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We were asked by a client to give them a guideline of what we would recommend they do to set up a WordPress site and have it tweaked for SEO(Search Engine Optimization) and Social media optimization(SMO).

You can Download the updated PDF of our WordPress SEO Guidelines at the bottom of this post.

Blog Set-Up – SEO Best Practices

Use Word Press

  1. Use the latest version of WP
  2. Settings –
    1. Reading

i.      Front page displays latest post

ii.      Blog pages show at most – 7 posts

iii.      Show full post

  1. Discussions

i.      (if comments are on) – Comment author must fill out name and e-mail

ii.      Automatically close comments on articles older than 30 days

iii.      Before a comment appears – An administrator must always approve the comment

  1. Privacy –

i.      I would like my site to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Bing, Technorati).

  1. Permalink

i.      Set to day and name – i.e. http://sampleblog.com/2012/12/21/sample-post/

  1. Plugins –  Once you have these pluggins added once, go into the pluggins folder on your cpanel and copy it and just replace the new pluggin folder with this new folder next time you do an install. (if doing multiple WordPress sites)
    1. Askimet – or another Spam filter
    2. All in One SEO Pack or WordPress SEO by Yoast (I prefer Yoast)
    3. Canonical URL’s(yoast has it)
    4. Contact Form 7
    5. Facebook Fanbox (for the branded blogs)
    6. Google Analytics
    7. Webmaster Tools
    8. Google Author Link
    9. Google XML Sitemaps
    10. Social Graph Protocol
    11. Twitter Facebook Social Share
    12. Widgets(sidebars)
      1. RSS
      2. Tag cloud
      3. Categories
      4. Calendar
      5. Archives
      6. Social Media Icons/badges and pluggins
      7. Twitter Feed Pluggin
      8. Facebook Fans pluggin

       

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