In relation to my previous post in regards to Search Engine Optimization and WordPress, I’d like to add another quick note on more SEO tips using WordPress. In that post I told you about how the search string “hot issues bc” or “hot issues in vancouver” would return my website on #1? Well, I have a category named “hot-issues”, so there is a URL that goes like this :
https://www.jeffkee.com/blogold/category/hot-issues/
And under that page, I have many posts about different issues locally and around the world, and on the internet world. Also that page, in its title, has Vancouver, BC in it. That is awesome for SEO because the keyword “Hot Issues” is part of the URL(keep in mind that for Google, dashes in URLs serve as spaces, more or less), and there is enough content and the title/meta tags to support the keyword!!!
So, what should we all be doing?
Create category titles that are more relevant to the keywords that you want to be searched upon! Do not be afraid to be a little specific in the category titles even if it gets wordy. Because I want to sell this blog concept to my clients now, I will create a category named “Blog Consulting and Advice” just for that purpose!
And also while I’m at it, I will explain the concept of the post-slug. The post-slug can be found on the right-hand bar of your write or edit page on the WordPress admin, and this basically means what you can see on the URL. If you don’t fill out the slug, the URL for that page will automatically default to the title of the post with dashes in places of spaces and all other special url characters removed using the “urlencode();” function in PHP. But should we always let it default? Sometimes it’s OK. Other times, it’s not.
For this post, the title is “WordPress Advice on Category Names” because I think it’s catchy. BUT. I want the keyword “Search Engine Optimizaton” as well as “Blog” to be repeated. So what will I do? I will put in a slug that says “wordpress blog and search engine optimization tips and advice”. Of course, I do not want to abuse it, so I will not make it any longer than what I see here. This will toss in the URL more relevant keywords I want to be picked up by.
WordPress permalink structures can offer you a search-engine-friendly URL scheme, and if you use it to your best advantage, you can get great results on your search engine results. This concept can be implemented on many different business websites to attract customers in a more accurate and abundant way. I know, it sounds paradoxic. You narrow the target yet you get more traffic? Yes, I believe it can happen by optimizing the sites this way so that people can get better results faster!
For more information on SEO and URL schemes, read this previous post.