Reaper-X .:[ ID ]:. » Google Sitemaps

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for Wordpress

Reaper-X — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:03:49 +0000

Well .. let’s say you’re using wordpress to power your website. And what should be done next to make sure your website is ready to be crawled by search engine ? Here’s the answer on what should be done after installing wordpress to your web server, and it’s called SEO / Search Engine Optimization

As a side note, this should be done before you go submitting your site to various directories, doing some link exchange, or to various search engine itself to make sure they’re not indexing your unfinished website :)

1. Choose Whether you want to use WWW in your domain or not

This is the most important thing to do, so this come first before anything else. This is done because having one canonical url version for all of your page will help you improve your search engine ranking

And here’s what Matt Cutts said about this :

Q: What is a canonical url? Do you have to use such a weird word, anyway?
A: Sorry that it’s a strange word; that’s what we call it around Google. Canonicalization is the process of picking the best url when there are several choices, and it usually refers to home pages. For example, most people would consider these the same urls:

www.example.com
example.com/
www.example.com/index.html
example.com/home.asp

But technically all of these urls are different. A web server could return completely different content for all the urls above. When Google “canonicalizes” a url, we try to pick the url that seems like the best representative from that set.

And now how to use it on your blog ? Well .. you can read my previous article on how to force www on domain name. And if you don’t like WWW in front of your domain, with a slight modification you can also force the non-www version on all of your webpages

If you’re using add-on domain, you might take a look on my previous post on how to configure add-on domain so it’ll looks like a single domain placed on a single server

2. Control how Search Engine Robot visit your site

The next step would be creating robots.txt file and placed / upload it to the root folder of your site. This is done to control how search engine crawling your page, so they do not index your secret page

Read here for more info about this or here. And if you need real world example about this, you can click here (Google Results) for robots.txt example from various live sites

As a note, there are different opinion on whether you should let Google or other search engine bot to index your /feed/ address, archives page, etc or not. Personally i’ve tried them both and i don’t find any differences (in traffic, because of Google putting my site into it is supplemental index) between blocking them or not

If you want to read more about this issue, you can read Aaron Wall from Seobook post about this Google Supplemental Index Issue

3. Change your Permalink Structure / Using Nice URL

In order to change it, just go to Options -> Permalink from your dashboard and choose the Date and Name Based Permalink. So your url will looks like this for an example :

Default URL Structure : http://www.example.com/?p=123
Optimized URL Structure : http://www.example.com/category/post-name/

If you need more information about Permalink Structure in Wordpress, you can read it from here

4. Use unique title and meta description for each page

I know that inserting each meta description to a custom field (as for title, im sure no one are using the same title every time) for every page is time consuming especially to those who’s moving from the free wordpress.com blog

Fortunately there’s one plugin for wordpress that can help you with this situation, and it’s called Head META Description plugin by Kaf Oseo (if i'm not wrong, because i couldnt find his about page) :P which will automatically create Meta Description tag for your wordpress blog

And now the next step to do is optimize your blog post title by installing another plugin, and this one called Optimal Title created by Elasticdog that can be found here

5. Create Sitemaps for your Wordpress Blog

Creating sitemap is necessary especially if you want Search Engine to index your pages properly (deep linking). And in order to simplify creating sitemap for your site, you can use the Wordpress Sitemap Plugins which can be downloaded from here

That’s all about it, as an addition you might be interested on reading my previous post about DIY SEO

0x87485B96 | Tags : Blog, Google, Google Sitemaps, Guide, SEO, Tutorials, Website

Finding External Links using Google Webmaster Tools

Reaper-X — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:07:07 +0000

Previously i have already talked about creating sitemap for your site, and why a sitemap is good for your site especially if you already created a lot of content in your site and submitting those sitemap file(s) into Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo Site Explorer. And now, Google expand their webmaster tools a little bit more by showing you a detailed link to your domain (main page) or your internal pages

