Search Engine Optimization on WordPress
February 25, 2009
So you have a great web site or blog — but can people find you without typing in your exact address? How do you attract your perfect customers to the content you’ve created?
Search Engine Optimization
In our March 11, 2009 Dojo Radio show, Lee Rodrigues from Technology Dojo, Ivan Storck from Sustainable Web Sites, copywriter and editor Evan Denbaum and Patrick Schwerdtfeger from Tactical Execution online marketing agency talk about SEO, or how to use WordPress to optimize your web site for search engines.
The show aired live on Wednesday, March 11 from 4-5PM PST (7-8PM EST) at www.blogtalkradio.com/Dojo-Radio/, and you can listen to the archived version here.
[podcast]http://technologydojo.net/wp-content/uploads/wordpress_seo_show.mp3[/podcast]
What do YOU want to know about search engine optimization?
Thank you to everyone who called in to the show live, or sent us a question ahead of time. We didn’t get a chance to address every question, which means this is a topic we will come back to again in the future. You can submit your burning questions at any time to questions (at) technologydojo.net, which helps us select topics for future blog posts and shows.
And if you already listened to the show, tell us how we did by leaving a comment below. Thanks for helping us improve!
Important SEO Links
Here are links to some of the search engine optimization tools and resources that were discussed on the show:
Word Tracker – a paid service that helps you discover the best keywords for your website.
Google AdWords Keyword Tool – free tool to get new keyword ideas, as if you were going to buy key word advertising on Google.
Google Adwords Trends – free tool to see which key words and phrases are up-and-coming (and still affordable); great way to find opportunities for optimized press releases.
SEMRush – free tool (with premium service) that helps you get a list of Google keywords and check your competitors’ landing-pages for search engine and AdWords traffic
All-In-One SEO – a plug-in that automatically generates meta tags and optimizes your titles for search engines, and lets you fine-tune everything.
Generates META tags automatically
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Posted in Dojo Radio, Search Optimization, WordPress, WordPress Plugins
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March 5th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Can you explain the best way to use wordpress plug-ins to generate ‘tags’? A couple of years ago I used a tag generator for Technorati tags until it caused my page loads to slow to a crawl. I have looked at Metatagz and ‘SEO Title Tag’ but I’m not sure if the tags I generate in SEO Title Tag are showing up in the search engines. How can I check?
March 7th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
This is really a new question but I couldn’t figure out where else to leave it. It is for the radio show scheduled for Wed Mar 11.
I have a “ready made” website, constructed and hosted by TherapySites.com. It is actually well done, with easy to use software so that it can be completely customized by the owner. I have linked it to my WordPress blog, and have it listed on several larger finder sites and search engines. My question however is about how to do more “optimization” when the htm code is owned and controlled by the TherapySites.com folks. I don’t really have access to it – my friendly website builders and tweakers at Weymouth Designs called and talked to them about it.
So 1) what might be some simple strategies for me to optimize – ie to be found on the web? and 2) does linking my website to my blog and then posting as much as possible help to keep my website “visible” by being linked to the new content on my blog?
thanks for considering my question.
john nickens
March 10th, 2009 at 2:41 am
Hi Lee, I made the mistake of starting a free hosted WP.com blog. I am planning to move it to a WP.org blog, but how can I do that without loosing the traffic? Moving it is easy, but what can I do to avoid loosing my readers? (It gets 9,000 views a month.)
Thanks, Johanna
March 11th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I’ll be on the show talking about WordPress and SEO tools. Check out my blog post on Improving your search rankings with SEO.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
When you say WordPress blog do you mean WordPress.com blog? If so, I would advise adding a WordPress.org blog to your existing site so you are able to build the page rank of your existing site.
Any blog that is not under your domain i.e. therapysites.com/blog this is a good thing. Sending people away from your site to another blog will not help to build SEO.
I hope this answers your questions.
Lee
March 18th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Johanna,
A simple way is to import your messages into a hosted WordPress account to get the content under your control. The next step is to write a new post with a message pointing to your new site. You can also edit your most popular posts with a message pointing readers to your new blog.
The longer you wait the bigger the job.
Lee
March 18th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Ian,
I don’t like auto generating tags. I would rather tag my posts based upon the content of the post and that is best focused on the keyword research you did before you wrote the post. Each tag is treated as a page within WordPress and Google, and it is best to ensure those tags are driving traffic.
To check what is coming up in search engines use Google Webmaster tools, and Yahoo site explorer
Lee.
June 8th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I strongly recommend that you turn the No Follow off in your comment section. I’ll watch Google Webmaster Tools, and if the links don’t show up after a couple of weeks — I won’t go back to that blog again. Another suggestion: you should have a Top Commentator widget installed. Do Follow and Top Commentator will ensure that you have a successful blog with lots of readers!
June 10th, 2009 at 5:44 am
Interesting post, keep the good stuff coming, good content appreciated!
June 30th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Well written and and got some very good points regarding SEO
July 25th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Your post just made my day – so glad I got to read it,
August 30th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Thanks for writing this great blog I really enjoyed.
March 22nd, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Did they release another update to the way google ranks websites? Ive noticed over the past few days some websites seem to bounce from ranks one to page two etc. This high rate of fluctuation makes me wonder what bases determine a websites’s rankings and whether changes in the results are determined by changes made in Google’s system or within the websites itself. If I had to guess, I believe this determination is based on a combination of changes both within Google and persistent tweaking of a website that could keep it balanced somewhere on page one.