Advanced Wordpress SEO - City University of New …...SEO COMPLIANCE e om g e om g e om g e om? ping...
Transcript of Advanced Wordpress SEO - City University of New …...SEO COMPLIANCE e om g e om g e om g e om? ping...
Advanced WordPress SEO
: Actionable Advice for Ensuring Your W
ordPress Content is Found by Nick Herinckx, CEO
of Obility Consulting, @
nickherinckx
Tweet w
ith Mozinar attendees: #m
ozinar Technical problem
s or feedback: Please em
ail team@
seomoz.org
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
ho am I?
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w.obilityconsulting.com
Why W
ordpress?
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hy Wordpress?
Great out-of-the-box on-site optim
ization
Credit: SEOMoz.org
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hy Wordpress?
Easy to find developers
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hy Wordpress?
Great out-of-the-box on-site optim
ization P
lugins
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hy Wordpress?
Great out-of-the-box on-site optim
ization Light &
fast
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hy Wordpress?
Great out-of-the-box on-site optim
ization Free
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hy Wordpress?
Great out-of-the-box on-site optim
ization N
ot as robust for complex sites
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hy Wordpress?
Great out-of-the-box on-site optim
ization Little support (but great support com
munity)
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hy Wordpress?
Great out-of-the-box on-site optim
ization G
reat user based means target for hackers
©O
BILITY C
ON
SULTIN
G
HO
US
EK
EE
PIN
G
Assumptions, a note on plugins and m
ore
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Assum
ption #1:
You Are Fam
iliar with W
ordpress
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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If I say “plugins”…
…You say “Let m
e tell you my favorite
ones”
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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If I say “permalink structure”…
…
You say “/%category%
/”
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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If I say “edit theme P
HP
files”…
…You say “archive.php or head.php?”
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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Assum
ption #2:
You understand intermediate to
advanced SEO S
ectio
n: H
ou
seke
ep
ing
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If I say “canonical tag”…
…You say “duplicate content”
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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If I say “UR
L name/value pairs”…
…
You say “no more than 3, and there
better not be sorting parameters”
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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If I say “meta robots tag”…
…
You say “noindex and nofollow”
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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If I say “I know you’ve never purchased
links”…
…You say “no” and start laughing
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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If Matt C
utts enters the room…
…
You stop laughing
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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If I say “Rand Fishkin”…
…
You say “who’s that?”
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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In short: you understand SEO
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ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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Some of our
solutions will utilize
plugins.
*I favor solutions that do not utilize plugins
Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
Ima
ge
cred
it: http
://ww
w.te
chta
te.co
m
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Se
ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
I don’t always use plugins
But when I do, I prefer Yoast SEO
Credit: Euro RSCG Worldwide
©O
BILITY C
ON
SULTIN
G
DU
PLIC
ATE C
ON
TEN
T IN
WO
RD
PR
ES
S
Pagination, Archives &
Inserting Unique C
ontent
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W
here does this problem stem
from?
Tag Pages S
ectio
n: D
up
licate
Co
nte
nt
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W
here does this problem stem
from?
Tag Pages S
ectio
n: D
up
licate
Co
nte
nt C
ategory Pages
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W
here does this problem stem
from?
Tag Pages S
ectio
n: D
up
licate
Co
nte
nt C
ategory Pages
Date A
rchive P
ages
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W
here does this problem stem
from?
Tag Pages S
ectio
n: D
up
licate
Co
nte
nt C
ategory Pages
Date A
rchive P
ages A
uthor Pages
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W
here does this problem stem
from?
Tag Pages S
ectio
n: D
up
licate
Co
nte
nt C
ategory Pages
Date A
rchive P
ages A
uthor Pages
Pagination P
ages
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Exam
ple: Tag pages
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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Exam
ple: Date pages
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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Exam
ple: Pagination
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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W
hat are Specific SEO Issues?
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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W
hat are Specific SEO Issues?
Full post text on hom
epage, tag pages, category pages, etc.
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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W
hat are Specific SEO Issues?
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t No value-added
content for searchers
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W
hat are Specific SEO Issues?
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t Pagination pages
include duplicate content
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W
hat are Specific SEO Issues?
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t Heavy site-w
ide sidebar links to these
pages
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W
hat are Specific SEO Issues?
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Many them
es don’t allow
for custom M
ETA tags on
these pages
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What can w
e do about the full post being displayed on all archive pages?
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What can w
e do about the full post being displayed on all archive pages?
AN
SWER
: replace “the_content” in the P
HP
files with “the_excerpt”
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-Located inside your P
HP
files
-Show
s full blog post content
What to do about full post text
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
The_Content
-Located inside your P
HP
files
-Show
s only first 55 characters of post.
The_Excerpt
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W
hat to do about full post text
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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W
hat to do about full post text
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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-A
rchive.php
-Index.php
-O
ther custom them
e PH
P files that control
archive type pages
Where to look for “the_content”
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What can w
e do about the non- uniqueness?
