Ultimate WordPress SEO Tips

So you think you’ve got the hang of the usual SEO. Links, content, usability. But what about WordPress?

There’s a lot of amazing SEO power built into WordPress. Unfortunately it doesn’t all come by default, and you might not know what’s best when it comes to templates and options.

This simple, easy to follow article will outline many WordPress SEO tips which people often forget to implement (even the most famous bloggers), or haven’t yet arrived at for some reason or another.
Permalink Optimisation

The goal: stick more keywords up into the URL and remove the faff which nobody uses, to make the URL seach engine and people attractive.

* Include %postname%
Having keywords in your URL is an absolute must, especially when it’s as easy as WordPress makes it.
* Get rid of useless tags
Don’t use %day%, %post_id% , %hour%, %minute% or even %second% in your permalink structure. None of these are necessary. Monthly posting archives are perfectly acceptable, but for the vast majority daily ones are not. Putting more /***/ rubbish into your permalink URLs will make it harder to see the URL’s boldened keywords on search engine results, less emphasis is placed on your post title keywords (which are really great).
* Bonus tip: want to go really mad with your permalink SEO? Try dropping date tags all together for %category%! It does away with your neat date tags, though, so you could even try keeping %year% and %month%.
* Stick with the structure you choose! Changing it will probably invalidate all of the links coming to you.
* You better be using .htaccess, punk!

On my sites

On Dech, the permalink structure is /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/, which is ideal! It keeps the blog neat, but means that all of the URL, with bold keyword matches, will show up in Google results, etc.

I’ve taken a different approach with Buster Studies, where I’ve decided to go for sheer SEOage, in the form of just %postname%. It really works, especially with some of the techniques mentioned later. Search refferals are sky-high for this very new site. I’m not worried about post-title clashes, because each post covers a different topic, and WordPress doesn’t ever let post slug clashes occur.

What’s that? You can’t use the calendar properly? Well it still happens to work for me when you want to look up dates like yesterday.
Page Titles

Unless you’re some kind of international superband with just a few letters for a name (Apple, IBM…), you’re very likely allowing WordPress to make a big mistake for you when it comes to your page title (the one within the title tags).

You don’t want a title like this:

Buster Studies » Kinetics: Collision Theory, Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution

Why not? Well, to start with the key words are right at the end! You have to put up with Buster Studies » before your eyes can make it to the real juice!

In Google, when you do a search, searched keywords which appear in your title are made bold, and they sand out really well. You want as much of that as possible. Because Google truncates titles when they pass a particular length, you need your important keywords up front. Google might also be counting words which appear earlier in the title as more important.

The format I use for page titles on Buster Studies and Dech lets people see what the post is about first.

Kinetics: Collision Theory, Maxwell-Boltzmann Distribution · Buster Studies

Look at the top of the page. I even spice it up a little by loosing the common “»” for a lovely “·“.

Even better, the title of the post can be seen in Firefox’s tabs or minimised Windows windows easily.

The code you need to put into your template for this to happen:

< ###title>< ?php wp_title(' '); ?>< ?php if(wp_title(' ', false)) { echo ' ·###; '; } ?>Buster Studies< ###/title>
(remove the ###s and replace stuff with your own bits)

So just rearranging your title will shower your with some fantastic results.
On my sites

As I said, I use the technique above which throws out great, powerful titles like:

Ultimate WordPress SEO Tips · Dech from Fintan Darragh

Essay Notes: Arguments For/Against Regulation of the British Press · Buster Studies

What do you see first? Exactly what I want you to…
Post Titles
Keep it sweet

Keep your post titles nice and simple, and as straight-forward as possible. Sure, pack in the keywords, but do it smartly.

You have to blend readability with keywords. It’s easy to muck-up, but doing it right will help you loads.
Link to the bloody post!

If you don’t use your title to link straight to your permalink URL, the page where your post lives, you are stupid to say the least.

It’s naturally where users click, and it also is a keyword-rich inward link which should reinforce a good post title, page title and URL.
Some HTML might come in handy…

XHTML if you prefer.

* On pages where a list of posts appear (like the front page), wrap the title in H2, H3 or H4 tags. This provides maximum superiority of linkage without going too far. Which ones you use depend on how many posts the page is showing (lower number of posts, opt for H2…).
* On the post page, wrap it in H1 tags! It’s the page title, so it deserves to be wrapped up like that! You’ll benefit greatly from this when it comes to the search engines.
* SEO mad! If you’re capable of bending WordPress to your will, try putting a link to your newest post in H1 tags on your front page! It works wonders!

On my sites

I use this very technique on Dech and it seems to be working very nicely indeed. Buster Studies uses the H1 as a front-page one-off link, and that seems to have a great deal of influence.