Wordpress is the greatest blogging software ever created, however there are a few issues with a standard Wordpress install aren’t exactly the most SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly if you’re running Wordpress straight “out of the box”. Particularly the way Wordpress handles page titles for individual post pages. Below is an example of a standard Wordpress installs handling of the html “title” tag. As is common knowledge in the SEO community, beside your domain name, the actual title that appears in the titlebar of the browser is one of the most essential aspects for ranking your posts high in the search engines, especially true with Google who has recently started bumping new articles up in the rankings and gradually fading them as the article becomes less relevant. If you’re a blogger like me, most of my articles are not particualrly time sensitive, so it is essential to have an effective title for each individual post that will sustain higher rankings over along period of time.
To begin with, choosing a short, yet descriptive title is imperative to gaining high rankings for your targeted keyowrds. Stuffing your html title is a definite mistake because in many an SEO’s experience, Google has a knack for singling out the keywords you’re not particularly trying to get ranked for. The old adage K.I.S.S (Keep it Simple Stupid) absolutely applies to standard webpages but it the single most important trick you can use to get your posts ranked high and keep them there as long as your article’s content is relative to your title.
Below is an example of the standard Wordpress install’s code to generate your blog titles :
|
<title><?php bloginfo('name'); ?> <?php if ( is_single() ) { ?> » Blog Archive <?php } ?> <?php wp_title(); ?></title>
|
With this standard code your individual blog post pages will have a very ugly and SEO unfriendly title as shown below…
A much better title for your individual posts would look like this…
To accomplish this, all you have to do is replace the standard code shown above with this much more SEO friendly code:
</p>
<table width="580" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" style="border:#444444 1px solid;">
<tr>
<td>
<title><br />
<?php if ( is_single() ) {<br />
wp_title('', true);<br />
}else{<br />
bloginfo('name');<br />
wp_title();<br />
}?><br />
</title>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Depending on what theme you’re using, the file to edit will be in your /wp-content/themes/yourtheme directory and if there isn’t a file named header.php (which is the usual edit spot), you will be editing the file index.php.</p>
<p>Happy <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Wordpress+Hack" style="font-weight: normal; color:#000000; text-decoration: none" rel="tag">Wordpress Hack</a>ing</p>
<br /><br /><div class="my_feed">Like this post?
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/AffiliateBestPrograms" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">
Subscribe to AffiliateBestPrograms RSS feed</a> and never miss a post !! </div><br /><br />
<div class="comments"><div style="float:right;"><span id="wp-notable-line" class="wp-notable-line"><span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-delicious" ><a href="http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&title=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="del.icio.us:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/delicious.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="del.icio.us:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-newsvine" ><a href="http://www.newsvine.com/_tools/seed&save?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&h=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="newsvine:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/newsvine.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="newsvine:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-furl" ><a href="http://www.furl.net/storeIt.jsp?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&t=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="furl:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/furl.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="furl:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-reddit" ><a href="http://reddit.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&title=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="reddit:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/reddit.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="reddit:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-blogmarks" ><a href="http://blogmarks.net/my/new.php?mini=1&simple=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&title=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="blogmarks:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/blogmarks.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="blogmarks:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-yahoo" ><a href="http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/bookmarklet?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&t=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="Y!:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/yahoo.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="Y!:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-smarking" ><a href="http://smarking.com/editbookmark/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F" title="smarking:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/smarking.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="smarking:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-magnolia" ><a href="http://ma.gnolia.com/bookmarklet/add?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&title=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="magnolia:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/magnolia.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="magnolia:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-segnalo" ><a href="http://segnalo.com/post.html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&title=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="segnalo:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/segnalo.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="segnalo:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span > <span class="wp-notable" id="wp-notable-gifttagging" ><a href="http://www.gifttagging.com/gift/add?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.affiliatebestprograms.com%2Fwordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles%2F&title=Wordpress+Hack+%3A+SEO+Friendly+Titles" title="gifttagging:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" rel="nofollow"><img src="/wp-content/plugins/blogbling/images/gifttagging.png" border="0" class="wp-notable_image" alt="gifttagging:Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles" /></a></span ></span></div><div style="float:left;"> <a href="http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/wordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles/" class="Permalink" title="Permalink to Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles">Permalink</a><br />
<br /></div></div>
<!-- You can start editing here. -->
<br /><br />
<!--<div style="width:500px;">
<a href="http://www.pntrac.com/t/QkhGQEdIQj5HR0g_RUY" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.pntrac.com/b/QkhGQEdIQj5HR0g_RUY" border="0" width="120" height="60" title="$100 In Free Links From Text Link Ads!" alt="$100 In Free Links From Text Link Ads!" /></a>
</div>-->
<br /><br />
<h3 class="reply">One Response to 'Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles'</h3>
<p class="comment_meta">Subscribe to comments with <a href='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/wordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles/feed/'><abbr title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</abbr></a>
or <a href="http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/wordpress-hack-seo-friendly-titles/trackback/" rel="trackback">TrackBack</a> to 'Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles'.
