1. Update your Wordpress to the latest stable version. As of this date, the Wordpress version is 3.0. The latest version has more security features than the older one. You can check other features of the new wordpress version called thelonious, be sure to play the video.You can download the wordpress script here. See for yourself on what is the latest version. Recently I’ve blogged about the Wordpress 3.0 bug. I personally advice that you should either use version 2.8 and up or wait for 3.0.1/3.1.

2. Use very long passwords. Usually Wordpress generates system-generated passwords when you install it. You can keep that password and save it to a notepad or word documents or keep the installation email you will received from Wordpress after installing it so that you can retrieve it if your using other PC’s or if you’re in a internet shop.

3. Allow certain IP’s that can access your wp-admin. Add .htaccess to your wp-admin. If you’re not familiar with .htaccess. I have a page about creating .htaccess files. After creating your .htaccess files. First you must know your IP. You can check it using whatismyip.com. Then replace the IP below using your IP.

AuthUserFile /dev/null
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName “SEOPinoy Allow Access”
AuthType Basic

This technique is for people using static IP’s. But don’t worry if you’re using dynamic IP’s especially if you’re still using dial-up connection(OMG), you just have to update your htaccess whenever your IP has been changed. If you cannot access your wp-admin, then it means your IP has been changed by your ISP. Be sure to upload this .htaccess files on your wp-admin folder not on the root folder.

4. Disable access to your directories. This is somewhat very important because if you’re saving your password or anything important in your host, someone might gain access to it if this isn’t disabled. You can do these by adding these codes on your .htaccess

Options All -Indexes

5. Backup your .htaccess. From time to time someone might want to hack your site. It is very important to keep track of all the changes you’ve made on your .htaccess.

6. Disable access to your .htaccess. Ofcourse after adding the above codes to your htaccess you must protect the file that contains the codes. Just add these codes on your .htaccess files. Use file permissions 644. See below image on how to configure file permissions for a certain file. Image taken from my “how to create a phpld in 20 minutes” post.

Add these codes to your .htaccess files

order allow,deny
deny from all

That’s all folks. Will add more if I discover or observe some security features to prevent your site from hackers. Again, these information doesn’t guarantee you that your site will be hack-free. These are just preventive measures. No site is hack-free in the internet even google, yahoo, and other big internet companies have been victims of hackers.

Importance:

- .htaccess helps secure your site from hackers. Please refer to this page.
- .htaccess helps in creating an SEO-friendly-URL’s. See below.

I’ve made this tutorial so that everyone that have problems using the mod_rewrite in wordpress or simply changing your permalinks from the default permalinks to custom structure, or the so-called SEO-friendly URL’s. Refer to the image below.

1. First, if you’re using windows operating system such as XP, Windows 7, Vista or even Windows 2000, ME and 98 (Although I think these versions are already phase out). Open your Notepad application.

(Start->All Programs->Accessories->Paint or just simply hit (windows button + r) then type notepad then hit enter.

2. Input these codes, this only applies for PHP server.

# BEGIN WordPress

# END WordPress

Then save it as .htaccess. See image below for more detailed info.

I’ve added some bonus info on where you can use your .htaccess.

SEO TIPS: How to make a redirect from URL’s with “www” to non-www or vice versa.

How to create a 301 redirect using Mod_Rewrite module. (This works only on Linux servers that have Apache Mod-Rewrite moduled enabled)

Scenario A:

If you want your visitors to redirect them if they type without “www”. This technique is Search Engine bots friendly. They will be instructed to indexed your site with “www”. It will prevent bots from indexing duplicate contents.

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine on

Scenario B:

In my case (Seopinoy.com) I did a 301 redirect from “www” to non-www URL’s.

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

RewriteEngine on

3. Upload it to your wordpress root folder on your linux server. If you’re still not familiar with root folder, when you login using your ftp account, you can see there the wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes. I would recommend using Filezilla for newbie in this File management task. I guess we’re done here. More updates will be added if I will received more request.

Godaddy 2010 Promo Code

Here’s the promo code for July 2010. They didn’t specify on when this code will expire. I guess you can use it as long as no major updates on the site. Enter “gdbba72965” promo code on the upper-right portion when you reach the order summary page to take 20%* off your order of $65 or more.

I will try to find more, you can visit my Godaddy Coupon Code page.

Godaddy New 2010 Interface

In SEO Standpoint this strategy will work to add more readership to you blog since the keywords is there, and if someone like your post they will link to your site or bookmark you which will add more traffic to your site. If you want to know on where are did I get this question, it’s no secret. You can see it on your Google Analytics new version.

Steps to look for keywords that people using why they arrived to your site;

1. Login to your Google Analytics account.
2. On the upper-left corner of the page, you can see a drop-down menu on what site you would like to view reports.
3. Then Click Traffic sources-> Search engines -> Google or Yahoo
4. You can now see what keywords people are using to find your post. Use it to optimize your content and add more readers to your site.

What are the things that I’ve done to get to top 2?

There are 2 major things that I’ve done in the last 3 weeks. First, I removed all the outbound links that I have on my site. Second, I’ve added some fresh content. I also think that because I have solid backlinks,(includes DMOZ) I’m finally seeing results of it.

Here’s the screenshot of the Google Results;

June 28, 2010

July 01, 2010

Ooops, it’s now Top 1 in keyword SEO Tips.

Getting an SEO consultant for your site is not a bad idea. Most of this SEO consultant really knows what they are doing, and if you’re running a business you don’t have much time to know a lot about the latest trend and strategy in SEO.

Right now I’m working on promoting some local sites that I’ve started working on last month. And at this time I’m seeing some results of my SEO work. But I can’t say that my knowledge is enough to make my site dethroned local established sites in the top 10. But I’m happy that in Yahoo some of the keywords I’m targeting are already on the top 5.

Since I’m talking about SEO on this post, I would like to share to you some of the strategy I’ve done on my latest SEO campaign. I’ll just enumerate it:

1. Link Building – SEO is more about links.
2. Still content is king – If you’re site is worth to link to, people will link to your site for free.
3. Hardwork, hardwork, and hardwork – Just do it.

Obviously this is not a secret SEO strategy. Basically, you just have to beat your competitions on whatever they’re doing.

I think I need this WP plugins because of it’s simplicity. If you want to try it, you can download it for free.