’re just going to be Pretty simple it really depends what you Want do you want to Have something that’s good value do you Want to have good service Or do you want to have both and then Essentially you’re going to you’re going To spend money Uh for beginners as i said earlier we Recommend siteground because it’s quite Cheap to start i think it’s like 390. Let me recheck that it’s changing seven Dollars per month For the cheap package now so it’s gone Up a lot 5.99 euros yeah seven dollars okay yeah I’m But still like um i’m checking the test Site i was checking the side speed of The test site for example it’s quite
Good To be honest like and they have a lot Like they have their own caching plugin In there for example so you don’t need To pay for something like A wp rocket or something like this so There is some built-in services in there Image optimization and so on so i Wouldn’t call it the super basic hosting Anymore i think it’s like a mid-level Hosting for a decent price i like Ultimately yeah Yeah but they they get you because the Second year tends to be a lot more Expensive than the first year Usually it’s 15 per month instead of Seven so it’s like it almost more than Doubles in price but most hosting Companies Um to be fair most beginner focused Hosting companies to be fair will Will do this just it can come up as a Bit of a shock just people If you’re paying yearly and you get paid And you get billed you know 200 Or something yeah when you weren’t Expecting it so just be careful that Yeah but i like their customer service As well so i mean personal story my Sister she’s Got her site on there and she doesn’t Know at all how to do dns stuff etc And every time she needs something she Goes on the chat and they do it for her
For example it’s quite nice she doesn’t Have to worry about it Hussite goes down they also help with That i don’t i don’t have to do it i Like it Because otherwise she would call me and She would make me uh she would make me Do this so i’m pretty happy about that I like the direct integration with cloud Players i think it’s nice Uh that you don’t even have to go on Cloudflare.com to set up cloudflare on Siteground and it gives you a really Good dns with a really good time to First buy it and You know good valuable like i not the Cheapest but good value i like it Um then if you want like The like much better performance A decent value but then you will trade Off The customer support etc for it uh And that’s what we use for most of our Sites that are not our main size these Days it’s going to be cloud ways Uh but cloudways together with volta High frequency because cloudways allows You to run you know digitalocean if you Want google cloud Amazon web servers etc etc and so filter High frequencies High frequency sorry has been really Good and you can start at 13 bucks per Month
Uh and actually um i gave you a login to A wordpress Using i want you to log in mark because Using that Setup i’ve never seen wordpress admin Run so fast it almost feels like a Desktop so i want you to log in and tell Me Like remember how atari hacker for Example if you’re going to toy hacker You click and you’re waiting like seven Seconds for whatever New post or whatever you want to do let Me let me know what you think Noticeably faster i wouldn’t say it’s Like desktop fast but it’s like It’s clear yeah i’ve never seen WordPress load like this before it feels Like Something else is going on um Yeah that’s the admin as well so it’s Not captured also So because they run it on really fast Ssds etc so it’s it’s really It’s really nice to walk on it and the Site itself is really fast as well like This site i gave you Loads on the second with a very minimal Setup we’ll talk about later So that works out now for people who Want like Can i just say that’s a question so That’s 13 bucks a month Siteground is seven dollars renewing to
15. so this is actually cheaper than Siteground At the get post one year mark not only That but You can this server that you logged on Has three websites on it three small Websites but i’m actually running three Sites on it so You know you’re responsible for managing Your resources here so you could Overload your server it could be turning To crap You can scale it and pay more money but It’s like it’s not like siteground where They will You know manage it for you but you could Run many sites on that 13 bucks per month do they have like Live chat phone line customer support You can call and get help with stuff or What’s the level They do but they do but like um it’s Just like you know you’re gonna have to Fight a little bit more to get Technical support and uh sometimes maybe You get like a first level support That’s a bit useless that will go to the Next level and it’s going to be Better so it’s not too bad but it’s also The user interface is much more Complicated right so it’s like You you have your server level then Below that you have your project level Then below that you have your
