If you are working on a new blog and writing new posts on a regular basis you understand the importance of search engine optimization. While blogging and WordPress in general have revolutionized the way we look at SEO (and the way it works), there are many things we can not forget to do in order [...]
If you are working on a new blog and writing new posts on a regular basis you understand the importance of search engine optimization. While blogging and WordPress in general have revolutionized the way we look at SEO (and the way it works), there are many things we can not forget to do in order to get our sites noticed by the search engines, and improve ranking.
Today, lets take a look at 11 very important, must do tips for SEO improvement.
1. Enable Comments ?
Some WordPress users restrict comments to registered users, or disable them entirely. While this may be appropriate in some situations, in most cases comments are a very beneficial factor, and a defining mark, of a blog.
Comments engage your readers, help you get more “fresh content” SEO brownie points, and give search engines another reason to come back frequently.
Here is how:
- Login to the WordPress administration center
- Click “Options” on the menu bar
- Is “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” checked? If so, consider unchecking it.
- Click “Discussion” on the submenu bar
- Make sure the following are checked: “Allow people to post comments on the article” and “Allow link notifications from other Weblogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)”
2. Permalinks
Go into your WordPress Admin and click Settings and then Permalinks on the left side. Change the settings to “Custom Structure” and use the code /%postname%/
3. Use Images in Your Posts
In addition to increasing visitor attention and retention , they also give you help with Google image search results, driving more traffic to your site.
4. Timestamping to Deliver Fresh Content
It is well known that both search engines and visitors crave fresh and new content on a regular basis. Not always easy for us writing it, but necessary to keep in mind. Sometimes you have alot of ideas, sometimes you have none.
Here is your solution. When writing a post, click the plus sign next to “Post Timestamp.” Set a date and time, and the post will publish automatically at that later date. So when you are full of ideas, write them down and just publish them later
You get the SEO benefit of updated content, and visitors won’t be overwealmed with too many new posts
When using the time stamp, don’t click the Publish button, since that’ll publish your post immediately regardless of your timestamp. Instead, select “Published” under “Post Status” and click the Save button.
5. Ping
A ping is the way your blog tells everyone that you have new content.
By default WordPress pings one website called Ping-o-matic, which in turn pings others. You can also add additional services by going to Options > Writing in the admin panel. (For example, the pinging URL for Google Blog Search is http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2)
6. Install the Google XML Sitemaps Generator Plugin
XML Sitemaps are search-engine-friendly directories of your blog’s posts and other pages intended to help search engines spider your site.
The Google XML Sitemaps Generator for WordPress makes generating a sitemap very easy. It also automatically lets the engines know when you post new content.
7. Speed up your site
Since April 2010, Google has also started taking into account the speed of your website for search rankings. Some quick ways to improve your website’s speed :
- Using WP Super Cache to reduce the server’s workload.
- Keeping your database optimised with Yoast’s Optimize DB plugin.
- Make sure any images you use are optimised for the web.
- Delete everything you stop using, including images, themes and plugins.
- If you are comfortable with the code, go through your site thoroughly and removing the old lines of code, images and other bits and pieces that deleted themes and plugins may have left behind.
8. Use Traditional SEO Techniques
Even though wordpress is a different format than a regular website, traditional SEO techniques still apply:
- Use important keywords in the title and throughout the post, but don’t overdo it.
- Bold your keywords when it makes sense.
- Develop links to your blog.
9. All in One SEO Plugin.
Install this plugin and add in site wide keywords, descriptions as well as post specific keywords and descriptions everytime you post.
- Puts the blog name after the post title, giving your keyword-rich titles more prominence.
- Allows you to override title and meta tags on your homepage as well as your individual posts.
- Lets you add “noindex” to your category and/or tag pages to avoid duplicate content.
- And more.
10. Social Media/Social Bookmarking
Sign up for Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, Stumbled upon, De.li.cous for your blog and make it easy for visitors to “promote” your posts. This is a great way to naturally build links and traffic to your site. It is pure targeted traffic.
There are many great plugins that will help send your readers to bookmark for you including
11. Deep-Linking
- Within your specific posts, link to previous postings that are similar when referenced.
- Similar Posts plugin, which generates a list of related posts you’ve written and adds it to the bottom of each blog post.
