The document discusses optimizing WordPress sites and web content for search engine optimization. It covers best practices like using keyword-rich titles, meta descriptions and images. It also discusses using the Yoast SEO plugin to optimize titles, descriptions and rel=author tags. Proper use of categories, tags and 301 redirects are also covered.

1. How to do better in
Part 1: Optimizing Your WordPress Site
Part 2: Optimizing Your Web Content for Search

2. The best platform for SEO

3. Google’s Matt Cutts agrees

4. The foundation of on-page SEO
photo: Pond5
 Poll your client base for terms
 List multiple ways to say the same thing
 Use the Google Adwords keyword tool
 Check out Google Suggests & Google Insights
more about this later …

5. Use keywords in the naming
structure of Web site
 Keyword-rich domain name
 People use your business name or your
domain name as the anchor text of a link

6. Anchor text
 Anchor text is the visible, clickable text
in a hyperlink
 Search engines give weight to the
keywords used in link so don’t use “click
here”

7. Use keywords in the naming
structure of web site
 Keyword-rich domain name
 People use your business name or your
domain name as the anchor text of a link
 Adjust Permalink settings to add
keywords to site urls

8. Permalink settings
/%category% /%postname%/

9. Customize the permalink for each
individual page/post

10. If it's good for site visitors,
Google likes it!
B

11. WordPress SEO by Yoast
A powerful WordPress plugin
 Plugin incorporates best practices
 Wide variety of functions in one plugin
 Titles and meta descriptions
 Breadcrumb Trail
 Permalink clean up
 xml sitemaps
 Edit your robots.txt and .htaccess
 Clean up head section
 Author rel
 Easy to migrate from All In One SEO

12. What is a meta title and meta
description?
 HTML code that search engines read
 Shows in search engines results
 Accurately summarize page content
 Important elements in search engines’
algorithm and for searchers
 Should contain your keywords

13. Titles and Meta Descriptions
Title
Meta Description

14. Writing your titles and metas
Enter a 70 character custom Title
Enter a 155 character custom description

16. Rel=Author
 links an article's byline to an author's website profile page
 displays author photos in search results
 links the search result byline to the author's Google Plus profile
 displays the number of circles the author is in on Google Plus
 adds a more by this author link to the search result
 tells Google that this is a reputable link

17. 301 redirects with Yoast

18. 301 redirects via .htaccess
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
redirect 301 /oldurl.htm http://newurl.com/newpage

19. Changing the Permalink Structure
on an Established Site
 for default post id ?p=123 WordPress will
automatically forward to the new structure
 for date or numeric permalink structure you’ll
need to redirect your old permalinks to your
new ones at the top of the .htaccess file
 yoast.com/wp-content/permalink-helper.php
 learnwp.ca/wordpress-dashboard/changing-permalinks

20. Don't block search engines!!!
Settings -> Privacy ->
Allow search engines to index this site .

21. Q & Eh?
image used by permission susybee.com

22. How to do better in
Part 1: Optimizing Your WordPress Site
Part 2: Optimizing Your Web Content for Search

23. The foundation of on-page SEO
photo: Pond5
 Poll your client base for terms
 List multiple ways to say the same thing
 Use the Google Adwords keyword tool
 Check out Google Suggests & Google Insights

24. Using Google's keyword tool

25. Google Suggests; Google Insights
Google Suggests:
Begin typing some of your keyword terms in
search - Google will suggest endings for
your terms
Google Insights: For patterns
http://www.google.com/insights/search/

26. Getting ready to write web copy
You're writing for two audiences
 For the way people read on the web
 For search engines
Humans trump
search engines!
photo: Pond5

27. How to write for site visitors
People read differently on the web SO ...
 Call-to-action button
 Main message above the fold
 Use H2 & H3
 Short sentences & paragraphs
 Bulleted lists
 Anchor text
 Inform and entertain

28. How to write for search engines
Use your keywords - naturally:
No keyword stuffing
o meta tags o H2 & H3
o page titles (H1) o images
o body text o anchor text
 Check your Theme's headings
 Check with Yoast's Page Analysis feature

29. Using categories and tags
interlinking:
You’re probably already linking to other posts on your site
but have you considered linking to a tag or category?
titles & descriptions for tags & categories:
Using the SEO by Yoast WordPress plugin you can
optimize your taxonomy and archive pages.
Cleaning up Tags & Categories with Yoast's new tool
http://yoast.com/optimizing-tags/ - Term Optimizer

30. Optimizing images for search
These textural clues tell
Search Engines
what images are about
 Use descriptive keyword rich image file names
(i.e. “my-keyword.jpg”)
 Optimize the Title and Alt Tag of each image.
 When appropriate, use captions to describe your
image

32. Optimizing images for search
- page speed
 Keep image file size as small as possible
 Don’t scale images
 Use background images that repeat

33. Going off page...
Link Building
 Number of inbound back links
 How reputable is the link
 Relevance of link
 Anchor text

34. Attract traffic
 Create great content
 Commenting
 Social media
 Guest blogging

35. Google Tools
 Google Webmaster Tools
 Google Analytics
 Google+

36. Q & Eh?
image used by permission susybee.com

37. Thank You WordCamp Toronto
Dawn Comber, digitaldialogues.ca
Ruth Maude, dandelionwebdesign.com
WordPress Workshops: LearnWP.ca