Applications level and it’s like You know it’s a it’s it’s a bit more Intimidating for beginners then Which is why i don’t have that in your Toy site system for example Okay um it’s better value and and also It’s more expensive on the first year And So like people still would be iffy about That so I but like if i start a new a new small Site on the side now i just put it on Cloud ways And then usually when these sites become Important to us make us good one et Cetera That we move them to like our premium Hosting so we use Kinsta and we highly recommend it Because You this is the best support i’ve ever Had with a hosting Provider and you know it’s like we got Ddos attacked on authority hacker for Example many times and People like you know like sites going Down at the worst time ever in the Middle of a webinar et cetera and every Single time The host the support at kinstar has been Solving this for us And and it’s also very easy to use a Control panel like it’s on the level of Siteground to use but it’s kind of like
The next level is It’s not only it’s not only the support Can fix the problem but it’s the first Person you can talk to you talk to Who you get through to straight away Fixes it really fast Straight away so it’s just a really good Experience Yeah so we pay a lot of money for that i Think we pay we pay Like yeah hundreds of dollars per month So i’m not going to say exactly which Plan we’re on but we don’t know An old plan and we still pay like a lot Of money But for the sites that make us a lot of Money I’m more than happy to pay for that i Essentially outsource The server management et cetera and for The small projects that You know if they go down for a day it’s Not the end of the world then I put them on the chip ownership cloud Ways So pretty much and it’s still fast Enough so that’s basically You know there’s many other hosts Providers etc but really like We’re more into like pick what pick what You want pick your poison do you wanna Trade time for money or money for time Etc and then if you’re on the easy basic Stuff
Go for siteground if you want the best Value for money in terms of site speed And tech and server tech Go for cloudways if you want the best Service with pretty good Servers i mean it’s on google cloud uh Go for kinsta And then yeah that’s pretty much it any Any comments on the hosting No they record everything cool um Obviously when you talk about hosting Now you’re gonna talk about cdns right After so cdn Is content delivery network so basically A lot of your assets can be Cached more locally so let’s say for Example our server for authority hacker Is in iowa right And so let’s say you’re in the Philippines and you want to open atari Hacker That’s a long way for that for the image File to go from iowa all the way to the Philippines so What the cdn does is they take the Biggest files so you know Javascript files and images and you know Assets fonts files etc And they will make a copy of these files On a much closer server so maybe there Will be a server in manila for example In the philippines And so you know the really small html Files will maybe load from iowa
And then the big files that really take A lot a lot of time or would be more Difficult to go through like a lot of Internet lines Will load from that manila server and so That’s what cdn does and it speeds up Your website massively Especially in countries that are quite Far away from you um By far the best value we found this year And i’m quite impressed and quite amazed That not many people talk about it Is cloudflare apo and i think that People don’t talk about it because There’s no affiliate program Because it makes you no money but uh for Five bucks Cloudflare basically sells 95 of your Files Uh through their servers that are you Know they have One of the biggest uh like a number of Locations out of any cdn Provider and it’s really easy to set up As well you just install the plugin on Your wordpress site You put your api key and you just toggle A button And you do it i have a friend who came Over to my place that i was helping With his site a week ago or two weeks Ago And uh he he runs a pretty unoptimized Site right
He runs like both elementor and thrive For example and like has a bunch of Things so i i’ll let you get an idea of How Slow the website was we ran it through Gt matrix before cloudflare apo And i can’t remember but like it was Like five seconds load and it had an E grade for speed or something it was Pretty bad pretty much And we did cloud for ipo and we waited About an hour And then his grade went from e To a and he had 1.2 second page load And pretty much everything went to green On gt matrix right that’s For five dollar per month service um And so you know it’s like i mean if you Mix like cloud waves plus a cloud for Apo for example it’s quite amazing But even sideground for example like Even if you’re like on the cheapest Siteground plan because a lot of the Files will be served from cloudflare You don’t have to have the absolute best Hosting because cloudflare is going to Do a lot of the heavy lifting for you so You can often save on your hosting and Then invest in this and You know kind of like add up the price Of chip hosting plus this versus Expensive hosting and compare them you Know Um so it’s it’s it’s really quite good