But what is important from that information Google gave you ? because you can simply do the same query in Google by using link command ? .. that’s a simple answer .. because by looking at the external links to your site, you can see how well your site is performing (especially for the SEO stuff). Other than that, using the link command also gave you a different results

For example, if i tried to query my own site using the link command using my real ip address which is from Indonesia i only get 134 external links to my site. Although a few weeks ago, i can't see any links to my own site and using site command also didn't show any results. But when i tried to query my own site using a proxy (from various country), i can see there’s a results to my own site .. the answer to that problem is simply because Google showing results from different data center (unless you want to try to query your own site using each Google data center ip address directly if you’re not interested on using proxy)

So why you should use the new Google Webmaster Links Tool ? well .. the simple answer would be like this :

You can see how many links goes to your domain or to your pages (it is showing a separate results) .. and of course you can see where is the link came from ;) .. included also links from your subdomain

Although it's not important for most people (especially if they’re not interested on doing SEO stuff), but i find it interesting to see which page on my site get most links :)

0x87485B96 | Tags : Google, Google Sitemaps, Guide, SEO, Tutorials, Website

Google Sitemaps Status Showing False Alert

Reaper-X — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 03:00:29 +0000

For the past few days, Google Sitemaps showing false alert about your site being removed / not indexed from Google, your verified site become unverified, etc (i don't think there’s other problem other than that) .. and basically it’s showing something like below :

Yep .. i think the image already explained it ;) … although some people complaining that their site has been dropped from Google index completely (although when i test it, it is showing 2 results from Google index)

But i think there’s no need to worry about that, because i’ve been experiencing this problem too since a few days ago and a while back. Although the sitemap information showing false information i was able to locate my site in google index

0x87485B96 | Tags : Google, Google Sitemaps, Internet, SEO, Website

Using Redirection trick for Sitemap Verification = Bad

Reaper-X — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 06:55:24 +0000

It seems i made a mistake by writing about some redirection trick to fool Google Sitemap Verification before (just in case someone read it) .. because if you’re doing this, everyone that has Google Sitemap account will be able to see how is your site doing in Google via their sitemap page and in this case you can see what queries goes to your site, your search engine position, etc (the other part is not that important .. but i think it's not quite important at all if your site is just a small site)

Other than that, if you feel that you’re not using some sort of redirection trick, make sure your server return the correct HTTP Status Code 404 (Not Found) when someone try to locate unexistent files on your server. Because if your server returning 200 (Correct) Status Code, someone could add your site to their sitemap account and can verify it by choosing the upload file method

Note: Site on Screenshot taken from daria.be hosted wordpress account provided by drmike a wordpress forums moderator.. because i was hosted at daria.be before moved to a self hosted blog and i remember drmike saying something about this before (actually he is the one that have the original idea of using this trick so i try to use it too)

0x87485B96 | Tags : Google, Google Sitemaps, Journal, Privacy, Website

Getting listed on Search Engine Fast

Reaper-X — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 01:49:22 +0000

Okay this time without using a prologue, intro or whatever you called it here’s what you should do in order to get listed on major search engine faster (although i’ve write about this a while ago but because the previous post is too long i decided to create the small version) :

Update your website content several times a day because it’ll tell the crawler to crawl your site more often and don't forget to ping those search engine
Getting link from some free directory out there and of course to make sure that directory already listed on major search engine you should search for it using Google, MSN and Yahoo first
Repeat your keyword several times, and don't forget to create a good title for your content. But don't repeat it to often or search engine will think your site is just another spam site
Try creating unique content for your site so you can get listed on search engine faster, even better you can get the top result for that keyword
Use sitemap for your site, although there’s no guarantee your site will get indexed but you can be sure your site can get indexed by search engine properly
Use Lynx Browser to see your site like search engine does, if you want the easy way you can use the Lynx Firefox Extension, and i’ve wrote about this a while ago and make sure there’s no hidden text or link in your site (although few hidden links / text are okay, because i’ve already check it on various PR5+ site)

