WP SITES

All in one Seo pack for WordPress is one of the most popular plugins having being downloaded over 9 million times. It includes some of the basic Seo features you need to optimize your blog for the search engines.

In this tutorial, i’ll show you the settings and options for configuring the All in one Seo plugin for your WordPress blog.

Download All In One Seo Plugin

Click here to download All In One Seo Pack Plugin for WordPress

Initial Setup

All in one seo pack works straight out of the box so you don’t have to configure the settings if you’re a beginner. However, you will notice this red warning box once you install and activate the plugin and it is highly recommended to configure the plugin options for maximum benefit.

Firstly, you do need to enable the plugin and they ask that you make a donation. After you check these boxes, you can proceed to the configuration options before Updating the options to remove the red warning box.

Configuration Options

There’s a few options you’ll need to configure in order to enable this plugin. If you don’t, the plugin will still work ok.

Home Title: Enter your Home page title here otherwise your default blog title will be used so make sure you have set one or the other and use a keyword which describes the overall topic of your site. i.e If your site is about WordPress then a title like WordPress Sites is perfect.

Home Description: Enter a unique description here describing the different content on your site. If you don’t enter a description here then No description will be used. i.e I have set mine something like this. WordPress sites offers tutorials and How To’s on Everything WordPress including Plugins, Themes and Seo.

Home Keywords: You don’t need to enter anything here if you don’t want as the search engines don’t used meta keywords for Seo. You can enter some related keywords if you want but i don’t think it will make any difference. If you do, enter the main keywords only and don’t stuff this box with too many keywords.

Canonical URLs: Checking this box will make All In One Seo generate unique URL”s for your entire sites page and posts. No 2 permalinks will the same preventing duplicate content penalties from the search engines like Google.

Rewrite Titles: Checking this box will set all page, post, category, search and archive page titles to be rewritten. In my opinion its better to uncheck this so your page, post titles etc are used by default rather than Blog Archive >> Blog Name >> Post Title. If you do check this box, you can edit the templates for each tag to your liking.

Default Title Format Tags

All in one Seo offers a range of custom title formats tags tom choose from if you want to customize your Seo rather than use the default settings. Here’s all the Default Title Formats you can customize.

The reason i suggest you uncheck the Rewrite Titles box is because the default tags which you’ll see in the above screen shot aren’t the best option.

You wouldn’t want all your posts titles to include your blog title on the end of every post title as seen above.

Recommended Title Tags

The above screen shows the default title tag formats however you may want to consider changing to these recommended settings.

More Configuration Options

SEO for Custom Post Types: If you are using Custom Post Types which you have added yourself, via a plugin or included in your theme, then enable this box.

Google Analytics ID: Enter your Google Analytics ID here to track your site with Google Analytics if you haven’t already added it  somewhere else in your themes temaplates. If you haven’t already, you can read more on how to setup Google Analytics here.

Use Categories for META keywords: Check this box if you want your post categories used as the META keywords for this post.

Use Tags for META keywords: Check this box if you want your tags for a post used as META keywords for that post (in addition to any keywords you specify on the post edit page).

Dynamically Generate Keywords for Posts Page: Check this box if you want your keywords on a custom posts page (set it in options->reading) to be dynamically generated from the keywords of the posts showing on that page. If unchecked, it will use the keywords set in the edit page screen for the posts page.

No Index Settings

All 3 no index settings will help Avoid Duplicate content.

Use no index for Categories: Check this for excluding category pages from being crawled. 

Use no index for Archives: Check this for excluding archive pages from being crawled. 

Use no index for Tag Archives: Check this for excluding tag pages from being crawled.

Additional Configuration Settings

Autogenerate Descriptions: Check this and your META descriptions will get autogenerated if there’s no excerpt. In order to increase click through’s from the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS) you would be better off to create a compelling description (excerpt) for each post which attracts more clicks. If you don’t, check this box so Meta descriptions will be autogenerated from your content instead.

Capitalize Category Titles: Check this and Category Titles will have the first letter of each word capitalized.

Exclude Pages: Enter any comma separated pages here to be excluded by All in One SEO Pack.

Additional Post Headers: What you enter here will be copied verbatim to your header on post pages.

Additional Page Headers: What you enter here will be copied verbatim to your header on pages

Additional Home Headers: What you enter here will be copied verbatim to your header on the home page.

Log important events: Check this and SEO pack will create a log of important events (all_in_one_seo_pack.log) in its plugin directory which might help debugging it. Make sure this directory is writable.

Update Options

Once you have configured All In One Seo Pack, click the Update Options buttons and you’re set.

Edit Post/Page Screen Seo Fields

Once Set, all in one seo pack will display Seo fields on every post edit screen for –

• Title
• Description
• Keywords

Title: You can enter a different title for the search engines here rather than use the default post title

Description: See the above Autogenerate Description configuration options. Its best to use some type of sales copy here to attract higher click through rates from SERPS. Your post description will not be used by the search engines to determine rankings however any keywords will be highlighted in  SERPS snippets which can be used to your advantage.

