Optimization Is Essential For a Successful Blog
This article is written by Serena Brown, find more information about her @ TaylorBrownRealeStateTalks.com. Like to contribute an article? Click here to contribute.
As a blogger, search engine optimization is essential to one’s traffic and for that matter survival as a blogger. Recently, I learned about a helpful tool for my word press blog.
This tool deals with the permalinks for your blog. The permalinks determine what your URL will be for your blog posts. Remember, Yahoo, MSN, Google, etc. work by keywords so it is very important to change your permalinks from the default settings. The default settings are http://yourdomain.com/?pnumber.
The latter part of the domain name /?pnumber is meaningless to the search engine. Therefore, it is important to change it to what the search engine is looking for keywords.
/%category%/%postname%/
By making this change, your blog will now be optimized by the category and the post name.
Once you made this update, you will need to ensure that the .htaccess file is updated to work with your new permalink. The .htaccess file is a root directory. This file, however, is not located in your admin or back office of your blog. It is located in the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software for your blog. The file transfer protocol allows your blog to network or communicate with the host.
Now, you will need to go to your FTP software. I have Filezilla, so the following steps will be using it.
- Under File click “site manager”.
- Then, click your site domain name.
- Click “connect”.
Once “connect” is click the FTP will open the files for your blog.
Now, look for the “public_html” file and double click it. Then, look for the .htaccess file. Right click on that file. Then, click view or edit.
Once, it is open for viewing you want to confirm that the file states:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
I just recently made this change and already have seen an increase in traffic. I am sure you will.
About Serena Brown
Serena Brown is a real estate broker/owner, real estate consultant, speaker, inspiring author and co-author. Ms. Brown released her new book, “Should I Short Sale”, that she co-authored with Tim and Julie Harris. Ms. Brown will be releasing two ebooks in the next couple of weeks, as well. By mid May of 2009, Ms. Brown will have completed her new book, “Real Estate Investor’s Guide”.
Ms. Brown has dual degrees in Business Administration and Electronic Engineering Technology.
Ms. Brown has close to ten years of experience as a real estate professional.
Complete information on Ms. Brown’s upcoming books and other services is available from her website at http://www.taylorbrownrealestatetalks.com.
Thanks for sharing this detailed information on improving SEO via permalinks. I think I can apply one or two tips here that I can use to optimize my website and blog.
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In fact it’s true blog without traffic is dead.Using SEO on/off page is essentials, being no 1 in Google doesn’t mean you will flood with visitors.Great post
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Interesting bit of info there. I guess thats the basic with respect to permalinks.