WordPress 2.6 -A complete review and Guide

Upgradation

One can upgrade via the old manual method or by using auto update wordpress plugins.I feel that using auto update wordpress plugins is the easiest way of doing the upgradation.There are several such plugins available,i used WordPress Automatic upgrade plugin and it performed the upgradation without any difficulties

Here are some of new features in the latest WordPress 2.6 which i love :

Plugin management

Multiple selection of plugins in new Wp 2.3 makes it possible to activate or deactivate more than one plugins easily.Note that in case of multiple selection, one needs to click the Activate,Deactivate or Delete button which is at the top of that particular column

Multiple Selection Of the Plugins

There is also a block in the plugins page which displays the recently deactivated plugins

Recently Active Plugins

Caption

WordPress 2.6 now offers the ability to display the caption below the image.

Caption in Images

If u don’t like the WYSIWYG facility,u can also append caption by using new caption id tag
For example:

Caption in Images

Word Count

Will update itself with the number of words often so that one can see how many word count of the post(The number will not be updated in real time though)

Word Count

Post Revisions

Taking a hint from Wikipedia,the new WordPress 2.6 tracks all changes made to the post along with the details of the changes.The revision history can be seen in the bottom of the Write Page.Clicking on any one of the link will display the exact content in the post
at that moment.

Post Revisions

One can restore or revert back to any state.The most amazing thing is the compare feature used to compare the changes between 2 revisions.

Comparisions of Revisions

Gears Support

Gears is an open source project that enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser.By using gears support,a “Local Server” is created which caches or keep a copy of commonly-used Javascript and CSS files on your computer, which can speed up the loading of some pages by several seconds.This feature is designed to speed the blogging process.
To enable Gear,click the Turbo link which is at the right top.

Enable Gears Support

Note that gears is supported currently in Firefox and IE only.
I activated Gears and i didn’t experienced any major change in speed.

Theme Preview Before Activation

In wordpress 2.5, before activation of theme a pop up window appears which shows the theme live with all your content.So,one can see how the site will look before activation of the theme.

Theme Previews

Earlier this task was performed with the help of plugins but from now on,there is no need of such plugins.

Press This!

It is nothing but a new posting bookmarklet in wordpress.To use this just drag the Press This link which is in the Write Page to ur browser bookmarks or toolbar

Press This

Now whenever u find an interesting webpage and u wish to blog about that,just click bookmarklet u just created and a new pop up window will appear via which u can select either Text,Photo,Video,Quote from the webpage and blog about it

Press This

Here is a nice video made by wordpress development theme which explains the new features

[Download WordPress 2.6]

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Proper SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is essential for all websites. Blogs powered by WordPress are not an exception. This article will explain all the things needed to make ur WordPress,and SEO optimized one

This is the final part of the series which covers backlinks:it’s importance and ways to increase it…

Backlinks

They are nothing but the incoming links to the website.It predicts the importance of a page.Backlinks decide the PR of the page.PR(page rank) is a special algorithm which ranks the webpage.It has a scale of 0-10.For example my site PR is 3(home page).

PR is assigned to individual web page.But the PR of the home page or the landing page is considered as the PR of the website.

Now PR and Backlinks are important in determining the search engine rank for particular keywords. There are around 200 factors via which the rank is determined and these 2 are among them.

In order to make ur site more SEO friendly,u need to increase the number of backlinks.Here are some of the ways to do so:

1.Directory submission: Submitting to top directories like Dmoz etc., .Some directories are restricted to some particular niche. So one needs to make some research to find out the list of top directories specific to the niche

2.Blog commenting: Here comes the two terms “no-follow” and “do-follow”.

In simple terms, “do-follow” tag tells the crawler (search engine bot) that link can be treated as backlink and “no-follow” is simply the converse of it. So it is important to note that commenting on only “do-follow” enabled blog helps to increase the number of backlinks. To find whether a blog is no follow or do follow,u can use the Search Status firefox plugin which i have mentioned in the previous post.
Googling the term “do follow blog lists” will give number of links to such lists.