Okay and here’s the ping address for Google and Yahoo (forget about MSN, maybe they’ll create it in the future .. because as for now it's still not working, because its still testing stage) :

Yahoo Notification / Ping Address (don't forget to register for the api key first) :
search.yahooapis.com/SiteExplorerService/V1/updateNotification?appid=APIKEY&url=YOURURL
Google Notification / Ping Address (don't forget to register your sitemap first, it can be Feed / Sitemap XML format) :
google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=YOURSITEMAPADDRESS

Note: I don't guarantee anything, but like wiseman said that you should try everything you can before making a conclusion (hey .. is that really a wiseman ?) :P

0x87485B96 | Tags : Google, Google Sitemaps, Guide, Internet, SEO, Tutorials, Website

One Sitemap for Google, MSN and Yahoo

Reaper-X — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:39:14 +0000

Recently those three major search engine are teaming up so the end users can benefit with just using one sitemap for that’s based on Sitemaps namespace definition. And that means you can save more space on your hosting, because with just using one sitemap, it’ll cover everything.

Unfortunately the MSN Livesearch team are a little bit slow about supporting this format because they want to test everything first before it’ll be available for public, and as you can see Yahoo Search Engine team already upgrade their search engine so it’ll support the new sitemap format right away, and that means you can try submitting your new sitemap format into Yahoo once again.

As for those who’s already using Google Sitemap, you don't have to do anything else other than changing the xml namespace into the correct xml namespace from Sitemaps.org documentation. And as a side note, using sitemap doesn't guarantee your page will be on top search engine result or getting listed on search engine. But it does help search engine to crawl your site properly.

0x87485B96 | Tags : Google, Google Sitemaps, Internet, SEO, Website

Indexed Pages decreased from Google Index

Reaper-X — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 17:46:35 +0000

I don't know why, but indexed pages on my site are keep going down everyday (well maybe not everyday but it's still going down) .. although i don't quite understand what’s the actual problem is. I think maybe Google has some problem or Google considered my site as spam source or maybe Google think i'm trying to do some blackhat seo stuff. And of course because of this i'm losing my site traffic, i think it’d best if i wait for a few days before rechecking my site on google index. And if the problem still occur, i'm going to email the google team directly. Because i never try to use some blackhat seo tricks, creating duplicate pages, or creating some spam site. Updated :

Actually this is not a big deal, because after reading various material about this i came to conclusion on what you should do if you experience the same thing like me and if you're sure, that you've not doing anything wrong :

Google currently has problem somewhere on their server, and don't worry because soon after the Google team has fixed the problem, your indexed pages will go up again
There's no need to bother submitting your sitemap thousand times to Google because it's not going to work out as you've planned before because there's something wrong on their server just like i said before
Just keep posting / creating / updating your site content
Also there's some important talk here about the difference between the Googlebot and Mozilla bot, this is important to read especially if you're using GZip compression to serve your website content like me

Well basically the above already said it all, although the last part is not that important if you don't use / enable GZip compression on your site / server.

Update : It seems Google already fixed their problem, because i can see the indexed page from my site just like before

0x87485B96 | Tags : Blogging, General Blogging, Google, Google Sitemaps, Internet, Personal, SEO, Website

Using ROR Sitemap

Reaper-X — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 10:17:03 +0000

Today i just created another sitemap for my site using the ROR format, unlike Google Sitemap which is using XML format that can only be read by Google Search Engine, this sitemap is universal. And that means with just only one ROR sitemap most major / almost all search engines can index your site properly, including MSN, Yahoo, and Google. Unfortunately the downside using ROR sitemap, you must index your site using the local version of ROR Sitemap Generator (note: you'll need Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1) from your computer, if your site has above 1000 pages. But if you're sure, your site only has few pages then you can use online ROR online sitemap generator to get your ROR sitemap generated online. And if you need an example of how ROR sitemap looks, you can see it on my page ~~here~~ sorry its not avaialble anymore because of the big three cooperation.

