3 Easy Tips To Improve Your WordPress Blog

Jan 03, 2009 in seo

3 Easy Tips To Improve Your WordPress Blog

Here are 3 easy ways to improve your WordPress blog and get better search engine rankings for your blog.

There is no doubt that the Big G likes blogs and one of the reasons so many people have switched from static websites to blogs. The interlinking inside of the blog is a great help but there is one thing that has not been addressed even in the latest version of WordPress.

Talk to anyone that does seo and invariably they will all agree that your title tag is the most important part of your on site optimization. (And getting any three seo experts to agree on anything is rare.)

Unfortunately, WordPress by default uses your blog title as the title tag across the board.

So the first easy change is…

Add a plugin to change the title tags. This way each page will use the post title as the title tag and you even can use a custom title tag.

The plugin I currently use for this is the All In One SEO plugin but there are many others. One of the things with WordPress is the constant influx of new plugins so this might change in the future as it has in the past more than once.

The second easy change is…

Your images. Make sure when you add images you are using the alt tags and naming your images with keywords. Since the advent of uiniversal search Google is often showing images in the main results. Not likely to get a click on image12896.jpg but if your image was named keyword.jpg it would be more likely.

The header image is a prime example. Most themes call the header image header.jpg or header.gif or something similar. Why not rename it to one of your prime keywords?

**Caveat - You will need to change it in your css file too or it will disappear and you won’t have a header. Just search your css file for the name of your header and change it each time you find it.

The third easy change is….

Use the built in tagging structure in WordPress. Either display the tags with each post or use a tag cloud in your sidebar or footer. This creates new tag pages on your site and will often result in indented rankings for that topic in Google.

This gives you two listings for the same post inside the search engines.

Now I do like to use the Simple Tags plugin as it allows me more functionality than the native tagging inside WordPress. Again though plugin recommendations are always subject to change because of the fluid nature of their development. The key is that you use a plugin when it will improve the functionality and take the time to tag each of your posts.

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About the author - Mike Paetzold is known as an expert on using WordPress for your marketing solutions. For more tips check out his report “7 Tips To Make Your WordPress Blog Search Engine Friendly” or follow his blog at WordPress Made Easy.
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You may use and reprint this article as long as it is posted in it’s entirety and all links and the resource box are included. If you are an affiliate for the book you may substitute your affiliate link for mine.

Technorati Tags: alt tags, search engines. plugin, seo, simple tags, tag, tag cloud, WordPess

3 Ways To Personalize Your WordPress Theme

Jan 02, 2009 in information

3 Ways To Personalize Your WordPress Theme

One of the great things about WordPress is the number of themes that are available to change the look of your blog. There are both free and paid versions available. Changing themes is quite easy but…

Finding just the right theme to fit your blog can be frustrating. And that is putting it mildly.

You find one that you like just about everything but that one little thing.

It may be…

the way it displays hyperlinks
the size of the sidebar
the header image
or any of numerous other problems

Now short of hiring someone to create a custom theme exactly the way you would like it there are a few easy changes you can make to take the almost perfect theme and make it much more YOURS.

Here is how you can change three of the most common things to personalize your them and make it your own.

Before we start though ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a back up of your files. And I do mean always if you did not guess from the previous statement.

Change your header

In your theme folder you will find an img or images folder depending on which one the theme author used. Inside that folder will be an image called header.jpg or header.gif. You can easily grab a copy of that image and check to see exactly what size it is.

Either create a new image the same size your self or hire a graphic designer to create one for you if you lack the skills. Name this new file the same as the original one and replace the original one. You now have a personalized header.

Hyperlink colors

Just the other day a friend of mine had found the perfect theme for his blog but the hyperlinks were not the standard blue and underlined but they were just black and bold.

He loved the theme except for that and had spent hours finding just the right look. This problem was easily solved by making a minor change in the css (cascading style sheet) file of his theme.

WordPress themes are run using style sheets and you can change the attributes quite easily. In this case it was the hyperlinks so you needed to look on the style sheet for the “a link” attributes.

It will look something like this

a {
color: #000000;
text-decoration: none;
}

Just change the color to the appropriate hexadecimal code in this case #0000ff and then the attribute from none to underline and you have a “standard” hyperlink.

