SEO for WordPress via Stephan Spencer on WordPress.tv

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?

Related articles by Zemanta

• How SEO can help grow your business (globalthoughtz.com)
• Strengthen Your Article Marketing With CommentLuv Links (famousbloggers.net)
• Ever Consider Blogging Without SEO (BasicBlogTips.com)
• Matt Cutts Uses WordPress Not Blogger (basicblogtips.com)

SEO Site Tools Finds Google Page Rank

[tweetmeme source=”ileane”]What is Google page rank and what does it really represent? Sorry, I can’t answer that question although I see many bloggers trying. If you’re like me you’ve read countless blog posts promising to unlock the mysteries of increasing your page rank. Yet each time Google does an update like they did earlier this month, many of those same bloggers wake up to find that have slid down the slippery page rank ladder a notch or two. Go figure!

Well since I admit that the true value of Google page rank has me utterly baffled, the least I can do is introduce you to a little known extension for Google Chrome to help you find your page rank, or for the matter the PR of any site you navigate to.

Favorite Google Chrome extensions

First I must tell you this neat little social media story. For a couple of days I was tweeting a question to my followers asking which Chrome extensions they find useful. I got some great feedback and as a result ended up installing many of the recommendations and creating screencasts for some like Diigo, Zemanta and Readability. The other great thing that happened was that I was contacted by the developer of the extension that is the subject of my latest screencast tutorial. The developer’s name is Cole Carter and the extension is SEO Site Tools.

The point to this story is to demonstrate the simple power of social networking and how it can be worked to your advantage. I also wanted to let introduce you to Cole because he is looking for user feedback for this tool and he can be contacted if you have questions about the functions.

Why use SEO Site Tools

My favorite feature of SEO Site Tools is how it auto-magically displays the PR for any site you navigate to right on top of the tool icon. This means you can get rid of all those “prchecker” links you have in your favorites, because once you download this extension you will no longer need them. You can be done with going back and forth to find Alexa rankings too! All of the additional ranking information you need is displayed when you click on the tool. Take look at SEO Site Tool Demo – Ms. Ileane Speaks Episode #025.

You can see this tool has many features to help evaluate your site. In the video we had a look at some stats from 2createawebsiteand here’s the link for Lisa Irby’s blog.

SEO resources

Hungry for more SEO tips? The first blog that I would visit to learn about SEO is TimeThief’s One Cool Site Blogging Tips. Her site is packed with sound advice and numerous blogging tips and tutorials. Also check out Kikolani from Kristie Hines and her weekly Fetching Friday resources mashup, which always includes links to SEO resources. And last but certainly not least, follow Ann Smarty on Twitter, she writes for Search Engine Journal and started a fabulous community focused on guest blogging called MyBlogGuest.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Will you give SEO Site Tools a try?  And how you make out with the latest PR update?

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to write the most powerful post (potpolitics.com)
• Google PageRank Update Schedule for year 2010 (techmadly.com)
• Ever Consider Blogging Without SEO (BasicBlogTips.com)