SearchLove London | 'Jono Alderson', Turbocharging your Wordpress Website'

Turbo-charging your
WordPress* website
Turbo-charging your WordPress website @jonoalderson

I’m going to make you
care about technical SEO.

Jono Alderson
Head of Insight @ Linkdex
@jonoalderson
Technical SEO + analytics geek
Closet web developer & Wordpress fanatic

So, like any good SEO, I
needed a website.

September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day

Today is International Plush Animal Lovers Day

Tomorrow is Cat Day and Internet Day

...and the whole of October is Pizza Month

!

# links built
zero

# bloggers emailed
zero

Proactive outreach done
zero

Comment spam, guest posting, content spun
zero

Infographics
zero

Average words per page
< 50*

Budget
zero*

Wanna see?

www.daysoftheyear.com

When we started talking
about content marketing, we
stopped talking about
technical optimisation.
“on page” is not the same as “technical”

Why should we care?

We’ve all seen the impact of
technical bugs/faults/etc.
Broken pages, missing redirects,
indexation faults, etc...

Visualising Performance
Seeing is believing

Ditch the crappy
metaphor!
Yes, it works as a loose analogy, but it gives people
permission to think about it in an abstract sense.

Speed
● Google PageSpeed Insights, ySlow
● Google Analytics
● Pingdom, WebPageTest*

developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

webpagetest.org

An aside…
Developers HATE this.
There is no ‘site speed’ number which Google uses.

User Experience
● How’s it “feel”? Consider the psychology of the loading experience
● User experience index, general quality, give-a-damn
● Track it, benchmark it. Surveying and feedback tools

Technical optimisation & security
● Bandwidth/overhead optimisation
● Adoption of technologies (open graph, responsive images, caching, etc)
● Minimising risks of hacking, DDOS

But wait, this really isn’t
SEO…?

So, let’s go.

But first...
bit.ly/searchlove-wordpress

Visualising the stack

1. Hosting Type

2. Server Spec & Config

3. Theme / CMS

4. Domain(s)

5. Media / Assets

6. HTML & DOM parsing (and CSS +
JS)

7. Re-flow / re-paint, FPS

So let’s start with
something easy.
My ‘must have’ WordPress plugins

Don’t go anywhere without installing:
W3 Total Cache*
Redirection
BWP Sitemaps
Broken Link Checker
iThemes Security*
Akismet*
Query Monitor

You may also like...
BWP Minify
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin*
YARPP Experiments
Relevanssi*
WP-PageNavi
Kraken.io*
Google Tag Manager for Wordpress
User Role Editor
Custom Post Type Permalinks

Third Party Services
Cloudflare (or MaxCDN)
NewRelic
An SSL certificate (ssl2buy.com)
...some kind of backup processes...
...and some proper hosting...

What, no Yoast SEO?

Stand up, Jim.
Jim Seward, @iamoldskool

“My wordpress
seo tends to be
limited to ‘install
the yoast plugin’
and do the
usual site
stuff...”
Jim Seward, @iamoldskool

Is this really an issue?
What are the experts doing?

If everybody’s only
running at 80%...
...Want the rest?

Here’s the stuff nobody
talks about.

Buy yourself some hosting.
You can only learn this stuff by
doing

Dedicated/tailored
WordPress Hosting?

DIY HOSTING
Shared, Dedicated, or VPS
*(vs Clusters & hardcore setups, AWS elastic cloud computing)

cPanel

Behind the curtain…

http://codex.wordpress.org/

wp-config.php
Security settings
Auto update settings
Limit revision & trash storage
Cookie stuff
Set memory allowance
Force SSL
Set language
http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php

Expert tip...
Reference the
URL -> <- Page
Template Hierarchy

Expert Tip...
You can use pre_get_posts to intercept and
change how requests are processed

URL Structures
(Permalinks)
Default
/?p=%post-id%
http://www.example.com/?p=123

URL Structures
(Permalinks)
‘Pretty’
/%category%/%postname%/
http://www.example.com/cat/page/

URL Structures
(Permalinks)
‘Flat’
/%post-id%-%postname%/
http://www.example.com/123-page/

Custom 503, maintenance &
DB error pages

Custom Error Files
wp-content/maintenance.php
wp-content/db-error.php
<?php
// Set headers before outputting the page HTML
header('HTTP/1.1 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable');
header('Status: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable');
header('Retry-After: 3600'); // 1 hour = 3600 seconds
?>
<html>
...

