The budget CMS provided by the hosting company left much to be desired, and whilst it was a new web site, it looked tired and in serious need of redesign and content reorganisation.

There was no previous input to either on-site or off-site SEO, and some pages contained content worthy of separate additional pages. Missing were the all-important HTML & XML sitemaps, 404 error handling, and various business credibility factors. Neither Call To Action nor Unique Selling Proposition were evedent, and existign graphics were haphazardly placed…

Using WordPress as a Content Management system allows very rapid redesign and development, especially where existing content is good. Some effort was made to expand the page content, and there were obvious page candidates that would help round out the website redesign process and make it more attractive and useful to viewers. An effort was made to illustrate all pages with high quality images from BigStockPhoto.com.

All pages were fine-tuned for appropriate relevant keyword search phrases, and the usual array of WordPress SEO plugins were installed and configured as part of the redesign process. 

Search Engine Results Page Rankings

This website responded very quickly to having some focus applied to the page content.  What was missing was alignment of content with high-volume keyword search phrases. As soon as that occured, ranking shot up quickly!

What did the client think of the return on investment for his web site redesign and SEO project?

Client Testimonial

Hi Ben,

“I want to thank you for our new website. When I started my little wood-fired oven business I had no idea of its potential. 

We had done all the paper advertising and radio advertising but never had any real customer response.  So my plan was to get a professional to sort our old website as it was not generating any new leads because of its poor ranking in any of the search engines. We tried paying for Google ad-words and had an increase in traffic but this was very expensive and no real leads from it.  So my main goal was to find someone who could help our site rank better. Now the best way to find the right person was to enter SEO in a search engine of course so I did.  You were the first person I contacted and the information on your site was the most helpful.  You contacted me back straight away with a free full report of my current site which explained in great detail its faults and weaknesses.  Just what I was looking for! Great service even at that point! I was very happy with the price considering the amount of work that needed to be done.  Yes your rewording of my on-hand information is fantastic! Your added researched material is just what the site needed.

It has only been a month and we now have doubled our workload. I am 100% sure it’s due to our site ranking and the site giving the customers the correct information. Thank you Ben. The whole experience has been a pleasure; I have already recommended your services to colleges.

From the team at Authentic Oven THANK YOU!“

Kind regards,

Gareth Wing

Director – Authentic Oven – www.authenticoven.co.nz

Add to that, there was minimal overall content, and as a consequence the site was languishing in the invisible spectrum of the search engine results pages! There was an obvious need to expend the website content, and that content needed to be easily editied by staff.

The fastest way to remedy the situation was to completely rebuild the website in a modern Content Management System, and expand both features, content and user-friendliness at the same time.

WordPress CMS is arguably the best content management system available, due to its light footprint, range of features, scalibility and ease of expandability etc.

The Studiopress “Genesis” base theme for WordPress provides a rock-solid base for  development, and the “Agency” child theme offers ease of customisation of colours and layout.

 As part of the rebuild process, approximately 15 new pages were written and added to the site. The goal was to more clearly articulate the breadth and depth of services that Capital Press offers to its clients. The majority of these pages were then illustrated with selected stock photos from BigStockPhoto.com. 

Each page was set to target a specific set of relevant, high-volume keyword search phrases, in titles, meta-tags, image Alt text and on-page  content – headings and paragraphs.

Further, it seemed very important to emphasize that Capital Press are a long-serving Auckland printing company, having been in business since 1974… I recommended a revision of the “we’re printing with pride” tagline, to “printing with pride since 1974” to clearly articulate that important fact. Essentially, its a very reasonable USP – 37 years of experience in the printing business!!!

We’ve also added in a “Fast FREE Quotes, no obligation” call to action on every page…

The new design uses multiple WordPress plugins for design, usability and SEO aspects;

The results of the changes in terms of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) rankings are demonstrable. From its minimal initial visibility, the site has already  gained in prominence, and expectations are that it will continue to do so as link growth continues. 

 So, aside from the visual, functional, architectural and technical changes to the Capital Press website, what did THE CLIENT think of the process of change?

Client Testimonial

“Our old website was just sitting their stagnant and was in need of a major update both for the design and SEO requirements, and Ben Kemp was just the person to do this. After contacting his previous clients who highly recommended him and looking at his previous work, my boss knew he could trust Ben.

