DigitalFanGirl

To read/view the entire liveblogging stream from #wordcampmidatl, look in the above coveritlive box. Below are a few summaries from the Thesis Theme Customization Hack session and Wordpress SEO session and some videos.

• Thesis is a simple hook system that is essentially an API
• there are a ton of avalable thesis hooks #wordcampmidatl (now up to 48 total)
• Brad says the multimedia box is one of the coolest features. He is explaning how to customize it
• Thesis Resources (just a few)
  http://diythemes.com/thesis
  http://thesisthemehq.com
  http://thesisgallery.com
  Brad will provide Wordcamp w/ the entire presentation for wordcamp attendees to download.
  
• led by Brad Williams of WebDev Studios
  twitter.com/williamsba
  blog: www.strangework.com
  brad@webdevstudios.com
• They’re talking about the Open Hook plugin now.
• Thesis OpenHook will allow you to fully customize your Thesis installation without touching your custom/custom_functions.php file unless you just really want to!
• More information about Open Hook at http://rickbeckman.org/thesis-openhook/
• Thesis does work with Wordpress MU. Exps www.thesisterproject.com and www.awaytogarden.com
  

WordPress SEO

• SEO is not linear
• SEO Ranking Factors: keywords, technology, content, off-site promotion
• Should use Google Adwords Keyword tool before you write a blog post.
• U want 2 make it as easy as possible for spiders to crawl your blog.
• Technical SEO:Make sure code validates,things load fast, proper redirects, no broken links, 404 pgs checked
• Sitemaps are very important. it makes engines aware of all the pages on your site.
• DON’T BLOCK THE SPIDERS from crawling your site
• On-site/On-page:optimize all pgs,META tags,etc./keyword rich urls, review semantic structure on pg template
• Update content &pgs based on engine updates and changes.
• Off-site/Link development:get links from relevant authorities sites,make sure links have right anchor text
• ensure links get authority to your site,internal links spread them
• Don’t use generic text like ‘click here’, ‘view more’, etc
• Starter SEO tips:
  1. use your own domain name
  2. enable friendly urls
  3. redirect domain.com to www.domain.com and use www.domain.com in settings
  4. use robots.txt
  5. use a personal favicon
  6. create xml site maps (plugin), update it monthly
  7. add site to Google Webmaster Tools
  8. Domain vs sub-domain (sub-domains can be treated as separate domains)
  9. update your tag line and incloude your most important keyword

• Difference between Google Analytics and Google Webmasters. Analytics just allows you to see the “people” who have visited your site where Google Webmaster shows you what the spiders see. Very powerful stuff.
  
• Title Tag SEO Tips:
  1. place a blog name at the end of the title, NTO at the beginning
  2. customize w/additional keywords for display only on your homepage
  3. override title tags w/custom one (“SEO title tag” plugin)
  4. place important keywords in the beginning
  5. Don’t exceed 60 character

• URLs
  1. rewrite to contain keywords, hyphens not underscores
  2. 301 redirect from yourblog.com to www.yourblog.com
  3. maintain legacy URLs even after swithcing blog platforms

  [There are certain plugins that keep track of the history of your blog post urls]

• Internal Linking Architecture
  1. pages/tags/categories (don’t overlap names on these three parts)
  2. tag clouds & tag pages (check out UltimateTagWarrior plugin)
  3. related posts (check out Contextual Related Posts plugin)
  4. Top 10 posts (search a plugin that shows this)
  5. Next & previous posts
  6. Add Technorati tags to your posts (must claim your blog first)
  7. get onto bloggers’ blogrolls

• Internal Linking Architecture
  Tags:
  1. consistent
  2. lower case
  3. plural (ie iphones over iphone, but do a keyword search to see which is more popular-Sri recommends always using plural for ranking purposes)
  4. names, events, organizations, subjects and locations
  5. don’t use tags similar to your categories

• Optimze Your blog
  “sticky” posts
  • always appear at the top of the page
  • a way to add a keyword-rich inro copy to a category page or tag page
  • e.g. adhesive plugin
  • ping your blog (Sri uses Pingomatic)
  • don’t use permlink as a text link, use the actual title

• Summary
  
  • keyword research
  • select 1 primary keyword and 2-4 secodnary keywords
  • place your primary keyword early in your headline
  • use keywords early in your copy and throughout the post
  • use keyword alternatives and varinat formats (change word order, use long.short forms, use plural/singular, use semantic relevant keywords)
  • your posts should be 250 words at least
  • always include an image (image should include a keyword)
  • use bolded sub headline
  • use lists and indented quotes
  • use internal links
  • multi-media content: images (flickr, etc)

• Feeds
  • Feedburner
  • partial text feeds vs full text feeds (Sri prefers full texts)
  • number of items in feed (10 or more) (Sri prefers 20)
  • propogate deep links thagt drive traffic and “search engine juice”
  • allow separate feeds for each category (very important)

• Plugins
  • Google sitemap generator
  • related posts
  • customize the feed
  • handle 301s
  • manage META data
  • social bookmarking & create tag clouds
  • retweet this
  • internal links
  • SEO title tag

• More plugins: CAVEAT-don’t just keep adding plugins; choose them wisely
  • all in one SEO pack
  • paginated comments
  • Wp-PageNavi2.31
  • WWW redirect

• Tools
  • RSS feed footer http://yoast.com/wordpress/rss-footer.com
  • Pingomatic
  • 55 RSS directories
  • Twitterfeed.com
    

• FINAL THOUGHTS
  Keep the MOJO Going
  • engage with your users
  • reply to comments

  SEO is a process not a one time event
  Practice and patience are the key
  Do it often and keep up wih the engines

  Great SEO Resources:

  www.searchengineland.com
  www.seomoz.org
  www.seoroundtable.com

  Contacts:
  twitter/john_shehata
  twitter/srinagubandi

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic – Art Can Save the World Ignite Baltimore 5min Presentation from DigitalFanGirl on Vimeo.

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic – Twitter, Friendfeed and Social Tools session from DigitalFanGirl on Vimeo.

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic State of the Word Presentation from DigitalFanGirl on Vimeo.