3.Forum signature: Having a signature link to ur blog in “do-follow” forums also leads to the increase in number of backlinks.Every time u post or reply in the thread,a backlink is left.So if u have 500 post number then their is greater possibility that u get 500 backlinks from the forum

4.Link exchange and link sales: This is some what controversial method of building the backlinks.Sometimes,it can be harmful too.Here,the links to the site are exchanged or sometimes purchased in somewhat popular or well established site.The links are normally site-wide(It means in every page of the site,u will find the do follow link to ur site;some of the places where this can be employed are sidebar,footer).So it can increase the number of backlinks enormously.But as i said it’s some what controversial method ,so i won’t recommend it

5.Article submission: Submitting the article to top article directories will also result in increase in number of backlinks.

6.Social bookmarking submission: Submitting the link of the post in various “do-follow” Social bookmarking sites can increase the backlinks.

Google will penalize the site(may deindex the site) if it finds abnormal increase in backlinks.No one knows what is that rate beyond which the increase in backlinks is punishable under google rules.So,play it nice and easy.No need to work overnight to increase the backlinks

Final Touch

This completes the SEO for WordPress blogs series.

The result of SEO takes time to reflect.It can’t be felt suddenly or within short time.Consider it like an Ayurvedic medicine which will perform it’s task slowly.

Patience and dedication are the two things which are vital in SEO world.

Slow and steady wins the race

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Proper SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is essential for all websites. Blogs powered by WordPress are not an exception. This article will explain all the things needed to make ur WordPress,and SEO optimized one

This is Part 4 of the series which briefly covers 2 important Firefox plugins which are important in SEO study and Analysis.
They are :Search Status and Rank Checker

There are many online tools which are helpful in analysis of the SEO of ur blog as well as other sites.But i would like to cover 2 important firefox plugins which offers so much tools that their is no need for any other online services

Search Status

This is some what lesser know firefox plugin. The plugin has virtually every SEO analysis tools u need. Get this Firefox plugin from http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/

It offers a variety of SEO Analysis tools.Some of them are :

1.Meta tags: Will list the meta tags used in the web page.Crucial to know how ur competitive site is SEO optimized when compared to your’s.

2.Highlight No Follow Links:Will highlight the No Follow Links in the given webpage. Used to find out whether the blog is do follow or no follow(I will cover these two soon )

3.Rankings isplays Alexa,Page and Complete Rank of the webpage

4.Show Backward Links:Used to find out the backward links(the links from other site(or sometimes other page) to the site or the webpage)

5.Show Whois and also Show Robots.txt: Used to look up the site and it’s robots.txt file

6.Link report:Gives a summary of all the links and whether they are internal(within the same site),external(pointing to other site),no follow etc.,

These are just some of the tools that this plugins offer.There are still many more.
In a nutshell,this is a must have plugin for any SEO concerned person

Rank Checker

This is another FF plugin which is vital with respect to SEO analysis.It is used to check the SERP factor and it displays in which position ur website will be in the different search engine results page for particular keywords.

Get this plugin from http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/

There is a full documentation of this plugin in the above link itself.So,i don’t think it is necessary to explain it

Coming Next: Some Miscellaneous tips and tricks

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This is Part 3 of the series which briefly covers 2 important Google services i.e, Google Webmasters tools and Analytics

Google Webmasters tool

This service is nothing but a suite of webmaster tools which provides free and easy way to make one’s site more Google-friendly.Sign up for free G Webmasters using ur google account(gmail account) at http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

After signing and logging inside G webmasters u need to add ur site.

After adding the site,u need to verify it.U can choose 2 methods of verification : one is via meta tags and the other via file.Verifying through meta tags is easier.To do so , select “Add a meta tag” and copy the meta tags which will be generated.

Now u need to paste that meta tag in ur wordpress theme file,which is mainly and normally header.php

Go to Design>>Theme Editor. Select header.php file and paste the meta tag in between and and .Save the file

The Robots Meta plugin that i mentioned in the previous post can also be used to verify the site.

Just copy paste the meta tag in the Verify meta value for Google Webmaster Tools: column in the Plugins>>Robots Meta page and click Save settings

After adding the meta tag,click the Verify Button in G Webmasters;If u have performed the above steps correctly,then ur site will be verified.

Covering the whole G webmasters will take more than 3-5 posts but i would like to mention one important thing here.

You need to submit the sitemap created by the Google XML Sitemaps plugin in G Webmasters.To do so, click Sitemaps in the G Webmasters Dashboard and click Add a Sitemap.

Then select Add General Web Sitemap.All sitemaps created with the plugin will have name sitemap.xml. Just fill it up and click Add General Web Sitemap.

