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Every WordPress website is initially built the same way. They all have a login page and there are two ways to get to it. If you’ve used WordPress for any length of time you probably already know that you can access the login screen for nearly any WordPress powered website by adding /wp-login.php or /wp-admin to the domain name. Both bring up the same login form. Anyone trying to break into your website would try those two URL’s first.

There are technical ways to “move your wp-admin login” to a new URL, but the easiest way is to just use a plugin. In the spirit of “there’s a plugin for that”, you might want to try Lockdown WP-Admin.

In the image above (click for full size) you’ll see how easy the plugin options are. Just check the box if you want to disable the logins to anyone that isn’t logged in. Also you can rename the login from wp-admin to anything you want. Make it /login or /logmein. This adds a bit of extra security to your WordPress powered website and makes it a little less “standard”.

Click here to learn more about our WordPress Services

WordCamp Detroit 2011 will be held at the Detroit Renaissance Center on November 12th, and 13th. The annual event celebrates the open source software “WordPress” that now runs more than 50 million websites. If you’re a web developer, designer, business owner, or website owner that uses WordPress – attending the event would not only help promote the software that runs your website, you’ll be meeting with and networking with WordPress enthusiasts from all over the state of Michigan!

If you don’t already have your ticket, please visit the website before they’re all sold out:

WordCamp Detroit 2011 website

10 speakers will give presentations on various technical and non-technical WordPress subjects, it doesn’t matter what your level of experience, there will be something for everyone! This event only comes once per year, so make sure you get to be a part of it. There are tickets still available (at the moment) get yours before they’re gone.

JTPratt Media is proud to be on the WordCamp Detroit organizing committee for 2011 – helping to spread the word of WordPress!

When your website is “indexed” by search crawlers and spiders – they visit your homepage, and follow all the links to determine how many web pages you have (and if they should be indexed). This is a very hap-hazard and tedious way to index web pages, so a new standard was developed 4-5 years ago called the “XML sitemap”. XML is a programming language, and an XML sitemap is a list of pages in your website, their importance, and the last modified date. Using the XML sitemap a search crawler can not only determine how many web pages you have (and their location), it quickly knows which ones were updated last.

For static websites, you can create your own XML sitemap by using a few online like this one:
XML-Sitemaps.com

Then, place the file (sitemap.xml) in the root of your website, like this:

http://www.website.com/sitemap.xml

If you have a WordPress powered website, all you have to do is install the very popular Google XML Sitemaps plugins.

Next you need to signup with the 3 major search engine webmaster control panels:
http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
http://www.google.com/webmasters/

A lot of people ask us, “why register with Yahoo when all their search results now come from Bing (through the Microsoft partnership)?”. The answer is, because Yahoo says as long as registration is available – use it until integration with Bing is complete (and there is no date as yet).

Once you have an account at all 3 search engines you’ll be asked to “verify” (that you own) your website by placing either a meta tag in HTML code, or a webpage in the root of your website. Once your site is verified, you can “submit” the URL of your sitemap to each search engine – so their crawler knows where it is. In addition, each search engine has (different) statistics that you can view regarding the indexing of your website – including success, failure, and any problems or error messages.i

You’d be surprised how much better your indexing and search traffic can be once you take the simple step of registering with the big 3 search engines!

You might also be interested in our SEO Services.

You may have heard recently that Facebook is now bigger than Google. Nobody would have predicted this just a few years ago. Nobody would have predicted in 1998 that Google would wipe out nearly every single one of the 30 existing (and very popular) search engines that we used a little more than a decade ago.

Let’s look at some stats from around the web over the last 6 months.

• Google makes 14X more revenue per impression as Facebook (Oct 2010 stats)
• Facebook has 7% of all Internet traffic (same stats)
• 99% of Google’s profits come from text ads
• Facebook now has more pageviews than Google
• People spend more time on Facebook than Google
• Facebook is earning DOUBLE the revenues Google reported when it went public

In 2008 Facebook had revenue of $275 million.
In 2009 Facebook had revenue of $635 million.
2010 Facebook revenue is said to be $2 billion.