From the audit report of our current website, Ben explains in great detail its weaknesses and the improvements that need to be made. All of which he improves greatly. Ben is very efficient and explains things very simply so you can understand. He solves problems and gives advice as to what he recommends for your website.

Our website now has a modern look, easy to navigate, great layout, excellent images and his SEO work is getting our website noticed. We have been live for about two months now and there has been a great increase in visitor and hits to our website. I can give you my assurance that it will be the best decision you make for your business and website to employ Ben Kemp.“

Kind Regards, 

Shilpa Patel

Web redesign proposal plan checklists should take careful account of the current status of the existing website. Rather than just rush headlong into the web redesign / rebuild process, an assessment of the good and bad elements of the original site should be made. Include consideration of SEO aspects.

All to often, the website makeover results in a dramatic downturn in search engine rankings! Don’t underestimate the value of the existing indexed pages… or the benefits of current organic SERPs.

Run the rebuild idea past an SEO consultant…

Threats to Current SERPs Rankings

Its important to understant that a current search engine rankings can plunge off the charts as a consequence of a redesign! Why is that? Failing to plan i planning to fail – and you must have viable strategies to contain the threat to rankings.

Permanent Page Redirection

Without an accurate page redirection chart that specifies where the old content went, search engine spiders will be left wallowing in a puddle of 404 Page Not Found errors.

1. Top-Ranked Pages – must be identified and protected
2. 301 Redirection – reroute current page file names to the corresponding new page’s name. Not doing that means all indexed content will suddenly generate 404 Page Not Found errors, and be deleted purged from all search engine’s index. Next comes total loss of all internal Page Rank. That’s followed by all client’s Bookmarked page links being lost… Finally, all “deep links” to internal content will be lost…
3. Preserve the Optimised On-Page Content – move previously optimised page content to their new page counterparts.
4. Image ALT Tag Text – copy the old text to the replacement images
5. Meta-Tags – copy Title tags, Description and Keyword meta-tags to the corresponding new pages
6. Site Maps – provide and listing both XML and HTML Sitemaps

If this is not done, search engine spiders and bots will be forced to restart from scratch. If they are forced to reindex and reassess and the website, and you’ve not protected the positive elements, a plummet in rankings is assured!

Rebranding Exercises

Branding per se is an important aspect of business development. Branding consultants have great expertise in their sphere of interest, but often a modest comprehension of the challenges in in achieving top SERPs (search engine results rankings). Branding consultants don’t see the importance of your 10 year old domain name… A recommendation to ditch your matured Domain for a new “catchy” new business name is a threat to your online presence. Domain 301 Redirection means its possible to redirect incoming traffic from the old domain to the new domain. Then, you can provide individual page redirection…

Regardless, that still leaves you with all your old links pointing to a ‘dead’ domain and at risk of removal!

Don’t “misunderestimate” the importance of a matured domain with reams of incoming links! By way of example, I recently reviewed a web redesign proposal that recommended moving from a 1999 registered domain with 2900+ incoming links (including 100+ links from domains with a +7 PR! The destination? A 2008-registered domain with a mere 35 links… Thats insane!

The Re-Designers

Planning to redesign a mature site that’s generating business, but needs a more modern look and feel? Then be sure to choose a designer / developer who comprehends the importance of the old content, and understands the SEO considerations! Ensure the crucial SEO design elements are incorporated into the redesigned architecture. I regularly see web redesign output from designers that astounds and depresses me, e.g.;

1. SEO applications loaded but deactivated – so nil meta-tag content on all pages!
2. The WordPress CMS with Privacy setting as “I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors“
3. JavaScript primary menus that search engines cannot read, resulting in internal pages not indexed!
4. Flash main menu that search engines  cannot read, resulting in no internal pages indexed!
5. The dreaded Splash Intro pages with 1 link to the home page only -  zero Home page content!
6. Missing both XMLand HTML sitemaps, ging search engines no list of internal content

If the specific objective is execute the website, then the above 6 items will serve well…

The  lesson is, if you are contemplating a web redesign, you’d be sensible to  make certain that those  responsible for the rebuild have a plan that includes the basic project planning elements! Failing to plan is planning to fail ,as these examples clearly show!

Is Google Still Needed?

Whilst there those who wish that Google was irrelevant, that does not make it so. Ignoring the guidelines provided by the planet’s most influential search engine is not a way forward.