That’s it.Ur sitemap is submitted.
There are many things that u can do in G Webmasters but adding a sitemap is vital among them

Google Analytics

Actually this is not a SEO tool but it is a tool which will help you learn more about where your visitors come from,time spend in site,their location,bounce rate,how they interact with your site and many many more.You will be surprised at the extent to which u can get info about a visitor. Though Awstats can give some info,i strongly recommend this tool.

Sign up for free G Analytics at http://www.google.com/analytics/home/?hl=en

You might also use the Google Analyticator plugin which adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics.
Get this plugin from http://cavemonkey50.com/code/google-analyticator/

The one feature that i like the most is Traffic sources which will point our all the incoming links,SERP click’s,referring clicks…These data are crucial in the world of SEO

Warning:G analytics is horribly addictive.I used to spend hours in it.

Coming Next: Some firefox plugins that will help in SEO study

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This is Part 2 of the series which covers WordPress Plugins important with respect to SEO…

All in One SEO Pack

This is THE most important plugin that one must have in wordpress blogs.What it does is,it will fill up the meta tags which is very crucial in the world of SEO.

Get this plugin from http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/03/24/all-in-one-seo-pack/

After Activating the plugin go to Settings>>All in one SEO and fill up the values.

Now whenever u make any new posts,before publishing it fill up all the columns in the All in one SEO tab which is below Custom Fields in the Write Post page itself.Remember it is not an auto fill plugin and u need to fill it up for each new posts.

For further reference read the documentation provided with the plugin.

Google XML Sitemaps

A Sitemap is nothing but an XML file that lists the URLs for a site that are available for crawling(indexing).This Plugin which will generate Sitemaps for ur blog.
Get it from here

The best thing about the plugin is it will automatically update the sitemap every time u post new articles and it also automatically assigns priority to the particular URL’s in the sitemap which is a very good thing.The Sitemap generated by this plugin will have the address urblogurl/sitemap.xml ex: http://blog.aditech.info/sitemap.xml

Robots Meta

Search Engines read robots.txt(situated at the root of ur site or blog)file to get information on what they should and shouldn’t be looking for, and where.This plugin makes optimizing it for better SEO easily.Get this plugin from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/robots-meta/

Now after activating the plugin go to Plugin>>Robots Meta in wp dashboard.I recommend u to select all the options in Prevent indexing of column.The following screenshot will give u an idea.

SEO Friendly Images

In the Previous Post,i talked about the importance of filling up of alt attributive for images.If your images do not have ALT and TITLE(nothing but the text displayed when the user points the cursor on the image;this has no effect on SEO but improves user experience) already set, SEO Friendly Images will fill up them according the options you set.Get this plugin from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-image/

I recommend u to just fill up %title in both the options in settings page.

SEO Smart Links

You may be wondering why i have posted the above screenshot with Plugins highlighted…
The link to Plugins was not created by me.. :p It was created automatically by SEO Smart Links plugin.

SEO Smart Links plugin automatically searches for keywords and phrases in the text of your posts and comments and add links to the corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your blog.This is the best way to keep ur blog interlinked which is good thing in SEO world.And moreover this can also make ur old posts noted to ur readers.Get this plugin from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-automatic-links/

Coming Next: Google Webmasters tools and Analytics

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This is Part 1 of the series which covers Permalinks and the importance of Description of the image…

Permalinks

First and foremost u need to change ur Permalinks if u haven’t have done it yet.By default all ur wordpress posts(articles) will have address(link) like http://blog.aditech.info/?p=123
THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR SEO.

SEO experts believe that having ur post title in the URL will enhance SERP(Search Engine Results Page) factor and will increase ur organic listings in search engines for some appropriate keywords(search phrases)

To change the Permalinks go to Settings>> Permalinks.

Choose whichever link patter suits u but take care it has ur post title.If u are advanced user then u could choose custom Permalinks.

To learn more about Custom Permalinks refer http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

I have used the Custom Permalinks /%category%/%postname%/ in my blog.As a result my URL’s will be like http://blog.aditech.info/tutorials/adding-shoutbox-in-wordpress/

Don’t neglect alt attribute aka Description of the image

Many people while adding images will forget to add appropriate Description i.e, filling the alt tag.Google bots can’t read images and other multimedia format’s. Google bots will entirely rely upon Description or the Alt attribute .ALT attribute is important part of search engine optimization. It describes your image to search engine and when a user searches for a certain image this is a key determining factor for a match.

