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Posted in How-To | blogosphere How-To plugins search engine optimization wordpress
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After I had copied my posts from Blogger, I had a WordPress blog that looked just like all the others out there, and didn’t have any of the coolest features. It was time to customize it with a theme, and some plugins. You can mostly see what I chose by looking at the blog, but all the plugins don’t have a visible effect.
The theme I chose is Mistylook, which I chose for its professional look, and simple feel. Rather than using the original version, I downloaded a search engine ready version from Courney Tuttle’s blog. He has a collection of themes he has optimized for search engines. I changed some of the colors to match my liking, and added a unique touch with a custom header image.
The first plugin I activated was Akismet - the spam guard plugin that comes with WordPress. I highly recommend it. Two other comment-related plugins I use are Lucia’s LinkLove - to stay do-follow, and Top Commentators - to reward loyal commentators. Unfortunately neither of the two work with old comments, since URLs for Blogger comments were lost in the import procedure.
Next I installed FeedSmith to manage my feed redirection to FeedBurner, and Full Text Feed to make sure all posts are wholly visible to feed readers. You should subscribe for my full feed to keep up with my most recent posts.
To complement the SEO friendly theme, and my SEO friendly URLs, I also installed the All in One SEO Pack. Despite its grand name, it mostly just allows easier modification of page titles and meta tags, which is good for SEO. It’s not a magical solution - you still need to know what you are doing. 
To get my posts more thoroughly indexed I used a combination of Google Sitemaps and Related Posts. The former automatically creates an XML sitemap that stays up to date with posts and pages. Even if you use it, you should check out how to submit your sitemap - that’s not automated. Related Posts -plugin does what the name tells: shows a list of related posts after each post. This increases the number of inlinks, and helps crawling.
Finally, I use Ultimate Tag Warrior to Technorati tag my blog posts. I’m not yet sure if it helps, but the idea is that my posts will get listed on Technorati tag pages. For example this post could be found through How-To page. I’m not sure, if that increases traffic, or not but I’m going to experiment.
by Sutocu | September 26, 2007 
I think it is so important to customize wordpress and give it your own personal touch to it. Even if you get someone to design it make sure you’re in every part of the way so it reflects your personality. One of the worst things is going to someones site and it doesn’t have a layout that represents who they are.
Wow you had a lot of links in that post. You must be using a wordpress plugin that does it automatically for you. I love wordpress.
Heh, actually I don’t have a plugin to automate that (wish I had), but I felt it necessary to link to all of the plugins mentioned. The post looks a bit messy as a result, but it can’t be helped. Hope you found something useful from the list!
I downloaded the All In One SEO Pack yesterday to see what happens. I have heard good reports about it so time will tell. I think as I start the branding process in earnest for NoviceSEO.com it will be a big help.
i hope you do a follow-up post because it sounds like you did a lot to try and get your page working hard for you
Hey,
I am, Christopher
great posts on here
this is my site:
http://amKFu9.spaces.live.com/