And don't forget, although you've indexed all of your pages, there's no guarantee search engine will index your page. As a last note, if you're using free wordpress account, there's no way you can use this sitemap because .. it's involved uploading the generated ROR sitemap into your public_html directory.

0x87485B96 | Tags : Google, Google Sitemaps, Internet, Internet Tools, SEO, Website, Wordpress

Do it yourself Search Engine Optimization / SEO Tips

Reaper-X — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 17:54:03 +0000

I’ve been wondering why do people want to pay someone to do some sort of Search Engine Optimization / SEO tricks for their site, even they’re ready to pay high / insane price just to get more traffic to their site. Even if they are not writing a good content within their site. Because no matter how many times you’re trying if you don't write something good or giving something (for free) there’s no way you can get more visitors. And that’s why i decided to write a guide on how to get your site listed on search engine by doing everything by yourself just like me on my site here (without someone linking to my site when i built this site and in the other words i built it from the ground without depend on someone else to do the job for me) and that means everything is from the beginning since you own your domain name.

Get a domain name

First of all this is the most important stuff you should get before doing anything else. And why did i ask you to buy a domain name first instead of creating a free website somewhere ? well .. that’s a simple answer. Because if you own a domain name, no matter how many times you change your host / webhosting your name can be reached by your visitors easily. Unless the free webhosting allow you to use 302 / Temporary Redirect or 301 / Permanent Redirect then you'll regret it later.

Get your own webhosting

Of course you’ll need to get a webhosting plan first if you want to start a website, it doesn't matter if you’re going to use your website to make money, having fun, wasting time, test your knowledge on the real web stuff, etc. Because if you don't own a webhosting then there’s no point for you to create a website, beside as everyone else know that free service can't be trusted because they can change their policy anytime, anywhere as they like. Beside you can get cheap hosting easily nowaday. And of course cheap hosting means you’re using a shared hosting, but it doesn't really matter if your website traffic is still low to medium. But if your website get alot of unique visitors daily, just make sure you’ve prepared to go into Dedicated Hosting Plan which is expensive (at least for me).

Write unique / good content

Although i'm not a SEO Expert but one thing i have learn so many things about website and such stuff since i built my first website in July (and bought this domain in August), the only thing that makes your site get indexed by search engine and goes into 100 results / less than 100 or goes to top 10 is your website content and i mean a unique content, because if you don't have unique content there’s no way you can get your site on the top 100 search engine results. And make sure you’re using unique keywords too that describe your website content because if your site is still new, and you're using common keywords there's no way you can compete with a high ranking website. But make sure you're using keywords that's explain your site content very well.

Use proper title for your article

You have wrote unique article or an interesting information, but what good your article do if you don't put the correct title for your article eventhough your site already listed on search engine ? No one will click on your site search result from the search engine, so make sure to use proper title.

Obey search engine rules / guidelines

I think you already saw every pages Terms of Service because most website using them including personal homepage too, but did you actually read them ? i guess most of you didnt really care about it. Because if you did read website Terms of Service, Guidelines, etc. then there'll be less spam on the internet. And that means do not try to use some sort of cloaking technique, creating doorway pages, etc that's specifically designed to get high ranking for search engine not human visitors. Because if there's someone know that you're using dirty tricks to get high search engine position and report it to the respective search engine. You'll lose everything you've done so far, because those search engine will ban and remove your site from their index. And double check to make sure that you're not using hidden text on your site too as well.

Check your site using Lynx Browser

Most of you who are using some free website template, free CMS template, or design your page by yourself should check your website first using Lynx the text browser and this is important because that’s how a search engine looks at your site. Search engine doesn't care if you’re using a lot of images, flash, etc. because they only care for the text in the webpage itself (although the alt tag can explain it too but normal text is still better) and make sure that your webpage content section get viewed before anyother section on your website. Unfortunately Lynx can be difficult if you’re not used to it, but if you’re a Mozilla Firefox user there’s no need to worry about it because there’s a Mozilla Firefox extension that let you view a webpage like Lynx does. You can read about it in my previous post about the recommended Mozilla Firefox extensions list. As a side note, dont you ever try to use frame on your site, because search engine cant index your site properly if you use frame. But if you're already using Lynx, you can view your webpages just like a search engine.

