SEO Help for WordPress
[tweetmeme source=”Ileane”]
From the start, I’d like to commend Automattic for being open to the dissection of the SEO strategies used on the WordPress.com home page. It’s quite brave of them to feature this critique during a public session of WordCamp San Diego. Yet keep in mind, I am certain forward-thinking Matt Mullenweg and his WordPress team consider this tutorial to be one that each of us will benefit from.
Next, I’d like to speak to the authority of the presenter, Stephan Spenser. It’s not too often that I like to use the term “expert” when describing someone, especially in the realm of SEO, but given the fact the Stephan has co-authored a highly regarded book on the topic he’s a rare exception to that rule. The Art of SEO is published by O’Reillly and includes insights from Stephan along with collaborators Eric Enge, Jessie Stricchiola and Rand Fishkin.
Stephan’s first challenge for the WordPress.com webmasters is aimed at the poorly optimized navigation of the site. Although text links appear at the bottom he quickly points out how the abundance footer links get “somewhat discounted”. Then in what I find a surprising move he compares the site to the Yahoo! home page pointing to Yahoo’s strong navigation links which lead to high positioning on Google search results.
Stephan demonstrates the use of Google Adwords Keywords Tool which is also favored in the Lynda.com tutorial on “Performing Keyword Research”. He show how optimal results from the Google Adwords Keyword Tool can be achieved by changing the match type to “exact” which is another crucial tactic stressed by both Stephan and Jill Whalen in the Lynda.com SEO training series. In the case of WordPress.com, Stephan suggests that the sought after keyword should be “blog” rather than “free blog”.
SEO Best Practice
Stephan continues to address the gaping holes in the SEO strategy of the WordPress.com site, and at the same time he instructs us all, through the use of specific examples which can be easily translated into our own individual SEO best practices. Stephan does a tremendous job of cramming a vast amount of information into this 7 minute lighting session including:
- Tag and Category links
- CTR – Click Through Rate
- Inbound links
- Yahoo! Site Explorer
- Link Authority
- Anchor text
- Canonical URL’s
- Duplicate Content
Slides for the presentation are available on SlideShare.
I’m impressed with this episode of WordPress.tv and the SEO strategies that Stephan suggests. What do you think? How can you apply these tactics to your own site?
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ms. ileane speaks 
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Great info! Nice to hear some ideas from the “horse’s” mouth. 🙂
Hi Kristi, for me seeing the specific examples helped a great deal. I can relate better to seeing practical applications of SEO in action. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing Ileane. There are many great videos on WordPress.tv but I just don’t have enough time to see all of them. Does this video refer to SEO for WordPress.com only?
Hi Tek3D this is one that you don’t want to miss. Stephan covers other sites and gives both good and bad examples from WordPress.org and Yahoo! Check out the good examples and easily apply them to your site right away. Thank you.
Hmm, it sounds too useful for a 13 minute video. I will bookmark this page and check it out at weekend. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
nice article, nice face too 🙂
Hi Jasir, thanks. I hope you voted at BE!
There are some useful tips so far – but most of the stuff is already known… I think. Thanx a lot!
Daniel
Just finished watching the slideshow. A great watch in fact. Monthly search volume of ‘free blog’ is meagre when compared to ‘blog’.
Hi Gouri, it’s amazing what you can learn from the Google Adwords Tool. I was surprised to see that WordPress.com didn’t rank higher since everyone knows they are the best!
thank you very good post and nice blog…
That video works very well, and I enjoyed it. I have to admit that I’ve gone the XML sitemap route because I’d already read that it helped search engines go through your site. I guess that’s one plugin I can remove.
Hi Mitch, I found some awesome videos on WordPress.tv and they cover everything from plugins to audience engagement. Most of them are too long to reblog but this one was rather short and it gave us a nice break-down that’s easy to relate to. Thanks for visiting.
A most useful post. Thanks for sharing all this info from Stephen, Ileane.
Marvin D Wilson
Hey Old Silly,
You’re welcome. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Ileane,
Love your articles. Will follow on reading them! Thanks! 😉
Hi Nana, glad you like it here. Come back anytime.
I found your article very interesting, do you still have another article? maybe we can share the article
thanks for sharing
i m just learning seo, still ned to find so many articl about it get higher seo ranking for my web
Exellent SEO tips and tricks. thank you for sharing.
Hey there, glad you liked this post. Thanks for visiting.
Nice one.. Looking forward for more information.
Many internet marketers blow mountains of start-up cash on their websites just trying to break into search engine rankings. I was one of these internet marketers.
I spent cash on get-rich-quick submission services that claimed they would submit my page to thousands of seach engines. . .for a small fee. I spent money to get registered with big name search engines. I even spent money on search engine optimization services.
Alamin, what was your ultimate goal in doing this. Was it to make money online through AdSense, affiliate sales or your own product sales? Thanks for the warning, I hope others see this and take heed.
Great video. These are SEO tactics anyone can use on their site. He does a great job explaining how to make some easy fixes.
Hey Melinda, WordPress.com has already started making some of the recommended changes. If you go to the site now you’ll see category links and a headline that says Express yourself, start a blog! http://img2.pict.com/1f/44/76/3806809/0/1279480342.jpg Thanks for your feedback.
WordPress is a great platform for seo. Make sure to also check all the SEO plugins that you can use with wordpress. I think stephan does a good job explaining the different wordpress seo stratagies
Hi Jay, I’ve heard that All in one is a great SEO plugin. Thanks.
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Visiting for the first time, hope can get an introductory speech and could continue.
Warmest regards always.
How about SEO for Blogspot, do you have any video collection?
@Multi Blogging – I’d stick with wordpress, you’ve alot more freedom from and SEO point of view.