Branding YOU Better! – Susan Newman Lerer

I have been designing custom WordPress themes for a while now and it has become the platform website/blog of choice with business people all over. I tutor my clients once I’ve built their website and explain the platform to get them going.

It has come to my attention that there are many people out there who have technical issues or are confused about some of the functionality, so I’ve built a top ten WordPress tips list. If you have other questions about issues I haven’t covered or need help just give me a call.

Pictured above are 4 really different custom blog themes, Webbanovella, Sara Goldstein, Homestead Gluten Free and Frogs Are Green.

Let’s Talk WordPress Functionality & SEO Performance

Tip #1: Titles to posts or pages that are SEO friendly. Many times bloggers will just name their post or page something generic, like, Frogs and Toads. It’s too generic and doesn’t help Google sort the post properly. Now if the title had been “Frogs and Toads Across Texas” this would be better.

Tip #2: Photographs within posts/pages. You must name your photos properly or use “Alt Text” for the photos. Do not name your photos with empty spaces between the words. Ex: “Frogs in New Jersey.jpg.” The web does not understand an empty space and will put a %20 everywhere where there is an empty space, so your photo name would be “Frogs%20in%20New%20Jersey.jpg.” (This applies to page titles as well on manually built websites in html.)

Tip #3: Do not copy and paste text from somewhere else without editing it first, or it brings with it all sorts of foreign tags. Use a text editor to remove unwanted code, or use the icon within WordPress for pasting from “Microsoft Word” which will help remove unwanted code.

Tip #4: Embedding keywords and adding selective keywords/phrases. Keywords should be embedded within your page’s content as well as added to the keyword area. The search engines read your content and give weight to certain words and phrases, and the more of these they find the better you place. How to find the best keywords? I suggest loading Google Analytics code into your site and then tracking the keywords used to find you. Google also offers a free keyword search tool with Adwords.

Tip #5: Install an SEO Plugin. There is a great plugin you can install to your WordPress blog called the “All in One SEO Pack.” With this plugin, you can add keywords, descriptions, page titles and more.

Tip #6: Keep your first opening page to under 3 recent posts. If you check your Google Analytics regularly, you’ll never know which posts visitors are reading if they’re only on your first opening page. This will also make your bounce rate go up because people will read and never need to click anywhere else before leaving. If you have a sidebar and have recent posts and categories listed, then visitors can move around and you will be able to track with greater detail which posts are read more than others, so you know more about what your readers are looking for.

Tip #7: What to do about switching from html to visual viewing. I know that when you’re writing in either of these modes, it may change a bit if you’re going back and forth between these two modes. I suggest saving your draft as you go along, and write the whole post in one of these two, try not to keep switching back and forth. You can also write up your post in “Word” and once finished, paste into WordPress but use the “W” (paste text) icon so it comes in cleanly.

Tip #8: Remember that WordPress can be used for a static site as well as a blog. Many of the websites I’ve built are using WordPress’s CMS, so they can update or edit their pages and they aren’t blogging at all. We just develop the pages section instead. There are also sites that have both and this way the site and the blog are one, at the same address, using the same design. This is a wonderful and cost effective way to build a new site. You can even install a shopping cart such as Woo Commerce and have an online store.

Tip #9: If you want something different, don’t just buy a ready-made theme, ask a designer to create something custom for you. A designer can also start with a ready-made theme and customize it by styling the fonts, text sizes, color palette, imagery, logos and more! The cost will always vary depending on the scope of the project and your site will look professional as well as original!

Tip #10: Your voice/content should stay the course. If you have built a niche for yourself, make sure that your posts stay on topic. Sometimes bloggers move off topic and you can lose readers if you stray to far. They’re reading because they like what you’re saying, so keep giving them more of what they ask for. Make sure your keywords added to a post help describe the post and what might draw readers.

Bonus #11: Be sure to adjust the settings (under appearance) for the number of posts read; that an administrator must approve a comment; and the naming of your posts for titles and are not page numbers.

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