On site SEO is often overlooked by those new to WordPress. In this article I will cover many areas that can help you get noticed by search engines and potential visitors alike. I hope this post to be a good resource for those new to WordPress and a check-list for everybody else. Although I will cover most aspects regarding the initial set up of WordPress (for SEO) that I personally use I am sure many others may disagree with areas that I discuss, these are my own views. It is quite possible to use other similar plugins or services to achieve the same effect. If you have suggestions that have not been mentioned within my article please feel free to discuss them in the comments section below.
As soon as WordPress is installed it is time to start altering the blog set up from the administration panel. Many of the changes that will help your sites rankings can be made before you have even thought about your first post. Fantastico Deluxe may install the CMS software in under 1 minute but it is the customizations that will make your blog better than others in your niche. I have listed below a number of customizations that I will make to all my blogs (without exception);
Pemalinks
Permalink customization is a hot topic on the web mainly due to peoples conflicting views on how they should be customized. I have read many endless posts on this subject alone and have chosen the permalink structure that suits me, and i believe it to be the most effective.
The default permalink structure is ugly and should immediately be changed. The link structure gives no indication as to the posts content and therefore provides no SEO based on keywords within the URL. Changing this structure on a blog that is a going concern can cause you to lose traffic, but is still recommended for longevity.
The default wordpress permalink structure - domain.com/?p=15
Now it is at this point that conflicting view come in to play. Many bloggers opt to have (click on these for example arguments) domain.com/category/postname/, i personally opt instead for domain.com/postname/. Disregarding the category enables you to change or edit post categories with a lot more ease as it will not affect your article links.
To change your permalink structure: Log in to administration/settings/permalinks, click on custom and enter /%postname%/ (as shown below).
Your posts will now have the prettier Permalink Structure.
Google XML Sitemaps Plugin
Sitemaps inform search engines when your blog has been updated and attempts to ensure that all your pages get indexed on a regular basis. It is a fact that a regularly updated site will outperform an identical static site that is not. This plugin ensures that the search engines are notified of such updates, it will also help search engines find pages that have not already been crawled.
If you require help with installing the plugin please click here.
Once the plugin has been installed and activated it is time to create your sitemap; click settings/xml-sitemap, then at the top of the page under ‘status’ click create sitemap. This will then create your sitemap and update your sitemap with every updated or new post.
I would strongly advise having a link to your sitemap from your WordPress Site, i personally add this as a link on my sidebar using the link or blogroll widget within the administration panel, however a link from your footer would work just as well.
All In One SEO
This plugin is a must for anybody wanting to blog seriously and has a few features that quite simply you cant afford to live without. This plugin will optimize your titles, automatically generate META tags, avoid the duplicate content issue associated with blogs, and a lot more besides. Once uploaded you will have to activate and enable this plugin from the appropriate field under settings.
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
This plugin is great for boosting older posts traffic rank. It shows a list of related posts under each post and therefore provides a sometimes needed boost to those older articles.
Only Wire
Although this is a plugin it relates to the onlywire.com service. Only Wire enables you to log all your social bookmarking sites usernames and passwords and with this plugin submit your new posts to all these bookmarking sites with only a single click. The set up of the plugin is relatively easy, however the hours required to apply for each social bookmarking site is not. The plugin is well worth the effort and has recently spawned other plugins that enable you to submit the posts through a number of Only Wire accounts and therefore acquire a much bigger reach with a single click.
I have sumarised my initial WordPress setup above and from this point you are ready to blog. I am confident that many people using different setup techniques may question decisions i have made, however i have found these to work well for me. I am always happy to learn of new techniques and plugins so please feel free to comment, i may or may not have tried them and if they are really good please dont be shy!!
I will try and cover other aspects of SEO in the near future but until then the above initial setup even at its most basic level is more than enough to get you started.
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Good stuff here, thanks for sharing this. I go back and refer to it each time I write a blog. This post contributes overall to ethical SEO optimization.