There is one question that I receive a lot related to Search Engine Optimization and images.

Do I need to include the Alt attribute or the title attribute?

Let me answer the question first and then explain my answer.

You need both.

The alt attribute and the title attribute make it easier for the user to find what they need. The alt attribute tells Google what the image is depicting. The more descriptive the alt attribute the more useful it is to Google when returning image search results.

The title that Google cares about the most is the name of the file. If there is no alt attribute and Google cannot use the text on the page to determine the subject of the image it relies on the file name to determine subject matter. So when you save your images give them meaning file names.

However that does not mean that you should not include a meaningful title attribute. The title attribute does can be extremely useful to your visitors. The title attribute is displayed when the user hovers over an image.

While I am talking about benefits to your visitors let me also mention that the alt tag is also used by screen readers. Using the alt tag makes your website accessible to more people and helps your website conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Now that I have told you why you should use the alt attribute and the title attribute let me show you have to set the alt attribute and the title attribute.

You can set the alt attribute and title attribute when you add an image to the WordPress Media library. Simple add a meaningful title and descriptive alternate text. Then you can just save your image and continue with your post as you would normally.

I will end by telling you that if you have a lot of images on your website that don’t have an alt attribute or a meaningful title you don’t have to go and fix each image individually. You can install a WordPress plug-in called SEO Friendly Images. You enter if you want your attribute to be the title of the image, the name of the file, the category of the post, or the tags related to the post. You can then determine if you want to override the ALT attribute and/or Title attribute supplied by WordPress. Update your options and instantly you have SEO friendly images.

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When you log in to the WordPress admin area to add content, you have an option for posts, media, links, and pages. For some websites, that does not make sense. Let say for instance, you want to list book reviews on your website. That’s not a post or a page. I ran into this situation when a librarian requested that I create a website for her school library. What I did was to make  Custom Post Type called book reviews. A book review is not the same as a post or a page. It is a book review. This is where a custom post types will come in.

If you look at the picture above you will notice how instead of the normal dashboard menu options you also have a Book Reviews menu option. When you click on book review, it says Add New Book Review, which is great because your not adding a new post or a new page. You’re adding a new book review.

By creating custom post types I was able to make it easier for the Librarian to decide which option to use when she adds new book reviews. When she clicks Add New Book She has to enter in the title of the book, the review, the book author, the Genre(s), and a picture of the book.

The title of the book is entered where it says “Enter Title Here”. The actual review is typed or pasted into the WYSIWYG content area. The author name is entered into the Author meta box. The genre is a taxonomy similar to a tag that allows the book reviews to be categorized based on what genre it’s in. The picture of the book cover is added as a featured image. Which allows you to upload an image, use an image that is already in the media library, or add an image from a URL.

When you view a single book review it displays the book cover, the genre, the title of the book, the author of the book and the review.

You can also view all the books within a specific genre just by clicking on the genre link. When you view all the book reviews you get a list of book review teasers on a page, along with a small picture of the cover, the Genres, and a link to read the entire review.

Using a custom widget the latest book reviews are displayed at the bottom of all library pages. This allows visitors of the library website to easily see the last three book reviews. If the snippet catches the attention of a student he or she can click the link to read the entire review.

So there you have it a practical use of WordPress Custom Post Types.  This post explained how custom post types can be used to create a a library website with easy to manage book reviews. But custom post types can also be used for things such as creating staff directories, adding podcasts, to create product listings, an ads platform, or to provide sermon content online. Custom Post Types are one of the many features that allows WordPress to be used to create an easy to manage website.

Hire Arelthia to add custom post types to your WordPress website?

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I want to look at where to find images you can legally use on your website or blog. Of course Google is the first place that comes in mind when you are trying to find anything on the internet, but it is not always the best choice for website images. Yes, you can filter images based on usage rights, but then you don’t have many images to choose from. In this post I am going to provide you with three other sources for images.

Searching for images using Google Advanced Search and filtering images based on usage rights normally returns a large amount of images from Flickr. Flickr is a great source for creative commons images.  Images licensed under creative commons can fall in one of the six categories.  Each license has its own set of restrictions and requirements. Not all images on Flickr are licensed under creative commons, so always make sure you check before you use someone else’s images.  If you want to learn more about creative commons, you can go to Flickr.com, scroll down to the footer, and click on creative commons, or you can go to creativecommons.org.

Flickr is a good source of images, but my favorite source of free website images is sxc.hu. If I search for lion, the first row of images at the top and the last row of images at the bottom are from iStock photos. We don’t want to look at those now. The images we can use for free on your website are the ones in the middle.

Sometimes, you can find some really great images to use on your website. You will want to click on the image to get access to the download version of the image. Before you download an image you should read the availability. The availability section provides you with the requirements for using the image.

You will notice in the picture above it says “standard restrictions apply and the author must be notified and credited when using the photo for any public work.”  That means that if you download this image and use it on your website, you just come here and you leave a comment basically telling them, “Hey, great image. I used it on such-and-such website.” Then, in your caption or somewhere on that page where you used it, give the creator credit.