Other WP Crap…

Expert Tip...
Clean up WP and plugin overheads
// Clean up wp_head()
function cleanhead() {
remove_action('wp_head', 'rsd_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'wlwmanifest_link');
remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_generator');
remove_action('wp_head', 'feed_links_extra', 3 );
remove_action('wp_head', 'feed_links', 2 );
remove_action('wp_head', 'adjacent_posts_rel_link_wp_head', 10, 0 );
remove_action('wp_head', 'rel_canonical');
remove_action('wp_head', 'wp_shortlink_wp_head', 10, 0 );
}
add_action('init', 'cleanhead');

Expert Tip...
Clean up WP and plugin overheads
// Ged rid of superfluous CSS
function deregister_styles() { if (!is_admin()) {
wp_deregister_style('avatars');
wp_deregister_style('imgareaselect')
wp_deregister_style('avatar-manager.css');
wp_deregister_style('yarppRelatedCss');
} }
add_action( 'wp_print_styles', 'deregister_styles');

Expert Tip...
Kill unnecessary templates
// Kill misc pages
add_action('template_redirect', 'jono_nerf_pages');
function jono_nerf_pages() {
global $wp_query, $post;
if (is_day() || is_month() || is_year()) { header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); $wp_query->set_404(); }
if (is_attachment()) { header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently"); header("Location: ".get_permalink($post->post_parent)); exit; }
if (is_feed()) { header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); $wp_query->set_404(); wp_query->is_feed = false; }
if ((is_archive()) && (!have_posts())) { header("HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found"); $wp_query->set_404(); }
}

Your Theme Performance
PHP & database
Theme files and functions
Plugins & widgets

W3 Total Cache!

I’m not going to tell you
how to configure this.
Your site is unique.

Here’s a good place to start

Expert Tip...
You can move redirects from out of WordPress
and into .htaccess from within the plugin admin

Some things to watch out for...
apple-touch-icon.png (and variants)
favicon.ico (and variants)
browserconfig.xml
Invalid or un-used feeds
invalid page/date ranges
broken internal links (and missing http links)
alternate sitemap and meta data urls
pages & images with weird, breaking parameters
security probes
legacy urls

The physical location of your
server & media matters.
Use a CDN

MAGIC.

Subdomains Rock.
Serialisation of requests (and other cool stuff)

*No need to create/configure subdomains in cPanel/WHM!

Configure in W3TC as a “Generic Mirror”
Cloudflare + Subdomains + W3 Total Cache =
MAGIC

Expert Tip...
Redirect requests which resolve to your CDN subdomains (or other
hostnames)
// Redirect requests from non-primary domains
function domain_redirect() {
$hostname = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$mainDomains = array('www.daysoftheyear.com','app.daysoftheyear.com');
if (!in_array($hostname,$mainDomains)) {
$uri = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
wp_redirect( 'https://www.daysoftheyear.com'.$uri, 301 ); exit;
}
}
add_action('init', 'domain_redirect');

Expert Tip...
Use established CDNs to server common/large resources (like jQuery)
// Use Google CDN for jQuery
function modify_jquery() {
if (!is_admin()) {
wp_deregister_script('jquery');
wp_register_script('jquery', 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.1/jquery.min.js', false, '1.11.1');
wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
}
}
add_action('init', 'modify_jquery');

(Or W3 Total Cache)

