Wordpress & SEO

[Andrew Starr]

Tweet

Has anybody got any SEO dos and don'ts related to using wordpress?

I've only just installed wordpress and having a look round the features, so I just wondered if there is anything I should be aware of, i.e. what to install, what not to use etc

[mjp3000]

WordPress SEO - Yoast - Tweaking Websites

[kcheung]

download - all in one seo pack.

make sure you alter your permalink structure (before you add any posts).

download 'cross-linker' it will save you a heap of time.

[sabian1982]

i'd also get the Google XML Sitemaps plugin...

[Andrew Starr]

SEO wise, is there likely to be any difference between using these formats for the posts;

www . mysite . com/post-title
or
www . mysite . com/category/post-title
or
www . mysite . com/2009/04/post-title

or does it not make any difference either way?

[scriptmonkey]

I wouldn't include the category tag in your permalinks, as maybe, you will want to change your category names and slugs at some point in the future.

[Andrew Starr]

Good point. Thanks scriptmonkey

[kcheung]

SEO wise, is there likely to be any difference between using these formats for the posts;

www . mysite . com/post-title
or
www . mysite . com/category/post-title
or
www . mysite . com/2009/04/post-title

or does it not make any difference either way?

I always stick to
www . mysite . com/post-title

if you use this the site will be more robust, in all in one seo, you want to nofollow catagories, so this will help by-pass that.

if you no follow catagories then use www . mysite . com/category/post-title I *suspect* this will prevent your content from being read by the engines.

[Andy_MoreNiche]

SEO wise, is there likely to be any difference between using these formats for the posts;

www . mysite . com/post-title
or
www . mysite . com/category/post-title
or
www . mysite . com/2009/04/post-title

or does it not make any difference either way?

I believe

www . mysite . com/category/post-title

Is the strongest from an SEO point of view if you want your category keywords to rank also but wordpress really is a fantastic engine to get ranked.

My other SEO DO NOT's include:

1) Make sure you do not have to much duplicate content across the site, often if you use tag clouds, authors and categories you can find a few versions of your content.

2) Make sure your theme lists the latest content on the front page to ensure it stays fresh

3) Post fresh content consistently, for example if you want to post new content every week, stick to that, don’t post lots of content and then forget about it.

Hope this helps.

[Andrew Starr]

Yes it does help.

I didn't want really want to start my first WP site by fumbling my way around blindfolded, only to realise I've missed something later on and then have to spend more time correcting it.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

[regencychess]

I agree that wordpress is a superb platform for an SEO'd blog. There are a multitide of plugins you can install very easily. All of my blogs use the 'share this' plugin which means your posts can be bookmarked on facebook, digg, delicious etc etc very easily by the readers.

I have always found that mine rank in google really well and get ranked very quickly.

[kcheung]

I believe

www . mysite . com/category/post-title

Is the strongest from an SEO point of view if you want your category keywords to rank also but wordpress really is a fantastic engine to get ranked.

surely by doing this what you get in google is the catagories reading a duplicate content to the homepage and to the individual posts?


as for a beginners guide i wrote a post about this which might interest you: here.

[scriptmonkey]

as for a beginners guide i wrote a post about this which might interest you: here.

Now thats how you do it, nice one kcheung :tup