While writing a blog may have sounded like a good idea at first, finding out that nobody reads your blog can be quite depressing. So why isn’t anyone reading it? It could be as simple as not having your blog set up in a way that fully maxes out your SEO potential. In other words, you’re writing great stuff, but people are having a hard time finding it. Here are 8 SEO tricks for your WordPress blog that could help people find your blog.
- Optimize permalinks – While many people use dates in their URL titles, from an SEO standpoint it is not such a great option. As time goes on you don’t want people to shy away from posts that are older. Even if nothing has changed regarding the information, just by having the date in the URL some people might disregard it because it is too old. To change this, get to the section of options where you can change your URL permalink titles, and choose “custom title” and use /%postname%/. Very simple. If your blog is older and you have a lot of posts with a permalink structure you want to change, there are plugins that can help, such as Permalink Redirect or Permalinks Migration.
- Install SEO All-In-One plugin – A plugin designed to optimize your WordPress blog so that search engines see it far easier than without it. Works just like it is out of the box for beginners or provides high levels of tweakability for the advanced user. It’s the gold standard of SEO plugins for a reason.
- Akismet – making sure this plugin is installed and running can have a marginal effect on a site’s SEO profile, but being able to worry less about spam and focus more on your writing or the marketing of your blog does affect your site’s SEO profile.
- Image optimization –Don’t neglect to set up your images to give you an SEO boost. For every image you put on your blog, make sure to several keywords in the ALT tag. Additionally, put a description in the title attribute. Finally, you can even use keywords to name the image. While this may not give you a huge SEO boost, every little bit can help.
- Blog Titles – Making blog titles simple clear and direct will help the Google bots realize what your article is about more easily than with a really clever title. The best titles? Well, if the keyword is “purple ferret sweaters” then those should be the first words in the title, for example – “Purple Ferret Sweaters: 4 Things You Might Forget When Shopping” or “Purple Ferret Sweater – The Legend Lives On”. Obviously you can’t title every post in this manner, but at the very minimum you should have the keywords in the title.
- Google Sitemaps – this is a great way to hand deliver all your URLs to Google’s index and have them produce reports detailing how Google sees your site. However, making a sitemap isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Luckily the Google Sitemaps Generator plugin does it for you, effortlessly and relatively pain free.
- Ping – don’t forget to make sure other people can ping your site. Although WordPress is set up automatically to use Pingomatic, alternative ping services like Feed Shark and others do exist. Heck, use ‘em all if you can!
- Test, test and retest – Many blogging superstars will tell you what works best. To determine what really works best for your site and your niche is by testing. Once traffic reaches a certain level, say 500 or 1000 visitors change something and see what happens. If more sales are made or more traffic is the result, then it works. If not, change it again and see if the next change is the one that works.
So there you go – 8 SEO tricks for your WordPress blog that you should implement today. Yesterday, in fact. And don’t forget to make sure your blog loads as quickly as possible. Slow loads irritate readers, plus Google takes page load speed into consideration when ranking a page. Good luck!
Melissa Tamura is my second guest blogger in as many weeks. She wrote about weird scholarships for Zen College Life, an online directory of online degree schools.
Really useful tips for sure. In addition, getting back links from quality sites through Blog posting, article submissions and directory submission is equally important….Thanks for sharing this useful info….
Hi, Man… Its very simple and easy solution for newbie bloggers. I can say that its base information. For example, for Google Images optimisation – i can say that alt and title tags are not very useful for ranking in image serp, more better use “keyword” before and after image, thank you, good luck
Lots of good tips in this post, and love the description of each. Lots of people write tips that explain nothing: it’s great to have an idea what one is looking for generally in SEO.
.-= ashok´s last blog ..The Passion of Politics: “Pamphleteer,” The Weakerthans =-.
A very informative and interesting post, i never knew that i could manage my word press blog comments from my windows desktop as we always need to open the website and log in.. thanks
Hey Zee, very insightful post, thanks for sharing! And I’ve added in FeedShark to my own current line up of Pingers, so that’s pretty cool!
Nice idea for a blog Zee – I can see it becoming very popular in the weeks and months ahead!