If you are unable to find images that meet your needs from Flickr or Stock.xchng you can purchase stock images.  iStockphoto , is my favorite place to purchase images for websites. Sometimes I even start my quest for an image at iStockphoto.

So I hope this post has given you a few sources of images that you can use on your website or blog. Just remember to always check the licensing and restrictions before you use an image. If you know of any other good sources of images let me know by leaving a comment below.

Screen shots from sxc.hu

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Adding images to your website and blog posts can increase the interest of readers and help to highlight a point. I highlight recommend you use images as long as they are appropriate and LEGAL. Don’t just be going to Google and grab any image, just because it is returned in an image search.

There is such a thing called copyright and you can’t just use anybody’s work. You need to make sure that when you find images on Google they can be used on your website without committing copyright infringement.  You always want to check the licensing of an image. If nothing else use the advanced search feature in Google to filter out images you should not use on your website.

Normally you would search for a picture just by typing in your keyword and clicking the search button. Google returns a lot of images BUT that does not mean you can use them on your site. What you want to do is click on Advanced Search. Then scroll down to the Usage Rights section which will tell Google to return images that are labeled for reuse, labeled for commercial use, labeled for reuse with modification, or labeled for commercial reuse with modification.  The type of license you choose should be based on what you are going to do with the image. If it’s a business website, only use the one that says commercial. If it says commercial reuse, that means that you can use the image but you cannot alter it in any way. Reuse with modification means that you can use that picture and you can change it any way you want to make a whole new picture.

The advanced search has other filters you can use as well such as the type of image, size, file type, and color. Once you type in your keywords and choose your filters you just click search. Google returns images based on your advanced search criteria. One final point. Even if Google says it is labeled for a specific license make sure check the original source (website) for the specific license information.

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In a previous post I showed you how to backup your site using BackupBuddy. Today I am going to show you how to move your WordPress site to a new host.  On the  “Restore & Backup” options page you should click on “Restore/Migrate”, which will  prompt you to save the importbuddy.php file.

Save that file on your local computer, in the location where you saved the full backup. Now we are finished with the site on the current server.

Using the information provided by your current host log into your new cPanel. In the databases section click create a new MySQL database. In the section that says create new database type in the name of my new database. After you create your new database copy the database name and save it because you will need it again. Then you need to create a database user and password. What I recommend you do is use the password generator. Have it generate you a nice new password. Oh yeah don’t forget to paste your password into your text file for later. After you have created a database and a user you will have to add the user to your database.

Since you are already logged into your cPanel use the file manager to upload your full backup you created with BackupBuddy and the import.php file to the directory where you want your website installed.

After you have uploaded the zip file and import.php in the address bar type yourdomainname.com/importbuddy.php. You could also just type in your domain name and click on importbuddy.php to start the migration process. Just follow the onscreen instructions as the ImportBuddy script finds your backup and installs it on the new server. Once all the files have been extracted you will be prompted to enter in your database information, your new blog url, and your new table prefix.

Once the installation is complete you will receive a message that the installation was complete. Now you can log into your site on your new host using the same username and password. Congratulations, you just moved your site to a new host using backupbuddy.

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In this post I am going to walk you through how to backup your WordPress site in preparation to move it to a new host. To create a full backup of your website you should use backup buddy. According to the Pluginbuddy website, “BackupBuddy is the only complete solution for WordPress backups.” Basically backupbuddy is a plugin that allows you to backup your entire WordPress Website for restoring it on the current server or for moving it to a new server.

Before you actually create your full backup you should run a malware scan. The Malware Scanner included with backup buddy is monitored by the security pros at Sucuri. Once the malware scan is complete and your site is clean you want to create your backup.

When you click on “Backup & Restore” you will see three options: backup content only, backup everything, and restore or move your site.

Once you click “backup everything” or “Full Backup” You will be taken to a different screen where you will see a status update. The backup will run until it completes even if you leave the page. Once the backup is complete you can right click on the Download backup Zip archive link and save the file or just click “Back to backup page.”

If you click “Back to backup page” and hover over your backup you have the option to send your backup to a different server using ftp, send it to an Amazon S3 bucket, or to Rack space Cloud Files Storage. But for now you can just right click and save the file to your local computer.

Once you have saved the file to your computer check the box beside your backup and press the delete button. Congratulations you have successfully backed up your entire WordPress website using BackupBuddy.  Next time I will show you how to migrate your website to a new server.

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To break one post into multiple pages you have to use one of the hidden features of WordPress.

According to the WordPress Codex:
At one time there was a Next-Page quicktag button but it was deleted to reduce the clutter on the quick tag bar.

By breaking post up you increase post load time. This comes in handy if you are sharing 5,000 word short stories or news articles on your blog. It is also beneficial if your post has a lot of graphics. All you have to do is add

<!--nextpage-->

to your post where you want a new page to start. Watch the video below to see how to add the Next Page quick tag to your post for automatic pagination of posts.