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What can w
e do about the non- uniqueness?
AN
SWER
: Noindex and exclude from
XM
L sitemap
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W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
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W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Post Yes
Yes Include
Allow
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Post Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Categories Yes
Yes Include
Allow
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W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Post Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Categories Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Tags N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
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W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Post Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Categories Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Tags N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Date Archives N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
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W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Post Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Categories Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Tags N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Date Archives N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Pagination N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
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W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Post Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Categories Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Tags N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Date Archives N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Pagination N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Author (default page) N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
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W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Post Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Categories Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Tags N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Date Archives N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Pagination N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Author (default page) N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Author (custom page)
Yes Yes
Include Allow
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W
hat to do about their non-uniqueness
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type M
eta Index?
Meta
Follow?
XML Sitem
ap Robots.txt
Page Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Post Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Categories Yes
Yes Include
Allow
Tags N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Date Archives N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Pagination N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Author (default page) N
o Yes
Exclude Allow
Author (custom page)
Yes Yes
Include Allow
*Yo
ast S
EO
plu
gin
allo
ws fo
r this le
vel o
f con
trol
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Can w
e make these pages m
ore useful for users?
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Can w
e make these pages m
ore useful for users?
AN
SWER
: Create a new
PH
P page for
each archive page type, and insert copy into the P
HP
files directly
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Date archives, categories, tags, author pages, etc.
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Inserting unique content on
author archive page types!
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Date archives, categories, tags, author pages, etc.
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Inserting unique content on
category archive page types!
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How
do we do this inside W
ordpress?
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ction
: Ho
use
kee
pin
g
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Date archives, categories, tags, author pages, etc.
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
We w
ill have to create new PHP files!
*but it’s an easy copy/paste job
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Understanding W
ordpress PH
P Hierarchy
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type Default
Override for all
category pages O
verride for individual categories
Example PHP file
name
Categories archive.php
category.php category-{categoryslug}.php
category-m
arketing.php
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Understanding W
ordpress PH
P Hierarchy
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type Default
Override for all
category pages O
verride for individual categories
Example PHP file
name
Categories archive.php
category.php category-{categoryslug}.php
category-m
arketing.php
Tags archive.php
tag.php tag-{tagslug}.php
tag-events.php
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Understanding W
ordpress PH
P Hierarchy
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Page Type Default
Override for all
category pages O
verride for individual categories
Example PHP file
name
Categories archive.php
category.php category-{categoryslug}.php
category-m
arketing.php
Tags archive.php
tag.php tag-{tagslug}.php
tag-events.php
Author archive.php
author.php author-{authornam
e}.php author-nick.php
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Steps for creating a custom page w
ith SEO
optimized text for a tag called
“marketing” S
ectio
n: H
ou
seke
ep
ing
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Date archives, categories, tags, author pages, etc.
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Step 1: Go to your PHP files
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Date archives, categories, tags, author pages, etc.
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Step 2: On server, create “tag-m
arketing.php” file inside them
e PHP file directory
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Date archives, categories, tags, author pages, etc.
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Step 3: Copy code from
existing “archive.php” file and pate in new
“tag-m
arketing.php” file.
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Inserting Text Into A
rchive Page Types
Date archives, categories, tags, author pages, etc.
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Step 4: Locate w
here the body text for the page begins
Step 5: Insert custom
tag text above where
posts are displayed
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
THEN
WE G
ET TH
IS!!!
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What can w
e do about pagination?
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w.obilityconsulting.com
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What can w
e do about pagination?
AN
SWER
: Yoast SEO inserts rel=“next”
and rel=“prev” in the head of paginated pages
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w.obilityconsulting.com
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What about canonicalization?
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What about canonicalization?
AN
SWER
: Yoast SEO includes these on
all Wordpress pages
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
Wordpress itself only show
s canonical link elem
ents on single pages. Yoast SE
O places the canonical tag on
all page types.
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What if I use a plugin that utilizes U
RL
parameters?
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What if I use a plugin that utilizes U
RL
parameters?
