On late Dec 16th I upgraded TheDocBlog to Wordpress 2.7, on this day the main Title Tag on the front of TheDocBlog broke. I noticed the error quickly but figured it was a perfect time to test and see how important the main page Title Tag is for Search Engine Traffic. I allowed the missing title tag to remain until late on the Dec 27th, so this little test went on for 11 days.

This post was originally published on: Jan 4, 2009. Having an SEO Test article with incorrect information isn't going to help anyone. Most article errors are simply corrected but major changes and updates to the knowledge will always require a republish of the original article. ~Doc

In the comments below, SiN2.0 correctly pointed out that TheDocBlog was also missing the h1 tag on the main page. Which is a rather major factor!

It could have been a fluke, but it appears the Search Engine traffic took a drop on the 16th, however in the stats I don't see a loss in the number of keywords that sent traffic. The following two days didn't improve any and by the 19th it was without question that a drop was coming.

By the 21st, a full 5 days afterwards about 75% of the Search traffic had dropped off and by the 24th, it was almost dead. By this point, TheDocBlog's main page was no longer listed and other than some very random keywords, any relevant search traffic was gone.

The Search Engines didn't Ban TheDocBlog, they simply removed the vast mixture of the listings it had. ~ Bastards

It's amazing what one error, while is a big one, it's still only a single title tag missing from one page. It didn't make a difference that every other page and title throughout the entire blog remained the same, links didn't change, structure didn't change.. simply, the document title was totally missing!

It took until the 30th to start getting back any noticeable traffic, 3 days after the correction was made. By January 2nd both Google and Yahoo traffic was quickly returning to it's previous levels. At least errors can be corrected rather quickly with both Search Engines.

The missing title test really opened my eyes at how important it is to create and of course use a document title, on the front page of your Website. I thought with all the other relevant and linked pages that contain proper titles I would only see a small drop in traffic. Rather, I saw almost a complete removal of listings across the entire domain.

I know not having a Document Title and getting a total loss in SE traffic is kind of a Duh, but I didn't know your entire site would go poof.

Now, in my eyes if Google and Yahoo can't figure out what a page is about when it's missing a document title, then that's a massive coding flaw in the algo. As a coder and an owner, I would be going flippin nuts that the top of food chain for my algo is the stupid ass Document title.

They gather, store and sort through more information than God and they can't figure out what a Document is about, based on links in and on the site, on page text, come on...

What a massive hole, no wonder you can buy a keyword domain, toss a title and link up on the page, then get one forum link to it and you instantly get search engine traffic... Thanks to the amateur coders at Google and Yahoo for creating this amateur tip!

/rant done!

When the correction was made, I spent a little extra time trying to improve the title text. After looking over the returned listings, it appears I have gained a few spots on some keywords. Time will only tell if the new title change was beneficial or not.

One thing I'm now sure of though, a missing title tag in an html document a missing HTML Title or h1 Document Title - the documents title, will destroy all of your Search Engine traffic.

~TheDoc

Over the last several years I have probably tested a few hundred different Wordpress Plugins. Some simply did not work, while others straight up sucked but most simply didn't fit my needs.

The sites that always seemed to have the best plugins to me appeared to be the most unique looking Wordpress sites. From magazine style, video or picture blogs, to not using Wordpress as a blog at all, plugins can make the amazing happen.

TheDocBlog currently uses 20 different Wordpress Plugins, however the listing below features 22 plugins. Some of the plugins help create the magazine style front end of TheDocBlog while others help in blog promotion or other basic functions that simply were too much work to code directly in myself.

Add Meta Tags: Add Meta Tags adds the Description and Keywords tags to your blog's front page and to each one of the posts, static pages and category archives. This operation is automatic, but the generated META tags can be fully customized.

All in One SEO Pack: All in One SEO Pack optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines. I don't currently use this Plugin on TheDocBlog but I do on several other blogs I run.

I like both Search Engine Optimization Plugins and can't really recommend one over the other.

Dean's Code Highlighter: Dean's Code Highlighter is a plugin that allows you to highlight code (php, css, html, ect) within Wordpress Posts.

DoFollow: DoFollow removes the nofollow tag on all Comments. When you post a comment on TheDocBlog, Your Name is linked to the URL you enter. When the nofollow tag is removed you get full link-juice back to the linked URL as a little thank you for making the comment.

Get Recent Comments: Get Recent Comments displays the most recent comments or trackbacks with your own formatting in the sidebar.

Show Top Commentators: Show Top Commentators encourage more feedback and discussion from readers, by rewarding them every time they post a comment! Readers with the most comments are displayed on your Wordpress blog, with their names.

Top/Recent Commenters: Top/Recent Commenter's retrieves the top commenter's or most recent commenter's to your site (if called outside "the loop") or for a particular post (if called inside "the loop").

* I'm still playing around with Recent Comment Plugins and Top Commenter Plugins. I'm up for any suggestions or recommendations you may have.

Similar Posts: Similar Posts displays a configurable list of related posts on each posts page. This greatly helps move traffic around that is actually looking for more or related information.

Landing sites: Landing sites allows you to display a custom message and related post links from visitors coming from Search Engines. This greatly helps in making sure Search visitors can find what they are actually looking for. I use a customized version of this plugin to show a welcome message for Industry Forum Referrals.

Google XML Sitemaps: Google XML Sitemaps generates a compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog, which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo.

RSS Footer: RSS Footer allows you to add text or links to the top or bottom of your published articles within an RSS Feed.

