supercharging wordpress for seo
DESCRIPTION
WordPress provides an excellent foundation for SEO, but there are many ways to improve it. I’ll present key techniques and powerful plugins that can supercharge a WordPress site for SEO. Experience level: Beginner, Intermediate Target audience: Affiliates/Publishers Niche/vertical: SEO Jon Henshaw, Co-Creator & Product Manager, Raven Internet Marketing Tools (Twitter @RavenJon)TRANSCRIPT
Affiliate Summit East 2010
Supercharging WordPress for SEO
Jon HenshawCo-Founder & Product Manager, Raven Internet Marketing Tools
Case Sensitive URLs
http://hen.sh/aw
What are you doing with WordPress?
• Single Site• Multiple Blogs• Community• Membership
Subdomain or Folder
define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);
Add to wp-config.php
Multiple Domains
Requires Plugin
http://hen.sh/dx
Managing Multiple Sites
ManageWP
http://hen.sh/dy
Community / Social
BuddyPress
http://hen.sh/dz
Membership Site
WishList Member
http://hen.sh/dA
Design & Layout
• Out-of-the-Box Themes• Premium Themes• Custom Themes
Tons of Themes!
Are they really search engine friendly?
Premium SEO Themes
Thesis Theme
http://hen.sh/dB
Custom Theme
Strip the DefaultApply Your Own Style
HTML5 / Minimalism
Semantic MarkupSection ElementsFocused Content
Setting up for Stats and Search Bots
• Header & Footer• Site Statistics• META Data• Sitemaps
Header & Footer Plugin
Used for <head> and footer
http://hen.sh/dC
Google Analytics Plugin
Adds Tracking and Much More!
http://hen.sh/dD
Wassup
Real-Time Stats
http://hen.sh/dE
Woopra
Real-Time Stats
http://hen.sh/dF
Page META Plugin
Adds META Description and Custom Title
http://hen.sh/dG
Robots META Plugin
Adds robots.txt Editing
http://hen.sh/dH
Google XML Sitemap Plugin
Enable Auto-Creation of Sitemaps
http://hen.sh/dI
URL Naming Convention
• Permalinks• Dates• Category• Post Name Only
Making WordPress Faster!
• Speed is Now a Ranking Factor• Be Protected from Digg Effect
Caching
W3 Total Cache
http://hen.sh/dJ
GZIP Compression
Comes with Most Caching PluginsCan be Manually Configured
Test to Make Sure it’s Working
Test Page Speed
Gtmetrix Makes it Easy
http://hen.sh/dK
Reducing Junk
• Protect Against Spam• Protect Against Exploits• Scraping?
Akismet
Register and Enable
http://hen.sh/dL
Bad Behavior Plugin
Enhanced Spam Protection
http://hen.sh/dM
RSS Footer Plugin
Include Copy and Links in RSS
http://hen.sh/dP
Instant SEO!
• Optimizes META Data, Linking, Titles• Can Conflict with Some Themes and Plugins
Headspace Plugin
Best SEO Plugin
http://hen.sh/dQ
All In One SEO Pack Plugin
Best Known, but Use with Caution
http://hen.sh/dR
SEO Smart Links Plugin
Bulk Manage Links on All Posts
http://hen.sh/dS
Paginated Comments Plugin
Extend Content and Comments
http://hen.sh/dT
Content Attributes
• Certain Pages Communicate Trust• Accessibility & Microformats
“Trust” Content
Terms of ServicePrivacy Policy
Phone Number / Address
Accessibility
Provides More Data to Search BotsMay be Ranking Factor
http://labs.google.com/accessible/
Microformats
Also Known as SnippetsProvides Structured Data
http://hen.sh/dU
Enhancing Content
• Improves User Experience• Encourages Users to Link to Page• Provides Additional, Relevant Content
Scribe Plugin
Analyze and Improve Content
http://hen.sh/e4
Iflickr Plugin
Find and Add Creative Commons Photos
http://hen.sh/dV
Photo Dropper Plugin
Find and Add Creative Commons Photos
http://hen.sh/dW
Video Plugin
Easily Add (Embed) Video
http://hen.sh/dX
Video Sitemap Plugin
Create Video Sitemap File
http://hen.sh/dY
Insights Plugin
Mashup of Content and Images
http://hen.sh/dZ
Zemanta Plugin
Mashup, Plus Blog Advertising Platform
http://hen.sh/e0
RSS Doodle Plugin
Auto-Create Digests from Other Sites
http://hen.sh/e1
WP-o-Matic Plugin
Auto Blogging
http://hen.sh/e2
FeedWordPress Plugin
Another Auto-Blogger
http://hen.sh/e3
Capturing Leads
• Email Addresses for Newsletters• Forms for Capturing Contact Details
AWeber Form Widget
Opt-In Form on Sidebar
http://hen.sh/e5
CForms
Form Manager
http://hen.sh/e6
Gravity Form
Ultimate Form Manager
http://hen.sh/e7
Affiliate Links
• Masking/Cloaking Affiliate Links• Integrating Popular Affiliate Programs
GoCodes
Redirects from Own DomainDisallow Folder in robots.txt
http://hen.sh/e8
phpBay for eBay
Plugin for Displaying eBay Auctions
http://hen.sh/e9
phpZon for Amazon.com
Plugin for Displaying Amazon Products
http://hen.sh/ea
Linkshare Plugin
Plugin for Searching and Inserting Links
http://hen.sh/eb
WP125
Display Affiliate Ads in Sidebar
http://hen.sh/ec
Being Social
• Social Media Should Play an Important Role• Encourage People to Share
AddThis
Share Content with Popular Social Networks
http://hen.sh/ed
WordBook
Auto-Publish to Facebook
http://hen.sh/eg
TwitMe
Auto-Publish to Twitter
http://hen.sh/eh
Poll: Q&A for Supercharging WordPress for SEO