hands on wordpress seo mozinar - june 4, 2013

Hands  On  Answers  To  The  Most  Asked  WordPress  Ques6ons  

By  Dan  Shure  

Join  us  on  Twi2er  at  #Mozinar  Ques8ons  or  problems?  Email  community@moz.com  

WordPress – Happy 10th Birthday!

http://ma.tt/2013/05/dear-wordpress/

Congrats To Moz

This is the first Tuesday Mozinar on the new Moz! (didn’t plan that – but cool!)

I’m Dan.

Evolving SEO – Owner Moz Associate

I’m Dan.

Evolving SEO – Owner Moz Associate

www.evolvingseo.com

@dan_shure

Resources.

Set Up WordPress For SEO Success – Dan Shure (me) http://moz.com/blog/setup-wordpress-for-seo-success

Advanced WordPress SEO (Mozinar) – Nick Herinckx http://moz.com/webinars/advanced-wordpress-seo

Top 100 WordPress Resources http://whdb.com/blog/2012/top-100-resources-for-wordpress-tips-tricks-and-tutorials/

WordPress Codex http://codex.wordpress.org

No Plugin Will “SEO Optimize” Your Site For You.

Plugins Do Something With Forms & Checkboxes You Would Normally Have To Code.

Have a test site or two where you can break a few things and experiment.

URL Structure – Architecture Matters

Source:  www.home-­‐desinging.com  

URL Structure – Architecture Matters

Source:  someone  in  need  of  help  

Don’t let your site become a franken-house.

URL Structure – Three Site Setups

1. Blog

2. Site w/Blog In It

3. Site w/Blog In It + Special Section/Pages

URL Structure – Blog

Page   URL   Content  

Home   site.com   Recent  post  excerpts  

Pages   site.com/page-­‐name/   Page  content  

Posts   site.com/2013/05/31/post-­‐name/   Individual  posts  

Category  Archives   site.com/category/name/   Post  excerpts  

Tag  Archives   site.com/tag/name/   Post  excerpts  

Date  Archives   site.com/2013/05/   Post  excerpts  

Author  Archives   don’t  use  unless  custom  

Site where blog is 80% or more of all content. Very few ‘pages’.

URL Structure – Site w/Blog In It

Page   URL   Content  

Home   site.com   Sta8c  Homepage  

Pages   site.com/page-­‐name/   Page  content  

Child  Pages   site.com/page-­‐name/child-­‐page/   Page  nested  under  parent  

Blog   site.com/blog/   Recent  Post  Excerpts  

Posts   site.com/blog/2013/05/31/post-­‐name/   Individual  posts  

Category  Archives   site.com/blog/name/   Post  excerpts  

Tag  Archives   site.com/blog/tag/name/   Post  excerpts  

Date  Archives   site.com/blog/2013/05/   Post  excerpts  

Author  Archives   don’t  use  unless  custom  

Very common small business setup. The main content of the site is static pages, and a blog is within it.

URL Structure – Site w/Blog Plus Special Pages/Sections

Page   URL   Content  

Home   site.com   Sta8c  Homepage  

Pages   site.com/page-­‐name/   Page  content  

Child  Pages   site.com/page-­‐name/child-­‐page/   Page  nested  under  parent  

Blog   site.com/blog/   Recent  Post  Excerpts  

Posts   site.com/blog/2013/05/31/post-­‐name/   Individual  posts  

Category  Archives   site.com/blog/name/   Post  excerpts  

Tag  Archives   site.com/blog/tag/name/   Post  excerpts  

Date  Archives   site.com/blog/2013/05/   Post  excerpts  

Author  Archives   don’t  use  unless  custom  

Special  Sec8on   site.com/news/   News  excerpts  

News  Ar8cles   site.com/news/2013/06/01/ar8cle-­‐name/   Individual  Ar8cle  

These will be your larger and more complex sites. You might have two blogs, or a news section (which functions like a blog) or an artist portfolio.

URL Structure – Implementation

Let’s go from franken-house to nice house.

Setting Up URL Structure

Site  Type   Homepage  Displays  As  

Permalink  Custom  SeCngs  

Op6onal  Category  Base  

Yoast  Permalink  SeCngs  Category  

Blog   Latest  posts   Day  and  name*   Leave  blank   Unchecked  

Site  w/Blog   Sta8c  Page   Day  and  name*   Leave  blank   Checked  

Site,  Blog,  Special   Sta8c  Page   Day  and  name*   Leave  blank   Checked  

*Day  and  name  =  /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/  

Crawling WordPress Sites

http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/

Crawling WordPress – Start With A Wide Net

This will crawl everything. Careful with really large sites.

Crawling WordPress – Start With A Wide Net

These are settings under Configure->Spider

Crawling WordPress – Cast A Realistic Net

These are “normal” crawl settings. Good to get a feel for how Google is likely spidering your site.

Crawling WordPress – Not Done Yet

Crawling WordPress – Get A “Clean Crawl”

Goal: Get a “clean crawl” we can export of just actual URLs of content – pages, posts, categories, etc.

Crawling WordPress – Get A “Clean Crawl”

We need to weed out this junk!!