Perhaps when you’re a household brand name, you won’t need search engines to route new clients your way. But for now, to garner an increasing supply of new visitors from Google et al, you’ll have to play by the rules of engagement… None of us can alter global reality to fit our own perceptions – we either adapt… or become irrelevant!

New Website’s SEO Needs

Achieving SEO benefits requires that there be overall targets to shoot at…

1. SEF-URLs – Search engine friendly URLs or Page File Names should be explicit, and keyword-rich, independent of Titles or Headings
2. Titles: independent and unique page Titles are essential.
3. Description Meta-Tags: independent and unique page descriptions are essential.
4. Keyword Meta-Tags: independent and unique page keywords
5. Image URLs:  image file names should incorporate targeted keyword phrases
6. Image ALT Tag Text: dynamic based on file name with manual over-ride is ok. Keyword rich image file names are important supporting elements of page content.
7. Menus – each item controllable, independent of page Headings, with manual hyperlink titles
8. Headings – formatted in H1, H2, H3 HTML tags, independent of menu name

Ensure That Core Files are Present

- Robots.txt: with a link to the XML sitemap
- Sitemap: XML, plus HTML
- Custom 404 Error Page: standard page template, full menu etc

Make sure that the BASIC Hosting issues are sorted;

- www vs. non-www: use full canonical domain name, prevent duplicate content indexing
- Hosting: correct country TLD – or correct country hosting

Go to Web Redesign: Site Architecture | Section #2

Website architecture can make or break a website’s potential to attain prominence in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

There is often no one single item at issue; usually its a combination of elements that add together to present impediments to proper search engine indexing or cataloging.

Inappropriate implementation of Flash and/or JavaScript are common problems, as is omission of fundamental website building blocks such as robots.txt, custom 404 pages, sitemaps etc.

Search-Friendly URL Aspects

• Page file names – URLs – ought to contain a relevant key word phrase for every page
• Neither capitals, nor spaces in file names are appropriate. Hyphens should separate all words.

Google et al can now cope with URL containing ?, & and =. However, these give no assistance to human viewers and provide no clues to the search engines as to what the page content might be… Search–engine friendly URLs (SEF-RRLs) are valuable determinants in the process assessing page content category or theme.

Verbose Image File Names:

Use keyword-rich explicit Image file names e.g.;

1. http://www.oursite.com/images/australian-hockey-tours-hdr-4.jpg
2. http://www.oursite.com/images/school-hocker-tours-australia.jpg

Image File Names should include relevant keywords related to the page they are on!

1. Google & Yahoo have Image Search tools that generate traffic when images are accurately named and tagged (image ALT tags)
2. Neither capitals nor spaces are appropriate in file names, use hyphens to separate words instead.

Image Alt Tags Usage:

Use Image Alt Tags on every image – a short keyword-rich, relevant sentence that describes the content of the page / image is what’s needed. Its essential to reinforce relevant keywords in every area of the page – Image ALT tags are an important location to insert one or more exact match search phrases.

Site Maps – XML & HTML

A sitemap shortens the number of “levels” down to the primary content – the Products / services. Many Ecommerce websites have nested Categories that artificially push the “real” content down more than 3 levels from the Home page. Deeper than 3 levels in the internal structure appears far less valuable to Search Engines – and such pages will seldom attain a Top 30 ranking! HTML and XML site maps are important;

1. An HTML sitemap can double as a custom 404 error page AND help search engine indexing.
2. An XML sitemap should be linked to from a robots.txt page, as well being submitted to major SE’s for indexing.

For example; in very large osCommerce sites its possible to dramatically increase the number of indexed pages on Google by using the All_Products modification as a site map, and placing the A-Z links it generates on the footer of every page.

Customised 404 Error Pages

Adding a Custom 404 Error page is rather important. A recent poll showed that only 23% of visitors encountering a 404 page will bother making an attempt to locate a relevant page. That means 77% of visitors that encounter a 404 error abandon your website immediately! Provision of a good Custom 404 Error Page gives you a chance to increase visitor retention times! thats now an important metric in Google’s relevancy ranking algorithm…

JavaScript & Flash Best Practice

JavaScript and Flash should be used with discretion and care. Whilst everything contained within <script language=”JavaScript”> and </script> is not actually processed, the SE’s are thought to assess the ratio of code to content, devaluing pages with excess code volume!

