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There is a wide concept in publisher’s mind that using wordpress means getting maximum traffic from search engines because wordpress is a very good CMS which hardly requires Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Well this concept is not as correct as it sounds. Wordpress also requires some optimization to get max out of search engines. For this purpose i made a list of 10 Important Changes which should be a part of your wordpress blog.
1. Use a sitemap generator and generate XML sitemaps like twice a week.
2. Use an Ideal Robot.txt File which do the following:
Points to the sitemap in first line.
Disallow unnecessary pages, folders so search engines get to your content instead of wasting time and getting less important stuff.
Here is a sample : http://www.designzzz.com/robots.txt
3. Using rel=”nofollow” Attribute in outgoing or less important links.
This Attribute tells the search engine bots not to follow the specific link or do not share that page’s Rank with this link. This is a very important tip , you can control your site’s SEO and Page rank by just using proper nofollow attributes. Here is a post i wrote earlier which can show you how to control your page rank and seo by using nofollow. Ok, the Less Important links includes links like Read more.. , Click here etc. This can be done by editing the template files easily.
Some plugins which we use in Wordpess blogs requires a must nofollow and we never thought about that. Here is a very cool example. You are using the easy retweet plugin and Retweet buttons are shown on start of every post even on your homepage. Lets say you have 10 posts blocks on your homepage and have 10 retweet buttons on it link to twitter.com !!! that means there are ten outgoing links, you are sharing your site’s page rank and getting lesser visibility in search engine. it can be nofollow from its settings.
4. Proper URL and Title Structure

It is the most important part which we neglect while publishing a post. Lets take a simple example. I am about ot publish a post lets say.
10 Awesome Graphics Designs and Digital Artworks the URL would be :
www.yoursite.com/category/10-awesome-graphics-designs-and-digital-artworks
Seems pretty much alright, right? Well..here u miss about 30% of your visibility!!
A simple reason using STOP WORDS in title and URL are the worst idea u can think up of. !! AND is a stop word. About the url why make it so long using extra stuff in it like the word 10 , and etc. Trust me no one will search for your content in search engines with these words 10 graphics design. If they look for that they will search graphics designs etc.
So get rid of 10 , and from your URL. Here is how they should be:
- Title: 10 Awesome Graphics Designs n Digital Artworks
- URL: www.yoursite.com/category/awesome-graphics-designs-digital-artworks/
Makes sense? well i don’t even use the category name in the URL structure to make it smaller and more powerful!
5. Using Keywords and Meta Description:
Ok, i have noticed that most of the bloggers use very tiny keywords. Well, guys small get a habit of using long tail keywords,because with them u get traffic for life time. Lets take the example of that above title post. keywords/tags which bloggers normally select are: graphics, design, digital, artworks. Why don’t you spice them up a bit to get even more traffic? If i would do it , I would use these keywords:
Graphics, Design, Digital Artworks, Graphic Designs, Digital Graphics.
I actually spread the same keywords with order and words variation!!
About meta description keep it below 160 characters and add your keywords in it as well as possible like each keyword should be mentioned at least once.
6. Automatic SEO Plugin for Wordpress
Well, I have used several plugins to test which one is good and the only plugin which satisfied me is Headspace2 SEO. I Recommend it.
7. On post page title of post should be written in Heading 1 (H1). and its very important to use your keywords in h2, h3 and h4 if possible.
8. Title and ALT Attribute in Links:
Ok, this is an important part which none of us actually look at. Title and alt attributes in links plays an important role in telling search bots that what this link or image is about.
Title and alt attributes are written like this if you are unaware of it:
- <a href=”link…” title=”keyword name or what it is about”>Keyword</a>
- <img src=”path to image” alt=”what image is about” />
My site gets 10% of its traffic from Google image search!! Because I use proper alt attribute.
Consider this example!! Like the graphics design post we discussed above. Your post consists of 10 Images. That means not much text to get good ranking and visibility in search engines. So why not use alt attribute in an optimized way!! in 10 images add alt tags with picture name + keyword/tag.
For example, the image name is abcd. i will add the alt attribute as alt=”abcd design” or abcd graphics etc. That means in 10 places on your page’s source code your keywords are used! I think you get my point.
9. Avail Wordpress ping facility to get max exposure and inbound links
Here is a list you might consider putting in your ping section in admin>settings>Writing:
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2http://1470.net/api/ping
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
10. This might sound odd!! No follow Home Page !!
See this post for proper info about no-following homepage and why is it important.
Hope this helps! Maybe you have some more tips you would like to add? Feel free to write them in comments! Thanks and enjoy!







