SEO Reminders - Canonical URLs, Broken Links, Site Speed

[matted]

I've been looking hard at some SEO "basics" lately trying to figure out why google hates me Just thought I'd post a couple of thoughts here more as reminders to fix up your stuff from time to time.

First, I saw that google differentiates between URLs with and without slashes.
exmaple.com/foo vs example.com/foo/ - so this can lead to duplicate content penalties. Why google in all their technology cant figure this out is beyond me (they claim they technically can have different content, and that wouldn't be against their guidelines).

My fix for this problem - MAKING SURE to use canonical urls, especially in wordpress where it isn't so easy to control the format of the links out. In Apache there are also some fancy things you can do with .htaccess to format your URLs and 301 redirect to the URLs you want (e.g. www or not)

Also, broken links somehow creep into every bigger site somewhere or another. I use a sitemap generator (I use the one at auditmypc.com) to crawl my site and find those broken links. And once I have it fixed, I update my XML sitemaps for google webmaster tools and my sitemap.

I find site speed a difficult fix, especially with the importance google now places on this. (It is more dependent on your hosting company and the resources available to your sites). But do a quick w3c validation and look for obvious things. See if you can shrink your img filesizes, reduce the size of your css file, and maybe your page header and footer (since they appear on all pages).

[LiveCasinoPartners]

Here's some more recommendations on speeding up your site.

I'd also recommend caching dynamic pages. I've been doing that myself lately for the pages that require more database driven content. That includes blogs and my own custom dynamic pages. I have some database driven banner programs that also add to the overall load. I've cached the pages regardless. The banners are rotated every couple of hours when the pages are cached. I don't mind so much, it does increase the speed greatly.

Using the built in gzip compression can also help speed up your site. Here's a site explaining how it works:
http://betterexplained.com/articles/...p-compression/

Thanks for the tips matt!

[Simmo!]

First, I saw that google differentiates between URLs with and without slashes.
exmaple.com/foo vs example.com/foo/ - so this can lead to duplicate content penalties.

It;s' a fair point but worth pointing out that it's only really a problem if Google finds both options. IE: through links. Safe to take care of it but if you do a site: in Google and it hasn't indexed both types you are on safe ground, for now at least.

Also, broken links somehow creep into every bigger site somewhere or another. I use a sitemap generator (I use the one at auditmypc.com) to crawl my site and find those broken links..

FYI Xenu Link Sleuth is a very good free piece of software that does that too.

PS. Haven't forgotten Matted. Should have an email to you next couple of days.

[matted]

I have Xenu link sleuth - always forget to use it

I am trying out a program called httpZip from Port80 Software for compression (for some reason, I couldn't get IIS6 to compress my dynamic content without a 3rd party program) It's got a 30 day free trial ($350 if I choose to buy). Anything to reduce my page load times!

@Simmo - looking forward to it! I made quite a few changes based on your other advice.

[Chips]

Super tips! I have been using the canonical tag and now when starting a new page, add the tag before I save the page, this way I don't forget to add it.

Another speed sucker is some of the affiliate banners that capture impressions, like with the Income Access banners, they have a location that redirects the image from the tagged image to the actual image. I have started placing the image address in my browser and then use the redirected (actual) image on the pages. This reduces redirects and speeds up the page a touch more.

[allfreechips]

Also look into compressing any javascript you may include in pages.

[ALEX777]

Also GunZip your pages, and consider to add cache control via .htaccess or server headers (Apache*).

And, for WP, there are plenty of "must use" caching plugins.

GL.

[dino4949]

Nice tips, thanks. I used them all.