1. The Search Engines can’t read JavaScript (or Flash or FRAMES) – so you’d need compelling reason to use it!
2. Don’t place JS code in pages – external JavaScript (and CSS) files should be “called” or “included” to ensure the minimum amount of code is embedded in every page.
3. JavaScript or Flash should NEVER, EVER be used to generate main Menu displays!

Regrdless of opinion, Google cannot “see” anything within JavaScript or Flash. Using either option for a website main menu is thereforedooming the website to SERPs oblivion.

Provide A robots.txt File

Arobots.txt file must exist on the site, not least because because search engine spiders looking for a missing file will add to your “404 page not found” error count.  The robots.txt file is used to specify which, if any, directories or files shouldn’t be indexed. Usually, we allow all spiders access to everything.

The robots.txt file should also include a link to your sitemap e.g.;

Sitemap: http://www.mysite.com/sitemap.xml

On-Page Content Factors

Pages require textual content in order to contribute to your search engine rankings. Without on-page content, there is little for a search engine to work with as it attempts to establish what the website is about.

Attaining Top 10 rankings for competitive search phrases is not easy… The minimum content volume you should aim for 800-1000 words per page. In the past, lower volumes may have worked but Google’s goal to provide the most relevant pages for any given search has raised the stakes. Its illogical that a page with 400 words of good content would outweigh a page with 1000 words of equally good content…

Page content should be original, well-written, authoritative, entertaining and/or provocake comment. Obviously, a focus on the relevant keyword phrase you hope to to rank well for is a given… Including images in content adds interest, and providing relevant keywords in the Alt text gives tSE traction.

Don’t forget to include a “Call to Action” – and specify WHAT you want visitors to do, and How/Where to do it.

Page Headings in H1 / H2 Format

Load your Headings with main keyword phrase/s, most important at the beginning and to ensure that all are in H1 / H2 / H3 format. This is the most (SEO) important “On-Page” location to specify to the search engines what the page is about.

The 1st Paragraph

This is the second most important “On-Page” location to identify to the search engines the page content thme or genre….

1. Place the primary targeted keyword search phrase at the beginning; commence the 1st sentence with it, and highlight the words in bold if appropriate.
2. It is important to include text anchor links on main internal pages. Links TO these anchors (bookmarks) should be provided on Home page and sub-pages, to pages below, and at the same level.

Text Anchors & Hyperlinks

Anchor text links to internal pages (containing relevant keywords) from within body text helps set keyword relationships to those pages. Anchors on internal pages, and links TO those anchors, raises key word count on each page thus related. Linking to anchors on internal pages from Home page raises the perceived importance of those internal pages, and provides additional internal link networks for search engine spiders to find and index them.

Main Menu Navigation

1. CSS / DHTML – text-based – delivers best results
2. NO JavaScript / Flash – these are inaccessible to Search Engines
3. Menu passes Page Rank downwards through the site if menu links are accessible
4. The keywords in internal links are also what SE’s will associate with the internal pages

If possible, allow addition of hyperlink titles to the menu item links – dynamic, based on the internal page’s 1st heading is not as good as the ability to manually add titles to menu item names. Hyperlink titles in the menu, and in the text anchors (above) can significant increase keyword count on a page, as well as reinforcing what the page (that the link leads to) is about.

Social Media Considerations

Social Media inclusion has become a key issue in both website design and web redesign. Its also become an element over at Google HQ lately and is apparently factored into the search engine rankings algorithm…

1. If you have a FaceBook account you could / should add a Business Page, and link to it from the site
2. If you have Twitter/ YouTube/LinkedIn accounts, you should link to them from the site
3. FaceBook/ Twitter /YouTube/LinkedIn accounts should be connected. so that any activity on one generates a corresponding entry on the others
4. FaceBook “Like” buttons should be added across the site’s pages

Go to Web Redesign: Off-Page Elements | Section #3

Web redesign #3 takes a looks at off-page content elements; title, meta-tags, linking strategies, Domain naming conventions etc.

Aside from the Title which appears in the top left corner of the browser outline bar, these are elements hidden from normal view.

They are regarded as important elements by search engines, and can be viewed on any page by choosing “View / Source” from the web page menu bar.

Off-Page Elements

The <Title> tag is regarded as one of the most important on-site elements, and an accurate, keyword-rich Title can impact dramatically on a page’s ranking potential.

