Optimizing WordPress

 Note: IZEA has released Real Rank, my editoral on it will come once a few days of data has been updated.

For any blogger who wishes to increase their search engine rankings, it is important to remember to optimize your blog. Think of Google as a skittish dog, at first it knows nothing of you and is very seldom happy with you. However, the nicer you are to the dog, the better attitude, and search results you garner.

Permalinks
When you use WordPress the default link structure includes “?” and is very confusing to search engines such as Google. It is very hard for them to understand what exactly your post is about with some arbitrary number. To fix this you can change your permalink structure. First, go into your Administration panel, then Options and finally permalinks. Enter in /%postname%/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/ for your permalink structure. This structure puts your post name first, helping search engines figure out what you are really trying to talk about.

Tagging
There is no reason not to tag if you have your installation of WordPress running version 2.3 or above! Tagging is supported natively in your WYSIWYG editor, you just enter them below the post editing field and your done! If your not using WordPress 2.3, I’d recommend upgrading immediately to the latest version of the 2.3 kernel (technical for upgrade to the latest release).

Appropriate Tags
With any article, you should pick tags that relate to the article. Do not put tags in that do not relate to your content, also do not put in every word of your article in the tags field. The tags field is small for a reason, to keep you focused on the important tags! Most often tags should be names, places, or phrases related directly to the article you are writing about.

Keywords
Having keywords that you want to achieve is a great idea. You should use keywords sparingly though, as using them too much can lead to search engines thinking you are “splogging”. Start off slow and gradually use your keywords more in your posts to get mentioned on the first page of Google results. Patience is key!

Useful Plugins
Wordpress has several plugins that can help you make Optimization a breeze! First, and really not a plugin but something you should be using is that tagging field in WordPress 2.3. I have gotten thousands of visitors from just accurately tagging my blogs alone! I also recommend that you look into getting a Related Posts Plugin, something I added onto this blog tonight. Fairy Fish has a pretty good related posts plugin. All in One SEO pack also gives you some great resources.

It is possible to achieve the first page on Google for any keyword, it just requires some patience and a bit of skill!