SEO for Wordpress

[eXweso]

Wordpress is an excellent platform for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) amateurs. It is crafted in such a way that you have everything on to your admin area, its just that you need to make the full use of it.

There are various plugins available for you to use on your blog which help in SEO. You can ping many websites automatically each time you post. You can use files with PHP/CSS for easy coding making it VALID XHTML. Small points do help a lot for a better ranking.

Here are some must do things: (Click read more for a detailed description on each point)

• Install a TAG plugin of your choice
• Use the Ping list to Ping to the maximum sites possible
• Use a theme which is Valid XHTML/CSS
• Use Permalinks (Make them search engine friendly)
• Create a sitemap of your Wordpress Blog and submit it to Google and various other search engines
• Clean navigation. See that you don’t link to error pages.
• Submit to free directories and social bookmarking websites

Detailed explanation and description of each point.

1. Install a TAG plugin of your choice

Tags work like keywords and they not only create more pages on your site helping more indexed pages but also help in increasing the keyword density of your post. You can find a list of plugins for Wordpress Tags here. I recommend this.

2. Use the Ping list to Ping to the maximum sites possible

When you ping a website/search engine, your page gets indexed faster and you get more traffic via search.
To configure your ping list, go to Options >> Writing >> Update Services

If you need a list of a good comprehensive Ping list, you can view that over here.

3. Use a theme which is Valid XHTML/CSS

Often, while choosing themes we go only on the design and forget that there could be several errors in the coding. You can check the validity at http://validator.w3.org/

4. Use Permalinks (Make them search engine friendly)

This option can be accessed in your admin area at Options >> Permalinks.
You should use the Date and Name Based option so that your keywords come in the title and which helps in better ranking. (Please don’t forget to update your .htaccess file or it won’t work).

5. Create a sitemap of your Wordpress Blog and submit it to Google and various other search engines
Submit your sitemap to Google. It helps the crawler crawl more efficiently.

You can create a site map using this plugin.

6. Clean navigation. See that you don’t link to error pages.
A website which has a good internal linking is great! Crawlers crawl through your pages using the links on that page. An error page is like a dead end for the crawler and it has nowhere else to go.
For example, while posting a post you can show the related posts. (You can do this using the related posts plugin).

7. Submit to free directories and social bookmarking websites
Social Bookmarking websites and free directories help in getting you backlinks which further help in good ranking.

Thanks,
Swapnil

Note: Please dont copy my articles and post on your blog. They are copyrighted. If you are doing so make some changes and credit me.

[Red Dog]

What a nice entry for a forum. You seem to know a lot about wordpress blogs. Why do they need to validate?

[janhvizdak]

What a nice entry reprinted from [link removed] .

[Jexley]

As with any CMS (which, IMO WP is), you should ALWAYS have the means to create the necessary stuff for good SEO.

Why is WP getting pimped so hard here eh?

Not that I mind, cos I use it on my major sites and freakin' LOVE it, just curious.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by janhvizdak

What a nice entry reprinted from [link removed] .

He already mentioned it was a reprint from his own site.

[Trapped]

Originally Posted by Jexley

Why is WP getting pimped so hard here eh?

Because it is easy to use even for the tech savvy people, loads of plugins that can make your blog FUN or PROFESSIONAL, billions of free themes. If you do need 1 hour to customize Wordpress to meet your needs, you will need 1 day to do the same (if not less or won't even manage to customize) Joomla (just as for example).

Simple..no?

[jmoe]

Wordpress is great and highly customizable. And with so many hosting companies letting you install it with just a mouse click, there is no reason not to use it. I use it on a LOT of my sites for the SEO capabilities alone.

[Malok]

Wordpress is pretty much the standard that a lot persons use to judge others by.

Its fast, easy, SEO friendly, and fairly customizable. Its a great platform.

[zagu060807]

Nice tips, I know SEO for wordpress is similar to SEO for websites.

[adalmi]

Another important tip is how you optimize the title tag.
All blogs that i have seen have the title tag wrong optimized.

On pages like categories, archive, page is the title of the blog is very long the title of the current page will not be indexed in the SE's so you will get duplicated titles.

take care!

[Trapped]

Originally Posted by adalmi

Another important tip is how you optimize the title tag.
All blogs that i have seen have the title tag wrong optimized.

On pages like categories, archive, page is the title of the blog is very long the title of the current page will not be indexed in the SE's so you will get duplicated titles.

take care!

Good point, i did not took longer time to post about new tips on seo optimization for wordpress but the title is one of the important things.

The title of your wordpress blog should be like "Post Title | Sitename | Description" (of course you can chose not to use sitename or description, but the main goal is keep the post title as first).

There few other ways you could use to optimize your wordpress seo, things that I have already mentioned in my blog, and with just a little research you will find them out (but until i reach 50 posts...my blog URL will remain unknown i believe)