WordPress, SEO and the Google Factor

Matt Cutts is the head of anti-spam at Google and knows an awful lot about what Google consider to be spam versus what Google considers to be high quality content that they want to return in search results. Turns out that he is also a big fan of WordPress despite WordPress being a direct competitor to Google’s own Blogger platform.

It just goes to show that class stands out, I have always waxed lyrical about the benefits of WordPress and of having your own domain name and hosting using the WordPress platform. So it is nice to hear that one or two big wigs in the world of the Internet endorse that opinion, or at least the using WordPress part of it. More than that, Matt goes on to discuss in broad terms many of the factors he considers contribute to a decent, high quality website or blog and, perhaps more importantly, where many people make some significant errors in their approach to SEO (search engine optimization). The video gives an overview of important insights into the topic of Google DO’s and Google DON’Ts that I recently wrote about in a book on that subject.

I spent quite a bit of time researching both what Google recommend and also what they condemn so that I could write the book. So I go into what Matt discusses in a lot more detail than he has on this video but it is, all the same, quite a good overview and summary of some of the main points. He also goes on to recommend what actions you can take, through the use of plugins, to make a WordPress blog safe from spammers and hackers. So overall a pretty useful video if you have 45 minutes or so spare.

If you haven’t got 45 minutes here are a few of the tips Matt Cutts offered during his presentation:

Add this code <!--google_ad_start--> <!--google_ad_end--> before and after your adsense ads. If you want to understand why then you need to watch the video for an explanation.

A plugin that was recommended to prevent comment spam on your blog is ‘Cookies for Comments’ which you can search for and add through the ‘Plugins’ > ‘Add New’ option on your WordPress dashboard. I am giving it a try, so I will let you know how I get on.

The last tip I am sharing from his presentation is the suggestion that you install the ‘WP Super Cache’ plugin, this plugin converts the relatively  load heavy php files that WordPress normally uses into lighter, static html files which then get presented to visitors instead of the php files. This helps when you are using servers that struggle with heavy traffic and are a little under-powered; shared servers typically might have this problem.

As always recommendations and how they are implemented are of course your responsibility. So take care and make sure you understand what you are doing before implementing anything on your blog. Read installation instructions for any plugin and check out the FAQ’s so you know what you are getting into.

For More Information on Google Do’s & Google DON’Ts take a look here:

• Web Marketing & SEO Guide, Google DOs & Google DON’Ts – UK
• Web Marketing & SEO Guide, Google DOs & Google DON’Ts – USA