wordpress optimisation strategies

WordPress Optimisation

40 tips, in 40 minutes, and then some questions!

Open Source

Open Source

Apple

Open Source

Apple

CSS

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

Theology

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

TheologyIBMS

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

TheologyIBMS

Blogger

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

TheologyIBMS

BloggerSpeaker

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

TheologyIBMS

BloggerSpeaker

Marketeer

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

TheologyIBMS

BloggerSpeaker

Marketeer

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

TheologyIBMS

BloggerSpeaker

Marketeer

Open Source

Apple

CSSSEO

Geek

TheologyIBMS

BloggerSpeaker

Marketeer

Online marketeer

Yoast.com

Section #1: Speed!

Tip Section #1: Speed

Install WP Super CacheWith GZIP enabled!

01

Tip Section #1: Speed

Move .htaccess directives to your server config (if possible)

And disable .htaccess parsing.

02

Tip Section #1: Speed

Combine CSS files into one big CSS file

Same goes for JavaScript, which should be loaded in the footer.

03

Tip Section #1: Speed

Use CSS sprites

Ask your developer if you don’t know what this is.

04

Tip Section #1: Speed

Add a PHP opcode cache

Pick one, all are better than having none.

05

Tip Section #1: Speed

Kill some plugins...

And try to replace them for similar ones. Some plugins are god awful.

06

Tip Section #1: Speed

Still slow? Switch to better hosting.

WestHost rocks, go to http://www.westhost.com/blog-yoast.html

(yes that’s an affiliate link)

07

Section #2: SEO

Tip Section #2: SEO

Set Pretty Permalinks

Why do people still forget this?

08

Tip Section #2: SEO

Switch Blog name and Post Title

The format should be:post title - blog name

09

Tip Section #2: SEO

Give Robots directions

Noindex wp-admin, login and register pages etc.

10

Tip Section #2: SEO

Write better titles

Use HeadSpace2, or even All in one SEO.

11

Tip Section #2: SEO

Write good meta descriptions

If you don’t, do NOT auto generate them.

12

Tip Section #2: SEO

Create proper pagination

Using wp-pagenavi by Lester Chan, f/i.

13

Tip Section #2: SEO

Disable paged comments

They suck.

14

Tip Section #2: SEO

Read & Implement everything in my WordPress SEO guide

http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/

15

Section #3: Maintenance

Backup your database every few hours

Use Lester Chans WP-DBManager plugin

16 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Optimize your database every day

Using the same WP-DBManager plugin

17 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Backup your files every day

Use WordPress Backup:www.blogtrafficexchange.com/wordpress-backup

18 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Check your queries

Use the Debug Queries plugin to check for plugins gone mad

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/debug-queries/

19 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Run Akismet

Kill those spam comments.

20 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Check the referrers for comments

http://tools.davidnaylor.co.uk/

21 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Remove those nonsense widgets

Technorati rank? Wel.... OKBlog value: nonsense.

22 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Track your uptime

Use Pingdom, or another tool,but be the first to know when your blog is down.

23 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Check 404’s

Use the 404 notifier:wordpress.org/extend/plugins/404-notifier/

and fix them using Redirection

24 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Remove unneccesary meta info

// Remove Really simple discovery linkremove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');// Remove Windows Live Writer linkremove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');// Remove the version numberremove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

25 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Section #4: Social

Allow & encourage people tosubmit

your content

26 Tip Section #4: Social

Use Sociable, damn it :)

Doing newsletters?

Add a refer a friend button on the thank you page!

27 Tip Section #4: Social

Or... Use my Comment Redirect plugin, and add the refer a friend there!

28 Tip Section #4: Social

Use WP Greet Box,even useful on “normal” sites.

29 Tip Section #4: Social

Make sure your comments are gravatar enabled.

30 Tip Section #4: Social

Do the Twitter thing. It’s an absurd traffic driver.

31 Tip Section #4: Social

Section #5: Analytics

Use Google Analytics (and my plugin for it)

32 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Use RSS link taggerrebelic.nl/rsslinktagger

33 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Track traffic coming from Twitter:yoast.com/twitter-analytics/

34 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Install canonical URL’s so your Analytics doesn’t

interfere with your SEO

35 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Use comment redirect to track first time commenters

36 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Track comments as a goal!

37 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Use an onclick javascript with a minor delay.

Track RSS subscribers the same way

38 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Start optimizing:which traffic leads to more subscribers?

39 Tip Section #5: Analytics

And yes that means forgetting about Digg.

Use my blog metrics plugin

40 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Improve yourself each month!

Bonus tip #41:

41 Tip Section #6: Shameless plug

Can’t fix it? Don’t have the time to?

Hire me & my team to do it for you:

joost@orangevalley.nl+31 6 24 555 808