WordCamp Ireland - 40 tips for WordPress Optimization

WordPress Optimization 40 tips in 40 minutes Joost de Valk, OrangeValley - WordCamp Ireland 2010

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I work for OrangeValley, a company that develops WordPress websites, does Analytics and Conversion Rate Optimization and SEO but mostly helps it’s customers make more money.

http://yoast.com/ I blog on http://yoast.com/

http://quixapp.com/ Joost de Valk, OrangeValley - WordCamp Ireland 2010 And recently created Quix: http://quixapp.com/

So even though I’m from Holland, I’m not going to tell you about windmills and wooden shoes.

So usually, I’d copy paste some slides...

Be an obnoxious bastard and present it

Go and do what I do best

There’s an issue though.

http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/ Joost de Valk, OrangeValley - WordCamp Ireland 2010 You’ve all probably read this article.

Please do ask your questions! Don’t be afraid to ask questions

42 I’ll try to answer all of them Joost de Valk, OrangeValley - WordCamp Ireland 2010 I’ll try to answer all of them, usually the answer is 42.

Section #1: improve your load times Make your site load faster!!

#1 Install W3 Total Cache http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/ Turned my blog from an Opel into a Ferrari (speed wise)

#2 Use it to combine CSS and JS ﬁles Javascript and CSS should be combined and javascript should mostly be loaded in the footer. (W3 Total Cache can help with that)

#3 Use Sprites Check out SpriteMe

• (WP) Smush It • Puny PNG #4 Crunch those images... Crunch your theme’s images, and auto crunch uploaded images. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-smushit/ http://www.punypng.com/

#5 Offload those images and JS and CSS files Use a CDN (for instance VPS.net’s CDN) or Google’s Javascript Library API or Amazon S3 to offload images, js, css and other static files, saving your own server.

#6 Kill some plugins And try to replace them for similar ones. Some plugins are god awful (in terms of javascript).

#7 Clean up that sidebar Do you really need all those badges? Even more important: do your visitors need them?

Section #2: Optimize! Let’s optimize that site for search!

#8 Books are judged by their cover So are your posts, give them a proper title.

#9 Offer (Efﬁcient) Related Posts http://xavisys.com/2009/06/efficient-related-posts/

#10 Internal Linking & Series of Posts http://justintadlock.com/archives/2009/06/09/series-wordpress-plugin Check your analytics: which pages are viewed most? Which pages and posts do you have related to that? Link them!!

#11 Tags, Categories, Custom Taxonomies Through all these cool plugins we often forget how to use the superbly useful internal stuff in WordPress: Categories, Tags and custom taxonomies. Do your categories still match the blog you have today? http://yoast.com/wordpress/simple-taxonomies/

#12 Give a robot some directions Noindex wp-admin, login and register pages etc. using the Robots meta plugin.

#13 Don’t auto generate your meta descriptions Better to have a monkey write them or not write one at all than to have All in one SEO generate them for you.

#14 Create proper pagination You can’t expect a search engine nor a user to click on more more than 3 times... Use for instance a plugin like WP PageNavi.

#15 Disable paged comments THEY SUCK.

Section #3 Maintenance Let’s keep that blog nice and crisp.

#16 Backup your blog regularly Both your database AND your FILES!!

• Add this to wp-conﬁg.php: define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true); #17 Automatically repair the database It’s so easy: do it!!

#18 Check your blogs queries Use the Debug Queries plugin to check for plugins or themes gone mad.

#19 Clean up spam. Always. Run Akismet Use Dave Naylor’s comment referrer check http://tools.davidnaylor.co.uk/

#20 Track your uptime Use Pingdom, or another tool, but be the ﬁrst to know when your blog is down.

#21 Track and ﬁx those 404’s Use John Godley’s Redirection plugin and track and ﬁx them.

// Remove Really simple discovery link remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link'); // Remove Windows Live Writer link remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link'); // Remove the version number: function yoast_fix_wp_generator($generator) { return preg_replace('/s?'.get_bloginfo('version').'/','',$generator); } add_filter('the_generator','yoast_fix_wp_generator',10,1); #22 Remove unneeded meta info

#23 Create a good search experience Implement a Google Custom search engine to create a proper search experience, then start tracking your internal search: what are people searching for? Are they ﬁnding that? Can / should they expect that on your site?

#24 Get a good mobile plugin

Section #3: make them come back

#25 Email subscriptions!! I prefer email, because of it’s high response.

#26 Twitter In January, 20% of the yoast.com traffic came from Twitter.

#27 RSS If your readers understand what RSS is, the button can’t be big enough. If they don’t know what it is, leave it out entirely!

#28 Use WP Greet Box

Section #4: engage them! Engage them.

#29 Newsletter sign up pages This is the perfect moment to let people refer your site and mailing list to a friend or their Twitter followers: “I just signed up for Yoast.com’s newsletter, you should too!”

#30 Comment redirect Someone just commented and showed engagement: use that momentum

#31 Ask for feedback & comments Use Gravity Forms for contact forms and surveys, or Google Docs forms function to create surveys.

#32 Use threaded comments They keep the conversation intact and allow for a better conversation.

#33 Use Gravatars They keep the conversation intact and allow for a better conversation.

Section #5: measuring results

#34 Use Google Analytics Or any other proper web analytics package

#35 (Google) Analytics: - number of pageviews per visit - new unique commenter - comments - submitted feedback forms Email + FeedBurner subscriptions Twitter followers etc. etc. etc.

#37 Track those ﬁrst time comments Using the comment redirect plugin!

#38 Track submitted comment forms

#39 Use my blog metrics plugin

#40 (bit of a cheat) All of this is no use if you don’t go out and actually DO it.

#40 (bit of a cheat) Start Optimising!! All of this is no use if you don’t go out and actually DO it.

Feedback? Questions? Need help? Email: joost@orangevalley.nl Twitter: @yoast 59

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WordCamp Ireland - 40 tips for WordPress Optimization

by Joost de Valk on Mar 07, 2010

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