SEO tips from Matt Cutts that every blogger should know

Posted on September 6, 2007 at 8:55 am

About three weeks back, Google search engineer Matt Cutts gave a very informative presentation at WordCamp 2007 about what web site owners and bloggers (especially WordPress bloggers) could do to make their sites more SEO-friendly. You can check out the post by Matt here to read more or watch a video of the presentation.

Here are a couple of the basics that I got from the video and written transcription of the talk:

Use plugins like Akismet or Math Comment Spam Protection to protect your blog from spammy links, etc that could hurt you.
Place the Google Analytics code lower in your WordPress template, preferably in the Footer.php section. Moving the script code from the header into the footer will allow your page to load faster. You can put it anywhere in the footer file as long as it’s before the </body> tag.
Replace the default Feedburner Feed with your own custom branded feed hosted off your own domain.
Install an SEO title plug-in that will swap the name of your blog with the post title first. If your blog’s name is still first and then the post title, make sure you install something like Optimal Title immediately.
Install and use WWW Redirect, Permalink Redirect, and Related Posts plugins if you have not already done so. The first plug-in will ensure that typing in your site with the WWW or without it will lead to the same place, whichever you choose. The second ensures that your post URL with or without a trailing slash works correctly. Lastly, Related Posts will include a list of other similar posts at the bottom of each post, thus helping maintain good internal link structure.
If you’re just starting your blog, make sure you don’t put it at the root of the domain. Create a subdirectory called “blog” (not “Wordpress”) and use the root of the domain as an entry point with a link to your blog.
Use keyword tools such as Adwords, Overture, Yahoo, etc to find popular keywords before writing post titles and content. You don’t want to keyword stuff, but you should at least know which keywords are being searched for. Even only slightly different keywords can have very different traffic.
Make sure your categories are also good keywords, don’t just create funky named ones.
Dashes are best for separating keywords in URL paths. Next best is underscores. No spaces will get you in trouble. Luckily, WordPress uses dashes, such as mydomain.com/this-is-a-post.
Do not forget to use ALT tags for images! Even more, use ALT tags for videos, flash animations, or anything else that has the ability to use one.
Make sure your post dates are clearly visible for each post as Google will be looking for that first.
Make sure your web site is viewable on a mobile phone such as the iPhone. If not, make it useable using a plug-in.
Matt recommends full-text RSS feeds for your readers to get a trusted base of loyal readers. Partial feeds get more page views, but you want loyal readers more than page views.
Use the Google Webmaster console to check for problems with your site. You can check your backlinks also easily in case you’re moving to a new domain and need to notify people. Also, you should decide your URL preference or Preferred Domain of WWW or non-WWW here.
Don’t use a sponsored theme as this will hurt you later on in most search engines! Also, no PayPerPost on WordPress since that violates the TOS.
The number of slashes in the URL does not matter to Google, so it’s fine to have mydomain.com/2007/08/13/dir/dir/dir/my-post-is-here. The length is not important to Google.

I’m sure there were more tips, but those were the major highlights of his talk! Definitely, check out the video and make sure to implement as much as you can considering he’s the one who controls the fate of millions of web sites!

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3 Responses to “SEO tips from Matt Cutts that every blogger should know”

bbbOK said on : September 7th, 2007 at 11:38 pm

In the tip saying not to install WP in the root, but to a subdirectory(i.e. /blog), are you speaking of WordPress on WordPress.com, or installing WordPress on an independent host server? Both?

And why; do you know the reason? Thanks,

bbbOK

akishore said on : September 8th, 2007 at 11:13 pm

Hi,

I’m talking about WordPress on an independent host, not on WordPress.com. Actually, on WordPress.com, I don’t even think it’s possible to have your blog in a subdirectory.

The reason it is considered better for the blog to be on a subdirectory is because you will get links to your main page and your blog page, so it’s better for PageRank. Also, if you decide to do more than just blog (like services, etc), you can use your main page for that.

Aseem