1. Web Hosting Session
WP Issues
Presented by:
Scott Hendison
SEO Automatic
Search Commander, Inc.
2. About Me
• Began web hosting & selling software online
in 1999, and began an SEO consulting
agency in the spring of 2004.
• In 2007, I started SEO Automatic, a set of
end user and white label tools for internet
marketers.
• I‘ve been on this panel five times now, and
it‘s hard to be original, which is why I
decided to cover WP for the topic.
4. General WP tips
• Avoid too many plugins
• Remove inactive plugins
• Watch out for “bad” plugins
• Watch database bloat
• Page revisions can be deleted
• Comment spam can be deleted
• WP Plugin can help – WP Optimize
7. Caching
• Google says Caching:
– Most sites include resources that change
infrequently - CSS files, images, JavaScript etc.
– Caching allows these resources to be saved, or
cached, by a browser or proxy.
– Reduce round-trip time by eliminating numerous
HTTP requests for the required resources, and
reduce the size of responses.
• WP Plugins: Several
14. Compression
• Google Says Compression –
– HTTP compression is a capability that can
be built into web servers and web clients to
make better use of available bandwidth, and
provide faster transmission speeds between
both.
• WP Plugins: Several
21. Expires and Cache-Control
• Google Says - Expires and Cache-Control:
max-age
– These specify the “freshness lifetime” of a
during which the browser can use the cached
resource without checking to see if a new
version is available. Once they're set and the
resource is downloaded, the browser will not
issue any GET requests for the resource until
the expiry date or maximum age is reached.
• WP Plugins: Several
24. Images: Sprites
• Google Says Images: Sprites
– Combining images into as few files as
possible using CSS sprites reduces the
number of round-trips and delays in
downloading other resources, reduces
request overhead, and can reduce the total
number of bytes downloaded by a web page.
• WP Plugins: Csprites (out of date) but
others are likely coming
32. WordPress is a Target
• Over 11% of all sites on the internet are
WordPress, and more than half of new sites
created daily are WP sites. (source WordCamp SF 2011)
• A typical shared webhost can have dozens or
hundreds of sites on your server, affecting your
performance, your security, and… your SEO.
• Some ISP’s (like Comcast) have begun blocking
entire servers, rather than risk user infections.
33. Web Hosts Are Getting Restrictive
• Some WP plugins have vulnerabilities
• Many plugins are poorly written
• ANYONE can submit a plugin to WP
• There are standards, but plugins submitted
to WP are NOT screened for compliance
• It takes complaints FIRST, to get any action
• Some plugins can put other accounts at risk,
so some hosts are starting to restrict plugins
34. Web Hosts Are Getting Restrictive
• Lists over 70 plugins that they don‘t alllow
on their servers, and I‘ll BET you‘re using
many of them!
• I know I am
35. Protecting Yourself
• Lots of security best practices out there,
and this is not the time or place to go into
details.
• However, the most important thing I can
think of is to monitor what changes on your
domain.
• There’s a plugin for that (surprise)
37. To Sum Up…
• Performance can affect your SEO
• Poor security can negate good SEO
• Know your webhosts policies
• Consider moving from shared hosting
• Know your plugins
• Monitor what changes
38. Thank You
Scott Hendison
scott@searchcommander.com