Site maps can assist in overcoming both those problems. Its really important that you have a version for each problem… If you are using WordPress as your Content Management System, there are two plugins that solve both issues very effectively.

Google XML Sitemaps:

- an external file aimed specifically at the search engine spiders. These are a less than pretty list of pages, with last update, priority and rate of change indicators. The major search engines all agreed to a specification and location format. The correct convention is that the file should be called sitemap.xml, should be located in the root directory, and should be referenced in the robots.txt file as follows; Sitemap: http://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

The Google XML Plugin fulfill the role of automated creation/ updates of the sitemap file, according to basic parameters that you set.

Download Plugin

HTML Sitemaps:

- an internal website file that provides an overview of the internal page structure of the site. This page can be accessed by visitors who are not sure what is where – and also provide additional clues to search engines.  The Dagon Design Sitemap Generator, once installed and configured, automatically manages your HTML sitemap. The sitemap becomes another item on your menu that anyone can access.

Download Plugin

What you want is an explicit, keyword-rich URL! A search engine friendly URL… something more like; www.yoursite.com/guaranteed-bad-credit-mortgage-finance.html

However, a lot of people never get it quite from an SEO perspective, so lets shed some light on it.

Using Permalinks

This is controlled from within in Admin / Setting / Permalinks. The default is;

So, what we need to do is change that so we get an explicit Category / Page name format like this;

Having changed the setting, and clicked on “Save Changes” you will need to check that the required Mod_Rewrite code is inserted in your .HTACCESS file. Depending on how your site’s file access permissions are configured, WordPress may, or may not, be able to write directly to the .HTACCESS file.

If WP cannot automatically update .htaccess, you have two options;

1. Change the .htaccess file access permissions so that WP can write to it, then reset back to original permissions afterwards
2. Manually edit the .htaccess file and paste in the Mod_Rewrite code

Once you’ve completed this step, you will discover that editing page and posts now displays verbose, plain-English URL’s based on the page or post title as you enter and save pages / posts.

You can edit this as / if required, to ensure the URL is exactly as YOU want it to be…. For this site, page URLs start to look like this; www.website-designers.net.nz/the-best-plugins/title-meta-tags-management.htm

Post Slug

The “Post Slug” option also allows you to manually control the URL for the post

- and this appears in the Posts / Edit / Quick Edit options;

Ok, so this one is a no-brainer for an SEO Guy! The All In One SEO PACK has been around a while, evolved through a few revisions, and has proven remarkably bulletproof. I’ve only ever heard one person remark that it caused a problem on a site – no specific details – but I’ve personally never experienced any issues with it drectly, nor indirectly via conflicts with other plugins.

From an SEO perspective, the basic requirement is total manual control over off-page title & meta-tags;

• Title – this is  the single most important SEO element
• Description – the 2nd most important element
• Keywords – limited value, but can convey some traction if used properly

Coupled with the “Page Slug” or URL, in conjunction with proper use of the “Permalinks” search-engine friendly URL tool, you’ve go most of the bases covered!

The Home page within a WordPress CMS can be a quirky little thing to deal with, becasue its not directly editable like a page or a post. No problem, because All In One SEO provides specific manual control for that page too!

The All In One SEO pack plugin, in conjunction with manual control over URLs, allows you to carefully manage the 4 most important off-page SEO elements, and a whole lot more.

It does so with a clean, simple interface that even a non-technical person can follow – not always the case with some plugins! I’ve used Headspace2, and its impressive – but for my daily work use on multiple client sites, there are too many options. I’m more of a minimalist – the KISS principle prevails – and Headspace2 is more like a Swiss Army knife… whereas All In One SEO Pack does one thing very well – like a screwdriver…

Download Link:

When the economic gravy pot is bubbling merrily, and there’s ample business gravy slopping over, even the mediocre get a share. But when the economic ice age casts midnight shadows at noon, and credit wolf packs softly pad the empty streets, howling balefully at the waning moon… then, when you’re sucking the last congealed streaks of business gravy off your tarnished website spoon, ask yourself… Can you afford your website to be second rate, disorganised and drifting ever further into the icy wastes of mediocrity? With a better understanding of why SEO is so important to your website’s success, could you continue to ignore it?

» Full article on The Why of of SEO

They won’t work at all, or

They won’t take advantage of new features

For maximum flexibility, try and choose a theme which is actually designed to be used as a CMS with a static Home page in place. Look for one with a CSS-based drop-down menu structure, which automates menu generation. Make sure its “widget” friendly, and therefore easy to add sidebar plug in widgets without coding being necessary. We like the Revolution series, and themes from iThemes are also well engineered.

Ben Kemp – the SEO Guy – www.Website-Designers.net.nz