Smart Update Pinger: Smart Update Pinger replaces the built-in ping/notify functionality in Wordpress forcing pings to only happen when articles are published and not when edited.

Subscribe To Comments: Subscribe To Comments allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.

The Feature: The Feature adds the interface to declare a post a "feature" and the tools to display the data in your template. You can see an example feature post in action on the front of TheDocBlog.

Wordpress Mobile: Wordpress Mobile makes your blog work well on mobile phones and it lets you post to your blog from your mobile!

WP-PageNavi: WP-PageNavi adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog. TheDocBlog PageNavi has been modified to fit the permalink formating for my blog.

WP-PostRatings: WP-PostRatings adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog's post/page. You can see an example of the star ratings at the top of this article. Don't forget to rate it!

WP-SpamFree: WP-SpamFree is an extremely powerful anti-spam plugin that virtually eliminates comment spam. Read my article on Stopping Blog Comment Spam and Trackback Spam, I highly recommend WP-SpamFree!

WP-Stats: WP-Stats displays basic WordPress blog statistics for your blog. Ranging from general total statistics, some of my plugins statistics and top 10 statistics. I just like stats, it's nothing amazing but it's information either way.

Wp-db-backup: Wp-db-backup creates backups of your core WordPress tables as well as other tables of your choice in the same database.

I don't care what db backup method you use, if it's your host (which is what I use) or some other Wordpress Database Backup Plugin, you MUST use something! If you don't currently backup your Databases (wordpress or not), it's not a question of IF you will lose the information. It's the problem of knowing that your database WILL crash (server explodes, hacked, bad hard-drive) losing ALL of your information! A Raid is NOT a backup! Don't question backing up your databases, just freakin do it!

Wp-cache: WP-cache is a fast cache module that caches your Website so it loads faster using less server and database resources.

This plugin has a history for me, even a little bit of forced love it..
MysteryMan first told me about wp-cache, which I did test (I swear). However I only tested it on TheDocBlog for a few hours, which I then disabled the cache plugin due to blog development and I never turned it back on. A few hours is a test, right?

Months later while at the Phoenix Forum I was again complaining to MM about the performance issues with several Wordpress copies on an already active traffic box and when I returned home, I was killing every Wordpress project.

As the good times started to role, the reminder that I was being a stubborn ass and not listening to the solution was promptly drilled in. Needless to say, I came home and installed the wp-cache across all WP Blogs and from that day forward I never saw the same issues appear again.

Lesson Learned... Never under estimate a Plugin (judge a book by its cover) and be sure to extensively test every plugin you try. Some may insert links you don't want, some mess with other plugins, and many do exactly what is expected but it's always best to double check. And finally, if you get lucky you will come across those few golden plugins you really didn't know you needed but now you can't live without!

I almost always read others posts about what Wordpress Plugins they use and recommend. So I hope you enjoyed mine. I personally find it interesting to see some of the odd plugins that get selected and some of the newer, clever plugins I can take advantage of too.

Have any Wordpress Plugins you recommend?

~TheDoc

Blog comment and trackback spam is simply out of control, which I expressed on the Adult Webmaster Forum Ask Damage X and the reason for this article. For me it isn't about filtering spam, great.. another plugin to do what others do. What I wanted was to stop spam, or as much of it as I could, from happening at all on TheDocBlog. In short, I want to reduce the little bit of bandwidth it costs and any server or mysql resources spam takes up, or as much as possible!

Over the last year I have created my own IP and Host Ban lists blocking 1000's of IP's from making comments, as well my my own word spam lists, javascript forms, false-hidden forms, different word and math captchas, renamed my comment post file. With all these goodies in place TheDocBlog still receives at least 75 filtered spams through my blocks. I have tested several different spam filter plugins, but filtering spam really isn't all that hard, and my end goal is to totally stop the spam from happening.

Based off some of the comments on ADX, I decided to do a quick little test. For 24 hours I would release the IP bans, rename my wp-comments-post.php file back, but keep some other basic setups in place all to track how many total spams I get in a 24 hour period. All comments are moderated so I don't really care if the filters catch them or not.

Some Quick Testing:
As stated above, TheDocBlog uses a mixture of non-plugin methods to filter spam. I didn't remove all the little changes, but I did remove all IP and Host blocks from the .htaccess file and replaced the original wp-comments-post.php file. The Javascript form buttons, captchas and everything else stated above is still in place.

• 10:30 am - Sat Dec 27 - IP/Host blocks released, and original comments post file replaced.
• 10:30 am - Sun Dec 28 - Cleared 226 spams and added the Wordpress Plugin, WP-SpamFree which is a spam blocker and not a spam filter!
• In the above 24 hour period TheDocBlog received: 226 spam comments and trackbacks.
• In a single day, this is an increase of 150+ spams, connections, db usage and so on.

• 10:30am - Mon Dec 29 - This morning I cleared... ZERO spams! Yep, can't believe it myself. WP-SpamFree works like a freakin champion. Wow, what a waste of time dealing with other plugins, custom Wordpress changes, and ip bans. WP-SpamFree Rocks the house and a donation from me is on the way!

The Spam is Dead!
Again, what an amazing plugin. I'm a little shocked to be honest. I expected to test several plugins, some of which allow me to ban IP's & hosts from the wp-admin, others to improve filtering, and so on. As of late last night I removed all hidden forms, removed the math captcha, my own javascript blocks, and replaced the original comment file contents. With all of my own protection methods removed, I still have zero spams, amazing!

Thanks to Kektex on ADX for the advice on trying out WP-SpamFree and thanks to Hybrid6 for creating such a great plugin!

~TheDoc