I’ve had all my WordPress pages displaying full posts for a while now, and it’s pointless.  When you go through a category or your search results, or an archive, you don’t want to see the whole post.  The point is to scan.
Developed Traffic has the answer.   I’m going to break it down into even [...]

I’ve had all my WordPress pages displaying full posts for a while now, and it’s pointless.  When you go through a category or your search results, or an archive, you don’t want to see the whole post.  The point is to scan.

Developed Traffic has the answer.   I’m going to break it down into even smaller steps.

• If your theme does not include an “archive.php” file, make one.  Copy it from your index.php file.
• Find
  • <?php the_content() ?>
  • and replace it with with
  • <?php the_excerpt(); ?>
• You should also make an identical “search.php” file.  At this point, only your excerpts are showing when people look at categories, archives or search results.  The only thing that sucks is that each page shows the same number of excerpts as your blog is set to show full posts.
• Get the Custom Query String plugin. Follow their directions to install, activate and go to the options screen.
• Use the query drop down box to select “is_archive”.  Put a number in the “Show posts” box – I’d suggest 10 or 15 (see how it looks with your sidebar).  Click the Add button.  Yes, there are other options here to play with – try them out and see what happens.
• Now do that last step again for: is_category, is_date, is_month, is_year and is_search.  And if you have multiple authors, you may want to do is_author, too.

Now you have great archives, categories and search results that are easy to scan.

If you use widgets for your sidebar in WordPress and want a drop-down category list, a search for dropdown category plugins may only lead you to a bunch that don’t work exactly like you want.
But here’s one that’s quietly masquerading as a minor improvement over the built-in category widget – but it allows drop down [...]

If you use widgets for your sidebar in WordPress and want a drop-down category list, a search for dropdown category plugins may only lead you to a bunch that don’t work exactly like you want.

But here’s one that’s quietly masquerading as a minor improvement over the built-in category widget – but it allows drop down functionality with a click of a button and preserves the hierarchy and all that good stuff.  Definitely worth looking at as a dropdown category plugin.

I never noticed this, but if you type into your browser window
http://mydomain.com/postname/
and
http://mydomain.com/postname
they open up like two different pages.  The only difference is the trailing slash, but because WordPress doesn’t distinguish between them, it’ll open them either way.  This means, to a search engine bot, you have two identical pages.  The phrase “duplicate content” comes to [...]

I never noticed this, but if you type into your browser window

http://mydomain.com/postname/

and

http://mydomain.com/postname

they open up like two different pages.  The only difference is the trailing slash, but because WordPress doesn’t distinguish between them, it’ll open them either way.  This means, to a search engine bot, you have two identical pages.  The phrase “duplicate content” comes to mind.

Simple solution: Permalink Redirect is a plugin that you install (one file) and activate, and boom, the slash will be added whether or not people type it in (or find it that way in a link from elsewhere).

Aaron Wall posted some ways to “accidentally on purpose” start a controversy on your blog.  Why?  Controversy brings traffic, but maybe you don’t want to be blamed for it.
Um… I know that sounds like a good idea, but I’ve done his first tip accidentally not on purpose more than once: leave something out so your [...]

Aaron Wall posted some ways to “accidentally on purpose” start a controversy on your blog.  Why?  Controversy brings traffic, but maybe you don’t want to be blamed for it.

Um… I know that sounds like a good idea, but I’ve done his first tip accidentally not on purpose more than once: leave something out so your post can be taken the wrong way.  This leads to traffic, yes.  It also leads to trolls.  It can even lead to those lovely folks who enjoy doing DDOS attacks, hacking your site, etc.  I’ve seen this stuff happen to sites, and it’s not pretty.  Once you become a target, it doesn’t stop.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be that bad, I guess.  I’m sure there’s probably a “right” way to do it.  I just don’t feel like going through the trial and error to find it.

Google loves your site.  It’s indexed 8 billion pages and they’re all #1.  And then suddenly, they’re not.  What do you do?  Try every method of SEO you’ve heard of to bring it back?  Throw off your white had in a tizzy and start spamming?  Or just hang in there and wait for the algorithms [...]

Google loves your site.  It’s indexed 8 billion pages and they’re all #1.  And then suddenly, they’re not.  What do you do?  Try every method of SEO you’ve heard of to bring it back?  Throw off your white had in a tizzy and start spamming?  Or just hang in there and wait for the algorithms to change again?

The “right” answer varies from one site to the next.  You can’t always be sure what Google’s objecting to.  Making changes could even make things worse.

Before you try anything drastic, there’s a thread at Webmaster World on what to do when you take a Google nosedive.  A lot of visitors have listed their own methods – what worked, what didn’t work.  Not only will it give you some good ideas for the nosedive situation… there are some damn good linkbuilding suggestions for anytime in there.

Now, this could be awesome. Amazon is beta testing context links.
Want to see some examples? MuppetCentral.com (single underline links are Context Links)
Thought Garage (double underline links are Context Links)
What I like best about it is that the popup is really fast-loading and smooth.  It doesn’t hold your browser prisoner for a few seconds while it [...]

Now, this could be awesome. Amazon is beta testing context links.

Want to see some examples? MuppetCentral.com (single underline links are Context Links)
Thought Garage (double underline links are Context Links)

What I like best about it is that the popup is really fast-loading and smooth.  It doesn’t hold your browser prisoner for a few seconds while it loads, and when you move your cursor away from the link, the box disappears instantly.  It wouldn’t annoy me as a reader, which means I don’t mind putting it on my sites for my visitors.