Big Foot Web Marketing

Ahhh… site wide links. This is pet peeve of mine. . Sites that have all kinds of outbound links off the header, huge sidebars with categories and pages and mile long blogrolls. All these links are affecting page rank on specific pages- the page hit hardest is your main page- arguably the most important page on your site.
The minute you install word press you have a bunch of sitewide links on your blog. They are every where. Most themes will have at least one outbound link in the footer. All these outbound links are not only unnecessary but they are leaking page rank that could benefit your site. By using free plugins and doing some pruning to your site you can control page rank flow on your site- and even increase it.

Good Plugins To Control Page Rank Flow

Some plugins in can actually hep you control flow of links and page rank passing. There are tons out there- but these are the ones I like best.
One I like quite a bit is the nofollow from home plugin. What it does is add nofollow tags to external links on the main page.

Get Rid of Duplicate Outbound Links- Not Content

A plugin in that is highly underrated is Andy Beard’s Andy Beard’s NoFollow Those Dupes Plugin
. I think the reason is not as widely used as it should be is the lack of understanding of how it works.

Hidden Outbound Links
When you publish a post with a link in it- you have in effect created several pieces of content that have the same outbound link it- the same external link flowing OUT through multiple leaks. The post- and all the link sin it- will be in archive pages, category pages and popular posts, etc. What Andy’s plugin in does is not block the duplicate content- just the duplicate external link. Brilliant, eh?

it is customizable buts works great right out of the box. 99% of users will not need to make any changes.

If you do not have this installed- do so!

Clearing Out the Dark Recesses of Your Blog

You have site wide outbound links in all kids of places in your blog. Here are some places to check first.
Check your Footer
Go to Presentation/Themes/footer.php ( or similar)
You will see all kinds of garbage. Get rid of it. If you are using a free theme- leave the link to the theme creator- just add a nofollow tag. he will get credit and reader will be able to find out where you got your theme- you just wont; be giving him a link from every page on your site. You can always write a post about why you like his/her theme with a link to their site. This is much more valuable than a general link in the footer.
Take out any links you REALLY don’t want and add nofollows to the ones you want to leave.

Tackling Sidebar Clutter
There is a haven for links. If you STILL have those blogroll links that come with every Wordpress install- delete them now. I am not a fan of blogrolls. Keep your blog roll to a minimum. say 5-10 tops .Make sure links in your sidebar are relevant. Remove the link to your Aunt’s Israel vacation pics. If you want to showcase links or sites that you love- crate a page or write a post. If you must you can always write something like ” Sites Worth Mentioning” in a page and list there. “Top Ten….. ” type pages an posts are great. Better to do that than pop in a blogroll.

Go to sidebar.php or look in your widgets for superfluous sidebar links. Meta sections are notorious space wasters. if you feel bad about getting rid of them and think they MUST serve some purpose- then add nofollow tags to them

Re-Assess Widgets
Examine you widgets. I know- I am a widget JUNKIE so hard to believe I am offering up this advice. I am constantly trying new widgets and tools… but most times they create clutter and are not useful- as well as stealing your page rank.

Add NoFollow Tags to Ads
If you want to stay within Google guidelines- you have to have nofollow tags in all paid links and ads. If you have text links or buttons in your sidebar- or anywhere else- add nofollow tags to them.

Feedburner type links are also sometimes pre-installed in themes- add no follow tags to that link as well.
Many sites will have an Amazon product picture or link in the header or sidebar- add nofollow tags to those. I make it a habit to add nofollow to all my amazon links.

Here are some sites with more in depth help on de-cluttering your Blog’s Sidebar
Declutter your Sidebar
What’s Really Necessary in Your Sidebar
Reasons and Ways to Clean Up Your Sidebar

Control Link Flow – Add Nofollow Tags To Your Category and Pages.
I prefer to hard code my side bar. It is quite easy. Just open up your source code and copy into notepad. Find the section you want use, ie. “Pages” and paste into sidebar.php or use widget. You can also comb through the links and add nofollow tags that you don’t need or want page rank. I do this with pages like ” Advertising rate Information” “contact me” , etc.

Pair down Category Pages if you can. If you hard code your pages you can create a page that will not show up in sidebar- but you can add link to it elsewhere on the site.
Example:
Page: Most Popular Dog Breeds
links to:
( created but not hard coded in sidebar)
Schipperke page
Golden Lab page
Poodles, etc

Some of these ideas will take you minutes to implement some longer. Understanding the why will give you insight into the how. Knowing that site wide outbound likes can hurt you will make you think about your links and link placement- when or when NOT to add a link or use nofollow tags.

I am not condoning adding nofollow tags to every outbound link- this is a BAD idea. Adding links prudently is good practice. I am very generous with links and think they are the lifeblood of blogs.
You can control the page rank flow on your site by limiting outbound links with plugins and cleaning up sloppy external AND internal links on your pages and posts . By doing so you will get a page rank boost for your site and its key pages- as well as give readers a cleaner and more professional looking blog.

Useful Links:
How to Add NoFollow Tags To Your Links
Andy Beard’s NoFollow Those Dupes Plugin

Tags: Google, WordPress Blog, WordPress Plugins by Lisa Stewart
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When would you need to move your Wordpress blog from one domain to another?