Crawling WordPress – Get A “Clean Crawl”

Use excludes on /wp-content/ to start Surround anything with .* to exclude from crawl.

Crawling WordPress – Go Here For More

http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/screaming-frog-guide

Migrating From All In One To Yoast

(Or from most other SEO Plugins). http://bit.ly/toyoast

Migrating From All In One To Yoast

Basic Steps (full instructions in video). http://bit.ly/toyoast

1.  “Snapshot”  Yoast  Se^ngs  

2.  Install  &  Ac8vate  Yoast  

3.  Match  Yoast  se^ngs  to  old  plugin  se^ngs  so  site  looks  the  same.  

4.  Decide  to  use  Yoast’s  Sitemap  

5.  Import  Old  data  into  Yoast  

6.  Once  everything  looks  the  same  as  it  did  before,  then  you  can  make  the  changes.  

Tags

WordPress Tags

We get this question all of the time.

WordPress Tags

Should we index tags?

WordPress Tags

(don’t index tags)

NO

WordPress Tags

(don’t index tags)

But Dan…

WordPress Tags

(don’t index tags)

WordPress Tags – If Already Indexed

http://www.evolvingseo.com/2012/08/10/clean-sweep-yo-tag-archives-now/

WordPress Tags – If Already Indexed

To leave only a few tags indexed that still get traffic (short of 301ing them to a specific post etc)

WordPress Tags – If Already Indexed

Edit that specific tag and you can override global setting with Yoast.

Use Google Analytics For WordPress

http://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/

Analytics – Basic Settings

Analytics – Basic Settings

Entering UA code accomplishes same thing as normal manual JS installation.

Analytics – Basic Settings

Why not.

Analytics – Basic Settings

We’ll need that.

Analytics – Basic Settings

Help out @yoast.

Analytics – Custom Variables

Analytics – Custom Variables

Ya know… THESE!

Analytics – Custom Variables

These work pretty well.

Analytics – Ignore Users

Important.

Analytics – Ignore Users

Selected Role & Higher Are Not Tracked In Analytics

Analytics – Ignore Users

(Your Copywriter)

Use WP Super Cache

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/

Need Convincing On Importance Of Site Speed?

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/

Need Convincing On Importance Of Site Speed?

http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-cache/

SEO, Site Performance – Jon Coleman, REI http://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/seo-site-speed-and-battlestar-galactica-searchfest-2012-11735155

How We Made Portent.com Really Freakin’ Fast – Ian Laurie, CEO http://www.portent.com/blog/design-dev/how-we-made-portent-com-really-freaking-fast.htm

Improving UX Through Front End Performance – Lara Swanson, A List Apart http://alistapart.com/article/improving-ux-through-front-end-performance

Use WP Super Cache

All of what you need is in the “advanced” tab.

Use WP Super Cache

Follow this for more details: http://www.maxminzer.com/how-to-install-and-setup-wp-super-cache/

Use WP Super Cache

Check: you should see code at very bottom of HTML

Help!! Duplicate Content In Crawl Report!

(Cute cat picture promised).

Help!! Duplicate Content In Crawl Report!

Yoast->Titles/Meta->General

Help!! Duplicate Content In Crawl Report!

Just check that box.

Prevent Images Being Indexed On Their Own URLs

Example.

Prevent Images Being Indexed On Their Own URLs

See that URL?

Prevent Images Being Indexed On Their Own URLs

Prevent at the time the image is added to the page/post.

Prevent Images Being Indexed On Their Own URLs

Four Options.

Prevent Images Being Indexed On Their Own URLs

Custom URL – If you want to link to another post or something.

Prevent Images Being Indexed On Their Own URLs

Media File – to the image file itself (ie: simple ‘enlarge’ function)

Prevent Images Being Indexed On Their Own URLs

Attachment Page – THIS IS THE CULPRIT.

Prevent Images Being Indexed On Their Own URLs

None – you will not be able to click image at all.

Image URLs - If It’s Too Late

Whoops. 69 Image Pages Indexed.

Image URLs - If It’s Too Late

If they are ?attachment use Webmaster Tools URL Parameter Settings.

Image URLs - If It’s Too Late

Noindex media under Titles/Meta->Post Types w/Yoast Plugin

Schema.org In WordPress

http://wordpress.org/plugins/schema-creator/

Content & Editorial Help

Search interest for “content marketing” www.google.com/insights/search/

Content & Editorial Help

Use the editorial calendar plugin http://wordpress.org/plugins/editorial-calendar/

Content & Editorial Help

Share your drafts with anyone http://wordpress.org/plugins/shareadraft/

Content – Q&A Forum Plugin

http://wordpress.org/plugins/question-and-answer-forum/

Follow.

http://wordpress.org/plugins/question-and-answer-forum/

https://twitter.com/yoast - Yoast

https://twitter.com/perishable - Jeff Star

https://twitter.com/paulund_ - Paulund

https://twitter.com/smashingmag - Smashing Magazine

Q&A.

www.evolvingseo.com

@dan_shure

 Email:  dan@evolvingseo.com    TwiLer:  @dan_shure    

 Website:  www.evolvingseo.com    

 Find  this  recorded  #Mozinar  and  slide  deck  at  hLp://moz.com/webinars  very  soon!