Keywords: Not used by the search engines so no point in adding anything here in my opinion unless you want to insert some for your own refererence.

Video – Options Configuration

Conclusion

Personally i think this is a great Seo plugin however i use WordPress Seo by Yoast because it includes a sitemap which is very important and 301 redirect options, amongst many others options, on all edit post/page screens.

You can easily migrate All In One Seo Pack Settings to WordPress Seo by Yoast using SEO Data Transporter plugin when changing themes and to the Thesis theme for WordPress .

Whats your favorite SEO plugin?

A common problem bloggers and webmasters are looking to solve is ‘whats the best way to rank a keyword first page of Google’?

In my opinion, based on my own experience, creating a main page/post that you focus the keyword you are trying to rank using what some call ‘cornerstone content’ is a solution which works.

You’ll also need to create other posts that link internally to your cornerstone content page so you pass link juice to it and build up its rank.

Here’s another way to explain cornerstone content.

As an example, if you choose to try and rank for Best cake recipes, you would want to create a single post for each cake recipe and include all the most vital content for that particular recipe within the individual posts content.

Include content based on related keywords which are popular and useful for the ingredients, mixing and baking that cake recipe.

You’ll also need to check what the most vital parts (keywords) for Best Cake Recipes are. Google wants to give its searchers what they want, content that’s vital to the search query and content that’s both relevant to the keyword(s) as well as content that is also useful.

Ranking Keyword on Google

After completing keyword research, you’ll probably find best carrot, chocolate and vanilla cake recipes are the most popular so creating an individual post for each, then creating a single cornerstone post or page for 3 best cake recipes should work well.

After looking at the related searches in Google’s search results pages, you’ll see best birthday cake recipe could also be included.

The reason for this is that when you complete keyword research you’ll find the most popular keywords involve ingredients and baking as this content is vital to making a cake.

Cornerstone Content Ideas

Another way to explain how to rank a keyword first page on Google is to create a list of the 10 best whatever (related to your site) or 5 ways to whatever. A list of the best ways to solve common problems related to your industry or your sites overall topic will be the most useful content for your readers.

Your site might be about cakes or mobile phones, it doesn’t matter.

Write one post for each 10 whatever and include the most important information that’s vital to the use of the product or service you are writing the top 10 list about.

Example of Cornerstone Content

Now this cornerstone content doesn’t rank that well at the moment because i recently changed domains but it did rank first page on Google for Best Seo Plugins before.

The post includes 8 of the best WordPress seo plugins and many of these plugins also contain a link to an individual post about that particular plugin. These internal links give it lots of link juice and support and are all related information vital to the use of each plugin.

The best way to start learning how to create cornerstone content that ranks well in search engines is to create your own list. You can start with the best 3 products, services, methods or tips related to your own sites topic and then create individual posts about each 3.

Internal Linking

Make sure you link the most crucial related keywords from your list to each individual post and link back to your main page/post using the keyword you want to rank for. I think its better to use variations of the keyword you are focusing your cornerstone content on which all have the same meaning.

You can create internal links manually or use a plugin like Seo Smart Links.

The way i link related content internally is to paste the keyword into the posts search box to find which posts contain related content which i can then link back to the cornerstone content.

Then promote the cornerstone page or post as well as each post.

If its done properly, you cornerstone content will become popular, gain links from your readers and be shared more than most other posts on your site.

The most important parts of creating cornerstone content are:

• create the cornerstone page
• create related posts for each main cornerstone item
• link the correct keywords internally
• promote your content using an effective content distribution system.

I’ll be writing more about how to create cornerstone content to rank well in the search engine results soon.

Have any tips on cornerstone content and how to rank first page on Google for one keyword?

Have you created this type of content which attracts links before?

Changing domains effects not only your incoming links but also your keyword positions in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). This all starts once you notify Google of your change of address in Google Webmaster Tools.

Recently i changed domains and have found the keywords in my content go from an indexing of over 7000 keywords to around 2,584 currently.

These keywords will slowly come back into the search results which i expect to happen once the next Page Rank update comes around sometime in January or Febuary.

If you change domains, you’ll find your keywords coming back on at about 200 per day but won’t be as high in the search results until your domain authority and page rank come back.

One way to track your keywords is to use Google Webmaster Tools or another tool named Market Samurai.

[box size=”large” style=”rounded” border=”full”]The Must Have Keyword Research Tool – Market Samurai

If you don’t know which keywords have the traffic and make the money, you are wasting your time.

Market Samurai is the leading keyword research tool that all serious internet marketers use.

Discover how it can help you in our Market Samurai review…

[/box]

Old Domains Keyword Search Queries

You can see from the old domains keyword data available in Webmaster Tools under Your Site on The Web > Search Queries that the figures taken after more than 2 weeks from the domain change.

More than 2 weeks after the domain change the keyword search queries at down 46% and click throughs down 33% on the old domain. These figures are useless because most of the old domains URL’s are no longer indexed.