We make absolutely no money from Recommending it but Uh i’ve been quite impressed and that’s Usually the i buy cloud fire appeal on All sides that when they make their First dollar now so if like i don’t I don’t even bother i put the free cloud Player initially and then when the site Makes its first dollar i’m like okay Let’s just put this and then the side Gets messy faster So that’s the first one the second one Is kind of like the premium option Which has been beating cloudflare apu But not By maybe like 20 not that much and That’s nitroback right Um nitro pack goddess barrel results They essentially Are a premium cdn service that Rewrites a bit of your code and and Essentially re-optimizes your site they Also re-optimize Your images for example but it’s quite Expensive and so it’s like again It’s not something we don’t even run That on all of our sites like we we Could but we don’t i don’t think it’s Worth the price you know Um but like if you have a site with uh Like fifty thousand page views per month Is seventeen point five dollars you have Two hundred thousand page views forty Two point five dollars per month
And one million page views 146 dollars Per month and that’s if you pay yearly So It’s not cheap but i got yeah 20 to 30 Faster uh pages and i tended to have a Few bugs With cloudflare apu that i didn’t get With nitro pack because it was a little Bit more granule there’s more options You can play with so For example on the site like atari Hacker cloud for ipo gets a little bit Glitchy On like the posts widgets you know like They don’t display properly like they Try to compress javascript a bit too Much etc Whereas on nitro pack i’m able to Display it correctly by excluding some Files and so on so Uh it’s kind of like the level up but For more small sites i would say don’t Even bother Go for cloudflare apo even though There’s an effect link for my nitro pack Below I like it but i would only do it for Like a business that like Maybe makes six figures a year you know That’s that’s kind of like what i’ll be Looking at if you make six figures sure Sure like pay for that it’s worth it if You don’t Yeah cloudflare appeal is probably good
Enough um so that’s basically the Hosting cdn [Music] Server side of building websites how we Do these things right now Uh now let’s talk about themes and page Builders and i think we need to bundle Them together because They’re so they’re so like they’re so Working together now like page builders Are essentially team builders now and Then A lot of popular teams are running their Own like gutenberg Gutenberg plugins to make up for the Fact that they’re not page builders and So on so it’s very Intricate so again it’s going to be Depending on what you want and i’m going To give you The optimal page speed the kind of in Between And then the optimal usability but cost Of page speed so Optimal page speed i actually tested it This afternoon before the podcast I tested generate plus generate press Sorry plus generate blocks and same i Put that on cloud ways Uh and i loaded one of the template Sites and kind of like edited it a bit For like an hour And i still managed to make sidestep Load that like the site loses at like
0.6 seconds It’s quite crazy it’s like it’s really Really fast um And you know you can you can do a lot of Things with this Generate block but it’s very hard to use Like it’s very abstract you know it’s Like i feel like we’re going back To the days when you were in a classic Editor and you had to put short codes Everywhere and kind of like guess what It’s going to look like and so on And so it’s technically possible and you Will get the fastest site That you can with this um and it’s Probably enough to build like a basic Site like if you want to start just You know stage one side just write some Blog posts and and Rank basically on google yeah you can do That and if your page speeds freak That’s probably what you’re gonna go for Um then my second solution which is a Little bit less Less efficient but a lot more usable was Cadence theme plus cadence blocks yeah You have used that recently right yeah So i just set up a site for the Live i don’t normally set up sites gail Takes care of that but i set up this This site using cadence and It was remarkably straightforward and Easy to use You know the situation i would say was
Really good for is if you’re like a Service company or a product company or Some kind of local business And you want to create like a site for That based on The template they have a bunch of really Good existing templates super easy to Customize And they look super professional like To the point where i’m wondering like What web designers who do websites for Local businesses and stuff these days Even do because This really does it all not quite sure It’s like the best approach for a Kind of content-based authority site But it’s still like remarkably easy to Use and Yeah looks looks fantastic so if mark Can use it everyone can use it and And yeah i like it because it’s still Like gutenberg based it’s still like Native wordpress so it’s a lot more Optimized In terms of code than something like Elementor will be which we’ll talk about Are just like You know essentially what we will now Call like older page builders uh we’re Kind of like Almost passing that as the trend and now It’s becoming more like native wordpress And um and what’s good is like they Allow you to edit your header your