My key takeaway from the Oct 2010 Techcrunch article How Facebook Can Become Bigger in Five Years Than Google is Today was that:

Google gets it’s revenue from advertising.
Facebook gets it’s revenue from advetising AND commerce.

Oh – and wait…”brand advertising” is a $600 billion market. And Facebook is a much better place to do that type of advertising, where people are “socially”.

What really made me think of all this (again) was today when I read that you can now rent movies on Facebook. This is what I predict to be the beginning of big things to come. Let’s think about a Google a minute. There was a time when they said they wouldn’t be getting into operating sytems. Or cell phones. Or social media. Or a lot of the things they do now. And yet, they’re doing them all. Android phones are dominating the market, and Google’s web browser gains market share every day.

The point is, when I wrote on my blog last night the post “Is Google Asking YOU to block bad results I indicated that people once used Google because they were better than EVERYTHING else online. But now they are so big, that they can’t even control their own search results (and their asking the users to help police them). The comes a point when a company’s so big that they aren’t nimble anymore – and someone with new ideas and better functionality can knock them down in just a year or two. Like Firefox did the Netscape and IE. And how I predict Facebook will crush Google in just a few years.

Today you’re watching movies on Facebook, but I predict within 1-2 years they will launch a search product. And possibly enhance their ad platform to be like Adwords / Adsense. If that happens – it’s on! Facebook is poised like the Karate Kid and his crane kick – to knock Google right in the head. Only time will tell if they will be successful or not – but they’re in a pretty good position.

Everyone is talking about Google’s new “social signals” for ranking. Do you know what that means for your business? Will you rank well in Google without using Facebook and Twitter? Don’t worry – we can easily explain what “social signals” will mean for your business.

I want you to think of your search engine rankings like a tent. Your “tent” is your online authority. Each tent pole is an anchor that helps hold your tent down. Think of the number of searches that are done each day as your tent – which is about to be blown over by the wind.

The image above is a HUGE tent pole, like the big one you’d see at the center of a circus tent. If your web site were a tent, the huge tent pole would probably be your home page and it’s authority. If your homepage has ENOUGH authority (like the big tent pole) it probably won’t get lost in search rankings (it won’t blow away).

Look at the tent in the image above. It has one main huge tent pole in the center, and then about 10 smaller anchoring tent poles around the outside. If that circus tent were your web site, the supporting perimeter poles would include your online social signals – and other things that supported your online authority.

Look at this image – which directly illustrates what “social signals” are like in Google and what they mean to search rankings. Using social media can only help augment your brand online. You may be able to survive with “one tent pole”, but if you firmly want to “anchor” yourself deeply in search results, using social media to help do that will give you more online authority.

You want to “build up” your Twitter and Facebook accounts just like you were raising those supporting tent poles. Grow a following, interact with people, expand your base and online authority.

Direct Evidence that Social Signals Count

So far, this article has been little more than analogy and hype to convince you (yet again) that you should be using social media in your online marketing strategy. We HATE posts of that nature that don’t provide specifics (which are usually not much more than regurgitated info-rhetoric).

Google using social media in search ranking is a fairly new topic to 2011. But the conversation started back in December 2010 when Search Engine Land actually interviewed the Google team responsible for the google search ranking algorithm. Note – NOT the web spam team (headed by Matt Cutts), but the team actually responsible for ranking. They indicated months ago in that interview that social results would be part of the ranking algorithm, but (as always) couldn’t provide specifics, only general concepts.

And this is a synopsis of what they said…

Let’s say somebody is searching for something, and they FOLLOW you in social media. As a result (of them following you) YOUR CONTENT is more likely to come up in THEIR SEARCH RESULTS!

DO YOU GET IT NOW??

When it comes down to it, (now) using social media isn’t about being the cool kid on the block, using the latest buzzwords, or staying trendy and relevant – it means that you’re getting in front of a customer’s face MORE OFTEN.