</p>
<ol class="commentlist">
<li class="alt" id="comment-1947">
<div class="commentname">
<a href='http://news.go4match.de/?p=9687'>Wordpress Hack : SEO Friendly Titles</a> on
October 7th, 2007 </div>
<div class='commenttext'>
<div class="commentp">
<p>[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWordpress is the greatest blogging software ever created, however there are a few issues with a standard Wordpress install aren’t exactly the most SEO (Search Engine Optimization) friendly if you’re running Wordpress straight “out of … […]</p>
</div>
</div>
</li>
</ol>
<div style="padding-left:10px;">
<h3 class="reply">Leave a Reply</h3>
<br />
<form action="http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/wp-comments-post.php" method="post" id="commentform">
<div class="postinput" style="margin-left:10px;">
<p><input class="cauthor" type="text" name="author" id="author" value="" tabindex="1" />
<label for="author"><small>Name (required)</small></label></p>
<p><input class="cemail" type="text" name="email" id="email" value="" tabindex="2" />
<label for="email"><small>Mail (will not be published) (required)</small></label></p>
<p><input class="curl" type="text" name="url" id="url" value="" tabindex="3" />
<label for="url"><small>Website</small></label></p>
<!--<p><small><strong>XHTML:</strong> You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> </small></p>-->
<p><textarea class="ctextarea" name="comment" id="comment" cols="90" rows="10" tabindex="4"></textarea></p>
<br />
<div id="comment_notice">
This is a dofollow blog, however, if you wish to have your comment approved, please use a human name and
not something like "free hosting" or "adsense help" in the name field. I will no longer approve comments
that are made solely for the purpose of building backlinks at my expense. ~Thanks Dave.
</div>
<br />
<p><input name="submit" type="submit" id="submit" tabindex="5" value="Submit Comment" title="Please review your comment before submitting" />
<input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="82" />
</p>
<p style="" class="subscribe-to-comments">
<input type="checkbox" name="subscribe" id="subscribe" value="subscribe" style="width: auto;" />
<label for="subscribe">Notify me of followup comments via e-mail</label>
</p>
</div>
</form>
<br />
<br />
<div style="padding:10px; width:90%; margin:0px auto 0px; border:#000000 1px solid;">
<p><a href="/out/?at=SuperAffiliate"><img border="0" hspace="15" width="121" alt="SuperAffiliateHandbook" src="http://www.superaffiliatehandbook.com/images/SuperAffiliate4_3.gif" height="175" align="left"/></a><font face="verdana" color="black"><font color="red">Read the <b>amazing <font size="+1">true</font> story</b></font> of how one woman, with <font color="navy" size="+1"><b>no previous business experience</b></font>, <b>earned <font size="+1">$436,797+</font> in 2002 </b> and now earns <b>MUCH MORE</b> than that ... just by selling other people's stuff online! </font></p>
<p>In her down-to-earth, sincere and often humorous style, Rosalind Gardner guides you through the entire process of building an affiliate marketing business on the 'Net. </p>
<p>Frequently revised and updated to reflect industry changes, the Super Affiliate Handbook now consists of <b>236</b> pages and <b>124 screenshots</b> that will show you step-by-step how to become a Super Affiliate. You'll learn how to pick the <b>best affiliate programs</b>, negotiate a commission raise and <b>save time, money and effort</b> on everything from affiliate software to web hosting. </p>
<p> <b>To learn <font color="red">exactly</font> how she does it</b>, <a href="/out/?at=SuperAffiliate"><b>Click Here</b></a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br /><br />
</div>
</div>
<br />
<span style="margin-left:16px;"></span>
</div>
<br />
<div id="botbar">
<form action="http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com" method="get" style="display:inline;">