Footer etc which Historically has been quite difficult to Edit in wordpress um but here You you have quite a lot of control and It’s very visual it’s still It’s much nicer than generating price to Edit but it’s not as nice in terms of The quality of the code so To give you an idea like the site on Generatepress was loading in 0.6 seconds and i put a site on cadence Uh on the same server like it’s that Cloudway server It loads in 1.1 second and it’s a little Bit more like div levels in this etc so It’s not It’s not as nice but it’s not it’s not Too far and um Personally if i wanted to start a site Without a page builder i think that’s Kind of like my floor level like Um well i would feel i have enough Control over my site but at the same Time it’s quite optimized And to be frank uh if we start new sites Uh We’ll probably be using that setup as The initial setup until we feel That we might need a page builder right Um so That is uh that is cadence theme plus Cadence blocks the good news is there is A free version of both And a pro version of both so you can
Upgrade whatever you want or use the Free version if you want to try this for Free I’ve built sites on the free version It’s just fine to be honest Um yeah so check it out And finally you have essentially the Full-out page builder Full of functionalities which in our Case we use elementor but you know Things like uh Dv and things like uh tribe teams etc Essentially They’re kind of in the same category not Exactly but kind of in the same category And uh and it’s quite interesting Because i think elementor they Definitely started understanding To understand sorry that uh people are a Bit pissed off with like How bloated the code can be hey it is There’s a lot of divs etc in the code It’s not very clean And i’ve even managed to capture feature Snippets by moving pages off elementor Without changing anything for example so It’s not perfect but the level of Control you have over the design of your Page for example to build a sales page For us Like the sales page for the auto inside System right at the hacker.com System you guys can go check it out There’s no way i’m building this i’m
Just gutenberg there’s no chance Um i mean it’s technically possible um But Not by me so um So it’s like it’s it’s allowing you to Do things that you would maybe not Otherwise do that could make you a lot Of money but elementor have started to Ship performance improvements first of All they have Something called the dom size reduction Project which essentially removes A bunch of the divs they were using that Are now redundant so they’ve removed Like i think around 20 when you activate This Um of the of that that code bloat Essentially And they’ve shipped another beta Function that uh Before i don’t know if you knew that Mark but when you were putting an Elementor widget on a page It would load the javascript of every Single Elementor widget like all of them so if You’re putting You know a box it will still like the Related posts And like the titles and like the buttons And Even though you’re never using this so It was loading like a 200 kilobyte File pretty much and now they’ve started
To like just load Like the javascript of the elements that You’re actually using And also they don’t load any code on the Pages That do not use elementor like zero Which means you’re essentially able now To create websites that Load elementor on some load elemental Code and bloat on some pages but if you Are not using the team builder for Elementor If you’re not using that team builder Then you can have pages that are Completely elemental free and i think And that’s what is interesting me it’s Like this kind of like cadence Uh set up with using elemental just on Key pages like for example if i use Elementor on my about page i don’t Really care because It’s not gonna rank on google or even my Homepage like it just Ranks for my um for my brand But you can have for example the blog Section that Has zero elementor it’s just using pure Gutenberg and everything and has very Very clean Optimized loading speed and code quality And so you can run seo as competitively As someone that runs All the gutenberg setup while having the Capability of creating advanced sales
Pages etc On key pages that you don’t really care As much about the code quality because Uh They’re not intended to rank on google Anyway like opt-in pages etc so Um i don’t think it’s dead but i Think that that’s kind of the future Probably and now that they only load the Assets for the elements you’re using I also feel less bad building gutenberg Blocks with Elementor which you can do and just Putting them in there because it will Just the way it needs pretty much so It’s like Probably not worse than having a plugin That would create call to actions for Like Affiliate offers for example that would Also load javascript and css and Everything so Uh elementor is still there but you know It’s one one thing that i’m kind of like Fading away from is using that team Builder it’s like it’s it’s okay But i tend to like um if you wanted to Optimize the code To the max then i would use cadence in Tasks I still use the team builder because Again it’s easier and it’s not stopping You from doing well to be honest in most Niches like
