Three simple tweaks to your WordPress blog for better SEO

Copyright 2008 Mike Paetzold
There are three easy things you can do to improve the optimization of your WordPress blog. You will want to do this because it will improve the speed your blog gets indexed and help you to rank higher for your keywords. The first is adding the proper plug-ins, the second is to change the permalinks, and the third is to claim your blog.
Adding plug-ins
There are a couple plug-ins that you should use on every WordPress blog. One of them is All-In-One-SEO.. You also need to add the Google-XML-Sitemap plug-in along with a tagging plugin. There are multiple tagging plugins and the pluses and minuses of each would be a complete article by themselves.
All-In-One-SEO plug-in allows you to change the title tags for each post. Individual title tags will cause a huge improvement in your rankings over the default WordPress uses of using the same title tag across the whole blog. The site map plug-in creates a compliant site map and updates it automatically for easier indexing on all of the major search engines. Finally proper use of tags will allow you to categorize your posts and get multiple rankings within the search engine rankings..
Change Permalinks
It is easy to change the permalinks on a WordPress blog. Login to your dashboard, click settings, click on permalinks. This will allow you to change your permalinks from a URL of http://yourdomain.com/?p=123 to something more SEO friendly, Using a URL like http://yourdomain.com/category(with your keyword)/post title(again with your keywords there). You can do this by using the custom url with these tags ” /%category%/%postname%/”.There are also other tags available to allow you to create what works best for you.
Google Webmaster Tools and Technorati
You should be using both Google Webmaster Tools and Technorati. Make sure that you submit your blog through the Google Webmaster tools and claim it properly per their instructions. This will be done either by FTPing a special file or creating a special post. Google will now tell you any problems they have indexing your blog when you check back.
Claiming your blog at Technorati also is important. This will allow you to link your tags to Technorati and have them show in your account. This allows you another way to track any problems with the way your blog is being indexed.
In summary, these three steps can improve the optimization of your blog for all on page factors. For me personally, these simple changes have sped up the indexing of my blog significantly and have helped to improve the ranking of the posts too.
Mike Paetzold
About the Author: Mike Paetzold is an avid blogger and recognized expert on using WordPress. You can find even more tips on making your WordPress blog search engine friendly in “7 Tips To Make Your WordPress Blog Search Engine Friendly” or at his blog WordPress Made Easy.
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14 comments
Doug Champigny on November 2, 2008 at 10:18 am
Great points there, Mike!
You should give people your links to Tweet My Blog and MyBlogLog as well, as those help them a lot too - and both are ’set & forget’.
Your blkog has become an important source of great info - I recommend that everyone subscribe to your feed and/or your list to stay in the loop!
Keep up the great work,
Doug Champigny.
Doug Champigny´s last blog post..Build Your List With This Free Report!
Shelby Carr on November 2, 2008 at 11:07 am
Excellent information, Mike!
I didn’t know about these. I will be implementing them immediately.
I don’t know that much about SEO and I am very happy to know there is a great place to go to for Wordpress information and tips on SEO.
Keep up the great work!
Shelby
Fred Lotgering on November 2, 2008 at 11:40 am
Mike, Great post.
The sitemap plugin works great. Make sure to have robots.txt file (search engines are looking for that one) and it will give a 404 error when they don’t find it.
Fred
Fred Lotgering´s last blog post..Module 2: Introduction to Traffic Generation. SEO Preparation.
Mike on November 2, 2008 at 11:44 am
@Doug Champigny -
Both topics have been covered here more than once
Mike on November 2, 2008 at 11:45 am
@Fred Lotgering -
That is one of the big reasons to make sure that you are using Google’s Webmaster Tools. You get to see all kinds of little things that can hurt you and are easy to overlook.
Brett McEllhiney on November 2, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Mike,
As far as the permalinks go, is there a preferred option to use or is it just personal preference?
Also, once the blog has been active for a few weeks or more, is it wise to change it at that point?
Seems like that would break all of the indexed pages already in Google.
Brett McEllhiney
Mike on November 2, 2008 at 12:57 pm
@Brett McEllhiney -
Actually you can and there is a plugin for that.
http://www.deanlee.cn/wordpress/permalinks-migration-plugin/
As to how to structure permalinks I usually use that format but depends on how you structure the blog - sometimes I only use postname
Andre Arnett on November 2, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Really good information and I have steps 1&2 already in play. I will work on step three.
Andre Arnett´s last blog post..Halloween Giveaway Almost Over
Joel Osborne on November 2, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Great information Mike!
I just want to stress how important it is to have good Permalinks. I see it to much where a blog post just uses the post date as the Permalink…. that does nothing for your blog.
Having your post title in your Permalink can wonders… especially when you target the right keywords in your blog post title.
Joel Osborne
Joel Osborne´s last blog post..An Easy Way To Start A Niche Blog With Nitro Blogging
Paul Conway on November 2, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Hi Mike
I have already followed this information with positive results. You gave me this a little while ago and as usual you hit the nail on the head.
Plus I have now started to embed youtube videos into my blog, another of your excellent ideas which you passed on to me today via our mutual friend Mr Kinder.
I look forward getting the same results.
Thanks for sharing
Paul Conway
DA Riley on November 3, 2008 at 12:08 am
Thanks Mike.
I am always looking for ways to improve SEO at my blogs… since a few of the have Google Ads, its the best way to get traffic to them.
DA
Luca on November 3, 2008 at 9:41 am
Thanks for the post. I’ve been a little lax on the Technorati sign up. Thanks for the remonder I’ll do that now.
Charles Burleigh on November 3, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Hi Mike,
This is a great post with extremely valuable content.
Anyone using a blog for SEO purposes, really needs to take these steps, plus the others in your 7 Tips ebook.
Thanks for the great info.
Regards,
Charles Burleigh
Charles Burleigh´s last blog post..‘Tis The Season To Be Jolly, Fa La La La La La La La La
Marble Host on November 16, 2008 at 4:25 am
I didnt know much about SEO. but now i have an idea and feel i too can do something.
Thank you
Regards
Kusm