LAC 2011-WordPress Advanced

WordPress Optimisation

40 tips, in 40 minutes, and then some questions!

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Section #1: Speed!

Tip Section #1: Speed

Install W3 Total CachePreferrably with APC / Memcached for database caching

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Tip Section #1: Speed02

Combine CSS files into one big CSS file and then minify

Same goes for JavaScript, most of which should be loaded in the footer.

(W3 Total Cache can help with that)

Tip Section #1: Speed03

Kill some plugins...

And try to replace them for custom code or similar ones. Some plugins are god awful.

Tip Section #1: Speed04

Offload as much as you canImages to a CDN

Javascript to a CDN or to Google:http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs/

Tip Section #1: Speed05

Use CSS sprites

have a look at spriteme.org

Tip Section #1: Speed06

Clean up those sidebars.

Do you really need all those badges? Even more important: do your visitors need them?

Tip Section #1: Speed

Still slow? Switch to better hosting.

http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-hosting/

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Section #2: SEO

Tip Section #2: SEO

Set Pretty Permalinks

And yes remove post id, date and other nonsense.

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Tip Section #2: SEO

Cloak your f*ing affiliate links.

09

Tip Section #2: SEO

Give Robots directions

Noindex wp-admin, login and register pages etc.using the WordPress SEO plugin:http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/

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Tip Section #2: SEO

Write better titles

Use WordPress SEO

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Tip Section #2: SEO

Write good meta descriptions

If you don’t, do NOT auto generate them. (Unless of course you’ve got an awesome description template)

12

Tip Section #2: SEO

Create proper pagination

Using wp-pagenavi by Lester Chan, f/i.http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-pagenavi/

13

Tip Section #2: SEO

Disable paged comments

They suck.

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Tip Section #2: SEO

Add value:Use custom taxonomies and

custom post typesCustom Post Type UI

Ultimate Post Type ManagerUltimate Taxonomy Manager

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Section #3: Maintenance

Backup your database every few hours

Using f.i. Lester Chans WP-DBManager pluginor any of the other plugins out there

16 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Add this line to your wp-config:define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);

To auto repair your database when needed

17 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Backup your files every day

Use WordPress Backup:www.blogtrafficexchange.com/wordpress-backup

18 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/

19 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Run Akismet

Kill those spam comments.

20 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Check the referrers for comments

http://tools.davidnaylor.co.uk/

21 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Make sure your scraper scripts don’t get fed spam

22 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Track your uptime

Use Pingdom, or another tool,but be the first to know when your site is down.

23 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Check 404’s

Use the 404 notifier:wordpress.org/extend/plugins/404-notifier/

and fix them using Redirection

24 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

Remove unneccesary meta info

// Remove Really simple discovery linkremove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');// Remove Windows Live Writer linkremove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');// Remove the version numberremove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');

25 Tip Section #3: Maintenance

(or you could just use my WordPress SEO plugin)

Section #4: Social

Allow & encourage people toshare

your content

26 Tip Section #4: Social

Use those Twitter Tweet & Facebook Like buttons

Doing newsletters?

Add a refer a friend button on the thank you page!

27 Tip Section #4: Social

Or... Use my Comment Redirect plugin, and add the refer a friend there!

28 Tip Section #4: Social

Make sure your comments are gravatar enabled.

29 Tip Section #4: Social

Buy me a beer later,Grolsch, or Heineken :)

and yes I know it’s only just noon or so, who cares?

30 Tip Section #4: Social

Section #5: Analytics

Use Google Analytics and my plugin for it

(or if you wear a tinfoil hat or you’re German, use Clicky & my plugin)

32 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Use an RSS footer

(do I need to mention my WordPress SEO plugin again? ;) )

33 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Use RSS link tagging

it’s in my Google Analytics plugin or userebelic.nl/rsslinktagger

(getclicky will understand GA Campaign tagging too)

33 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Track traffic coming from Twitter:yoast.com/twitter-analytics/

34 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Use hash tag based campaign tracking:#utm_campaign etc.

35 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Use comment redirect to track first time commenters

36 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Track comments as a goal!

37 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Use an onclick javascript with a minor delay.

Track RSS subscribers the same way

38 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Start optimizing:which traffic leads to more subscribers / proper click outs?

39 Tip Section #5: Analytics

And yes that means forgetting about Digg.

Use my blog metrics plugin

40 Tip Section #5: Analytics

Improve yourself each month!

Conference / Party in Amsterdam10 speakers15 attendees

http://seoroyale.com/

Speakers include:

Bob RainsMarcus TandlerFrank WatsonDennis Goedegebuure (Direct of SEO @ eBay)

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Feedback? Questions? Need help?

Email: joost@yoast.comTwitter: @yoast