Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category

If you read my post called “Internet Marketing & WordPress: Nancy Andrews Was Right - Forget Social Networking“, then you’ll know that geting indexed in Google is extremely fast if you’re using WordPress or some other blogging tool to get your pages (and site) re-indexed quickly.

And I mean *really* quickly. Those of you that remember, will know that it only takes a couple of minutes and Google go through your site, re-index and you can rank well for your keyword terms (if you’ve written your content properly, that is!)

Well… I now tend to check my site when I’ve done a post as it’s pretty amusing to see how quickly I can get my pages indexed. And I’m loving it when it does it well.

For example, the WordPress Plugin Review on the WordPress LinkSync (aka Blogroll Sync) plugin that I wrote on about an hour ago has already been indexed.

That’s amusing in itself.

But here’s something funnier…

WordPress SEO Results: WP LinkSync plugin keyword dominated »

Are you a professional WordPress Web Developer looking to sync your blogroll from one source to multiple WodPress blogs? Or maybe you’ve got some great links on one blog that you just want to transfer to another? Perhaps you’re a WordPress SEO professional looking to create a continuously growing list of links on your various WordPress blogs just by updating 1 source blog?

If you are, then you may want to try out the WP LinkSync plugin by DCoda Ltd (previously named WP BlogrollSync).

I’m going to admit, that it’s not perfect (yet). However, in this post, as well as reviewing this WordPress plugin, I’ll be outlining how the WP LinkSync plugin can be hacked to get it to do what you need. (I’ve also left a comment on the DCoda WP LinkSync page, so hopefully, they might implement these changes without you having to hack the files like I’m about to show you!).

This post will also look at the relatively undocumented WordPress OPML feature that can be used for importing existing blogroll links into a new site. Did you even know that you could do this?
WP LinkSync Review & Extending WordPress OPML Data For Improved Blogroll Imports »

Okay. I’ve had a couple of emails and comments from some Internet Marketers/WordPress SEO types worried about WordPress 2.5 (Brecker) and SAVED page slugs. Everyone seems to be fretting about how you can’t edit these!

“OMFG The Sky Is Falling!”

Chill.

Lighten up.

It’s possible.

Yet again, I’m here to the rescue and will be showing you with a quick and easy, step-by-step, easy how-to guide on changing your saved page slugs.

Firstly, let me reassure you that you’re not mad - I can’t change those saved Page Slugs either in WordPress 2.5! It’s okay though because I’m full of solutions - that’s why people hire me to build their sites!

Let me say that once again - this is for Posts/Pages that have already been saved - if you’re looking for how you edit them in the first place, then read my original post on How To Change WordPress 2.5 Page Slugs. The original article will show you how it’s done in the first place - this post will show you what to when you mess it up but don’t want to delete your entire post and go through all of that nonsense of copying and pasting the old stuff into a new post etc.

So are you ready? How To Change Saved WordPress 2.5 "Saved" Page Slugs, Step By Step. Read More »

Just a quick post about something I’ve been meaning to test on WordPress for a couple of weeks now. The idea comes from Nancy Andrews LiveBlueprints.com vNews (non affiliate link) on 7th April 2008 which looked really interesting:

“Blog posts work *REALLY* quickly. Forget Social Media”.

I’m going to summarise the essence of what she said in the vNews: basically, Social Media like Facebook and all of the other community type Web 2.0 sites aren’t really viable as Internet Marketing tools. It’s a controversial position but one also echoed by Michel Fortin in his excellent post “Is Facebook A Viable Marketing Tool?“.

Now, I’m not a natural Marketer - I’m willing to admit that - although I do happen to think that they might be right on this point.

Why?

Because here’s the proof that I’ve just found out for myself which I’ve screengrabbed for you:

Social Networking (Web 2.0) vs Blogging (Web 1.0). FAQ-Tastic Keyword Phrase Indexed In 20 Minutes. See the results »

Some of you may remember an article I did a while back called “WordPress Blogroll SEO Gray Hack ” where I explained how to search engine optimize (SEO) your WordPress blogroll and control the amount Page Rank juice flowing out of your external links.

Well, I was pretty pleased with that article - it got some really nice responses and the best bit is that out of 2,170,000 (two million, one hundred and seventy thousand - yes, you read that right!) pages with the keyword “WordPress blogroll seo” in Google.com, guess which site comes in first place?

Yup, that’s right, Knowledge Constructs. Not only that but my site comes up in the #2 slot too!

I’m pretty pleased with that - it means the money and time I put into Stompernet has paid off and it’s convinced me that I know how to rank well in the search engines . (Trust me… sometimes I *really* need to be convinced that I can do something!).

Anyway, those results are so good, I decided to take a screengrab of this moment.

(click thumbnail for a larger image)

No… don’t get me wrong - it’s not to brag about how well I’ve done (although it’s pretty awesome now I think about it). The reason is very simple. I just wanted to take a moment to enjoy the glory because the “Gray Hack” is now redundant (*sigh*… my page will never rank this well ever again!)

