1. WordPress
Optimisation
40 tips, in 40 minutes, and then
some questions!

3. Open Source

4. Open Source
Apple

5. Open Source
Apple
CSS

6. Open Source
Apple
CSS
SEO

7. Open Source
Apple
Geek
CSS
SEO

8. Open Source Theology
Apple
Geek
CSS
SEO

9. Open Source Theology
IBMS
Apple
Geek
CSS
SEO

10. Open Source Theology
IBMS
Apple
Geek
CSS
SEO Blogger

11. Open Source Theology
IBMS
Apple
Geek
CSS
SEO Speaker Blogger

12. Open Source Theology
IBMS
Apple
Geek Marketeer
CSS
SEO Speaker Blogger

13. Open Source Theology
IBMS
Apple
Geek Marketeer
CSS
SEO Speaker Blogger

14. Open Source Theology
IBMS
Apple
Geek Marketeer
CSS
SEO Speaker Blogger

15. Open Source Theology
IBMS
Apple
Geek Marketeer
CSS
SEO Speaker Blogger
Online marketeer

17. Yoast.com

18. Section #1: Speed!

19. 01 Tip Section #1: Speed
Install WP Super Cache
With GZIP enabled!

20. 02 Tip Section #1: Speed
Move .htaccess directives to your
server config (if possible)
And disable .htaccess parsing.

21. 03 Tip Section #1: Speed
Combine CSS files into one
big CSS file
Same goes for JavaScript,
which should be loaded in the footer.

22. 04 Tip Section #1: Speed
Use CSS sprites
Ask your developer if you don’t know
what this is.

23. 05 Tip Section #1: Speed
Add a PHP opcode cache
Pick one, all are better than having none.

24. 06 Tip Section #1: Speed
Kill some plugins...
And try to replace them for similar ones.
Some plugins are god awful.

25. 07 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)

26. Section #2: SEO

27. 08 Tip Section #2: SEO
Set Pretty Permalinks
Why do people still forget this?

28. 09 Tip Section #2: SEO
Switch Blog name and Post Title
The format should be:
post title - blog name

29. 10 Tip Section #2: SEO
Give Robots directions
Noindex wp-admin, login and register pages etc.

30. 11 Tip Section #2: SEO
Write better titles
Use HeadSpace2, or even All in one SEO.

31. 12 Tip Section #2: SEO
Write good meta descriptions
If you don’t, do NOT auto generate them.

32. 13 Tip Section #2: SEO
Create proper pagination
Using wp-pagenavi by Lester Chan, f/i.

33. 14 Tip Section #2: SEO
Disable paged comments
They suck.

34. 15 Tip Section #2: SEO
Read & Implement everything in my
WordPress SEO guide
http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/

35. Section #3: Maintenance

36. 16 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Backup your database
every few hours
Use Lester Chans WP-DBManager plugin

37. 17 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Optimize your database every day
Using the same WP-DBManager plugin

38. 18 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Backup your files every day
Use WordPress Backup:
www.blogtrafficexchange.com/wordpress-backup

39. 19 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/

40. 20 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Run Akismet
Kill those spam comments.

41. 21 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Check the referrers for comments
http://tools.davidnaylor.co.uk/

42. 22 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Remove those nonsense widgets
Technorati rank? Wel.... OK
Blog value: nonsense.

43. 23 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Track your uptime
Use Pingdom, or another tool,
but be the first to know when your blog is down.

44. 24 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Check 404’s
Use the 404 notifier:
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/404-notifier/
and fix them using Redirection

45. 25 Tip Section #3: Maintenance
Remove unneccesary meta info
// Remove Really simple discovery link
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');
// Remove Windows Live Writer link
remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
// Remove the version number
remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

46. Section #4: Social

47. 26 Tip Section #4: Social
Allow & encourage people to
submit
your content
Use Sociable, damn it :)

48. 27 Tip Section #4: Social
Doing newsletters?
Add a refer a friend button on the
thank you page!

49. 28 Tip Section #4: Social
Or... Use my Comment Redirect
plugin, and add the
refer a friend there!

50. 29 Tip Section #4: Social
Use WP Greet Box,
even useful on “normal” sites.

51. 30 Tip Section #4: Social
Make sure your comments
are gravatar enabled.

52. 31 Tip Section #4: Social
Do the Twitter thing.
It’s an absurd traffic driver.

53. Section #5: Analytics

54. 32 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Use Google Analytics
(and my plugin for it)

55. 33 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Use RSS link tagger
rebelic.nl/rsslinktagger

56. 34 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Track traffic coming from Twitter:
yoast.com/twitter-analytics/

57. 35 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Install canonical URL’s so your
Analytics doesn’t
interfere with your SEO

58. 36 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Use comment redirect to track first
time commenters

59. 37 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Track comments as a goal!
Use an onclick javascript with a minor delay.

60. 38 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Track RSS subscribers
the same way

61. 39 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Start optimizing:
which traffic leads to
more subscribers?
And yes that means forgetting about Digg.

62. 40 Tip Section #5: Analytics
Use my blog metrics plugin
Improve yourself each month!

63. 41 Tip Section #6: Shameless plug
Bonus tip #41:
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