Improve a Stock WordPress Install
Posted by Matt | Filed under Analytics, Get More Traffic 101, Image Galleries, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Site Traffic Analysis, Wordpress
A client asked me — now that his new site is working well and he’s comfortable running it — what improvements (tweaks, plugins, whatever) would I suggest to make it better? Here’s what I said:
- His site is not served from the “root“, so I recommended he serve it from the root. Example: don’t do http://example.com/wordpress instead do http://example.com! If it’s not possible to serve from the root, it’s not a showstopper. SEO will actually not suffer if you don’t act. Your content is generally judged on how relevant it is + how many link to it + how often it’s freshened. The depth of the URL — at only 1 directory — shouldn’t matter. Do it for human readability reasons.
- A nice touch/eyecandy is a Javascript called Lightbox (link to WordPress plugin). You can see it here http://sianafashions.com by clicking on the images. It can also act as a dumb gallery for sets of images. Works automatically — nothing for you to do.
- Your traffic may already be tracked by a server-side app like AWstats. Whether it is or not I suggest the free Google Analytics. Warning: Google will know your site’s traffic from the inside. I feel that using Analytics isn’t giving up my sites to the Dark Side, and that getting the (very, very powerful) traffic analysis is worth the trade. I use GA on all my sites.
- Many Twitter plugins like this one are available to display (presumably your) Tweets if you’re interested.
- Sitemap plugin improves SEO by writing to an industry-standard xml file at site root that search engines bots read and digest. I use sitemaps on all my sites. Highly recommended and nothing for you to do.
- Social bookmark plugins like this one add a “Share This” link on each blog post. I’m not crazy about these but there is no downside that I can think of. Helps SEO if the links are used.
A Photo Gallery for JMDesigns.net
Posted by Matt | Filed under Currently..., Image Galleries
JMDesigns.net
I put up a quick, bulletproof photo gallery at http://jmdesigns.net/gallery.php. It was more challenging than other recent galleries because the site isn’t a WordPress site, so I didn’t have the luxury of using one of the dozens (hundreds?) of free image galleries written for WordPress. So I found and installed the fantastically simple Single File PHP Gallery. It’s one file, no database, and minimal configuration. I love it, and so does my client.
jmdesigns.com photo gallery