So it’s crucial that u fill up the Description or alt attribute while adding multimedia format’s like images to ur post.If u are confused about what to add in Description then just fill up the name of the post(article) itself :p

Coming Next:WordPress Plugins important with respect to SEO.

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I added the RSS feature using feedburner.I got nearly 15-20 Subscribers within one week of the blog launch itself.I was extremely happy but this happiness didn’t lasted too long.Gradually the number of subscribers went on decreasing.I wished to know why this is happening.So i subscribed into my own feeds.

Within minutes i came to know where i had gone wrong.My feeds were partial.The feeds were like this

Important instructions for programs using math.h library function

Posted: 23 Mar 2008 10:14 AM CDT
if your program uses math.h header file then sometimes the compilation will lead to errors.In such cases you have to suffix -lm to the compilation file command Usage cc filename.c -lm lm means link mathematical header file.Note that this step is not always required use it only if your program is correct and compilation is leading to errors. and [...]

I must say that partial feeds are worthless.It is better that the site or blog has no feeds feature at all instead of giving partial feeds.

The default selection of feeds is partial itself.You need to change it.To change it go to Options(Settings)>>Reading in WP admin menu.Change the option to Full Text as show in the screenshot

Another important note:If your use <!–more–> in your posts then the full feeds will have just the contents before <!–more–>To avoid this you need to use the plugin Full Text Feed
Plugin link: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/full-text-feed/

But if you are using WordPress 2.5(like me) then there is no necessity for this plugin coz this nasty feature has been corrected in wp 2.5

Hope you will learn from my mistake and make your feeds full..
I just hope that i can again get those RSS subscribers back….
If you like this small tip then please subscribe to my full rss feeds….. :p

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Then read this small tut…..

<li><a <?php if (is_page('?random')) echo('class="current" '); ?>href="<?php bloginfo('url'); ?>/?random">Random post</a>

That’s it…
Hope you liked this small tutorial…
Waiting for your comments and SHOUTS..

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A shoutbox, saybox, tagboard, or chatterbox is a chat-like feature of some websites that allows people to quickly leave messages on the website, generally without any form of user registration.

A shoutbox is of immense use if you want to interact with your readers quickly…

Let’s learn how to do it in case of WordPress blogs….

• Download the Shoutbox plugin from http://pierre.sudarovich.free.fr/upload/File/wordspew-intl.zip
• Upload it to your wordpress plugins directory i.e,wp-content/plugins/ directory
• Activate the plugin
• Add the widget “Shoutbox” in the Sidebar
• Save the changes..That’s all..

You can now try it….

Now in order to manage your shouts …Go to Manage>> Live Shoutbox
You can clear all the shouts,delete the particular shout,change the color,change or add banned words list and IP addresses and many more things from there…

Their is also an option called “Use sound alert”.This will create a popup sound every time the user shouts…You can also change the sound…All you have to do is replace the msg.wav file in the shoutbox plugin directory with your choice ….

I hope you liked this small tut…
Waiting for your Comments and Feedback….and not to mention your SHOUTS

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• atoi,atol and atof functions

1.Register in http://savepageaspdf.pdfonline.com/ ….It’s a free web service.
2.Log into your account
3.Click the Overview tab

4.Select the “Paper Orientation”
5.You can also alter the various marigin options
6.Then click the “Generate the Javascript”button
7.Copy the Script
8.Paste in in your site or blog…
9. That’s it…. save as pdf option is enabled in your site or blog

I recommend you to add this script at the footer of the site or blog.In case you use WordPress,then i suggest u to add the script in the index.php(Often called as Main Index Template) just below the comments section….i.e, above something like

<?php if ( comments_open() ) comments_template(); ?>

You can also get the number of pdf’s generated from the particular page in the reports section.Log in to your account and click the Reports section to know the statistics

Note:You don’t need to generate new javascript for each article or site or pages. It’s just a one time effort.No need to create the new script for each occasion. The same script will work for all.

Drawbacks:

1.The pdf generated will contain everything that is in the current web page
2.This also includes the banner,categories etc., as a result there are greater chances that the formatting of the pdf file generated will not be nice
3.If you have employed ads in your site or blog the pdf generated will include that too

Putting aside these drawbacks,It’s a worthy option and service to try in your site or blog..

Hope you find this tutorial useful
Waiting for your feedbacks and comments…..

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