Is this the Complete Guide to SEO Optimization for WordPress?

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 by Roderick Ioerger

Is this the Complete Guide to SEO Optimization for WordPress?

If this is not the complete guide to optimizing a WordPress blog then I have not seen it yet. I am not saying there is not a better free guide out there and I challenge anyone who knows of one to link it in the comments of this blog post and share with us what we all have been missing.

In my mind however Joost de Valk has come thru with an extremely useful and detailed guide showing how to effectively optimize a WordPress blog. The Guide covers seven major topics plus it provides a conclusion all of which are worth reading. The seven major topics are:

Basic technical optimization
Template Optimization
Advanced WordPress SEO and Duplicate Content
Altering your blog’s structure for high rankings
Conversion optimization: get those readers to subscribe!
Comment optimization: get those readers involved
Off site blog SEO

The majority of the sections listed above also contain subtopics, which explain additional tasks that should be performed to achieve the best return on a bloggers optimization efforts. Each of these additional tasks contain some fairly logical suggestions but in some cases the simplest directions can also be the most challenging to complete as well as extremely time consuming. Just because someone can tell you what to do in one paragraph does not mean it will be a simple task even when the recommendation is easily understood.

Along with a lot of great unique content, Joost references a number of must read articles that dig deeper into the theory of performing some of the more detailed optimization techniques. Plugins are also a major point of emphasis for efficiency in optimization. In fact there are more than ten different plugins that are recommended in the guide to make the life of WordPress optimizers easier.

I can say without much hesitation that there are plenty of niche resources that cover one of even a few of these topics, but having a central point of reference for all of these items I believe will be a boon for not only experienced bloggers but for more casual bloggers as well. Anyone who wants to achieve greater SEO success with a WordPress blog should spend the time to review the work done by Joost.

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20 comments on “Is this the Complete Guide to SEO Optimization for WordPress?”

Web Marketing Man Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 1:31 am

WordPress is setting the pace, and it is going to be hard to emulate them. This guide to tricks and plugins to optimise WordPress pages for search engines definitely is a must read for anybody serious about getting their WordPress based blog or page out there.
Web Development India Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 2:13 am

Hi,

Nice article on Wordpress Guidelins.

Thanks for sharing vast information about wordpress BLOG.
Joost de Valk Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 2:18 am

Thanks Roderick, appreciate the kind words!

Joost de Valk’s last blog post..The must read article about WordPress SEO
Warenwirtschaft Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 10:52 am

I just sent the link to this post to everyone in our company who works with wordpress-installations.
iridiax Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 12:39 pm

Using only /%postname%/ as your custom permalink structure is a big mistake. The WordPress Codex article on using permalinks advises against doing this, and the WordPress support forums are filled with people experiencing a wide variety of problems after trying it. You must have something in addition to it, and the other suggestion of /%category%/%postname%/ works just fine.
Roderick Ioerger Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

@Joost – You’re welcome.

@Iridiax – Thanks for the information. You should communicate it to Joost and work with him to make the proper update if one is necessary.
Jaan Kanellis Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 3:44 pm

iridiax, what problems could you have? Your just using the post title in the URL.

Jaan Kanellis’s last blog post..So Did SEO Help The Candidates Get Nominated?
iridiax Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

Using only /%postname%/ can randomly cause links to posts, pages, stylesheets, etc. to fail and conflicts to arise between posts and pages with the same name. Using only /%postname%/ gives posts and pages the same WordPress URL structure, a recipe for confusion, especially if you toss in lots of plugins and custom add-ons.
Jaan Kanellis Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 4:30 pm

Understood now, but I guess I just don’t get in the habit of naming posts the same name or pages and posts the same name.

Jaan Kanellis’s last blog post..WordPress SEO In A Nutshell by Joost
forumistan Says:

June 11th, 2008 at 6:15 pm

Templates are playing a big role for seo. Wordpress is the true way for seo. If you want a seod blog, use wordpress and skinpress together
Joost de Valk Says:

June 12th, 2008 at 2:34 am

Iridiax: well, I agree with Jaan: that’s A a bug in WP that needs fixing, and B something you “just” shouldn’t be doing (naming a post and a page the same)

Joost de Valk’s last blog post..The must read article about WordPress SEO
Keylogger Guy Says:

June 12th, 2008 at 4:36 am

I’m thinking of building sites on WordPress last few weeks, so it is pretty good link to get started
Chris Says:

June 29th, 2008 at 10:05 am

Great guide!thanks

Chris’s last blog post..Google- Yahoo a Non-Exclusive Agreement
Social Media Marketing Posts July Says:

July 11th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

[...] Is this the Complete Guide to SEO Optimization for WordPress? [...]
SEO optimization Says:

October 8th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

Thanks for the work you have done on this page as it contributes overall to ethical SEO optimization. Crown SEO, Ltd. specializes in SEO optimization with many Google successes for its clients through reading and understanding excellent articles such as this.
complete seo guide Says:

February 17th, 2009 at 10:00 am

Let it be clear that it isn’t magic, it does take time and great effort, but if you follow these clear guidelines you will instantly increase your odds of achieving a top ranking within the major search engines such as Yahoo, Google and MSN.
syafur Says:

March 1st, 2009 at 5:44 am

everyone has their own way about seo. I think is very exciting if we can learn tricks about seo.
thanks for info
Music and Resources Says:

May 28th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

They have been adding more and more features since Google took over. Nice overview.
Music and Resources Says:

May 28th, 2009 at 5:03 pm

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ZK@Web Marketing Blog Says:

May 28th, 2009 at 5:04 pm

Most of our tools are free. Free software is good karma. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to afford this server, building this site, and marketing it well enough to help you find it.