What “More Often” Really Means in Results

We were at a loss of what to call this new found social relevance in results, until we read this free SEOMoz post about Tweets Effect Rankings: Unexpected Case Study.

In that post they use the term “Author Authority“. If you tweet things and people “like” your brand – your “author authority” will increase. This more “likes” and “retweets” you get on a regular basis – the more “author authority” you will have.

This means that in order to do business online you must realize the following:

• Just because you have a successful online brand, doesn’t automatically mean your social media will be successful (without work)
• Social media are separate, yet complementary anchors to online authority overall
• You must build social “author authority” to complement your online authority

Conclusion

All in all, if you’re going to do business online – you need a broad online marketing strategy, that includes social signals as well as other elements. Set your anchors deep for good search rankings. Do you want your tent to blow away?

Contact Us for Your Online Marketing Needs

If you want to know “Best Practices for WordPress and SEO”, you came to the right place! Last night I spoke at WordPress Ann Arbor for their meetup group and spoke about WordPress and SEO.

WordPress Ann Arbor

I thought it was a great presentation – and not because I gave it, but because I was able to give about 30 people a decent understanding of what SEO is, and best practices for using SEO inside a WordPress web site. I’m also happy that now I can supply that presentation slide deck to others, and thanks to Lindsay Babl (Ann Arbor Graphic Design) – who was kind enough to run my Flip video, I have 99% of the presentation on video for you to watch. The slide deck has great info, but trust me – if you watch the video (all 1 hr and 10 minutes of it) you’ll get MUCH more out of the presentation. I would also like to thank Ross (3.7 Designs), and Declan (Logic by Design).

I want to thank all of the attendees of the WordPress Ann Arbor meetup, because I think that all the questions the audience asked were valid and timely. It helps me to get input and questions like that, so I can add to the material here – and over time we can educate even more people on WordPress and SEO. I’m going to get this page well ranked for Best Practices for WordPress SEO over time – and hopefully we can help thousands of people across the world.

What’s in the Best Practices WordPress SEO Presentation

Well, that’s a good question. As I mention in the video – I put this presentation together to help people understand SEO as a whole, and how it applies to WordPress. I don’t think there’s much sense just showing how WordPress SEO plugins work, if you don’t know the basics of how SEO works, and how search engines rank pages. If you go through the complete slide deck and watch the entire hour long+ video, you will learn:

• What is SEO?
• What is Keyword Research?
• What is Competitive Analysis?
• WordPress Web Site Configuration for SEO
• WordPress SEO Plugins
• WordPress Sitemap Plugins
• Search Engine Registration
• WordPressSitemap Submission
• WordPress Commenting Plugins
• WordPress internal linking strategy
• On-Site Content Optimization
• Link Building and Online Promotion

This is information that people pay thousands of dollars to get from agencies and professional SEO’s (and some keep it to themselves). I firmly believe that everyone who owns a WordPress powered web site should have this information.

Download Best Practices WordPress SEO Presentation Here

You can download the slide deck for the presentation at the link below. When I add embed the video to this page once it’s done processing, I’ll also embed the presentation here once I throw it up on slideshare.

Best Practices for WordPress and SEO

Best Practices for WordPress and SEO Video

There’s an hour and ten minutes of video from this presentation processing right now. It’s going to take me about a day to get it edited and up to YouTube. I’m going to put it there (and embed it on this page once done) in hopes that others will embed and use the videos on their sites as well – and we can reach even more people. Please revisit this page within the next 24 hours to watch the video (I have to break it up into 5 videos due to YouTube’s 15 minute upload limit).

There’s a signup form at the bottom of this page, if you give me your email (don’t worry, your privacy is safe with me) – I’ll notify you each time this page is updated or we have more information or resources about WordPress and SEO.

