This has most commonly been used in the page.php file of the WordPress themes only, but can certainly be applied to any page that you would like the ability to set the h1 tag (or some cases, if you prefer, the h2 tag). Remember, it is recommended to set the default theme h2 tags displaying the header of the pages to H1 for an SEO advantage.

This documentation will demonstrate applying this hack to page.php in your theme, but can easily be understood from that point on doing the same to your template pages, index.php, single.php, etc.

Step by Step:
1. You will need to be using an installed version of WordPress at least 2.x or greater as this method uses the “Custom Fields” you will find toward the bottom of the page in the admin area as you create or edit pages or posts.

2. In your favorite editor for editing your theme pages, or using the Theme Editor under the Presentation tab of the WordPress admin area, open pages.php for editing.

3. In the default theme of WordPress or the theme you are using, you will see a section toward the top of the file that looks exactly like or similar to this:

It’s this line – <h2><?php the_title(); ?></h2> that you will be changing. It may not look exactly the same, but will almost always be enclosed in h2 tags.

You will want to replace the contents inside those tags, but it is highly recommended that if they currently say <h2></h2> to change those to h1.

4. Replace that line with the following:

So your file should now look similar to this:

5. Save the file and upload it to your theme folder or save the file in the theme editor.

6. Now you can edit or create new pages and use the custom fields to change the heading of the page without changing the actual title of the page.

7. To do this, as an example, let’s create a new page named “Test”.

8. Publish the page, then view it from your WordPress site.

9. You can see that not only the title in the browser, in the menu, and the heading of the page says “Test”.

10. Now back to the admin area, edit the page “Test”.
11. Scroll to the bottom of the editing area until you see “Custom Fields”.
12. You may have to click on the “+” sign to the right to see the area for editing these fields.

13. Here you will need to add “changeH1” to the key text box for the first time. Be sure that changeH1 is spelled exactly the same and the “H” is capitalized.

14. After you have done this the first time, you will be able to select the changeH1 from the drop-down box under the word Key instead. It is only necessary to add the key once with a value, and from that point, it will remain in the drop-down list to be selected easier.

15. Now change the header by typing a new one in the Value text box to the right. Let’s just test it out by typing “This is my new heading text”. Then click “Add Custom Field”.

16. Save and continue, or save the page now.

17. Go back to your site and refresh to see the change.

18. Now you can edit any page to display a different heading just by setting the “changeH1” key in the drop-down list and typing in the heading you want in value. Don’t forget to click “Add Custom Field”.

19. If you have already set a heading in a page using this method, you can also go back to editing the page, and change the value in the box just above where you set it originally. After making the change click on “update”.

The original post is titled H1 Hack for WordPress Pages , and it came from Get WordPressed .

Assuming that everything went okay, you then had to manually reactivate all of your plug-ins. I went through the step by step WordPress upgrade using a video on my main blog, and even though it was fairly straightforward it still took up too much of my time.

Thanks to a plug-in that was released last summer the process is now seamless and can be completed in under 60 seconds.

This video demonstrates the entire process from start to finish and is not so much a tutorial, as it is a quick demonstration of an amazing plug-in that’s made our lives much easier.

Thank you to Techie Buzz, for releasing it, thank you to Ronald Heureca who has pretty much perfected the automated process of this fantastic plug-in

The original post is titled Upgrade Your WordPress in 90 Seconds , and it came from Get WordPressed .

The original post is titled Adding pictures to WordPress Posts , and it came from Get WordPressed .

At a recent presentation I gave about using WordPress, I was adding a slide about the ping list, and decided to count them. I was surprised to see that there were only 46, but that’s what I put in the slide.

Apparently, at some point over the last couple of dozen installations, I dropped off a batch from my list, and even my own blog was running short.

Going back through my files and folders, and even some old blogs, I’ve now recompiled my ping list, and removed the duplicates, and I’m posting them here for your viewing pleasure.