[...] Here’s a great series of tips for tuning your Wordpress install for better SEO results. var addthis_language = [...]
Hi very nice article thanks ! But how do they call those white dummie people? I need to find them but can not find them ? Those white guys that are associated with rss and seo?
wow this is one of the best tips for wordpress users thanks for sharing.
MostlyBlog´s last blog ..Windows Live Messenger 2010 (WLM 2010) Screenshots Leaked
cool info!
Seriously, proof-read “ur” articles before “u” post them.
Good article, nonetheless.
[...] 10 Important Tips to Optimize Wordpress for Search Engines Tags:Wordpress [...]
[...] 10 Important Tips to Optimize Wordpress for Search Engines | 1stwebdesigner Posted in SEO, Wordpress by julianpopov at февруари 13th, 2010. Отказване [...]
[...] are many tweaks you can make to further optimize it for search engines. We recently covered 10 important tips to optimize wordpress for search engines, however this post will go more in-depth and offering further optimization [...]
Wow! That’s just about doubled my Ping list. Thank you.
SEO Manchester´s last blog ..Client 1 update
excelent post. thanks
Template Blog´s last blog ..Gadget Wordpress Theme
clever post. boorkmark
Great reading! Thanks for sharing
Excellent post. Thanks
evet dostum güzel bilgiler ingilizce yeterli değil biraz da siz merak edin de Türkçe’ye bakın :P
[...] Оригинал статьи на сайте 1stwebdesigner. [...]
amazingly helpful have implimented a few things I wouldn’t have known to do previously!
jared thompson´s last blog ..Keep It Simple Stupid: Typography Posters Roundup
Kudos for giving such a useful site. this blog was not just informative but also very artistic too. There are very few people who can think to write technical content that creatively. A lot of people search for knowledge about something like this. We ourselves searched through many blogs to find knowhow regarding this.Keep me informed when you write more on the subject !!
Good tips for optimize wordpress blog. I’ll create a sitemap for blog. Thanks for information.
great great post :)
[...] Tips on How to Optimize Wordpress for Search Engines: http://bit.ly/Jeh9y #seo [...]
Let’s use Maxblogpress Ping optimize for wordpress to prevent ping spam :)
viettel´s last blog ..Viettel trở thành “Nhà cung cấp dịch vụ viễn thông tốt nhất thế giới tại các nước đang phát triển”
Oh, It’s a beautiful and magic asset. Thank you Malik.
Technology Tips and Trick´s last blog ..Download Rapidshare Files Without Limitation and Without Premium Account
On your tip 4, shortening your URL, you can automate that process by using a plugin called SEO Slug
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-slugs/
Herbert-Jan van Dinther´s last blog ..Use the Right Title in Building a WordPress Website
These are awesome!! Really a very informative post thanks for putting that efforts and now i’m get ready to create new.
You can actually use the XML Sitemap plugin which will autmatically build and update XML sitemaps then submit or notify the search engines of the updates.
seo orange county´s last blog ..Search Engine and User Friendly Web Design Guidelines
great tips thanks for sharing
Really interesting post. Sorry about my english, tanks you a lot about this exelent post. The SEO is really important, i make some changes in my blog now… :D
nice blog.!
[...] 10 Important Tips to Optimize Wordpress for Search Engines [...]
Love the list of ping engines and the fact that you prefer headspace and not all in one seo pack.
We are fewer and fewer users of this great plugin.
I will go on reading about the nofollow home page. You’ve got me wondering.
Steven´s last blog ..Add Thumbnails to the WP-Postviews Plugin
[...] Scoring Your SEO Keyword research for social media How to Increase Alexa Rank and Google Page Rank 10 Important Tips to Optimize Wordpress for Search Engines Tweet This!Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Share this on RedditStumble upon something good? [...]
[...] Scoring Your SEO Keyword research for social media How to Increase Alexa Rank and Google Page Rank 10 Important Tips to Optimize Wordpress for Search Engines Tweet This!Share this on del.icio.usDigg this!Share this on RedditStumble upon something good? [...]
Your page rank theory is completely wrong! Google divides pagerank out on all links, follow and nofollow. for example, If you have a PR 10, 10 pages and 5 with no follow, the 5 pages that do pass pr will have 1 point each, not 2. All you are doing with no follow is “wasting” your pr rather than passing it. Your own pages do not benifit and you are not keeping page rank for yourself. Here is Matt Cutts, from Google, telling you so… http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/pagerank-sculpting/
no follow is to be used only on things you may not trust… not everything.
do we use nofollow or not?
dimasangga´s last blog ..Set the Goal