Mention SEO and WordPress in the same sentence and most people automatically think of plugins. There are certainly plenty of very handy SEO plugins for WordPress, but there is so much more that can be done with WordPress to optimise your site. This interactive Workshop at WordCamp Gold Coast covered a variety of optimisation activities and strategies. It included hints, tips, ideas and suggestions on optimising a WordPress based website to improve your search rankings, increase traffic and maximise your online sales/enquiries. Topics covered include : - SEO Fundamentals - WordPress SEO Out of the Box - SEO Friendly Themes - SEO Plugins (of course) - SEO Content Strategies

1. SEO
FOR
WORDPRESS
The fundamentals of Optimising your WordPress website

2. SEO for WORDPRESS - Overview
 Keywords
 WordPress Out of the Box
 WordPress Configuration Settings
 Search Friendly Themes
 SEO related Plugins
 Pages & Posts
 SEO Fundamentals

3. Keywords are CRITICAL !!!
 Step #1 – KEYWORD ANALYSIS
 DON’T Just Guess !!!
 Create a List (and keep it handy)
 Review at least annually
 Where to use Keywords?
 Domain Name
 Tags
 Site Structure
 Headings (H1, H2, H3….)
 Categories
 Page Titles  Captions
 Post Titles  Image names
 Image Alt Tags

4. WORDPRESS SEO benefits
 “Out of the Box” – WP is Pretty Good
 Search Engine Friendly
 Crawlability
 Ease of Use --> Dynamic Content
 User Generated Content
 But it can be improved….

5. WORDPRESS SEO - Settings
 Basic Configuration
 Privacy
 Permalinks

6. WORDPRESS SEO - Themes
 Genesis (StudioPress)
 Thesis
 Woo Themes
 …and more…
 A Decent Theme with SEO Plugins is OK too
 Watch for clashes with SEO Plugins

7. WORDPRESS SEO - Plugins
 Over 900 WP Plugins for “SEO”
 Fundamental SEO Plugins
 All In One SEO Pack
 Google XML Sitemaps
 Google Analytics for WordPress
 Suggested Extra Plugins
 SexyBookmarks (by Shareaholic)
 SEO Smart Links
 WPTouch

8. WORDPRESS SEO – Plugins
All In One SEO Pack
 Automatically optimises
your WordPress site for
search engines by
generating meta tags and
helping you optimize web
page titles.
 Default settings are
usually OK, but can be
customised

9. WORDPRESS SEO – Plugins
Google XML Sitemaps
 Auto generates a special
XML sitemap file which
help search engines to
index your site
 Needs to be “kicked
off” the first time
 Default settings are
OK, but can be
customised

10. WORDPRESS SEO – Plugins
Google Analytics for WordPress
 Makes it easy to add
Google Analytics into
your site
 Lots of configurable
(advanced) options.
 Default settings are
OK, but can be
customised

11. WORDPRESS SEO – Plugins
 SexyBookmarks - sophisticated and highly
configurable All In One Social media plugin
 SEO Smart Links - automatically generates
internal links for defined keywords and
phrases
 WPTouch- quick and easy way to define a
Mobile friendly version of your site

12. WORDPRESS SEO
Website Content
 “Content is King”
 Take Advantage of being “In Control”
 Quality, Unique & Keyword Rich
 Site Structure
 Keyword Based Structure
 Pages
 Keyword Rich Titles
 Keyword Rich Headings
 Relevant Images, Captions, Alt text
 Linkability – Would YOU Link to it ??

13. WORDPRESS SEO
Blogging Content
 Blog Categories
 Posts
 Topical Content
 Keyword Rich Titles
 Headings (H1, H2, ….)
 Tags
 User Generated Content
 Local Content / Case Studies

14. SEO Fundamentals
 Content
 Unique
 Keyword Rich
 “Useful”
 Linkable
 Links
 Natural, Relevant
 Quality vs Quantity
 Do it for your Users –
NOT for Search Engines

15. … That’s All Folks …
andy@in-a-day.com.au