To add to your ping list –

• login to WordPress admin
• go to the options tab
• go to the writing sub tab
• scroll further down than you probably ever have before
• paste into the field

There’s an old thread here at Digitalpoint with some detailed info for better pinging too, but I disagree with the detractors there. My own experience has shown me that it’s NOT a wasted or duplicated effort, I prefer these “manual” pings over Pingomatic, and that the no ping waiting plugin is was very cool. (sorry, the domain is gone!)

That’s it. Feel free to copy and paste my list below, with no reciprocal link required, no thanks necessary, and no paypal donation sent to scott (at) pdxtc.com

(I would however appreciate any comments added here if you notice anything missing…)

http://1470.net/api/ping

http://a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.feedster.com/ping.php

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://bitacoles.net/notificacio.php

http://bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://bitacoras.net/ping

http://bitacoras.net/ping/

http://blo.gs/ping.php

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php

http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc

http://blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://blogoole.com/ping/

http://blogoon.net/ping/

http://blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://blogsnow.com/ping

http://blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrp…

http://blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://blogupdate.org/ping/

http://blogupdate.org/sverige/ping/

http://bulkfeeds.net

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://catapings.com/ping.php

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://effbot.org/rpc/ping.cgi

http://feedsky.com/api/RPC2

http://holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/

http://imblogs.net/ping/

http://lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://mod-pubsub.org/ping.php

http://newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://packetmonster.net/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.amagle.com/

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.blogg.de/

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blogoon.net/

http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc

http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc

http://ping.fakapster.com/rpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.feeds.yahoo.com/RPC2/

http://ping.myblog.jp

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://ping.weblogs.se/

http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc

http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/

http://pingoat.com/

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2

http://pingqueue.com/rpc/

http://popdex.com/addsite.php

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2 euro.weblogs.com

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.britblog.com

http://rpc.britblog.com/

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.pingomatic.com

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://rpc.wpkeys.com

http://rpc.wpkeys.com/

http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx

http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz

http://snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php

http://weblogalot.com/Ping/

http://weblogues.com/ping/

http://weblogues.com/RPC

http://weblogues.com/RPC/

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

http://zing.zingfast.com

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast

*** update May 2010***

In the 2 1/2 years since I wrote this post, ping services have grown, and while I’ve never seen anyone get banned for over-0pinging, I’ve heard about it, and reducing redundant pings is a good thing.

Therefore, I recommend you read the May 28 2010 commenters article below -

which recommends using two other WordPress plugins that will eliminate pinging after an edit and another that will eliminate duplicates from your ping list

The original post is titled The Big WordPress Ping List , and it came from Get WordPressed .

“If you do everything on WordPress, you’re pretty much covered for SEO.”

That’s exactly what he said, (I wrote it down) and I could barely believe my ears.  I mean, yeah, WordPress is pretty much magic when properly configured, but to have Matt Cutts from Google give it his stamp of approval at a conference presentation was pretty amazing to hear, especially since Google owns Blogger.

To be perfectly clear, Matt was speaking of a self hosted WordPress blog using their free software, and not free hosted blog platform available WordPress.com. There is a huge difference, so don’t be confused!

There are plenty of expensive and cumbersome options for building a website, that lock you into a certain web host, programmer or company, and that’s one of the things I love most about the open source WordPress system.  You’re free to host where you want,  tweak it to your hearts content, and you’re not locked in to an expensive solution.

I would have to say that while WordPress isn’t quite perfect “right out of the box”, with just a few minor tweaks and plug-ins added, it can compete with almost anything else on the market for SEO purposes.

My own success with 100% WordPress powered sites has been outstanding, and for a while, it was the best kept secret in SEO.  Now, with this public endorsement by one of the most famous names in search, I only see it’s use increasing over time, as the community continues to grow worldwide.

The original post is titled Pubcon Quote from Matt Cutts About WordPress , and it came from Get WordPressed .

If you’re on an Apache host, you most likely have mod rewrite, and you most likely already have an htaccess file, in my experience.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that your htaccess file is writable, and this can be done with your FTP software or your file manager inside your web hosting control.

