Tips to SEO your WordPress blog

Out of the box, WordPress is pretty decent for SEO. But there’s so much more you can do to get the advantage.

Template Tips:

• Find templates that put the sidebar code after the content code. Look at the source code of your template. You want as little code as possible between the bots and the content. Is the code for the stuff in your sidebars (categories, blogroll, etc.) before or after the content of the top article? You want it to come after. If your template doesn’t do this, find another one. (It doesn’t matter where the sidebars are located on the page visually - you can have three of them on the left, and still have them loading AFTER the content.)
• Does your source code have a lot of java above the content? I know there are ways to get the java to load separately, but I haven’t figured them out and no one seems to be publishing their methods. So for now, consider very carefully which java-loading plugins are worth taking up that space. Also, some fancy template designers load a bunch of java effects into their templates. You want to avoid this stuff, generally. (It can be done right, but I wouldn’t expect that from free template designers.)

Plugin Tips

• Permalink Redirect - I installed this on several blogs and watched Google index a slew of new pages within days. It kills the possibility of Google finding two versions of the same page, differentiated only by the slash at the end being there or not, which helps with dupe content. Also has some other effects I haven’t played with but are probably valuable.
• Rewrite Titles - Puts your blog’s name at the end of the article title instead of the other way around. Makes your indexed pages in Google look more distinct.
• Custom Query String - lets you set different values for how many excerpts you want to show up on various types of pages (archives, search results, etc.). This way you can have your front page show, say, 4 full articles while your archive pages show excerpts from 10 or 15.

Other:

• Do make your archives show excerpts only. Some people think even the front page should have excerpts only, so that’s something to consider, too. But definitely make your archives excerpt only. And your search results and so on.
• Include a sitemap for visitors (I use Dagon’s plugin to make mine) and another one for bots. I’m honestly not convinced Google’s sitemap plugin makes a big difference, but I don’t see how it can hurt, either.