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Tips to Speed Up your WordPress Site

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Did you know that besides content, Google is also very particular about the speed a website or blog loads? Yes, this is true the reason why if you’re a publisher, blogger and author, you should now make it a point that your site loads fast enough to drive traffic and engage your visitors.

The speed in delivering content to your target audience is important in making a good impression and attracting a regular stream of readers. A website that’s slow to load will only make people leave before they can even see the entire design of your site. In addition, you won’t be able to land in the top search results of Google.

What can you do then to ensure that your site is up to speed? Here are some tips that you can use.

Firstly, find out the current loading speed of your WordPress website. Use pingdom.com to determine which of your web pages are fast, slow or too big and what steps to follow.
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Originally posted on November 21, 2012 @ 1:00 am

Optimize your blog post titles in two easy steps (Part 2)

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I previously discussed the important first step in naming your blog post titles – addressing your readers.

When the posts are now in the archives, you will now have to consider how other readers will discover your posts. And this is through the help of search engines. This is where the second step comes in, which is to address search engine users. The titles you compose should be sensitive to the requirements of search engine bots so that you get the coveted first SERP.

So how do you compose your blog post title to take advantage of search engines?

* Put important keywords in the title. From the first step you have already added a few relevant keywords that will appeal to readers who are on the lookout for words that will appeal to them. Now you have to beef it up some more by adding a few more keywords. Don’t overdo it though, your title should still be interesting and not losing its target.

* Mix up the word order. Changing the word order in your title could actually help you gain a few extra places in SERPS. The trick to rearranging the title is by making sure the beneficial keywords are closer to the start of the title.

* Fix the TITLE. One other thing that you should consider fixing up is the TITLE or the title tag. Usually the blog post title will be similar or will match the title tag. But when you’re already on the second step, you can tweak your title tag some more so that it is more optimized to be noticed by search engine bots. One easy way to do this if you’re using WordPress is by installing and using the SEO Title Tag plugin.

* Leave slugs alone. Even though you are tweaking the title tag and the blog post title, you should not do anything with the actual page slug. Avoid doing things to it at all costs.

Originally posted on May 22, 2009 @ 12:39 pm

Optimize your blog post titles in two easy steps (Part 1)

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As bloggers I am pretty sure that timel, up to date posts are what you prioritize. The common dictum in the blogosphere is that keeping your blog current with the latest posts and information is what makes a blog effective. I have to admit that this is true. A well written blog that is updated regularly will surely be noticed… at some point. But there really is more to blogs than just posts. For example, do you know that your blog post titles are equally important? I bet this has made you suddenly ponder your gung-ho attitude towards giving titles to your posts (the usual philosophy is “the wittier the title, the better).

As bloggers you should know that blog post titles should always be search engine friendly. Although this will surely put a damper on your creative juices and how craftily you compose titles, this is the reality if you really want to make a successful blog. But there could be a way to address the SEO aspect of your blog without necessarily killing creativity. The solution is to look at your two different targets in two different stages.

The first step is to address your readers

Your readers, whether they have subscribed to your RSS feed or actually visit your blog on a regular basis, will want their interests to be piqued. They want to read your post and also be titillated enough to want to share it with others.  So when you’re composing your title do the following:

•    Make it interesting. There are many methods that can be used to achieve this goal. You can post a question, put out a scoop or make an obtuse title that will compel readers to read the post to find out what it’s all about.
•    Don’t make it too long. Short and sweet. That’s the usual saying you hear and in the SEO and internet world, this is virtually dogma. Be succinct in giving information in your title. A title that’s too long will only confuse your readers.
•    Keep keyword scanners in mind. Don’t confuse this with the SEO optimization part (that’s the second step, remember?). What you need here is to look for words that will interest a majority of your readers. Use the more popular keywords in  your blog post title and your post will have a bigger chance of getting noticed.

The whole idea of this first step is to catch the attention of the readers that will view your blog the moment you publish it. The title is basically for your “captive audience”. When the initial freshness of the post has passed it will be passed on to the archives and since getting your posts noticed in an archives section is quite slim this is where the search engines should come into play.

I’ll discuss then next step of improving your blog post titles next time.

Originally posted on May 21, 2009 @ 12:33 am