<b style="margin-left:10px; margin-right:6px;">Categories</b>
<select name='cat' id='cat' class='postform'>
<option value="4">AdBrite(3)</option>
<option value="55">ADSDAQ(2)</option>
<option value="70">Advertising(1)</option>
<option value="65">Affiliate Marketing(4)</option>
<option value="52">Affiliate Programs(22)</option>
<option value="26">Agloco(1)</option>
<option value="6">Amazon Associates(2)</option>
<option value="23">Auction Ads(1)</option>
<option value="16">AzoogleAds(1)</option>
<option value="10">Bidvertiser(2)</option>
<option value="32">Blog Promotion(3)</option>
<option value="21">Chitika eMiniMalls(1)</option>
<option value="69">Chitika Premium(1)</option>
<option value="5">ClickBank(3)</option>
<option value="49">Comment Spam(2)</option>
<option value="7">Commission Junction(3)</option>
<option value="58">CPA Networks(9)</option>
<option value="59">CPC Networks(1)</option>
<option value="57">CPM Networks(3)</option>
<option value="67">Dangerous People(1)</option>
<option value="63">Direct Advertising(2)</option>
<option value="53">Do No Evil(22)</option>
<option value="66">Domains(1)</option>
<option value="72">From the Heart(1)</option>
<option value="22">Fun Stuff(14)</option>
<option value="56">General Internet(1)</option>
<option value="28">Google(5)</option>
<option value="3">Google Adsense(16)</option>
<option value="31">Google AdWords(2)</option>
<option value="24">Google Search(14)</option>
<option value="60">Hybrid Networks(1)</option>
<option value="44">Internet Meme(1)</option>
<option value="71">Microsoft(1)</option>
<option value="68">Monetize Blog(1)</option>
<option value="25">Motivational(4)</option>
<option value="64">NeverblueAds(1)</option>
<option value="1">News and Views(11)</option>
<option value="8">PayDotCom(1)</option>
<option value="62">PepperJam Network(5)</option>
<option value="61">PPC Programs(1)</option>
<option value="46">Promotion(9)</option>
<option value="17">Search Engine Optimization(26)</option>
<option value="41">Soapbox Rants(10)</option>
<option value="33">Social Networking(8)</option>
<option value="51">Social News(3)</option>
<option value="35">Tech Gadgets(4)</option>
<option value="30">Text-Link-Ads(3)</option>
<option value="27">Things to Avoid(9)</option>
<option value="11">Tips & Tricks(16)</option>
<option value="54">Web Hosting Reviews(2)</option>
<option value="18">Wordpress(9)</option>
<option value="36">Wordpress Hacks(4)</option>
<option value="37">Wordpress Plugins(4)</option>
<option value="45">Worst Website Ever(2)</option>
<option value="20">Yahoo Search(1)</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="view" />
</form>
<form action="http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com" method="get" style="display:inline;">
<b style="margin-left:10px; margin-right:6px;">Archives</b>
<select name=\"archive-dropdown\" onChange='document.location.href=this.options[this.selectedIndex].value;'>
<option value=\"\">Select Month</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/10/'> October 2008 (2)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/09/'> September 2008 (10)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/08/'> August 2008 (13)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/07/'> July 2008 (12)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/06/'> June 2008 (4)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/05/'> May 2008 (1)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/04/'> April 2008 (2)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/03/'> March 2008 (8)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/02/'> February 2008 (6)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2008/01/'> January 2008 (11)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/12/'> December 2007 (4)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/11/'> November 2007 (16)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/10/'> October 2007 (12)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/09/'> September 2007 (6)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/08/'> August 2007 (11)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/07/'> July 2007 (16)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/06/'> June 2007 (4)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/05/'> May 2007 (15)</option>