Other off-page opportunities exist that, if used correctly,  increase the density of keyword phrases – some od those are listed below;

<Title> Tag

This is the content that appears in the top left corner of the web browser page, and is also the heading that search engines use in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

The total suggested Title content is 8-10 words, or 70 characters. Full manual control is very useful. Some CMS and ecommerce applications restrict effectiveness of Title’s by tying the Title to the Page’s 1st heading, or product name. If a Title is dynamically generated, it should be arranged in this order; Product Name + Category + Tagline : to a  maximum of 70 characters. Don’t use ‘stop’ words, or irrelevant words. A superior Title tag is both unique and precisely relevant to every page – both aspects critical to achieving top search rankings.

Description & Keyword Meta-Tags Intro

Like the Title, the Description meta-tags is an essential off-page element which impacts significantly on search engine’s assessment of your website. Equally, it has a determining influence on whether searchers click on your link in the search engine results pages!

The keyword meta-tag is less influential, but should still be used. Pick 6-10 relevant, hight-volume keyword search phrases that a strictly relevant to he on-page content!

For CMS and/or shopping cart websites, it is probably best to have a double-action manual/or dynamic system. Initial redesign might see involve  populating the Title / Description / Keywords meta-tags automatically from page content. As time permits, a manual over-write of content can be done progressively, as / if required.

Description Meta-Tag

Unique Description meta-tags must be provided on all pages. The maximum recommended length for a Description is 200 characters (Google will display 150 only, but other SE’s will show 200). Manual control is best if possible. If dynamically generated then an output string like this is best; Product Name + Category Name + 1st Paragraph of Product Description :: maximum 200 characters It is extremely important to search engine rankings that a carefully crafted Description, unique to every page, be provided.

This helps the search engines to properly categorise the site. A well crafted description will also be used verbatim in most search engine results displayed to searchers, meaning you can control what is shown to searchers in SERPs. And, of course, the Description should in fact describe the page its on.

Negative Consequences

When descriptions are not supplied, the search engines will do their best to generate one from existing content, which can often look like rubbish, or be duplicated on all pages. Where a “generic” description is provided, all the pages look the same in the search results. Your Descriptions are meant to help “sell” the product…

Keyword Meta-Tag

Unique Keyword meta-tags must be provided on all pages! Manually controlled if possible. If dynamically generated, an output string like this is best; Product Name + Category Name + 1st Paragraph :: maximum 250 characters NB: strip out special characters – e.g. & : ; etc, and its not absolutely essential to place commas between words. NB: This tag is not heavily relied on by most search engines. However, it is a useful discipline to insert the targeted keyword phrases for the page into the tag – as a reminder, if nothing else. However, the terms must focus on the page content, not simply be stuffed full of vaguely related words. Every page must be set to target a specific relevant set of keywords / phrases!

Linking Strategies

Links, and acquisition thereof, rquires a cautious strategy. Basically, it now works this way…

• Links to your website are a vote for your site and are added to your total link-vote score.
• Links from your website t oanother site is a vote BY you, and is DEDUCTED from your total link-vote score…

Reciprocal Links Neutrality

• Outging links can erode your Page Rank away….
• Outgoing links to “bad neighborhoods” can damage your online reputation & rankings…

Link sculpturing is possible; preventing loss of link-juice is done by adding the rel=”nofollow” attribute on outward links. Reckless use of nofollow across the site is unwise because its unnatural and you may be penalised for it. The “nofollow” concept was introduced was to apply to “untrusted” links, and perversion of the original intent is forcing Google to rethink its use.

Domain Naming Issues

Switching domain name as part of a rebranding process is a desperate measure, and one requiring serious evaluation. This was covered in Section #1 of this series. On rare occasions, it may make sense to change domain names. If the existing domain is only a year or so old, is poorly named, has minimal incoming links, and current search engine rankings are insignificant, a more relevant domain name may offer much. There are a variety of Domain-related issues that impact on your search engine rankings.

• Using a relevant, high-volume keyword is a good Domain Naming strategy. 2 or 3 keywords is sufficient, any more becoems counter-productive…
• Separate words with hyphens to ensure clarity for viewers and SE’s…

E.g.; australianhockeytours.com vs. austranian-hockey-tours.com

Correct Country Code or Dot.Com?

An aspect overlooked by many site owners is the importance of the Domain Name “Country Code” to your site rankings, traffic and consequent success. The problem here is the “decentralisation” of search – the way in which the major search engines have split their indexes up into country-specific search opportunities.