AN
SWER
: Utilize your robots.txt or
Google W
ebmaster Tools
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t •C
reate an actual robots.txt file and place it in server root to override the virtual W
ordpress one
•U
se robots.txt to disallow
problematic site section
O
r…
•
Block problem
atic param
eters from w
ithin G
oogle Webm
aster Tools
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In Sum
mary
Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
9Make sure them
e uses “the_excerpt” in archive PHP files instead of “the_content”
9If you w
ant to keep archive page types, create a separate PHP file for each an insert on-page copy
9N
oindex archive page types if not unique
9Exclude archive page types from
XML Sitem
ap
9Im
plement canonical tag on all pages using Yoast SEO
9Im
plement pagination tags using Yoast SEO
9U
se robots.txt file to exclude dynamic pages created by plugins, or use
Webm
aster Tools to tell Google to ignore problematic nam
e/value pairs
©O
BILITY C
ON
SULTIN
G
IMP
LEM
EN
TING
AU
THO
RS
HIP
Author B
ios on Author Posts
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Q
uick Authorship Exam
ple
Se
ction
: Au
tho
rship
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What w
e need
1: A G
oogle+ Profile
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What w
e need
2. Link to publications in the “contributor to” section from
within your G
oogle+ profile
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
What w
e need
3. Add rel=“author” tag to blog post page in a
link to your Google+ profile
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R
el=Author Tag Im
plementation
Se
ction
: Au
tho
rship
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
How
to Get G
oogle+ Links on Author
Posts
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
How
to Get G
oogle+ Links on Author
Posts
Option 1: Edit single.php file (or the one that
displays your blog posts) to output the author bio on the page. Then authors can include a G
oogle+ link on their own.
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Im
plementing A
uthorship
Se
ction
: Au
tho
rship
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w.obilityconsulting.com
P
lacing Author B
io on Blog P
osts
Se
ction
: Au
tho
rship
<div class="author"> <?php if (function_exists('get_avatar')) { echo get_avatar(get_the_author_m
eta('user_email'), '70');
} else {?> <im
g src="<?php echo get_tem
plate_directory_uri();?>/images/author.jpg" alt="" class="im
gleft authorpic" /> <?php } ?> <h5>About <?php the_author();?></h5> <?php the_author_m
eta('description'); ?> </div>
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Se
ction
: Du
plica
te C
on
ten
t
How
to Get G
oogle+ Links on Author
Posts
Option 2: M
anually add to posts an author byline w
ith Google+ profile links
©O
BILITY C
ON
SULTIN
G
AD
VAN
CE
D O
N-S
ITE
CO
NS
IDE
RATIO
NS
A note on perm
alinks
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Se
ction
: Ad
van
ced
On
-Site
For very large blogs, permalink
structure is one of the most com
mon
mistakes I see w
ith Wordpress
installations.
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w.obilityconsulting.com
P
ermalinks for B
log Posts
Which one is best?
/%
postname%
/ %post_id%
/ /%
category% / %
postname%
/ /%
post_id% / %
postname%
/ /%
year% / %
category% / %
postname%
/
Se
ction
: Ad
van
ced
On
-Site
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w.obilityconsulting.com
P
ermalinks for B
log Posts
Most P
eople Select:
/%postnam
e% / %
post_id%/
/%category%
/ %postnam
e%/
/%post_id%
/ %postnam
e%/
/%year%
/ %category%
/ %postnam
e%/
Se
ction
: Ad
van
ced
On
-Site
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Se
ction
: Ad
van
ced
On
-Site
But that’s not ideal for very large blogs!
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w.obilityconsulting.com
P
ermalinks for B
log Posts
“For performance reasons, it is not a good idea to start your
permalink structure w
ith the category, tag, author, or postnam
e fields. The reason is that these are text fields, and using them
at the beginning of your permalink
structure takes more tim
e for WordPress to distinguish
your Post UR
Ls from Page U
RLs (w
hich always use the text
“page slug” as the UR
L), and to compensate, W
ordPress stores a lot of extra inform
ation in its database (so much
that sites with lots of Pages have experienced difficulties).
So, it is best to start your permalink structure w
ith a num
eric field, such as the year or post ID.”
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ction
: Ad
van
ced
On
-Site
What W
ordpress Says
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w.obilityconsulting.com
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ction
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ced
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Why does it cause slow
down?
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w.obilityconsulting.com
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ction
: Ad
van
ced
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-Site
Consider the U
RL /m
ycat/mypost/
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w.obilityconsulting.com
P
ermalinks for B
log Posts
You Should Select:
/%postnam
e% / %
post_id%/
/%category%
/ %postnam
e%/
/%post_id%
/ %postnam
e%/
/%year%
/ %category%
/ %postnam
e%/
Se
ction
: Ad
van
ced
On
-Site
©O
BILITY C
ON
SULTIN
G
MA
INTA
ININ
G S
EO
CO
MP
LIAN
CE
Tools for verifying SEO
compliance
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w.obilityconsulting.com
M
aintaining Com
pliance Ongoing
Se
ction
: SE
O C
om
plia
nce
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w.obilityconsulting.com
M
aintaining Com
pliance Ongoing
Se
ction
: SE
O C
om
plia
nce
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w.obilityconsulting.com
M
aintaining Com
pliance Ongoing
Se
ction
: SE
O C
om
plia
nce
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w.obilityconsulting.com
W
hat did we talk about?
Housekeeping
Addressing D
uplicate Content in W
ordpress
Implem
enting Authorship
Advanced O
n-Site Considerations
Maintaining SEO
Com
pliance