Top SEO Tips for Wordpress Blog

Author: Jimmy

31 Jan

I just want to share the best SEO tips (among a lot of other recommended tips) that work very well for my Wordpress blog.

1. Permalinks

Change your Wordpress permalinks to be search-engine friendly. To change the default link type, go to Options -> Permalinks.

Wordpress permalinks

Select the more search-engine-friendly option:

SEO permalink option for Wordpress

Please read a very comprehensive article about Wordpress permalinks from Web Tool Collections.

2. Create a Sitemap

A sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs for a site. Many search engines uses sitemap to crawl the site more intelligently (including Google, you know how important it is). A free sitemap XML generator plugin is available here. This can be used in conjunction with this plugin to make human-readable sitemap for your blog.

Wordpress sitemap

3. Submit your blog to major search engines

Do not forget to submit your blog to Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live search engines. You can use the sitemap created in previous tip (if you already did that) in all submissions.

- Google: go to Webmaster Tools in your Google account and add your blog URL; follow steps to add blog sitemap and verify ownership of blog.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools - Add Site

- Yahoo: go to Yahoo Site Explorer, follow steps to add sitemap and verify your blog ownership - quite similar to steps in Google Webmaster Tools.

Yahoo Site Explorer

- MSN: Main Microsoft search engine is Live Search now. Go to Microsoft Webmaster, submit your blog URL and sitemap, and then verify blog ownership like what you did for Google, Yahoo search engine submission.

Microsoft (MSN) Webmaster tool

4. Improve the titles of your articles

It is arguable that title tags are the most important of the on-page factors for search engine optimization. Article title is suggested to be short-and-sweet but in term of search engine short title means less keywords for search. A free plugin is available here that can provide solution for this dilemma.

Title tag - SEO title for WP blog

5. Tagging & Meta Keywords

Implement tags on your blog and use them as meta keywords. This plugin help you easily generate Technorati tags at the bottom of your blog entries. (Note: I have not implemented this tip in my blog but it is recommended by many SEO gurus.)

Please advice what works best for your blog. Thanks.

SEO from GuaranteedRankings.com is nationally recognized as a leader in pay-for-performance natural search engine optimization. Call 800-661-0387.

Recommended Reading: This site recommends Website Magazine for 'Net Success

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Filed under: Tutorials, Web 2.0

26 Responses for "Top SEO Tips for Wordpress Blog"

Pancrasiv March 21st, 2008 at 6:13 pm 1

favorited this one, man
Donna May 1st, 2008 at 2:28 am 2

Hi, this dont work in my blog (WP 2.5.1) ????
Jimmy May 1st, 2008 at 9:37 pm 3

I’m going to upgrade JTAW blog to WP 2.5.x. Hope to have more cool tips.
[u]MuTSuZ May 10th, 2008 at 10:17 am 4

hi
You web site very good

Thanks
http://www.delimanyak.org
SEO Firm in Toronto May 11th, 2008 at 12:03 am 5

There really is no need to submit your website to the search engines, they are picked up fairly quickly (in a matter of hours for google and yahoo) if you have incomming links.
Lee May 13th, 2008 at 10:18 am 6

Hi. thank you for sharing the great tips! was having problem looking for good seo title. Thanks!
Go Media May 15th, 2008 at 4:52 am 7

we use this on our blog for go media works really well
Jared May 22nd, 2008 at 11:44 am 8

Thanks for the info it was useful. Check out my site once you all have used this. All about Adsense
claudiu May 22nd, 2008 at 12:45 pm 9

Tnx for the info.

http://www.widewebicons.com
Alex Prozorov May 25th, 2008 at 6:26 am 10

Thanks!
kamil May 29th, 2008 at 8:06 pm 11

thanks for the great plug-in tips!
Kamil
http://www.sharesmadeeasy.com
belajar seo July 9th, 2008 at 4:29 am 12

I love wordpress. Tq for the good sharing.

belajar seo
Jimmy July 10th, 2008 at 1:02 pm 13

Don’t you think that the need for permalinks is past? Haven’t the search engines figured out how to manage dirty links at this point?
Jimmy July 10th, 2008 at 8:54 pm 14

@Jimmy: Probably yes, Google knows a lot about links. However, it’s no harm to have better permalinks.

JTAW blog has had pagerank 5 just after 5 months with simple SEO tips like these. They work!
SEO - Webdesign July 12th, 2008 at 12:05 pm 15

I will have my students look at your wonderful site map implementation.

As an SEO I teach that a site MUST have a site map. How else are the SERPS going to easily navigate your website?
Will July 28th, 2008 at 3:54 pm 16

Great website. Thanks for the SEO tips. Things werea lot simpler a few yearsago
seo singapore August 9th, 2008 at 8:48 am 17

Completely essential in WP! Keepit up. SEO Plugins detailing should be integrated though, such as headspace or allinoneseopack.
StumbleUpon August 16th, 2008 at 3:50 pm 18

Your post makes one think! Great article. Thanks for allowing me to comment!
backlinks August 16th, 2008 at 7:40 pm 19

First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
rockyou August 27th, 2008 at 3:57 pm 20

Thanks for the tips!
SEO Guide September 7th, 2008 at 1:30 am 21

Nice tip you got there. But one thing I want to clarify, is it really needed to have sitemap even though there’s a rss feeds?? Thanks and hoping for your reply..

Just SEO It
Admin
SEO India | SEM Services India September 11th, 2008 at 6:48 am 22

Sitemap is it really needed to have even though there’s a rss feed.
chinese seo service September 20th, 2008 at 12:31 am 23

yes, i am sure this is very useful information for the bloggers , i hope in future wordpress blogs all looks attractive , Blogs having very important role in seo
Seo Title Tips October 9th, 2008 at 5:14 pm 24

Nice Tips.

I love the google’s Webmaster panel. It has lot’s of great features that really tear appart lot’s of things needed to having a cleaner and better looking (SEO aspect) site.
nadja007 October 20th, 2008 at 4:57 pm 25

Hi,
Thanks for posting these tips. It’s very imformative and helpful. This is really help me a lot.
web hosting October 21st, 2008 at 8:07 pm 26

platinum-seo-pack is a very popular seo plugs for wordpress, and also suit for latest wordpress,you can custom each article’s title when post, also, add tags, meta ect…