Question: I want to ask you how to display post by categories? For example in your blog, when I click a category in your blog, example I click ‘Affiliate Marketing’ then it will display all post connected with affiliate marketing. How do I do that?
Whenever I create a new blog post I always assign categories to each post. For example, for this post I’ll use the following categories.
Categories
Blogging
Wordpress
It’s simple to do in Wordpress, just look on the page when you write a post, below the space where you put your post copy in. Look for categories, and simply create a new one, or use an existing one you’ve used before.
This is great, to your point, because now someone can come to this blog and click on “blogging” as a category and see every post Ask the Blogger has ever done with that category selected. Tagging is similar to this.
Question: A client would like to integrate a blog into its site in which an expert would write about relevant topics to this particular industry. The client’s site developer doesn’t have database servers that support Movable Type. Is there a basic blogging tool that you recommend for a professional site that would work on what seems to be outdated equipment?
If you cannot make a database on your server, then you’re not going to be able to use blogging software like Movable Type or Wordpress.org.
Instead, what you should be doing is…
A. Get the blog hosted on new server. The problem with that is you cannot integrate the blog directly into your clients domain name. (xyz.com/blog)
B. Get a “hosted” blog at someplace like Wordpress.com. Again, you can’t directly integrate your blog on your domain. You can, however, link to it off of your domain in a forward.
C. Get a new webhost. If your host can’t make a simple database, then well, it’s time to find a new one, seriously. :)
Question: We all know that WordPress isn’t really SE friendly because of the duplicate content it produces in other categories, monthly archive, etc… and many found ways to solve this problem. Just wanna ask your opinion. What is the “best” way to optimize a WP blog?
First off, let me comment on your first statement, as it’s important for me to clarify my position on this. You said…
We all know that WordPress isn’t really SE friendly because of the duplicate content it produces in other categories, monthly archive, etc…
I very much disagree with your assessment that Wordpress is search engine unfriendly because of duplicate content. I have seen zero proof to show me that that is true. It is simply not true, and concentrating your time worrying about it is a complete waste of time.
I should make this perfectly clear. Going to put this in bold and all caps because I want everyone to understand something very, very important.
GOOGLE WANTS HIGH-QUALITY, RELEVANT CONTENT, PERIOD. IF YOU SPEND TIME DOING ANYTHING BUT WRITING GOOD CONTENT, THEN YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO RANK WELL LONG-TERM.
Now, back to your original question, in case everyone forgot :) You asked…
What is the “best” way to optimize a WP blog?
I do recognize that there are small things you can do to optimize your blog for the search engines (and more importantly, your readers), perhaps, but again, those pale in comparison to writing good content. That being said, here are some optimization tips that I have heard of that you could do.
Write better headlines. It’s very simple. Write titles that have searched for keywords and phrases in them. Write them in a way that someone might search for them. See my title on this blog entry?
Make sure your title tag has your title (headline) first before your blog name. You’ll need to edit your blog template to make sure that is happening. This is VERY important.
Tag your posts. Blog search engines like Technorati use tags to organize blog content. You should too.
Question: How do you put Google AdSense ads in the middle of your blog post? I know how to add it to the top or bottom within the post but not sure how you put it in the middle of your posts. Thanks for the info.
Great question, and actually, the answer is much more simple than you imagine. In my experience, you can do it two ways.
The first way is to simply just do it manually. That’s how I do it here at AsktheBlogger.com. See the Adsense block above, just below the question? I manually placed it in using a simple cut and paste. The problem with that method is I have to keep a copy of my Adsense code handy for every post, and it’s unnecessary really.
The right way to do it is to use a Wordpress Adsense plugin. This one called the AdSense-Deluxe WordPress Plugin is great because it uses both Google Adsense & Yahoo! Publisher ads, your choice.
AdSense-Deluxe is an easy-to-use plugin for WordPress 1.5+ (including WP 2.0) for quickly inserting Google or Yahoo! ads into your blog posts, and managing when and where those ads are displayed.
What if I don’t use Wordpress?
Well, then I’m afraid you’re probably stuck manually pasting your code in the blog entry, or finding out from your blogging platform if they have some type of plugin you can use.
I want to get better search engine rankings. How do I change my Wordpress permalink structure without breaking my old blog links?
When you install Wordpress fresh, it sets your permalink structure to something like this:
» http://www.domainname.com/?p=123
That’s fine, it doesn’t hurt you. The problem is that you may want to later change your permalink structure to something that has your post title keywords in it for possible improved search engine rankings. For example, like this post.
So if you make that change, you risk losing all of your old search engine indexed pages, and possibly all of the bookmarks that people have accumulated to you over time.
So How Do I Change It Without Breaking My Links?
There’s a plugin that can help you called ‘Permalinks Migration Plugin for wordpress’.
With this plugin, you can safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website,and even doesn’t affect your search engine rankings.
How Does It Work?
Here’s the technical details on how it works. I realize it can be confusing, but you should know how it works.
There is a way to tell the search engines (and browsers) that the page has permenantly moved, and that the old address should be replaced by the new one . It’s called a “301 Redirectâ€, also known as a Permanent Redirect.When you do this, Search engines will update their indexes quickly and you won’t lose your pagerank.you will continue to receive traffic as though nothing had changed. This works for search engines, bookmarks, and links from other sites.
Where Do I Get Started?
Simply download the plugin here and follow the directions. Good luck!
Bonus! AsktheBlogger Video On Wordpress Permalinks
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