Basic SEO Help?! Wordpress

18 replies
  • SEO
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I live in a smaller city so there's little competition in the niche I'm working in, but I would like to get a website highly ranked - I am using Wordpress. What are a few simple SEO "things" I can do on my site?
#basic #seo #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Taylor French
    First, be sure to grab one of the Wordpress SEO plugins like All-in-one SEO Pack or Platinum SEO Pack. Platinum SEO Pack is pretty much the same as the All-in-One, but it has a few extra features. Install it. You only need one, but not both.

    Then you need to go back to every post on your blog edit it. While editing the posts, look at the bottom of the page for the new fields that the plugin created. Fill out the title, description, and keywords fields.

    The title should contain keywords related to that post, but it should look attractive.

    Don't make the title something like this:

    "keyword, keyword, keyword"

    Instead, make it look like this:

    "Keyword Phrase Here - Another Related Keyword Phrase"

    The description should be a couple of sentences that describe the content of the page. Include your keywords once, but ONLY once, and ONLY if they make sense in your description. The description is usually the description the search engines use for your page when it appears in the search results, so make it good.

    Include maybe 5 or 6 keyword phrases related to the page content in the keyword field. Separate them with commas.

    After you've gone through every single post on the blog and added these three fields, you need to get backlinks to your blog.

    You can get backlinks by using social bookmarking sites like Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com to bookmark the blog, writing articles and submitting them to article directories like EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com, and putting a link to the blog in your signature on forums that are related to the niche of your site for starters.
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    • Profile picture of the author FredFarnes
      Exactly what Taylor said, he nailed it. Taylor saved you $$$ in WSO and also education/study time. Do it...
      Signature

      So, you want to sell me another way to easily make "X" dollars in "X" days? ROFL too funny! IM success requires hard work and lots of time. Most newbies do not survive the steep learning curve. Anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you a fantasy.

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    • Profile picture of the author boaterscott
      Originally Posted by Taylor French View Post

      You can get backlinks by using social bookmarking sites like Digg.com and StumbleUpon.com to bookmark the blog...

      How exactly do I do this? I've heard people say this in other threads, but I don't really get this either? Sorry, I'm a bit new (but very willing to learn). When I go to Digg.com - what do I do then? This always confused me. Can you give me an example of what I should do? I'd appreciate any specifics!
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Houghton
    There are a few fundamental SEO techniques as well as some great plugins that will help your Wordpress SEO. I created a short Wordpress SEO report and if you are interested you can PM me and I'll be happy to provide a copy.

    The must have plugins IMO for SEO with Wordpress are All in One SEO and Google XML Sitemaps. But like the poster above said the keywords you focus on are very important overall. Good luck and please post URL to the site when you are done with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arbitrager
    Dont forget to Change the permalink to be Search Engine Friendly, something like %post_name%.
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    • Profile picture of the author boaterscott
      Originally Posted by Arbitrager View Post

      Dont forget to Change the permalink to be Search Engine Friendly, something like %post_name%.
      What exactly do you mean by this statement (perhaps it's obvious - but I don't quite understand). Can you give me an example?

      Thanks for replying - I really appreciate the time people take out of their lives to help out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arbitrager
    Here is something from wordpress . org

    Permalink Types
    There are three basic types of WordPress permalinks:

    Default: "Ugly"
    The default looks like

    http : // example . com /?p=N]Example Web Page
    where N is the Post ID number. It works on all server environments, but it doesn't look as nice as some of the other options.

    mod_rewrite: "Pretty Permalinks"
    Using mod_rewrite or lighttpd you can produce much nicer permalinks (see Pretty Permalinks). There are many different formats, but the most common, and most versatile looks like

    http : // example . com/category/post-name/
    -> (I personally use http : // example. com/post-name/ or http : // example . com/post-id/post-name most of the time )

    Choosing your permalink structure
    In the Settings → Permalinks panel (Options → Permalinks before WordPress 2.5), you can choose one of the "common" structures or enter your own in the "Custom structure" field using the structure tags.

    Use this code in your custom structure for:
    http : // example . com/category/post-name/ -->/%category%/%postname%/
    http : // example . com/post-name/ -->/%postname%/
    http : // example . com/post-id/post-name -->/%post_id%/%postname%/
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    • Profile picture of the author paallavi
      To locate your Permalink Settings

      1. Login to your WordPress Dashboard
      2. Click on Settings > Permalinks
      3. Locate "Custom Structure" > Enter the following into the empty text field /%postname%/

      Alternatively the other way

      Click on Day and Name

      U can see something like this in Custom Structure Field

      /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

      Just delete everything and retain

      /%postname%/

      in Custom Structure. Make sure u click on this field


      4. Click Update Permalinks
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  • Profile picture of the author Arbitrager
    @pallavii
    I appreciate your intentions to help. But its been explained clearly by "me" above. I am not sure whats your purpose of re explaining everything.
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  • Profile picture of the author Preben Frenning
    These are some great tips here.

    Wordpress is really good for SEO in my opinion, and it's not hard at all.

    Getting the sitemap plugin is a good idea, and the platinum seo plugin. (Like others have mentioned)

    As for permalinks, I prefer %postname% or %category%/%postname%.

    You should also try to get your keywords in the title of the posts, as it has A LOT to say in the search engines.

    Then, submit your RSS feeds to as many aggregators you can, as this is some of the easiest backlinks you can get. (I usually submit both comment and post feeds, and you can submit category feeds etc. as well. This is most useful for blogs though, not so much for static websites I would think)

    Also, if your categories are the same as your target keywords, that's a good thing. (Only do this if it "fits" though)

    Doing all of this (Really simple actually), I was able to rank my DJ website euphoricvibes.com pretty good for the keywords: tracklists house, progressive tracklist 2009,tech house tracklist,progressive tracklist,tech house track list

    And I did this with NO OTHER backlinking (Except for my sig =P)

    I seriously didn't do any keyword research or anything really. It just got mad rankings with what I mentioned above. Even with so few posts and pages, as well as it haven't been updated in a loooong time.

    Just try out the keywords in google and see for yourself. I was pretty shocked myself.

    It might have to do with the CSS as well, not too sure about that.

    Also I use the "Include pages" plugin, that adds pages to your rss feed.

    And if you need rss feed aggregators to submit to, check out my blog.

    Good luck!
    - Preben
    Signature

    Content overload? Too many tabs open? Then
    check out my awesome tech startup! - It will make your life easier.


    Twitter? - http://twitter.com/Preben_Frenning

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  • Profile picture of the author lusi34
    Don't forget the site's structure. Good internal linking can give you a very high SEO boost. Sorry I can't tell you exactly here since it's a long story.

    It's not a theory. I've seen the result myself. I implement it over and over again, and it still give me good result.
    Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author affilorama-portal
    When I go to Digg.com - what do I do then?

    Hi!

    If you already have a digg account what you will have to do is submit the URL of the blog page that you want to promote. You need to paste it into the provided field. After that you will be given the chance to choose the category of your submission.

    Hope that helps
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  • Profile picture of the author JustMint
    Sorry guys - quick newbie question - are the wordpress seo plugins you mention free or paid?
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  • Profile picture of the author actionplanbiz
    go download the google seo ebook written by google. they tell you what they want to see.

    here is the search result link. it should be the 1st Listed Result
    seo ebook google - Google Search
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