Steps for performing  SEO a wordpress blog using 6 plug-ins. This guide assumes you know basic html, css  and are familiar with using basic tools like FTP software.

First download the latest version and install and activate these plug-ins:

1. All in One SEO Pack
2. Google Sitemaps Plugin
3. Redirection Manager
4. Feed Locations
5. WP PageNavigation
6. Google Analytics for WordPress

1.       FTP two empty text files to the directory wordpress is installed named “sitemap.xml” and “sitemap.xml.gz”.  Chmod 777 both of them.  Note: In my ftp program I can right click and choose new text file and then name it whatever I want.

2.       Go to the wordpress homepage – check to see if the site has an h1 tag and look at what’s in it.

3.       If there is an h1 tag -  It should contain a title that has at last 1 keyword string something like “Social Media Marketing Services” or “Denver Colorado Homes for Sale” besides the company name.

a.        If not do the following – Login to wordpress admin and make sure blog has a blog title and tagline that are ready for public launch (ie not just the domain name or a repeat of the blog title in the tag line).  add a keyword string to the blog title after the company name or url, take if from the questionnaire if possible or from https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (type a few words describing their business and choose a string from the generated list)

b.      If there isn’t an h1 tag – check to see if it has an image header or the title of the blog contained in an image as opposed to regular text.

i.      If the blog has the title in an image

1.       Add the h1 tag to the themes footer linked back to the home or main url (domainname.com) , you may need to add css styling to make sure it doesn’t break the header or appear to large.  One quick way to do this is to give the h1 a separate class and copy all the styles it’s normally inheriting to this new class.

ii.      If the blog has the title in text

1.       Add h1 tags around it in the header file in word press, you may need to add css styling to make sure it doesn’t break the header or appear to large.  One quick way to do this is to give the h1 a separate class and copy all the styles it’s normally inheriting to this new class.

4.       Open up single post and page template in theme editor

a.       Check to make sure the title of the post is an h2 or an h1 – if it is leave alone if not add those tags and adjust css if the new header tags overlap or make things look bad.

5.       At the bottom of content area for the MAIN INDEX PAGE  (Page containing all the posts) and at the bottom of the content area on the category and archive templates put the following tag <?php if(function_exists(‘wp_pagenavi’)) { wp_pagenavi(); } ?> – make sure wppagenav is turned on and if there is lots of content you should see pagination.

6.       Upload the all in “one SEO plugin” – activate the plugin – go to options “All in one SEO”

a.       Un-check “use noindex for categories” and check “use no index for tag archives”

b.      If the blog title is short (4 words or so) leave the post, page, and caterogy titles alone.

c.       If the blog title is long (more than 4 words) delete the “%blog_title%” from the post title format, the page title format, the category title format, the arthicve title format, the tag title format, the seartch title format – and replace it with a short branding word or two (like the company name – for example to enhance branding I added “GoToBilling” and “RISMedia” at the end of 2 clients I optimized their blogs.

7.       Add a homepage description.  If the homepage is not the posts page (IE the front loading page on the site is an actual page and not the main blog or page containing the list of posts) Add a separate home title, description, and keywords that are different from the blog title, description(tag line) and keywords)

8.       Go to manage- redirection – check “Create 301 when post slug changes”  and log 404 errors

9.       Go to manage – feed locations – put the feedburner URL in all the entries except comments (if you can’t find feedburner URL , create a new one and update the setup).  If you don’t have a feedburner URL (sign up for one here)

10.   Go to Option – XML- Sitemap – if there are two read sentences at the top click “rebuild the sitemap manually” – you should see “your sitemap was last built…” with a series of success messages.

11.   Check options – privacy and make sure “I would like my blog to be visable to everyone” is checked.

12.   Go to plug-in, google analytics and make sure the US String for that user is entered (there unique tracking number from google, it’s in the code snippet google gives you)

photo credit: jphilipg

Now that race includes video, and another new trend: with more and more websites coming online, branding is taking back over, and small websites are seen less and less. We go to Expedia to buy Airline tickets, for instance, and now cheap Tickets.

The window for SEO supremacy is closing, as more and more mainstream companies embrace the emerging technology, the market will shift back 180 degrees to value the information itself over that way it is formatted, which is becoming more and more standardized.

Now the shift is back to the actual content production as having the journalistic value that creates the marketplace. While it still requires technical expertise beyond the novice, that gap will continue to close.

This means that conventional SEO companies and many web design companies need to completely re-think their strategies.

Not so long ago (I started my first company this industry in 2001) there was a race on to get to the top of the list – it was a wide open free-for-all with everyone shuffling to grab a huge emerging market: the need for search engine rankings and online PR of all kinds.

As SEO techniques become more and more defined as a distribution commodity, bought from Indian contractors, perhaps looked after very soon by major advertising agencies who used to control print budgets, this market is changing.

In the reality of this, my own company (socialmediasystems.com) is completely changing it’s definition to be involved with the creation and distribution of the content, rather than the formatting, and reformatting of canvas which is seen less and less:

Henceforth our emphasis will be on the creation and distribution of the content, rather than it’s formatting, which is quickly becoming standard.

We will move on to content creation and distribution – which is much more interesting anyway!

Who will control the first page of Google in the future? Why the best sources, of course.

Israel Rothman is the CEO of socialmediasystems.com LLC. To learn more about social media marketing, visit http://socialmediasystems.com.