<option value='http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/2007/04/'> April 2007 (19)</option>
</select>
</form>
</div>
<div id="footer">
<div style="clear:both;">
<p align="center">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
ch_client = "cnxmedia";
ch_type = "mpu";
ch_width = 728;
ch_height = 90;
ch_color_border = "ffffff";
ch_color_bg = "ffffff";
ch_color_title = "225522";
ch_non_contextual = 4;
ch_vertical ="premium";
ch_default_category = "200001";
ch_font_title = "Tahoma";
ch_font_text = "Tahoma";
ch_sid = "AFFBEST";
ch_alternate_ad_url = "http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com/alt_chitika.php";
var ch_queries = new Array( );
var ch_selected=Math.floor((Math.random()*ch_queries.length));
if ( ch_selected < ch_queries.length ) {
ch_query = ch_queries[ch_selected];
}
//--></script>
<script src="http://scripts.chitika.net/eminimalls/amm.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<div id="footnotes">
<table border="0" width="940" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="4" align="center">
<tr><td style="border-right:#999999 1px dotted;" width="320" valign="top">
<img src="/images/resdaz_media.gif" title="Resdaz Media" alt="Resdaz Media" /><br />
AffiliateBestPrograms © 2007-08 <a href="http://www.resdaz.com" title="Resdaz Media" style="color:#1D6A0B;" target="_blank">Resdaz Media LLC.</a><br />
<i>All Rights Reserved</i><br />
</td><td style="border-right:#999999 1px dotted; text-align:left; padding-left:20px;" width="300" valign="top">
<b style="color:#555555;">Other Resdaz Media Network Sites:</b>
<br />
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li><a href="http://www.code4gold.com" title="Code4gold Webmaster Resources" target="_blank">Code4gold - Webmaster Resources</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.chronicseo.com" title="Chronic SEO - SEO Marketing" target="_blank">ChronicSEO - SEO Marketing</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.myblogbusiness.com" title="MyBlogBusiness - Business Blogging" target="_blank">MyBlogBusiness - Business Blogging</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.blogratedirectory.com" title="BlogRateDirectory - Blog Ratings" target="_blank">BlogRateDirectory - Blog Ratings</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.recd.us" title="Recommend Us - Social News" target="_blank">Recommend Us - Social News</a></li>
</ul>
</td><td valign="top" width="260">
<a href="http://technorati.com/faves?add=http://www.affiliatebestprograms.com"><img src="http://static.technorati.com/pix/fave/tech-fav-1.png" alt="Add to Technorati Favorites" /></a>
<br /><br />
<a href="http://www.blogratedirectory.com/Dir/Opportunities.php" title="Opportunities Blogs"><img src="http://www.blogratedirectory.com/?act=in&id=9" alt="BRDTracker" border="0" style="margin-right:4px;"></a>
<a href="http://blogsbycategory.com/" title="Blogs By Category" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsbycategory.com/wp-content/images/blogsbycategory.png" alt="BlogsByCategory.com" title="BlogsByCategory.com Submit Your Blog" border="0" /></a>
<br />
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/AffiliateBestPrograms"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/AffiliateBestPrograms?bg=7DA721&fg=444444&anim=0" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" /></a>
<br />
<a href="http://www.top100educationsites.com/in.php?site=51" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.top100educationsites.com/button.php?site=51" border="0"></a>
</td></tr></table>
</div>
<br />
</div>
</body>
</html> 
