Advanced WordPress Optimization Strategies for iGSS in Dublin feat. WordPress SEO, Analytics, Plug-ins and much more.

1. WordPress Optimization
Strategies
iGaming Super Show, Dublin
May 2012
http://gdig.de/igss12
Bastian Grimm, CEO & Founder, Grimm Digital

2. 2011: Panda…
Which rankings am I gonna eat today?

3. 2012: Penguin…
aka the REAL crap!?

4. 516 Updates in 2010
 In 2010 Google tested around 13.000 changes to
their algo, 516 are still „live“.
 Main focus: Tech, Marketing & Usability:
– Technology: Caffeine (used w/ Panda, Penguin)
– Usability: Suggest (trying to simplify navigation)
– Instant & Instant Previews
– Google +1, Search plus your World (SPY World!?)
– Authorship Profiles & schema.org Markup, etc.
4

5. http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

6. About me
 Background: PHP & Java
– Dev. CMS, shops & forums
– Wazap! Game Search Engine
 Online Marketing since 2004
– SEO strategy consulting, in-house
trainings & workshops, WordPress
SEO, domaining, etc.
– Just an Affiliate
 Links, Links, Links…need some?
 Stuff to play with…
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7. Get the Slide-Deck
http://gdig.de/igss12
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8. Section #1: Configuration

9. #1 Settings > PermaLinks
Get rid of those dates
(IDs), they look awful!
/%postname%/

10. #2 Settings > Privacy
Make sure you actually
allow search engine to
access your contents!
10

11. #3 Fix your Themes’ Page Title
Open header.php in your
themes’ folder, search
for “wp_title” – it’s going
be the first match!
<title><?php wp_title(); ?></title>
That’s the ONLY
thing you need!
11

12. Section #2: WordPress SEO

13. #4 WordPress SEO by Yoast 1/7
You won‘t need dates
if you have static
content, right?

14. #4 WordPress SEO by Yoast 2/7

15. #4 WordPress SEO by Yoast 3/7

16. #4 WordPress SEO by Yoast 4/7

17. #4 WordPress SEO by Yoast 5/7

18. #4 WordPress SEO by Yoast 6/7

19. #4 WordPress SEO by Yoast 7/7

20. Trust me… things change!
Check out SEO data transporter to switch SEO plug-ins!
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-data-transporter/
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21. Section #3: Plug-ins
21

22. #5 Fix your Pagination
WP-PageNavi
WordPress pagination
s*cks, replace it!
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/

23. #6 Improve internal Cross-Linking
Yet Another Related
Posts Plugin
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/yet-another-related-posts-plugin/

24. #7 Auto-optimize Image Attributes
SEO Friendly Images
Forces title & image
name to be used as
img alt-attribute
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-image/

25. #8 Clean those URL-Slugs
WP Permalauts
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-permalauts/

26. #9 Redirect old Contents
Redirection
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

27. #10 Mask your Affiliate Links
Eclipse Link Cloaker
http://eclipsecloaker.com/

28. Section #4: Security

29. #11 Do updates regularly!
 Keep your installation „clean“
– Remove all non-active Themes and Plug-ins
 Keep WordPress and Plug-ins updated
– WP Updates Notifier to get emails on out-dated
components (core, themes & plug-ins) for all blogs:
• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-updates-notifier/
– ManageWP can do one-click mass updates
(core, themes, plug-ins again) for all your blogs:
• http://managewp.com/features

30. #12 Scan your Theme(s)
WP AntiVirus
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/antivirus/

31. #13 Harden your Security Settings
Secure WordPress
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/secure-wordpress/

32. #14 And run a (daily) Scan
WP-Security Scan
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/

33. #15 Check File & Folder Permissions
WP-Security Scan
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-security-scan/

34. Section #5: Maintenance
34

35. #16 Enable DB Auto-Repair
Go edit „wp-config.php“
and add this line – easy!
define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);
Afterwards, you need to call the repair script manually:
http://example.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php

36. #17 Debug your WordPress
Debug Objects
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/debug-objects/

37. #18 Enable Akismet
Just enable, get an API key
and turn „auto-delete“ on!

38. #19 Backup Database & Files
BackWPup
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backwpup/

39. #20 Watch out for Errors
 Knowledge is power
 Use a 404 logger
– Analytics software
– Redirection (built-in)
– Webserver logs
 Setup 301 redirects
accordingly using
“Redirection”, again.
Image-Credits: http://gdig.de/i

40. #21 Maintain Categories & Tags
Term Mgmt. Tools
Mass merge &
change parents
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/term-management-tools/

41. #22 Monitor your Uptimes
http://www.pingdom.com/
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42. Section #6: Performance

43. GWT Site Performance Info
This is really not so good…!
43

44. Scoring domains by
performance; check it out!
https://developers.google.com/pagespeed/

45. #23 Compress those Images
13.2% savings WP Smush.it
for one image!
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-smushit/

46. #24 Setup a Caching Plug-in
W3 Total Cache
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/

47. #25 Combine multiple CSS files
 Combine CSS files into one to
reduce the number of HTTP requests
 Minify the big file by removing white-
spaces, etc. to reduce file size per request
– Check: W3Total > Performance > Minify!
 Same goes for JavaScript as well… and put those
JS files into the footer, if possible!
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48. #26 Do CSS-Sprites
http://spriteme.org/

49. #27 Off-load JS-Libs
WP Use Google Libraries
Simply enable the plug-in &
serve JS libs from Google‘s CDN!
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/use-google-libraries/

50. Section #7: Connect & Engage

51. #28 Integrate w/ Facebook
Full resource list at: http://gdig.de/o

52. #29 Embed Social Streams
WP Social Slider
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-social-slider/

53. #30 Different Greeting Messages
WP Greet Box
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-greet-box/

54. OMCap 2011 - Online Marketing Konferenz Berlin
And that’s it! …
13.10.2011
Wait, still not enough? 54

55. There’s so much more…
 Using categories or tags?
– Setup unique descriptions: category_description($id);
 Want more attention & higher CTR in SERPs?
– Setup rel=author & schema.org: http://gdig.de/l
 Need easy configurable forms?
– Try Contact Form 7: http://gdig.de/m
 Widgets are not flexible enough?
– Widget Logic is your friend: http://gdig.de/n
55

56. OMCap 2011 - Online Marketing Konferenz Berlin
Now for real! …
13.10.2011
Well, ok – one more? 56

58. Thanks! Questions?
mail@grimm-digital.com
twitter.com/basgr
linkedin.com/in/bastiangrimm
facebook.com/grimm.digital
Bastian Grimm, CEO & Founder, Grimm Digital