I’ve just updated a minor update to the Popular Posts plugin for WordPress, the changes are mostly cosmetic to help work with WP 282 but there’s a few new features are well, most dramatic I’ve begun the process of converting all my plugins to a new shared administration file structure which should allow me to rapidly release updates
One of the greatest tools in WordPress is the ability to create posts and articles during your downtime but have them display at a later date. For example, I like to write a lot of my content while I’m sitting at the library waiting for my kids to wrap up local sports but I hold onto that content for days or even weeks before it’s placed on my website.
Super simple actually, when you write a new post you can set the scheduled date for publication by clicking the Edit button located beside the publish immediately text in your Publish dialog box.
Holding content back for a later date is a great way to publish a successful blog because it allows you to write effective content while you’re available to do so but still allows you to control how often you publish content.
Another interesting use of this technique is for people who are looking to run an events calendar. By it’s nature, WordPress won’t allow you to display scheduled posts but there’s a way to do it which would allow you to publish only scheduled content:
[source lang='php']
$ScheduledEvents = new WP_Query();
$ScheduledEvents->query(‘post_status=future&order=ASC’);
[/source]
The post_status=future query allows you to create a new loop and display only future events, which would be perfect for bands or other blogs looking to display a list of upcoming events. More on that another time, thanks for reading.
Wow, Smashing Magazine beat me to the punch with a killer article on how to protect your installation of WordPress from hackers. The 10 ideas are spot on, and easy tweaks for most users of the tool. It reminds me of an article I did months ago on improving the speed of your WordPress install, both very simple processes which every body should follow. As a shameless self promotion, let me point out that if you lack the technical skills or time to do these simple tasks yourself, I’m available as a consultant to small businesses around the world.
Also, I found a great collection of jQuery plugins for WP. If you don’t already know what jQuery is … shame on you. OK, honestly I didn’t know a few months back either but shame on you for not spending a few hours a night reading technical documents. On the other hand, noupe.com just uploaded a list of 25 awesome jQuery WordPress plugins for you to check out.
So for about the past three months my WordPress Dashboard was completely gone. I swear, everytime I clicked the Dashboard link to the left all I got was a big white area to the left. It wasn’t that big a deal or I would have worked on fixing it months ago but … it was annoying so this morning I sat down at my computer and fixed it completely by accident.
It seems that the WordPress Dashboard is subordinate to the index.php file located in your /plugins/ directory. How’d I figure that out? As part of my desire to secure my own blog a little more, I placed a blank index.php file in there months ago but this morning I decided to be a bit of a smart ass and change it to automatically tell people to stop looking there … worked perfectly until I clicked the Dashboard tool in WP and was told to stop trying to look at my dashboard which made me look at the URL for the Dashboard link with was index.php?page=index.php.
So … long (and fairly dull story short) … placing an index.php file in your plugin folder will over ride your wp-admin dashboard, but an index.html file will tell people to politely stop looking at your code.
For anybody who cares about Search Engine Optimization (which you should if you own a website) WordPress is a great tool that takes care of most SEO problems by itself, the only significant oversight when they put it together was the TITLE tag.
There are few common mistakes most web designers make with regards to the TITLE tag, but WordPress in particular does some things that we should avoid. Let’s take a look at a few common mistakes and how to fix them in your own WP blog.
Each TITLE tag should be unique for your website, with rich text describing the content of your blog. WordPress makes the mistake of repeating the blog title every time in the post, along with the category and then the title. For example:
thisismyurl.com | WordPress | WordPress SEO Tips – The Title Tag
That’s a surefire way to make Google think that you’re repeating the same content. What you should have for a page title is:
WordPress SEO Tips – The Title Tag
Except in the categories which should be:
thisismyurl.com | WordPress Archives
On the homepage, simply:
thisismyurl.com
If you want, you can include the site description if it’s short enough but remember to keep your site titles below 65 characters (including spaces).
What about your site name? If you really feel the need to include it in your page title, including it at the end (
WordPress SEO Tips – The Title Tag | thisismyurl.com
) is the best.
Google only reads the first 65 characters of your title for it’s index, if you’re going to post longer titles you risk having them cut off in the index.
A few years ago, there was a trend among web developers to stuff as many keywords as possible into the title. For example:
WordPress SEO Tips – The Title Tag SEO WordPress Optimizing Search Engine Optimization
Frankly, Google hires some pretty smart people so if you honestly think stuffing your titles with keywords is a good idea, you should think again. More importantly, repeating the same word or words in your title doesn’t make a difference to search engines. On the other hand, if you really wanted to make an impact try using a useful title such as:
WordPress SEO Tips – The Title Tag for Search Engine Optimization
So now that you know a few new (and hopefully interesting) facts about how Search Engines will index your WordPress website, how do you fix it? The process is surprisingly simple, open your header.php file and change remove the existing title tag, to replace it with the code below:
<title><?php wp_title(”); ?> <?php if ( !(is_404()) && (is_single()) or (is_page()) or (is_archive()) ) { ?> | <?php } ?> <?php bloginfo(‘name’); ?></title>
There’s a great video of Matt Mullenweg going over the new feature set of WordPress 2.7. Some of the highlights include a lot of great attention being paid to the admin interface, a new comments API, easier plugin management (in browser installation) as well as hot keys. WP 2.7 looks like it’ll be the upgrade a lot of us have been hoping for and it will be out for November.
On another Matt related post, there’s a funny post called Matt Mullenweg: Wordpress Evangelist/Rock Star I just finished reading. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised in Matt turns out to be the next Steve Jobs. He’s likable and straight shooting but more importantly, he’s also surprising committed to quality.
Here’s looking forward to 2.7!