Changing sidebar size

This takes two changes and they have to be the same amount of change. If your sidebar is a bit narrow say 120 pixels and you want to use 125×125 buttons you will have to change the sidebar width and reduce the body width by the same amount.

Here are the two entries

#sidebar {
position: relative;
float: right;
width: 237px;

#content {
float: left;
width: 676px;

You need to subtract from one what you add to the other but this will allow you to customize the size of a sidebar if that is the feature that you don’t like.

WordPress themes can be easily customized to your needs so if you find most of the features you want try your hand at customizing them. Just make sure to have a backup before you start.

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Mike Paetzold is known as an expert on using WordPress for your marketing solutions. You can find other items to improve your WordPress look, feel and usage at Advanced WordPress or more WordPress information at his blog.
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You may use and reprint this article as long as it is posted in it’s entirety and all links and the resource box are included.

Technorati Tags: editing themes, personalize themes, style sheets, wordpress themes

Keeping up with WordPress

Jan 01, 2009 in blog-launch, information

First I hope you had a great new year. This is an announcement for the first of a few projects to help you with your blogging in 2009. Much more to come so stay tuned.

Now I spend a lot of time gathering news, the latest plugins and much more each week to stay on top of what is new and working. Using feed readers, daily stops at forums and checking the latest press releases can often be quite time consuming.

To help you I have created a new blog for this year where these items will be updated regularly. Figured as I was already gathering this information regularly that it would be good for others to be able to access it in one place.

Thus Your Word Press News has been born.

You can grab the feed from the site or I am in the process of adding the updates to Twitter. Just follow WordPress News on Twitter. Should be up and updating shortly.

Just one of many new projects to help you with your blogging in 2009. So stay tuned and I wish you all the success in 2009.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: twitter, updates on WordPress, WordPress News

Tweet My Blog and WordPress 2.7

Dec 27, 2008 in questions

Today’s question:

I’ve only just set up my blog and installed wordpress 2.7 the help file in the tweet my blog plug in on how to install it looks like it was written for the old version. Do you know how to change the settings to add my twitter username etc to the plug in.

Tweet My Blog works the same on WordPress 2.7 as it did on earlier versions. The problem is that some of the nomenclature within the dash board has changed.

Here are the steps using the names in WordPress 2.7. You ftp up the plugin the same as before.

Click on plugins then activate the plugin.

Next click settings then Tweet My Blog. Fill in your information as in the directions and click update.

Here is where the change comes in now instead of clicking design which no longer exists click appearance - widgets. Then click add to the appropriate sidebar and drag it to where you want it to show on your blog.

Now click edit - add a title to the section and select the number of tweets to show. Click done and then click save changes.

The big change is that design is now called appearance.

Your comments and questions are always welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: tweet my blog, wordpress 2.7

3 Ways To Monetize Your Blog

Dec 26, 2008 in questions

Monetizing your blog seems to create confusion for new bloggers. This post is a result of this question which I received.

I have a WordPress blog but I don’t know how to monetize it. All the affiliate codes just say “copy the code and paste it to your blog.” Question is: Where would I paste it? I’ve asked several sources this question and the answer is the same: On your blog page.

Would that mean then that each time I post a blog, I have to manually paste these codes? Isn’t there a better way of doing it?

Now because of the question I am just going to address three ways to monetize your blog with an affiliate promotion. There are plenty of other ways like selling advertisements, Adsense, etc.

First lets look at the different types of code you may get from an affiliate program. The easiest to use is a banner code.

Using Banners

You can use a banner 2 different ways. The first is to add it to the sidebar. That way it will show automatically in each post and page.

Caveat:You must know the size of your sidebar before picking a banner. Picking a banner larger than your sidebar and adding it there may throw your whole theme out of whack. (One of my technical terms ) All terms for where to place this are based on the latest version of WordPress - 2.7.

The easiest way to add a banner to your sidebar is to go to appearance - widgets in your dashboard. Add a text widget to your sidebar. Click edit on the new text box, add a title and then paste in the banner code from the affiliate program. Save changes and the banner will display on all posts and pages depending on your theme.

You may want to enter some formatting code of your own like a center tag depending on how it displays on your blog. This is a once and done process.

You can also use banners in your post it self. If you wanted the same banner to show on each post you could add it to the theme itself or there are banner rotator plugins you could use to not have to touch the php code.