If your theme does not support pagination of posts you will have to edit your single.php. open your single.php file in a text editor such as Notepad++. Find content() and below it add:

<div><?php wp_link_pages('pagelink= %'); ?></div>

The pagelink argument tells WordPress what to make the link text. In the example above “%” represents the page number. You could also control what goes before and after by adding the following:

<?php wp_link_pages('before=<div id="page-links">&after=</div>&pagelink=%'); ?>

So now you know how to create pagination in WordPress.  Simply by using the Next Page quick tag you can break your post up into multiple pages.

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TweetBreadcrumbs make navigation easy for both visitors and search engines. Many WordPress themes don’t come with breadcrumbs automatically.  So In this post I will tell you why you should add breadcrumbs to your website and how to add breadcrumbs to your theme.

Benefits To Visitors

Breadcrumbs first of all tell your visitors where they are and where they have been. Some visitors use the breadcrumbs as additional navigation. By using the breadcrumbs users can easily view content in their current category.

SEO Benefits

Breadcrumbs also play a role in SEO. They help search engines crawl your site. Breadcrumbs that start from your home page and then category names that are based on your targeted keywords and then the posts helps search engines determine your site structure.

Plugin Free Breadcrumbs

You can add breadcrumbs to your WordPress Website or blog by inserting the following hook into your functions.php file.  This will add the breadcrumbs right before the post.

/* Add Breadcrumbs */
function mybreadcrumbs() {
	if(!is_home()){
	global $post;
?>
	<div id="breadcrumbs">
		You are here: <a href="<?php bloginfo('home'); ?>">Home</a> >
		<?php $parent = $post->post_parent;
		$parent_title = get_the_title($parent);
		echo '<a href="'.get_permalink($parent) .'">' . $parent_title .('');  ?> </a> >
		<?php the_title(''); ?>
	</div>
<?php
}}
/* Add above content */
add_action('loop_start', 'mybreadcrumbs');

/* End Breadcrumbs*/

Then add css to your style.css to give it the desired look.

#breadcrumbs {
	background-color: #ADBDBC;
	height: 20px;
	width: 645px;
	color: #000000;
	text-align: left;
	font-variant: small-caps;
}

#breadcrumbs a:link,
#breadcrumbs a:visited {
	color: #000000;
	font-size: 16px;
	font-weight: bold;
	text-decoration: none;

}

#breadcrumbs a:hover {
	color: #ffffff;
	font-weight: bold;
}

Breadcrumbs With Plugins

If you don’t want to use code you could use a plugin, such as Yoast Breadcrumbs to add the breadcrumbs.  But…If you use the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin it also has a breadcrumb feature. Under Internal Links enable Breadcrumbs and customize the verbiage to meet your needs.

Below is a list of five other breadcrumb plugins that can be found in the WordPress Plugin Directory.

1. Breadcrumb NavXT
2. Breadcrumb Trail
3. WordPress Breadcrumbs
4. BreadCrumb NavXT Widget
5. Breadcrumbs Plus

So you decide if you want to add breadcrumbs to your website or blog. You can add breadcrumbs manually using the a hook and css or you can use one of the many plugins available online.

Resources

• WordPress Codex
• ThesisthemeTools.com

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Real Examples of Spammy Comments

Spam comments are often generic and unrelated to the post.  They often link to questionable and offensive content so it is important you remove it fast. Links from your blog to porn, gambling, prescription drugs, malware and other potentially dangerous  websites can hurt your ranking with Google unless you work diligently remove the links from your blog. You don’t want Google labeling your blog as unsafe.

WordPress gives you the capability to moderate your comments before they are viewable on your blog. The discussion option allows you to set your account so comments don’t appear until approved by you. This is the most effective way to keep spam comments from appearing on your blog.

WordPress Discussion Settings

While moderating all comments is most effective it is not the best use of your time. To help save you time dealing with SPAM comments you can use a SPAM protection plug-in, such as Akismet. SPAM protection plug-ins check all comments against a database of past SPAM comments and delete spam comments or trackbacks so you don’t have to. Most SPAM protection plugins allow you to block email addresses, websites or IP addresses to improve SPAM prevention efforts.

Use a CAPTCHA plugin such as reCaptcha, Comments Captcha Box, or Si Captcha Anti-Spam to prevent the use of Automatic Blog Commenting software. Some automated software will show the user the captcha image and allow them to type in the letters but this is still a deterrent for spammers.

SPAM protection will be something you want to stay on top of and it is worth the effort. Spammers can be both creative and persistent in their attempts to get backlinks from your blog to the websites they are promoting.  Not all links in comments or trackbacks are SPAM.  Use a SPAM protection plugin, a Captcha plugin, and moderate your comments to be sure they are the type of comments and links you want associated with your website.

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The WordPress Dashboard comes with a number of default modules that provide information about things such as Incoming Links, WordPress Plugins, and WordPress News. That is great if you want to see the latest info about WordPress. However, the average WordPress Website Owner sees the modules as clutter. In this video I will show you techniques for clearing or customizing  your WordPress dashboard without touching any HTML or PHP.

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