WordPress SEO session deck from Pubcon Austin 2013

1. Epic Wordpress
Advanced Setup for Rankings, Traffic, & Loyal Visitors
Part 1 Presented by:
Michael David
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

2. Epic Wordpress
Initial Setup
Important Considerations on Install:
Don't Use Default “Admin” for Username
Don't Store Database Backups on Server
Hosting: Apache/Cpanel
Hosting: Remote Database? (Megahosts: GD NS)
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

3. Epic Wordpress
Initial Setup
Your Framework:
Think Before Using “Overlay” Frameworks
Can Add Features, but
Harder to Change
Less Universal, Harder to Get Help, Guest Auth?
Responsive Templates
Best Mobile Display Solution
Creates Perfect Index
Why Design?
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

4. Epic Wordpress
Initial Setup
Set Up Ping Services:
WordPress Pings When You Post
Set Up Pings at Dashboard>Settings>Writing
Don't Bang on the Publish Button, Repeats Ping
Find a Good Ping List via Google Search
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

5. Epic Wordpress
Pro Tips When Writing/Posting
Make Appetizing Thumbnails:
Make
Facebook &
Pinterest
Thumbnails
for When
Visitors
Share
Opengraph?
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

6. Epic Wordpress
Pro Tips When Writing/Posting
Getting Images into Search:
When Pushing Images in Image Search:
-Text Proximity Has High Impact
-Alt Tag Has Medium Impact
...(but do both+Title)
Images Push Content into FB/Pinterest
Posts With Images Just Do Better
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

7. Epic Wordpress
Pro Tips When Writing/Posting
Employ Epic Post Thumbnail:
Premium Themes Handle This Gracefully
-Use It or Lose It
-Makes Blog Page & Cat Pages look Pimp'n
-Just More Images for Social Sharing
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

8. Epic Wordpress
Pro Tips When Writing/Posting
Some Epic Post Thumbnails in Action:
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

9. Epic Wordpress
Pro Tips When Writing/Posting
Linking to Your Own Content in Body:
Can it Influence Rankings? ...Meh
– Relevant to Source and Destination
– Link to Money Pages
– When Overdone: Trashy and Spammy
Some Interlinking Is a Quality Signal/Non-Spam Signal
– Why?
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

10. Epic Wordpress
Installing and Configuring W3 Total Cache
How WP Renders Pages:
But if We Make Pages Static:
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

11. Epic Wordpress
Installing and Configuring W3 Total Cache
What W3 Total Cache Does:
Creates static cached pages, faster load
Browser caching: instant subsequent pages
EZ integration of CDN
Minifies JS, CSS
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

12. Epic Wordpress
Installing and Configuring W3 Total Cache
Let's Install from WP Admin (5 min):
Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search
Download & Activate
Adds “Performance” tab on Dashboard
Navigation
Next: Setup
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

13. Epic Wordpress
Installing and Configuring W3 Total Cache
Setup: Lots of Options
Page Cache: Enable
Minify: Enable, Play With Settings
Database Cache: Enable
Object Cache: Enable & Cross Fingers
Browser Cache: Enable & Cross 'em
CDN Stuff...next section
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

14. Epic Wordpress
Installing and Configuring a Content Delivery Network
CDN: How it Works
Delivers your content faster
Reduces load on your server
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

15. Epic Wordpress
Installing and Configuring a Content Delivery Network
CDN with CloudFlare: Setup
Signup at Cloudflare.com (free & paid)
Transfer account info to W3 TC
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

16. Epic Wordpress
Installing Broken Link Checker
Broken Link Checker Plugin
Free Plugin Monitors for Dead Links
Checks content, Nav, & Comments
Uses LOTS of server resources
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

17. Epic Wordpress
Installing Broken Link Checker
Let's Install from WP Admin (5 min):
Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search
Download & Activate
Adds This Box to Main Dashboard
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

18. Epic Wordpress
Using Broken Link Checker
Moderating Broken Links
Edit URL, Edit Page Content, or Simply Unlink
Remember to Turn Plugin Off/Down
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

19. Epic Wordpress
Keeping Out Bad Bots and Scrapers with .htaccess
Bad Bots and Scrapers Waste and Steal
Check Your Server Logs
173.245.50.124 - - [31/Aug/2012:07:11:37 -0500] "POST /wp-cron.php?
doing_wp_cron=1346415097.3102951049804687500000 HTTP/1.1" 200 20 "-"
"WordPress/3.4.1; http://www.TastyPlacement.com"
199.27.128.215 - - [31/Aug/2012:07:11:36 -0500] "GET /services/social-
media-consulting-austin-tx HTTP/1.1" 200 9011 "-" "Mozilla/5.0
(compatible; discoverybot/2.0;
+http://discoveryengine.com/discoverybot.html)"
199.27.128.114 - - [31/Aug/2012:07:15:15 -0500] "GET /wp-
content/uploads/testing-negative-seo-thumbnail.jpg HTTP/1.0" 200 219507
"-" "facebookplatform/1.0 (+http://developers.facebook.com)"
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

20. Epic Wordpress
Keeping Out Bad Bots and Scrapers with .htaccess
Block the Bad Bots With .htaccess File
Google this: “AskApache Blocking Bad Bots”
AskApache Page Has Copy/Paste .htaccess
ErrorDocument 403 /403.html
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# IF THE UA STARTS WITH THESE
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^(black.?hole|blackwidow|discoverybot) [NC,OR]
RewriteRule . - [F,L]
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement

21. Epic Wordpress
Advanced Installation for Maximum Performance
And Now to Mr. Bey
Q&A Follows
michael david | michael@tastyplacement.com | @tastyplacement