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I'm doing some work in my blog at the moment, particularly on the tags. Something that I find confusing is this: if I put a keyword that's already in the title of the post in a tag or category, is this okay or not? (SEO-wise, and as far as the Global Tagpage is concerned, I mean).
The blog I need help with is artbyvalerde.wordpress.com.
Do not duplicate keywords in both Categories and Tags. Choose one or the other so you don't create a mess that requires editing and deleting and creating 404's as others have done.
This section gloabal tags > missing posts is only focused on Tags and Categories we assign to posts. It is not focused on keywords in titles.
re: WordPress.com search
Also, keep in mind that the search engine only indexes the body text of blog posts, pages, and comments. The blog name, post titles, and post/comment author names are not indexed. http://en.support.wordpress.com/wordpresscom-search/#missing-posts
Mmm... I know about not duplicating keywords in both tags and categories but didn't know about search engines not indexing titles. So it'd be a good idea to put keywords in either tags or categories (I'm concentrating on tags more) that are in the title as otherwise the search engine won't find it?
The other thing is, am I right in thinking that if I change the date on a post it gets a 404 error message in a search?
Here's the situation: my blog is currently not open to search engines but when I have finished all this work - and I shall be resposting some that were previously published, but just with different dates so that I don't lose any comments that they received - I'll be opening it to search engines. So - if it's the first time that the search engine has 'seen' the posts, would they still get 404's?
Sorry if this is confusing, I've been working on it for days and my mind is just boggled!
Oh and I'm updating the posts in private til I'm ready to repost them.
but didn't know about search engines not indexing titles.
That only applies to the WordPress.com search.
The other thing is, am I right in thinking that if I change the date on a post it gets a 404 error message in a search? I shall be resposting some that were previously published, but just with different dates so that I don't lose any comments that they received - I'll be opening it to search engines. So - if it's the first time that the search engine has 'seen' the posts, would they still get 404's?
If the blog has always blocked search engines - no problem. You can change the datestamps and no 404 pages will be created.
However, if that content was indexed by search engines prior to the blog being made "private' then changing datestamps will create 404 pages in the SERPs (search engine page results.)
It takes about 3 - 6 months for Google to clear their cache of indexed articles that are deleted or otherwise produce 404's (page not found). I recommend that you Avoid creating 404 pages
Oh dear... looks like I'm going to have to re-think this. I just had a look at Google and sure enough quite a lot of the posts I'm updating are there, as I had it open to search engines for a short period before. Whoops!
If I were to get a domain (still on WP.com) would that affect any of this?
I'm glad you're good at this SEO stuff, TT. I'm obviously not!
Do you mean can I change the datestamps and prevent the 404's from happening by purchasing a domain mapping upgrade the answer is no. The reason we purchase domain mapping is so that all the URLs from the .wordpress.com root blog when clicked seamlessly redirect to the same content in the post under the new domain URLs. You already have posts that are indexed and are in the SERPs.
The pagerank and authority the blog earned was earned by the .wordpress.com URLs and belongs to them. It’s not transferable so what that means is the domain starts from zero. In about 4 – 6 months time the content will all be re-indexed by search engines under the new domain URLs and all things being equal the blog will probably have the same pagerank and authority it had prior to purchasing domain mapping. http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/register-domain/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/register-domain/
If you do not renew your domain mapping then all those domain URL’s are broken and the blog reverts to the old .wordpress.com URLs. Then all those broken links are there for months until the search engines like Google index them again under the .wordpress.com URLs and clear their caches (3 – 6 months).
Okay, I get it. Thanks TT.
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timethief