Creating a sitemap

Sitemap is usefull especially if you have a large website with a really deep link in your page, because it makes search engine able to crawl / index your old article much faster rather than normal crawling. So you can be sure your old article get indexed properly by search engine. But the sitemap i'm talking about is not a normal sitemap for your normal visitors (yeah search engine is not normal, they’re robot) but it’s a xml sitemap and standard text format sitemap. And to create the xml sitemap, you can use a free xml sitemap generator service or you can use a free php scripts that’s available on the internet (that’s only apply if you are using a php enabled webhosting) or you can use program to create a sitemap. And if you need to use a free online sitemap generator that’s free you can check the list here. And dont forget to create a sitemap account too as well at Google Sitemap or Yahoo Site Explorer

Submit your site into various directories

If you want to get listed on search engine faster, then you’ll need to get someone else page link to your page. But that doesn't mean you can just make a temporary site just to create link to your site, because your other temporary site will have no value and search engine prefer site that has value or get indexed by the search engine regularly. Although there are various method to do this, the simple and easy way is search for a free web directory (preferable without reciprocal) but that’s depend on your decision. And here’s a list of good blog / web directories where you can submit your site for free, easy and of course they put a direct link back to your site but as a side note some of them are manually checking your website :

Blog Directories

Web Directories

DMOZ
Yahoo Directory
Big Web Directory
Digital Point Forums .. actually i want to post some more, but because you can find it easily on the internet and in this example is Digital Point Forums, then there's no point for me to put it here .. note: blog / web directory from digital point are created by the forum users there, and most of the time they're not requiring a link back .. and of course that's a good options to choose

Finally Submit your site to Search Engine

After double / triple check everything, and you already sure that your site can get indexed properly by search engine. It is the time for you to submit to a search engine, although there's no need for you to do this step if your site already listed on several well known site, because search engine will find a link to your site eventhough you didnt submit it manually. But if you're the type that's always want to make sure everything is done correctly, you can submit your site to various search engine manually.

And to make thing easier for you, here’s a list on where you should submit your website :

Although there's alot of other minor search engine on the internet, but the most important search engine is only MSN, Yahoo, and Google ... and they're the only one that can send traffic to your site

And now what you should do when you’ve submitted your site .. of course .. always try to update your website content regularly, because search engine like website that get updated constantly.

As a final note, im not SEO Expert but everything here is based on my experience when i build this site, and it does works for me .. although my website is still not ranked by Google.

0x87485B96 | Tags : Google, Google Page Rank, Google Sitemaps, Guide, Internet, SEO, Tutorials, Website

Using redirect to trick google sitemap verification

Reaper-X — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 07:31:13 +0000

Most of the reader especially for those who already has their own webserver maybe already using this redirection just to redirect your old pages to your new homepages. But did you know that by using the 301 redirect you can also trick google sitemap verification process ? .. actually you can do this easily as long as you have access to edit the .htaccess file in your webserver simply by putting this line (and the webserver support this feature)

RedirectMatch 301 ^/google(.*)\.html$ http://examplesite.domain.com

By using that line you tell the webserver to do a permanent redirect to all files named google*.html into the destination server, and by using that simple line there’s no need for you to upload the google sitemap verification file into your server, because every request that made to search a google*.html will be redirected into the destination page without giving a 404 error.

Unfortunately this trick doesn't work on wordpress since you can't get access to the .htaccess file .. anyway i hope this trick can be usefull for you ;)

0x87485B96 | Tags : Apache, Google, Google Sitemaps, Internet, SEO, Tutorials, WPMU, Web Servers, Wordpress