SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a way for people like me to make search engines happy so that they will make more people come to our sites. It used to be things like META tags, and making keywords bold, but is now much more complex.
I recently added some plug-ins and code to this and other WordPress blogs I use and manage in hopes of making them position higher on search engines. I am not sure what me efforts will produce as of yet, but fingers crossed that it will provide positive results.
You will notice that on category pages, as well as previous pages of this blog, I only list summaries now. This was a tip I got from Jaimie Sirovich of SEO Egghead. I also made it so that when you type in the URL of this site, if you forget the www, it will make sure you go to the www.DavidCubed.com URL thanks to Justin’s Redirect plug-in. Lastly, I generated a Google compatible XML sitemap thanks to another plugin which should also help my placement on search engines.
I am also doing some research on how to do some more simple optimizations that provide the most “bang” for the time I put into it. So if you have any tips, please feel free to mention them in the comments.
Boo Radley Said,
November 30, 2006 @ 2:48 am
Good job with the SEO
I need to generate a sitemap for my blog but I haven’t for two reasons:
- I’m too lazy
- I’m too scared that if I don’t do it right, google might actually change the way it indexes me in a negative way
suggestions just from personal experience:
- maybe you could include your category in the permalink address. %category% too.
- blogrolls blogrolls blogrolls! they do wonders imho
- link exchanges
- post regularly
- when you find that your blog is ranking well for a certain keyword (google page 2 not 1 for instance), keep hammering the keyword into your permalinks and titles and it’ll eventually go up.
Joost de Valk Said,
November 30, 2006 @ 3:12 am
I’d install a plugin which allows you to give a specific meta description and keywords for each post, i personally prefer “Another Wordpress Meta Plugin”. You could also add some links to related posts to each single post page, there’s a few plugins for that as well.
Zachary Houle Said,
December 3, 2006 @ 10:28 pm
The more I think about it, the more I really think that the best SEO is simply good writing. I mean, really, after awhile people are not going to have a monopoly on SEO, it’s going to get harder and harder to place words in specific contexts to get higher rankings.
Honestly, just good plain writing is your best bet.
Zachary Houle Said,
December 3, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
Plus, maybe SEO gets people to a site. It doesn’t help ‘em stay. ![]()
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