Best Practices for WordPress SEO Resources

Well, this is what every wants – the resources that go along with the WordPress SEO presentation. I couldn’t exactly throw out a bunch of links in the presentation – everybody wouldn’t be able to write them all down, so here are the resource web sites that go along with the content of the video and slide deck presentation (more links to be added soon):

SEOMoz Search Engine Ranking factors

Google Takes Action against Content Farms

All in One SEO Pack

Platinum SEO Pack

Google XML Sitemaps

Search Engine Webmaster Control Panels:
google.com/webmasters
bing.com/webmaster
siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

Why Am I Providing this Information for Free

Because I’m a firm believer in Karma and the “Pay it Forward” mentality. Just because I’m giving away this information, it doesn’t mean I’m giving away my services or secrets for free. Many people read all this information about SEO – and once they see how much work it is – they just want somebody else to do it all for them (me!). Others are freelancers, entrepreneurs, small business owners, or simple people out of work trying to gain new skills. Kudos to you – I hope this information helps you in some small way become more successful!

How to Contact Me

If you are interested in hiring me and would like to become a client, by all means please use the Contact JTPratt Media form online.

If you would like to read some of the 300+ articles I’ve written in the past about dozens of WordPress subjects, there’s a wealth of information on my WordPress Help Blog.

If you do the social media thing, I can be found posting from time to time on twitter.com/jtpratt

To make sure you know when and where I might speak and give other presentations, you might want to friend me at Facebook.com/JTPrattMedia

Get WordPress SEO Updates!

To be notified of any Best Practices for WordPress SEO changes (to this page) – or any new WordPress SEO info I’m sending out, subscribe to my free newsletter:

Presenting at WordCamp Detroit was an honor, and it was also great to finally have a WordPress conference in Michigan! Thanks again to Anthony Montalbano, Todd J. List, all the other presenters – and everyone else who made it a great success! This year there were 100 participants, with people that had to be turned away because of the size of the venue. That means that next year will be even bigger and better, more than like with 250 participants or more!

It was incredible not only how many people were there to learn to how to use WordPress to it’s fullest, but I was surprised by how many people were there to learn more ways to better use WordPress to make money.

By “making money” I don’t mean using WordPress as a main street business – I mean using WordPress as an affiliate marketer or blogger that’s trying to make some money online for additional (or full time) income. I completely understand what these people are trying to do – because I’ve been an affiliate marketer for years. Since about 2001, in fact (when I first got my Amazon Associates account).

Since there were so many varying types of backgrounds at WordCamp, as far as “networking” goes – I did want to point out that I do two kinds of business online. This is my corporate web site, for clients that need WordPress plugin and theme development, SEO work, PPC management, Online Marketing, etc. My JTPratt.com blog, however, contains 300+ posts about both hacking WordPress, and making money online (with WordPress). So if that is also your interest, I highly encourage you to visit that site as well.

Without further ado, here is a link to download my presentation from WordCamp Detroit (7MB, just right click and “save as”), it’s in powerpoint format. If you have powerpoint, or don’t want to download it, just view it embedded in this page below. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below, or to use my contact page. Please use the links at the right to connect with my on Facebook and Twitter.

WordCamp Detroit Presentation: Hacking Themes

Welcome to all WordCamp Detroit Attendees! Thanks for stopping by JTPratt Media, and we hope that throughout the WordCamp weekend you learned a LOT more about WordPress! I’m very grateful to Anthony for putting this on – I’ve been waiting YEARS for somebody to do a WordCamp within driving distance for me, and FINALLY it’s here!

If you see me speak this weekend, or we just happened to meet on one of the networking breaks – please leave me a comment below on this post! I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you!

Also, this is my corporate site. I encourage you to visit my JTPratt.com Blog, with more than 300 posts about blogging, and hacking WordPress!

You may also be interested in another project of mine WordPress Directory

Feel free to connect with me on Facebook.com/JTPrattMedia as well.

At JTPratt media, we specialize in WordPress Plugin Development! If you’re looking for a custom WordPress plugin or WordPress programming – our expertise in “Wordpress Plugin Development” is second to none.

