It’s nice to see some SEO success from this blog. While it seems to contain pieces of random postings, it’s underlying purpose is to see how various subject matter ranks in search engines. This blog now ranks #1 for various searches related to ACL surgery, for example, patella vs hamstring. It really doesn’t matter that the rest of my website is about web marketing, photography, and misc other subjects. Because I have 3 or more ACL-related postings with strategically specific titles and supporting body copy, it performs well in searches. It’s been generating some great discussion too.

Another page that does well (a single posting even) is How to Win at Internet Checkers. If you type in Win Internet Checkers, it will lead to my blog posting in the #1 ranking in Google. It’s had 600 page views in the last 30 days, which isn’t bad for a single posting on a specific subject, with no other supporting inter-linked pages.

These pages performed well, despite not having the WordPress ‘tags’ shown. I’ve now added the tags back to the theme to see how the tags impact search traffic. This is the code added to the theme’s single.php: <?php the_tags('Tags: ', ', ', '<br />'); ?>

Drupal is a nice open source CMS (content management system), but it needs a few tweaks to have good SEO (search engine optimization).

If you already have Drupal installed, the easiest way to upgrade Drupal to be SEO friendly is this…

1. Download the ‘Pathauto’ module for Drupal. Choose the stable version (make sure you match it to your Drupal version)

2. Download the ‘Token’ module for Drupal.

3. Expand both files (might require expanding twice)

4. Use your FTP program to upload both folders into your ‘modules’ folder of your Drupal installation.

5. Login to your Drupal admin site and (if using Drupal version 6.x) click Administer > Site building > Modules

6. Scroll down and make sure ‘Path’ is checked, then scroll all the way down and check ‘Pathauto’ and ‘Tokenactions’, and make sure ‘Token’ is checked, if not already.

7. Login to your Drupal admin site and (if using Drupal version 6.x) click Administer > Site building > URL aliases

8. At the top, click ‘Automated alias settings’

9. Expand ‘General settings’ and select ‘Create a new alias. Leave the existing alias functioning.’ Because you want to update the old links to be SEO friendly, but not to break the existing links you’ve had. Select ‘Reduce strings to letters and numbers from ASCII-96′ as well.

10. Expand ‘Node path settings’ and in the first default path pattern field, change it to:

[title-raw]-[nid]

The above results in: www.domain.com/keyword-phrase-1

If the node number or another path isn’t included, it may be more vulnerable to hackers, so the code above adds the node # at the end. Refer to this site for a tutorial. In this same section, check ‘Bulk generate aliases for nodes that are not aliased’.

11. Expand ‘Taxonomy term path settings’ and check ‘Bulk generate aliases for terms that are not aliased’. You may also open the user path and forum path settings and likewise choose to bulk generate new aliases.

12. CLICK ‘SAVE CONFIGURATION’ !

13. Now you can log out and test your new SEO friendly URLs.

Here’s a basic example: Toastmasters website

This is a class I’ll be offering this week at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington…

NEW! Web Marketing Strategies & Search Engine Optimization
Increase traffic to your website, increase sales, and make more money online. Find out how to get free and paid listings in Google and Yahoo. Learn about online stores through eBay, Amazon, and Yahoo. Gain insight into email marketing and how to market through social media sites like Facebook, Linked-In, and Twitter. (Trent Mueller) $40

Three classes on Wednesdays, Jan. 14 – 28, from 7 – 8 p.m. in MAN 125, sign up for item number 2371. View the Lower Columbia College website for more information.