• A .com site must be hosted in the targeted country if its to appear in the local search results – e.g. in “Search: pages from New Zealand”
• A .co.uk or .co.nz website can be hosted anywhere and Google will associate it with the specific country dataset.

Website Hosting

Google (and other SE’s) know where you are, or where you should be associated with, by either the Country Code (.Co.NZ) or the IP address allocated to your site. IP addresses are allocated in numeric blocks or ranges, by country.

If you are targeting customers in a specific country, make sure that’s where your website is hosted!

Web Redesign Summary

The examples shown in the 3-part article series highlights that its not necessarily the tools, its more the quality of workmanship that makes the difference. Web site designers have a responsibility to their clients to ensure that a web redesign project does more good than harm!

If lack of knowledge or inexperience causes the newly redesigned web site to disappear from search engine results pages, it does not matter much if the site looks stunning!

Elements such as page redirection are so fundamental, its tantamount to gross negligence to overlook these. Incorporating fully automated XML and HTML sitemaps is also best practice in web redesign.

For a quote on your redesign project, contact us!

Can FaceBook make a measurable improvment to the flow of business prospects and leads? Is FaceBook a valid search engine optimisation (SEO) tool? Can FB make a difference to your web site traffic volume? Can it send you more enquiries, or some potential purchasers of your products and services? Will FaceBook traffic even register on the web server traffic logfiles in the “referring sites” section?

If you’d like the answers to those questions, take a look at this post on www.ComAuth.co.nz:

- …/seo-strategies/is-facebook-good-for-business.html

There conflict that arises is invariably due to the average designer’s passion for graphics and animation. This often results in the use of graphics-related technologies in inappropriate areas on the website. For example, when Flash and JavaScript are used to generate menus, two very negative consequences are inevitable! First, the ability of search engines to index the website is severely jeopardised. Secondly, internal cross-linking within the website is compromised.

Why SEO

The challenge all business websites have is how to generate potential client leads online. Invariably, acquisition of new business is far more expensive than maintaining an existing client base. New online clients will usually find you via searches on the Big 3 – Google, Yahoo and MSN’s Bing search engines (SE’s).

In order for that to happen, your site must be carefully engineered to ensure that;

- SE’s can find and index it in its entirety

- SE’s can determine exactly what the site is about

- SE’s can assess its relevance to common / popular specific keyword search phrases

- SE’s can assess what external sites say about yours – i.e. external verification

There are 200 plus elements assessed in Google relevancy ranking algorithm, and the more of those that you are able to control and have working for you, the better off your site will be. Think of this as being like a library cataloging process, done by robots! If a robot picks up a book, how does it assess where in the library it should be placed. Obviously, it needs some clues to the content to determine a classification, and where it should sit in the library’s shelves.

Search engine robots / spiders operate in a fully automated “rules-based” methodology to first determine what the site is about. For external verification, they correlate the ‘about’ information against the descriptive titles within external links pointing to the website. Then, the search engine assesses the relevancy of the website against real-time searches as they are made. The process is similar for all the major search engines – Google, Yahoo and Bing etc.

There are two aspects that impact on search engine rankings, usually referred to as On-site SEO, and Of-Site SEO

Onsite SEO

This encompasses the assessment of technical and architectural deficiencies that impact negatively on indexing and categorising a site. Problems are assessed and remedied. Then, every page must be accurately composed so that it targets a particular niche keyword set –usually, 1 primary and 1 secondary keyword phrase. In addition to on-page elements, its also vital that meta-data accurately describe the pages. Title and meta-tags for Description and keywords should accurately describe the content on the page. All of this requires keyword research on search engine databases, analysis of competition, and assessment of appropriate keywords to target on a page by page basis!

Off-Site SEO

This encompasses building of links that include a range of relevant keyword phrases in the Anchor Text (link titles). In a competitive niche, a site simply cannot rank well for any current/popular keyword phrase that is NOT included in link titles of incoming links TO your website. 1-way links are better than reciprocal links. A broad geographic (global) spread of incoming links gives a higher perceived value / profile than a narrow range of local links.

Without that range of relevant keyword phrases in external links to your site, Search engines have minimal external verification of what your site is about! So, its imperative that you cast the ”keyword search phrase” net across the pool of relevant keyword search phrases, and pull in a broadest range of qualified traffic / visitors.

