All Entries Tagged With: "seo"
WordPress Tip: What To Do When Permalinks Don’t Work
Here’s a good article on WordPress permalinks. Can’t really argue with it.
When WordPress Permalinks Don’t Work
By Royce TivelYou have just completed the installation and configuration of your new WordPress blog–by the book. You proudly log into the dashboard and select a customized permalink (I use /%postname%/) and then hit the “Save Changes” button to save your configuration. Your blog now–goes crazy. When you try to access your blog, your browser returns nasty error pages instead of your blog’s content.
You recheck everything again, but can’t find any problem with your installation procedure. Using your FTP program or the WebShell utility at your web-host’s control panel, you verify that all of the necessary WordPress files and folders are in place and that the permissions are set correctly. In desperation, and using the control panel’s phpMyAdmin interface, you also verify that the MySQL database has been installed correctly and that the installer has configured the database tables. What could be wrong?
Before deleting your WordPress files and folders and zeroing out the database prior to trying a new installation, you grab a cup of your favorite beverage and relax a minute. You think about your installation. You remember that your new blog worked perfectly before you elected to change the permalink structure. Maybe it’s time to look at the server’s error log for the blog’s domain to see if it points to the root problem.
In the server’s error log, accessed from the web-host’s control panel, you notice the following error entry:
[Sun Mar 29 13:30:38 2009] [error] [client ...] Options FollowSymLinks or SymLinksIfOwnerMatch is off which implies that RewriteRule directive is forbidden ….
Bingo! Now you remember seeing something when you used your control panel to set up your blog’s domain. You log into your control panel and select the “Web options” icon. Right at the top of the options page you see that the “Symbolic Links” option is disabled. You enable and apply this option–and now the health of your blog is restored.
Well, almost restored. One nagging error continues to be recorded in the error log:
[Sun Mar 29 22:07:14 2009] [error] [client ...] File does not exist: …/favicon.ico
When a browser accesses a web site, it always looks for a favicon.ico. WordPress does not install a favicon.ico by default. You need to either create your own or upload something suitable. Once the favicon.ico is uploaded into the blog’s root directory, this log error will disappear, too.
P.S. The Error log is your friend. Be sure to look at it from time to time.
For more articles, tips, and tutorials of interest to WordPress users, please visit these web sites:
http://www.blog.selectdigitals.com
http://www.selectdigitals.comArticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Royce_Tivel
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Blog Theme Customization: Is It Worth It?
Should you customize your blog theme? It’s a question that every company will have to consider when starting a new blog. Or why not just go with an off-the-shelf blog theme?
There are pros and cons to using a theme right off the shelf without any customization. One pro is an off-the-shelf blog theme will not cost you anything. It’s free. If you want to customize your blog theme then you’ll run into additional expenses. You will, after all, have to pay the designer who does the work for you.
The most important aspect of this decision is in choosing a theme that is well optimized. You do not want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a blog theme customization only to find out that the theme isn’t well optimized and won’t get crawled by the search engine spiders. That’s why the designer you choose to perform the customization is as important as the blog theme itself. Your designer should have an understanding of search engine optimization and know what the search engines are looking for before he ever touches your blog theme.
When it comes to blog optimization, many off-the-shelf templates do the trick. But you still need to have an optimization expert look at your theme to see if it is well optimized for search. It’s the most important aspect of your blog theme’s design. The actual design is a close second.
How Important Is SEO To Your Blog?
Depending on who you talk to, many people classify blogging as social media. To be sure, there are important social media applications that blogging involves. But is it all about social media or is SEO important too?
We believe that SEO is as important to blogging as social media marketing. A true company blog attempts to brand you within your niche while targeting the search engines with your most important keywords and connecting with your target audience through social media tools. You could see it as a three-legged stool. One leg is for SEO and the other leg is for social media. The other leg is personal communication with your target audience through the blog itself.
Social media marketing should never be your primary goal with a blog. It can be augmented goal, but you should use your blog to communicate directly with your target audience and try to sell them on the benefits of your product or service. But targeting the search engines with key phrases related to your niche is important too. How will you attract your target audience if you don’t reach them through the search engines?
Blogging and SEO go hand in hand. Social media makes for a fine companion, but it’s like your children. They don’t make the marriage. They are a healthy byproduct of a successful marriage. Make SEO your marriage partner.
Blog Optimization: Template Or Original Design?
Should you use a blog template or have an original design for your blog? That’s an important question. There are pros and cons to both approaches.
If you use a blog template you run the risk of your template not being optimized properly. You might also find yourself using a template that thousands of other bloggers are using as well. That lack of originality might work against you in some industries. But pulling a template off the shelf can be easier and much less costly than having an original design done.
To be sure, there is no substitute for originality. Original designs tell your readers that you take pride in your business. But if you go with an original blog design be prepared to pay for it. Templates are free. Original designs, unless you do them yourself, are not. And another thing you have to be sure of with an original design is that your designer is familiar enough with SEO to optimize your design properly. If you hire a designer whose knowledge of SEO is not adequate you have no recourse. You are stuck with a non-optimized blog. With a template you can change it out for another one at no cost.
If you have the money to pay for an original blog design then by all means, go ahead and put forth the expense. But in today’s economy that’s a challenge for many businesses. That’s why you might be better off with a blog template. But who’s going to select one for you? Make sure your blog consultant knows how to tell the difference.