Wordpress is a great open source environment with plenty of free themes and plugins, but if you are going to rely on WordPress for business – you not only need to know that your plugins are going to work, you need to know if you have a problem you have a dedicated support source for them. We look for long term relationships with our clients, and we can create your custom WordPress plugin now, AND maintain it as long as you would like into the future.

WordPress Plugin Development

Wordpress Plugin Development

We can and have created WordPress plugins that do all kinds of things:

• Affiliate Plugins: Plugins that work with eBay, Amazon, Clickbank, ShareASale, LinkShare, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, and more!
• Content Plugins: Custom plugins for YouTube, Yahoo News, Yahoo Answers, Article Directories, Google News, Craigslist
• Social Media Plugins: Custom WordPress plugins for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Groupon, Social Bookmarking sites
• Aggregation Plugins: RSS Aggregation, Autoblogging, republishing, rewriting, distribution
• Membership Plugins: Complete public and private membership web sites with custom plugins, or integration of popular plugins such as WishList Member or AMember. Customization of existing WordPress plugins
• GeoMashup plugins: WordPress plugin development of GeoMashup sites. For example, google maps site plotting nationwide or international events, local deals by store on a google map, etc.
• WordPress Specific Plugins: WordPress plugins for custom post types, wordpress 3.0 navigation menus, category or tag organization, scheduled posts, content augmentation, content monetization, ad display and rotation systems
• Custom Widgets: Drag and drop widgets for content, external data, internal data, images, social media, and more
• Custom Theme Admin: WordPress development inside a theme, we can embed plugin functions into any new or existing WP theme, color pickers, color scheme managers, image upload for header, footer, posts, and/or sidebars, multiple columns, custom theme pages, theme builders, enhanced visual editors, and more!
• e-Commerce: Shopping carts, paypal carts, shopping cart integration, Clickbank integration, digital downloads and ebook sales, iTunes integration
• SEO Plugins: Plugins for keyword density, better rankings, linkbuilding, content exchange, internal linking, keyword counting and SEO scoring, image smart SEO, and more
• Sitemap Plugins: XML Sitemaps, video sitemaps, mobile sitemaps, visitor sitemaps, and image sitemaps
• Mobile Plugins: WordPress plugins developed to display alternate themes for mobile visitors, to ensure your site is usable on Smartphones like Android mobiles and iPhones.
• Small Business Specific Plugins: WordPress plugin development for specific markets – such as real estate, mortgage lending and loans, auto dealerships (new and used), etc.
• Directory Plugins: WP plugins for creating open directories like Yahoo or DMOZ – only used for specific purposes. Such as wedding vendor directory, insurance agent directory, realtor directory, country, county, or city specific directory, etc.

WordPress Plugin Licensing

Wordpress Plugin Licensing

We also specialize in WordPress plugin licensing. Many plugins we create are designed to be sold as “Premium WordPress Plugins”. Most WordPress plugin development has very basic licensing, such as “email registration”, and the only ability they have is to license one or unlimited sites.

We have licensing packages available in any combination you can imagine. You can license plugins out for 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, unlimited (or any number) of domains. You can tie the registration to specific modules (they get only what they pay for). We can tie it into your payment gateway with auto-renewal, and auto-expiration each month. There’s nothing we can’t do with plugin licensing. We can even encrypt and fully obfuscate all the code so it can’t be copied, and create windows based installers and installation wizards for you! Custom training manuals, video training, and support can be provided as well.

You might also be interested in our other WordPress Services

To Request more WordPress Plugin Development information, please fill out the form below, and we’ll respond within 24 hours.

Looking for custom graphic design services? We offer graphic design for web templates, WordPress themes, corporate, small business, and web site logos, banners, landing pages, and more! Our designers work with Fortune 100 companies each and every day, creating graphics that are eye-catching, cutting edge, and more importantly – ones that are professional and that convert! If you are looking for pro graphics to give you the edge you need, let us give you a proposal for your online project.

To inquire further, please fill out the form below:

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