Talk soon,
Joseph
.-= Joseph Archibald´s last blog ..I’ll Guest Post for Your Blog… ! =-.
Its incredibly straightforward and uncomplicated option for newbie bloggers. I can say that its base info. For case in point, for Google Photos optimisation – i can say that alt and title tags usually are not incredibly valuable for ranking in imagHi, Man… Its quite straightforward and effortless alternative for newbie bloggers. I can say that its base facts. For example, for Google Images optimisation – i can say that alt and title tags usually are not incredibly useful for ranking in graphic serp, a lot more far better use “keyword” previous to and immediately after picture, thank you, excellent lucke serp, a lot more better use “keyword” ahead of and immediately after graphic, thank
A very informative and intriguing post, i in no way knew that i could manage my word press blog comments from my windows desktop as we constantly require to open the internet site and log in.
.-= web marketing´s last blog ..Why internet search engine marketing is so crucial nowadays? =-.
akismet, bad-behaviour, seo plugin etc. are quite a must for blogging. about the ping, i use the ping goat, its good. and about the sitemaps, i would also advice to use a sitemap for yahoo/bing because i have seen lots of traffic from yahoo/bing once i submitted site maps there…
.-= Uttoran Sen´s last blog ..Summers are on – Where is Uttoran Sen? =-.
Scott Yang’s permalink redirect plug-in is a keeper. Till date after 3 permalink changes, it still works like magic
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi | Make Money Online´s last blog ..Top 10 Google Products Every Blogger Needs =-.
Commentluv is really great i already install the wordpress commentluv plugins. Thanks for your very informative content about using commentluv and how it helps to a weblog
A very informative and interesting post, i never knew that i could manage my word press blog comments from my windows desktop as we always need to open the website and log in.. thanks
Thanks for your article. It’s easy to understand and apply.
These tips are really helpful for others who are owning WordPress blogs.
.-= Phuc Nguyen@Vietnam software outsourcing´s last undefined ..Response cached until Sat 19 @ 7:38 GMT (Refreshes in 22.66 Hours) =-.
All in one SEO – is definately a wise move, helps greatly with SEO
Andy @ Directory Submission´s last [type] ..Directory Submission
Whereas commentluv is a superb plugin, I feel its still a controversial subject that nofollow hyperlinks actually count. Typically it almost appears as if it is dependent upon the blog; if its a nothing blog then the nofollowed hyperlink is sort of nugatory, but when its from a excessive authority site (comparable to hubpages or ezine articles for example), then it may be fairly sweet though to gain any PR increase you will want dofollow links.
Great info man! I scored 5 out of the 8 tricks you have.
One more thing, how’d you like to guest blog with one of the blogs I also author?
jdGONEMAD´s last [type] ..Great Collection of the Latest Grunge Photoshop Brushes for July 2010
- Its very simple and easy solution for newbie bloggers. I can say that its base information. Its quite straightforward and effortless alternative for newbie bloggers. I can say that its base facts for Google Images optimisation – i can say that alt and title tags usually are not incredibly useful for ranking in graphic serp, Thank for your sharing this information.
Recharddo´s last [type] ..Nice apartment with vue on Eiffel Tower in Paris
Well, as Google is the top of the search engine so that’s why we should follow its rules and regulations too such as Google prefer only contextual link building so that’s why should also follow the strategies and techniques of contextual link building too so that the popularity of our website can also increase and the word press domain is very simple to understand and we can get good results by using this domain…
Hi, very informative post! I’m new to WordPress but I don’t know much how to let others see my posts everytime. I didn’t know ping and google sitemaps are necessary too. Thanks for sharing this, it is really helpful for WordPress newbies like me!
Felicia @ No deposit poker´s last [type] ..Holyfields new career
Thanks for the information. Lot’s of good tips. You’ve supplied 3 useful links that I’m just going to have to check out. I was unaware that the permalink could be changed without affecting previous posts. Feed Shark is a keeper.
Linda@ear force x4 headphones´s last [type] ..Ear Force X4 Dolby Digital Wireless Headphones
I agree with optimizing the permalink structure , especially if your blog is still new, however you should use the permalink plugin if you already have an establish blog or you submitted posts already , I changed my permalink last month and it affected my page rank.