-unexpected traffic. Thus may happen out out the blue when a story gets Dugg and your traffic spirals out of control and your cheap hosting pan can’t handle it.
-You hate your hosting company and just want to switch. – You started your blog as an add-on domain and want to switch it to its own domain.
-because.

-Back Up Your Site and Wordpress Blog
Follow the directions found here for Backing Up Wordpress Blog.

– Change Domain Nameservers. When you have settled on new host, set up your plan and use the domain you are currently using when it prompts for domain name. Most plans will then ask you if you own this domain and offer you choices. I use 1and1.com primarily and they make it pretty easy and its free. Some companies will charge you a transfer fee when moving domain hosting. You can either KEEP the domain hosting the same and just host the actually site on the new host OR you can transfer domain name to new host as well. I do find the latter easier, but up to you. If you decide to keep the domain with different company then where you are hosting- you will have to change DNS name servers. The host name will “point” to where you host. This is done in the admin panel of your DOMAIN. It may take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to do.

Note: Once you have done this- and the domain is switched over- you will NOT able to “see” site until you have set up new server. You will still have FTP access until you cancel account. The files stay in whatever folder you put them in.

Upload wordpress files, etc as per instructions here Backing Up Wordpress Blog.

Tags: Blogs and Blogging, WordPress Blog by Lisa Stewart
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If you are looking to KEEP the same domain name for your blog and just want to change hosts, read instructions for moving Wordpress blog to different hosting plan. If you want to change domain name and will be using same host, see below. If you are changing domain AND changing host do both. You only need to change namservers if you are changing hosting plans. You only need a 301 redirect if you are changing domain name and keeping blog the same.

Moving Your Wordpress Blog to New Domain

I am in the middle of re-directing from an old Wordpress blog with a domain I hate to one that is more palatable. There are two parts to this, 2st setting up new domain and importing all the post from the old domain- making a duplicate of the site, then redirecting from old domain to new.
Step 1: set up new domain with name I can live with. (note to self- the “cuteness” factor of a domain name is directly proportional to how much you will hate it in 3 years.)
I use 1and1.com and Dreamhost as my hosts.. My preference by far is 1and1.com. I may set up reseller account in New Year.

2. Backup and install old blog into new domain/new server. I am in the middle of this now. I am using the info here as guide:Moving your WordPress weblog to a new domain name. The information here is clear, precise and easy to understand.

HOURS or DAYS later when your “new” old blog is set up. Go to the 301 redirect. Easiest part of the whole process.

Set Up 301 Redirection

3. This is the most SEO “friendly” redirection. You are telling the server to redirect a visitor from the OLD page to the new page and giving it the message that this page has permanently moved to the new location.

In most cases the easiest and best way to do it is by by using the htaccess file. You will see this in root file of wordpress directory on your (old) server when connected with ftp client.

To redirect from an old domain to a new one

Edit your htaccess file by adding this to

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.mynewdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Where to place the 301 redirect code in htaccess file?
Put this code just UNDER where is says # END WordPress

4. If you are able- make it a priority to contact sites that have your old domain address and have them update your backlinks with new domain. Get some new links to your “new” domain ASAP. Leave them both up for about 6 months then take old blog down.

Possible Problems You Might Come Across When Moving your WordPress Blog To New Domain

How do I uncompress .gz file?
Power Archiver , which is freeware . I actually back up my database manually ( as opposed to using backup plugin). You will need to uncompress to change URL to new domain in your database and I seem to have difficulties with gz files. If your database is large you will have to compress or may hang up your PC. Note: MAKE COPIES OF THESE backups! I even go so far as to email them to my laptop or another computer.

Blank pages/not working, etc double check your passwords/user/database name, etc in config.php file. Chances are you have made a typo or left a space where there shouldn’t be.

Tags: WordPress Blog by Lisa Stewart
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Editing the Meta data in Wordpress Sidebar Widget

By default the meta widget in Wordpress have links going out to Wordpress as will as some RSS links to feed and feed comments. You can edit these, add links or remove them- but they sure don’t make it easy for the average blogger.

How to Remove Links in Meta Widget

This took a bit of digging and wasn’t as simple as I thought first time around. You want to edit file called widget.php .
Depending on what theme you have you may even have more than one file by that name.

Look for the widget.php file in wp-includes. You can edit this in most cases from your FTP client. Usually just have to right click and edit, then save ( will save to a temp file or your hard drive- NOT your server- stills need to be uploaded) . It will then ask if you want to upload/change/edit. Say yes.

Tips for Editing Widgets… ( or any other file on your server)

Save an original copy of the file you are editing SOMEWHERE. In case you make a mistake. Guaranteed the one time you don’t do it will be the time you screw it up. Ask me. I know.

What To Do When You have Made a Mistake

If you make a big mistake when editing a Wordpress theme or widget ( note to self- do not do any theme or any kind of major overhauls at 3am) and site is a mess and you can’t fix- try going to the original folder on your hard drive. Make sure you are using RIGHT version. Upload the problem file and overwrite. i.e If you have totally messed up header in your them- find them and upload just the header.php file ( or whatever file is problem)

Sometimes you can recover lost code by going to the Google cached version of a page and retrieving code there.

Make a habit when you do any kind of a major tweak to download and save your theme/files in case of a problem. no one ever PLANS to make a mistake.

Tags: WordPress Blog, Wordpress Themes by Lisa Stewart
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