searchlove london | 'jono alderson', turbocharging your wordpress website

@jonoaldersonTurbo-charging your WordPress website

Turbo-charging your WordPress*

website

I’m going to make you care about technical SEO.

Jono AldersonHead of Insight @ Linkdex

@jonoalderson

Technical SEO + analytics geekCloset web developer & Wordpress fanatic

So, like any good SEO, I needed a

website.

September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today is International Plush Animal Lovers Day

Tomorrow is Cat Day and Internet Day

...and the whole of October is Pizza Month

# links builtzero

# bloggers emailedzero

Proactive outreach donezero

Comment spam, guest posting, content spunzero

Infographicszero

Average words per page< 50*

Budgetzero*

Wanna see?

www.daysoftheyear.com

When we started talking about content

marketing, we stopped talking about technical

optimisation.“on page” is not the same as

“technical”

Why should we care?

We’ve all seen the impact of technical

bugs/faults/etc.

Broken pages, missing redirects, indexation faults, etc...

Visualising PerformanceSeeing is believing

Ditch the crappy metaphor!

Yes, it works as a loose analogy, but it gives people permission to think about it in an

abstract sense.

Visualising PerformanceSpeed● Google PageSpeed Insights, ySlow● Google Analytics● Pingdom, WebPageTest*

developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

webpagetest.org

There is no ‘site speed’ number which Google uses.

An aside… Developers HATE

Visualising PerformanceUser Experience

● How’s it “feel”? Consider the psychology of the loading experience

● User experience index, general quality, give-a-damn● Track it, benchmark it. Surveying and feedback tools

Visualising PerformanceTechnical optimisation & security● Bandwidth/overhead optimisation

● Adoption of technologies (open graph, responsive images, caching, etc)

● Minimising risks of hacking, DDOS

But wait, this really isn’t SEO…?

So, let’s go.

bit.ly/searchlove-wordpressBut first...

Visualising the stack

Visualising the stack1. Hosting Type

Visualising the stack2. Server Spec & Config

Visualising the stack3. Theme / CMS

Visualising the stack4. Domain(s)

Visualising the stack5. Media / Assets

Visualising the stack6. HTML & DOM parsing (and CSS + JS)

Visualising the stack7. Re-flow / re-paint, FPS

So let’s start with something easy.

My ‘must have’ WordPress plugins

Don’t go anywhere without installing:W3 Total Cache*

RedirectionBWP Sitemaps

Broken Link CheckeriThemes Security*

Akismet*Query Monitor

You may also like...BWP Minify

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin*YARPP Experiments

Relevanssi*WP-PageNavi

Kraken.io*Google Tag Manager for Wordpress

User Role EditorCustom Post Type Permalinks

Third Party ServicesCloudflare (or MaxCDN)

NewRelicAn SSL certificate (ssl2buy.com)

...some kind of backup processes......and some proper hosting...

What, no Yoast SEO?

Stand up, Jim.Jim Seward, @iamoldskool

“My wordpress seo tends to be limited to ‘install the yoast plugin’ and do the usual site stuff...”Jim Seward, @iamoldskool

Is this really an issue?

What are the experts doing?

If everybody’s only running at 80%...

...Want the rest?

Here’s the stuff nobody talks about.

Buy yourself some hosting.

You can only learn this stuff by doing

Dedicated/tailored WordPress Hosting?

DIY HOSTINGShared, Dedicated, or VPS*(vs Clusters & hardcore setups, AWS elastic cloud computing)

cPanel

Behind the curtain…

http://codex.wordpress.org/

wp-config.phpSecurity settings

Auto update settingsLimit revision & trash storage

Cookie stuffSet memory allowance

Force SSLSet language

http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php

Expert tip... Reference the

Template HierarchyURL -> <- Page

Expert Tip...You can use pre_get_posts to intercept and

change how requests are processed

URL Structures (Permalinks)

Default/?p=%post-id%

http://www.example.com/?p=123

‘Pretty’ /%category%/%postname%/

http://www.example.com/cat/page/

‘Flat’/%post-id%-%postname%/

http://www.example.com/123-page/

Custom 503, maintenance & DB error pages

Custom Error Files

<?php// Set headers before outputting the page HTML header('HTTP/1.1 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable'); header('Status: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable'); header('Retry-After: 3600'); // 1 hour = 3600 seconds?>

<html>...

wp-content/maintenance.phpwp-content/db-error.php

Other WP Crap…

Expert Tip...Clean up WP and plugin overheads

// Clean up wp_head()function cleanhead() {

remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link'); remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator'); remove_action('wp_head', 'feed_links_extra', 3 );remove_action('wp_head', 'feed_links', 2 ); remove_action('wp_head', 'adjacent_posts_rel_link_wp_head', 10, 0 );remove_action('wp_head', 'rel_canonical');remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_shortlink_wp_head', 10, 0 );}add_action('init', 'cleanhead');

Expert Tip...Clean up WP and plugin overheads

// Ged rid of superfluous CSSfunction deregister_styles() { if (!is_admin()) {

wp_deregister_style('avatars');wp_deregister_style('imgareaselect')wp_deregister_style('avatar-manager.css');wp_deregister_style('yarppRelatedCss');

} }add_action( 'wp_print_styles', 'deregister_styles');

Expert Tip...Kill unnecessary templates

// Kill misc pagesadd_action('template_redirect', 'jono_nerf_pages');function jono_nerf_pages() { global $wp_query, $post; if (is_day() || is_month() || is_year()) { header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); $wp_query->set_404(); } if (is_attachment()) { header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently"); header("Location: ".get_permalink($post->post_parent)); exit; } if (is_feed()) { header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); $wp_query->set_404(); wp_query->is_feed = false; } if ((is_archive()) && (!have_posts())) { header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); $wp_query->set_404(); }}

Your Theme Performance

PHP & databaseTheme files and functions

Plugins & widgets

W3 Total Cache!

