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Basic WordPress SEO tips: 6 Settings for Search Engine Health Uncategorized

Basic WordPress SEO tips: 6 Settings for Search Engine…

  • January 30, 2011
  • by Gradiva Couzin

WordPress is an excellent blog authoring tool and can also be used as an all-around content management system (CMS) for your site.  Best of all, it’s inherently search-engine-friendly.

People often ask us for tips on WordPress settings for SEO. Here are the bare-bones basics:

– In Settings > General Settings, choose a site title and tag line that contain keywords you might want to rank well for.  Of course, the site title should also be recognizable as the name of your blog!

– Under Settings > Permalinks, we recommend a custom structure for permalinks that includes the post name, as seen here:

/%postname%/

This will create permalink URLs containing the words in your post title,  for example, “this-is-my-best-post-ever.html.” If you would prefer to include the date or other elements, scroll down on this WordPress Codex page for a list of other available tags.  Here’s an example of a URL format that includes the current year as well as the post name:

– Under Settings > Writing, be sure that the update service is filled in. A respected updating service is the following:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

– Under Settings > Privacy be sure to select that you want your blog to be publicly available.

– We recommend including breadcrumbs on each post. We use a plugin called Breadcrumb NavXT to make ’em.

– HTML titles are important for SEO. You can install a plugin called All in One SEO Pack to gain the capability to edit HTML titles on each post, and to set up a good default format for all posts.  Some examples of good default formats are the following:
“Post Title | Blog Name”
“Blog Name: Post Title”

This screenshot shows an example of All in One SEO Pack settings for a breaking news website:

With these basic settings in place, your site will be indexable in search engines, and have at least a minimum level of on-page optimization built-in.  We’re guessing that was a lot easier than you thought it would be!  Congratulations – aren’t you glad you chose WordPress?

Readers: do you have an WordPress SEO tips to share?

New Developments in Search: Bing takes over Yahoo!, Google Instant Uncategorized

New Developments in Search: Bing takes over Yahoo!, Google…

  • September 10, 2010
  • by Jennifer Grappone

There have been two major developments in search over the past few weeks.

Bing Takes Over Yahoo!’s Organic Search Results.
Over the last few weeks, Bing’s merger with Yahoo! has progressed into the much-anticipated next step: Bing’s organic search results are now powering Yahoo!’s results. Our rank checks now show identical results for our client’s sites on both Yahoo! and Bing. Bing is now estimated to have approximately 30% of the organic search market share.

What this means to you: stay the course of holistic SEO, but get verified in webmaster tools
Both Google and Bing evaluate similar factors when determining organic search results. For example, text optimization, quality inbound links, and crawler-friendliness are valued by both search engines. So, should you dive in and spend many extra hours learning every detail about Bing’s algorithm? Probably not. We think it’s better to approach SEO holistically, with a many-faceted approach that includes solid on-site optimization, content and link building, tightly focused targeting, and compelling conversion paths.

One sensible way to react to this development is to get verified in Bing’s newly enhanced webmaster tools service. This will give you insights into Bing’s interpretation of your site, and can alert you to problems that might affect your site’s indexing in Bing.

Google Implements Instant Search
See it in action while searching Google, or read Google’s official explanation. Google is now delivering results that change as you type. For example, type in “W” to see weather results. Continue typing “wa,” and the top result will change to Walmart before you hit the Search button.

What this means to you: Keep an eye on Google Suggest
Google Suggest, (Google’s auto-complete feature that provides suggestions as you type in the search box), is becoming more important as a driver of search queries. As one example, you may be ranking well for the singular variation of a keyword, but Google may feature the plural version in the Suggest box, which could draw searchers away from typing your preferred keyword variation. As another example, Google may suggest your product list to searchers in a different order than you would prefer.

Google Suggest tends to be driven by a combination of keyword popularity and newsworthiness. In other words, search behavior is a very strong contributing factor to the phrases that Google suggests, and there is very little that can be done to influence Google’s suggestions directly. (As an aside, Google says it filters out certain words that it interprets as “pornography, violence and hate speech.”)

The takeaway? Make sure to review Google’s suggestions as part of your keyword research activities.

What this means to you: Understand how ad impression data is affected.

From Google Support:

When someone searches using Google Instant, ad impressions are counted in these situations:

    *The user begins to type a query on Google and clicks anywhere on the page (a search result, an ad, a spell correction, a related search).
    *The user chooses a particular query by clicking the Search button, pressing Enter or selecting one of the predicted queries.
    *The user stops typing, and the results are displayed for a minimum of 3 seconds.

You may begin to notice additional ad impressions for shorter-head keywords than you have received historically. You may also see an apparent reduction in click-through rate to your site.

SEO pros are long accustomed to rolling with changes in search! Enjoy the new normal – it will undoubtably change again, and soon!

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Gravity Search marketing is led by SEO industry veteran and author Jennifer Grappone in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 2006 following the success of the book Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (Wiley, 2006, 2008, 2011), which Jennifer co-authored. Gravity’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, global entertainment brands, niche B2Bs, large and small retailers, and nonprofits.
Our small, talented California-based team specializes in SEO, advertising, analytics, and online brand visibility. Senior Technology Manager Andrew Berg, who joined Gravity in 2009, elevates the company’s technical SEO expertise to an elite level.
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