Web SEO Summary

Achieving a concurrency between internal website content (what you say the site is about) and external links (what other people say the site is about) is the objective of the search engine optimisation exercise. In general, many designers and their clients don’t fully understand the mechanics of optimising / tuning a site, page by page to achieve a planned outcome on Google et al. Many designers regard this as a completely separate issue, one to be dealt with by the client at a later date.

That’s where professional SEO consultants come into the frame – applying all their knowledge and experience in identifying and addressing the technical and architectural deficiencies, tuning content, and addressing external factors. At Website-Designers.net.nz, we are SEO specialists first and foremost, and apply our knowledge to website design for the best possible outcome for our clients.

Google Sitemaps

HTML & XMLSitemaps can assist in overcoming both those problems. Its really important that you have a version for each problem… when using WordPress as your Content Management System, there are two plugins that solve both issues very effectively.

Google XML Sitemaps

A Google XML sitemap is an external file aimed specifically at the search engine spiders. These are a less-than-pretty list of pages, with last update, priority and rate of change indicators. The major search engines all agreed to a specification and location format. The convention is that;

• the file should be called sitemap.xml
• it is located in the root directory
• it is referenced in the robots.txt file e.g.; Sitemap: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

The Google XML Sitemap Plugin performs the role of automated creation and updates of the sitemap file, according to basic parameters that you set.

Download Plugin

HTML Sitemaps

An HTML sitemap is internal website file that provides an overview of the internal page structure of the site. This page can be accessed by visitors who are not sure what is where – and also provide additional clues to search engines.  The Dagon Design Sitemap Generator, once installed and configured, automatically manages your HTML sitemap. The sitemap becomes another item on your menu that anyone can access.

Download Plugin

Search-Engine-Friendly URLs

What you want is an explicit, keyword-rich URL! A search engine friendly URL… something more like; www.yoursite.com/guaranteed-bad-credit-mortgage-finance.html

However, a lot of people never get it quite from an SEO perspective, so lets shed some light on it.

Using Permalinks

This is controlled from within in Admin / Setting / Permalinks. The default is;

So, what we need to do is change that so we get an explicit Category / Page name format like this;

Having changed the setting, and clicked on “Save Changes” you will need to check that the required Mod_Rewrite code is inserted in your .HTACCESS file. Depending on how your site’s file access permissions are configured, WordPress may, or may not, be able to write directly to the .HTACCESS file.

If WP cannot automatically update .htaccess, you have two options;

1. Change the .htaccess file access permissions so that WP can write to it, then reset back to original permissions afterwards
2. Manually edit the .htaccess file and paste in the Mod_Rewrite code

Once you’ve completed this step, you will discover that editing page and posts now displays verbose, plain-English URL’s based on the page or post title as you enter and save pages / posts.

You can edit this as / if required, to ensure the URL is exactly as YOU want it to be…. For this site, page URLs start to look like this; www.website-designers.net.nz/the-best-plugins/title-meta-tags-management.htm

Post Slug

The “Post Slug” option also allows you to manually control the URL for the post

- and this appears in the Posts / Edit / Quick Edit options;

The All In One SEO PACK for WordPress has been around a while, has evolved through a few revisions, and has proven remarkably bulletproof. I’ve only ever heard one person remark that it caused a problem on a site – no specific details – but I’ve personally never experienced any issues with it directly, nor indirectly via conflicts with other plugins.

From an SEO perspective, the basic requirement is total manual control over off-page title & meta-tags;

• Title – this is  the single most important SEO element
• Description – the 2nd most important element
• Keywords – limited value, but can convey some traction if used properly

Coupled with the “Page Slug” or URL, in conjunction with proper use of the “Permalinks” search-engine friendly URL tool, you’ve go most of the bases covered!

The Home page within a WordPress CMS can be a quirky little thing to deal with, becasue its not directly editable like a page or a post. No problem, because All In One SEO provides specific manual control for that page too!

The All In One SEO pack plugin, in conjunction with manual control over URLs, allows you to carefully manage the 4 most important off-page SEO elements, and a whole lot more.

It does so with a clean, simple interface that even a non-technical person can follow – not always the case with some plugins! I’ve used Headspace2, and its impressive – but for my daily work use on multiple client sites, there are too many options. I’m more of a minimalist – the KISS principle prevails – and Headspace2 is more like a Swiss Army knife… whereas All In One SEO Pack does one thing very well – like a screwdriver…

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