1. Utilize permalinks. Notice how some blogs posts have url that resemble mathematical formulas? These urls are actually queries to your WordPress database. Human beings and search engines have a hard time figuring what your page is about by looking at that type of address. Think of it this way which makes more sense yourdomain.com/shoesthatfeelgreat or yourdomain.com/?P=12? The recommended permalink structure is either /%postname%/ or /%category%/%postname%/. Some people recommend that you put the date or the year in before the postname(e.g. /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/). Which from a database point of view makes sense but from a SEO point of view it does not. Since your blog is probably new and does not have a lot of traffic don’t worry about it. Focus on SEO first. If you get a stampede of visitors you can always switch to a dedicated server.

2. Install a SEO plug-in. There are few great plug-ins on the market. All-in-one SEO is a perennial favorite. It gives you the ability to customize every aspect of your meta tags. Another plug-in is called Platinum SEO – a personal favorite. A key feature is that automattically adds a 302 redirect entry anytimeyou change the name of a post or page on your blog. This is critical when you have a post that is already indexed on search engines and people are linking to it. For more info on 302 redirects see this article.

3. Build a Sitemap. Having a sitemap for your website helps search engines catalog your site. The best plug-in to use is Google sitemaps. Its name is somewhat misleading because it actually builds and reports to all major search engines.

These are just a few strategies that will help make your blog visible on the net. Feel free to contact us to find out more.