Before…
After…

HTTPS / SSL
Change to protocol-relative URLs (//example.com/file/)
References in CSS/JS & third party stuff
Purchase & install key*
(Cloudflare is MAGIC)
Buy the right type (single, multi, wildcard)
Tweak CDN config
W3 Total Cache config

Expert Tip...
Database find & replace
update TABLE_NAME set FIELD_NAME = replace(FIELD_NAME, ‘find this string’,
‘replace found string with this string’);
...or cheat...
“Search and Replace” plugin

HTTPS / SSL
Force SSL in wp-config.php (esp. if using Cloudflare)
// Force SSL
define('FORCE_SSL_ADMIN', true);
if ($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'] == 'https')
$_SERVER['HTTPS']='on';

HTTPS / SSL
Force SSL in .htaccess
http://www.webhostinghub.com/help/learn/website/ssl/force-website-to-use-ssl

Media Optimisation
Pay attention to every detail.
Kraken, but get it right first.
Photoshop isn’t good enough; use dedicated kit

File size is (sometimes) less
important than #requests

CSS Sprites
Are super-awesome, and avoid extra
requests

Expert Tip...
You can base64 encode images in your CSS

Expert Tip...
Change default media links
// Change image default link
function misc_change_image_default_link() {
$image_set = get_option( 'image_default_link_type' );
if ($image_set !== 'none') {
update_option('image_default_link_type', 'none');
}
}
add_action('admin_init', 'misc_change_image_default_link', 10);

Expert Tip...
Lowercase filenames
// Lowercase filenames
add_filter('sanitize_file_name', 'mfl_make_filename_lowercase', 10);
function mfl_make_filename_lowercase($filename) {
$info = pathinfo($filename);
$ext = empty($info['extension']) ? '' : '.' . $info['extension'];
$name = basename($filename, $ext);
return strtolower($name) . $ext;
}

Expert Tip...
Responsive Images (without the overhead…)
<picture>

<source srcset="small-image.jpg" media="(max-width: 480px)">
<source srcset="medium-image.jpg" media="(max-width: 720px)">
<source srcset="large-image.jpg" media="(max-width: 1024px)">
<source srcset="xlarge-image.jpg" media="(max-width: 1280px)">

<img srcset="xlarge-image.jpg" alt="" />
</picture>

Expert Tip...
Responsive Images (without the overhead…)
// Thumbnail sizes
add_image_size( 'cols-1-small', 480, 314, array( 'left', 'top' ) );
add_image_size( 'cols-1-med', 720, 470, array( 'left', 'top' ) );
add_image_size( 'cols-1-large', 1024, 669, array( 'left', 'top' ) );
add_image_size( 'cols-1-xlarge', 1024, 669, array( 'left', 'top' ) );
add_image_size( 'cols-2-small', 240, 157, array( 'left', 'top' ) );
add_image_size( 'cols-2-med', 360, 236, array( 'left', 'top' ) );
add_image_size( 'cols-2-large', 512, 335, array( 'left', 'top' ) );
add_image_size( 'cols-2-xlarge', 512, 335, array( 'left', 'top' ) );

Expert tip...
NewRelic

Expert Tip...
Check your error_log file

Stuff I haven’t talked about...
Parent/child theme relationships
PHP(!)
Transient caching
Device-type optimisation
Awkward SSL stuff (chain certificates)
CSS/JS optimisation
WP Cron, Ajax & the Heartbeat API
Browser reflow and repaint
(That may own websites are a bit slow, and far from perfect!)
Take it one step at a time.

Stop mitigating against
technical impact...
...Start capitalising on technical opportunity.

Learn (some of) this stuff!
And not just because you want to be “full stack”.

And if you’re not at least thinking
about this stuff…?
Maybe all you’re doing is “marketing”.

Google cares about this stuff...
Because users do. Even if they don’t know they do.

Aim for 100%
(but get there one step at a time)

WIN

Jono Alderson
Head of Insight @ Linkdex
@jonoalderson
(and also www.daysoftheyear.com)

SearchLove London | 'Jono Alderson', Turbocharging your Wordpress Website'

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