Usually if I am writing a review of a product I add the banner in by hand to the post. The only thing to be sure of if doing that is to make sure that you are in the html portion of the editor when adding the code not the text portion.

Direct linking

This is probably the way that I use the most. While writing the post I just create a hyperlink to the affiliate program directly.

To do this while using the text editor just highlight the portion you want to link and click the symbol for adding a hyperlink, fill in the url and set the target and title then click save.

Automated linking

There are a few plugins that allow you to create an automatic hyperlink out of any term on your blog. I won’t give a how to on these as each is a bit different.

It will take the specific word and make it link to anywhere you want it to go. Most of the free plugins will only link off of your own blogroll.

There is a paid plugin that I like called Easy WP Affiliate which I use on a variety of niche blogs. It works well to take specific keywords and make them link to a specific affiliate product and not have to be part of the blogroll. You get the ability to set how often it will link in each post so if the term shows multiple times you can set it for just the first, just the first two, etc.

This works well if you are creating lots of quality content on a specific topic and not doing specific reviews.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: adding banners, adding links, banners, Easy WP Affiliate, monetziing blog

5 ways to generate ideas for your next blog post

Dec 18, 2008 in information

Have you ever known you needed to do a blog post and sit in front of the computer and draw a total blank?

You start getting frustrated because you know you need fresh content for your blog but….

You don’t have any ideas at all and your mind has gone on strike. Here are 5 ways to generate a topic and get the creative juices flowing. They will also help you in many other ways.

1. Google Reader - (or any feed reader you prefer) You should be following other blogs on your topic already and adding them to a reader makes it very easy to check them quickly. A quick spin through there lets you see what is new. (It also can be useful for commenting for back links.)

I like to pull a news feed on my topic in to the reader too. Most news feeds have an rss feed so add that to your reader of choice.

2. Google Insight For Search - Stop there and add your keyword. I prefer to use a 7 day time frame to start and expand out to 30 days if I don’t get enough results. You will see the latest news stories but what I really like is the area on the bottom right that shows the topics with increasing searches.

A great chance to get in on new interest.

3. Technorati - Do a search for your topic and use the newest option. Older out of date posts may have more authority but this will show you the newest topics. (Another great way to find blogs to comment on too.)

4. Stumble Upon - Another great place to see what is hot in your area. Search by topic and you will see the latest and can rank them by number of reviews or ratings to sort the wheat from the chaff.

5. Digg - Use again to sort for your topic and by newest. If you don’t you will see by diggs which may or may not give you current hot topics.

Now there are plenty of other social sites and some may be more popular for your topic than these. Each niche would be different.

So the next time you get that writer’s block take a few minutes and stop at these sites to trigger the creative juices.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: digg, Google Reader, stumble upon, technorati, topic ideas, writers block

What if WordPress 2.7 messes up my blog?

Dec 16, 2008 in information

That has to be one of the biggest questions I get when people ask should they uipgrade their blog? I created a video to walk you through not only the upgrade process but how to undo it if your theme causes a problem.

The key is to make sure that you have backed things up FIRST.

You should back up your data base, wp-content folder and the wp-config.php.

The video is about 8 minutes long but with the pauses the whole process of upgrading and undoing it took less than 15 minutes.

Hope this helps you and shows you that IF you back up FIRST it is not a hard process to undo it if you need to.

I do recommend that you check your theme and plugin compatibility first and decide if you want to change them before upgrading if they are not compatible.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: wordpress, wordpress 2.7, wordpress 2.7 upgrade, wordpress-upgrade

StatCounter and Adsense won’t play nice on my blog

Dec 15, 2008 in questions

Todays question:

I’ve been following your work for a while now and like it. This new WP2.7 hasn’t done what I hoped it would do, which is simplify adding things like StatCounter.

I have several blogs running right now, all on WP as supplied by Dreamhost. I am setting up some more on WordPress itself. I am considering using Blogger for some more.

The problems I am having all concern placing Google and other adverts and installing StatCounter code. It seems that I can get one or the other, or a sort of one or the other, but it seems to be almost impossible to get both as easy to use deals in the same platform.

Do you have any thoughts on how to solve this?

First I am not familiar with Stat Counter. Have a feeling it is a problem with the type of scripting they are using. Would recommend looking at Google Analytics plugin and use that service or the WordPress Stats plugin.

