Image by misterbisson

By now, you’ve installed your blog, chosen a theme, and started writing a few articles.

Today, I’m going to show you how to improve the SEO of your site and keep annoying spammers from leaving comments.

Search Engine Optimization

You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find you and join the conversation you’re having about your culture.

Fortunately, there are two really simple things you can do to enhance the SEO of your blog.

Change the Default URLs

WordPress assigns each of your posts an ID number. By default, these IDs become the post URL.

Remember, the URL is one of the most important aspects of SEO. The number IDs don’t tell Google anything about your post.

To change this, go the WordPress Dashboard. Select Settings from the sidebar, and click Permalinks.

Under Common Settings, select Custom Structure and enter this into the box: /%postname%/.

This will change the URLs on your posts the match the title. If your titles contain a lot of words or aren’t really descriptive, you can also manually change the URLs within each post.

All-in-One SEO Plugin

The All-in-One SEO Plugin is one of the best features you can add to your blog.

(If you decided to go with the Thesis theme, you already have this plugin built into your theme.)

To install this theme, visit the site and download the plugin (go ahead – I’ll wait).

Next, select Plugins from the WordPress Dashboard, and click Add New. Now follow the same steps as you used to install your theme. Viola!

To configure the plugin, click All-in-One SEO under the Settings Tab. Add a description, title, and keywords that you think people who are interested in your stuff might type into a Google search box.

You can also configure the way the title on each post looks (the words that show up at the very top of the browser). SEO experts recommend that the use just the post title, or at least include it before your blog name.

When you’re done, click Update Options at the bottom of the screen.

The All-in-One SEO Plugin also lets you add a title, description and keywords for individual posts. This is not the same as the title that displays on the post itself. This is information that Google uses to figure out what your article is about.

How to Prevent Spam Comments

When you first start blogging, spam isn’t really a problem.

But after a few months, you’ll notice the occasional weird comment with lots of nonsensical phrases and links to ridiculous products. The more popular you get, the more spam you get.

Fortunately, WordPress has some great built-in software that stops spam dead in its track: Askimet.

To activate the Askimet anti-spam software, select Plugins from the WordPress Dashboard, and click Askimet Configuration.

You’ll be asked to enter a WordPress.com API Key. Don’t worry – these are free! To get one, head over to WordPress.com and sign-up for an account (choose “just a username, please”).

After you confirm your email address, they’ll send you an API key via email. Copy and paste it into the box in Askimet, and click Update Options.

That’s it – no more spam! If you get a suspicious looking coming, you’ll receive an email asking you if you to approve or deny the comment.

What Now?

Before you start driving traffic to your blog, you should have a few articles written and posted. If people show up and see only one or two articles, they’re far less likely to come back than if you have a handful of great content.

Over the next week or two, start writing some articles. Not sure what to write about? Here are some ideas to get you started.

In the new year, I’ll teach you how to market and measure the success of your site!

Happy blogging, and if you have any questions, leave them in the comments section below.

PS: This article is part of an ongoing series about Employer Branding through Social Media. If you liked it, you may want to check out the rest of the series.