The real figures are in the next screen shot

New Domains Keyword Search Queries

The new domains keyword search queries are growing because Google is indexing about 200 per day however the data from Webmaster Tools is 2-3 behind.

In hindsite it may have been better to add new content to the new domain for 2-3 months before notifying Google of Change of Address in Webmaster Tools as the screenshots above clearly show Google acts immediately when you notify of change of domains.

I’m not expecting my search traffic to get back to where it was until Feb however it should be higher then because of all the new content i am adding on a regular basis.

Crawl Errors

I’ve also noticed significantly more 404 page not found crawl errors after changing domains. One of the reasons for this is that i have a Apache 301 permanent redirect in my htaccess file which slows down the time it takes to access content when a link from the old domain is clicked on.

Even though its nearly 3 weeks after i notified Google Webmaster Tools of Change of Address, i can still see some of my old URL’s indexed in the search Engine Results Pages (SERPS)

Is Changing Domains Worth It

Based on my own personal experience and the facts above, the search engines take a long time to index all keywords in your content and don’t immediately transfer Page Rank (PR) or Domain Authority to your new domain.

Even if your new domain is an exact copy of your old site and you have permanently 301 redirected all URL”s to exactly the same content on a new domain to avoid any duplicate content being indexed, you won’t get back the search traffic for some time.

I’ll report back in a few weeks to see exactly what the progress is.

Have you moved domains or are you thinking about it?

What is the reason you want to make the change?

I keep getting emails from one client that keeps asking the same questions. Why? Because they aren’t getting enough traffic and therefore aren’t making enough sales. Fair enough.

I try and show them how i get traffic because it works after trying many methods and working out what works and what doesn’t

One of the best sources of new readers is from the search engines because searchers are looking for something at that time.

Subscribers receive an update everyday but generally don’t need the solution you have written about at the time they receive your blog post.

Seo Basics

Learn the basics of Seo and incorporate those Seo techniques into your content

Publish unique content daily

Create useful content that’s vital to the solution

Cover all bases to that solution within the post or link to other posts which do

Learn from the expert bloggers as they are the benchmark you aim to succeed

Website sales copy doesn’t work on blogs

Pre sell using real, authentic stories which solve real problems

Don’t focus on making money or yourself or your brand

The Best Seo Guides for Beginners

Written by Google  – Beginners Guide to Search Engine Optimization

Written by SEOMoz – Beginners Guide to Seo

The most successful bloggers

Darren Rowse – His main blog is photography and his photography blog has over 500,000 subscribers across all networks

Brain Clarke – He started with Copyblogger and now owns Studiopress and a new hosting solution for Studiopress

Chris Pearson – Thesis creator with the most useful theme users guide, great blog tips both on his personal blog & Thesis blog

There’s many more.

Learning the basics of and really understanding the basics of Seo is a major key to success because its focused on giving your readers exactly what they want and need at the time they are looking.

Here’s eight more SEO tips for on page optimization.

How do you perform SEO on your content?

Do you focus more on on page or off page SEO?

Changing domains is a decision you should spend some time on and research properly before you take the big plunge because you will suffer in the search results for some time.

I’ve already written about how to get your links indexed after changing domains so you should also check to make sure your links have been redirected properly which you can also do using Google Webmaster Tools.

Here’s an article on the Google Webmaster Blog which talks about how to discover your links in GWT

When you change domains, even though you can create a 301 permanent redirect so all your URL’s arrive at exactly the same content on your new domain, the link juice will become diluted.

Here’s why:

If you have 100 links coming from 20 different domains, you’ll find many of them now come from one single domain, your old domain.

Its better to have 20 links coming from 20 related domains rather than 100 links coming from mostly unrelated domains or coming from only 10 different domain sources.

The reason for this is because they are redirected from your old domain and the search engines count them as being from one source which is nowhere near is good as having them come directly from different domain sources.

The result of this is your domain authority and trust will not be nearly as good therefore your search engine results will not be nearly as high resulting in less traffic.

Old Domain Links

New Domain Links

While i have more links according to Google Webmaster Tools, the source of the links has changed since i changed domains and reduced by more than 50%

The fix: Focus more time and effort on writing more content and increase the time you spend on link building. Also fix any 404 page not found errors which you can easily complete using Google Webmaster Tools.

Personally, i have never spent much time on link building and try and focus on creating real solutions to real problems all related to the overall topic of my site.

I read a really good article recently on SEOmoz about the relevance of content and why relevance is the most important Seo factor. Actually your content should not just be relevant but Vital & Useful which are even more important than just relevance.

Time will tell what happens over the next few weeks and months so i will report back on how the change is effecting my traffic from the Google & Bing SERPS.

I’ll be posting my site stats here in about a weeks time to show you exactly how things are going which will show the days before i made the change and several weeks afterwards.

Next time, we’ll take a look at what happens to your keyword rankings when you change domains.

Did you suffer from any broken links when you changed domains?

What happened to your links when you changed domains?