Well, so you’ve just started your WordPress blog and are up and running with your first post. Precisely at this point, you wonder what could you do to make WordPress do just a little more. Here’s what!!
- Get some WordPress plugins!
Plugins are a great way to extend WordPress. They could provide you with zillions of customizations or added functionalities for your blog. While not all may be utmost important, but I’ve listed some of the must have plugins below:- Akismet - Stops comment spam.
- SEO Title Tag - Optimizes your blog’s titles for individual post pages so that your pages rank better in search engines.
- WordPress Related Posts - Shows posts related to every post. Readers tend to read more of your blog’s content as a result.
- Google XML Sitemaps - This one is a must must have! Just get it ASAP. It will automatically generate sitemaps for your blog, which will enable search engines to index your blog content easily.
- WordPress.com Stats - Quite a useful plugin. It will basically generate reports of visitors and page views of your blog. You’ll need to have an account at WordPress.com to use it though.
- Generate and submit your sitemap!
Sitemaps are XML files that contain information about all the possible pages in your site. Typically, a sitemap provides a list of URLs of the pages that are a part of your site, along with other information like when was the page last updated, what is the frequency of the updates and how important the page is. So why a sitemap?
A sitemap is a very easy and efficient way to tell search engines about the structure of yur site. The first thing you would want to do, even if you have a single page website is generate a sitemap and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools. It will take some time before your sitemap is verified by Google, but once it is, you will see your pages being indexed by Google really fast! If anyone of you has faced a problem in getting your blog listed in Google (or other search engines), this is probably the first thing you gotta try. In case of WordPress users, you would want to get the Google XML Sitemaps plugin which automates the entire process of generating the sitemap every time you update your blog. It also automatically notifies Google, MSN and Yahoo! about the update.
For more information on sitemaps, you can head over to Sitemaps.org. With your sitemap updated at its place, your blog content will be indexed by search engines really fast. Which means more readers coming your way through search! - Enable Permalinks!
Permalinks? Well, yes. Ever came across a link on the internet that goes like
http://www.something.com/index.php?page=1
Permalinks a.k.a. permanent links are restructured links that look just more sensible and are easy to track by search engines. A permalink corresponding to the above link maybe something like
http://www.something.com/page/1
As you can see, permalinks restructure the GET parameters of a request, making them seem to be links to static pages, thus the name permalinks. Search engines like static links, rather than ones with a hundred parameters. Enabling permalinks will make sure that search engines index most of the content on your site or your blog. Not only that, it will make your links easier to read, remember and understand.
WordPress already has an inbuilt feature to enable permalinks for all your pages. You can find it under “Settings » Permalinks” in your dashboard. Change the link structure here from “Default” to something you like. I would recommend changing it to “Month and name”. - Promote your blog URL!
Well, this is one of the basics. Don’t expect someone to come and read your blog if they don’t just know about it! Make sure you tell your friends about your blog.
Put your blog URL under your email signature. Set it as “Homepage URL” on any networking sites or online communitites that you use. Visit other blogs, make comments and leave your blog URL there. The more incoming links to your blog, the better!
You could also try submitting your blog URL to search engines using one of the free online services. Just do a Google with keywords like “free search engine submit” and you’ll come up with loads of results. - Post Frequency vs. Post Content
No, blogs with more posts don’t get famous! Instead, blogs that have better content in their posts do. It is better to write a great post once a week, rather than writing one everyday just for the sake of doing it. Make your readers come back for more, by making them wait for quality content.
Doing these 5 basic things with your brand new blog will boost your initial readership and make sure that search engines lead more visitors to your blog. Just what a new enthusiastic blogger would want!
Comments and suggestions are welcome! 
Akash.