Many web hosts block the visibility of your htaccess, so be sure to choose to show hidden files inside your FTP software or inside your web hosting control panel.

Make note of the original settings, then set the htaccess to 777, which should enable the WordPress admin control panel to do the rest.

Login to your WordPress admin control panel – options – permalinks

From there go to the custom option, and paste the following into the field -

/%category%/%postname%/

That will give you your category and post title for the end of your URL. I’ve been experimenting lately with just using /%postname%/ too, and if your blog is very niche, and you don’t want to to categorize your URLs, there’s no reason you can’t do that.

At that point, you should see this message appear the top -

You’re done!

Check your post for friendly URL’s and change your .htaccess back the way it was, and you’re good to go.

*disclaimer – We will not accept any liability if you do it incorrectly and it does not work, or you get hacked because you leave something writable, or you basically screw thiongs up. Just set your permalinks back to default, and all will be fine.

The original post is titled Permalinks – Change Defaults , and it came from Get WordPressed .

Once you have an established URL structure, a change can cause you to not only lose search engine visibility, but all of your PageRank will drop to zero, and all of your inbound links will no longer work. That can’t be good!

Additionally, if all of the page names in the search engines index cease to exist, then anyone that ever clicks on one of your Serps would be taken to a 404 error. That’s bad!

Sometimes there’s a lot of legitimate reason to want to change, usually because they were set up in correctly in the first place. The proper way to make change would be to implement real one redirects for every single URL that’s changing. This can be quite the daunting task.

Luckily there is a plug-in available to make this process painless. It’s called Dean’s Permalinks Migration, and here’s a three-minute video to show you how it works…

The original post is titled Safely & Easily Change Permalinks , and it came from Get WordPressed .

As a quick lesson in SEO, I’ll point out that on the homepage I’ve added text links to the purchase page,  using different anchor text five times.

Because I don’t have a lot of content on this site yet, I’ve chosen to place four primary search phrases there, made them bold, and then linked all four to my shopping cart page.

The fifth link, near the bottom of the homepage is nofollowed, so that I’m not wasting any link juice following text for which I don’t care to rank. Make sense?

Future posts will go into the plug-ins being used, but first I have to get the privacy and contact pages up, (which of course will be nofollowed). Stay tuned…

The original post is titled Using Anchor Text and Nofollow , and it came from Get WordPressed .

I ran across a plug-in last night that was absolutely amazing, and I just tried it this morning – It’s called the WordPress automatic upgrade.

I just upgraded a blog from an older version 2.2, to a new version 2.31 in under three minutes total.

I downloaded the plug-in, uploaded to the plug-ins directory, activated, and then clicked the link inside the description of the plug-in to begin.

It automatically deactivates and reactivates your plug-ins during the install, and backs up the files for download too, before the upgrade takes place.

For some reason, the “automated version” failed, but manually clicking next, next, next, had me completed in under three minutes, including downloading the backup file.

There’s really no FTP time either up or down, because the server goes directly to WordPress.org to get the latest version. This is totally awesome, and this plug-in needs to become a part your standard upload.

Keep in mind of course that any plug-ins that don’t work with the new versions are going to delete you screwed and force a manual upgrade, but the new plug-in page from WordPress 2.3x on will now automatically tell you when a plug-in is out of date. Try it for yourself…

The original post is titled Instant WordPress Upgrades! , and it came from Get WordPressed .

It supposedly fixes about 20 known issues from the recent 2.3 update and will likely be well worth taking a look at.
As cool as the changes in version 2.3 were, it presented quite a nightmare to those that attempted upgrades without doing much research.

Many old plug-ins were broken – more than I can even believe, but it did force me to evaluate all of my own installations, both for myself and for clients, and two people are now making the rounds doing all of the upgrades for all the software as well as all the plug-ins,

Stay tuned for further notice on an actual release of 2.31, and if you’re brave enough (I’m not)  install the RC and tell me how it is

The original post is titled WordPress 2.3 RC1 , and it came from Get WordPressed .