It’s really when you’re in competitive Niches so but you need to understand the Technical cost that You have using these things pretty much So um yeah that’s where we’re at so There’s a lot of possibilities there’s No right answer And you can absolutely rank with uh All of these setups really like and we Have done that with all of these setups So That’s that’s where we’re on teams and Page build any debate or anything like This I’m just thinking back to when gutenberg First came out and there’s a wave of People who were like installing the WordPress classic Editor uh on on top of it oh yeah This is terrible this is terrible but It’s really come a long way And you know i i think this is the Future of Of you know i think elementor has Problems in a few years time actually Um the wordpress is shipping full site Editing so header footer etc With gutenberg this year actually at Some point this year you will be able to Natively edit your footer your header With blocks And so it’s going to also bring a lot of Flexibility in how you build your site Which has always been a problem with
WordPress Like putting buttons and clickable phone Numbers etc and headers which makes Sense It’s going to be a lot easier you won’t Need to code anything so Yeah that’s pretty much for um we’re Going to talk about branding but you Know i do that module in the auto site System but You’ve done that recently with your site So i want you to talk about it actually Yeah yeah so i have i last week actually I was Making a website and it’s the first time I’ve done all the branding and stuff i Am i mean i might as well be colorblind When it comes to that there’s a saying In the company right if mark’s like Mark likes something we have to redo it That’s usually design wise yeah Yeah it’s just i just i am totally inept When it comes to what looks good and What doesn’t i i haven’t got a clue Uh but even someone like me Was able to make something look you know I’m not gonna say it’s amazing but Not happy uh with these tools so There’s three tools i wanna talk about First is coolers.co That’s colors with an extra o it Is a font pairing tool it’s totally free Go on the website it’s all web-based and They have a bunch of
Pre-matched color palettes that you can You can pick From and they all look really good if You want to just go in and pick one of Those that’s what i did Very easy uh or you can Do like a randomly generated uh thing And they’ll have i think five or six you Can Change how many colors you want usually About five or six though colors and It’ll it’ll show you a selection of Colors that all go together I’m not sure the tech underlying way it Knows What goes with what there’s some kind of Color chart that means this goes with This and this doesn’t go with this It takes all that into account and when You see a color like chromatic circle of Color yeah That’s the one when you see a color you Like you can lock it and then just Keep hitting space bar and then it shows You other colors that go with that color So it’s very easy to like narrow Something down that you like and you Know All the other colors in your palette go With that one Free very easy to use highly recommended And there’s a tool called font joy which Basically does the same thing Except for fonts and uh you can
Go and find like a i think it’s like a Primary font and then like Two sub fonts uh recommends you have Three i think you could add more but That seems to do the trick Uh again this is something i never Really even thought about Like font why does that matter you know Ariel that’s fine uh But that i mean the ones that it Suggests like it look Pretty good and i can see how they go With each other and yeah okay it looks Looks Better and stuff and i think all of them On there are Also free fonts or you can get them on Uh On google photos whatever it is yeah Which is really handy as well so those Are the two Two tools that you start with and once You have that uh i’ve been playing Around a lot with canva recently And the way i would describe canva it’s A web-based image Editing tool for non-designers The way i would describe it is it’s kind Of like back in the day when Your options were kind of dos or windows 3.1 And then apple came along and had Everyone’s dead from that time you know Apple apple apple came along and they