Both of those plugins are made to work with WordPress and will keep you from having conflicts with other programs. Adsense uses a java script to display your ads.

Most stats counters do also and that is probably where the conflict comes in. I have successfully used Adsense and Analytics with no problem.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: adsense, conflicts, stat counter, using plugins

WordPress 2.7 worked fine here but…

Dec 12, 2008 in information

Did not have time to start upgrading my blogs yesterday because of previously scheduled items. So….

This morning I pulled the data base, turned off the plugins, grabbed my wp-config.php file and backed up the wp-content folder. Then ftp the new files up and ran the upgrade.php command.

All was good so far…

Then started turning on the plugins. Figured from previous testing that I would need to replace Simple Tags as there was a conflict there and WordPress told me to swap with another when I turned it on as expected except…

There was an upgrade for it. So…

Clicked the upgrade button for the plugin a minute or two later all is back to normal here. So I am ready to start upgrading the others.

But….

I had already checked for compatibility and was expecting to have to change a plugin because of the checking I had done.

Now this is a comment and replies from yesterdays post that I wanted to highlight.

Michelle on December 12, 2008 at 9:28 am Edit

I’m so glad that I backed up everything before doing the upgrade. I have two blogs. One upgraded flawlessly. The other has given me errors. If I hadn’t backed up first, I’d be lost right now. So, backing up your blog is the most important step in the upgrade process. I used to skip that step, but I never will again.

Michelle´s last blog post..It Pays to Know Your Programs #
Reply - Quote
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Mike on December 12, 2008 at 10:11 am Edit

@Michelle -
Glad you got the backup. I have upgraded 100’s if not 1000’s of times for clients and myself and only ever needed the backup twice but…

Those 2 times I had it was more than worth the effort of the times I didn’t need it.
Reply - Quote
#

Michelle on December 12, 2008 at 10:35 am Edit

@Mike - I’m still trying to determine the trouble. It’s not the plugins. I think it’s the theme I’m using. I’m going to change themes and try again.
Reply - Quote
#

Mike on December 12, 2008 at 10:41 am Edit

@Michelle -
switch to default theme first and see if it will run with your plugins, then if that works you will know it is the theme. Also can be the widgets you are using in your sidebar.

If you still have trouble with the default then shut off widgets one at a time and check each time to see if that was the problem to isolate it.

So even though the odds are in your favor of not having a major problem do the backups just in case and if you do have a problem there are some good trouble shooting tips in that thread above.

Due your homework and take your time as there is no need to rush to 2.7 as long as you are running 2.6.5 until you have done your due diligence.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: upgrade wordpress, wordpress, wordpress 2.7

WordPress 2.7 released - What now?

Dec 11, 2008 in information

Last night WordPress released version 2.7. They faked me out as on the beta they had a new release candidate so it looked like they would not make the 10th. Wake up this morning and log in and it says WordPress 2.7 is available. Please upgrade now.

The question is should you?

The answer is a rousing absolute DEPENDS.

I know not the answer you were looking for. Here is why.

1. It is NOT a security update so it is not a must do. You should be running 2.6.5 and if you are not then that is a must upgrade.

2. Lots of new features but as previously discussed you may need to make changes to plugins and need to check your theme compatibility.

Because of this you need to check those things before you can make the decision. There is no rush and you can find that information on this post - Are you ready for WordPress 2.7?

Why you should

The new features in 2.7 are the reason that this has been one of the most awaited releases. Just being able to do what I did this am on the beta blog would be worth the effort. Yes I logged in and sew the upgrade message, clicked it, clicked upgrade and a few minutes later it was on the latest version.

Caveat: You should back up first and on my normal blogs I do but did not on that one because it is just there to test and there is nothing on that of value there if it got lost.. It is used just to test alpha and beta version. You should also be doing regular backups anyhow

There are tons of other new features some of which have been previously covered but to list a few.

Customizable dashboard
Automatic plugin installation (not just upgrading)
Automatic upgrading
and much more

So now you know why the answer was a great big depends.

Yes you want to upgrade because of the features but….

Not until you have done a bit of homework and allowed time for your favorite theme and plugin authors to make what you like compatible. I will be upgrading my various blogs in the next few days. Today is already spoken for and will let you know what has worked and what has not.

Here is the official WordPress Video walk through.Check out.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: upgrade wordpress, wordpress, wordpress 2.7