I’m not going to tell you how to configure

this.Your site is unique.

Here’s a good place to start

Expert Tip...You can move redirects from out of WordPress

and into .htaccess from within the plugin admin

apple-touch-icon.png (and variants)favicon.ico (and variants)

browserconfig.xmlInvalid or un-used feedsinvalid page/date ranges

broken internal links (and missing http links)alternate sitemap and meta data urls

pages & images with weird, breaking parameterssecurity probes

legacy urls

Some things to watch out for...

The physical location of your server & media

matters.

Use a CDN

MAGIC.

Subdomains Rock.Serialisation of requests (and other cool stuff)

*No need to create/configure subdomains in cPanel/WHM!

Cloudflare + Subdomains + W3 Total Cache = MAGIC

Configure in W3TC as a “Generic Mirror”

Expert Tip...Redirect requests which resolve to your CDN subdomains (or other

hostnames)// Redirect requests from non-primary domainsfunction domain_redirect() { $hostname = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']; $mainDomains = array('www.daysoftheyear.com','app.daysoftheyear.com'); if (!in_array($hostname,$mainDomains)) { $uri = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; wp_redirect( 'https://www.daysoftheyear.com'.$uri, 301 ); exit; }}add_action('init', 'domain_redirect');

Expert Tip...Use established CDNs to server common/large resources (like

jQuery)// Use Google CDN for jQueryfunction modify_jquery() { if (!is_admin()) { wp_deregister_script('jquery'); wp_register_script('jquery', 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js', false, '1.11.1'); wp_enqueue_script('jquery'); }}add_action('init', 'modify_jquery');

(Or W3 Total Cache)

Before…

After…

HTTPS / SSLChange to protocol-relative URLs (//example.com/file/)

References in CSS/JS & third party stuff

Purchase & install key*(Cloudflare is MAGIC)

Buy the right type (single, multi, wildcard)

Tweak CDN config

W3 Total Cache config

Expert Tip...Database find & replace

update TABLE_NAME set FIELD_NAME = replace(FIELD_NAME, ‘find this string’, ‘replace found string with this string’);

...or cheat...

“Search and Replace” plugin

HTTPS / SSLForce SSL in wp-config.php (esp. if using Cloudflare)

// Force SSLdefine('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);if ($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https') $_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';

HTTPS / SSLForce SSL in .htaccess

http://www.webhostinghub.com/help/learn/website/ssl/force-website-to-use-ssl

Media OptimisationPay attention to every detail.Kraken, but get it right first.

Photoshop isn’t good enough; use dedicated kit

File size is (sometimes) less important than

#requests

CSS SpritesAre super-awesome, and avoid extra

requests

Expert Tip...You can base64 encode images in your

Expert Tip...Change default media links

// Change image default linkfunction misc_change_image_default_link() {

$image_set = get_option( 'image_default_link_type' );if ($image_set !== 'none') {

update_option('image_default_link_type', 'none');}

}add_action('admin_init', 'misc_change_image_default_link', 10);

Expert Tip...Lowercase filenames

// Lowercase filenamesadd_filter('sanitize_file_name', 'mfl_make_filename_lowercase', 10);function mfl_make_filename_lowercase($filename) { $info = pathinfo($filename); $ext = empty($info['extension']) ? '' : '.' . $info['extension']; $name = basename($filename, $ext); return strtolower($name) . $ext;}

Expert Tip...Responsive Images (without the overhead…)

Expert Tip...Responsive Images (without the overhead…)

// Thumbnail sizesadd_image_size( 'cols-1-small', 480, 314, array( 'left', 'top' ) );add_image_size( 'cols-1-med', 720, 470, array( 'left', 'top' ) );add_image_size( 'cols-1-large', 1024, 669, array( 'left', 'top' ) );add_image_size( 'cols-1-xlarge', 1024, 669, array( 'left', 'top' ) );

add_image_size( 'cols-2-small', 240, 157, array( 'left', 'top' ) );add_image_size( 'cols-2-med', 360, 236, array( 'left', 'top' ) );add_image_size( 'cols-2-large', 512, 335, array( 'left', 'top' ) );add_image_size( 'cols-2-xlarge', 512, 335, array( 'left', 'top' ) );

webpagetest.org

Expert tip... NewRelic

Expert Tip...Check your error_log file

Stuff I haven’t talked about...Parent/child theme relationships

PHP(!)Transient caching

Device-type optimisationAwkward SSL stuff (chain certificates)

CSS/JS optimisationWP Cron, Ajax & the Heartbeat API

Browser reflow and repaint

(That may own websites are a bit slow, and far from perfect!)

Take it one step at a time.

Stop mitigating against technical

impact......Start capitalising on technical

opportunity.

Learn (some of) this stuff!

And not just because you want to be “full stack”.

And if you’re not at least thinking about this stuff…?

Maybe all you’re doing is “marketing”.

Google cares about this stuff...

Because users do. Even if they don’t know they do.

Aim for 100%(but get there one step at a time)

Jono AldersonHead of Insight @ Linkdex

@jonoalderson

(and also www.daysoftheyear.com)

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