OR IS IT?!?

As I wrote the other day, I’m currently in the process of playing with WordPress 2.5 because I’m building the new FAQ-Tastic Pro site and came across *what I thought* was a really handy field in the new version of WP Breaker (well, for SEO) - it’s a “rel” field:

(click thumbnail for a larger image)

Initially, I thought “COOL! Now I don’t need to keep adding these darn hacks to sites I build to help them with nofollowing links on the blogroll!. Someone over at WordPress must’ve seen how much Internet Marketers and SEO experts need to be able to add nofollow links - they must know their stuff!”.

BOY WAS I WRONG!

On closer inspection, the field is only there to provide a visual display of the selection you’ve made. You CANNOT change the entries, like I thought it would. Try typing into the “rel” field and it won’t let you.

NUTS. Back to the Gray Hack then! Search Engine Optimize your WordPress 2.5 Blogroll: A How To Guide »

Yeah, I know… I’ve been away for a really long time. Too long. Don’t expect me to make up excuses and apologise for my absence.

I’m back with a renewed focus. I’ve been working on getting FAQ-Tastic properly released. And some of you may already know there’s a Pro version in the pipeline. Well… It’s nearly here. So sorry for the delay (nuts… I just apologised didn’t I? Damn my Englishness).

Well there’s a snag with the new FAQ-Tastic plugin… Last Saturday saw the release of WordPress 2.5 (a.k.a Brecker - after “an exceptionally talented saxophonist” Michael Brecker. Who knew? Who cares?). Now I got to test with this new version…

Anyway, I’ve only just managed to download WordPress 2.5 and start having a play with it today. This “Brecker” version *is* pretty cool and has some *really* (and I mean *REALLY*) cool features…But one thing troubles me:

HOW THE *&$( DO YOU EDIT THE PAGE SLUGS IN WP2.5?!?!

OMG, do you realise how serious it is for your average Internet Marketer if they’ve taken the slugs away?LOL… okay, don’t worry. They’ve not taken the page slugs away - it’s just not intuitively found. Most bloggers wouldn’t think of changing their page slugs but for anyone serious about Search Engine Optimization, changing the page slugs is ESSENTIAL!

So I’m going to show you how. And cause I’m nice, I’m going to give you pictures too (actually, they’re screenshots for a new ebook I’m doing) WordPress 2.5: Changing the Page Slug (with images)

In Part 1 of WordPress SEO: Top 7 Optimization Areas For Beginners I promised you that I would reveal the 1 WordPress plugin that I use to optimize at least 5 of the 7 areas that I outlined in the last article.

In this article I’ll tell you exactly what the WordPress plugin is, explain why it’s an all in one SEO plugin packed into a neat bundle and even show you how you use it.

Up until now, most people have been using several plugins to achieve the same job. Truth be told, you’re wasting time if you are having to handle several plugins.

In this post we’ll look at:

1. 7 Key Optimization Area: A Summary
2. How this WordPress all in one SEO management plugin can optimize 5 of the 7 key SEO areas.
3. How can an all in one SEO management plugin save you time?
4. Tips on Permalinks for SEO in WordPress.

Looks like Google has just updated their Analytics code from the legacy “urchin.js” file to a new file called “ga.js”.

Apparently, according to the Analytics website, this new tracking code will enable you to “to gain access to a wide range of exciting new features as they become available“.

Anyone have any ideas what the new features might be?

Whatever it is, just remember not to put *both* codes into your pages!

Looks like a few WordPress plugins might need a bit of a code revamp to ensure these changes are up to date… (naming no names - Mr Godley! ).

In this post, I’ll be taking you through the top 7 SEO areas you need to optimize in WordPress in order for your site to rank well in the search engines. Even if you don’t use WordPress, this post may be useful to you.

In Part 2 of this post I’ll be showing you the 1 plugin for SEO that I use on all WordPress sites I build for clients which makes it easy for them (as novices) to take control of their site (without really needing to know the technical aspects of what’s happening!).

If you’re relatively new to search engine optimization you might already know the Top 3 areas that you need to optimize (and if you don’t, then you need to start learning quickly!): 1) Page Title, 2) Meta Keywords and Descriptions and 3) Permalinks.

So… what are the other 4 you need to learn? Well, here’s a quick summary of what we’ll be covering:

1. Page Title
2. Meta Keywords & Description
3. Permalinks
4. First Paragraph
5. More links
6. H1 Site Name
7. H2 Site Description

As regular readers may know from my last post I was a little disappointed at how things were on my site in general. I’d neglected it and not paid enough attention to it.

Well, “paying attention” is exactly what I’ve been doing recently - to my site; to my themes; to things that matter.

Having a chance to re-group, here’s a list of the top 5 things I’ve been doing recently:

1. Re-designed Site, WordPress theme and Content Ideas
2. New free WordPress Christmas theme for download
3. FAQ-Tastic and FAQ-Tastic Pro: News Update
4. Top Secret e-Book Project
5. Rich Schefren's Attention Age video contest