wordpress optimisation strategies
TRANSCRIPT
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:
[email protected]+31 6 24 555 808