Probably the most common reason for opening a blog is all that luvverly search-engine traffic everyone keeps talking about. A lot of webmasters have started realizing it isn’t quite as easy as installing WordPress and waiting for the flood: all the more reason to make the most you can of your site. The first and most obvious rule has to be that you must write original, keyword-rich content. Next, keep your code as slim as possible using CSS to the maximum and validate everything, your HTML, CSS and RSS feeds. The lot!

Design

If search-engine traffic is part of your motivation, think very carefully about buying a theme which uses tables. In any case think carefully before opting for heavyweight graphics, because although webmasters tend to look at sites almost as pictures, they should be treated as functional tools for showcasing content, not works of art. Mainstream blog designers by and large do an excellent job, but most adult designers load up on toons and PhotoShop wizardry and hope you won’t notice the flaws.

If you cannot find a designer who can code too, nor create your own theme nor adapt one, then work with a designer and afterward have someone adapt the design correctly. Using table-based designs for blogs is like going into a boxing ring with one hand tied behind your back.

However your design is brought to reality, make sure the navigation is totally obvious and intuitive. If it works for your visitors, it will work for the search engines too. Make sure you have Arne Brachold’s Google Sitemap Generator and Dagon Design’s “traditional” Sitemap Generator.

Permalinks

Permalinks are the internal links which WordPress creates for your articles and pages. By default, the format looks like http://www.carpejugular.com/?p=123, not very SE friendly at all! But in your Dashboard, select Options –> Permalinks and that is easy to fix. You do need to make your .htaccess writeable (CHMOD 666) before the next step, which is to select Custom, specify below and then make an entry in the Custom Structure box. WordPress provides details of all the available options but the friendliest is simply /%postname%/ which converts a title of “This Is A Great Post!” into a URI of http://yourblog.com/this-is-a-great-post/: a great format if you take the trouble to sprinkle keywords into some of your titles. But there is a potential pitfall with this method, namely that if you end up titling an article WP Admin, or any other title the same as an existing directory on your site, that directory could become inaccessible. If you don’t like living dangerously, you will be more comfortable with something like /%postname%-%post_id%/ (note that you should always use a closing oblique). Click on Update Permalink Structure, check a link to make sure the change “took” and you are done.

Warning: unless you are willing to dig through your SQL tables to change the GUID’s one by one, you must stick with the URL format you choose. Switch after a few months and all your original links will cease to work.

Page Titles

I’m not sure why through various versions, WordPress have stuck with such a poor choice of default settings. Anyway, page titles are another because for example, in creating the title meta for an article page, they tack the name of the article onto the end of your site name. The result is that Google’s visitors see something like Carpe Jugular Adult Webmaster Resource » Image Alignment. Since searched words are bolded and they are what visitors are looking for, it would obviously be better to have your entry show as Image Alignment » Carpe Jugular Adult Webmaster Resource. Particularly if the entry happens to be a long one, because then it is possible that the searched terms could be consigned to ellipsis hell. Happily, the Optimal Title Plugin will ensure this never happens.

Otherwise, since your article titles also appear as your pages meta titles, make sure to keep them short, descriptive (rather than cryptic) and work in keywords whenever you can.

Headers

Not a lot to be said here. Most WordPress themes make good use of h1, h2, etc: just be sure if you make changes that you don’t undo all that. Check out default headings such as “Blogroll” and change them for something more relevant to your site. Also make sure your post titles are linked: in most themes they are, but if not, use something like <h2><a href=”<?php the_permalink() ?>” rel=”bookmark” title=”Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>”><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>

Link Popularity

The benefit of link exchanges is not primarily in how many you have, but with which sites. It is a myth that you need to link only with high-rated sites and in fact you should have a mix, avoiding only sites which have been banned (Page Rank on Google’s toolbar will be grayed out). The key is to exchange links with sites which are tightly relevant: ie not sites with a broad generic focus, but those pushing keywords similar to your own.

Another way to give yourself a boost is to go find some adult blogs which are on topic and have comments open. Without being stupid - adding multiple, valueless comments to every post - add comments. Even if you are not allowed to put your url into the comment, it usually appears as a link to your name when the comment is published. If you find - again, relevant - sites that you like, offer to swap articles (with cross linking in them or attached as a credit): a work-saver as well as a way to build link popularity.

More SEO-related Plugins

• Related Entries is as much a benefit to your visitors as to the search engines. It automatically adds under each article links to similar articles. You get to choose how many: 3-5 works well.
• Head Meta Description automatically adds a description meta to your pages.
• Autometa creates keyword meta tags (and Technorati tags if you wish).
• Ultimate Tag Warrior provides (semi) automatic tagging which is a way to build additional cross referencing within your site(s).