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I admit, I’m not good in designing Wordpress theme. Most of the time, I use free Wordpress theme from themes.wordpress.net. When selecting Wordpress theme, I follow the following guidelines I made up for myself:
1. Title tag should be optimized. When viewing the permalink pages, I prefer seeing the title of the post first before my blog title. I know, this can be fixed by a plugin, but I’d rather have it be a feature of the theme itself. Why install a plugin if the feature is already on the theme? Too much plugin can slow down your blog.
2. Content loads first before the sidebar. I want the search engine to read my content first before the sidebar, because the content contains most of my targeted keywords.
3. Extensive use of header tags. h1 for the blog’s title, h2 for the post title, h3 for other sub-titles. Search engines put weights on these tags, so, I wouldn’t like my blog not using them.
4. Only 1 credit link for the theme maker. I know, I have to give credits to the theme maker. One sitewide link for him is enough. If the theme requires me to link to 3 or more links, I don’t use it. I don’t want to waste too much Google juice just for a theme I’m using. One link is enough. That’s how important a link to me is. 
5. There’s a footer. I use the footer of my blog for giving some sitewide link to a post I want to optimize. Others say that footer links are not weighted heavily by search engines. I think otherwise. I’ve been experimenting with footer links on SEO contests before and I can say that it does help a lot. Readers don’t notice those links, but search engines still count them as links. Anyone noticed the Filipina link on my footer before? 
That’s all for now.
Technorati Tags: SEO, Wordpress Themes
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December 9th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
[...] for a Wordpress theme that is already Search Engine Optimized? Well, Marghil gives out some guidelines on choosing search engine optimized themes to make your work [...]
December 16th, 2007 at 11:58 am
[...] Instead of using wordpress plugins to make your blog more optimized, you can lessen the work by choosing a search engine optimized theme. [...]
January 7th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
[...] Dj Flush article is brought to you using rss feeds.Here are some of the top articles on search engine optimization.Others say that footer links are not weighted heavily by search engines. I think otherwise. I’ve been experimenting with footer links on SEO contests before and I can say that it does help a lot. Readers don’t notice those links, … [...]
February 28th, 2008 at 10:58 am
What a coincidence! It seems like you are currently using the same “LoseMyMind” theme as me.
Agree with you on the footer sitewide linkage. I have been experimenting it myself on my personal blog and it does help a little. It’s not much, but it hey… every little drop makes an ocean.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
[...] was stumbling when I came across this article about “Guidelines for Selecting a Search Engine Optimized WordPress Theme”. What caught my attention is the last part of his article. …I use the footer of my blog for [...]
June 28th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Help!
I’m experimenting two problems with Losemymind with sidebar 1.0 theme:
1.date entry is from the last year (2007 instead 2008)
2.tags from under the post are not displayed.
Can anyone help me?
I don’t know php…
Thanks, Vic