How To Set Up A WordPress Blog Properly To Gain SEO Benefits
WordPress is one of the world’s leading and most widely used blogging package. When it comes to Search Engine Optimisation it is one of the hottest programs that you can use.
This is part of a series of tip articles just about using WordPress for maximizing on Search Engine Optimization.
Tip: Make sure the blog is on YOUR site
So often we are asked about adding a blog on another website such as Blogger or WordPress.com which provides free blog hosting and has a high PR rank.
If you are using your blog to enhance your SEO then you HAVE to place your blog on your web site – it cannot exist on a different domain.
Do not even think about using a sub-web such as http://www.blog.myhotsite.com. Why would you use a sub web anyhow unless if you want a cool blog URL.
Sub webs are part of your web site but they are confusing from an SEO position. If you want to have the blog content 100% linked with your website then make sure it is off a sub folder and NOT a sub web for example : http://www.myhappysite.com/blog.
Sub webs will not gain you the identical Search Engine Optimization ranking benefits across all search engines because many search engines treat sub webs as a distinctly different website.
If your blog is currently hosted on blogger.com or wordpress.com then you should think about to move it as soon as feasible if you want to enhance your SEO position.
If you have some existing rankings for keywords on Google and Yahoo then you do need to be warned – adding a lot of new content may affect your ranking negatively at first.
We have experienced client ranking drop after adding a lot of new content in the form of a blog to a clients sites. Adding a hit of new content ‘dilutes’ your current site content if the new content is NOT Search Engine Optimization optimized for the keywords that you want to rank for. Search Engine Optimize the content before making it live to avoid this dilution process. Taking the time to do this BEFORE you add it to your site will make a big difference to your immediate ranking position.