Just they got rid of all the like Command line Useless like intimidating stuff that Beginners were put off by and just Here’s all the stuff you just need and It’s easy to use It’s kind of like that for photoshop And someone as graphically challenged as Myself Was was able to use it they have loads Of like templates and The image editing is just very very easy Everything snaps where it should be You can export things to the correct Size it has all the dimensions for Exporting things to social media for Example and Even like creating a logo on there like I thought you would have to be like a Professional designer to ever create a Logo from scratch but There was just a bunch of templates in There that makes it easy to Like kind of customize it and tweak it To your own settings or you can not Really creating a logo though Well here’s the thing it’s good you can Upload Any image and like logify it basically In In canva uh and that’s pretty unique Like i’ve never seen that done before Especially in In such an easy way it’s ten bucks a
Month as well um Yeah there’s a free version as well this Doesn’t have quite so many Cool features and uh the the paid Version also have stock photos now so You don’t even need a stock photo Subscription anymore just Just use that yeah canvas is just really Good it’s It’s it also it’s like i can use more Advanced tools Like um i’m doing like thumbnails with Not canva you know But um i use pixelmator pro for people Who want to know on mac Um but like when i want to do something Quick i still default back to canva just Because it’s faster you know So i think uh i think it’s it’s the Perfect tool for All visual stuff for your website and Social media And for 10 bucks per month it’s pretty Good value when you consider that the Stock photos and All this stuff is built in then uh then I think it’s It’s a no-brainer there’s no there’s a Reason why there was More than a billion dollars now i think Actually The the cool thing about canva as well Is you can import your color Uh palette and your fonts as well that
You picked in coolers or font joy And so all those options are like really Easy to access within The tool itself so it makes doing stuff And Making images according to yeah a lot of The illustrations as well They have like you know multiple colors And you can change the colors on there To put your brand colors etc so it’s Like You can brand illustrations which is Quite cool and really adds a level of Refinement to your images that would be Hard to match With just a normal stock photo for Example it would be hard you need to go In illustrator and like Do this uh no way you would do that So uh overall yeah canva uh is really Cool and We recommend it to all website owners at This point And you’re gonna save a lot in designers Uh seo plugins seo plugins has been an Interesting Market because yoast used to be Dominating that market for a long time But they made a lot of big mistakes like Indexing Uh media pages et cetera and like some Size class their rankings because of Them Together with removing features right
There was more features on yours three Years ago than there is today they were To try to make you upgrade to paid one And then there’s been a lot of Challenges The two i’m thinking of are mostly seo Press And rank math but the one that really Stood out even though i used to I picked the seo press initially the one That really stood out in terms of future Became Rank math and the free version of Rankmas pretty much does Everything you’re gonna need for your Website unless You need advanced schema like multiple Levels of schema per page etc that’s What the pro version does But i think for most people it’s Overkill it’s more like if you’re doing Like Recipes and you want to put your auto Schema on top and you want to Maybe you have a video in there so you Want to put the video schema so you can Like stack more schema Otherwise the free version does a lot of Stuff Your site maps it does it handles your Directions for your site You can do your local uh data like you Know like putting your organization Stuff in there
It can handle your social media tags it Can Of course handle your title tags meta Description index no index Etc etc uh it the pro version also has a Rank tracker in there but i don’t think People would use rank math as a rank Tracker so You can feel like they gave so much away For free that they’re trying to find Stuff to put for the paid one but They’re kind of running out because they Gave They put everything in the free version I would not be surprised to see some of The free features slide back to the paid Version in the future but At the time at which we’re recording Just use rank math And it’s also integrated with most page Builders at this point So you can edit like your title tag in Elementor if you’re editing a page on Elementor for example you don’t have to Go back To the wordpress editor so overall Yeah use rank math pretty much um I i’m going to just mention just three More Plugins that we use we really don’t use That many plugins you know i showed you The Tasa case study site and there’s like Six plugins on it or something it’s like
