SEO | Stray Bits

Add This to .htaccess to speed things up

by Chris Cummings | Aug 14, 2018 | Google, htaccess, HTML, SEO, Wordpress

Enable Gzip and browser caching code. Add to the bottom of the .htaccess
# LBROWSERCSTART Browser Caching <IfModule mod_expires.c> ExpiresActive On ExpiresByType image/gif "access 1 year" ExpiresByType image/jpg "access 1 year" ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access 1 year" ExpiresByType image/png "access 1 year" ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access 1 year" ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month" ExpiresByType text/javascript "access 1 month" ExpiresByType text/html "access 1 month" ExpiresByType application/javascript "access 1 month" ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access 1 month" ExpiresByType application/xhtml-xml "access 1 month" ExpiresByType application/pdf "access 1 month" ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access 1 month" ExpiresDefault "access 1 month" </IfModule> # END Caching LBROWSERCEND
# START GZIP ENABLING # <IfModule mod_deflate.c> AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript </IfModule> # END GZIP ENABLING #

Google Search Console Microdata

by Chris Cummings | Nov 4, 2015 | Google, SEO, Wordpress

When running a site through Search Console, Google started crying and complaining that I didn’t have author or date micro data. Boo frickin’ hoo! 😉

Anywho I search for a while, tried a few things and found this code that fixes it:

Add this to your functions.php in your CHILD theme (you better be using a child theme, mister!)

//code to make google search console happy about microdata
function add_atom_data($content) {
$t = get_the_modified_time('F jS, Y');
$author = get_the_author();
$title = get_the_title();
if (is_home() || is_singular() || is_archive() ) {
$content .= '<div class="hatom-extra" style="display:none;visibility:hidden;"><span class="entry-title">'.$title.'</span> was last modified: <span class="updated"> '.$t.'</span> by <span class="author vcard"><span class="fn">'.$author.'</span></span></div>';
}
return $content;
}
add_filter('the_content', 'add_atom_data');

It’s here: https://thomas.vanhoutte.be/miniblog/missing-updated-wordpress/

WordPress Plugins to help with performance.

by Chris Cummings | Mar 17, 2015 | SEO, Wordpress

Check these out, they MIGHT help with performance (note that at least 1 will not work on GoDaddy’s managed WP):

A Good .htaccess File

by Chris Cummings | Apr 20, 2012 | htaccess, SEO

I’m a bit new to this side of things but for now this is the .htaccess file I’m using when I want everything to point back to http://www.site.com/

EDIT: I updated on 5/20/13 and 8/15/13 to add several options that can be removed.

RewriteEngine on

# Proper 404
ErrorDocument 404 /404.php
# 301 Redirects of old page names
RedirectPermanent /old-page.php http://www.site.com/new-page.php

# Force index.php to go to root
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.php 
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ http://www.site.com/$1 [R=301,L] 

# Force www
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.site.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.site.com/$1 [R=301]

# Allow with or without PHP extension
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]

# Force trailing slash
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}|/)$
RewriteRule (.*)$ http://www.site.com/$1/ [R=301,L]

Also I should have figured this out years ago but I shouldn’t just reference index.php and the like in an href, do it up right with the full URL http://www.site.com/

Converting a site to WP but doing the right SEO stuff

by Chris Cummings | Jan 30, 2012 | SEO, Web Design, Wordpress

Mainly what you have to do is:

Convert the site to WP
Once all is good with WP edit .htaccess
Above all the wordpress stuff you have to add this type of thing: Redirect 301 /myoldurl.html http://mydomain.com/newpagename
You have to add that for each old file that you want to redirect to the new file
There is info all over the net, including here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3696002/converting-a-static-site-to-a-wordpress-site-how-to-transfer-convert-seo-ranki