We’re really running lean um the first One i recommend For people who are a little bit advanced Who is tracking Is going to be google tag manager uh for WordPress Essentially it allows you to not only Put your google tag manager pixel On your site it also allows you to Send dimensions to tag manager like The author name of the post like the Category Like the tags etc so we use that to get More Uh granular data into google analytics And so for that i really like it Obviously tech manager is amazing as Well so you should use that Advanced custom fields we use that Together with elementor to build Advanced like review templates for Example roundup templates where we put Like product data It appears in the header it looks really Fancy uh Really a good way to customize wordpress And one that We’ve never mentioned before which is wp Media folders Um it saves our lives so you know how The library in Of media in wordpress is just like one File it’s like as if you were putting All your files on your desktop
Um well this allows you to essentially Make folders inside your media library So we do one per blog post for example A page it allows us to keep our media Organized and reuse stuff rather than Like You know re-upload new images all the Time which eventually costs you a lot of Money when you use hosting Like kidstaff for example that has Limited uh hard Hard drive space and so you need to be a Little bit careful with that and If you don’t do that you’re gonna end up Having to clean or you’re gonna have to Pay overages and we do both Um so yeah if you’re gonna go to premium Hosting It’s nice to manage your media library It’s going to save you a lot of money Um yeah that’s pretty much it but Anything else to that nope Okay well now we have the comment of the Week right that’s the the new section Yes it is so every week we’re going to Go through one of your comments on our What my last not you you the audience I’m speaking Speaking to okay uh comments on our Youtube videos Uh on on the youtube channel for the Like past few weeks and just pick up Something interesting question someone Said or something interesting someone
Someone said and just address it so This one comes from lena walker who said In regards to the email podcast which You Said we didn’t perform quite well she Said great episode Uh she had a question about hunter.io And like what’s the difference between Hunter as like an outreach tool and Using that as like a Mailing list for for autoresponder thing And You know for people in the know that They might there this is a stupid Question But it’s something that comes up quite a Lot people ask why can’t i use mailshake Or hunter to email my email list For for an autoresponder and they’re Just fundamentally different tools Hunter mail shake and these kind of Tools are for outreaching to cold Prospects you upload a list You send them an email with a few Follow-ups uh Activecampaign uh getresponse mailchimp These are whatever When mail like when people uh subscribe And expect to receive recurring emails From you About your content and stuff it’s not so Much for Um for for pitching people so Yeah that’s that’s the main difference
Between and you shouldn’t mix them You’re gonna get banned from The tools if you use them the wrong way So ah don’t do that and Overall they’re just designed for that Much better um so Yeah people who obtain email them with Like metal light people who You outreach to followings email them With hotdog io Or mailshake or something like this and She also says She also says congrats on your 250th Episode and you know we We here don’t celebrate big milestones Like that here Uh for whatever reason but she says and She challenged us For the 300th episode which would be About this time next Year one of us has to dress up as king Leonidas From the 300. so i definitely need to Lose some body fat then Exactly so check out challenge accepted Was it Yeah let’s see it’s like depends on my Diet a few weeks before but uh But we can we can work on that uh okay Before we close it up i wanted to Uh give a shout out to uh our free Webinar where We actually talk a lot about tools so if You want more information you can go on
Autohackertraining.com And we don’t just share tools we share How we start new sites There’s a bunch of tools that have Changed system but a lot of this stuff Is still Relevant and reliable so go and check it Out i think Uh you will enjoy it uh anything any Final rules of wisdom now that you Didn’t tell us how it’s going I need to put you on the spot at the end Of the podcast you know no final words Of wisdom Unfortunately well final rules of wisdom Is don’t overspend on tools I think just by the tools that you need Uh and a lot of tools we mentioned here Are free like pretty much all the things We mentioned are free rank math is free Uh has a free version all the branding Stuff is free So it shows you that you don’t really Need to spend that much money and There’s a lot of free options Even cloudflare has a free tier you know Um Pretty much apart from the hosting you Have a free option in everything we Mentioned so Really when we build sites these days And as i say the test case study site Only has like six or seven plugins you Don’t need a lot of plugins
Uh and you can already build a great Site so On this if you enjoyed this video if you Want us to talk more about tools don’t Forget to Like this video subscribe and click the Notification bell and we’ll see you next Week bye You